Some aspects of a comparison and repress others for a particular purpose.

Comparisons are not neutral. And the ways they are deployed are not neutral: a poet may choose to highlight
some aspects of a comparison and repress others for a particular purpose. While some poems may seek to mute
difference, there are other poems that may seek to exploit difference and play on the pull between compared terms.
Please discuss specific comparisons (similes, metaphors, personifications) and the ways they function in Audre Lorde’s
“Never to Dream of Spiders,” Adrienne Rich’s “Diving Into The Wreck,” or Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips.”
All three poems are concerned with struggles—of identity, illness, (in)justice, and loss. As you develop your argument,
you should ask yourself (1) what does the poet hope to achieve with the specific comparisons she chooses, and (2) how
are these images effective where either reasoned argument or political sloganeering might fail?
Please use Sylvia Plath’s Tulips for this essay. Thank you!