Making Language

The two poems "The Problem of Describing Trees" by Robert Haas and "Hubris at Zunzal" by Rodney Jones both metaphorically describe the complexity behind language and how it is created. "Hubris at Zunza"l is one which describes a man floaring out in the ocean at about sunset. This man then goes and dumpes his drink into the ocean, yet when it comes back over him there is a feeling of sweet relief in a sense. All of this is a metaphor for language because by him dumping his drink into the ocean shows to us how langauge (his drink) can be lost so easiliy in the vast ocean. His one drink was just a small thought for language where as the ocean represented the collectiveness of everyone else. His thought was mixed in and unable to be retrieved because language is so slippery and delicate. Just as trying to retrieve that drink is impossible, his thought is now gone and mixed in with everything else unable to be retrieved. But when the wave came over him, his thoughts were back to him, they were retrieved for a short time and them mixed back into the ocean. His thought had resurfaced only to be taken back by the ocean which he once gave it away to.
The second poem "The Problem of Describing Trees" is one which describes the complexity of language and how it can grow and develp just as a tree can. The poem uses verbs such as "flutter", "dance", "threw up" and "capitalized" in order to show how a tree can grow. It shows the tree from its earliest stages as a "wobbly stem", to an art form all the way to its fullest and most dominant, final form. The tree capitalizes over all other plants and often people to make itself strong. All of these stages are ones which language goes through as well, it starts off shaky, makes itself beautiful and metaphoric and then its final form delivers the punch that language needs in order to stick with people and make its point. This is how language capitalizes.