Iceberg As Metaphor For Life :: essays papers

Iceberg As Metaphor For Life The poem " The Iceberg" by Sir Charles G.D. Roberts was written in 1931 when Roberts was 71 years old. When one is amidst old age a person tends to reflect on life. Experience of the past come to mind and you begin to reflect more on birth and death. This poem is an interpretation of Roberts's reflection on life and death and his course throughout life. The poem "The Iceberg" is a metaphor for life, it is the voice of something that has approached the end and is facing death with the peacefulness of calm waters but with the forcefulness of a massive iceberg. What makes the poem more personal is that it is written in free verse. Free verse is known as "open form" verse. It is printed in short lines rather than continuity of prose, it differs because its rhythmic pattern is not organized into meter. Most free verse also has irregular line lengths and lacks rhythm1, all of which this poem possesses. Writing the poem in free verse allowed the poet to express himself fully and without any limitations. This coincides with the poem being written in the modernist period, which was first and foremost an era in which all traditionalist literary forms of the 19th century were abandoned. Roberts had many philosophical influences and they are clearly seen in his poetry. The iceberg can represent the human consciousness and the three levels (id, ego and the super ego) which in psychology are often put into a iceberg like diagram. Throughout the poem the reader should realize that the iceberg is a metaphor for life and the human form. Essentially we are like the iceberg in which only the tip is showing. Therefore the iceberg in the poem becomes a human life form and is personified in that it is able to think and speak on a human level. "The Iceberg" leads the reader through the road of life, its very much like a map outlining the many hardships and stages the human form and psyche will go through . The poem is most of all a reflection of Roberts coming to terms with the possibility of death and the memories of childhood and birth. The poem starts with the birth of the iceberg as it is "spawned" from something larger.