Introduction
In “The Invitation” by Oriah Mountain, the author dwells on things that reveal a person’s essence. She says that actions are essential to get to know another person deeply, not facts from a biography. Repetitions, metaphors, oppositions, and the choice of semantically strong words help convey to the reader that it is not a person’s past that is important but who they are right now.
Analysis
Phonetic Level
Mountain actively uses the techniques of sound symbolism, or poetic painting, to make her point of view sound more convincing. First of all, there are alliterations in the poem. This is an organized phonetic repetition, repeated use of one or more consonant sounds in the text to create more expressiveness of the text (Novák 160). For example, the repetition of the sound combination “dr” in “Dare to dream,” sounding like a thunderclap, demonstrates the courage that a person needs to follow his dream (Mountain par. 1). A large number of “l” sounds in the line “looking like a fool for love” symbolizes the softness of the feeling, smoothly smoothing the awkwardness from the strange behavior of a lover (Mountain par. 2).
In addition, Mountain also uses assonance – repetition of vowel sounds. For example, the active use of “o” in the phrase “of your sorrow” reflects the idea of being in the center of your grief since a repeating rounded sound outlines a sound circle (Mountain par. 3). Thus, by maneuvering vowels and consonants, the author creates a frame for his thought, fixing it in the reader’s mind and creating a suitable mood with the help of sound imitations. Lexical Level
Mountain’s lexical means of expression are aimed at giving the thought a bright and emotional semantic coloring. She chooses words belonging to semantic groups of concepts that have the meaning of universal values, such as “love,” “faithless,” “trustworthy,” “Beauty,” and “life.” Throughout the text, the author uses words related to high feelings: these are “dream,” “heart,” and “love.” These words suggest that the author calls the reader to a sensory perception of life and not a rational understanding of the experience (Novák 159).
Mountain often uses concepts describing strong emotions: these are “love,” “sorrow,” “pain,” “joy,” “ecstasy,” “grief,” and “despair.” They are on the edges of the emotional spectrum and are polar opposite emotions. Using them, the author demonstrates the importance of being aware of his feelings even when unfavorable. Thus, due to the choice of words describing a person’s mental state and value orientation, the author hopes to evoke an emotional response from the reader, operating with familiar and meaningful concepts for everyone.
Syntactical Level
Through the structure of sentences, Mountain logically builds its thought, arranging thoughts and concepts in order of importance. It uses common sentences with a large number of homogeneous minor terms. Since the author needs to illustrate her thoughts vividly, she uses many examples, which explains this sentence structure. For example, in the sentence “I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive,” there are three additions that are examples of what you need to know about a person to understand him fully (Mountain par. 2). Due to the extension the minor members of the sentence are pretty long: the whole stanza consists of only one or two sentences.
The formality level of sentences is relatively low: the poem creates a feeling of communication with a friend. It is caused by the active use of direct appeals with narrative sentences that have a motivational color, such as “you dare to dream” (Mountain par. 1). At the same time, the traditional S + V structure is not violated, and is actively used in the formulation of sentences: “you will risk,” “you have been opened,” “you can dance.” This structure emphasizes that the reader’s character determines their actions (Chahboun et al. 493). Thus, the structure and type of sentences in “The Invitation” encourage the reader to take action, forcing him to think through the increasing gradation of the importance of the sentence members.
Figurative Level
The metaphorical use of language helps Mountain to explain its thoughts more clearly to readers, causing them an emotional response. For example, the author uses a lexical comparison of two images. For example, in the line “the silver of the full moon,” the moon is compared to silver to show how precious the reader experiences such moments. With the help of understandable analogies, numerous metaphors used by Mountain explain to the reader what feelings the author is talking about (Chahboun et al. 509).
For example, in paragraph 4, pain becomes a tangible object – the reader can “hide it,” “fade it,” “fix it,” or even “sit with it” (Mountain par. 4). In paragraph 5, another feeling becomes tangible – ecstasy. Due to metaphor, it ceases to be an abstract sensation but becomes a vivid feeling capable of “filling you to the tips of your fingers and toes” (Mountain par. 5). Thus, metaphorical hyperbolization of images is a means that allows the author to explain better the sensation necessary for a complete understanding of the thought embedded in the poem.
Thematic Level
When it comes to getting to know someone, sometimes there is a gap between what they want to show and who they are. The poem’s meaning by Mountain is that it is the state of bright, strong emotions – both positive and negative – that shows the fundamental nature of man. The author says that the past must be left in the past. Therefore, she says that she is not interested in a person’s age (Mountain para. 3) or their monetary position ((Mountain para. 9) or education (Mountain para. 11). What matters is how a person knows how to feel and what they transform the energy received from these sensations into.
Conclusion
Mountain explores themes that genuinely capture a person’s spirit in her poem “The Invitation.” She asserts that actions, rather than sequential facts from a biography, are crucial to truly understanding someone. The author intentionally uses strong, stressed words in her writing, metaphors, oppositions, and syntactic repetitions to effectively convey the main idea to the reader. A person’s present self and how they show up under challenging circumstances matter more than their past, and this is a valuable lesson that can be used as a life guide.
Works Cited
Chahboun, Sobh, et al. “Extending the Field of Extended Language: A Literature Review on Figurative Language Processing in Neurodevelopmental Disorders.” Frontiers in Communication, vol. 6, no. 36. 2021, pp. 488–509. Web.
Mountain, Oriah. “The Invitation.” Family Friend Poems. Web.
Novák, Radomil. “Sound in Literary Texts.” Neophilologus, vol. 104, no. 8, 2020, pp. 151–163. Web.