Debra Marquart’s “Buoy” combines metaphors, simile, and assonance to tell a story about matrimony and an extramarital affair. The theme is about disillusionment and self-defeat.
Marquart’s “Buoy” is a twenty-seven-line narrative poem, consisting of thirteen couplets. The poem does not use any end rhyme. The author infuses enjambment into the couplets to maintain the voice of a disillusioned mistress, extending her ideas along to strengthen the cadence of the speaker’s voice (“…you are always the first to spot him, a floating speck…”). The author’s use of enjambment reinforces the speaker’s metaphorical description of the characters. In lines 1 through the beginning of line 4, the speaker uses a simile in comparing an unfaithful married …show more content…
The title of Marquart’s “Buoy” is defined as [keeping something afloat]. The disillusion of the speaker is further illustrated in lines 11-17 when the narrator provides insight into how this [heavy weight] will cause the mistress to go down with the married man. The author conveys the self-deception in using the vivid description of the characters. The speaker uses the metaphor of a “water breathing seahorse” to symbolize the wife as a relatively calm, and the mild-mannered person who is seemingly content. The speaker uses several metaphors to describe all the women (“whole tag-team pyramid of three-breasted women”—women with breast implants), lines …show more content…
[Paraphrased: You standing proud, all dressed up and waiting to save him just so he can “ride on your shoulders” just like he does his wife]. The use of enjambment conveys a vivid image of downward spiraling and annihilation of self-esteem. The speaker’s repulsive tone overshadows any affection for the sake of focusing on a self-destructive aspect of the