fir trunks were as smooth as masts."By using symbolism, Robert Lowell is able to accent his feelings and bring multiple and hidden meanings into his poem.In "Sailing Home from Rapallo" irony is a poetic device often used. Rich irony is used in the idea that leaving an energetic, exciting Europe with a corpse for burial in the New World, which reflects Lowell's opinion that in Europe everything was happy and life was celebrated, where as in America vitality and energy was dead. By using irony, Lowell conveys to the readers how passionate he is about his relationship with his mother, as instead of writing how he felt, he used extreme sarcasm to emphasize how earnest he is, consequently enhancing his poetry.As well as irony, Robert Lowell uses some sarcasm in his poem, as a poetic device to enhance his poem. He is very dry as he writes:"Mother travelled first-class in the hold, her Risorgimento black and gold casketwas like Napoleon's at the Invalides…."Lowell's attitude here is a very stale one, as he is conveying that his mother is as pretentious in death as she had been in life. In this stanza his true feelings of resentment towards his mother are starting to surface. Lowell leaves his most devastating observation about the casket to the end of the poem, as he says:"In the grandiloquent lettering on Mother's coffin, Lowell had been misspelled LOVEL."This is sarcasm because he associates love with a Lowell in death, which he felt who, in life, was capable of neither giving love nor stimulating it. Sarcasm is a prominent poetic device used in "Sailing Home from Rapallo" it is used because it highlights the situation, and the emotions felt as a result of the poetry, in a subtle, shocking way.Thus, in conclusion it can be seen that there are many distinctive qualities in the poem “Sailing Home from Rapallo” by Robert Lowell. Perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the poem is the fact that the reader experiences Ro...
