The Song of the Whale

Summary: Addressing the whale, the speaker in the poem says

he can hear it grieving for itself while weeping for others of its
kind because we, human beings, have killed them. Sadly, we
have killed them to make beauty products to satisfy our vanity.
The high notes of the whale sound like a dirge for dead whales.
The poet feels that soon we will be silencing this whale too in
our bid to make lipsticks and shoe polish rather than preserve a
life.
Sound devices: Repetition: Lipstick for our faces, polish for our shoes;
singing-singing; crying-crying Internal rhyme with -ing forms: heaving,
grieving, crying, dying, tumbling, calling, keening, soaring (indicating
that the action is still going on)
Poetic devices: Figures of Speech: 1. Apostrophe: The speaker speaks directly to the whale.
Example: Whale, I heard you grieving; Whale, I heard you singing.

2. Metaphor: Heaving mountain, Tumbling mountain comparing the whale to huge

mountains; forest of the sea comparing the sea to a forest

3. Simile: Like a heartbeat comparing the vibrations at the end of the whale’s song to a
heartbeat

4. Irony: We kill the huge whales merely for our lipstick and shoe polish.