Under Pressure- Rhetorical Devices

• Symbolism- This is probably the rhetorical technique I use the most in this poem. Going through difficult times is often compared to many different processes, like forging a sword or running through enemy fire. I tried to use these as mini-themes in different stanzas. The first stanza (Chemistry) particularly is symbolic as one of my own personal academic struggles. The second stanza is what my family always tells me when I'm struggling, that the struggle will make me stronger. The third stanza is how it feels to be stuck between my family's and my school's push for excelence plus my own perfectionistic nature, and the physical and emotional toal it takes on me. I feel like I'm fired on from both camps, and any allies I have on the way end up taking flak as well. This burden weighs heavy and I can't always cope. (stanza 4) The pressure cannot be released until the escape has been found. (P.S: this was a very good stress reliever!!!)
• Anaphora- Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning on successive lines. In the middle of stanza 4 (lines 27-29) I intentionally kept the phrase structure the same at the beginnings to emphaisze the inability to cope with all three of the trials.
• Antithesis- Antithesis is balancing opposing parts of a sentence together. In lines 13 and 14, I balanced "blazing heat" with "chilling cold". In lines 33 and 34, I contrast an "icy grip" with a "warm beam of light"
• Personification- The Enemy and Destruction are abstract concepts that are given human-like characteristics. The Enemy "advances, approaches, waiting for the kill" and Destruction has an "icy grip".
• Imagery- I used vivid images of tempering metal to strengthen it in stanza 2 and the tactile feeling of an icy grip and a warm beam of light in stanza 5.
• Allusion- Allusion is the practice of indirectly referencing another written or linguistic work. Stanza 1 is an allusion to network solids in chemistry. Both diamond and graphite(pencil lead) are made up of only carbon atoms. The covalent bonds between carbon atoms in both graphite and diamond are not very strong on their own, but because they are arranged into network solids , they are much stronger. Since graphite has a simple cubic structure, it is easily rubbed off onto another surface and can snap cleanly. Diamond, with a complex, crystaline structure, is the strongest naturally occuring material on earth.
• Diction- I tried to make the voice seem stressed and "under pressure" (not too far of a stretch here!!!) I picked very vivid words because the narrator should be so far past just coping with what comes and desperate to find an escape. The narrator's escape at the end of the poem is intentionally left open, hence the shorter stanza. (I also felt guilty about going over the line limit!) I wanted to leave a little mystery about what the escape was, so that people listening could connect and think about what they think the escape is, whether it is death, or being saved by someone, or by the trials ending.