Neglect

R. T. Smith’s “Neglect” leaves his readers with a feeling of regret and longing to bring back the past, by sharing those feelings through detailed metaphors and emphasis on what is important. By sharing the details that his neglect caused the plant to “skew the sap’s passage, blacken leaves, dry the bark and the heart” the reader can picture in their mind something they neglected and the stages it went through as it withered. Smith hopes that through this metaphor, the reader can perhaps share the feeling of regret he shows in the next stanza, starting “I should have.” Smith also places emphasis on what is important in the poem. For example, he capitalizes the name of the plant to show that he neglected what was so important. He also rhymes the last two sentences to drag attention to them, as they sum up all of the feelings expressed through metaphors in the previous stanzas. By focusing in on details of the metaphor of an apple plant, Smith pushes his readers to feel regret, perhaps towards something in their own lives they have neglected.