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The rhetorical ladder functions here primarily as a persuasive technique. In other poems, it serves to heighten the reader's awareness of the multifaceted nature of experience and thereby engage his more complete response. In the following poem, for example, the sets of images that cluster around this particular heart/mind/vital/body[28] sequence serve to amplify a central vision of unaspiring human nature.
WHEN?
Heart, my heart,
When are you going to cry?
Mind, my mind,
When are you going to search?
Vital, my vital,
When are you going to strive?
Body my body
When are you going to serve? (P.289)
This string of questions, the rhetorical figure quaesitio, is uttered without interruption, since no single question admits of an easy reply. Through the questions, we see the poet successively imploring his different faculties to aspire, each in its own waythe body through service, the vital through striving and so on. We are led to the extrasyntactical conclusion that the present condition of these faculties is dormant. If the division of man into such strict areas may be considered too formal, the tone of the poem alone, the gently affectionate "Heart, my heart," accomplishes something of a reconstitution of wholeness. This in turn is reinforced by the poet's tight hold on his composition. His precise parallelism does not admit of mere loose accretion but always returns him to the major "signature" of the poem in terms of both rhythm and theme.
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