"The porpoises" by John Gurney has an interesting beginning "Plutarch would have called it suicide". At first you have no idea what this beginning means, but as you read further you come to comprehend that the writer is referring to the porpoises, and how they led themselves to suicide by drifting to close to the shore. The first ten lines of the poem are generally about how the porpoises came to be stranded and why …showed first 75 words of 421 total…

…showed last 75 words of 421 total…watch them go, the slow heave of their undulating backs departing like a groundswell through the waves in synchronized perfection." These sentences make the reader imagine clearly, with the use of a simile a beautiful ending and a dazzling display of how beautiful porpoises can be. Many figures of speech are present throughout the poem, but metaphors and similes make up most of them. All in all a very delightful poem, and a beautiful ending.