In the poem “Refugee Blues”, W.H.Auden makes good use of repetition. For example, the last line of each stanza repeats itself. “Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us,” is a typical example found at the end of stanza one. Using repetition reinforces the idea of loss in the readers mind. It emphasizes the feelings of loss within the poem.
All throughout the poem, the speaker addresses this woman in a kind of mini-drama in which only one voice is heard. (Browning uses much the same technique in "My Last Duchess"). In "The Flea," however, the woman responds through her actions if not through her words, thereby making the poem even more dramatic. Some poems actually contain dialogue between two or more characters, thus making them even more dramatic in the literal sense of the word. Some of the poems in the final third of Edmund SpenserAmoretti sonnet sequence display this feature.
She also effectively utilizes literary techniques such as rhythm, alliteration, and imaging that contribute to the overall theme. The speaker of this poem associates himself with a group that he refers to as we. The poem is written in first person, presenting only one character’s point of view. The title is ironic. "We Real Cool" is contradicting the last line, "We Die soon."
Pastan does this to allow the reader to see that those burdens are by themselves and to make them pop out more by isolating those words onto the next line. Pastan uses line breaks throughout the whole poem to add depth to certain words that the reader may not catch without them being separated. The levels of language also shift in the middle of this poem. Pastan uses these different levels to allow her poem to grow, even though the question never gets easier to answer. The poem starts off with fairly easy language by using words like “anyhow” to prove to the reader that it is a younger voice speaking.
In the poem The Falling Soldier, which is in relation to the photograph by Robert Capa, Duffy begins the poem by using colloquial language such as ‘flop’ and ‘kip’ to create a very casual everyday image about how the photo could be interoperated. Even though the poem starts off with a positive tone, the tone quickly shifts with the phrase ‘No; worse.’ then following with ‘The shadow you cast as you fall is the start of a shallow grave’ as she describes the truth and reality of the soldiers fall. She makes it sounds as if it was inevitable and was always going to happen. ‘They give medals though, to the grieving partners, mothers, daughters, sons of the brave.’ This almost sarcastic phrase expressing that as if a medal they can’t even accept for themselves makes it all ok and worth dying for. She distinctively uses ‘they’ in this phrase, to emphasise the fact that these people are nameless and are too cowardly to take responsibility for what they causing.
(The American Heritage College Dictionary,1425) The last syllable of Line 1 rhymes with the last syllable of line 2, the last syllable of line 3 rhymes with the last syllable of line 4. It goes on like this throughout the poem, with the exception of a few. This use of rhyming makes the poem very catchy and fun to read. The poem is called “To His Coy Mistress” giving the impression that it is a letter being written rather than a conversation between two people. He makes his argument to the “Mistress” but she never really comes into the story herself throughout the reading.
There is a shift in language as the poet removes the phrase 'my son' with the less personal article 'the boy'. Plosive alliteration is used on line 6 and the white and tender skin mentioned relates to innocence and purity. There is a suggestion that two people are involved with the other person being a partner or mum. There is a very regular rhythm to the poem and there is a sense of pain and that can't be completely taken away from the son. Metaphor is used to emphasise his devastation and up until this point, the nettles have been presented like they are an army themselves.
Whitman’s influence on Ginsberg is prevalent in the first sentence of “Howl” in which Ginsberg begins his poem with the line “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness.” In Whitman’s “Song of Myself” the author begins his poem in a similar fashion stating, “I celebrate myself, and what I assume you shall assume.” Both authors wish to connect with the readers and depict their personal thoughts. The use of the word “I” also emphasized ideas of individuality, drawing attention to the fact that society is made up entirely of individuals. Both poets used descriptive, non-rhyming poems written in streams of thought and broken down into long stanzas; otherwise known as free verse. In both Howl and Song of Myself, Ginsberg and Whitman give insight into the lives they lead by giving descriptions of themselves. Whitman describes himself as “Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding, No sentimentalist, no stander above men and women or apart them, No more modest than immodest.” Whereas Ginsberg describes himself as “starving hysterical naked… wandered around and around at midnight in the railroad yard wondering where to go… lounged hungry and lonesome
“This Be the Verse” immediately strikes you with a very aggravated tone. He gives the reader insight into the mind of a young adult who feels like parents are at fault of all the bad that in your life any complications that it may entail. In the second stanza, his tone changes to an almost sympathetic one. He says that the parents were also once in the young person’s shoes and he then pushes the blame onto the grandparents. This can be continued until the beginning of time and it returns the reader to the idea that people pass down their problems from generation to generation.
For the most part Emily sticks with iambic meter throughout her poem. The meter is interrupted in the last stanza when she draws attention to the word “Stop.” She starts the line off with this word and because of its need to be emphasized or stressed the meter is forced to change. The indirect rhyme that Emily uses is very easily seen in the first two stanzas. In stanza one the word “miles” and “tanks” both end in the same consonant sound. The same goes for “up” and “step.” Stanza 2 follows this as well having “mountains” and “roads” serve as an indirect rhyme.