His word choice emphasizes his point that poetry shouldn’t mean anything more then what it already says. MacLeish fosters synonyms such as “mute” and “dumb” or “silent” and “wordless” to reinforce his simplistic philosophy that poetry should be. Aside from the author’s choice of words, the repetition used in Ars Poetica further highlights various aspects of poetry. Often the speaker wishes to reveal to his reader the impression that poetry should be something felt or “palpable” as he expressed it. Nearing the end of the poem, MacLeish creates a complete view of poetry after saying that “a poem should be equal to: not true” and “a poem should not mean but be”.
The tone of the poem is very straight forward and serious. The author does not use any alliteration or assonance in the poem. “The piercing Chill I feel”, written by Taniguchi Buson is a very short three line Haiku poem, but very powerful in meaning. The poem is about a man who steps on a comb which belonged to his deceased wife. Buson chose very explicit words when he wrote his poem.
The poem “l(a” by E.E. Cummings is a prime example of how the unique form that a poem is written in can completely alter the meaning it portrays through the use of separation and imagery. The poem is written with four words which are divided into several different lines and stanzas. Without this separation, the poem would have very little meaning but by splitting the words up, Cummings' poem exaggerates the separateness that a person feels when they are alone. The word "loneliness" and phrase "a leaf falls" have been separated by parenthesis.
Writers never seem to use the same features in the same ways another writer does. Their writings are always shaped differently than another writer’s work. The two different Native American writers both use diction, syntax, imagery, and tone, but N.S. Momaday and D. Brown used each one differently to convey their overall purposes, which were to describe two similar but completely different landscapes. Diction can be thought of as the simplest and most powerful tool in writing.
Its use of rhyme creates regular, strong repeated pattern and rhythm. Different types of rhythmic techniques are used constantly throughout the poem, including a perfect rhyme. An example of rhyme used in ‘Time’ can be found throughout the poem, like where Thomas rhymes the word ‘hours’ with the word ‘flowers’ and the word
(Levitt,1993:368) The ` ultimate mystery` of his poets was achieved by his poem `self-sufficiency` (Fowlie,1954:85). At the same time he was writing his poetry, he was surrounded by advanced art movements such as Cubism, Futurism and his famous friend Picasso or Satie. Nevertheless he remained his independent from them in his works and throughout his career, Cocteau developed a method to write which was very much his own. It
On any of these counts, however, the poem comes up short. Despite its air of profound judgement, the poem never rises above platitudes and simple-minded ideas, and its language wavers between goofy faux-colloquialisms and stilted inversions. But that language, however poorly handled, demonstrates an infinite resourcefulness. The inventive play of language itself, in fact, restores "Mending Wall" to the status of poetry and saves it from becoming the doggerel to which Frost's poems seem to aspire. Frost's wall requires attention because of "the gaps," and the gaps in his poem deserve attention as well.
By using free verse, Alice Walker, and Walt Whitman are able to convey ideas which would not be as effectively expressed with standard forms of poetry. When using free verse it gives the writer more creative freedom, due to it having no meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern. Both poems “Women” by Walker and “I Hear America Singing” by Whitman are two great examples of this. However depending on the format, and word choice, one could be more effective in conveying the message, thoughts, or feelings being expressed. The structure and form of a poem, is the key to expressing the writers message.
Poetry is said by many to be the deepest and darkest thoughts of the heart and mind; that the author pours themselves into their work and opens up a piece of them that isn’t always exposed for people to see. When reading poetry, or any piece of literature for that matter, the reader typically starts with the title, where sometimes the most meaning and thought comes from for the piece. In both Elegy by George Gordon & Lord Byron and Grief by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, only one word is used in the title, expressing a sense of definiteness towards their poem; simply stating that their thoughts revolve solely around this word. With the use of form, sound, rhyme, and literary elements, the above stated poems will be compared to show the thematic similarities both authors used. After fully understanding both poems and reading this comparative essay, any reader will be able to successfully discuss the similar messages in each poem.
Poetry allows flexibility to the author because it does not have a specific topic. All of the genres are incorporated into poetry, because it can be fiction, historical, drama, or non-fiction. Often, a more figurative form of speech is involved in writing poems. There is greater symbolism and the meaning requires the reader to think. Robert Frost once said, “Poetry is what gets lost in translation.” By this he means poems don’t have to make sense to be beautiful.