Poetry and Function
The consolidation of an artist's thoughts emerges in many ways. Through poetry, writers express themselves in the most lyrical and, more often, most concise way. All have carefully picked over the diction and structure of their pieces in order to precisely articulate their intention. The conventional forms, such as a sonnet, leave the poet with certain methods to emphasize their meanings. Nowadays, free verse is the more popular type of poem, as it gives the poet leave to mess with or completely disregard grammar, pattern, and rhyme. The poem, “Jabberwocky”, by Lewis Carroll is a ballad with regular rhyme scheme and meter, and while it is in a conventional form, its words are anything but. Conversely, T.S. Eliot's poem “Hysteria” is written like prose, with no rhyme. Relative to its title, Eliot uses free verse to closely emulate the emotions being conveyed. Both poets focus on crafting their poems through the formation of words and sentences, creating impacting works of art.
“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll is a well known poem from his famous work, Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The piece is a tale about the slaying of a monster called “the Jabberwock” (line 5). In a fairy tale manner, the story of a young boy unfolds. He is told of various monsters to be wary of, and then goes on a quest to defeat his “maxome foe”(line 10), the Jabberwock. In apparent ease, he slays the monster and brings back its head in triumph.
Carroll uses a conventional ballad form to construct the poem. He makes a traditional combination of an ABAB rhyme scheme, quatrains, a repeated chorus, and dialogues in his ballad. The first stanza is the chorus of the ballad, and the last stan...
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...asis help to convey the messages poets intend to depict. Emotions and thoughts cannot be easily portrayed. Through poetry, a long string of heady words, or the simple combination of three or four hit close to the mark for the intangible. Poems also serve to tell tales, and to entertain. Both Lewis Carroll and T.S. Eliot do so in their poems, “Jabberwocky” and “Hysteria”.
Works Cited
Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Borders Classics. Ann Arbor, MI: Borders Group, Inc., Ann Arbor Media Group, LLC., 2007. 169. Print.
Carroll, Lewis. “Jabberwocky.” The Seagull Reader Poems: Second Edition. 'Ed'. Joseph Kelly. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 61. Print.
Eliot, T.S. “Hysteria.” Poems by T. S. Eliot. Poetry Archive. 3 March 2011.
,“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity" as William Wordsworth, the English Romantic poet, stated. Poetry is a way to express vast emotions and feelings in a way which is unique to the poet. Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses.
Poetry is something that is to be read delicately and cautiously if one wanted to find meaning through the words. Readers have to be gentle and patiently ponder about what they are reading in order to find any significance in the poem. If someone is not patient with reading, they will not feel impacted by poetry and will not want to read it. In Billy Collins’, “Introduction to Poetry,” he uses figurative language to help readers see that the way to enjoy and understand poetry is by reading between the lines and being patient with how each individual relates to the readings.
Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities; it is solely used to evoke emotive feelings in the reader in which to convey a message or story. This form of literature has a long history dating back thousands of years and is considered a literacy art form as it uses forms and conventions to evoke differentiating interpretations of words, though the use of poetic devices. Devices such as assonance, figurative language, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve a musical and memorable aspect to the poem. Poems are usually written based on the past experiences of the poet and are greatly influenced by the writer’s morals values and beliefs. Poetry regularly demonstrates and emphasises on the
In poems, imagery is used to help get the writers’ message across in a language that is extremely visual. The poet wants
My writing is my medium, to impart my values, my beliefs, my ideas, my messages, everything to you. The ability to convey such things is beautiful. But for you to discover and interpret the beauty, to mould the beauty into a new being, is the true beauty of poetry.
Poetry is often created by an author’s need to escape the logical, as well as expressing feelings and other expressions in a tight, condensed manner. Hundreds of poets have impacted society throughout history through phenomenal poetry that, even with dark tones can be emotionally moving.
In poetry, we can vent our frustration and interpretations of the world around us on paper. Poets make their points using metaphors or little stories to bring them out. When reading poetry, I always put myself in the shoes of the first or third person to better understand what is trying to be put across in the words of the sonnets. Most poems can mean anything to anybody. There are many cases in which you see people finding beauty in things they don't even understand, such as an Italian Opera or Ancient Hieroglyphics painted on a pyramid wall. Poetry can be silly, cheesy, boring or down right appealing and consuming to the readers eyes.
The poems make for a simple addition to the narrative and allows for a much more meaningful experience for a reader and makes for a much more engrossing story, thus adding to the experience as a whole.
In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by the name of Langston Hughes. A well-known writer that still gets credit today for pomes like “ Theme for English B” and “Let American be American Again.”
Poetry is more than just a correlation of words; poetry contains power. Poetry works by sculpting the English language in such a way that it produces sound, while endeavoring to recreate experiences. I really grasped this concept when we read Dulcem Et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen. Among other things, this poem contains haunting imagery, and a rhythm that produces the sound of being in the trenches. While reading this poem, Wilfred Owen’s words made me fearful and paranoid. The slightest sound could hold my attention. I also noticed how silent the room felt after we finished the poem. We were all struck and disturbed by the old phrase Dulcem Et Decorum Est.
Throughout history, poets had experimented with different forms of figurative language. Figurative language allows a poet to express his or her meaning within a poem. The beauty of using the various forms of figurative language is the ability to convey deep meaning in a condensed fashion. There are many different figures of speech that a poet can use such as: simile, paradox, metaphor, alliteration, and anaphora. These examples only represent a fraction of the different forms, but are amongst the most well-known. The use of anaphora in a poem, by a poet, is one of the best ways to apply weight or emphasis on a particular segment. Not only does an anaphora place emphasis, but it can also aid in setting the tone, or over all “feel” a reader receives from a poem. Poets such as Walt Whitman, Conrad Aiken, and Frances Osgood provide poems that show how the use of anaphora can effect unity, feeling, and structure of a poem.
When reading or listening to poetry, the main objective for me is to feel moved. Happiness, longing, sadness are some of the feelings that can be achieved just by listening to others’ words. It is within these words that creates another world, or separates us from our own. Words all have a certain kind of attachment to them, so if used properly an author can stimulate a reader beyond belief.
scheme (AABB) in order to keep his readers interested and the poem is consistent. By using
Poetry in essence is a written artistic form of expression. It allows for writers to reveal their ideas and feelings in a very unique way. Wallace Stevens once said, “Poetry is a destructive force”. In other words poetry has power, I believe this is a very true statement. Another poet by the name of William Carlos Williams once said, “Poetry is a small (or large) machine made out of words.” I also believe this statement to be true, each aspect of a poem is important to its function as a whole, and if something is missing or changed it can no longer work in the same way. The poet Derek Walcott I believe knew these “rules of poetry” and modeled them in his own writing. For example we can see use of these statements in his poem “A City’s Death By Fire”.
Poetry must be music in the form of words. Some poets believe the definition of poetry is in the music it creates. "Smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong." Alexander Pope believed that a poem must be pleasant to the ear. A poem must follow certain rules. A poem can never "ring round the same unvaried chimes" and "[drag] its slow length along." Poems must "[whisper] through the trees" to please the reader's ear. For a poem to create music the poem must follow certain rules. What is the usefulness of a poem if it doesn't communicate any emotions to the reader in the end? It is nice to hear pleasant sounds but the goal of a poem cannot just be to produce pleasant sounds.