Poetry, a realm of systematic functions that act as indicators for another thing, is a testament to the author's mastery of language. Understanding the code that authors use allows the reader to delve into the hidden depths of a poem. Enda St. Vincent Millay, the mastermind behind 'April', deftly employs poetic devices such as disdainful diction, personification, endowed lines, and imagery to unveil the theme of beauty, not concealing the reality of death. For example, the extraordinarily shocking and vile language in April's poem adds to the critical tone. The diction is highly sour." Stickily, redness, spikes, idiot, babbling," and "maggots" are all unpreferable words. We see how the word choice in the examples is gross. It resembles the …show more content…
You can no longer quiet me with the redness." In the first quote, the author complains about how April's flowers and scenery cover the death underneath. The message in the latter quote states that the beauty of April is not enough to overshadow the inevitability of death. The subjective use of heavily disdainful diction is crucial to the overall meaning of "April." Similarly, personifying a month is the key image in this poem. April Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers." saying that the month April comes like an idiot is saying that it is dumb, saying that the month has brain cells, personifying it. Saying that the month babbles is also personification because babbling is a human communication. Giving April human traits exemplifies the ability for one to have feelings of anger towards the innocent month. The reason for this is that it is much easier to be hateful to and blame a human than it is to blame something nonhuman. Why is it intelligent to blame a single month for the overlooking of death? Moreover, more poetical strategies are used in the passage, such as imagery and end-stopping. In this case, the image displayed throughout the poem is clear. The imagery of April signifies the author's purpose for
The metafictional devices in Larry Levis’ “The Poem You Asked For” are found in overt and subtle ways throughout the poem. The first metafictional device is the poem is about a character writing a poem. The narrator references the odious poem in every single stanza. Despite the narrator’s best efforts, the poem r...
words represent the gang’s lack of language skills. This symbolizes uneducated boys talking. She does it with such vivid verse and ethnic slang that it gives this poem a unique style.
In poetry, it is important to be meticulous of your punctuation. By doing this, the flow of the poem will be clearer and better understood by the reader. Not only is this significant in a writer’s work, but the use of other literary devices, such as description and personification, is also necessary in conveying the thoughts of a poem. There authors, Elise Hempel, Brian Simoneau, and Peter Munro, from the Valparaiso Poetry Review use these literary devices to their advantage to effectively portray the messages of their seasoned poems.
To begin with, her poem Spring shows readers her true thoughts on the season. During this poem she analyzed that a beautiful month like April, can still remind her of death. In line 9-15 it states, “It is apparent that there is no death. But what does that signify? Not only underground are the brains of men- Eaten by maggots.
"Characteristics of Modern Poetry - Poetry - Questions & Answers." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Web. 09 Jan. 2012. .
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
Irony is an effective way for a poem, playwright or author to lighten an otherwise dark or cryptic story while simultaneously putting emphasis the story’s dark elements; in its obvious absence, the darkness of the story becomes more apparent. This is effective in many poems, such “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, which is about the death of a childhood lover. The persona, assumed to be male, highlights the youth of the his lover, Annabel Lee, referring to her as “this maiden” (Poe line 3) and “a child” (line 7) to underline the fact that she died too young and too soon. He blames this on the angels, who “coveted” (line 12) them and their love. Poe uses irony to contrast, and, therefore, puts emphasis on, the negative circumstances surrounding Annabel Lee’s death by retelling the events in an idyllic tone. Poe’s irony is successful due to his employment of diction and rhyme, which cause the poem to emulate the sing-song style of a nursery rhyme.
Despite the differences between the characters in the poems, I will also go on to say how the preoccupation with death and violence all seem to stem from the apparently unstable minds of the characters; from the instability brought on by varying emotions such as grief, jealousy, resentment, guilt and madness, and the fact that these emotions may lead to paranoia.
The ironic use of rhyme and meter, or the lack thereof, is one of the devices Larkin uses to emphasize his need to break out of industrial society. The typical rhyme scheme is not followed, but instead an ironic rhyme scheme is used in the sonnet in the form of abab cdcd efg efg. Larkin writes this poem as a sonnet but at the same time diverges from what a typical sonnet is supposed to be. He is commenting on society’s inclination to form restrictions on those within it. By writing out of the accepted form of a sonnet, his writing becomes more natural because of a lack of constraints due to following certain rules and fitting a certain form. He breaks free and writes as he pleases and does not conform to society. Just as with the rhyme, ...
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.
The poet uses end rhyming to give the poem a sing-song quality which enforces that the speaker is a child. “Young, tongue, weep, sleep” are examples of end rhymes from lines 1-4. At the end of the poem the speaker switches the sound quality to assonance where he uses the non-rhyming words “behind, wind” (16-17), “dark, work” (21-22), “warm, harm” (23-24)” which are near enough in sound to hear the echo of the syllables but illustrate opposing meanings. “Work” is “dark”, being “warm” should not cause “harm”. “When my mother died I was very young, / And my father sold me while yet my tongue / Could scarcely cry 'weep!’weep! 'weep! 'weep!” (1-2). Repeating the words “weep, weep, weep” sounds like a nursery rhyme, chorus of a song or maybe even the ringing of an alarm. We see the imagery of the young, crying child and also hear his grief. It is possible that the child is so young th...
Through alliteration and imagery, Coleridge turns the words of the poem into a system of symbols that become unfixed to the reader. Coleridge uses alliteration throughout the poem, in which the reader “hovers” between imagination and reality. As the reader moves through the poem, they feel as if they are traveling along a river, “five miles meandering with a mazy motion” (25). The words become a symbol of a slow moving river and as the reader travels along the river, they are also traveling through each stanza. This creates a scene that the viewer can turn words into symbols while in reality they are just reading text. Coleridge is also able to illustrate a suspension of the mind through imagery; done so by producing images that are unfixed to the r...
Over the years many different ways of analyzing poetry have been developed. One such approach is the “New Critical,” or the “Formalist,” which is based on the writings of Coleridge. The formalist approach is useful because it takes the poem’s form, which may be overlooked, and analyzes it to see what its effect is on the meaning of the poem. There are other aspects taken into consideration, like who the speaker is and how the author incorporates “ironic awareness” into the poem. Eavan Boland’s message in “The River” comes across best when looking at the poem with the formalist approach, taking into consideration the speaker and the speaker’s situation, the organic form, and the use of irony. Some aspects may have more importance than others, but all need to be looked at, beginning with the speaker.
The first section is called “Burial of the Dead” which is a reference to a burial service in a church. In the poem it says that April is the cruelest month, which is ironic because April is normally considered to be the month of renewal. In the beginning of the poem, the passing of seasons, symbolizes a natural cycle of death and a “new beginning”. In this section of the poem, historical context is represented because the deaths are symbolically the soldiers and other casualties that were lost in the war.... ...
The poem contains three stanzas of nine lines, all with the same form, and has a rhyming scheme of AABBCCDDD. The first six lines of each stanza have alternating pentameter and tetrameter, with the seventh being a tetrameter, and the last two being pentameters. Although the poem does not have irregular lines or stanzas, the complexity of the alternating meters marks a noticeable difference to other forms of poetry that do not have a similar scheme. Despite the uniformity of these alternating meters in relation to their stanzas and the overall poem, this might be considered a characteristic of metaphysical poetry. “The Flea” takes on an argumentative form, which is another characteristic of metaphysical poetry, and it is supplemented by the speaker’s use of ironic wit and analogies to religion and marriage.