Structure and Techniques of Poetry A sword can be as swift as a current or as calm as a still body of water. Whether you use the blade, or the handle; some damage will be made. Poetry is this sword, that once drawn, will always leave a mark. The three poems we read in class, “Not Just A Platform For My Dance”, “The Lonely Land” and “I’m a Canadian”, are all poems regarding Canada. They are also all poems which have a different perspective on what this word Canada means. The first poem, “Not Just A Platform For My Dance” speaks of Canada as something that is not just a piece of land, but also something that exists for healing. This poem is very short in both stanza and poem size. The lines in this poem are relatively short as well. The poem is repetitive of the words “not just” and maintains the concept behind these words throughout the poem. None of the lines begin with a capital letter. Aside from the structure of the poem, the writer uses different …show more content…
This poem is different in many ways to the previous two. This poem has zero stanzas and its lines are consistently long. Rhyming is done throughout the poem. An example of this is when the writer says “I’m Yorkville after dark, I’m a walk in the park” (Redbird, 32-33). Almost all lines in this poem begin with a capital letter. The word “I’m” is repeated almost always at the beginning of each line. This poem does not contain any poetic devices. The only downside to the structure of this poem would be present in the length of the poem. Compared to the other two poems, this one is relatively long and thus appears so on paper. The length of the poem may cause someone to entirely refuse to read the poem, or lose focus of the message being made. However, the consistency of its rhymes makes the reader stay alert and attentive throughout the poem. Thus nullifying the effect the length would
Without the use of stereotypical behaviours or even language is known universally, the naming of certain places in, but not really known to, Australia in ‘Drifters’ and ‘Reverie of a Swimmer’ convoluted with the overall message of the poems. The story of ‘Drifters’ looks at a family that moves around so much, that they feel as though they don’t belong. By utilising metaphors of planting in a ‘“vegetable-patch”, Dawe is referring to the family making roots, or settling down somewhere, which the audience assumes doesn’t occur, as the “green tomatoes are picked by off the vine”. The idea of feeling secure and settling down can be applied to any country and isn’t a stereotypical Australian behaviour - unless it is, in fact, referring to the continental
Some people never get satisfied with what they have. In the stories, "Amir", and, "Gold Mountain Poems", The life lesson is to be happy for what you have. In both stories the main characters are immigrants coming to America. In the story, Amir just moved here from India and is upset with the people. In the poem the speaker is taken to an immigrant island instead of being released to go live in America. In both stories they are grateful for what they have.
The death camp was a terrible place where people where killed. Hitler is who created the death camp for Jews. The death camp was used for extermination on Jews. This occurred on 1939 – 1945. The death camps were in the country of Europe. Hitler did all this because he didn’t like Jews and the religions. The book Night is a autobiography written by Elie Wiesel. The poem called First they came for the communist written by Martin Neimoller is a autobiography.
In “Useless Boys” the writer, Barry Dempster, creates a strong feeling of disappointment and shame in himself and society as he looks back on his youth to when him and a friend made a promise to each other to “not be like their fathers”. Dempster expresses a sort of disgust for the capitalist society his world seems to be built around, a life where even if you’re doing something you initially enjoyed you end up feeling trapped in it. The poem is a reflective piece, where he thinks back on how he truly believed he would end up happy if he chose a different path than that of his parents. The author uses simple diction and syntax, but it’s evident that each idea has a much deeper meaning, which assisted in setting a reflective/introspective mood.
The long lines that open the poem represent the movement of the bus through the landscape. When it stops moving to pick up the “lone traveler” in the sixth stanza, it stops the long sentence that has been running since the start of the poem. As the bus resumes and picks up speed, the lines follow suit. It is night, and therefore dark as the bus enters the tree line of the thick woods of New Brunswick. Here, an important change occurs, when a drastic landscape shifts occurs;
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.”
In these poems when reading them even if they have a strong American influence to them, there is still a distinct Native tone to them. They are not completely westernized. This is noticeable in the way the
The most noticeable aspect of the structure of the entire poem is the lack of capital letters and periods. There is only one part in the entire forty lines, which is at the very end, and this intentional punctuation brings readers to question the speaker’s literacy. In fact, the speaker is very young, and the use of punctuation and hyphens brings to attention the speaker’s innocence, and because of that innocence, the
Robert Creeley, a famous American poet, lived from 1926 to 2005. Creeley was normally associated as a Black Mountain poet because that is where he taught, and spent most of his career. Throughout his life, Creeley wrote many different pieces of poetry. Four great poems by Robert Creeley are, “For Love”, “Oh No”, “The Mirror”, and “The Rain”. The poem “For Love”,was written by Creeley for his wife. In this poem Creeley explains, the love someone has for another person, and how complicated it is making his life because the person doesn’t know how to explain their love. “Oh No” is a poem that is literally about a selfish person who ended up in hell, but this poem has a deeper meaning. Part
The two poems I have chosen to explain are Piano by D H Lawrence and
middle of paper ... ... Ultimately, we have two poems which can be compared on the grounds of their subject, but are poles apart regarding their message. The structure of these poems is not what would be typically expected from a war poem, but are structured on the basis of these typical structures in order to create some sense of familiarity.
The long and short sentences in the poem builds up tension by making the reader not know were they are in the poem. Long sentences seem to be more comfortable and laid back whereas short, snappy sentences leave the reader hanging. But when both are put together it leaves the reader stranded in the poem and lost in words.
A poet once said, “Unity is strength... when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved” (Mattie Stepanek). The American dream is built on a foundation of unity, which is exemplified in the poem by James Weldon Johnson, Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing. In this poem, Johnson thematically illustrates what the American Dream is about. The overall background in this poem eludes the history of slavery and how the contemporary society has change the present of how humans live today. This poem “commemorate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln” who helped abolish slavery, without his collaboration, there wouldn’t be freedom in this country (51). I personally believe that through contemporary society, America has remodeled itself through generations and created the American dream known as unity. Unity is the aspect of the American Dream.
Those four poems have a similar problem, the cultural/language border. The poem “Here” is a cultural problem like “Legal Alien”, while “Elena” is a poem with a language problem, “Where you from?” have both problems cultural and language border. Basically every single poem expresses a similar problem, which has to deal with a new culture where maybe the people do not feel that they belong to this new culture. Those poems show the problem that immigrants have by living in a new country and the new language, or the problem that they do not know in which society or culture they belong.
When I first began to read, within the 2nd paragraph I immediately referenced back to the “The Bridge Poem.” Because Lorde too talked about how she has always been defined as being seen as an ‘other’ or seen as ‘inferior,’ and that she seems to always need to “bridge the gap” for other people. The ‘Bridge Poem’ also referenced about how thin the author was spreading herself in order to teach and ‘translate’ for everyone around her, because they were to stubborn or blind to do it themselves. Lorde also took this that she is the one responsible to educate a whole society on a culture that that the majority has labeled as “wrong.”