Prayer of Steel
Carl Sandburg
(1878-1967)
Lay me on an anvil, O God
Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.
Let me pry loose old walls.
Let me lift and loosen old foundations
Lay me on an anvil, Oh God.
Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike.
Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together.
Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders.
Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper together through blue nights into white stars.
A formalist reading of the poem
"Prayer of Steel" is a short poem composed of 9 lines, the ninth being the longest. The cohesive devices in the poem will be analyzed on three levels: lexical, grammatical, and phonological. The analysis will be made first of the individual stanzas, then of the overall structure of the whole poem. Leech's concept of cohesion will be referred to where necessary.
General observations
The title "Prayers of Steel" is an example of "foregrounding": steel is a kind of metal, thus it is inanimate and cannot perform the action of saying prayers, an action performed only by a human being. Obviously, the poet has deviated from the generally observed rulles of the language, and it is significant that these are prayers of steel, not of rubber. The inference is that whatever the speaker wishes to accomplish will require a great deal of strength and determination. From the title, "foregrounding" then extends into the poem so that we have "cohesion of foregrounding", in which the foregrounded features identified in isolation are related to one another, and to the poem as a whole, as can be observed below.
Cohesion in the individual stanzas
Stanza 1
Lexical cohesion: First we observe that among all the images use...
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...-" links the second with the first stanza, indicating that they are parts of a prayer; the shifting of "crowbar" into "steelpike" specifies the related but different functions of the two parts. This repetition is sharpened by the occurrence of the same form "Let me" in the last line of both stanzas, providing cohesive links between the two parts of the poem. The second stanza is longer, perhaps to give emphasis to the task of reconstruction, which follows and is, of course, more important than that of demolition. The last line, which is the longest, shows the full outpour of the speaker's emotions, as we have discussed. The sound devices used in the second stanza, especially assonances, also outnumber those used in the first. Thus, the consistent multi-leveled pattern of repetition/parallelism found within and between the stanzas provide overall cohesion for the poem.
From the very first word of the poem, there is a command coming from an unnamed speaker. This establishes a sense of authority and gives the speaker a dominant position where they are dictating the poem to the reader rather than a collaborative interacti...
The most important poetic device that is used in this song is repetition. This device affects the song because the repetition of something is like a reminder of what they are focusing on. For example,
To that end, the overall structure of the poem has relied heavily on both enjambment and juxtaposition to establish and maintain the contrast. At first read, the impact of enjambment is easily lost, but upon closer inspection, the significant created through each interruption becomes evident. Notably, every usage of enjambment, which occurs at the end of nearly every line, emphasizes an idea, whether it be the person at fault for “your / mistakes” (1-2) or the truth that “the world / doesn’t need” (2-3) a poet’s misery. Another instance of enjambment serves to transition the poem’s focus from the first poet to the thrush, emphasizing how, even as the poet “[drips] with despair all afternoon,” the thrush, “still, / on a green branch… [sings] / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything” (14-18). In this case, the effect created by the enjambment of “still” emphasizes the juxtaposition of the two scenes. The desired effect, of course, is to depict the songbird as the better of the two, and, to that end, the structure fulfills its purpose
The use of alliteration, tone, mood, theme and other elements that construct a well balanced poem are in this piece of literature.
The poem completes all of these aspects within just four stanzas which is quite impressive. All three of these aspects truly help readers understand the morals and details that the poem is trying to portray, and poets such as Roethke try to keep their audiences’ minds wondering why such and such occurs. The deeper meaning of poetry acts as if it is a mystery to be solved by the reader which keeps me interested and more aware of why certain things may make sense while I am reading. Any type of poetry with understandable diction, style, and imagery will absolutely help reveal the theme and keep the reader yearning to discover why the theme is the way it
In the third stanza, the language becomes much darker, words like: anger, explode, and against make this stanza seem even more warlike than the first stanza.
Most all ethnicities and cultures have been prosecuted at one time or another from an oppressing source. In the case of the Native Americans, it was the English coming in and taking their land right from underneath them. As the new colonies of the cohesive United States of America expanded, they ran into the territories of the then referred to Indians. These people were settled down south on the east coast, for example Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and the Carolinas. America obtained this land through the Louisiana Purchase, where they bought it from France. The Native Americans were already there before anyone, yet the big power countries bargained with their land. The Native Americans did not live the way the American democracy did, and they
The number of beats and stresses in each line during the poem are scattered, but this serves a purpose by letting ideas flow from one to another. Each idea is connected by using the word “ring” or “ringing.” The overall message of the poem is the constant “ringing” Turner remembers from war experiences affects his everyday life. Turners tone of voice in the beginning of the poem differs from the tone of the voice in end of the poem. In the first couple of lines Turner introduces what the ringing is and why it is constantly in his head. Then towards the end of the poem, Turner uses more vivid language to describe certain images and events he went through to get the constant ringing playing in his mind. For example, in the beginning, words like; “this ringing,” “bullet borne,” and “static,” are used to describe what the ringing represents, and what it can be compared to. Then in the end language like, “muzzle-flash,” and “gravestones,” describe images he remembers from war. The change in the language creates different atmospheres. In the beginning the reader just feels they are reading descriptive language, but the language in the end makes the reader feel they are there in the setting of the poem. This specific structure is important for ideas to flow
"Characteristics of Modern Poetry - Poetry - Questions & Answers." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Web. 09 Jan. 2012. .
A raging title opens the poem, immediately the fire sparks and the reader’s mind is already set off, “One night in the desert” (1). The reader is given the time and location of the poem; with that first line we a get a sense of a calm and quiet night in the desert. Where as to what the title indicates, the first line gives a much more of calm and quiet understanding of the poem. “a poor Bedouin woman has this to say/ to her husband,”(2-3). This starts to run the shivers down the reader’s spine; it gives an idea but yet still keeps the reader clueless. Sets the a tone to the poem, now its relating back to the title and giving that connection between the title and of what the poem is about.
It will further deal with the development of tension throughout the poem. By making a distinction between tension through formal aspects, such as rhyme scheme, and tension through content it will try to show the interconnection between both of them. Additionally, the paper will deal with the possible effect of tension on the reader and how the poem might be perceived by him/her.
...oes hand in hand with the structure of the poem as well; bringing about a certain rhythm through punctuation and line breaks. It is this rhythm brings out the repetition and clash of elements especially with parentheses, which allows us to look at the element of starvation while considering the reaction of the press.
“How many times these low feet staggered-” is written from the perspective of someone in an abusive relationship with the deceased woman. They are constantly wondering why she is not cleaning the house and calling her lazy. The poem consists of 12 lines of iambic tetrameter with the exception of the final stanza, which alternates pentameter and tetrameter each line. Because the lines are similar in length, there is no feeling of starting and stopping or drawing something out then contracting it, but more of a monotonous relaying of events. The poem features end rhyme in the second and fourth lines of each stanza. The effect of rhyming “tell” and “steel” is a contrast between the action of telling and the motionless, immovable steel that the woman’s body has taken on, making her incapable of ever telling. The term “soldered mouth” conjures the gruesome image of a mouth permanently melted closed, but also seems reminiscent of a body that has been embalmed, whose lips are sealed in the same manner. The anaphora in lines 3 and 4 of the word “try” drive the phrases following it and take on the feeling of a fruitless effort. You try once to “stir the awful river” and then you try again to “lift the hasps of steel,” but no matter how much you continue to try ...
The poem dramatizes the gradual process of falling apart. Dickinson speaks abstractly of the crumbling of the soul as a dimension of time, rather than being instantaneous. Man falls as a result of a continuous and small-scale decay of the spirit by way of evil inclinations. The complex structure of the poem reflects the underlying figurative meaning. The poem consists of three quatrains in iambic meter, alternating between tetrameter and trimeter. The poet’s use of hyphens guides the reader to read the passage slowly and thoughtfully. The slow pace mirrors the theme of slow decay. The most obvious factor of the poem’s structure is the seemingly random capitalization of mid-sentence nouns. The stress and personification of certain nouns emphasize the small elements of crumbling. The figurative meaning of the poem is built upon by showing that all things can be broken down, slowly but surely.
In the last line of the second stanza, the subject enters dramatically, accompanied by an abrupt change in the rhythm of the poem: