Amniocentesis
“Amniocentesis” is a 15 line poem written from the point of view of the author about being pregnant late in life. This poem consists of two stanzas, the first containing 6 lines and the second containing 9 lines. In the poem Wolfe comforts her unborn child during the surgical procedure that will require some of the amniotic fluid to be taken out of the womb so that the doctors can analyze it and determine whether or not the fetus has any genetic defects. In "Amniocentesis", Wolfe uses free form structure, dramatic tone, and several vivid metaphors describing this event and suggests calmness and protection throughout the poem.
The structure of this poem is very simple. She uses no apparent rhyme scheme or rhythm at all, and most of the lines are short. The title of the poem tells exactly what the background is for this work so that the reader has a clear view of what is happening and can understand the metaphores she uses much more easily. In this poem Wolfe uses no punctuation at all, only capitalization at the beginning of certain lines, seemingly where a ne...
To start off explaining the structure, take the rhyming words for example. There is internal rhyme in the first and third lines with “dreary and weary” and “napping and tapping”. The second, fourth, fifth, and sixth lines all end in the -ore sound (this reoccurs throughout the entire poem). This structure is consistent throughout the entirety of the piece. Many do believe this to be one of the best example of rhythm in American literature.
Initially, as one sees the form of the poem, the structure seem simple with five stanzas and an indentation in stanzas two and four; but as one closely analyzes it, it can be noted that there is an intricate pattern. For instance, stanzas 1 and 3 have five lines each also known as cinquains, while stanza two and four are sestets. In addition, stanzas one and three have the same amount of syllables within their corresponding lines and stanza two and four follow the same rule. The way that the poem is organized makes the tone both melancholy and systematic as if the speaker were a sergeant giving orders to the soldiers or in this case to the maidens, the children and mothers. Another reason why the tone sounds both depressing and formal is because of the regular use of caesuras, specifically at the end of the stanzas where it demands of the family, “Do not weep” (line 4). Since this phrase is repeated four times in the poem it has a strong impact on the tone, given that the phrase is so short and sharp. Moreover, the indented second and fourth stanza are significant because it is in these, that the poetic voice repeats the theme ve...
In these lines “night” and “light” rhyme. This rhyme scheme gives the poem a sense of order which helps to establish a feeling of anger towards death for the reader. These two different rhyme schemes help to establish how the reader feels as they are reading the poem.
Lastly, a poet will usually use some types of poetic devices to enhance the quality of the poem; such as similes and metaphors. Randall doesn’t use many of these things but he does use personification once in a while; for example when he said “she clawed through the bits of glass and brick”. He also uses hyperbole, which is an exaggeration, when he says “she bathed until she was rose petal sweet”. In sum, this poem is excellent in its storytelling and I would recommend this to anyone.
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
While Randall and Brooks chose this as the structure of their poems, they each adapt the standards of ballads to better fit their intended goal. In Randall’s poem “Ballad of Birmingham,” the ballad is shorter and follows an ABCB rhyme pattern which makes the poem extremely rhythmic. This rhythm gives a song-like feature to the poem which conveys a certain happiness. As the reader follows the rhythm of the poem, it is hard to imagine anything bad happening and when the tragic ending ensues, it has a greater impact on the reader. Brooks plays with the strict structure of a ballad in “A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi. Meanwhile, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon” to help convey the meaning of the poem. The poem begins with the lines “From the first it had been like a / Ballad… Like the four-line stanzas of the ballads she has never / quite / Understood” (Brooks 1-2, 4-6). The speaker of the poem begins by addressing how this event, which is unclear at this point in the poem, is like the ballads she was taught in school and she begins to try to make the event fit into a typical romantic ballad. This, however, does not work because it is impossible to romanticize the murder of a child, and the speaker realizes that life cannot always follow a strict pattern where people have their set characteristics and fall into specific
Rhythm has not been used in the poem, it is very brief, and gives the
This part of the poem shows that rhythm makes poems more interesting and fun to read. When poems rhyme it makes it easier for the reader to picture what is going on and
This work shows a number of things about Dickinson's style of writing. Firstly, it is another example of Dickinson's style of structure, with a loose ABCB rhyme and iambic trimeter. Its theme is of hope which hints at a cry for help signifying further isolation and depression. The poem seems to have an audience of just herself. This could be a poem that she wrote in an attempt to cheer herself up in a time of sadness with an uplifting verse or just a poem written because of how she felt that day; either way it is clear that this poem was not designed for a large audience.
... is shown moreover through these pauses. We also see that he places question marks at the end of sentences, which is another way he is showing us the uncertainty in the voice of society. Through his punctuation and word placement, we clearly see the voice of society in his poem, but in a way that tells us not to conform to it.
For the first two lines in each stanza there is a verb then followed by a comma. The comma is needed at the beginning of these lines because it helps to emphasize the verb. Each one of the verbs are actions that are commonly used on a day to day basis. These lines also end with a semicolon. The semicolon makes it so when reading the poem the reader pauses only for a brief amount of time, not as long as it would be if it were a period. The pause has to be shorter for these lines because what the line says is not as essential to the poem as the lines that end with periods. Those lines, lines four and eight in the first stanza, take the concepts that are in the first two lines and bring them together. The first two lines and the fifth and sixth lines in each stanza follow the same pattern. As well as the third and fourth and seventh and eighth in each stanza. These lines also have a rhyming scheme. In line three there is an internal rhyme with the third or fourth word and the last in the line. The rhyme scheme is different in the last stanza. The seventh line does not have an internal line like the others. It also does not have a comma making the line, as well as the one following, seem less important. The other rhyme scheme that the poem has is that sixth line and the eighth line rhyme. The rhyming is so crucial in the poem because it adds a lighter feel to a poem that is actually very somber and
The more predominant sentence structure is complex. The first sentence of this poem is complex followed by another after that. The overall length of the sentences is lengthy. Browning incorporated a lot of commas in order to make his complex sentences, which are widespread throughout the poem. The level of formality of the sentences is somewhat high, due to the fact of the writing style and the incorporation of dashes, colons, and commas. It’s evident that Browning was an educated man due to his writing style because the formality of the sentences is very intellectual as opposed to a poem filled with simple sentences. Browning also incorporated into his poem the use of rhetorical questions, he only uses this technique a few times in his writing. For example, “How shall I say?” The context this is used is very sarcastic due to the fact it’s like he’s thinking of a way to say a rude remark in a not so rude way. Moreover, he also used “ Who’d stoop to blame this sort of trifling?” Similar to his other rhetorical questions, the way these questions are used in context seem to be very condescending. Apart from his syntax techniques, Browning uses his ability of rhythm and flow of the English language evident in this poem, with his couplets that are in iambic pentameter the reader will quickly notice how the poem is said effortlessly and has a
The poem primarily starts, with a weird rhyming cadence form that gives the reader the idea of disorder and or confusion. The structure of the poem is strange, much like the poet’s thoughts and feelings. The author also uses a great deal of repetition. Her use of repetition helps to add importance and give a more of a dramatic effect to
The poem's structure divides into three main stanzas with a one-line form at the end. Written in free verse, the poem is unencumbered from restrictions regarding its structure and rhyme scheme. The use of free verse adds to the poem's stream-of-consciousness flow. The rhythm found in the poem is a random mix of beats and stressed and unstressed syllables. Reading the poem aloud, the rhythm resonates like a jazz song. In addition to the three main stanzas, seven major sections appear as the writing progresses. The social situation of the 1950's is the basis for the poem. The antecedent scenario suggests a newly segregated university and an African-American student attempting to break racial barriers. The speaker of the poem feels uncomfortable in his class of all Caucasian students. Isolated in class, he is overwhelmingly reminded of his d...
The poem is eight lines that are broken up into two stanzas with four lines in each that follows an ABAB rhythm scheme (seal and feel in lines 1 and 3, fears years in 2 and 4, force and course in 5 and 7, and sees and trees in lines 6 and 8). Although this may be the case, Wordsworth was able to make his poem centered