"His customary evasions of logical and thematic closure allow his poetry to register cultural nuances and patterns that…more overt narrative or thematic intent might overlook" (Miller 3). John Ashbery's poetry, through the use of unique techniques that evade traditional poetry writing, allow said nuances to be discovered. His writing is a cluster of ideas shoved into a page too small to fit all the words. The patterns created in his writing may seem random and chaotic, but each line is a whisper of a bigger truth; his truth. John Ashbery is a post-modernism writer who incorporates into his writing elements of the Romantic era while giving it his own twist to discuss larger issues such as life itself, and the elements of life. Through the many …show more content…
While he wasn't a published writer until he was older, Ashbery used writing to help him through life. "Ashbery's practical need to disguise his homosexuality led him to cultivate his taste for ambiguity and indirection" (Kindley 4). From an early age, Ashbery struggled with the fact that he was not normal. His sexuality caused internal strife and confusion, and his escape was to write. As he wrote, he could be whoever he wanted to be, writing about whatever he wanted to write about. Writing was Ashbery's escape. Even from a young age, Ashbery's writings were filled with misdirection and an orderly sense of chaos. This was his way of expressing the millions of thoughts rambling through his head. Even to the most trained eye, Ashbery's use of conversation pieces set his writings apart. Daniel Kane, who interviewed Ashbery, focuses on the writing technique of Ashbery's poems and how it directly relates to diverse ideas. In order to gain clarity, Kane delved deep into the meanings of lines within Ashbery's writing. "I frequently incorporate overheard speech", said Ashbery in the interview, "much of which obviously doesn't make very much sense when overheard…[it] obviously makes a lot of sense to the people who are talking…[it has a] special meaning for them" (Kane 2). Ashbery recognizes that his poetry is what sets his apart. His unique poetry technique allows for the poetry to be interpreted in a way that personally …show more content…
Ashbery created his own, unique form of syntax to create a small universe of his own in which he could transcribe the thoughts of his mind. Ha methods, while strange, opened many doors for him to win multiple awards. In his early years, Ashbery focused a lot of big universals such as love and hope, but as he aged, so did his writing. Now, he put emphasis on acceptance and death. In one of his later poems, "Mean Particles", Ashbery states that "The ballads are retreating back into the atmosphere" (Ashbery, "Mean Particles" lines 16-17). As Ashbery closes out his poem with this line, his mood shifts to one of acceptance. His reflective end emphasizes how even the greatest of things eventually come to an end. His poetry, shifting too with his age, accepts the near future of death. "Mean Particles" by Ashbery details this shift through free verse and shifts in pronouns to show the sublimity in everyday life and put the focus on mortality and life. Not only did the mood shift, but also the pure content of his poems shifted. In "…by an Earthquake", Ashbery makes his readers "fall into the trap" to which they "cannot escape" (Ashbery, "...by an Earthquake" line 152). Death is a prevalent theme in this poem, being written as he was
The fear of reading literature and not being able to comprehend the ideas presented forces readers to create a deeper meaning through annotations, as expressed through Billy Collins’ use of comparative imagery and aggressive diction in “Marginalia” and “Introduction to Poetry.” Collins’ choice to
Each literary work portrays something different, leaving a unique impression on all who read that piece of writing. Some poems or stories make one feel happy, while others are more solemn. This has very much to do with what the author is talking about in his or her writing, leaving a bit of their heart and soul in the work. F. Scott Fitzgerald, when writing The Great Gatsby, wrote about the real world, yet he didn’t paint a rosy picture for the reader. The same can be said about T.S. Eliot, whose poem “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock,” presents his interpretation of hell. Both pieces of writing have many similarities, but the most similar of them all is the tone of each one.
Billy Collins is one of the most credited poets of this century and last. He is a man of many talents, most recognized though by his provocative and riveting poetry. As John McEnroe was to the sport of tennis, Billy Collins has done the same for the world of poetry. Collin’s rejected the old ways of poetry, created his own form, broke all the rules, and still retains the love and respect of the poet community. Collins has received the title of Poet Laureate of the United States twice and also has received countless awards and acknowledgements. He has achieved this through a style of poetry that is not over-interpreted and hard to understand to most, but that of the complete opposite, his poetry is hospitable and playful.
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.”
Kevin Young expressed and introduced several powerful ideas about poetry. For instance, he suggested that the form of poetry occurs organically; the form suggested fuels the subject for which poems he planned to write. This further confirmed the work our class does on essays whenever we explain how the subject the poet writes about is further suggested within the poem’s form. Kevin Young opened my eyes to the external effects on poetry. For example, Kevin Young described things about his office. I found it interesting how he would keep little things around that inspired an idea about a poem or further enhanced a thought of his. On the other hand, Kevin Young stated that not everything external effects his work. He explained that watching television and listening to several different types of music in the background doesn’t necessarily always effect his writing. Additionally, Kevin Young revealed that poetry doesn’t always come easy. For instance, he responded to a students question about line breaks by stating
The definition of poetry, instead of becoming more selective and exact, has become a much more broad and open minded classification of literature. From It's beginning's in romanticist Puritan literature, to its more modernistic function on present society, poetry has become a way to blend the psychological side of human intellect, with the emotional side of human intuition and curiosity. Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were two early poets from the late 19th century. Unlike Walt, Emily liked to write at home, she was a more secluded author who enjoyed to look out the window for inspiration. Walt on the other hand loved to travel. He found inspiration through nature and the diversity of thriving cultures throughout the world. Although these writers found inspiration from two different methods, their poems have distinct similarities in theme, images, and main ideas.
As we can gather from the examples, Gwen Harwood uses language to create dynamic backgrounds and images to subtly delineate the changes experienced by the persona in the poems. Sometimes the characters themselves are not aware of these changes but the readers are able to appreciate them with the aid of skill Harwood posses in using language to such great measures.
William Carlos Williams is a superb artist. Not only has he created a masterpiece of a poem, but he has also cultivated abstract and concrete images to paint a picture of his red wheelbarrow. Each word is a brushstroke to this "still life" poem. He has also taken elementary objects, such as a wheelbarrow and a chicken, and turned them into icons of industrialized civilizations. Without these indispensable components, society would not be as evolved as it is today. Williams uses an experimental structure in his free verse poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" and effectively demonstrates an array of figurative language. He also utilizes simplistic images to capture the essence of childhood, setting and technology.
William Blake was one of those 19th century figures who could have and should have been beatniks, along with Rimbaud, Verlaine, Manet, Cezanne and Whitman. He began his career as an engraver and artist, and was an apprentice to the highly original Romantic painter Henry Fuseli. In his own time he was valued as an artist, and created a set of watercolor illustrations for the Book of Job that were so wildly but subtly colored they would have looked perfectly at home in next month's issue of Wired.
The popular American Poet, Billy Collins, is playing a significant role in the evolution of poetry. His writing style evokes an array of emotions for the reader. Every stanza in his poetry passes the satirical standard that he generated for himself over his career. Collins swiftly captivates his readers through his diverse use of figurative language. More specifically, his use of vivid imagery paired with humorous personification and extended metaphors create his unique style of satirical poetry. This developed form of writing appeals to a large crowd of people because the generally accessible topics that he discusses are fairly easy to resonate for the common man. However, his poetry offers an interesting perspective on what otherwise would be simplistic ideas. The main themes and concepts that are being presented in each of his writings are revered and coveted by the general population. An appealing aspect of his writing is his ability to directly convey the main idea within the poem. As a result, the reader can understand the meaning of his work with ease. The typical beginning of his work gives the reader a slight taste of what is to come. Billy Collins’ unique writing style and various trademarks directly influenced by his ability to propagate an array of emotions for the reader, his humorous tone, and the accessibility of the topics he describes within his poetry.
By using onomatopoeia, description, and dialogue each poet argues their subject or theme. Although each poet does not write about the same subject or theme they each use the literary device effectively to help support their poem. By using each literary device in different context the poets show the many different styles when writing poetry. Each poet uses the literary devices efficiently to help their overall message in each poem.
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 Tradition and the Individual Talent”, T.S. Eliot affirms that the greatest writers are those who are conscious of the writers who came before, as if they write with a sense of continuity. T.S Eliot addresses literary tradition as well as poetic tradition, and states that it is important to focus on “significant emotion, emotion which has its life in the poem and not in the history of the poet” (18). In this sense, the importance of tradition in poetry relies on the fact that a poet must be aware of the achievements of his predecessors, for, as we shall see in the case of Stevens and Ashbery, “the emotion of art is impersonal. And the poet cannot reach this impersonality without surrendering himself wholly to the work to be done. And he is not likely to know what is to be done unless he lives in what is not merely the present, but the present moment of the past, unless...
Elegy in a Country Courtyard, by Thomas Gray, can be looked at through two different methods. First the Dialogical Approach, which covers the ability of the language of the text to address someone without the consciousness that the exchange of language between the speaker and addressee occurs. (HCAL, 349) The second method is the Formalistic Approach, which allows the reader to look at a literary piece, and critique it according to its form, point of view, style, imagery, atmosphere, theme, and word choice. The formalistic views on form, allow us to look at the essential structure of the poem.
Wordsworth's Poetry A lot of literature has been written about motherhood. Wordsworth is a well known English poet who mentions motherhood and female strength in several of his poems, including the Mad Mother, The Thorn, and The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman. This leads some critics to assume that these poems reflect Wordsworth's view of females. Wordsworth portrays women as dependent on motherhood for happiness, yet he also emphasizes female strength.