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. While the length of a poem can be significant in how well it portrays the message of the poem, a long poem is not always the most effective. In Elise Hempel’s poem “Mosaic”, Hempel expresses her thoughts within three, four-lined stanzas. Her thoughts are short, yet concise and to the point. Within the poem, she describes the scene of a child making a mosaic piece and placing herself into the picture. She begins with a descriptions of the scenery that clearly defines where the overall poem will take place. Hempel writes, “That little island with a single palm-tree / (its cluster of coconuts that never fell)…” (1-2). Instantly, the reader imagining his or herself into the scene. Hempel uses this classic, desolate island to her advantage, noting that many of her readers are already familiar …show more content…
In his poem “Observants,” Munro describes the ever unavoidable winter. He begins his poem with, “Light snags frost as it edges into winter, / dragging glint and spark along pavements embossed / with ice…” (1-3). Here, he incorporates the personification of an otherwise lifeless object, drawing the reader in with just the first sentence alone. By making the light have qualities of an animate object, Munro gives it a personality that the reader can hang onto. With this type of description, the reader is now more engaged than simply saying “the light reflects off the
In poetry, three things are used to help the reader understand the poem better. These things are syntax, imagery, and connotation.
John Riquelme’s essay For Whom the Snow Taps: Style and Repetition in “The Dead” proposes two possible interpretations of the story. The essay describes the variations of meaning behind the recurring thematic purpose of the story, but even more so, points out the repetition of the symbol of snow. Focusing mainly on the celebrated last passage of the story, Riquelme harps on the transformat...
Early on, poetry was often used with rhyme to remember things more accurately, this still rings true today, even though its use is more often to entertain. However, although it appeals to both the young, in children's books, and the old, in a more sophisticated and complex form, people are bound to have different preferences towards the different styles of poetry. Dobson’s poetry covers a variation of styles that captivate different individuals. “Her Story” is a lengthy poem with shorter stanzas. It’s free verse structure and simplistic language and face value ideas might appeal better to a younger audience. This poem includes quotes with informal language that children or teens would better understand. It’s narrative-based style is easy to follow, and although the poem covers very basic concepts, it’s message is still communicated subliminally. This particular poem is interesting because it focusses on the universal experience of pain and it’s relation to time. Similar to this is “The Householder”, written in a cyclical style, opening with a “house” and ending with a “home”. With only three stanzas, it is
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.
Poems are unique in that there are no set rules for how they are formatted (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). Poems may rhyme, or not. They can be presented in a narrative or lyrical format. The use of proper punctuation can be omitted such as periods, commas, or question marks (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). The use of punctuation or lack there of, brings into play the use of enjambment, which is another term for what is commonly known in poetry as run-on lines (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). If a poem is considered more proper and the author wants the reader to clearly understand how a line in the poem is read, the use of punctuation such as commas and periods are used to stress this point. This style is commonly known as end-stopped lines. (Kirszner
... 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.
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.”
Wright & Hope (2000) proposed that analysing the foregrounded features with literal significance from the structure, lexis, grammar and phonology of the poem can help understand the poet’s intention of writing so as to achieve a
...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.
...ictures for the reader. The similar use of personification in “Snapping Beans” by Lisa Parker and the use of diction and imagery in “Nighttime Fires” by Regina Barreca support how the use of different poetic devices aid in imagery. The contrasting tones of “Song” by John Donne and “Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims show how even though the poems have opposite tones of each other, that doesn’t mean the amount of imagery changes.
Although this section is the easiest to read, it sets up the action and requires the most "reading between the lines" to follow along with the quick and meaningful happenings. Millay begins her poem by describing, in first person, the limitations of her world as a child. She links herself to these nature images and wonders about what the world is like beyond the islands and mountains. The initial language and writing style hint at a child-like theme used in this section. This device invites the reader to sit back and enjoy the poem without the pressure to understand complex words and structure.
Poetry, a specific type of literature, contains the thoughts, feelings, and ideas of an author in the form of rhythms or particular styles. These styles can be formal or personalized to the author's will. Some of the most important tools used to shape a work of literature are the literary devices. Works of literature are like works of art. A sketch is simply a sketch until colored and given vibrancy. Works of literature are just words on a page until literary devices give them life. Tone, metaphors, and diction are some of the tools that give depth to a piece. These tools create images and feelings in which the audience can connect to. Michael Heffernan, a renowned poet of the 20th century, has his own particular style. His poem, Living Room, is a relaxed piece. Specific literary elements in this poem unfold a whole story in only a few short lines. Michael Heffernan uses tone and point of view to create the short story in this poem a depiction of real life.
“The Snow Man,” by Wallace Stevens, dramatizes a metaphorical “mind of winter”, and introduces the idea that one must have a certain mindset in order to correctly perceive reality. The poet, or rather the Snow Man, is an interpreter of simple and ordinary things; “A cold wind, without interpretation, has no misery” (Poetry Genius). Through the use of imageries and metaphors relating to both wintery landscapes and the Snow Man itself, Stevens illustrates different ideas of human objectivity and the abstract concept of true nothingness. Looking through the eyes of the Snow Man, the readers are given an opportunity to perceive a reality that is free from objectivity; The Snow Man makes it clear that winter can possess qualities of beauty and also emptiness: both “natural wonder, and human misery”. He implies that winter can also be nothing at all: “just a bunch of solid water, dormant plants, and moving air.” (The Wondering Minstrels). “One must
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...
... since it deals with the growth of the mind. Therefore, the poet uses syntax and form to emphasize on the important matters that occurred in each stanza.