Rita Dove: The Most Famous American Poet

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American poet and essayist, Rita Dove, believes “Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful” (Dove). She supports the idea that poetry is more artistic than songs. Poetry is the strongest form of language and it often speaks deeper meanings than what a first glance or first read can tell. William Shakespeare is known as one of the greatest poets to ever live according to many people. His writing is very complex and takes simple things to a deeper level. He is known for many different plays and sonnets. Similarly, Ed Sheeran is one of the most famous and well-liked musicians of this decade. His songs are always high up on the charts and they have been featured in many movies and shows. Both Sheeran and Shakespeare often write …show more content…

Shakespeare is a far more advanced writer, as poets are. He writes, “If this be error and upon me prov'd, / I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd” (Shakespeare lines 13-14). This couplet ending the poem is advanced because it symbolizes how in the end, true love will always end up with the couple being together. On top of this, Shakespeare uses alliteration in line ten, and uses enjambment at some points, but not others to show the bumpy flow of relationships. They end and continue as if it is a cycle. Sheeran’s song is less advanced because he does not take any poetic devices and also have them symbolize something. His devices are what they are and do not have a deeper meaning than what they seem on the surface. He uses repetition with the chorus of the song, and he definitely has his own diction, but it still falls short in comparison to the strength of the writing in “Sonnet 116.” With that being said, Brian Wheeler from BBC News believes, “Or songs are not poems, I should say. In fact, songs are often bad poems. Take the music away and what you're left with is often an awkward piece of creative writing full of lumpy syllables, cheesy rhymes, exhausted cliches and mixed metaphors” (Wheeler). This supports the idea that songs are less developed versions of poems. They are not strong enough to stand on their own without music like poems do. Poems are much better and show the highest amount of strength possible in communicating and writing the english

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