Poetry Explication

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Poetry Explication

Language is a remarkable thing. It can convey every thought, feeling, and emotion with perfect accuracy. Almost exclusively, language has taken awkward, unfit animals out of nature and made them rulers over the earth and many of its elements. When used well, it has the power to change an individual's view of the world, make someone believe they have seen something they have not, and even more astonishingly, look inside one's self and see what exists. If language is mixed with the tempo of music, something new arises; poetry is born. When words and ideas are set to a beat, they can far more subtly convey concepts that would otherwise need to be explicitly stated and the poem can be appreciated more as a whole, rather than as a collection of thoughts. Though I was never very interested in poetry in the past, taking classes in English has made me quite appreciative of the meaning of and thought that goes into poetry. For this reason, I chose to emulate a poem that struck me as a great achievement in setting thoughts to a beat. The poem, The Doubt of Future Foes, was written by Queen Elizabeth to express her fear of and contempt for those who would try to take her crown. My emulation of the style of The Doubt of Future Foes is based on meter, word choice, and rhyme scheme, with the intent of staying true to Elizabeth's motives while adding the subject of my own experience.

I constructed my take of The Doubt of Future Foes faithfully to Elizabeth's original rendering. The poem is sixteen lines long and rendered in alternating iambic hexameter/heptameter lines. The first line, a hexameter, rhymes with the next line, a heptameter, and so on, giving the rhyme scheme of aa-bb-cc-dd. This arrangement c...

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... upon my way,

I dare not leave the path I'm on, and through it all, must stay;

For I've begun a trip, that will take me through life,

This proven route I'm on should guard and keep me from all strife.

The road is very straight, paved with intentions good,

I pay the toll to make my way to man from mere childhood.

Those whom leave this, my road, at times will seem quite lost

But the journey they're on alone is boon beyond exhaust.

The dazzled eyes with pride, which I hope to impart,

Are all contained within my mind, my kin care about heart.

I may not leave this path, I fear without I'll perish,

That I will go from high to low—this safety I cherish.

No pain preventable will I be subject to,

Yet adventure and simple joys I may bid sweet adieu.

It's hard to say what's right, stay on this road and pay?

Barring that, abandon all and to innocence make way.

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