Poetry Analysis

When we read poems, we don’t exactly interpret the meaning of it automatically. It takes us a shot, or two, or three to fully understand the meaning of it or at least have your own interpretation. In the poem In a Station of the Metro, written by Ezra Pound, one of the themes that are presented is modernization. Nowadays, the metro isn’t the place where people want to be because of its lousy appearance, the people seem a little odd for others, and in other words people don’t like taking it because we all have the mentality that something bad will happen.

In the next few paragraphs, it will explain detail by detail how certain literary elements are used and relate to the theme. Everything we read has a mood to put us in while we read whether it’d be comical, depressing, or even mysterious. The poem’s mood is profound. Why is this poem so profound? Well for one, with only 2 sentences there are only so much that we can uncover about a poem. A perfect example to back up the fact that this poem is profound is the title.

We all think that the title isn’t as important as the rest of the poem but in this one it is because without it, nobody would be able to figure out the real meaning since no one will know what the writer wrote about. For example, without the title, it can be a performer looking at the audience waiting, looking like petals on a branch just sitting there waiting for seasons to change, meaning for the performer to go up. Profound moods and modernization come together because when you think about something in general, sometimes you try discovering a new meaning to it.

In the poem, we see a clear indication that with the only two sentences there are, we are supposed to come up with our own meaning. What the author did was probably for us readers to decode our own meaning of the poem by just writing 2 sentences. Because the mood is so profound, it’s very relevant to modernization because in the modern world, we find that metros are filled with angry people pushing, dirty floors and walls. The author is basically telling us that we are still the same people just on a dirty metro, as well reminding us to be calm and think of ourselves as flowers on a branch.

What we see and what we actually interpret are two different things. Not everything is what it seems to be. Another element used is comparisons. To compare something means to take something and make it seem like something else. In the poem, the poet describes “faces in the crowd” as “petals on a wet, black bough” because in a crowd, it’s easy to pick out different faces because everyone is different. Everyone has a unique look and since the poet is picking out faces in a crowd, it could be a comparison to picking out petals, off a stem or a bough, one by one as if each petal was an individual face.

Imagery can also be linked with the topic of comparisons because every sentence has a different meaning that can be linked to each other in a way that we can imagine it. Usually a metro is hectic, nobody really wants to be in it especially at rush hour, but what the poet is trying to do is remind us that within our environment around us are serenity and peace in ourselves that we have to think of. Petals from flowers are very delicate and the poet tells us that if it’s hectic on the metro or anywhere else, there is always peace to think of, like the flowers.

These elements are relevant to the theme because nowadays, people tend to judge before they think twice. In the poem for example, if the people weren’t reminded that there is peace and serenity within themselves, then they’d think their society is a bad place. Is there such thing as nonsense? Is a pile of nonsense put together supposed to make sense? In the poem, the last two elements presented are effective line breaks and ambiguity.

To be ambiguous means to be vague, and the poem really shows the vagueness in the effective line breaks. Every line in the poem is a different sentence, irrelevant to the others. The first sentence would have to be the title, “In a Station of the Metro”. This is an incomplete sentence and with the others that come, it still makes no sense. The second sentence is “The apparition of these faces in a crowd;”, still an incomplete sentence because there’s a verb that needs to come into play for it to be complete and make sense.

And the last sentence of the poem is “Petals on a wet, black bough”; this as well is an incomplete sentence simply just a description. But if everything is put together, this is where ambiguity and as well imagery comes in. The fact that everything is so vague and that after every sentence there’s a break, it could subliminally mean that everything is meant to be put together like a puzzle. When the sentences are put together, it tells us that within a crowd of people on a metro, everyone is unique like petals on a bough.

Even if something is ambiguous, there is always a way to figure out some meaning for it. This is related to modernization because like imagery, we don’t perceive things for what they are right away so it’s very vague, then after figuring out what it could mean or be; everything would make sense. To conclude, modernization has changed the way we think as the years go by, we all have different points of view now and we judge before we think things through.

In the poem, using all the elements like mood, imagery, comparisons, ambiguity and use of effective line breaks, they all had some relevance towards the theme which was modernization. Things have changed since the earlier years. Back then, no one judged right away, everyone was just living. Now that we have new technology and such, it makes us closed minded because technology told made us believe that the real world sucks. The poem made me realize that there is more to the world than what we can actually physically see. Sometimes what we see isn’t exactly what we think it is.

Not Waving But Drowning (Poetry Analysis) In the poem by Stevie Smith, Not Waving But Drowning there are a number of elements that are intriguing and to the reader. The poem is mostly spoken from a narrative point of view, but it may infer a first person perspective because it centers on a man who is apparently misunderstood by those around him, including the speaker that recalls the tragic scene.

The poem paints a conflicting image of a man that has fallen to the sea because despite his efforts in seeking help, his outward appearance and his behavior betray his true desperation. Not Waving But Drowning’s poetic form that is seemingly free verse, as it does not have a consistent rhythm throughout the entire poem, although it does consist of some rhyming and some element of structure: “Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way, They said (Smith, 1957)”.

Free verse poetry is used widely by modern poets and many seem to suggest an idea or feeling to the reader. The poem also consists of an interesting use of symbolism that may suggest an underlying subject that is being addressed. In the poem, Smith may be trying to convey personal thoughts about abandonment to the audience. This can be referred to the fact that Smith herself had a difficult past with the passing of her mother in her early adult life and that her father had left his family behind to pursue a career in sailing (Booth, 2002).

The poem seems to incorporate metaphors of an ocean and how a drowning person’s callings for help may be misinterpreted for joyous hand gestures of ‘waving’. The sound and tone of the poem is serious, given that it seems to touch on the subject of death, confusion and desertion. The use of words in Stevie Smith’s Not Waving But Drowning seem to have limited use of alliteration due to its free verse structure, as this example shows: “Nobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning (Smith, 1957)”. Although there is a distinctive use of assonance in the poem as the words “moaning” and drowning” have similar vowel sounds. References Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content. ashford. edu/books Booth, A. (2002). Stevie Smith. Critical Survey Of Poetry, Second Revised Edition, 1-8.

Modern Love George Meredith “Modern Love. ” The term brings to mind the changing dynamic of today’s society. This change has been present for decades and continues on to this day. In George Meredith’s poem he illiterates the negative impact of this change in a case that could encompass so many couples; the pain of a loveless marriage. Through his use of diction, and metaphor Meredith show the pain and heartache of two people being so close, yet so emotionally distant.

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The first line of the poem begins the dark theme (By this he knew she wept with waking eyes), showing how the husband has seen his wife’s suffering; as well as painting a memorable picture through the use of alteration. The alteration serves another purpose as well. It’s smooth deliverance shows just how used to the situation the husband is to his wife’s tears. In line 2 we see just how helpless the husband is to help, his hand “quivers” out of nervousness, and in line 3 we see the extent of the wife’s sobs (Shook their common bed).

The dark selection of diction continues as metaphors are employed in lines 5&6 (And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes, dreadfully venomous to him). The truly telling word in these lines is “Strangled,” this extremely active verb implies force. This describes the situation of any willfully married wife during the time the poem was written. They had little choice in not only their husband, but also in the lifestyle handed to the by that husband, not to mention that divorce during this time period was early unheard of.

The next lines hint at the wife’s feeling of death, (“Stone-still”) showing her complete hopelessness at the situation imposed on her. Lines 8-12 have the same dark imagery (“Pale drug of silence”, “Sleep’s heavy measure”, “move-less”, “Dead black years”), but those same images fit into another, larger image. The author uses them to describe her “Giant heart of memories and tears. ” Meredith clearly shows the long lasting nature of the wife’s pain, as well as the multitude of sleepless nights that all weigh against her heart.

The only relief from the torture is presented in “Sleep’s Heavy Measure. ” The choice of the word “effigies” could possibly be the most significant of the entire work. Effigies are stone representations of a person, normally used only after death. The image of death is repeated in the 15th and 16th lines as well, (Upon their marriage-tomb, the sword between; Each wishing for the sword that severs all) these lines are used to show the reader several things. First, the emotional death of the parties involved, second the death of the marital bond, and third the longing for literal death.

Meredith’s choice of words and formulation of metaphors steer the reader away from the bright connotations of love and into the darker feelings that society in the Victorian era was happy to ignore. His work was very nearly satirical in nature, it challenged the social conventions of marriage at the time and began to show how both parties in a marriage were both influence by, and responsible for the health of a marriage. The true feeling and innate sadness in the poem comes from not only the lack of love and affection, but also the torture of conforming to the standers of the day.

Desires Joseph von Eichendorff is seen as one of the most famous poets of the German romanticism. Eichendorff composed many poems about his desires, the romantic world of joy, the simple intimacy, and the experience of nature as a way to God to create a mental antithesis to his violent affected military life. In this manner, his poem “Moonlight Night”, written in 1837, reflects his desires and his closeness to nature and to God. The speaker of the poem describes his feelings and impressions of a moonlit night presenting nature and its beauty in a very detailed way with the use of illustrative language.

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The poem consists of three four-line stanzas. The stanzas are written in an alternating end rhyme scheme and it is striking that the first and the third stanza both contain an imperfect rhyme. In addition, there are enjambed line-breaks between the respective first and second line of the first and third stanza. Due to the similarity of the structure of these stanzas, the second stanza seemed to be framed and the poem appears as a circle. The rhythmic meter is iambic with alternate female and masculine cadences. Each stanza features one sentence.

Also, the poem radiates deep peace and harmony; it seems relaxing to the reader which is reinforced by repeating of the adjectives “quiet” and “soft”. The headline “Moonlight Night” and the first stanza give the frame of the story: “It was like Heaven’s glimmer/ had [quietly] kissed the Earth’s skin /that in Her blossom’s shimmer/ She had to dream of Him”, it is night and the speaker seems to dream. The heaven is used as a metaphor which symbolizes God and the earth is an image for the mortal. The heaven and earth – being personified – interact with each other in the form of a kiss.

The interaction of the kiss stands for the love that god gives. The “blossom’s shimmer” is understood as the godly shine which can be interpreted as warmth and love which god spreads over the earth. The word “quietly” makes the moment – of the heaven touching the earth – intimate and creates a calm atmosphere. In the second stanza, the speaker focuses on the nature: “The breeze was gently walking/ through wheat fields near and far;/ the woods were softly talking/ so bright shone ev’ry star. ” The speaker personifies the breeze which is walking through the wheat fields.

The breeze being sent from heaven – thus from god – is touching the woods and wheat fields “gently” and “softly” which again creates a harmonic atmosphere and the touch shows the connection of god and mortals. The breeze goes “near and far” which again shows God’s endless love for the earth. Translating word to word from the original, German version, the second line would say “ears of the corn swayed gently” which also puts the description of the nature in context to the first stanza: ears of corn are a Christian symbol for the Eucharist.

The nature is used as a symbol for the religious feelings of the speaker. The speaker appears the first time as a first-person narrative in the last stanza: “And thus my soul extended/ its wings through skies to roam:/ O’er quiet lands suspended, my soul was flying home. ” Importantly, that the speaker uses the adjective “quiet” again to underline the calm and intimate atmosphere of the setting. The speaker gives a comparison saying that his soul is opening its wings like a bird that gets ready to take off.

The speaker dresses his soul with wings which shows the deep emotion that the speaker perceives through the nature. Caught in the perception of the heavenly-touched, harmonic, and beautiful nature the speaker lets go all earthly bonds for his soul to be free; the here and now is not enough for the speaker which is a typical topic of the late romanticist movement. Furthermore, the first stanza stated that the heaven (god) is moving down to touch the earth and the last stanza is saying that the soul is flying up home.

The heaven can be interpreted as the home of the soul, which is the Christian paradise. The harmonic atmosphere which was carefully built up during the whole poem is hurt by the last two lines which imply the death of the speaker and therefore puts the mortal speaker in contrast to immortal beauty of the nature. The poem “Moonlight Night” gives a typical example of the romanticism showing the speaker’s love of nature and his religiousness.

The religiousness is not only seen in the words but also in the structure of the poem: the number three. There are three stanzas and three is also the cross sum of the number twelve (the poem consists of 12 lines). The number three represents the Trinity which is the matrix of the Christian faith. Eichendorff created a poem which is – especially despite its brevity – very deep and impressive, showing the infinity of the beauty and the desire to be close to god.

Maxine Kumin definitely has a very shocking way of portraying her poetry. It can easily be seen that she has a deep love for nature and animals. However, it goes to a much further distance than your average person. In the poem “Morning Swim” and “To Swim, to Believe” she describes swimming, as obviously mentioned in the title. In “Morning Swim” she describes becoming one with the body of water as she travels through it. In “To Swim, to Believe” she describes Jesus walking on the water, as described in the Bible. She states about how Peter had doubt about what Jesus told him to do, and thus as a result fell into the water.

This poem demonstrates the importance of believing. “Heaven as Anus” is a very strong poem. It describes the multiple horrors and atrocities that animals face while they are facing testing and experiments. The poem really stabs at you and expresses its opinion with feeling. For example, “The whitewall labs fill up with the feces of fear. ” (Kumin) “Requiem on I-89” describes the carcasses of animals being devoured on the road. She shirks in no details at all. The putrid, split carcasses strewn across the road are explained in vivid detail. For example, “lies on its side, bust open. ” (Kumin) Kumin uses very interesting rhyme schemes.

In “Morning Swim” it is pretty straightforward. Every line rhymes with the one following it. In “Heaven as Anus” I can really only see the first and third lines rhyming, as well as the last two lines rhyming. In “Requiem on I-89” I can see that no consecutive lines rhyme with each other. Donald Justice does a very good job of using imagery to portray events in his poems. In “First Death” he describes the death and wake of his grandmother. One quote that really affected me was “Powder mixed with a drying paste” as I remember the makeup that my late great-grandmother wore. In “Absences” he describes the emptiness of a snow-stricken day.

This poem is rather gloomy in tone, as it describes his memories of playing a childhood piano. I really found that “Men at Forty” was a rather interesting, if somewhat humorous, poem. In it, he is describes how middle-aged men reminisce about certain things. For example, remembering teaching their sons how to tie their shoes. “The face of the boy as he practices tying. ” He says “There are more fathers than sons themselves now,” alluding to the fact that at this point in the men’s lives (at least in this time period) their children are growing old enough to the point where they are beginning to move out.

Donald Justice rhymes his poem “First Death” in a very simple matter. Every line rhymes with the subsequent line following it. This goes on for all of the forty-eight lines that it contains. I could honestly find no evidence of rhyme in his poem “Children Walking Home From School Through Good Neighborhood. ” The same is the case of “Absences. ” This reinforces the concept, that comes from previous readings as well, that rhyme is not needed at all to create great works of poetry.

Poetry analysis of ‘Introduction to Poetry’ The Poem “Introduction to Poetry” is by Billy Collins, an English poet, and it is about how teachers often force students to over-analyze poetry and to try decipher every possible meaning portrayed throughout the poem rather than allowing the students to form their own interpretation of the poem based on their own experiences. Throughout the poem, a number of literary devices are used. For example: “or press an ear against its hive”.

Using this metaphor, Billy Collins is comparing the body of a poem to the hive of a bee. The hive of a bee appears to be something dangerous and unknown, just like a new poem, never before seen, with which one is unfamiliar. Using this metaphor, Billy Collins is suggesting that one should get an energy of the poem by reading it just as one would get a sense of energy by pressing one’s ear to a hive of a bee. The nature of a bee is particularly busy and bees are creatures that seem to be constantly on the go.

In this way, Billy Collins is suggesting that whilst the reader is digesting the poem, he or she should constantly be ‘feeling’ the poem and be busily analyzing it. By comparing the poem to a hive, he is also saying that, like a hive, a poem is full of intense life. The characteristics shared by both the two metaphoric images are very similar, thus, it is an effective comparison. The poem is effectively personified once again through the lines: “or walk inside a poem’s room”.

Here, Billy Collins suggests that the poem’s room, in other word, its body or what the poem contains, like a room of a person, defines the poem. One can learn a lot about another by viewing his or her room. Like a room too, which is private and should not be invaded, one should not invade a poem in the sense that one should not analyze it too heavily. Another effective metaphor, “I want them to water-ski across the surface of the poem” is used in this poem.

Billy Collins is comparing water-skiing across the surface of the water to the way in which he believes poems should be read which is gently and merely on the surface. This is an effective metaphor as water-skiing brings about a great sense of joy and is fun, just as reading a poem – in Billy Collins’ opinion – should be. The use of onomatopoeic devices and onomatopoeic words are abundant in this poem. For instance, “I say drop a mouse into a poem” is a line whereby the word “drop”, a very onomatopoeic word, effectively suggests that the reader of a poem must gently analyze a poem.

This is portrayed through the gentle ‘p’ sound of the word and this is therefore effective as the reader gets a sense of the gentleness Billy Collins wishes his readers had when it comes to analyzing poetry. The fact that enjambment is used throughout the poem such as in the lines, “like a colour slide or press an ear against its hive” portrays a lack of structure and therefore emphasizes the initial enjoyment one feels when reading a poem before the chore of analyzing it begins.

This is also emphasized through the fact that the poem is a free verse poem. The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem.

This use of personification is effective as it makes the reader feel somewhat guilty for over-analyzing a poem. This line is also a metaphor. The way in which one analyzes a poem is being compared to a victim being tied down to a chair and having a confession tortured out of them. This metaphor is effective as, like a rope pinning down a person would be very restrictive, over-analyzing a poem narrows the focus and constricts it from simply allowing it to be. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means”. This is a continuation of the metaphor and is highly effective as it strongly portrays a sense of inhumanity through the choice of ‘hose’ as an object with which to torture as opposed to a typical weapon. One can just imagine how painful this would be and again, forces the reader to almost empathize with the poem. The poem sends a powerful message to its readers and is significantly clear in its message to not delve too deep into the message of a poem.

Sydney Walcher Instructor, Lisa Ward English 1213 8 April 2013 To an Athlete Dying Young A. E. Housman was a poet born in 1859 who became very successful during his lifetime. “To an Athlete Dying Young” represents the theme of glory is fleeting by illustrating the point that if a successful athlete dies young, they will not have to worry about their glory of victory fading. They can rest in peace knowing they will be remembered at their athletic peak when they were successful and victorious.

They will not have to go through the pain of watching their fame disappear or whither out with time. In this poetic masterpiece, Housman pulls together figurative language, sound devices, and structure to illustrate that glory is fleeting through a majestic poem that will be remembered for many years. Figurative language consists of many different devices including metaphors and similes which are often used in poetry like “To an Athlete Dying Young. ” Metaphors compare unlike things but does not use like or as, the comparison is implied.

Some metaphors that stick out in “To an Athlete Dying Young” are the phrase “stiller town” which is a metaphor for a cemetery and the line “Eyes the shady night has shut” which metaphorically states that someone has died. Another device often used in Housman’s poem is similes, which compare unlike things while using like or as to make a direct comparison. Some examples like “It withers quicker than the rose” use than instead of the like or as which is commonly used for similes. Most, if not all, similes in this poem use this method.

When contradictory terms are used consecutively they are called an oxymoron. The only line in this poem sticks out as an oxymoron is “silence sounds. ” Poems are usually known for rhyming, but not all do. Many poems use other sound devices such as alliteration and rhyme. “To an Athlete Dying Young” uses both of these devices throughout the poem. Alliteration is the similarity of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or consecutive words. One example of alliteration is “The fleet foot on the ill of shade” because of both fleet and foot and sill and shade. Another example is “Today, the road all runners come” because of road and runner. Rhyme is similarity of sound between words or the endings of words when used at the end of a line of poetry. The rhyme scheme of “To an Athlete Dying Young” is ABAB. This means that the last word of every two lines rhymes. For example, “So set, before its echoes fade,/The fleet foot on the sill of shade,/And hold to the lintel up/The still-defended challenge cup. This is an excellent demonstration of the ABAB rhyme scheme because “fade” and “shade” rhymes, as does “up” and “cup. ” In “To an Athlete Dying Young,” Housman uses iambic tetrameter, which refers to a line that is four iambic feet long, to create a lyric poem that can otherwise be known as an elegy since it praises an athlete that died young. Iambic tetrameter affects the beat of the words and how they flow together gracefully. Iambic tetrameter consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. Most lines in these poems tend to have eight syllables.

However, lines thirteen and fourteen, “Eyes the shady night has shut/Cannot see the record cut,” stray from iambic tetrameter to trochaic tetrameter, one stressed syllable plus one unstressed syllable in four feet, with catalexis, which is an incomplete foot at the end of a line. The literary masterpiece, “To an Athlete Dying Young,” uses figurative language, sound devices, and structure to illustrate a poem that demonstrates the fact that glory is fleeting. The figurative language is used to create imagery, or to provide visual descriptions to create images in one’s head.

Figurative language paints a picture with words to help readers see the story. It also creates many different perspectives based on the readers and their perspectives. The sound devices help create lines and rhythms that gracefully flow off the reader’s tongue. Structure is what incorporates the rhythms and other devices into a pattern that binds the lines of a poem into a small story with a moral that can be told to many different generations. “To an Athlete Dying Young” is a magnificent example of a lyric or an elegy that will be told for years to come.