Poetic Man

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Stereo Review Vol 42 #2 (February 1979) "Popular Discs & Tapes" pp.116-117 (review by Peter Reilly) An extremely short poem, D.H Lawrence’s “Full Life” can be entirely quoted in two sentences. While Lawrence may be advocating a nonchalant, unbothered approach to life (as clearly reflected in the poem’s length), the paradoxical nature of the poem’s very existence often leaves readers wondering what the poet really means. 20. "What Is This Life", by Sir Walter Raleigh

Tennyson, poet emeritus of England during the latter half of the 19th century, composed a number of classic poems that deserve careful reading. “Ulysses,” possibly his most anthologized poem, begins at the end of Odysseus’ life after the events of Homer’s Odyssey . Tennyson depicts the desire of a man wanting to set out on new adventures and see new sights, even as his life is passing into twilight. Ulysses’ memorable phrases will encourage even the most settled soulto strike out and start something new. Meter like this gives readers expectations about how each line will go, which can be very useful if you want to subvert them, such as how Shakespeare does in Hamlet: This can be particularly effective in a narrative poem, or a poetic form that acts like a short story. 4. Assonance When you come upon a poetic device in something you’re reading, ask yourself what the author is doing with it. What purpose does alliteration serve in a specific context? Why did I choose to use that spices metaphor earlier in this article? Was it effective or confusing? A celebration of the universe’s connectedness, “Stream of life” reflects Tagore’s world view that humans create their own segregation. The rhythm and flow of the poem, along with lively descriptions of the stream of life like ‘dancing in rhythmic measures’, or ‘shooting with joy’ will uplift your mood instantly. The poem leaves us with an innate sense of belonging to the world we live in. Seen from Tagore’s lens, isn’t this an incredible world to be part of? 23. "Still I Rise", by Maya AngelouThe nostalgic tone of “Life is a Privilege'' makes one feel blessed to have the opportunity to live. Wilcox artfully describes all of life’s blessings (from the sun’s rays to the chance to chase our dreams). Serving as a bitter-sweet reminder of how short life is, the poem encourages the reader to leave no room for regret, and live out their heart's desires. 25. "Lines on a Skull", by Ravi Shankar There are tons of poetic devices out there—it would be nearly impossible to list all of them. But to get you started, we've compiled some of the most common poetry terms, along with a few of the more interesting ones! A chiasmus (a word that brings to mind the word “chimera”, coincidentally enough) is a stylized literary device that plays with the reversal of words or ideas.

At its most basic, a poetic device is a deliberate use of words, phrases, sounds, and even shapes to convey meaning. That sounds so broad that it could basically encompass any form of written expression, but poetic devices are generally used to heighten the literal meaning of words by considering sound, form, and function.

Compared to assonance, consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in a word or phrase. Repeated consonants can occur at the beginning, middle, or ending of a word. You may recognize this from classic children’s tongue twisters like “Betty Botter bought some butter but she said the butter’s bitter”… the repeated B’s and T’s add a jig-and-reel quality to the speech. But there can be many other kinds of meter, depending on how many metrical feet (like an iamb) appear per line. For example, iambic tetrameter uses the same structure as iambic pentameter but with only eight syllables instead of ten. 14. Metonym Who is speaking? Is the poem written in the third person, describing the main subject of the poem as ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’ or ‘they’? Or is it written in the first person, using ‘I’ and ‘my’? If it is, do you think the poet is speaking as themselves or have they created a character? If it’s the latter, there will certainly be clues to indicate they aren’t speaking as themselves.

What language is used? Even general observations about the language can help you pinpoint tone. A love poem, for example, might try to sound sensual, positive and harmonious; a poem about injustice might use a lot of vivid emotive language to plead with the reader to sympathise. Here, Alice clearly misunderstands what the mouse is saying—he says ‘tale,’ referring to his long and sad story, and she hears ‘tail,’ referring to his literal tail. The result is a misunderstanding between the two that ends with Alice looking rude and uncaring. The second is to write. The poet and novelist Margaret Atwood famously said, “You become a writer by writing. There is no other way.” Reading poetry and reading about poetry is an important part of understanding technique, but the only real way to get these poetic devices in your bones and blood is to begin. Classical thinkers in the West employed classification as a way to define and assess the quality of poetry. Notably, the existing fragments of Aristotle's Poetics describe three genres of poetry—the epic, the comic, and the tragic—and develop rules to distinguish the highest-quality poetry in each genre, based on the perceived underlying purposes of the genre. [25] Later aestheticians identified three major genres: epic poetry, lyric poetry, and dramatic poetry, treating comedy and tragedy as subgenres of dramatic poetry. [26] John KeatsThe first are those who seek to embrace any and all poetic devices they can find and pile them one on top of the other, creating an architectural marvel not entirely dissimilar to a literary jenga puzzle—also known as Art.