Free Verse Poems

Free verse poem writing was created as a new style of poetry in the past and continued to be used until the present contemporary poetry. In this style of writing, poets are not govern by lengths or meters, instead, they write what is in their minds in such a way that looks like a paragraph that breaks when the idea is finished, or to indicate that there is more to follow. Moreover, this style of writing doesn’t follow rules or have a rhyme that a reader can indicate, and what might separate it from prose or even other writings, is how the poet arrange his/her words in the verse. In other words, it might sound like a song that doesn’t have a rhythm or beats to follow but still has meanings.

In fact, the free verse helps the poet to design his/her poem and manipulate the stanzas in the way it should be to give the reader the meanings behind it. Furthermore, the breaks in the free verse help the poets to highlight some sentences and make it look more important by breaking it earlier than what others would do. For example, in his poem "A Sort of a Song," William Carlos Williams broke the famous phrase "No ideas but in things" into two parts, when he stopped in the middle of it after the “no ideas” part, them he completed it in the next line. He tried to make his poem revolve over this phrase by highlighting it and assuring that the ideas are worthless unless it was taken into action. Hence, another benefit of breaking the lines is to give the reader a chance to take a breath when the poem is read aloud, because without breaking it, then the reader might lose his or her breath and ruin the rhyme of it. For example, in her poem "Stanzas in Meditation", Gertrude Stein broke the lines just right for the reader to read it loud, and without breaking it in that way, the reader might go on and on, and the meaning might be lost in such a hard poem to understand.

In conclusion without letting the poet be free the break the lines whenever in needed and let it be free to stop in some specific points, the poem might some importance in some parts and wont let the poet enjoy writing the feelings and the ideas on the paper without being governed by rule.

The Victorian-to-Modern Era

The poets in the Victorian-to-Modern era in the late to mid nineteenth century were influence somehow by the past work that they viewed in the beginnings of there era, especially with the earlier English work. However, even with this influence, the poets of the Victorian era tried to create an image of there work that would last in the history and make a new a base for poetry for the poets whom are coming later in the world.

The Victorian poets took the idea of heroism into their work just like other poets in the past and tried to highlight their abilities in achieving their goals regardless what kind was that goal and how it was compared to that past poets’ goals. Hence, the war and the introduction to battles’ technologies made them even more heroic. This appeared in William Yeast’s work, who used images, themes and symbols that seemed to look like the older poems. In his poem “An Irish Man Foresees His Death”, he created an image of an airman who fight in a plane not for any goal but to for his country and for his people and did not fear of death which was equal to life according to him in the last line of his poem when e said “In balance with this life, this death”. Accordingly, this line showed the heroism in the poem that might be similar to Lord Byron’s heroism when he crossed the river swimming to achieve his goal without fearing death.

In contrast, the Victorian poets created their own form of poetry with their new images, themes, styles and symbols. They were affected by the industrialization world they lived in and the modern thoughts and ideas they got. Moreover, they started a new type of poetry that had more imagining instead of real life stories and probably less religious conservatism, away from the older poetry that was fascinated by the natural world and God’s amazing powers in creation. There new life shaped them to be new people with new thoughts and idea. For example, Yeast titled his work with “Adam’s Curse” and talked about the whole Adam and Eve’s story comfortably and even stated his opinion and judgment about the subject of them being out of Eden. He said “I said, "It's certain there is no fine thing. Since Adam's fall but needs much labouring” which showed his judgment of the mistake Adam did.

In conclusion, I think as the world kept on developing, the poets and their work followed what was new and deferent from the past, but they still relied on older work as the base that they should take off from.

From the assigned reading from Walt Whitman this week, I found a new philosophy and style that he try to invent and demonstrate, as well as some connection of his work to the old British Romantics that I read before.

On one hand, Whitman in “Song of Myself” try to start a new style of poetry with its American theme. He might wanted to start this era of American poetry to complete the British era and make a history for American poetry at the same time. Furthermore, this poem looked like if Whitman wanted himself to appear like a superman who is full of glory and stories to tell for the coming generations. He tried to shine himself between the lines of the poem and create a new philosophy in it by minimizing the comparison and connection between humans and the natural world. Hence, he didn’t show that he was amazed by the natural world in this poem like other British Romantic poets like Wordsworth.

On the other hand, Whitman went back a bit to the British Romantics in his other works like “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking” and “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd”. He showed some influence in those tow poems which he got from the British Romantics by connecting his thoughts to the natural world and the theories of life. In fact, he went back to mention the idea of birth and death, and describe what was in his mind by showing the beauty and phenomenon of the natural world, especially in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd”.

In conclusion, even though Whitman had some influence from the British Romantics, he still created a style of himself that talked in a proud tone about his own stories and make his country’s name as a label to his work.

In “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos”, Lord Byron appears to be a man who passed his thirties, and began the era of the older gentleman. He seemed like a sensitive guy who wanted to write down all what he has in his mind and get inspired by everything around him. This inspiration can tell the reader that this guy is amazed by Greek gods and heroes even though he was not a Greek. Hence, he used the stories and tales of Leander, the Greek hero in his poem and compared his experience with that hero’s experience, which might make it unreliable because he is talking about himself, and trying to tell the reader about himself and his glory, even though this reader doesn’t know if it was true or not. Furthermore, his poem is written general audience to invite them to explore his experience and salute his glory that he achieved.

Byron drew his situation in the poem as a guy who is proud of himself as a guy who achieved a great goal by reaching his glory and crossing the river by swimming from Sestos to Abydos. He enhanced the image that he wanted the reader to have in mind by stating that the what he did was achieved in hard circumstances, like saying that he crossed the river even though he has “limbs”.

The poem’s sentences are short, straight forward, and guide to the meaning the poet want the readers to get. He structured the poem in short sentences to tell Leander’s story and them go straight to his story and make contrast that favored his position and experience. Furthermore, using punctuation in the poem helped in highlighting some points he wanted to make fancy or on the other hand, make some points less in value from what it should be. For example, adding a exclamation mark after stating Leader’s story of crossing the Hellespont and then adding another one after stating his story and experience which might look like a question to the audience to favor one experience or story over the other. He used some comas in some sentences which made contrast between his story elements and Leander’s

Finally, this poem was chosen by me because of the heroism and how the poet like to tell others about his achievement, even though he tried to downgrade others’ stories by making it less in importance and value. It is a good piece of poem about self esteem and for someone who believes in himself and his abilities even though he got a deformity as far as I concluded from what the poet wrote.