Some poets use metaphors in their poems to help them in clarifying images they drew in the lines, or describe the ideas which they want the reader to understand and make it easier to observe by relating the idea to something that a reader can imagine or know.
In fact, Audre Lorde used metaphor in her poem “Coal” to relate her ideas and images to some physical objects to make it easier for the reader to understand. She named her poem with “Coal” which implies black color to show the reader how she was proud to be black and specially in the Black Arts Movement period, which was a period that blacks tried to form a self identity and came over the slavery period they lived before. Moreover, she had chosen the coal in particular as a material that has the darkest black color possible to help her describe that state of an extreme proud of her color. Hence, this metaphor can be seen clearly by relating the coal to “"I am black because I came from the earth's insides.”
Accordingly, Lorde used the diamond as another physical object to describe and clarify her ideas about the words spoken by humans and how they can be shaped in a good or bad way. This can bee seen when she said “Some words are open like a diamond“. Furthermore, she kept on using metaphor to describe the words by relating them to the breeding of adders when she said “Some words live in my throat breeding like adders”, which implied the ability to hold dangerous things to say even though it is hard to hold. Accordingly, the words were related to other things in Lorde’s poem, when she compared them to gypsies when se said “Other know sun seeking like gypsies over my tongue”, wagers when she said “Then there are words like stapled wagers in a perforated book”, and sparrows “explode through my lips like young sparrows bursting from shell”.
In conclusion, Lorde’s poem satisfies the idea of “Poem is a metaphor”. She went through her ideas and pictures in her poem and related them to physical object, colors, human kinds, and snakes. Hence, the use of metaphor might make the poem more clear to readers to understand how the poet felt and wanted to say.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Modernism Poets
Poets in the Modernism period are like other poems in other periods whom were influenced by works and poets who created some beautiful pieces of poetry and they followed their steps with adding their own techniques to it to come up with a totally new period of poetry.
In fact, the poet Robert Frost was one of the Modernism Period’s poets who got some inspiration from the early British poetry which was inspired by the natural world and how this world was created with its humans, animals, plants and everything else. Furthermore, he fancied the natural world in some of his works and created some pictures which are related to the beauty and misery it has. For example, in his “After Apple-Picking”, Frost admired the apple creating and how it looked as well as the surrounding of an apple tree, where someone would pick the apples, and even his other poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” he showed the picture of the winter season and how snow was covering everything around it and how even the horse felt the cold night in the winter and in the middle of the woods.
Dylan Thomas is another poet from the modernism period who was inspired by the past poetry periods. He was inspired by older works that had been written in a free verse form. Hence, in his poem “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower”, Thomas was not governed by a specific verse and did not have a meter to build his lines over but it still made since and might be enjoyable for petry lover to read.
In fact, the poet Robert Frost was one of the Modernism Period’s poets who got some inspiration from the early British poetry which was inspired by the natural world and how this world was created with its humans, animals, plants and everything else. Furthermore, he fancied the natural world in some of his works and created some pictures which are related to the beauty and misery it has. For example, in his “After Apple-Picking”, Frost admired the apple creating and how it looked as well as the surrounding of an apple tree, where someone would pick the apples, and even his other poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” he showed the picture of the winter season and how snow was covering everything around it and how even the horse felt the cold night in the winter and in the middle of the woods.
Dylan Thomas is another poet from the modernism period who was inspired by the past poetry periods. He was inspired by older works that had been written in a free verse form. Hence, in his poem “The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower”, Thomas was not governed by a specific verse and did not have a meter to build his lines over but it still made since and might be enjoyable for petry lover to read.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
The Snowman
In his poem "The Snow Man", Wallace Stevens argued that the mind would be shaped in the same way that its surroundings is shaped. And a human wont understand the meanings and images of winter unless they set in it, look at what it causes, and feel the cold weather.. Therefore, the mind of a snow man would be detached from most senses and emotions and wont think of the misery in the sound of the wind.
I n fact, Stevens used clear images of the winter to let the reader understand and imagine what he/she needs. He showed the picture of the pine-trees and how it was covered with snow to show how heavy is the winter which he highlighted that it was in January which falls in a snow period of the years. Furthermore, the way he pictured the junipers and how they covered with snow in a an image that show the level of high snow in a heavy winter again.
Stevens kept on showing the image of the winter by describing the wind flow and how it scattered the leaves around which make a noise which might make a misery for a listener who would think about this wind and what it carries in this silent winter.
The sentences in this poem and short and looks like it was created in a one senesce form to help the decryption of the images in a simple way. Hence, these short sentences help to describe the human’s mind which relates to each part of the surrounding just the same as what happens to the snowman.
I n fact, Stevens used clear images of the winter to let the reader understand and imagine what he/she needs. He showed the picture of the pine-trees and how it was covered with snow to show how heavy is the winter which he highlighted that it was in January which falls in a snow period of the years. Furthermore, the way he pictured the junipers and how they covered with snow in a an image that show the level of high snow in a heavy winter again.
Stevens kept on showing the image of the winter by describing the wind flow and how it scattered the leaves around which make a noise which might make a misery for a listener who would think about this wind and what it carries in this silent winter.
The sentences in this poem and short and looks like it was created in a one senesce form to help the decryption of the images in a simple way. Hence, these short sentences help to describe the human’s mind which relates to each part of the surrounding just the same as what happens to the snowman.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Compare & Contrast
The power and beauty of poetry, perhaps more than any other literary genre, are typically considered to be subject less to stylistic conventions and formal structures than to the individual taste of the reader. Poets, unlike novelists, short story writers, playwrights, and essayists, are able to experiment liberally with form, bound only by the obligation of the function of poetry, which is to compel the reader to consider a familiar object or experience from a new perspective. Thus, poets use language, images, and figures of speech in diverse and imaginative ways, to greater and lesser success. By comparing these three particular poetic devices in Lord Byron’s “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” and William Butler Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death,” I contend that it is the former poem that is the superior of the two. Although each poem has its own merits, “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” is more compelling than “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” because it is more original, more imaginative, more daring, and less conventional in its application of the poetic devices of language, images, and figures of speech.
In many ways, Lord Byron’s “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” and William Butler Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” are quite similar. Thematically, both poems involve an exploration of the individual’s awareness of and acceptance of death, specifically death as a possible consequence of serving some greater good beyond one’s own self-interests. Both of the poems are also similar in that they are situated within a natural setting in which the speaker is acutely conscious of the influence of the physical environment. In Byron’s poem, the forces of nature are larger and more powerful than the human figures, who are their subjects and who are vulnerable to natural elements. At the end of Byron’s “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos,” the speaker reports that Leander “was drowned” and he himself has “the ague” (l. 21). The physical outcomes suffered by both men—for one, fatal and for the other, temporary—are caused by their defiance of the elements, choosing to swim across the “broad Hellespont” (l. 4), one for “Love” and the other for “Glory” (l. 16). In Yeats’ poem, the Irish airman who foresees his own death recognizes the danger of his current profession of flying a war plane, and is so certain that he will die among the elements that he immediately expresses this belief in the opening lines of the poem: “I know that I shall meet my fate/Somewhere among the clouds above” (ll. 1-2). Like the speaker in Lord Byron’s poem, the speaker in “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” is acting for ideals larger than his own beliefs and interests, and there is a sense in both of these poems that the fate awaiting the speaker is inevitable, acceptable, and even necessary.
Despite these similarities, however, the two poems are also dramatically and distinctly different, and these differences are seen most clearly with respect to three specific poetic devices: language, images, and figures of speech. With respect to language, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” is direct, straightforward, and even simplistic. The language of the poem is plain and requires no deciphering, and the message of the poem is delivered in compact, compressed lines in which the economy of language is maximized through words that were chosen carefully by the poet. Though simple, the language is also intimate; the first person narration of the speaker allows the reader to enter directly into the speaker’s thoughts and come to know him well in a matter of just sixteen lines. In this way, the reader learns that the speaker is clear-headed and yet, at the same time, he is ambivalent or indifferent about what he is certain will be his fate. As he explains to the reader in candid and clear language, he neither hates his enemies nor loves those he has vowed to protect. The ambivalence is reinforced throughout the remainder of the poem by the pair of contrasts incorporated in each line. About his forecasted death, the speaker observes, “No likely end could bring them loss/Or leave them happier than before” (ll. 7-8). He goes on to say that “Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,/Nor public men, nor cheering crowds” (ll. 9-10), and that he has always sought to achieve balance in all aspects of his life. The natural end, then, is to balance life with “this death” (l. 16).
“An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” is altogether absent of figures of speech, and the images are as spare and simple as the words of the poem themselves. Through his calm and clear narrative style, the speaker is able to evoke visual images in the reader’s mind, but they are as balanced and as tempered as the speaker’s own attitude towards the death that he is predicting for himself. The reader can visualize the speaker up in the clouds, navigating his plane in a time of war. At the same time, though, because the speaker avoids any vivid metaphors or extreme imagery—such as attacking fighter jets, flaring bombs, or other direct assaults—such threats are left to the imagination of the reader. Rather than focusing on the threats, however, the reader is moved with the speaker to a place beyond immediate danger; in fact, the danger itself is not important. Instead, the calm acceptance of the speaker is the tone that has been conveyed, both through language and through the images and lack of metaphorical adornment in this poem.
Lord Byron’s “Written After Swimming From Sestos to Abydos,” while also a relatively calm and accepting meditation on death, is a more accomplished and effective poem than Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death.” The rationale for this argument is that Byron used the poetic devices of language, images, and figures of speech more creatively and to greater impact than did Yeats. Although there is something to be said for the spareness and compactness of Yeats’ poem, Byron’s poem is the far more engaging of the two poems. First, Byron’s poem demands a bit more of the reader than does Yeats’ poem. The language, images, and figures of speech all make reference to highly specific individuals and places. While the poem will not be rendered meaningless if the reader does not know who Leander is or any information about the Hellespont, the reader who does possess information about these references is likely to glean a deeper meaning from the poem.
The language of “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” is clear, but it is not quite as simplistic as that of Yeats’ poem. First, the diction of the poem is slightly more formal and even archaic when compared to that of “An Irishman Airman Foresees His Own Death.” Words such as “twere” and “thus” suggest days and epochs past, thus making the reader responsible for determining the temporal setting of the poem. The manner in which the speaker articulates the story he is telling is also somewhat more formal than modern speech; passive voice is prevalent. Second, the speaker of “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos,” speaking in the first person, makes several asides during the course of the poem, interrupting the natural flow of the story that he is recounting for the reader. In the first stanza, for instance, while introducing the story of Leander, the speaker asks parenthetically, “What maid will not the tale remember?” (l. 3). Later in the poem, in the fourth stanza, the speaker makes another aside, casting aspersions on the veracity of the tale, which he calls “doubtful,” and mocking Leander, who swam “the rapid tide” (l. 13) in order to “woo—and Lord knows what beside” (l. 15). These asides, while injecting some humorous elements into a story that could be sobering, do serve to distract the reader’s attention somewhat. The complexity created by the asides demands that the reader pay careful attention to the poem; he or she must engage fully with the poem in order to understand it and grasp its meaning.
The use of carefully chosen adjectives helps the reader to visualize both Leander and the speaker crossing the chilly Hellespont, one for love and one for glory. Though the tale might well be one of which heroes would be made if told by a different speaker, the self-deprecation of Byron’s speaker—who denominates himself the “degenerate modern wretch” (l. 9)-- and his mocking of Leander, keeps the reader engaged because the anti-hero bent of the poem is not what one might expect. For all of these reasons, Byron’s poem is cleverer and, ultimately, more successful in engaging the reader and applying poetic devices than Yeats’ poem.
In poetry, writers have broad creative license to experiment with form, structure, and other literary devices. Three devices that are central to the development of a poem include language, images, and figures of speech. Comparing the poems “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” by Lord Byron and “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” by William Butler Yeats, the reader arrives at the conclusion that Byron’s superior management of these three poetic devices result in a poem that is both more powerful and more beautiful, both in content and in craft, than that of Yeats. While beauty is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, this reader finds “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” to be both entertaining and serious, a thoughtful meditation on relationships and on death.
Works Cited:
I. Byron, Lord George Gordon. “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos.”
II. Yeats, William Butler. “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death.”
In many ways, Lord Byron’s “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” and William Butler Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” are quite similar. Thematically, both poems involve an exploration of the individual’s awareness of and acceptance of death, specifically death as a possible consequence of serving some greater good beyond one’s own self-interests. Both of the poems are also similar in that they are situated within a natural setting in which the speaker is acutely conscious of the influence of the physical environment. In Byron’s poem, the forces of nature are larger and more powerful than the human figures, who are their subjects and who are vulnerable to natural elements. At the end of Byron’s “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos,” the speaker reports that Leander “was drowned” and he himself has “the ague” (l. 21). The physical outcomes suffered by both men—for one, fatal and for the other, temporary—are caused by their defiance of the elements, choosing to swim across the “broad Hellespont” (l. 4), one for “Love” and the other for “Glory” (l. 16). In Yeats’ poem, the Irish airman who foresees his own death recognizes the danger of his current profession of flying a war plane, and is so certain that he will die among the elements that he immediately expresses this belief in the opening lines of the poem: “I know that I shall meet my fate/Somewhere among the clouds above” (ll. 1-2). Like the speaker in Lord Byron’s poem, the speaker in “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” is acting for ideals larger than his own beliefs and interests, and there is a sense in both of these poems that the fate awaiting the speaker is inevitable, acceptable, and even necessary.
Despite these similarities, however, the two poems are also dramatically and distinctly different, and these differences are seen most clearly with respect to three specific poetic devices: language, images, and figures of speech. With respect to language, “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” is direct, straightforward, and even simplistic. The language of the poem is plain and requires no deciphering, and the message of the poem is delivered in compact, compressed lines in which the economy of language is maximized through words that were chosen carefully by the poet. Though simple, the language is also intimate; the first person narration of the speaker allows the reader to enter directly into the speaker’s thoughts and come to know him well in a matter of just sixteen lines. In this way, the reader learns that the speaker is clear-headed and yet, at the same time, he is ambivalent or indifferent about what he is certain will be his fate. As he explains to the reader in candid and clear language, he neither hates his enemies nor loves those he has vowed to protect. The ambivalence is reinforced throughout the remainder of the poem by the pair of contrasts incorporated in each line. About his forecasted death, the speaker observes, “No likely end could bring them loss/Or leave them happier than before” (ll. 7-8). He goes on to say that “Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,/Nor public men, nor cheering crowds” (ll. 9-10), and that he has always sought to achieve balance in all aspects of his life. The natural end, then, is to balance life with “this death” (l. 16).
“An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” is altogether absent of figures of speech, and the images are as spare and simple as the words of the poem themselves. Through his calm and clear narrative style, the speaker is able to evoke visual images in the reader’s mind, but they are as balanced and as tempered as the speaker’s own attitude towards the death that he is predicting for himself. The reader can visualize the speaker up in the clouds, navigating his plane in a time of war. At the same time, though, because the speaker avoids any vivid metaphors or extreme imagery—such as attacking fighter jets, flaring bombs, or other direct assaults—such threats are left to the imagination of the reader. Rather than focusing on the threats, however, the reader is moved with the speaker to a place beyond immediate danger; in fact, the danger itself is not important. Instead, the calm acceptance of the speaker is the tone that has been conveyed, both through language and through the images and lack of metaphorical adornment in this poem.
Lord Byron’s “Written After Swimming From Sestos to Abydos,” while also a relatively calm and accepting meditation on death, is a more accomplished and effective poem than Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death.” The rationale for this argument is that Byron used the poetic devices of language, images, and figures of speech more creatively and to greater impact than did Yeats. Although there is something to be said for the spareness and compactness of Yeats’ poem, Byron’s poem is the far more engaging of the two poems. First, Byron’s poem demands a bit more of the reader than does Yeats’ poem. The language, images, and figures of speech all make reference to highly specific individuals and places. While the poem will not be rendered meaningless if the reader does not know who Leander is or any information about the Hellespont, the reader who does possess information about these references is likely to glean a deeper meaning from the poem.
The language of “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” is clear, but it is not quite as simplistic as that of Yeats’ poem. First, the diction of the poem is slightly more formal and even archaic when compared to that of “An Irishman Airman Foresees His Own Death.” Words such as “twere” and “thus” suggest days and epochs past, thus making the reader responsible for determining the temporal setting of the poem. The manner in which the speaker articulates the story he is telling is also somewhat more formal than modern speech; passive voice is prevalent. Second, the speaker of “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos,” speaking in the first person, makes several asides during the course of the poem, interrupting the natural flow of the story that he is recounting for the reader. In the first stanza, for instance, while introducing the story of Leander, the speaker asks parenthetically, “What maid will not the tale remember?” (l. 3). Later in the poem, in the fourth stanza, the speaker makes another aside, casting aspersions on the veracity of the tale, which he calls “doubtful,” and mocking Leander, who swam “the rapid tide” (l. 13) in order to “woo—and Lord knows what beside” (l. 15). These asides, while injecting some humorous elements into a story that could be sobering, do serve to distract the reader’s attention somewhat. The complexity created by the asides demands that the reader pay careful attention to the poem; he or she must engage fully with the poem in order to understand it and grasp its meaning.
The use of carefully chosen adjectives helps the reader to visualize both Leander and the speaker crossing the chilly Hellespont, one for love and one for glory. Though the tale might well be one of which heroes would be made if told by a different speaker, the self-deprecation of Byron’s speaker—who denominates himself the “degenerate modern wretch” (l. 9)-- and his mocking of Leander, keeps the reader engaged because the anti-hero bent of the poem is not what one might expect. For all of these reasons, Byron’s poem is cleverer and, ultimately, more successful in engaging the reader and applying poetic devices than Yeats’ poem.
In poetry, writers have broad creative license to experiment with form, structure, and other literary devices. Three devices that are central to the development of a poem include language, images, and figures of speech. Comparing the poems “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” by Lord Byron and “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death” by William Butler Yeats, the reader arrives at the conclusion that Byron’s superior management of these three poetic devices result in a poem that is both more powerful and more beautiful, both in content and in craft, than that of Yeats. While beauty is ultimately in the eye of the beholder, this reader finds “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos” to be both entertaining and serious, a thoughtful meditation on relationships and on death.
Works Cited:
I. Byron, Lord George Gordon. “Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos.”
II. Yeats, William Butler. “An Irish Airman Foresees His Own Death.”
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