Introduction to poetry
“Some people claim they were cut out to be leaders. Others think they were sewn together wrong.” – Borrowed.
NOW THAT you are senior students, you have the chance to be in leadership positions. Do lead well!
As we continue our introduction to poetry, I urge you not to bother with any moaning and groaning. How can anyone with the inborn rhythm, ease of rhyming ability, speed of finding appropriate words (eh, young men?) claim that poetry is hard? You are stopping yourself from doing well by listening to others and fooling yourself. Do you remember having somone, a family member or a friend, say something to you that you do not, at first, ‘get’, that is, understand? Have you ever said something that you thought was perfectly clear and yet it was not clear to the person to whom you spoke? We accept these as an understandable situations, but when it comes to poetry we label it as difficult if we do not easily ‘get’ what is written.
Just consider the fact that we express ourselves in different ways. We do not all choose the same words to speak about the same things. Let me give an example of what I mean: Two persons may attend a party. Later, they tell a friend about the event. They both talk about the number of persons who attended, the way they dressed and the quantity and quality of the food. Allian says that the venue was jampacked. Devonte says the place was jumping. Allian says the guests were well dressed, looking good in the latest fashions. Devonte uses words like ‘dapper’, ‘criss’ and ‘trash out’ to describe how the partygoers dressed. Allian says the food was delicious, Devonte says the food caused him to want to lick his 10 fingers and talked about how he cleaned his plate. I hope you realise from this that both are saying the same thing but using different words. In writing a poem, novel, play, essay, letter or anything, we tend to use the words and references/allusions and slangs with which we are familiar. Someone who reads the work only needs to take the time to use his/her dictionary and, most important, the clues that are given by the context to ensure understanding.
As you know, there are several types of poems. As God’s Grandeur is a 14-line poem, it is a sonnet. Other types include aubade, elegy, ode, pastoral, dramatic monologue. Poems have rhythmic patterns, rhyme schemes and are enriched with literary devices. It is important that you know them, can recognise their usage and the difference that they make, whether in poetry, prose or drama. I am suggesting that as you go through any literary work and see a device, for instance, an allusion, you immediately try to identify the purpose of its use. A device always makes a difference in its use and once you see it, you must also be able to see the reason for its being there. Of course, your own writing will reflect this knowledge.
Most of us can easily identify alliteration, metaphor, simile, allusion and pun. Here are a few other literary terms with which you may not be as conversant.
Anaphora –This is the deliberate repetition of the first of a sentence; repetition of word or words at the start of successive phrases.
Apostrophe –This is a figure of speech in which someone or something that is absent is spoken to as if present.
Assonance – This is the repetition of vowel sounds, for example, ‘loud, proud, sound’.
Caesura –This is the use of punctuation in a line of a poem to create a long pause.
Diction – This refers to the word choice of the author.
Elision –This is used to ensure that the meter of the line of poetry remains regular by leaving out a syllable or vowel.
End-stopped line – This is a line of poetry that has a full pause at its end, with a full stop or semi-colon.
Euphemism – This is a deliberately chosen word to make a situation appear more pleasant, for example, referring to death as ‘passing away’.
Euphony – This refers to pleasant spoken sounds due to the use of smooth consonants.
Figures of speech – These are terms such as hyperbole, metonymy, simile, personification,sarcasm, etc.
Onomatopoeia –This is a word which has a sound that resembles what it describes, for example’buzz’.
Open form – This is sometimes called ‘free verse’. In this form of poetry, lines vary in length and tend to ignore the use of divisions into verses; even the use of punctuation may be unexpected.
Oxymoron –This is the putting together of two seemingly different elements, for example honest thief.
Paradox – This is the creation of a seemingly absurd or contradictory situation.
Run-on-line – This is a line of poetry that has no punctuation or pause and, as a result, runs over into the following line. This is also referred to as enjambent.
We will continue with more literary devices in a future lesson. Our discussion on ‘God’s Grandeur’ will be our focus next week. God bless!