Studying Poetry: Terms and Concepts

Introductory Notes

Remember, first of all, that you cannot assume the poet (writer, author) is speaking in his own voice with his own opinions, so always refer to the speaker in the poem or the voice in the poem, or the poet’s persona. The poem says. . . (etc.).

When you first read a poem, ask yourself who the speaker is and what are the audience and setting. For example, in Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” the setting is a Duke’s home in Renaissance times, and the speaker is the Duke himself, talking to the messenger from a Count about dowry—apparently the Duke is about to marry the Count’s daughter. You have to read the poem carefully to get all of that; he doesn’t explain it all for you. (“He” being the Duke.)

The speaker in a poem might, for example, be a young female lover meditating on the nature of love. Here, the audience would not be anybody in particular. Robert Frost writes, “[A poem is] heard as sung or spoken by a person in a scene—in character, in a setting. By whom, where and when is the question. By the dreamer of a better world out in a storm in autumn, by a lover under a window at night.”

If you are having trouble understanding a poem, you might try explicating it—going line by line or section by section, analyzing each part before you go back and consider the whole. You might even want to paraphrase, that is, rewrite it line by line or section by section into your own words, in everyday language. Your paraphrase might be longer than the original.

General Terms

Diction—The choice of vocabulary and of sentence structure. There is a difference between “One never knows” and “You can never tell.” In poetry, words and sentences are very carefully selected and arranged. If we speak of the level of diction, we are talking about the difference, say, between umbilicus, navel, and belly-button. A poet’s choosing one of those terms over the other reflects the speaker and the purpose, situation, etc.

Tone—roughly equivalent to speaker’s tone of voice. Irate, maybe, or gently mocking, or playful. Tone may shift from one part of the poem to the next, so make sure you are always aware of it. Look for examples of irony or examples of overstatement, exaggeration (known as hyperbole). Also look for understatement, when the writer downplays something—for example, saying “The fox and the dogs came into the room” when you are describing an all-out, wild fox chase.

Imagery and Symbolism—Whatever in a poem that appeals to any of our senses (including sensations of heat as well as of sight, smell, taste, touch, sound) is an Image. Images are the sensory content of a work. When a poet says “My rose” and he means a literal flower, that is an image. When the poet says “My rose” and he means his lover, it is both image and symbol.

Some symbols are pretty conventional—a cross symbolizing Christianity, a red rose symbolizing passion or love. Writers can use conventional symbols or they can subvert them.

Paradox—an apparent contradiction, as in Jesus’s words: “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” If you don’t read that carefully for meaning, you’ll think it’s nonsense, so read carefully. Another example of paradox is in “Auld Lang Syne,” in which remembering joy brings nostalgic sadness.

Figurative Language—words intended to be understood in some way other than literally. A lemon is literally a citrus fruit, but when you use the word to refer to a car, you are using the term figuratively.

Following are some types of figurative language often used in poetry (and other genres):

• Metaphor—a metaphor compares two unlike things, an unexpected comparison, saying or implying that the first thing is the second. Saying that the fog coming into San Francisco at night is a cat creeping quietly to slink around your leg, for example.

The

                                                whirlwind fife-and-drum of the storm bends the salt

                                                marsh grass

                                                            --Marianne Moore

                                                That time of year thou mayst in me behold

                                                When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang

                                                Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,

                                                Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

                                                            --Shakespeare

• Simile—a simile is a specific type of metaphor that compares two unlike things by using the words like, as, than, appears, or seems. Saying that Tokyo is like Los Angeles is not a metaphor or a simile because you are simply comparing two cities, two like things. To compare two unlike things, you could say that Los Angeles is like a boiling cauldron about to overflow. Here are some examples from poetry:

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free.

The holy time is quiet as a Nun,

Breathless with adoration.

            --Wordsworth

All of our thoughts will be fairer than doves.

            --Elizabeth Bishop

Seems he a dove? His feathers are but borrowed.

            --Shakespeare

• Synecdoche—a kind of figurative language in which the whole stands for a part (“The Law” for a police officer) or a part stands for a whole (“all hands on deck” for all sailors). Another example is “Give us our daily bread,” in which bread stands for food in general, and in sufficient amounts.

• Metonymy—a kind of figurative language in which a word or phrase stands not for itself but for something closely related to it. In the political sphere, for example, to “rattle your sabers” or swords means to threaten military action. An example:

Scepter and crown must tumble down

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and blade.

• Personification—a kind of figurative language in which an inanimate object, animal, or other nonhuman is given human traits. Examples: “the creeping tide” (as if it had legs and feet), “the cruel sea” (as if it could have either moral or immoral qualities).

                                                            Memory,

                                                that exquisite blunderer.

                                                            --Amy Clampitt

                                    There’s Wrath, who has learnt every trick of guerilla warfare,

                                    The shamming dead, the night-raid, the feinted retreat.

                                                            --W.H. Auden

                                    Hope, thou Bold taster of delight.

                                                            --Richard Cranshaw

• Synesthesia—description of one mode of sensation in terms of another; color attributed to sounds, odor to color, sound to odor, etc. For example, loud color, bright sounds, sweet music. Frequent in Romantic poetry, although not invented by the Romantics.

And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue

Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew

Of music so delicate, soft, and intense,

It was felt like an odor within the sense.

                                    --Shelley

Here are a few things to remember about Figurative Language:

1. Figurative language forces the reader to pay attention to the connotations of language rather than just the denotations
2. You can find abundant examples of figurative language in everyday language—a branch office, the face of a clock, the eye of a stove. Language and human grey matter just work this way.
3. Good figurative language is concrete, compact, interesting, and in a work of literature, fresh.

Concrete, meaning vivid and precise. When Keats writes that he felt like “some watcher of the skies / When a new planet swims into his ken” he makes a much more vivid and precise impact that if he had just said, “I was excited.”

Compact, meaning that poetry can compact many rich and varied meanings into a word or phrase. When you paraphrase good poetry, your paraphrase will most likely be longer than the original and yet still not as precise, and with less impact.

Interesting and fresh, as in the language is original and not over-used and makes us sit up and pay attention. When Keats says “deep-browed Homer” we are much more aware and interested than if he had just said “thoughtful Homer” or “Homer was thoughtful.”

                        An aged man is but a paltry thing,

                        A tattered coat upon a stick, unless

                        Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing

                        For every tatter in its mortal dress.

                                                --Yeats

Terms of Rhythm and Versification

Meter—the rhythmical pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds in a line or group of lines. In cheers and lullabies, for example, there is a highly pronounced, repetitive meter which is intended to whip you into a frenzy or put you to sleep, respectively. Meter always has a purpose (from the poet’s perspective) and an effect (from the reader’s perspective).

We will parse these examples on the board:

            Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death

                                                --Milton

            When Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to throw,

            The line too labors, and the words move slow.

            Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,

            Flies o’er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.

                                                --Pope

            When I do count the clock that tells the time.

            And see the brave day sunk in hideous night.

                                                --Shakespeare

In addition to stress, rhythm is affected by punctuation, rhyme, length of words, and clusters of consonants or some other formation which makes you pause simply in pronunciation.

Blank verse refers to unrhymed poetry.

Free verse refers to unrhymed poetry which has lines of irregular length and stress patterns.

Terms for Patterns of Sound:

Alliteration—repetition of initial sounds. “All the awful auguries” or “Bring me my bow of burning gold.”

Assonance—repetition of the same vowel sounds in words of close proximity when the vowels are surrounded by differing consonants (otherwise it would be rhyme). For example, tide and mine both have the long i sound.

Consonance—repetition of identical consonant sounds surrounded by differing vowel sounds in words of close proximity. For example, fail, feel, or even fail, peel, or rough, roof.

Onomatopoeia—the use of words that imitate sounds, such as hiss and buzz. A poetic example:

                        The moan of dives in immemorial elms

                        And the murmuring of innumerable bees.

                                                            --Tennyson