Free Analysis of Terms used in Poems Essay Sample

Enjambment is the running over of a line or idiom from one stanza to the next, without terminal punctuation, thus there is no full stop, also called run-on lines. An octave is an eight-line verse or sonnet, of which there are numerous forms.  An image is a phrase that depicts a factual impression, whether of hearing, observing, feeling, experiencing, and sensing.  Poetry written in an unrhymed iambic pentameter is known as Blank poetry, the poem is regularly inconspicuous and the iambic pentameter outline mostly sounds like the rhythms of normal communication.

Antithesis is merging two expressions, idioms, or sentences with contradictory or negating implications. Caesura is a grammatical recess or pause in a line of poems; typically close to the center of the line. In poems’ scansion, a caesura is regularly specified by the icon. Allusion is an indication in a fictional work to an individual, place, or item in the past or another literature work. Allusions are frequently oblique or concise references to renowned people or occurrences. Hyperbole is a form of speech in which an exaggeration or embellishment takes place.

Word count difference + 1st-time order
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Spondee is a musical base of two syllables, both of which are stressed. Assonance is the recurrence or a sample of related vowel sounds, but with diverse finishing consonants in a passage of stanza or text but with varied meaning. Assonance can also be explained as a vowel rhyme. A Simile is a form of language in which two objects are contrasted using the expression "like" or "as" to capture an interest to correspondence regarding two items that are apparently unrelated.

A metaphor is a form of language in which a similarity is made involving two different quantities devoid of using expressions "like" or "as." Pastoral is a fictional poem that involves shepherds and rural sceneries. Personification is a form of language in which a nonhuman thing is given human qualities. Apostrophe is a form of language where the narrator addresses something nonhuman directly. Tone explains the writer’s feelings toward his or her theme. Synecdoche is where a component of something symbolizes the entire thing.

Irony demonstrates a condition, or an application of speech, concerning some sort of inconsistency. The outcome of an act or state is the opposite of what is anticipated. Rhymes are specific kinds of verses, which have the recurrence of similar sounds at the conclusion of two or more terminologies most regularly at the finishing of lines. Lastly, symbolism is a mechanism in writing whereby an item corresponds to an idea.

Batter My Heart, Three-Personned God (c.1610) by John Donne (1572-1631)

The poem is made of14 lines. It has of three quatrains (collection of four lines), then a rhyming couplet (two lines) towards the conclusion. At the end of line 12, it has an extraordinary rhyme. The verse is in iambic pentameter. Line 2 talks of Donne desiring God to break down the entrance of his heart for him to get saved. "O'erthrow me" and "bend me" might be a sexual figure of speech or rather, metaphor. There is assonance: break, blow, burn, which are forceful sounds.

A comprehensive, detailed metaphor is employed to compare the narrator with a town, which was subjugated and downcast. He requests God to invade in a remarkable and aggressive manner, "to conquer the town". "I labor to admit you" probably bears sexual significance, and "to another due" may perhaps indicate a miserable affair with someone else. The narrator is yearning for God in both religious and physical means. Imagery of matrimony is applied. A more sexual tone is further displayed in the last two lines. Metaphors employed could hold sexual credence and involve purely bodily longing to be with God. This can as well be viewed as either blasphemy or some form irony since God has never existed in a physical form. It could also be some sort of an apostrophe since the writer addresses a “God” who cannot be seen or reached, as though he was addressing an attractive woman. This poem is extensively believed to be an ideal and typical metaphysical verse.

Delight in Disorder (1648) by Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

Similar to the first poem, this is also a fourteen-line lyric poem. The tone is light and humorous.  Herrick intentionally introduced practical flaws to generate “sweet disorder” . We notice that the end rhyme is conflicting. For instance, lines 1 and 2, 9 and 10, 13 and 14, end with a similar sound. “A sweet disorder in the dress/Kindles in clothes a wantonness”, is a good example. However, the other couplets comprise of simply predictable rhymes that make the reader keep regulating the usual accent to uphold the rhyme scheme.  Moreover, the metric outline differs in lines 2 and 8.  The verse contains of seven couplets; couplets are two lines that rhyme. Herrick, furthermore, employs interior rhyme in the verse. For example, “I see a wild civility”. Herrick wrote the verse primarily in iambic tetrameter. The first line of the verse displays the outline. He utilizes a metaphor when he says, “tempestuous petticoat”, where he compares of the underskirt to a rainstorm (thunderstorm), possibly because it wafts in the breeze.

Herrick is categorized as a “Cavalier Poet.” This means that he was from to a collection of poets who were on the side of King James I, throughout the Civil War. The poem "Delight in Disorder" is from "Hesperides" (a specific collection of poems). His use of language and imagery are easy and straight as compared to Metaphysical poems, which are exemplified by complex metaphors and images, which make the poem confusing. The uncertainty in this lyric is, whether Herrick is referring to a female who has dressed inaccurately or a picture of a female who has dressed imprecisely; "…than when art/Is too precise in every part".  A lyric is a term that describes the poet's personal feelings or thoughts as a reaction to an outside incentive.

Shirt (1990) by Robert Pinsky (1940-)

In his sonnet The Shirt, Pinsky makes a general metaphor for a society and a history, more than simply an individual narrative, but a concrete and interlocking sequence of individuals and proceedings that are sewn into the material of the supposed shirt and the remembrance of the wearer. The writer demonstrates his design in its complete extent to the reader by use of his disorganized pieces of the components of the shirt compared with the fascinating stories of the attempt devoted to and the various individuals accountable for the creation of a particular shirt.

 “The back, the yoke, the yardage”  all seem to be impassive components, figures and dimensions, but as Pinsky incorporates, “the nearly invisible stitches along the collar”, the reader starts to notice how the pieces of the shirt are comparable to a society, in how some effort in the community in undisclosed, or are basically not recognized, but all are essential to putting the shirt together.  This is imagery, and the title itself, “the shirt” has been used as a metaphor.

 In addition, the use of allusion is prevalent in the poem. A clear example is in the phrase “Scottish workers, tamed/ By a fabricated heraldry: MacGregor”. Through Pinsky’s metaphor, the shirt is given several names depending on the context such as the “the presser, the cutter/ the wringer, the mangle,” as well as the creator”. The last line of the poem, “the label, the labor, the color, the shade” makes use of assonance as a literary term. In the similar way, people are criticized and judged by weighing their actions. Throughout the comprehensive nature of a shirt, Pinsky’s allegory, manage to demonstrate to the reader that the right nature of things is far more all complete beyond the imagination of the reader.

All through, the poem is expressed in the form of a blank verse. The author employs an excellent use of personification. For instance, in the case of the shirt, the poet portrays the shirt as possessing both value and quality that can please the one wearing it. A number of lines in the poem make use of enjambment. Like in the first three stanzas, the author jumps from one verse to the next without any use of punctuation marks. “The docker, the navvy” is a case of Antithesis. While the phrase “Weavers, carders, spinner” in verse 12, provides a good illustration of the use of a spondee.

The End and the Beginning (1993) by Wislawa Szymborska (1923 -)

Szymborska’s poem coherently paints the absurdity of war. The author’s style is concise and discernible in both intelligence and introspection. Szymborska’s narrator seems, to some extent, detached and more purposeful. She is unremorsefully blunt, presenting the poem with a nearly snappish volley: “After every war/someone has to clean up/Things won’t/ straighten themselves up, after all”. The successive lines fabricate upon this idea, congregating power and force from each fresh observation: “Someone has to push the rubble/to the side of the road, /so the corpse filled wagons/can pass”, tagged along by “Someone has to get mired in…/bloody rags”. The three stanzas of the poem move on a style, with each stanza depending upon the recurring “Someone has to” sentence stem, which is aimed at establishing a sense of irresistible pressure. The persona’s tone is in some way ironic and sympathetic.

The poem is in free verse and instead of having an ultimate rhyme scheme and rhythm; the poet tailors the poem’s lines to reflect the different cadences of speech. This provides an outcome that the poet is directly and personally addressing the reader, in nearly a confessional tone. The tome seems to expound on the truth concerning war, the reality as well as behind the scenes. Both the title and the first line of the poem inform the reader that the “end” is the “beginning” of a rebuilding process and that “after every war, someone has to tidy up”. Therefore, the author makes use of contrast in her title. The reiteration of the words ,“someone” and “little,” stress on the message that people should directly take part in rebuilding the nation, which is torn apart and left with little, if any.

The poem is presented in a slant structure exhibiting very short lines. The use of imagery has played a role in making things clear, as portrayed verse 4 where “someone has to drag in a girder/to prop up a wall”. This paints a clear picture on the extent of destruction caused by the war. The use of metaphors such as “sleeves will go ragged/from rolling them up” depicts the energy and effort that should be amassed to rebuild the nation. In addition, the use of paradox and irony compares the short duration of war and the several years of reconstruction. What is more, impacts heavily on the people, but to the surprise of the poet, people disregard these effects so soon. The author personifies the cameras when she indicates that she has left.

The Passionate Shepherd to his Love (1600) by Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593)

.“The Passionate Shepherd” is an excellent exemplar of a pastoral poem. Generally, all pastoral poems revolve around on the death of a friend, the great love of a shepherd for a maiden or even the calm simplicity of country life. The meter of the poem may be described as iambic tetrameter, having eight syllables (four iambic feet) for each line. An iambic foot is made up of the unstressed syllable which is usually followed by a stressed syllable. In every stanza, each line rhymes with the subsequent line. For instance, the first and the second lines rhyme while the third and the fourth line rhyme.

The use of hyperbole in the poem is evident.  The phrase “there will I make . . . / a thousand fragrant posies” derived from lines 9-10 is a clear example of this stylistic device. The writer uses a metaphor in line 8 of the poem- “Melodious birds sing madrigals” – to compare the songs of birds with madrigals (poems set to music).Marlowe combines images of objects prepared from nature resembling a cap of flowers, beds of roses, a belt of straw with images of man-made objects, for example, gold buckles, ivy buds, silver dishes. The writer’s beloved will, ultimately, obtain the preeminence of the two worlds. 


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