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...become a New Critic of poetry?
As with narrative, there are "elements" of poetry that we can focus on to enrich
our understanding of a particular poem or group of poems. These elements may
include, voice, diction, imagery, figures of speech, symbolism and allegory,
syntax, sound, rhythm and meter, and structure. While we may discuss these
elements separately, please keep in mind that they are always acting
simultaneously in a story. It is difficult, for example, to discuss voice without
talking about imagery, sound, meter, diction and syntax. Above all, these
elements reveal something about the poem's "theme," meaning, or function.
Voice: Speaker and Tone
As DiYanni notes, tone refers to the poet's "implied attitude toward its subject.
Tone is an abstraction we make from the details of a poem's language: the use of
meter and rhyme; the inclusion of certain kinds of details and exclusion of other
kinds; particular choices of words and sentence pattern, of imagery and of
figurative language" (479). A poem could convey reverence toward its subject,
or cynicism, fear, awe, disgust, regret, disappointment, passion, monotony, etc.
Tone has a great deal to do with meaning, for a description of a parent would be
radically different depending on a poet's attitude toward that parent.
Diction, Imagery, Figures of Speech, Symbolism and Allegory
Simply put, diction refers to word choice and is intimately related to imagery and
figures of speech because a poet chooses a word to achieve a certain sensory,
emotional, or intellectual effect. Choosing "wandered," for example, suggests
something different than, say, "walked around," "shuffled," "drifted," "floated,"
etc., for each word suggests a different attitude, image, or connection. Your job
is to explore the possibilities, always broadening the meaning and linking it with
other words and images. For example, placing words in new contexts creates
metaphors, for the word suggests one meaning and the context another.
As noted earlier, word choices creates images, the "concrete representation of a
sense impression, feeling, or idea. Images may invoke our sight, hearing, sense of
smell and taste, and tactile perceptions." Imagery refers to a pattern of related
details. When images form patterns of related details that convey an idea or
feeling beyond what the images literally describe, we call them metaphorical or
symbolic. The details suggest one thing in terms of another. For example, images
of light often convey knowledge and life, while images of darkness suggest
ignorance or death. This leap from one image to its symbolic counterpart is
based on an interpretive act and must be done in context. For example, white is
usually associated with purity, cleanliness, and virginity, but in Moby Dick the
great whale is white and suggests absolute evil, but the use that symbolic color is
consistent within the novel. Figures of speech refer to special kinds of language
use. We already mentioned metaphor and simile, but there is also personification
(giving inanimate objects or abstract concepts human qualities), synecdoche
(using a part of something to convey the whole), metonymy ("substituting an
attribute of a thing for the thing itself"), or litotes (understatement). Again, these
figures of speech depend on word choice within a specific context. Saying, for
example, "My pen sings on paper" is an example of personification because we
have given a human quality to an object, but to achieve this effect we had to
choose the verb "sings" instead of something else. The result is also metaphorical
because we the verb "to sing" is usually not used when we talk about pens.
Another example of how all these elements work together is the phrase, "My son
growled as he entered the room, clawing at the carpet, bearing his teeth until he
noticed the cake, his voice now a gentle purr." Choosing certain words creates a
series of metaphorical actions suggesting animal imagery.
Symbol and allegory is merely the widespread or extended use of metaphor. In
other words, if we use a single metaphor to structure an entire poem or story,
we are in the realm of allegory. If the poet uses a metaphor that has often been
used in a particular way (i.e. water to convey birth and death; spring to convey
birth, and winter to convey death; green suggests fertility and growth while black
suggests death or evil; deserts suggest death or infertility, etc.) then we are in the
realm of symbolism, but symbolism also refers to any use of an object, person,
or place that represents something beyond itself. The "symbolic" significance
always depends on interpretation and therefore must be read in context.
Syntax, Sound, Rhyme, Rhythm, and Meter
Syntax refers to word order, but word order creates certain sounds, images, and
attitudes. As I noted in the Elements of Fiction handout, the way a writer
chooses words, arranges them in sentences and longer units of discourse, and
exploits their significance relates to his or her style which conveys more than the
verbal identity of a writer; in fact, syntax reflects the way a writer sees the world.
For example, Faulkner's convoluted, complicated, long, and often formal prose
conveys something about the way Faulkner sees the South that he writes about.
Hemingway, on the other hand, with his minimal, fragmented, often interrupted
and staccato style reveals something about his typical preoccupation as well,
World War I and its devastating effect on relationships. Again, "form is content."
How something is said is just as important as what is said.
While sound is important in narrative, it is especially important in poetry because
of poetry's connection to song and dance, and sound has everything to do with
syntax. Using harsh sounds to convey a harsh environment is particularly
effective, as is the use of soft sounds to convey more delicate emotions or
actions. How sentences are arranged often determines how a sentence sounds.
Rhyme, arranging a sentence so that one word rhymes with another, can help
organize a poem, but it can also emphasize or contrast actions or emotions.
Structure
Structure refers to how a poem is organized. There are set forms like sonnets,
but also free forms which have no "rules" to follow, and the choice of form can
either reinforce or contrast with the theme (i.e. a sonnet about free love may be
used ironically to suggest that free love is also constrained). A poem can be
organized much like an essay (problem, exploration, then conclusion;
unenlightened to enlightened), or it can visually look like what is being described
(a poem about religion may look like an altar), or it can mimic the action
described in the poem itself and reinforce the theme (see page 546).
As DiYanni notes, "all the elements of a poem work together harmoniously to
convey feeling and embody meaning" (479). Exploring these elements does not
ruin the pleasure of reading but enriches it. Poetry gives us the pleasure of
making connections, of noticing how one element of a poetry works with
another. Perhaps it's the same pleasure we derive when we attempt to solve a
mystery; readers are detectives who must ferret out separate clues to arrive at a
coherent conclusion. While narrative offers the same pleasure, poetry is more
economical, giving us a distilled version of what narrative provides but forcing us
to pay even closer attention to the words on the page.
Interpretation also depends on the same methodology we discussed earlier:
- First, use the details in the poem to orient yourself in it, to locate and
understand the characters, their situations, and their actions.
- Second, look for repetitions and oppositions in people, places, language,
objects, movement, and actions. Decide what or who is valorized and
devalorized.
- Third, uncover the implications of the repetitions and oppositions by exploring
the relationships of similarity and difference that link the poem's images, sounds,
structure, etc.. This is where you look for the metaphorical content in the people,
places, language, objects, movement, and decisions and where you try to
identify the allusions, the "subtexts," the connections between other texts.
- Fourth, use your observations to make sense of the poem, to come up with a
"theme," interpretation, or "reading." That is, "this poem is "really" about ______
" or "this poem is saying that _______" and this is why I think so....
- Finally, evaluate and critique the poem's "literary" merit.
(adapted from Barry Laga) |