PART (A) - ADVICE AND QUESTIONS

 

We have already said that poetry is a special type of language use. This needs to be understood properly, because it is more than poetry just looking or sounding different.  As well as these obvious differences, poetry does two things that prose writing doesn't do.

Firstly, it tends to deal with its subject in a different, more complicated and often more emotional way. It does this by making the reader pay attention to detail in a way that other writing can't do so well.

Secondly, because of the odd way of arranging the words on the page, poetry often draws attention to the fact that it is language being used in a peculiar way.

When prose writers describe things, they often concentrate on the thing - when poets describe things, they often concentrate on the means of description, language itself, at least as much.

 

In order to write well about any particular poem, or to understand how to make your own poetry work well, you need to know a bit about the tools a poet can use. No single poem has to use all of these tools, but most make use of several of them.

(a) Every poem has a subject. Simply, this is what the poem is about. It's often a good starting point when writing about poems to start with the sentence, "This is about..."

(b) As well as a subject, a poem might have one or more underlying themes. These are the ideas that the poem communicates in dealing with its subject. For example, a poem might take as its subject a field. The way it portrays the field would then help us find out its themes - it could be a bleak Winter setting conveying a theme of hopelessness or a Spring setting conveying a theme of optimism, growth or regeneration. The poet has many choices.

(c) Many poems use images that convey ideas to us. They sort of paint a picture on our minds that helps us to understand the theme(s) of the poem. It's always worth spending time thinking about the images that a poem creates.

(d) If you have studied the package in this series on descriptive writing, the next two tools will be familiar to you - They are metaphors and similes. If you can't remember them, remind yourself by clicking for a definition.

METAPHOR

SIMILE

(e) Another way poems use language to interesting effect is in the use of symbols. This is where an image or idea is used to suggest a much larger but related idea. For example, an image associated with children might be used to suggest that the poet is talking about childhood in general, or a single natural image might be used to suggest the whole of nature.

(f) Poems are meant to be read aloud very often, so the sound of the words is often important in conveying their meaning or their relation with other words. Rhyme is used to connect ideas by suggesting connections between words. The rhythm of the poem will stress certain words of importance, and the use of words with sounds related to their meanings will often make the poem more interesting.

(g) Finally, never forget that a poem is written by a poet to be read by a reader. You can often benefit from thinking about the point of view of the poet when you're writing about a poem, and equally you should always think about your reader when you're writing your own poetry.

 

NOW THAT YOU'VE READ THE ADVICE, ANSWER THE  FOLLOWING QUESTIONS USING THE SPACE PROVIDED.

1. (a) In what two obvious ways is poetry different from prose?

(b) What is the difference between the way a poem treats its subject and the way a piece of prose does?

(c) What is the difference between language as used in a poem and language as used in a piece of prose?

 

2. (a) First of all, list the tools a poem can use to convey its subject and themes (there are six mentioned in the advice, but you may also know some more).

(b) Next, give an example of your own for the following tools:

Metaphor Simile
Rhythm Rhyme

 

(c) Here are some aspects of poetic language that we haven't talked about. They are quite advanced, and you can do some research to find out about them. Give a definition and an example of each:

Alliteration
Assonance

Para-rhyme (or half-rhyme)

 

Click on the Questions to find the answers.

 

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