Poem Analysis : ' Incantation '

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

This is a poem that problematizes ‘language’. “Language plays an altogether fundamental role in human thinking, and it bestows on man his unique ability

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

The language in the poem has extremely powerful qualities which invoke vivid imagery. Metaphor, repetition, assonance and various punctuation techniques are used to highlight the poems themes and mood. "Metho Drinker's" prayer is by far the most powerful language in the poem. He is asked to be relieved of the

In Czeslaw Milosz poem, “Ars Poetica?”, he reveals to the reader his opinion on the art of poetry. However, instead of praising the art form or the beauty of constructing an overall poem, he critical evaluates his dislike for its limited and depressing state. However, although the writer does not approve of all the aspects of poetry, he does have a belief towards its overall use. Throughout “Ars Poetica” the tone of the writer, his use of figurative language, and word choice in poem all contribute to his overall message.

George Szirtes article “Formal Wear: Notes on Rhyme, Meter, Stanza, and Pattern” from the Poetry Foundation opens with opinions which focus on limitations of poetic form. As a counter to these common arguments, Szirtes claims, “Verse is not decoration: it is structural. It is a forming principle and words at depth” ("Formal Wear: Notes” 2). He then develops an argument explaining, “the constraints of form are spurs of the imagination: that they are in fact the chief producers of imagination” ("Formal Wear: Notes” 2). Taking these ideas into consideration Szirtes incorporates the idea of language explaining how language connects to memory and imagination which come together to form poetic images. Additionally, when poets use form it develops

Prompt: Write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poem's organization, diction, and figurative language prepare the reader for the speaker's concluding response.

In “Conte” by Marilyn Hacker, Cinderella shows the reader a glimpse of her life after the childhood tale ends, a less happier ending than the original story implies. She feels trapped in a constant state of misery and boredom in the royal palace. Without life experience guiding her, Cinderella is in a dilemma caused by her ignorance of the potential consequences of her actions. With the use of irony, structure, and diction, “Conte” shows how innocence and naïveté result in regrettable mistakes that create life experience.

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

In today’s modern view, poetry has become more than just paragraphs that rhyme at the end of each sentence. If the reader has an open mind and the ability to read in between the lines, they discover more than they have bargained for. Some poems might have stories of suffering or abuse, while others contain happy times and great joy. Regardless of what the poems contains, all poems display an expression. That very moment when the writer begins his mental journey with that pen and paper is where all feelings are let out. As poetry is continues to be written, the reader begins to see patterns within each poem. On the other hand, poems have nothing at all in common with one another. A good example of this is in two poems by a famous writer by

Ted Kooser, the thirteenth Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner, is known for his honest and accessible writing. Kooser’s poem “A Spiral Notebook” was published in 2004, in the book Good Poems for Hard Times, depicting a spiral notebook as something that represents more than its appearance. Through the use of imagery, diction, and structure, Ted Kooser reveals the reality of a spiral notebook to be a canvas of possibilities and goes deeper to portray the increasing complexities in life as we age.

One of my favorite poems is People by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. It explores the devastating nature of what it means to be human and the tragedy that, “Not people die but worlds die in them.” I have always been deeply moved by the poem’s sentiment. However, by examining People through the lens of iconicity and also with Michael Burke’s Iconicity and Literary Emotion in mind, I gained a deeper understanding of how Yevtushenko employs iconic devices to underscore and bolster his poem’s emotional effect. This essay will explore a few of those linguistic techniques and how they enhanced my reading of the poem.

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

Poetry is a reduced dialect that communicates complex emotions. To comprehend the numerous implications of a ballad, perusers must analyze its words and expressing from the points of view of beat, sound, pictures, clear importance, and suggested meaning. Perusers then need to sort out reactions to the verse into a consistent, point-by-point clarification. Poetry utilizes structures and traditions to propose differential translation to words, or to summon emotive reactions. Gadgets, for example, sound similarity, similar sounding word usage, likeness in sound and cadence are at times used to accomplish musical or incantatory impacts.

She stimulates thought of our narrow and rooted perspective and our indifferent towards our surroundings. These ideas that Szymborska is trying to raise is especially relevant to the modern world we live in today where humans are too self-involved and avaricious to contemplate over unnecessities like our rudimentary perception of the world. Szymborska leaves subliminal messages for the reader to consider and elucidates presumptuous thinking for them to question. After reading the poem, we are awakened from the monotones and controlled cycle we live in and left with a million brooding questions. She invites us to broaden our perspective by revaluating our judgement of the importance of everything around us. This corresponds directly with the success in the poems agenda to present us with a firmer and deeper appreciation of the things we deem so