Friday, January 10, 2020
Poetry Discussion Essay
Tone (literary) is a technique used in composition which aims to address the attitudes implied by the author towards the subject and the audience. It is commonly used in poetry to express feeling and emotion (wikipedia.org). It sets the mood and gives life to a literary piece.            The five poems that were assigned to be read are all well written. The authors who wrote these poems are respected and highly acclaimed. Among the five poems that were assigned to be read for the task, William Blake’s â€Å"On Another’s Sorrow†displays the most effective use of tone to convey meaning. Although the other authors were able to use tone effectively, William Blake seems to be the best. Lucille Clifton was also effective in her use of a playful and proud tone in â€Å"Homage to my hips,†but her approach was straightforward. The depth at which tone is utilized is not on the same level as William Blake’s poem. William Blake’s poem is quite related to that of Edelman (â€Å"Trouble†) and Pinskey (â€Å"Dying†) with respect to subject. The difference is that William Blake’s use of words and imagery conveys the meaning the poem in a deeper and a more intimate fashion. On the other hand, Billy Collins used extensive imagery in describing how he sees different names in various objects.            The main subject of the poem â€Å"On Another’s Sorrow†is sympathy. He describes  sympathy through parent-child, person-person, and God-mankind relationships. William Blake begins with a sad and depressing tone: â€Å"Can I see another’s woe, and not be in sorrow too†(Poetseers.org)? His use of rhetorical questions in the first 6 stanzas is effective in engaging the audience with the subject being discussed. The approach strengthens the feeling of sadness, depression and sympathy. A reader will feel the emotion that the author feels when he was writing the poem. The author also used a number of words that are associated with sadness. These are: sorrow, woe, tear, grief, groan, fear and weep. One would notice that some of these words, especially â€Å"sorrow,†are repeated throughout the poem. The repetition of such words emphasizes the dominant tone used in the poem. His use of such words and imagery reveals the theme of the poem. He was able to relay the mood and meaning of the poem  better than the others with his use of tone. Towards the end of the poem, the author’s tone shifted from an interrogative voice to an assertive one. In these stanzas, he speaks about God’s sympathetic nature.            Imagery refers to the elements in poem that ignites the five senses (poetryarchive.org). Figures of speech such as simile and metaphor are used to create powerful and effective images. In the poem â€Å"Kubla Khan,†Coleridge used vivid imagery that could be analyzed as metaphors. The poem could be interpreted in a lot of different ways. The poem could actually be interpreted as merely a description of what the author saw in his dream. Some stanzas could imply a deeper message, while some stanzas are only descriptions of the place. When the poem is analyzed as a whole, some parts simply pertain to the elements of the landscape. The first six lines for example, simply describe what Xanadu (where Kubla Khan resides) looks like. These are merely descriptive images. On the other hand, there are portions of the poem that slightly moves away from the main subject. In the last stanza for example, he suddenly talks about a damsel who plays a dulcimer. The author says that if he could only â€Å"revive her symphony and her song,†he will be able to build â€Å"a dome in the air.†This stanza could be a metaphor for a lost idea or an incomplete poem. The author implies that if only he could revive the vision or the idea, he would create a masterpiece and become great like Kubla Khan. Works Cited Blake, William. On Another’s Sorrow. 4 January 2008 Coleridge, Samuel. Kubla Khan. 4 January 2008 â€Å"Tone.†18 December 2007. Wikipedia.org. 4 January 2008 â€Å"Imagery.†2005. The Poetry Archive. 4 January 2008
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