not be related by theme, author or style. So, a poem is a single piece of poetry.
6
According to A. H. Hewitt, poem has no simple satisfactory definition it is one of the literary arts, because it is one word as its medium of expression
art and it is something in which man tries to give lasting form to an experience which seems important to him. Any form of art is meant for
enjoyment, in contrast with the essential needs of life which are meant for use. This should be remembered in the study of poem, for a poem will be
appreciated only when it has be enjoyed, not when it has been made to serve principally some other needs, like passing an exam. Any attempt to define
poem can be only partial or tentative. However, it is useful to start by defining compare with prose, poem is a type statement which make a
noticeable use of concentrated, figurative and evocative language, and which has marked rhythmical qualities.
7
Poem is a literary work and poetry is the artwork or a poet, you can write a poem and you are doing poetry.
2. The Intrinsic elements of poetry
Understanding poetry means understanding the works of poetry. It depends on the work we read and the response that we have on the poetry
that we read. No poem is ever completed. It means, that the poet always leaves some work for his reader, a poem only prompts us stimulates to the
further consideration.
6
http:en.wikipedia.orgwikipoetry.html accessed 300809
7
A.H. Hewitt M.A; B com, coming to term with poetry Lecturer in English Australian National University, 1965, p. 208.
When we are analyzing a fiction, there are two important aspects, intrinsic and extrinsic elements. The intrinsic elements are the analysis of the
literature itself without looking the relation with the external aspect.
8
In the intrinsic elements the readers have to analyze several elements. Such as,
figure of speech, tone, diction and etc. There are several elements which make up a good poem. In brief, they
are described below.
a Tone
Tone , in literature, may be defined as the writers or speakers attitude toward the subject, the audience, or toward herselfhimself.
9
Tone, the attitude of thee author to the characters and situations in the work, is closely related to
style. For example, Gerald Stryker notes that, in “education”, E. B. White uses humorous images that are tinged with seriousness. The yellow city school bus
that “swallow” the child in whelmed by the trappings and demands of certain kinds of schooling. The tone here is complex and it suggests the complexity
the author sees in his subject. Tone as a literary term, tone refers to the writer’s attitude towards the
subject of literary work as indicated in the work itself. One way to think about tone in poetry is to consider the speaker’s literal “tone of voice”: just as with
tone of voice, a poem’s tone may indicate an attitude of joy, sadness, hopeful, silliness, frustration, anger, puzzlement, etc.
8
Stanton Robert, An Introduction to Fiction, New York: Holt Rinehart Winston, inc, 1965, p. 11
9
Laurence Perrine and R. A. R. P 1988, op. cit. ,p. 49.
A poems tone is the attitude that its style implies. For example; A Blade of Grass by Brian Pattens
It has a tone of sad acceptance toward the loss of childlike wonder that could have accepted the blade of grass.
The Happy Grass, by Brendan Kennelly, The title about ‘the happy grass’ has instead a hopeful tone toward the prospect
of peace that the grass represents, tempered by awareness that there will be graves on which the grass will grow.
b Diction
Diction, in its origin, primary meaning, refers to the writers or the speakers distinctive vocabulary choices and style of expression.
10
Diction is simply the writer’s choice of words. There is no single and correct diction in the English language. Instead, you choose different words or
phrases for different contexts, for examples:
To a friend in the poetry contexts is a screw-up To a child in the poetry contexts is a mistake
To the police in the poetry contexts is an accident To an employer in the poetry contexts is an oversight
c Figure of Speech
10
Judith A. Stanford, Responding To literature: Story, poems, plays and essays New York: McGraw Hill,: 2003, p. 47
A figure of speech is a use of a word that diverges from its normal meaning, or a phrase with a specialized meaning not based on the literal
meaning of the words in it.
11
Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their
use, as any figure of speech introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative interpretation. A figure of speech is sometimes called a rhetoric or a
locution. Rhetoric originated as the study of the ways in which a source text can be transformed to suit the goals of the person reusing the material.
A figure of speech is any way of saying something other than the ordinary way, and some rhetoricians have classified as many as 250 separates figures.
For our purposes, however, a figure of speech is more narrowly definable as a way of saying one thing and meaning another, and we need to be concerned
with no more than a dozen. Figurative language- language using figures of
speech-is language that cannot be taken literally or should not be taken literally only.
12
Actually, many writers use figure of speech, whether they know it or not, and in order to read well, we have to recognize it and be aware
of its effects. Most figures of speech has a simple purpose, it is to make a literature live with has a deep meaning in the words.
There are several kinds of figure of speech 1
Metaphor
11
http:grammar.about.comodrhetoricstylea20figures.htm. accessed on April 27, 09
12
Laurence Perrine and R.A. R. P. op. cit. p. 61
Metaphor and simile are both used as a means of comparing things that are essentially. A metaphor is a method of comparison between two or more
things that does not use the words like or as.
13
It means, that metaphor as a figurative analogy or comparison between two things where the comparison is
indicated directly, without the ‘like’ or ‘as’ customary in similes. Metaphor suggests literally that one thing is something else which it clearly is not in
reality. Example:
“You are an ant, while I’m the lion”. The word “ant” and “lion” is the metaphor, is a contradictive between ant
with has little thing and powerless and lion with has a bigger thing and power, that comparison called metaphor.
2
Synecdoche
Synecdoche is using part of an object to stand for the whole thing
.
14
Synecdoche also figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole as hand for sailor, the whole for a part as the law for police officer, the
specific for the general as cutthroat for assassin, the general for the specific as thief for pickpocket, or the material for the thing made from it as steel for
sword. Examples:
13
Ibid.
14
Laurence Perrine and R.A.RP. op. cit. ,p. 65.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening: The little journey in the poem represents lifes journey.
The Gift Outright: The gift represents the history of the United States. I Will Sing You One-O: Two clock towers striking One oclock represent
extensions of earthly and heavenly time. Kitty Hawk: Mans first flight represents mans yearning for God or heaven.
Fire and Ice: The heat of love and the cold of hate are seen as having
cataclysmic power. Synecdoche is a kind of metonymy in which part of
something is used for the whole.
15
Some common examples of synecdoche are hands to refer to workers, head to refer to cattle, threads to refer to
clothing and mouths to feed to refer to hungry people.
Synecdoche, as well as other forms of metonymy, is one of the most common ways to characterize a fictional character. Frequently, someone will
be consistently described by a single body part or feature, such as the eyes, which comes to represent their person.
Also, sonnets and other forms of erotic love poetry frequently use synecdoche to characterize the beloved in terms of individual body parts rather
than a whole, coherent self. The two are hard to distinguish, because synecdoche is a kind of metonymy.
15
http:www.poets.orgviewmedia.phpprmMID17105 accessed on april 27, 2009
Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of something is used to refer to something that that name stands for. An example is These lands
belong to the crown. Obviously, the crown doesnt own these lands. The writer is using crown as a metonymy, he actually means to the king or to
the country ruled by the king. Synecdoche is a form of metonymy, but it differs slightly in that it
specializes, usually in reference to a number. When we say, President Bush won only the states colored in blue on the map, but he is the president of
the fifty, the word fifty is a synecdoche standing for the entire United States. Another example is The actor walked the boards. In this instance,
boards is just a part or section of the entire thing, the stage upon which the actor appears. The easiest way to single out a synecdoche from the general
class of metonymy is to see if the word represents a total, of which it is just a part or an individual number.
However, in the T. S. Eliot example under synecdoche, the ragged claws is a part of the whole. The actual reference is to a crab. Thus the word
claws represents the whole crab. If you can see the image as part of a whole, then it is synecdoche. If the image is actually a whole thing and represents
another whole thing, it is metonymy.
3
Symbol
The word symbol derives from the Greek verb symballein, to throw together and it noun symbolon, mark, or sign. It is an object, animate or
inanimate, that stands for or points to a reality beyond itself.
16
The cross, for example, is often used to represent suffering. Symbols, however, also indicate their own reality. For example, a cross not only stands for
suffering, but it also stands for Christian suffering. A sunrise not only represents new beginnings but the beginning of a new day.
The more you read and study literature, the more you will come across words that always function symbolically. The seasons are a perfect example.
Winter represents aging, decay, and death; spring is often used to represent energy, birth, and hope; summer is symbolic of childhood, fun, and laughter;
autumn stands for maturity, wisdom, and fulfillment.
d Theme
Theme is the central idea of literary work.
17
It is the idea, which is embodied in the total of the poem. This is what the poem is all about. It can be
16
http:www.aspirennies.comprivateSiteBodyRomancePoetryStylespoemx7.shtml accessed on October 02, 2009
17
Robert DiYanni, Literature: Reading Fiction, poetry and drama New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002, p. 754
a story, or a thought, or a description of something or someone – anything which is what the poem is all about.
The theme is what a piece of fiction stacks up. It is the idea, the significance, the interpretation of person and events the pervasive and unifying
view of life which is embodied in the total. So that the theme is main idea of a poem, if the reader cannot get the theme of a poem, it means the reader cannot
get what poet wants to show. And the reader cannot participate to the writer minds through a poem.
The theme of a story is whatever general idea or insight the entire story reveals. In some poem the theme is unmistakable and in literary fiction, a
theme is seldom so obvious. That is, a theme should not be a moral or a message; it may be what that happenings add up to, what the story is about.
The theme is also the last analysis of the poems. The focus of this analysis is to know the ideas or what the poet wants to show to the reader. To get the
theme it is necessary to analyze the intrinsic elements of the poem and also to make easy what poet wants to show to the reader. To get figure of speech tone,
diction and theme we have to read intensely, crossing line by line or word by word. Because of the language used by poet in poem is not like the other
literary works. The story without theme will be unclear and unlived. Theme in literature is
important subject and experiences of our public and private. Such as love, death, hope, despair and etc.
3. Explication
