Introduction:
Literature is a formal process involving diverse techniques and styles to communicate thoughts, share experiences, and create meanings. Poetic analysis extends beyond understanding the content to examining how ideas are communicated through different elements and techniques. It provides insights for better comprehension and appreciation of poems, emphasizing the essential role of meaning in poetry. Meaning depends on the poet's use of literary resources, elements, and techniques.
For instance, in David Herbert Lawrence's 'Snake,' a 20th-century poem, the poet discusses cosmic concord through his encounter with a snake. Lawrence employs free verse and various literary techniques like personification, repetition, simile, and metaphor to convey his message effectively. By attributing human qualities to the snake, he explores its value and its jeopardized condition. The poet's use of elements and techniques facilitates the communication of ideas and meanings.
The responsibility of this unit is to enhance your competence in analyzing poems, focusing on manner/method, and this guides our objectives in this unit.
Objectives:
At the end of this article, students should be able to:
1. Explain the meaning and functions of techniques and styles in poetry.
2. Determine how a poet employs literary devices to disseminate ideas and create meaning.
3. Discuss comprehensively the literary techniques used in selected poems.
4. Provide an informed and comprehensive commentary on the style displayed in selected poems.
5. Determine how techniques and styles are employed to communicate themes in given poems.
6. Establish the role of language in poetic construction.
Main Content:
Meaning of Manner/Method (Technique and Style)
A poem conveys its theme, concern, and meaning through specific manners or methods. The ways in which an author expresses interest are termed methods, representing the techniques and styles employed to construct meanings and communicate ideas, feelings, and experiences. As a literature student, your responsibility includes identifying and discussing the techniques a poet employs to develop meaning.
Technique, in this context, refers to how the poet creates meaning, encompassing manner/method—the way ideas and meanings are conveyed in a poetic text. Literary techniques are "specific deliberate constructions of language used by an author to convey meaning" (Davidson 1). These techniques enhance literature, making it more pleasing and clarifying the inherent message to the reader. Fiction, particularly poetry, utilizes various devices to convey ideas and meanings more engagingly.
There are two categories of literary devices—literary elements (such as theme, plot, language) and literary techniques (including metaphor, simile, images). The primary techniques of poetry include imagery, symbolism, metaphor, personification, motifs (sequences of symbols/images, feelings, colors), which contribute to the poem's overall significance.
For example, in J. P. Clark's poem 'The Casualties,' the death motif encompasses "burial, grave, kwashiorkor, dead, wounded," effectively expressing his interest in the consequences of war. These techniques often function by association, applying the qualities of one object to another to convey original information.
Now, let's transition to the discussion of style.
The method a poet employs to communicate meaning, feelings, and tone in a poem is his/her style. Leech defines style as "the way in which something is spoken, written, or performed" (10). According to Abrams, style is "the manner of linguistic expression in prose or verse – how speakers or writers say whatever it is they say" (312). Style focuses on an author's use of words, encompassing word choice, sentence structure, arrangement, and figurative language. The combination of these elements establishes tone/mood, symbols/images, and significance in a poetic text. It describes "how the author describes events, objects, and ideas" (read.write.think 1).
One way to understand literary style is to think about fashion styles. Clothes can be formal, dressy, informal, casual, preppy, athletic, and so forth. Literary style is like a garment that a text puts on, analogous to the body being the information underneath. The specific words, structures, and arrangements used are like the clothes. Just as one person can be dressed in several fashions, a single message can be dressed in various literary styles (read.write.think 1).
Poets utilize different styles to make distinct appeals, distinguishing one poet from all others. Each poet's style is influenced by context, culture, attitude towards the subject, and concern. For instance, J. P. Clark and Wole Soyinka's poems with the same title – 'Abiku' – showcase different attitudes to the common subject. The comprehension and interpretation of meaning in a literary text are significantly influenced by the author's style.
A poem's style encompasses all the choices – poetic and technical – made by the poet to generate the desired significance and create an impact that enhances the reader's total experience. Poetic choices include diction (word choice), form (lyric, ode, ballad, sonnet), subject matter, and technical choices such as punctuation, line length, rhythm, and rhyme pattern.
The poet can convey meaning through the preferred poetic form, like sonnet, lyric, haiku, epic, etc., each bearing implicit meanings. For example, ballads are associated with adventure, sonnets with love, and haikus with philosophy. Additionally, a poet's style includes musical mechanisms like rhythm and rhyme. Therefore, a study of poems' method examines various factors. In summary, manner/method closely examines the technique and style employed by a poet in a poem, exploring how literary devices express ideas and create meaning. As a literature student, unit 2 of this module is essential, providing guidelines for comprehensive analyses of poems from the perspective of manner/method.
Practical Tips for Analyzing Poems: Manner/Method
The following suggestions aim to make your attempt at analyzing poems less cumbersome and more fruitful:
1. Read the Poem Closely:
- Begin with the title, as it provides clues to the poet's word choice and influences your understanding of the poem.
- Titles may indicate the category or offer satiric or suggestive elements.
- Analyze how the title enhances the communication of ideas and creates meaning.
2. Identify, Classify, and Examine Poetic Techniques:
- a. Form (category): Each category has distinctive characteristics (e.g., sonnet's 14 lines of 3 quatrains and a couplet).
- b. Structure: Observe techniques like enjambment, repetition, caesura, etc.
- c. Rhyme Scheme: Note the presence or absence of rhyme schemes.
- d. Figures of Speech: Identify imagery, metaphor, etc.
- e. Sound Devices: Consider rhyme, meter, assonance, onomatopoeia, alliteration, etc.
- f. Language Style/Use of Language: Examine words for sound and meaning, including alliteration and repetition.
- g. Word Choices: Consider word length, number of lines, and sensory imagery.
- h. Tone/Mood: Reflects the poet's feelings and attitude, influencing the overall mood of the poem.
- i. Shift in the Poetic Experience.
- j. Opening and Concluding Lines.
- k. Impact of Structure on Meaning: Changes in rhyme or diction can indicate shifts in meaning.
3. Consider Additional Factors:
- l. Speaker: Identify the speaker, who may be the poet or another character.
- m. Movement and Period: Understand the historical period and persuasion of the poem/poet.
- n. Purpose of Writing: Determine whether the purpose is to inform, persuade, entertain, etc.
- o. Literal Meaning of Words: Facilitates understanding of primary ideas.
- p. Connotative Use of Words: Recognize deeper meanings or universal truths conveyed through words.
By paying attention to these elements, your analysis becomes more comprehensive, aiding in a deeper understanding of the poem's manner/method.
Analyzing "A Poison Tree": Form and Structure
To commence the analysis, let's introduce the poem and describe its physical form and structure. "A Poison Tree" was originally published in the 1794 Songs of Experience. It comprises four stanzas with an aabb end rhyme scheme (e.g., friend/end, foe/grow, tears/fears, smiles/wiles). This results in four sets of rhyming couplets, each quatrain constituted by a full rhyme. The seamless transition from one stanza to the next creates a sense of "one thing leads to another," employing a cause-and-effect principle that establishes a natural correspondence between actions and their impacts over time, facilitating the communication of the poem's concern.
"A Poison Tree" primarily follows a trochaic trimeter, where each line consists of three feet with the beat pattern DAdum DAdum Dadum. The trochaic trimeter contributes to the poem's rhythmic flow and impact. If you recall syllable foot and meter from the last module, look at lines 1 and:
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end
.
Literary analysis requires a concise synopsis of the text, understanding both what the poem is saying and how it conveys its message. "A Poison Tree" narrates the speaker's direct experience with a friend and a foe, making it a poem of experience. The speaker, using personal pronouns like "I" and "my," expresses anger towards the friend, which is promptly resolved. Conversely, anger towards the foe is left unexpressed, gradually consuming the speaker and leading to the foe's demise. The narrative primarily employs the past tense but concludes in the present tense, providing a nuanced understanding of past experiences and their current impact.
Knowledge about the poet's period and society enhances the analysis. William Blake lived in 18th-century England, where the state and church advocated repression of emotion, contrasting with Blake's emphasis on self-expression. "A Poison Tree" becomes an allegory of suppressed emotion and its consequences on society, reflecting Blake's response to societal norms.
The poem centrally explores the dire consequences of unexpressed human anger, hatred, and revenge. It uses the speaker to confess and differentiate attitudes toward anger with varying objects (friend and foe). The narrative vividly depicts the development and effects of anger across the four stanzas, culminating in the climax of consequences. The deliberate organization of the stanzas contributes to telling a complete experience, from beginning to end, highlighting an essential aspect of Blake's style.
Analysis of "A Poison Tree": Stanza Development and Literary Devices
The first quatrain initiates the subject, revealing that expressed anger dissipates, while repressed anger grows. The second quatrain updates the repressed anger, nurtured with hatred and thoughts of vengeance. In the third stanza, it matures, bearing fruit that captures the foe's attention. The final stanza culminates in the destruction of the foe, attempting to steal the deadly fruit. Each stanza signifies a significant development in the speaker's anger, creating a sequential and palpable movement. The stanzas adeptly present the concern, providing additional information that deepens the poem's meaning. Importantly, the last stanza portrays the foe as an enemy, sneaking into the garden and stealing an apple, resulting in the speaker's gladness at the foe's death. Both parties are deemed guilty, illustrating the effect of anger on interpersonal relationships systematically.
The poem logically argues against suppressing anger, initially highlighting the benefits of expressing the emotion before it turns destructive. The opening lines, "I was angry with my friend/I told my wrath, my wrath did end," deviate from the rest, setting the stage for later discussion.
The poem employs various literary devices, including metaphor, rhythm, and rhyme, imagery, symbolism, antithesis, alliteration, assonance, allusion, onomatopoeia, and consonance.
Metaphorically, the speaker's mind, contaminated by anger, is represented as "a poisoned apple," serving as the metaphorical title. The poem extends this metaphor to depict the speaker's masked anger as a metaphorical tree planted in the mind's garden, nurtured day and night, yielding a poisoned apple. The consequences of unexpressed anger are metaphorically communicated through the bright apple attracting the enemy, resulting in the foe's death.
Visual imagery is richly employed, as seen in phrases like "it grew both day and night," "till it bore an apple bright," and "my foe outstretched beneath the tree." These visual images vividly depict the nurtured hatred, its fruit, and its impact. The poem effectively communicates its theme using these images, providing mental pictures of the lodged anger within.
Moreover, the poem features natural images connected to vegetation, including tree, apple, water, sun, and garden. Day and night, growth, and death are also presented as natural phenomena, complementing the focus on human anger as a natural process. These images collectively enhance the poem's portrayal of the processes repressed anger undergoes to become deadly, illustrating its natural progression from beginning to consequences.
Examining the Use of Antithesis and Contrast in "A Poison Tree"
The first stanza of "A Poison Tree" prominently employs antithesis, a literary device that contrasts opposing ideas. Blake strategically employs this tool to convey the speaker's contrasting approaches to dealing with strong anger and their respective consequences on human relationships. One approach involves open communication with a friend, leading to the resolution of anger, while the other involves suppressing the emotion towards a foe, resulting in its growth and catastrophic effects. This antithetical construction serves as a stylistic choice, portraying alternative attitudes and revealing the dual nature inherent in human beings, thereby enriching the poem's meaning.
Blake employs antithesis to externalize a fundamental human tendency, providing a broader image of anger's capacity to devastate interpersonal relationships. The contrasting attitudes also symbolize a shift in poetic experience, illustrating potential human responses to natural feelings and emphasizing the concept of personal choice.
The poem's structure is intentionally contrastive, featuring a combination of friend and foe, expression and suppression, morning and night, honesty and hypocrisy. The first two lines contrast with the rest in terms of content, while the last two lines stand in opposition to the others regarding tense. This deliberate contrast highlights the interpersonal conflict between the speaker and the foe, foregrounding the positive approach as an ideal antidote to unbridled anger.
Repetition is lavishly employed in the poem, particularly with the use of "I," "my," and "mine." This repetition personalizes the action, defining the intrinsic nature of anger and intensifying the element of secrecy. By focusing on the person, the poem emphasizes that managing anger is a personal duty, with the use of anaphora and parallelism reinforcing this perspective with the repeated "I" in every line.
Analyzing Additional Literary Techniques in "A Poison Tree"
The poem employs the literary device of polysyndeton, emphasizing the conjunction "and" at the beginning of most lines in stanzas two and three. This technique, known as polysyndeton, effectively communicates the sequential development of unexpressed anger, intensifying the themes and meanings by showcasing the interconnectedness of actions and thoughts.
Several other literary techniques contribute to the poem's expressive quality. Alliteration, as seen in phrases like "I told my wrath, my wrath did end" and "sunned it with smiles," employs the repetition of consonant sounds, enhancing rhythmic and rhyming patterns. Consonance and assonance, present in various instances, further contribute to the tonality and musicality of the text.
The abab end rhyme scheme and iambic meter pattern facilitate a natural and easy flow in the poem, making it pleasant to the ears and reminiscent of a nursery rhyme. These techniques not only enhance the aesthetic quality of the poem but also aid in effectively conveying its underlying themes and meanings.
Biblical allusions, including references to a "garden," "tree," "apple," and the "foe" who "stole into my garden," draw connections to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden from Genesis Chapter 3. This technique adds depth to the poem's meaning, articulating the consequences of anger and intensifying its moral message. The inclusion of biblical elements provides the poem with a religious undertone of universal significance, aligning with the timeless and universal nature of its theme.
The tone of the poem is characterized by an ominous, hostile, sinister, and furtive atmosphere, achieved through the use of terms like "wrath," "angry foe," "night," "stole," "veiled," and "deceitful." The anger motif is evident in words such as "wrath," "angry," and "foe," contributing to the secretive and melancholic mood that permeates the poem.
Language and Stylistic Choices in "A Poison Tree"
The analysis of "A Poison Tree" must duly acknowledge the significance of language and the precise choice of words, for language is the primary tool through which literature expresses itself. The poem predominantly utilizes language in a denotative manner rather than connotative, employing words like "fears" and "tears," "sunned" and "smiles" to convey the masked emotion. This choice intensifies the poem's portrayal of anger as an internal phenomenon with external consequences.
Embracing a metaphorical framework, the poem conveys its message through simple and concise language, predominantly employing monosyllabic and disyllabic words. This linguistic simplicity, as seen in lines like "I was angry with my friend/I was angry with my foe," exemplifies Blake's commitment to rendering complex experiences in an accessible manner. This approach aligns with Niyi Osundare's perspective that poetry should not be an esoteric, exclusive language but rather a form of expression that transcends learned quiz or classical lore.
Moreover, the poem incorporates contracted forms such as "veil'd" and "outstretch'd" in the last stanza. These contractions parallel spoken language, infusing a natural quality into the poem and aligning its style with the innate simplicity of human communication. The contracted forms also contribute to a sense of informality and immediacy.
The poem's use of punctuation is noteworthy, serving more for emotive effect than strict adherence to grammatical correctness. This deliberate choice in punctuation enhances the poem's expressiveness, creating pauses and rhythms that complement the thematic content. The use of punctuation contributes to the overall tone and mood of the poem, enriching its emotional impact.
Conclusion:
In summary, this unit has delved deeply into the intricacies of how a poet constructs meaning in poems, scrutinizing the expression of experiences, ideas, and messages. Specifically, Unit 2 of Module four has scrutinized the diverse styles evident in chosen poems and elucidated how these styles depict and augment the underlying meaning within the text. The unit has underscored the nature and functions of these literary devices, offering self-assessment exercises to gauge your comprehension of the material. Take advantage of these exercises to fortify your understanding, keeping in mind that "practice makes perfect." To enhance your analytical skills, continue dissecting numerous poems. Best of luck!
Summary:
This unit, building on Unit 1 of Module 3, focuses on the analysis of poems, with a primary emphasis on examining manner and method. Throughout the unit, it has:
- Defined and elucidated the concept of manner in poetry.
References and Further Reading
Abrams. Meyer H. (2005). A glossary of literary terms. Boston: USA.
Abrams, Meyer H. (1953). The mirror and the lamp. New York: Oxford.
Cracchiolo, Margaret Anna. (2009). ―A comprehensive case study on the ten Blake songs by Ralph Vaughan Williams: From ―Infant Joy‖ to ―London.‖ Ph.D. Thesis Florida State University College of Music.
Davidson. M. (n. d.). ―Literary devices, techniques and elements.‖ Web 14 June 2019. www. Pittsfordschools.org
Hirsch. E. D. (1964). Innocence and Experience: An Introduction to Blake. London: Yale U. P.
Leech, Geoffrey. (2014). A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. London: Routledge.
Osundare, Niyi. (1984). Songs of Marketplace. Ibadan: New Horn.
ReadWriteThink. ―Defining style.‖ Web. 14 June 2019. www.readwritethink.org.
Spacy, Andrew. (2015). Analysis of poem ―We Real Cool‘ by Gwendolyn Brooks.‖ 4 June 2019. www.owlcation.com
Thrall William Flint, Addison Hibbard and Hugh Holman. ((1960). AHandbook to Literature. New York: The Odyssey.
Ul Huda, Ahmed Rameez, Roshan Amber Ali and Shoaib Mahmood. (Oct. 2014). ―Stylistic
analysis of Williams Blake‘s poem ―A Poison Tree.‖ International Journal of Linguistics and Culture (Linqua-IJLLC), Vol. 1. No. 2: 76-86.
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