The Highwayman

For those of us who love a touch of romance and tragedy, this poem gives more than enough of it. Unfortunately, the book's preview is nothing like the poem. I wouldn't advise you to read Kiss of The Highwayman unless you want to.

Alfred Noyes' poem is the perfect example of a wonderfully written poem. It rhymes, it builds, it masterfully uses repetition… what can I say? It's a masterpiece. Alfred Noyes, born in 1880, published this poem in Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems, in 1907. It is arguably his most beloved poem.

The Lady of Shallot

This beautiful poem is told in true Tennyson fashion. It is a tale of King Arthur's court, and is filled with the magic that comes with tales such as these. It is a special treat to read again.

Where you can view the poem with art work. It is a lovely experience. Tennyson taught me the art of using figurative language. He also helped me develop pacing and rhyme.

The Raven

This poem and I go way back. We met in the sixth grade and I've frequently revisited it since. I love Poe. He may have been a drunk in his day but I still think he was an awesome writer. He's amazing, dark yes, but also amazing. I recommend Poe to all aspiring poets. This sadly tragic and painful poem helped me understand the importance of images. Just read it and see what effect the “shadow” in the last stanza has on you!

Annabel Lee

Ah, sweet and melancholy. Poe managed to capture a broad range of human emotions in his poem. Anger, love, passion, and sorrow, all drip from his pen, masterfully arranged by his genius. If you want to learn to move the heart of your reader, or if you'd like to know how the masters did it, this is the poem to read.

In Memoriam

image source

I recommend that you read the whole thing. I remember stumbling upon it in my AP English textbook, my beloved Norton. At once I was captured by the pain and the passion, the sorrow, and the anguish that Tennyson poured out onto those pages. Each poem breathed with life I'd never seen before. I want to share a little bit of his poem here,

“I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel:
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within” (Tennyson, 5). Can you feel that? That is pure beauty.

I encourage all aspiring poets to study these writers. Study all of the poets you can get your hands on, but especially these; these are the ones that will be your foundation; these are the ones that will make others wonder at your mastery of the language, at your instinctive pacing and internal rhyme, at your ability to let the poem run wild and yet have it stream from the paper and to the reader like a powerful beam of sunlight into one central direction. Happy reading! Till next time.

In Plath's poem she displays a forceful hate for her rule abiding father who had "no god but a swastika" showing he is a tyrant and a law abiding fascist. However she also shows an affection for her father as she tried to get "back, back, back" to him. This phrase shows how she might be missing him in the grave but also sounds pretty violent like a sort of stabbing movement, with the three strong syllables. Larkin in his poem shows that even though he can connect to his parents he is unwilling to be similar to them to avoid the "misery" being passed on to him. Plath however is unable to be like her father who passed away when she was a child. She blames him for his own death which leads her into writing such forceful poetry.

'Digging' by Heaney shows us the separation of the generation but he does not resent it but respects it. He writes as if digging was something he was not good enough at as he has "no spade to follow men like them", showing respect for the older generations and that they are too good at their job to follow in their footsteps. He also seems to come across as more important than his father as he "looks down" from his bedroom window as if digging is a peasant's job, contradicting the pride that he shows in his heritage. You also notice the separation between father and son when he mentions about his fathers "straining rump" as if he feels sorry for him and affectionate that he is doing all the work while he is still relaxing in his bedroom. However he worships his father and respects him largely telling us that "by god, the old man could handle a spade" showing his pride in his heritage and appreciation for his father and his job.

With Larkin his parents represent a generation which you cannot get away from. His grandparents, in the next generation above, are also represented irrespectably with "old style hats", making them sound stupid and odd as if it is something to be ignored. He also thinks of his grandparents as "soppy stern" which gives us the idea of characters which live by petty rules, restricting their children of freedom. The parents are not looked upon respectably, as they hand on "misery to man" through the generations. Showing that he has no concern for his parent's situation, thinking that all they represent is monotonous. The fact that he does not believe in having children contrasts with the traditional view of the meaning of life bewilders some people. With his advice to us, "to get out as early as you can" and to live an exciting but short life so you can get away from the idea of becoming parents and polluting your potential children's minds.

Plath refers to her father as a "brute" maybe due to the fact that he was part of the fascist regime, something she remembers bitterly. She also remembers him by the picture of him at the black board with the "cleft instead of a foot" showing that he was like a devil to her and also like a burden which thrived on rules and oppresion. The references to her father being like a vampire who "drank her blood" also shows that she thinks her father was an evil superhuman which lived off of her and ended her love for life. He adored not "god but a swastika" showing his Nazi and Aryan purity and rule abiding ego that he could not leave. The black boots that he wore reminds her of the time "in which she lived" like a foot being smothered with protection, discarding her freedom while leaving his footprint from her as if she is just another lost soul. However when she says she makes a "model" of her father it shows something she never had in her life, a role model in a father to look up to and admire.

'Digging' does show that his parents represent the weight of tradition and history. He shows this when he talks about his father digging "just like his old man", with the knowledge and skills of the job have been passed down through the generations. The tradition is remembered by Heaney through the "cold smell of potato mold" which reminds him of his childhood and family heritage. The history and age of the tradition is also described when his father "comes up 20 years away" whilst digging, emphasising the history and time passed as the layers of bog become thinner. His memories of digging are also shown in the poem through his father's actions displaying his influence on his son. If the tradition is going to be passed on Heaney has to be watching and following his father.

In Larkin's poem he says that you should get away from your parents and "don"t have kids yourself', this is taking his views to the extreme, wanting the generation gap to cease its existence. This bold statement is almost so crazy that you could take it as a joke, finding it a bombast kind of humor. Also the eye catching first line of "they fuck you up" could also be interpreted as a bold and uncanny joke, written to draw intrigued readers into the poem which some might associate with a stereotypical rebellious teenager. Although having parents is inevitable he uses them as a role model of what not to become and be like. The last two lines make you think whether he is being serious about what he is saying or if it is just a sincere pun. As Larkin has pretty much done the opposite to what his parents have done maybe we should treat his poem this way, so you should pay no attention to the message of the poem and do what you want.

In the poem by Plath comparisons are made with children's nursery rhymes and suffering which causes a dark and sincere kind of poem. She mentions that she lived like a "foot" in a boot, like the commonly known nursery rhyme, "barely daring to breathe". This almost ironic phrase takes a comforting nursery rhyme and makes it sound bitter and depressive. Plath also mentions that "every woman adores a fascist", showing her bitterness for the oppressiveness of the Nazi rule, again showing irony and extreme sarcasm. Near the end of the poem she communicates her thoughts by saying how she is "through" with her dead father as he did was influence her depressed life. This shows that she has finally had enough of life without someone to guide her like he might have done or even that now she is surrendering herself to him, ready to join him in the grave. This delivers the final punch to the poem like a storm which has blown itself out.

In Heaney's poem he shows a fair bit of humor and irony to assert his argument for why he chose to write, and that it was not the easy way out of the traditional digging. He starts off by saying how he holds a "squat pen" to emphasize that writing is just as difficult as digging. The similarities between digging and writing are also shown when he describes the way you dig, with a "boot nestled on the lug, the shaft against the inside knee". If you imagine how this would look on the spade and compare it to how you would normally hold a pen, the actions appear to be very similar, as if writing has evolved from digging. He also shows some irony when he tells us how he used to give his grandpa milk in a bottle "corked sloppily with paper". The paper in this time was merely an accessory and not needed for many things, but for Heaney in his later life it proved to be a necessity as it is one of the things he is associated with. Heaney finishes off the poem by saying he will "dig with it", referring to the fact that he will write instead.

The generation gap to Larkin, Plath and Heaney was huge; the separation between them and their parents was portrayed at times as if they were nothing like their parents. Larkin did not want to be associated with his, so made the gap as big as possible. Plath was already separated from her father who made her feel resentment towards him as if it was his fault for dying and leaving her suffocating in his wake. Heaney also felt the generation gap. Although he respected his parents a lot he almost looked down on the peasant like job of digging, and did not carry on the tradition passed down the generations.

As those great American poets, Messrs Roger and Hammarstein put it:

Let's start at the very beginning - a very good place to start.

Let's get clear, first of all, about who I'm writing for. Poetry isn't everybody's cup of tea - I know that. Poets Cornered is directed at people who are interested in poetry, and who would like to develop their understanding and skills in writing. Each issue will explore some facet of the poet's trade. Whatever style of poetry you prefer to read or write, the poet's apprenticeship is a long one.

Enough introduction. Let's get down to work..

Larrikin Metre

According to Sidney Baker (inThe Australian Language, published in the 1960s) the word larrikin 'came into currency in Melbourne a little before 1870'. The word is still in popul;ar use in Australia, and refers to wild young men - louts or hoons or - as they were rather quaintly referred to in an 1880s book: mischievous young fellows, larkers.

At the turn of the 19th century, an Australian poet named C J Dennis wrote a set of poems about a young larrikin - Bill - and his love for Doreen. The collection, entitled "Sentimental Bloke", has been continuously in print since the early 1900s in Australia

C J Dennis employed the iambic pentameter as the basic metre for this collection of narrative poems, but he introduced a variation: the fourth line in each stanza was a dimeter, not a pentameter (that is, it had two beats, and not five).

Here are the opening stanza of perhaps his most famous poem, "The Play". If you don't know this poem, then - to quote Fred Dagg, that other great man of Australian letters - you are a “fool to yourself and a burden to society”.

The stanza Beats Rhyming

Scheme

Wot's in/ a name?/-- she sez /. . . An' then /she sighs, 5 A

An' clasps /'er litt/ le 'ands,/ an' rolls/ "er eyes. 5 A

"A rose/," she sez,/ "be an/y oth/er name 5 B

Would smell/ the same/. 2 B

Oh, w"ere/fore art /you Ro/meo/, young sir? / 5 C

Chuck yer/ ole pot,/ an' change /yer mon/iker!" 5 C

Doreen/ an' me,/ we bin /to see/ a show-- 5

The swell/ two-doll/ar touch./ Bong tong/, yeh know. 5

A chair/ apiece /wiv vel/ vit on/ the seat; 5

A slap/-up treat. / 2

The drarm/er's writ /be Shakes/peare, years /ago, 5

About/ a bar/my goat/ called Ro/meo/. 5

Yes , I know - it's not strictly iambic - the opening line begins with a troche, not an iamb. So does the final line of the first stanza. But overall, the meter is iambic pentameter; each line is composed of five feet, and each foot has an unstresses syllable followed by a stressed syllable. (In the example, the stress syllable is shown in bold.)

The Variation

Except that C J Dennis introduces a variation: the fourth line in the stanza has only two beats or feet. The rhyming pattern is AABBCC. There's probably a name for this metre, but I've not been able to locate it, so I'm calling it The Larrikin Metre or The CJ Dennis form.

Set yourself a writing task

In "The Play", C J Dennis retells the story of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" in Larrikin Metre.

The key features of Larrikin metres are:

• Six line per stanza
• Lines 1-3 and 5-6 is each stanza are iambic pentameter; line 4 is a dimeter (two beats)
• The rhyming pattern is AABBCC

Retell the story of another famous Shakepeare play is Larrikin metre. Or you retell a famous fairy story, or chapter of Star Wars. The key criteria are that your topic must be very well known, and the poetic form must be CJ Dennis or Larrikin Metre.

Some more examples of Larrikin metre

On Shakespeare

To be or not to be? What does he mean: Questions as odd as that are rarely seen Are we supposed to think that this must be Profundity? I'd rather read a writer of more use Say Barbara Cartland, or p'raps Dr Suess.

And just in case you're beginning to feel comfortable with Larrikin Metre, here's a close rtelatively. It doesn't differs in terms of metre, only in terms of its rhyming pattern, which is ABABCC.

On Poets generally

For my friend and fellow poet, Myron Lysenko Poets are argumentative, I've found Not overly polite in conversation, Inclined to waffle, strive to be profound Such affectation! No matter if you're slow, you will soon know it You can't talk common sense to any poet Few poets these days want to write like Byron Ottavo Rima isn't quite their medium Instead we readers find we're stuck with Myron Lysenko's tedium. No grand themes here. No stimulus here to think His are the verses of the kitchen sink.

He loves a girl. He leaves - or she leaves him One wants a child and asks him to be father Or perhaps an epic ode to the dim sim I think I'd rather Sit in my lounge at home and watch TV Or spend the evening quietly sipping tea. Poets and alcohol - now there's a mix The poets say grog helps - it numbs the pain And stimulates their art - just like a fix They're off their brain. They burble, say enlightenment is dawning But can't recall a single word next morning Their god is Col-er-idge - who claimed he wrote His famous "Kubla Khan" while taking drugs Changed states of consciousness got his first vote Irrational thug! The bloke from Porlock is, in truth, Reality He's not to blame for Kubla Khan's banality. But Coleridge and his ilk at least grasped rhythm It really is a pity, don't you think That modern poets cannot keep up with them Their free verse stinks! No rhyme, no rhythm, free verse has no music No wonder that it makes both me and you sick.

 

A conceit is an extended metaphor. This, when used, can be very powerful to convey a message. Kipling uses this literary device to get his point across in “If”. “If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss, and lose, and start again at your beginnings and never breathe a word about your loss” serves as a very good example of a conceit, and how Kipling views the humanity of man. Kipling tells us that man has the potential to become so much more than they have been and how men should live their lives through lines such as this.

Alliteration by definition demonstrates the repetition of consonants in words that are close together. Jeffers uses strong alliteration in his poem “Original Sin”, which is portrayed in the first line. “The man-brained and man-handed ground-ape physically The most repulsive of all hot-blooded animals,” shows the alliteration of the use of "an". This use of alliteration guides the reader through the repulsive track of what Jeffers says man is.

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,” describes the frequency of winning and losing, but through a personified form. This gives Triumph and Disaster humanistic qualities. The reader is pulled into the poem more because of the personification, giving the reader an understanding of how common wins and losses are. This shows the reader a sense of humility and states that if one wins or losses they should act with humility, acting the same with each outcome.

Imagery is known as the formation of mental images, figures, or likeness of things, or of such images collectively. Used correctly and sparingly, imagery can paint a picture within a poem showing the read what they are reading. In “Original Sin”, Jeffers uses imagery to create the sense that man is repulsive. “Meanwhile the intense color and nobility of sunrise, Rose and gold and amber, flowed up the sky. Wet rocks were shining, a little wind stirred the leaves of the forest and the marsh flag-flowers;” demonstrates the picture Jeffers wants to put into the reader's head. This use of imagery sets up nature to be a beautiful thing while man is the exact opposite.

Martin Luther King once stated, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.” King's quote relates to the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling states that when one thinks about rises above his individualist concerns, his true manhood comes through. This manhood helps one to be humble and "roll with the punches". In conclusion, man needs the inspiration that Kipling gives us, because this inspiration can help one to become a better person, rather than the slap in the face Jeffers gives mankind.

Tennyson distinctly makes alliterations such as “That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me”. Throughout his poem there are also examples of imagery. “Much have I seen and known” is a good example of imagery in this poem. His writing style in this poem is; nonetheless, existentialist and completely optimistic. Tennyson makes it a point to explain the characters need to do everything possible while he's still alive, even at old age he can still do a lot with his time. Tennyson's poem is twice as long as Eliot's and contains more description on the characters life. Such as the places he's visited, how he had drank, and the wars he's been in. He places empathy in the reader, as he explains life is almost over for this character, and that he is trying to enjoy what is left of it.

Eliot's poem differs from Tennyson poem in more then one way. His poem is much shorter and contains less information on his life. Eliot's poem is explaining details of the current situation that this character is living. This poem is also very mundane as he is speaking about normal details he sees. Such as the water, the rain, a boy reading a book to him. This poem does contain imagery as well as alliterations like in Tennyson's poem. Examples of Imagery are, “ being read to by a boy, waiting for rain”. Also an example of alliterations is found in 10, “patched and peeled in London.”

Both poems contain imagery and alliteration, but Eliot's poem is much more mundane. They share the same subject, which are the consequences of old age. Both writers have an existentialist point of view. Although Eliot has tendencies to be shorter and blunt, there a lot of qualities are shared.