Poetic Man

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But metaphors are only one method of enhancing your writing. A poem about a horse may use a hoofbeat rhythm (otherwise known as an anapest or dactyl, depending on which syllable is stressed— da-da-DUHfor the former and DUH-da-da for the latter) to really draw the reader in. The reader doesn’t have to notice the hoofbeat rhythm for it to be effective, either; often, a rhythm helps readers remember what they’ve read without them necessarily realizing it. Hughes plays with multiple methods of ending lines in this poem, including enjambment. The first two lines of the second stanza and the second-to-last stanza are examples of enjambment, as the thought continues from one line to the next without any punctuation. Notice the way these lines feel in comparison to the others, especially the second example, isolated in its own stanza. The way it’s written mimics the exhaustion of carrying a heavy load, as you can’t pause for breath the way that you do with the lines ended with punctuation. In “Suppose”, life and death are personified. The old man carrying flowers on his head might refer to a fear-led life. The man wants someone to buy his flowers, but is also scared for the moment when someone will take them away. Money in hand, Death would like to buy the flowers. Cumming brings out the fact that death will inevitably take everything from life, but his striking use of this metaphor evokes in us an urge to not waste ours in the first place. 34. "Ode To A Nightingale", by John Keats When you come upon a poetic device in something you’re reading, ask yourself what the author is doing with it. What purpose does alliteration serve in a specific context? Why did I choose to use that spices metaphor earlier in this article? Was it effective or confusing? Consider your writing—whether it’s an essay, poem, or non-fiction article—as a meal you’re cooking. You use good ingredients and put a lot of care into the dish, so you know it’s going to taste good. But there are ways to make it taste even better, little additions that can bring out the taste of each ingredient to make it even tastier—a pinch of salt, a touch of cumin.

The last stanza issues what might be an overt invitation to moral judgment. Its question about the nature of the world inhabited by “the wealthy and strong” is mirrored by the question concerning their antithesis, the weak and powerless, imagined as “earth’s little ones.” But the first answer doesn’t clearly condemn the wealthy and strong. (Does it in the original?) It shows us something intensely human, after all, and even indigenous to the poem’s stanza-form and anaphoric structures: the turning wheel.

Love is a battlefield” is a metaphor that equates a broad, thematic idea (love) with something we all have at least a basic understanding of (a battlefield). It shows us that there are aspects in each that are also present in the other.

John from San Francisco, CaSadly, Phoebe Snow passed away in New York on Tuesday (4-26-11). She was 60 years old. PHOEBE SNOW RIP. In 1999, "Poetry Man" returned to the Adult Contemporary chart in a cover by Hawaiian female vocal trio Na Leo Pilimehana, which peaked at #24.Though Keats’ ode here may be in earnest, the deliberate use of language far outside our normal method of speaking often makes the form ripe for satire. In this case, Keats is using this language to discuss beauty and truth, two rather lofty themes that work in tandem with the lofty language. Compared to assonance, consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in a word or phrase. Repeated consonants can occur at the beginning, middle, or ending of a word. You may recognize this from classic children’s tongue twisters like “Betty Botter bought some butter but she said the butter’s bitter”… the repeated B’s and T’s add a jig-and-reel quality to the speech.