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Lindsay Sampson

Dr. Thurber

Modern Poetry

31 October 2016

A Modern Approach to Structure and Meaning

Set apart from other literature, poetry is distinguished by its playfulness in the placement

of words upon the page. The composer is free to build the poem as he likes. Some choose to

employ established structures or forms such as the sonnet, the ode, the villanelle, and so on,

which are defined by their stanzas, the number of lines, the meter, the syllabic stress, etc. Thanks

to poets such as Walt Whitman (who is often credited as the father of free verse), modern poets

experimented with the bounds of inherited forms or dropped them altogether. However, this does

not mean they abandoned structure and form; rather, poets contrived new forms, unique to the

thematic substance of the poem and intentionally designed to better convey the poems meanings

and purposes. Modern poets had the freedom to play with the established formal patterns and to

forge new connections between structure and meaning, even and especially in the breaking of

such patterns.

William Butler Yeats and William Carlos Williams were each a prominent name in the

early modern poetry scene, for Europe and America respectively. Yeatss The Second Coming

(hereafter abbreviated TSC) and Williamss The Red Wheelbarrow (TRW) are both

considered banners for modern poetry. They define what it means for a poem to belong in

modernity, yet they tackle markedly different aspects of poetry. TSC is noted as a modern

poem in its tone and thematic content. And TRW pushes the limits of poetry in its
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experimentation. At first glance, the poems seem to hold little in common. TSC is pithy and

expansive whereas TRW is ambiguous and concise. But in fact, they perform very similar

structural feats and plays of meaning. Both poems examine duality in structure and provide

multifaceted looks at meaning. Both poems contain some movement from the abstract to the

concrete, or vice versa. This is accomplished on the scale of the whole of the poems and within a

single line. Still, Yeats interacts more with the tradition of poetry where Williams pushes poetry

to redefinition and brash newness.

When presented with TSC printed upon the page, the reader immediately notes the two

stanzas (obviously enough). This first introduces the concept of duality in Yeatss poem. Both

stanzas contain the same themes of death, an evil end, or final destruction. The first stanza is an

objective portrayal of these themes. As an example, Things fall apart (Yeats 3): there is no

commentary, emotional or otherwise, not even the presence of the speaker of the poem. While

the whole of the first stanza could be said to be emotional in that it elicits an emotional response

from the reader through its vivid imagery and vocabulary, still the speaker of the poem is

emotionally detached. The observations are simply observations, with no personalized adjectives

or subjective descriptors. The second stanza is the speakers response to this objective

observation. In the second stanza, the I of the poem is introduced: a vast image out of the

Spiritus Mundi / Troubles my sight (Yeats 12-13, emphasis added). He interjects his own

emotions and response to these terrible happenings, one of fear and apprehension. The

relationship between the two stanzas suggest an impotence of the speaker to affect his

circumstances. He may simply observe and react, but he cannot change impending death or
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destruction. What was begun in the first linethis circling motion toward nothingnessis the

same in the end with the annunciation of the birth of a terrible beast (Yeats 1, 22).

Contrastingly sparse, TRW presents four stanzas in building relationship movement

from abstract to concrete. In the first stanza, there is no image, no concrete noun the reader can

envision. The reader is left wondering, What depends upon what? The second stanza presents a

simple image: an object noun and its color descriptor, a red wheel / barrow (Williams 3-4).

Then, as if the reader were to step closer, the third stanza clarifies the image: we distinguish the

beads of rain water on the wheelbarrow (Williams 5-6). The fourth stanza broadens and sharpens

the image; it is as if we looked around and noticed our surroundings, placing ourselves in

context. TRW suggests a new way of seeing through poetry or a new purpose of poetry

altogether. The poem begins with an abstract theme and illustrates it through an image, building

and adding new facets of perspective. The poet provides, in a heteroglossic manner, several

interactions with a single reality. The poems building structure contributes to that purpose. So

much depends / upon is almost a complete thought in itself, a single remark with dozens of

implications and thematic trails to follow (Williams 1-2). Placed as an isolated stanza for this

reason, yet it is modified by the following stanza, the red wheel / barrow (Williams 3-4). Lines

1-4 could be the completed thought of the poem, for it stands by itself. However, the poet

continues the same pattern between stanzas two and three, in that the red wheelbarrow is glazed

with rain / water (Williams 5-6). It is as if this is a different wheelbarrow than the first, or as if a

different observer is adding her perspective to the image. He did not comment on the rust, or the

light on the barrow, but on the rain water a unique perspective that notices a unique aspect of
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the image that no other perspective would capitalize on. And so this pattern of structure and

experiment of meaning continues through the whole of the poem.

TSC can be analyzed in terms of couplets; each line is paired through a relationship of

syntax or imagery. Consider lines 9 and 10: Surely some revelation is at hand; / Surely the

Second Coming is at hand. The syntax is echoed across both lines, which equivocates their

subjects some revelation and the Second Coming. Thus, the poet redefines a more abstract

concept (some revelation) to a specifically concrete occurrence (the Second Coming). The

biblical language parodies the Second Coming of Christ as foretold in the book of Revelation.

The poet, then, is a prophet of destruction, and it is as if we see through his eyes: at first a dim

outline of the reality that is to come, and then, as it approaches, we see clearly the rough beast

coming upon the world (Yeats 21). Similarly, lines 5 and 6 demonstrate the coupling of lines

according to imagery: The ceremony of innocence is drowned in the blood-dimmed tide.

The ocean or sea in biblical language is often representative as a source of evil, and the beast of

the book of Revelation comes from the sea. Therefore, beast of the poem comes to destroy

innocence. There are many other examples in the poem of how lines are grouped in pairs

according to some parallel, either thematically or structurally. The above examples illustrate the

sharpening clarity of the poets vision.

TRW is dependent upon couplets for its playfulness with meaning. The hanging

phrases over the line break change the meaning of the whole couplet drastically, causing the

reader to consider both meanings (first line, then the first and second line) in isolation. so much

depends could be paraphrased, a lot is uncertain or things are up in the air (Williams 1).

However, so much depends / upon changes the denotation of depends, so that it is now
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paraphrased a lot relies on or this is dependent upon that. Williams is intentionally drawing

the readers attention to the duality of language and how the poets purpose is to present the

heteroglossic nature of language in poetry. Again, consider the second stanza: a red wheel is

an entirely separate image than a red wheel / barrow, but the intentionally-placed line break

forces a careful reader to first envision one image, then the other. The fourth stanza both

confirms the setting, which was only hinted at in the second and third stanzas, and echoes how a

person perceives his surroundings through the structuring of the poem. He first notices white, the

color, in isolation from the actual objects, the chickens. This echoes and contrasts with the red of

the second stanza, demonstrating how an observer might organize his perception according to

color. The chickens complete the image of a farm setting and redefines the abstraction white in

concrete terms. Thus, even this small poem functions as heteroglossia through its deliberate

structuring that places several images and concepts in relationship with one another, even within

small stanzas of single phrases.

Not often discussed in modern poetry, meter plays a huge role in the tone, meaning, and

emotionality of Yeatss work. Loose iambic pentameter governs the majority of the poem, but

what is noteworthy are the breaks in this pattern. The first line begins with trochaic syllabic

stress before assuming the iamb: Turning and turning in the widening gyre (Yeats 1, emphasis

added on stressed syllables). This sound echoes the spiraling motion of the falcon away from the

falconer, as well as the overall image of the poem in which the universe is falling apart. Again,

the opening lines of the second stanza begins with trochees, contributing to the parallel

relationship between the two stanzas and solidifying the spiraling tone of the poem. Then,

beginning at line 11, chaos rules the meter: there is an extra syllable at line 11, a trochee in line
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12, six feet in line 14, another extra syllable tagged to line 16. These lines contain the image of

the beast in question. The chaos of the meter signifies the trembling fear of the observer at

ensuing chaos of the beasts reign. Finally, the spiraling sound of the poem is completed, as the

beast slouches to its birth another trochee (Yeats 22). Yeats bends the classical and more

commonplace meter to suit his needs in modernity.

Williamss TRW, in its ambiguity, is much harder to pin down to any single meaning

or even concept, yet it too employs rhythm in meter and purposeful arrangement of sound. The

rhythm, which could be called iambic, is introduced in the subject of the poems single sentence:

so much (Williams 1). Every following word-concept or image fits into this rhythm, as if

everything following in the poem fits into that schema of so much. In addition, many glide,

liquid, and sibilant sounds repeat throughout the poem, suggesting a softness in pronunciation

and a peaceful tone. Williams experiments with the basic building blocks of poetry and forges

new connections between structure and meaning.

Williams and Yeats may be iconic figures of modern literature, but they owe much to the

traditions that came before them. They play with the established building blocks of structure and

patterns of form to allow for multiplicity of tone and themes. Their deliberate placement of

words and syllables and line break, their use of enjambment and meter and the familiar tools of

literature are at once experimental and classic. Above all, Yeats and Williams prove that poetry

is both craft and art, and the poet is a wordsmith in that he designs and engineers a poem with

care for every detail.