Elements of Poetry

As with narrative, there are "elements" of poetry that we can focus on to enrich our
understanding of a particular poem or group of poems. These elements may include,
voice, diction, imagery, figures of speech, symbolism and allegory, syntax, sound, rhythm
and meter, and structure. While we may discuss these elements separately, please keep
in mind that they are always acting simultaneously in a story. It is difficult, for example,
to discuss voice without talking about imagery, sound, meter, diction and syntax. Above
all, these elements reveal something about the poem's "theme," meaning, or function.
• As with narrative, there are "elements" of poetry that we can
focus on to enrich our understanding of a particular poem or
group of poems. These elements may include, voice, diction,
imagery, figures of speech, symbolism and allegory, syntax,
sound, rhythm and meter, and structure. While we may
discuss these elements separately, please keep in mind that
they are always acting simultaneously in a story. It is difficult,
for example, to discuss voice without talking about imagery,
sound, meter, diction and syntax. Above all, these elements
reveal something about the poem's "theme," meaning, or
function.
 Voice: Speaker and Tone-
• As DiYanni notes, tone refers to the poet's "implied attitude
toward its subject. Tone is an abstraction we make from the
details of a poem's language: the use of meter and rhyme;
the inclusion of certain kinds of details and exclusion of other
kinds; particular choices of words and sentence pattern, of
imagery and of figurative language" (479). A poem could
convey reverence toward its subject, or cynicism, fear, awe,
disgust, regret, disappointment, passion, monotony, etc. Tone
has a great deal to do with meaning, for a description of a
parent would be radically different depending on a poet's
attitude toward that parent.
 Diction, Imagery, Figures of Speech,
Symbolism and Allegory-
• Simply put, diction refers to word choice and is
intimately related to imagery and figures of speech
because a poet chooses a word to achieve a certain
sensory, emotional, or intellectual effect. Choosing
"wandered," for example, suggests something
different than, say, "walked around," "shuffled,"
"drifted," "floated," etc., for each word suggests a
different attitude, image, or connection. Your job is
to explore the possibilities, always broadening the
meaning and linking it with other words and images.
• For example, placing words in new contexts
creates metaphors, for the word suggests one
meaning and the context another.
• As noted earlier, word choices creates images, the
"concrete representation of a sense impression,
feeling, or idea. Images may invoke our sight,
hearing, sense of smell and taste, and tactile
perceptions." Imagery refers to a pattern of related
details. When images form patterns of related
details that convey an idea or feeling beyond what
the images literally describe, we call them
metaphorical or symbolic. The details suggest one
thing in terms of another.
• For example, images of light often convey
knowledge and life, while images of darkness
suggest ignorance or death. This leap from
one image to its symbolic counterpart is based
on an interpretive act and must be done in
context.
• For example, white is usually associated with
purity, cleanliness, and virginity, but in Moby
Dick the great whale is white and suggests
absolute evil, but the use that symbolic color
is consistent within the novel.
• Figures of speech refer to special kinds of
language use. We already mentioned
metaphor and simile, but there is also
personification (giving inanimate objects or
abstract concepts human qualities),
synecdoche (using a part of something to
convey the whole), metonymy ("substituting
an attribute of a thing for the thing itself"), or
litotes (understatement).
• Again, these figures of speech depend on
word choice within a specific context. Saying,
for example, "My pen sings on paper" is an
example of personification because we have
given a human quality to an object, but to
achieve this effect we had to choose the verb
"sings" instead of something else.
• The result is also metaphorical because we know
the verb "to sing" is usually not used when we
talk about pens. Another example of how all
these elements work together is the phrase, "My
son growled as he entered the room, clawing at
the carpet, bearing his teeth until he noticed the
cake, his voice now a gentle purr." Choosing
certain words creates a series of metaphorical
actions suggesting animal imagery.
• Symbol and allegory is merely the widespread
or extended use of metaphor. In other words,
if we use a single metaphor to structure an
entire poem or story, we are in the realm of
allegory.
• If the poet uses a metaphor that has often been
used in a particular way (i.e. water to convey
birth and death; spring to convey birth, and
winter to convey death; green suggests fertility
and growth while black suggests death or evil;
deserts suggest death or infertility, etc.) then we
are in the realm of symbolism, but symbolism
also refers to any use of an object, person, or
place that represents something beyond itself.
• The "symbolic" significance always depends
on interpretation and therefore must be read
in context.
Syntax, Sound, Rhyme, Rhythm, and Meter

• Syntax refers to word order, but word order

creates certain sounds, images, and attitudes.
As I noted in the Elements of Fiction handout,
the way a writer chooses words, arranges
them in sentences and longer units of
discourse, and exploits their significance
relates to his or her style which conveys more
than the verbal identity of a writer; in fact,
syntax reflects the way a writer sees the world.
• For example, Faulkner's convoluted, complicated,
long, and often formal prose conveys something
about the way Faulkner sees the South that he
writes about. Hemingway, on the other hand, with
his minimal, fragmented, often interrupted and
staccato style reveals something about his typical
preoccupation as well, World War I and its
devastating effect on relationships. Again, "form is
content." How something is said is just as
important as what is said.
• While sound is important in narrative, it is especially
important in poetry because of poetry's connection to
song and dance, and sound has everything to do with
syntax. Using harsh sounds to convey a harsh
environment is particularly effective, as is the use of soft
sounds to convey more delicate emotions or actions. How
sentences are arranged often determines how a sentence
sounds. Rhyme, arranging a sentence so that one word
rhymes with another, can help organize a poem, but it can
also emphasize or contrast actions or emotions.
 Structure-

Structure refers to how a poem is organized. There are set

forms like sonnets, but also free forms which have no "rules"
to follow, and the choice of form can either reinforce or
contrast with the theme (i.e. a sonnet about free love may be
used ironically to suggest that free love is also constrained). A
poem can be organized much like an essay (problem,
exploration, then conclusion; unenlightened to enlightened),
or it can visually look like what is being described (a poem
about religion may look like an altar), or it can mimic the
action described in the poem itself and reinforce the theme
(see page 546).
While narrative offers the same pleasure, poetry
is more economical, giving us a distilled version
of what narrative provides but forcing us to pay
even closer attention to the words on the page.

Interpretation also depends on the same

methodology we discussed earlier:
• First, use the details in the poem to orient
yourself in it, to locate and understand the
characters, their situations, and their actions.

• Second, look for repetitions and oppositions

in people, places, language, objects,
movement, and actions. Decide what or who
is valorized and devalorized.
• • Third, uncover the implications of the repetitions
and oppositions by exploring the relationships of
similarity and difference that link the poem's
images, sounds, structure, etc.. This is where you
look for the metaphorical content in the people,
places, language, objects, movement, and
decisions and where you try to identify the
allusions, the "subtexts," the connections between
other texts.
• Fourth, use your observations to make sense
of the poem, to come up with a "theme,"
interpretation, or "reading." That is, "this
poem suggests that ______ " or "this poem is
saying that _______" and this is why I think
so....

• Finally, evaluate and critique the poem's

"literary" merit.