The Everything Writing Poetry Book (12 page)

•
Epistrophe:
My friends are happy my family is happy, and I am happy.

•
Epanalepsis:
Luck will always bring more luck; sorrow will always bring more sorrow.

•
Anadiplosis:
The drawer will go in the desk, the desk will go in the moving van, and the moving van will go to our new home.

•
Antimetabole:
One may fight to live but one should not live to fight.

•
Chiasmus:
He throws away his valuables but his garbage keeps.

•
Polyptoton:
She can dream the undreamable, and find the unfindable.

From this brief sampling, you should be able to sense the rhythm established by the repetitions. Some of that rhythm is reinforced by word order, too. Another way to think of these repetitions is to think of them as swings of a hammer tapping the nails of your sentences in place. Each blow secures the nails more firmly, and the construction of your poem takes shape with artful and solid design.

Figures of Speech

You also have at your disposal tools called
figures of speech
. Also known as
tropes
or
conceits
, these figures will add depth to the meaning of your poems and add originality to the images you summon. You are probably already familiar with the two most common figures, the
metaphor
and the
simile
, but many others can help you as well. Again, Corbett and Connors's book
Style and Statement
has a thorough list of these figures. Here is just a sample from the list:

•
Metaphor:
a comparison in which one word or phrase that normally designates one thing is used to designate another

•
Simile:
a comparison using the word “like” or “as”

•
Synecdoche:
a reference to something by naming one of its parts

•
Metonymy:
a reference to something by naming a closely related object

•
Pun:
a play on words

•
Onomatopoeia:
words that sound like what they mean

•
Paradox:
two statements that seem contradictory but may actually be true

Here are some examples of these figures:

•
Metaphor:
My mother is a saint.

•
Simile:
My mother is as giving as a saint.

•
Synecdoche:
All hands on deck!

•
Metonymy:
He always pays with plastic.

•
Pun:
The price of shingles is going through the roof.

•
Onomatopoeia:
The only sound was the twitter of a bird.

•
Paradox:
The silence was so loud it hurt my ears.

As beneficial as good figures of speech may be, you must be careful not to overuse these tools. When a writer overuses figures of speech and other methods of repetition it often takes away from the substance of the work. One common problem occurs when writers rely on clichés. Remember: They're called clichés for a reason. So, don't beat a dead horse! Use repetition wisely.

Using Contrasts

Another tool that is useful in poetry is
contrast
. When a poet uses contrasting images and moods in a poem, she is better able to underscore the poem's dominant purpose. As an exercise, read the following poem, “Neutral Tones,” by Thomas Hardy, and underline any sets of contrasting words or images. Additionally, next to the stanzas in which they appear, name the conflicts between the speaker and the object of his frustration found in these contrasts.

We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though
chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
    —They had fallen from an ash, and were gray
.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
    On which lost the more by our love
.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
    Like an ominous bird a-wing
.…

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
    And a pond edged with grayish leaves
.

The first contrast is found in stanza one: a frozen pond and a sun so white it appears to have been chastised by God. The speaker also notes a few scattered leaves “on the starving sod.” They have fallen from a dormant ash. Here the landscape mirrors the weary love between the speaker and the woman. He, like the sod, is starving for affection, but neither the woman nor the sun will nourish anything. Ironically, from this point on in the poem, the “we”—a collective, unifying pronoun—is separated.

In stanza two, the woman's eyes, rather than focusing on her love, “rove.” Forget the notion “I only have eyes for you.” Their dialogue is not an expression of desire or affection but a “tedious riddle” that weakens their love further. The eyes and the lips, therefore, betray a love gone wrong.

In stanzas three and four, contrast underscores the death of love. In stanza three, the smile is “the deadest thing/Alive”; the grin shows “bitterness” and foreshadows the end of their relationship. In the last stanza, love has not made the speaker happy; instead, “love deceives,” and nature, which is usually a restorative force, holds all the dead-ends and wrongs that “have shaped” his memories.

So, is there anything “neutral” about this poem? Not really. The title is the starkest use of contrast. This single moment in life ends the speaker's hope of love. But the contrasting title allows the reader to work toward a better understanding of the poem's content. Using contrast allows a poet to draw attention to her main focus, while exciting the reader's senses and challenging his preconceived notions.

Chapter
6
All about Meter

R
eading poems aloud will give you insight into a very important poetic resource: the stress, or lack of stress, given to certain words and syllables. You can arrange these syllables in such a way that you create rhythm in your poetry; this is called
meter
. Meter can give your poems a stronger musical quality—a cadence that gives shape to a line, a stanza, or indeed, a whole poem.

Dealing with Stress

When you speak, certain sounds and syllables receive stress—that is, your voice rises in pitch and volume, and you enunciate all of the letters. Certain sounds and syllables remain unstressed—your voice lowers in pitch and volume, and you blend, change, or drop the sounds of some letters. For instance, when an English speaker says the word
television
, she puts stress on the first syllable, raising her voice in pitch and volume and enunciating all of the letters. In contrast, the last syllable receives no stress—her voice drops in pitch and volume, the s changes to a
zh
sound, and the vowels
i
and
o
disappear between the s and the
n
.

The patterns of stressed and unstressed sounds and syllables in English are very difficult to follow. Pronunciation has undergone significant changes over the centuries, and regional dialects and words taken from other languages have their own pronunciation patterns. Words can change their stress patterns according to their functions in a sentence as well. For example, the first syllable of the word
reject
is stressed when it is used as a noun (“I want the rejects sent back”). But when it is used as a verb, the stress is on the last syllable (“He will reject the faulty merchandise”). The first syllable of the word
placid
(an adjective) is stressed, but if you change it into the word
placidity
(a noun), the second syllable is stressed.

Stress can also change according to the type of sentence you are making. For instance, in a normal statement such as “She is beautiful,” your voice starts high on the word
she
but then descends steadily through the sentence until hitting the bottom with the syllable -
ful
. In contrast, if you ask the question “Is she beautiful?” your voice find its highest pitch on the syllable -
ful
. Finally, if you exclaim “She is beautiful!” your voice tends to emphasize the word or syllable you want to be the center of attention. For example, if you want to highlight her beauty, the stress will fall on the syllable
beaut
-.

Rules of Stress

Fortunately, there are a few general rules that can help you distinguish between stressed and unstressed sounds and syllables. Modern English still retains elements of its root language, Old English. For example, when you say the word
watchfulness
, you place the stress on the first syllable because that is the syllable that carries the most meaning. When you say the word
forgiveness
, you place the stress on the second syllable for the same reason. Words borrowed from other languages—
dependent, regrettable, insanity
— also follow the same pattern.

In words and phrases known as
compounds
, Old English indicates stress on the first part of the group, especially if the compound has been present in the language for a while. Thus, when you say
bookkeeper, manhunt, busybody
, or
panhandle
, the stress falls on the first syllable. In newer compounds, however, especially those that remain two separate words, the stress tends to fall evenly:
knickknack, Mad Hatter, spring break
.

It is also important to listen for changes in vowel sounds. Remember that the majority of syllables in English have a vowel sound, which is considered the loudest part of that syllable. However, those vowel sounds will weaken or disappear if placed within an unstressed syllable. For example, when the vowel appears in an unstressed final syllable, especially a suffix, the vowel sound may be reduced to the mid-central vowel (or
schwa
), because it requires less action by the tongue. Thus in the word
able
, the initial
a
sound is the long mid-front vowel, but in the suffix -
able
, as in
available
or
believable
, the
a
sounds like the
u
in
nut
.