In order to make simpler my explanation of poetic analysis I figured I would share a poem I wrote a couple of years ago for my girl friend. It is not quite long enough to call it a sonnet but it is relatively brief and I thought I could analyze it as a sample of effective poetic analysis. I have always been a demonstrative person so this makes it a bit easier for me. I thank you for your indulgence.
Sample:
A tale of a million love stories, But this one is mine.
We met, we kissed, we loved…We were friendly.
The greatest of friends…The best of adversaries.
A constant constraint against our own estuaries.
Together a torrent…apart a mere flow.
Unabated by the years, our love,
Does naught but grow.
Effective poetic analysis first requires that you read a poem thoroughly. This means more then a passing glance and a gentle perusal. It means reading it into your mind like a hungry man eats meat. It should be chewed over and swallowed, preferable noisily and with out manner. It should be read aloud so each nuance of the wording and sound is taken into account. Each poem is as unique as a person or a place and should be considered as such.
First, consider the title. The title is important but not necessary. The sample above I have never entitled because it was for my friend and companion and the meaning, of course, would be obvious to her. If I was going to publish this poem (which several of my friends have begged me to do along with my others) I would probably entitle it if for no other reason then issuing it a page number in a book would be considerable easier. I wouldn’t want a section of my book entitled “Works without titles.”
Next consider the setting of a poem, topic and literary voice. This is best referred to as language use and word choice. The setting of the above piece is not apparent but it could be said that the setting of this piece is the terrain of my mind and the fields of my heart when I consider the holder of my heart.
The topic is simple and yet abysmal, Love. In the first lines of this piece I was trying to preserve the earlier parts of our relationship and how it grew from a simple chance meeting to something oh so much greater. It demonstrates the growth of the modern relationship and the stages it passes through. The meeting, the sex, the love and at last the true companionship that can only be grasped in time. Love can be blind, furtive, and brief. It will hurt you as it pierces, but this pain is transcended by the healthy respect of friendship beyond the mere flesh.
In the next three lines I covered the terms of our friendship. We are both staunchly independent and set in our ways. We are at moments indeed “the greatest of adversaries”. But as anyone who has been in a healthy relationship will tell you it requires “constant” work and sacrifice “against” ones own wants, desires and devices to allow a relationship to continue to grow. That is why I chose to use water metaphorically in the poem. Water will always continue to flow, no matter what obstacles you throw up in front of it. Together we are greater then the sum of our parts. Or in this case “a torrent”.
Lastly, in the last two lines I bring the poem to a conclusion that looks forward in to our relationship and the positive that as we grow older we can look forward to nothing but a growing respect and love for each other. Here, I used a bit of ‘Figurative Language’ or language that infers more then the obvious meaning. If you read the poem out loud it almost sounds as if this poem goes horribly wrong at the end. It goes from a love poem about growing to all of a sudden “Not” but grow. That is intentional on my part as I tend to have a bit of a twisted sense of humor and the first time I read this to my girl friend I wanted to see if she would catch the play on words. Of course she caught the “but grow” part.
On that point, you probably noticed the literary voice I used when writing this piece is a bit above board and a tad formal. It is a straight forward narration with some rhyming and word craft however my audience would accept a bit of higher diction and wording. This is because my intended audience is a very bright, intelligent, successful Vice President of Finance at a local retail company. Considering your intended audience is very important when composing anything from advertising to penny-dreadful fiction, let alone a poem to the love of your life.
I used metaphor, dual meaning and a lot of figurative language in this piece. I had to. I was trying to pack a lot into a very small piece of literature as my analysis above shows. I have been writing poetry most of my life. It’s part hobby and part passion. As it should be because at it’s best poetry inspires passion far more then the standard prose. I hope you have enjoyed reading this at least as much as I did preparing it for your review. Until next time, excelsior!
References
Morrison, W. (2006). Together a River.
