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TJMF Publishing - Open Mike Cafe Editor's Desk Staff Editor Patty Zion |
Your Own Devices, Your Own Poem, Part One
As I Said Before
By Patty Zion
In the series "Your Own Devices, Your Own Poem," we will talk about a variety of poetic devices you can use to give your poetry extra style and weight. As we advance through the month's articles, we will discuss repetition, figures of speech, euphony, cacophony, and kennings. One of the easiest devices, repetition, stars in today's segment.
Repetition has had a bad rap in some poetic circles. Many poets think any repetition of a word is taboo, so they chop and chop at their poems to avoid appearing lazy or amateur.
But in fact, the masters have always used controlled repetition to their advantage.
Consider the simple but haunting ending of Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening:
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Even in modern free verse, repetition is a standard method of etching a message into the reader's psyche. Study the adept way Gwendolyn Brooks uses the word "We" in this small excerpt of her poem, We Real Cool.
We real cool. We
Left school. We . . .The word "We" appears eight times in this short poem, which contains only twenty-four words.
Clearly, repetition is a mighty tool for the knowledgeable poet. Used wisely and sparingly, it will take a simple poem to a higher level. There are several common types of poetic devices featuring repetition.
Anaphora, the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of several nearby lines or stanzas, has great rhetorical effect. Carl Sandburg's poem Arithmetic provides a humorous example of anaphora, as he repeats the phrase "Arithmetic is where." The entire poem is available at this web page:
http://katherinestange.com/mathweb/p_a.html
Sometimes a poem with little or no style can be instantly lifted by adding a bit of anaphora. Consider this device when you have written a simple, straightforward piece of narrative poetry, but you sense it seems too simple. Try to find a phrase within the poem which expresses exactly what you want to say, and add it at the start of several lines.
Polysyndeton (pol ee SIN duh ton), the repetition of conjunctions, is used in prose and poetry to imply an abundance of something. This non-standard grammatical usage can add a sense of movement or runaway thoughts. I first became aware of this technique while reading nonfiction prose by one of my favorite authors, Garrison Keillor.
Classic poet A.E. Housman uses the device to good purpose in the poem, When I Was One-and-Twenty.
When I was one-and-twenty
I heart a wise man say,
"Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;"
Note the connection between the opening line and the polysyndeton in the third line. We are overwhelmed by the word and; we also get the message that we should give away many, many things, instead of our hearts.
Ploce (ploh see) repeats a word or phrase within a line of poetry. The word might have the same meaning in its repeated place, or it might have a new meaning or connotation. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow brings ocean waves to a transcendent place by using ploce in the title, as well as the body, of The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls.
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The implication and higher meaning would not have had nearly as much impact if Longfellow had simply written, "The tide rises and falls."
Ricochet words combine two similar words into a hyphenated word. The second word features a changed beginning consonant or internal vowel sound - for instance, lovey-dovey, pitter-patter, tip-top. Essentially, this creates a rhyme or alliteration within a single word; the effect can be masterful if used with caution.
Ricochet words often imply humor, so they fit well into light verse, but considered examples also work in more serious poetry. Edgar Allan Poe used a slight variation on a ricochet word in this excerpt from The Bells.
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight! -
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
Thousands of possibilities present themselves to the poet who takes time to think about ricochet words. This is where the term poetic license comes into full meaning. When we expand our vocabulary in this way, we are designing a new language as well as a poem with spunk.
Exercise:
Expand each of these lines by inventing a repetition using one of the devices mentioned above: anaphora, polysyndeton, ploce, or ricochet words. Forget caution for the time being. Do not censor your own ideas; simply place the repetition in the line. Once you have changed all the lines, decide which one you like best, and which one you like least.
1. His speech became a rant.
2. Dogs can chew for hours on a bone.
3. When sunlight enters the room, the shadows bow.
4. The drums made a sound like thunder.
This exercise will help you to be more aware of the potential in your poetry. When you find yourself trying new types of repeated words, you can edit the results to produce a professional finished product.
Repetition can add depth to your work, bringing repeat readers. Go and write and be fruitful!
Staff Editor Patty Zion welcomes your editing questions and comments. You may reach her by e-mail at