Poetry is frequently referred to as writing with specific characteristics that set it apart in its visual and auditory presentation. The poetic dictation has a well-organized structure thanks to its aesthetic and rhythmic characteristics. Such qualities not only provide an outstanding acoustic essence but also allow for various meanings. The structure of poetry is well-established and very distinct from that of writing or plays. Although both prose and poetry are considered literary works, they each illustrate tales in various ways. For instance, poetry stands out from other written works in a number of ways. Such features, rightly known as elements of poetry, provide a definitive and unique structure to the poetic dictation with richer sound qualities, including phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, metre etc. However, poetry being literature is a direct output from a writer/artist, wrapped with his or her imaginations to convey something beautiful. That is why the speaker, the listener/reader and imagery comprise some of the innate elements of poetry.
Elements of poetry bestow a definitive structure to a poem. Any literary work with the presence of such characteristics would be called a poem or poetry. The elements of poetry include structure, sound, imagery, figurative language, elements of fiction and poetic forms (Gardner p. 13). The elements offers better understanding of a poetry form as it exists with apt uniqueness designed with proper imagery. Furthermore, poetry induces diverse emotive expressions due to its well-established literary customs and practices to create a sense of taste, tone, perceptions, emotions, and attachment. Assonance and consonance add more interesting attributes to the poetry. Assonance, means repeated sounds, bestows pleasurable ambience to the words used. In ‘Pied Beauty’ Gerad Hopkins use such characteristic to rhythmic repetition.
Glory to be God for dappled things-
For skies of couple – colour as a brinded cow;
For rose moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Things-wings, stipple-dapple, all-fall etc. include some of the words used in as assonance.
The varied literary practices of poetry include repetition, onomatopoeia, aesthetics, resonance, rhythm etc. These are the elements and techniques which play a very important role in depicting pleasant-sounding tone of the verses and words. Also, many other characteristics of poetry include symbolism, ambiguity, and irony etc. which represent diverse meanings to interpreters’.
In a similar manner, figures of speech such as allegory, expression and metonymy provide a kind of reverberation between otherwise incongruent imageries – a multi-layered meaning, and establish relations not observed before (Strachan and Terry p. 119). Associated procedures of character may exist between individual verses in the designs of the rhyme or rhythm. Like other elements, the structure element is very vital and has other minor associated facets, which are poetic lines, stanza, enjambment, placement, verse etc.
According to Longenbach, a group of related words constituted by a single line of poetry is known as poetic line (Longenbach p. 9). For instance, Clement Clarke Moore crafted “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house” that illustrates a famous poetic line of “A Visit from Saint Nicholas”. Similarly, a stanza represents a number of lines that do convey closely related information of poetry. For example,
Like a bird of prey, the profile of night
Slanted against morning in turn illustrates a stanza in a couplet form. The couplet is taken from a poem,“ My black face fades” eloquently written by Yusef Komunyakaa.
Structure is one of the most distinctive features of poetry. A poetic expression is visually distinctive from other forms of prose, including lay as well prose. Lines and stanzas are associated with forms of poetry. They actually add to visual portrayal of a piece of literature in a very organized manner, making it very different from other literary forms. The visual appearance enhances rhythmically richer in-depth meaning (Gardner p. 32). For instance, Acrostic poems express the gist in the primary letters of lines. They may also deliver it in letters at other precise spaces in a poem.
Similarly, the element of sound is very crucial in poetry. It gives a distinctive acoustic character to a poetic dictation. The techniques used such as rhythm, meter, end rhyme, internal rhyme, and assonance etc. bestow a very richer aural attitude to poetry, which is far different from that of other forms of literature. Imagery and figurative language also adds definitive feature to a poetry dictation. Precise language and sensory details are associated with the imagery. On the other hand, symbolism, personification, metaphor, hyperbole and sarcasm include the attributes of figurative language (Strachan, John, Terry, and Richard p. 119). For instance, In ‘The Good Morrow’, John Donnes uses make certain connection between the lovers through navigation and mapping of their faces. Such tactic confirms the use of imagery and symbolism.
My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres,
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Poetry differs a lot from other forms of literature. The unique style in its presentation both visual and aural makes it none of a kind. The above discussed elements are very vital to the structural philosophy of the poetic dictation and make it more meaningful and interesting. Elements of poetry can be applied on any piece of literature to check, whether it is poetry or not. The elements can be utilized as a litmus test to identify the validity of poetic literature. Broadly speaking, any literary text without the presence of any element of poetry would not be categorized as poetry. Every literary work is not poetry. However, every poetic dictation is literature with definitive associated characteristics, which are generally known as ‘elements of poetry’.
Works Cited
Gardner, E, Janet. Literature: A Portable Anthology (3rd Edition). 2012 p. 26-37
Longenbach, James. Modern Poetry After Modernism. Oxford University Press. (1997). pp. 9, 103.
Strachan, John R; Terry, Richard, G..Poetry: an introduction. Edinburgh University Press. (2000). p. 119.
