Merging Dreams of Lovers with Leftover Pizza: A Critic - Essay Example

Merging Dreams of Lovers with Leftover Pizza: A Critic What is a poem? If someone asked you what the essence of a poem is, what would your answer be? If you were asked to write a poem, how would you do it? A poem as they say is a creative writing used to express thoughts, emotions, and even events. It sometimes conveys a principle and a paradigm of a campaign or dreams waiting to come true. There are renowned poets like E.E.Cummings, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Joyce Kilmer, Amy Levy and many more. There are aplenty of people as well who are writing poems as a hobby or simply as a venue to express one self. There are many ways to write a poem and many styles to present it, but for me a good poem is a poem that delivers a message that cuts across time strengthened by its elements of style. The poem Merging Dreams of Lovers with Leftover Pizza by Amylia Grace is about the erotic pleasures in a hopeful relationship. At the first reading of the poem you would distinguish right away the sensuality involved. There is a stirring of emotion that would make you want to finish reading all the stanzas to see where it ends. The last two stanzas however would tell you something more is in the poem than the mere eroticism. Reading again twice, thrice and it would lead you to the theme of the poem which is the desire for a lasting passionate relationship. The Elements of Style A romantic poetry is characterized by William Wordsworth as “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (qtd. in Russel et.al) and clearly the poem of Amylia Grace is one of those because of the intensity and dominance of the reader’s feelings on sensuality in a lasting relationship. The string of emotions in the poem was accentuated first by the employing first person in the singular object using I and plural possessive forms using our and we. Using first person in poem expresses immediacy and personality that evokes ownership from the reader. Its consistency all throughout the entire poem enhances the longing emotions which helps connect the reader to the theme of the poem. The use of first person in the poem does not discriminate nor points to a particular gender as the speaker which makes it more universal. This poem however universal is intended for specific groups of population. Anyone who has fallen in love and reads the poem could derive a connection with the desire for a lasting relationship and true love, but the depth of the poem’s erotic meanings can only be fully understood by those who experienced the same passion and at the same time the entire lack of it. Poetry is a surge of emotions that “… originates in primeval expressions of emotion which are by nature expressed in rhythmic and figurative form” (Finnegan 32). Primitive cultures were characterized by communal nature or lack of individuality which gives way to direct relation of feelings to others expressed in words. Rhythm and figures of speech are fundamentals of poetry. Although there is no formula on how to write a good poetry, the features of rhythm and figures of speech supports the message and emotions that the poet wanted to evoke to its reader. The poem in critic displays no end rhymes in each verses but the emotion is conveyed by its variation of stress and pause. The rhythm in this poem is on the changes or fluidity of the stressed and unstressed syllables creating surprises and building emotions as the reader recites one line to another. Although there was an attempt for alliteration in the line “spread like sunlight over slices of cold pizza I serve” of the first stanza with the accented syllables of words beginning in letter S, it was not significant at all since there was no consistency in it. What was immediately visible though was the poet’s use of imagery to enhance the poetic messages. The poem by Grace displayed several figurative languages but mostly simile using the word like to compare two things “The Times / spread like sunlight over slices of cold pizza I serve / on paper plates.” Only one of the seven stanzas does not contain simile but is not left empty because it was provided with a metaphor “The tender hours.” There is no tender time or hour in reality but its presence enhances the erotic meaning of the previous words in the same line “Me in my spa robe, you inside it” as well as the previous and succeeding stanzas. Ted Cohen, a philosopher said that one of the significance of metaphor is “the achievement of intimacy” (qtd. in Hirsch) or how the poem invites the reader to form a relationship with the words and provide a meaning to it. The use of personification in the fourth verse “Like trombones / sliding inside pianos” followed by another metaphor “The wordless hours” are another mixture figurative languages that enhances the romance and sensuality of the poem. The power of imagery in this poem is in establishing relation to the passionate experiences of the reader on how tender hour is defined and executed in his or her life. Caesurae or the significant pause in reading within a line like “time we don't fall after all--and love is not destined” is practiced by the poet all throughout the seven stanzas. The caesurae presented additional venue for the reader to be in tune with the message by listening to the sound the poem makes and the emotion it evokes. Enjambment or the breaking of a sentence at the end of lines and between verses is also constantly used by the poet in each stanza. Using enjambment emphasizes a particular word and its meaning. It gives the reader more opportunity to absorb the sound and meaning of words which is influential in conveying the mood of the poem to the reader. In the case of the poem by Grace, the enjambment assists the reader in determining the value of the words and the relation of each word to the emotions it wanted to transfer to the reader. One sample is in the lines “I am here, / as always.” places equal value to the message of assurance on lifelong presence. The message then translate into feelings of security and comfort for the reader as well as desire to be somebody to offer such to someone special or to have someone who will make the same assurance to the reader. The last special style in the poem is the use of musical elements like musical instruments, type of sounds and even reference to a famous composer Gustav Mahler and his fifth symphony. A poem in whatever style is more beautiful and meaningful when read out loud because its composition variables that can be felt strikingly with the aid of the listening skills. What is commendable in this poem is the unifying use of orchestra instruments and symphony that supports the intimacy of the poem. Had the poet chose to use different instruments from various music genres, the word connections that invoked and sustained the passionate feelings would dissipate into frustration and then withdrawal of connection between the reader and the poem. The reference to Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony is instrumental as well in conveying the message of the poem on the desire to live life as it is embracing fear, hurt, tragedies, changes, death, dreams, love and hope. The Berliner Philharmoniker stated that Mahler wrote fifth symphony at the time he met his wife, the symphony starts with a funeral march but progresses into a jubilant mood of “tenderness, dreaming, and a sense of yearning, full of hope”. Conclusion As Hirsch said “the poem moves from the eye to ear, to the inner ear, the inner eye.” Poetry is an art of its own kind but its essence is on its eternal connection with the different readers across generations. Poetry brings the reader to think, feel, imagine, and dream. Its success is on how it establishes a link from poet’s individual experiences to mankind’s universal truth. Poetry thus is not merely writing and expressing but of building connections and relationships with the readers attained by employing essential strategies to make the poem more substantial. Consistency or irregularity of the poetic elements could help accentuate the meaning and feelings invoked by a poem. When a poem is not successful in evoking and sustaining emotions, its connection to the reader dissipates. When this happens, nobody would want to read that poem again. Works Cited Berliner Philharmoniker. “Berliner Philharmoniker Sir Simon Rattle.” Digital Concert Hall. 04 June 2011. Web. 28 April 2012. Finnegan, Ruth. Oral Poetry: Its Nature, Significance, and Social Context. Great Britain: Cambridge University Press, 1977. Web. 27 April 2012. Hirsch, Edward. How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love With Poetry. Florida: Harcourt, Inc., 1999. Web. 26 April 2012. Russel, Tony et al. “MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics.” The OWL at Purdue. 27 April 2012. Purdue University Writing Lab. Web. 28 April 2010. Read More