Analysis of the poem The secret Life of Books by Stephen Edgar - Essay Example

? "The Secret Life of Books" by Stephen Edgar "The Secret Life of Books" by Stephen Edgar Language, narrative, character, themes, and genre are fundamental aspects of any piece of literature. "The Secret Life of Books" is one of poetic works by Stephen Edgar. Stephen Edgar is a renowned Australian poet, who utilizes perfect craftiness, diverse cultural reference, and resounding capacity in making science a reality in literature. In the poem, "The Secret Life of Books," Stephen Edgar personifies the books and gives them life and a human aspect with an aim of making them assumes a deeper purpose in life. Six verses with five lines in each verse define the poem (Edgar, 2013). The author portrays books as a magical force using distinct language, narrative, character, themes, and genre. This paper presents an analysis of the language, narrative, character, themes, and genre of the poem "The Secret Life of Books." The poem uses a very loose structure and language thereby manifesting how people loosely interpret books and morals as well as values in life. Furthermore, we can establish the hidden language that the poem uses in defining its title, “The Secret Life of Books.” The secretive language that the poem adapts confirms that books have a hidden purpose that individuals take time to unearth as seen in line 11 and 12 (stanza 2) (Edgar, 2013). The author uses a light and comical language to represent his views. His choice of language presents an aspect of irony since the poem presents content that is more serious. As such, it is ironic that Stephen Edgar uses a light and comical tone to present serious ideas. Moreover, the poem lacks a proper rhyme scheme since the author uses free language and free verses, which depicts that the speaker is seriously contemplating the immense power of books. The author equally uses personifying language where he claims that “They have turned the world/ by the twisting of hearts”, which leads the audience to forget that books are immovable objects (Edgar, 2013). This influences the audience to realize that books have a greater purpose in life. Notably, the use of a casual and humorous language may imply that the poem has no intention to convince the audience that books have a greater purpose but only seeks to tease them into rethinking about the significance of books. More so, the language used in the poem derives irony in the poem. Initially, the author asserts that books are immobile by stating, “They can’t move (Edgar, 2013).” Conversely, the author uses a language, which describes their effects and suggests mobility by stating that “They have turned the world/ by the twisting of hearts (Edgar, 2013).” Indeed, the use of connoted language correlates with the meaning and literary devices in the poem. The poem uses second person narration (the “you”) to address the audience who reads books but places less significance to such books. Moreover, he uses literary devices to relate our lives to the lives of book for example the repetition of the word “they” in the poem to personify books. The author uses four verses with six lines in each verse to narrate the poem. It also adopts a lyrical style where Edgar narrates the poem through his eyes and expressing his personal feelings thus helping us to relate with the poem (Edgar, 2013). The poem adopts a consistent structure to narrate the poem, which reinforces the light tone used in the poem to deriver substance. Notably, there is rhythm in all the second and sixth lines and in all the third and fifth lines in each verse of the poem (Edgar, 2013). The narration adopted by the author depicts a figurative and literal meaning where he starts by personification, then persuading us to believe in books, and later plotting individuals in the poem. Indeed, at the end of the poem, the author discusses how books can change the way readers think, talk, and act until finally “they have written you (Edgar, 2013).” The narrator creates interplay between books and the audience by using “they” to represent books and “you” to represent the reader. This helps us to relate with the meaning of the poem although this interaction is only a presumption since we are yet to establish the relationship, as we have not opened the book to read. Indeed, he claims that readers often “scoff at determinism (Edgar, 2013),” which depicts that the audience comprises of selective readers. The author uses the quality of unfinishedness in narration where he uses incomplete sentences at the end of the second and third stanzas (Edgar, 2013). Ultimately, the author is seemingly narrating the poem with a view of persuading the audience into realizing the deeper purpose of reading books (Edgar, 2013). Initially, the author introduces the book as a character by using personification. Indeed, he refers to the book as “they” which depicts a human character. For example in line four of stanza 1, the author says, “they do their work through others (Edgar, 2013).” The personification of books to reflect human characters helps us to relate with the feelings of the author and establish the meaning of the poem. The personification presented the books as articulate characters. Later on, the author introduces the audience as another character by using “you” to represent the reader. Indeed, in line six of stanza 2, Edgar says, “You may suspect, that you don't know of (Edgar, 2013).” Probably, the author introduces the audience as the second character to depict the readers who has little respect for the deeper purpose of books. The interplay between the two characters derives an understanding on the power of books and the meaning of the poem. In fact, in the first line of the last stanza, the author shows how one character dominates the one where he claims, “They have you (Edgar, 2013).” The first character dominates the poem and hence his power as presented by Stephen Edgar. In fact, despite the poem using a light language and a comical tone, it relevantly uses a serious tone to present the relationship between the two characters. The author presents the interrelationship by manifesting how the reader, literature, and the author need one another as the readers rely on information contained in literature to make reliable decisions. The genre of this poem is lyrical poetry where the author adopts a lyrical structure to narrate the poem (Huhn & Kiefer, 2005). Ideally, a lyric poem presents the speaker’s emotional and personal feelings as seen in this poem (Edgar, 2013). Indeed, the poem has specific rhyming schemes and relies on regular meter based on certain syllables (Liffiton & McAllister, 2013). Notably, Edgar uses a lyrical format and a specific structure in each verse to present his personal feelings. Indeed, the first, third, fourth and sixth lines in every stanza have about eleven syllables while the second and fifth lines in every verse have about four syllables (Edgar, 2013). The contradicting number of syllables in the lines may also refer to the paradox in the poem. The main theme in this poem relates to the power of books or literature. The author shows how literature uses its power to influence the reader. The personification of books in this poem reflects how books aim at influencing the readers and how the reading affects the readers. In fact, the author claims, “They have turned the world to their own account by the twisting of hearts (Edgar, 2013).” The poem also presents the power of literature over science by using connotations in the poem. For instance, the third verse asserts that we scoff at determinism, the selfish gene while choosing books to read (Edgar, 2013). Notably, “selfish gene” and “determinism are scientific words. However, the author reckons that we choose books in relation to their stratagems. This confirms that literature is more powerful than science. Indeed, the authors continue to assert this power by manifesting the addictive nature of books where he directs, “look, already the blurb is drawing in some further text (Edgar, 2013).” The deeper power of books reflects at the end of the poem where the author notes that, “They have you (Edgar, 2013).” This shows how readers can relinquish their personality to books. After reading a book, the contents of the book fill the reader’s brain and his words are “caught between quotation marks” as their hearts beat an allusion. This shows that the books have a deeper purpose of defining the lives of the audience as well as reducing readers into simple characters. More so, we can see the poem referring to itself as a text questioning other texts (Edgar, 2013) thus depicting the deeper purpose of books and language. The power of books is clear in line 1 of verse 1 where the author claims that books have "stratagems (Edgar, 2013)." The power of the books as seen in the poem draws a line between the books and the readers, which equally relates to the paradox of referring to books as mobile objects. Nevertheless, the use of personification to present the strength of the books creates an ambiguity. This is because we cannot ascertain whether books influence their readers or whether writers designed a powerful language to curb such influence. References Edgar, S. (2013). The Secret Life of Books. Retrieved from: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-secret-life-of-books/ Huhn, P., & Kiefer, J. (2005). The Narratological Analysis of Lyric Poetry. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Liffiton, L., & McAllister, J. (2013). Discussing Poetry Forms: Sound and Structure. Retrieved from: http://learn.lexiconic.net/2.2poetryforms.htm Read More