Poetic Lines and Romantic Poems - Essay Example

Poetic Lines and its Affect on Meaning in Romantic Poems. Much more exists in poetry than just poems. Leigh Hunt defines Poetry as “the utterance of a passion for truth, beauty, and power, embodying and illustrating its conceptions by imagination and fancy, and modulating its language on the principle of variety in uniformity” (1893, p.1). Yet there is perhaps little possibility to uncover devices that would reveal the real meanings of poetry that have remained enigmatic in its nature ever since its existence. There are many devices however, applied to patterns of poetic beauty in order to construct them the way they really are. This effect is what brings the reading of poetry closer to its goal – the experience of life. One such device used to make poetry an expression of the truth and a tool to convey meaning is the structures of lines. The length and brakes of the lines, sentence structure and visual layout of the poems and the usage of ‘enjambments’ all contribute to the conveyance of intended message of the poetry. In this essay I shall analyze how the structures of the poetic lines convey meaning of the poems taking the ‘romantic poems’ as the central theme. In other words I shall evaluate the relationships between different poetic constructions of lines or structures and their effects in the meaning that we take form it. I shall analyze following five popular romantic poems giving examples of different structures of lines used within them: William Blake’s ‘The Tyger’, William Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’, S.T Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’, P.B Shelley’s ‘Ozymandias’ and John Keats’ ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’. William Blake’s The Tyger is one of the most analyzed and discussed poems of the Romantic era in which Blake tries to demonstrate the world of corruption and repression with a rather stark and creepy choice of words and expression. He exhibits the darker forces of the world using similar dark selection of sentence structures and words. George Ehrenhaft (2008, p.118) argues that “To understand a poem you must understand its tone. The tone of William Blake’s ‘The Tyger’ has long puzzled and intrigued readers. To this day, therefore, more than two centuries after it was written, the poem remains an enigma.” Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright In the forest of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? (Line 1-4) Talking about the visual layout of the poem, there seems to be enough elements that Blake uses to communicate to his readers. The stanzas and the lines are deliberately kept short and brief, probably to intensify the fearful and intimidating effects of the ‘Tyger’. Shortness of the lines symbolizes fear and negativity, for example in one’s inability to completely express what one sees. The poem in its visual representation therefore, offers an acute sense of insecurity and loathsomeness – very much a meaning that the poet wanted to convey. Darker forces seems to have engulfed the world of Blake where not a word has a significance of brightness, glory, and innocence, and his sentences are but those spoken in short, gasping or choking voice: “In what distant deeps or skies/ Burnt the fire of thine eyes?” (Line 5-6). Usage of enjambments which “is a French term for a run-on line – a line of poetry that has no syntactical or punctuational marker at its conclusion” (Baer, 2006, p.58) contributes to the meanings of poems and is it a major element of the same. Almost the whole of Blake’s The Tyger has enjambments: Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright/ In the forests of the night (Line 1-2). The suspense between “burning bright” and “in the forest” is an element that makes the reader jump into the world of confusion and fear. The constant choice of exhaustive questions the answers for which remain enigmatic adds to the plethora of bewilderment and disorder that Blake sees in his world: What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp? (Line 13-16) Another Romantic poem inviting much investigation in the field of poetry is William Wordsworth’s Daffodils. This poem has been interpreted as an epitome of the nature poetry that Wordsworth is said to have fathered. The poem through the presentation of nature in the form of ‘daffodils’, expresses Wordsworth’s self-introspection both as the peaceful solitude of daffodils as well as the joy of dancing with them. But there is nothing more important than the structure of the poem that contributes to its meaning. The visual layout of the poem with all the sentences following the systematic pattern of what is known as ‘Iambic Tetrameter’ contributes for the smooth, joyful, spontaneous and innocent flow of the poem – the foremost impression that Wordsworth derives from the solitude and bliss of nature. The structure also presents a sense of glory and glee, with its melodious and sweet stream of words and slow and soft currents of sentences, which Wordsworth experiences in his divine connection with nature (represented by daffodils): I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high oer vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. (Line 1-6) This stanza represents what Nigel Fabb (2002, p.189) calls “a coherent visual object to represent something external to the poem”. The short and crisp sentences give a feeling of an external effect that is presented for the experience of joy. This form therefore, seems to be what Naude (2009, p.21) points as something that “should echo or reflect the meaning. If you look at a bunch of grapes, you expect them to taste cool and sweet. You would not expect a fruit that looks like a grape to taste like an apple. The same applies to poetry” and indeed, that precisely applies to Daffodils. The usage of enjambments in lines like the following has profound implications to what the poem accurately wants to express: They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. (Line 9-12) “Never-ending line” would not be enough description of what Wordsworth sees and therefore, “Along the margin of a bay” would exactly visualize the scene. The enjambment that functions as a brief suspense intensifies the vivid picture (of the long line of daffodils stretched along the margin of the bay) in the next line. Similarly, the pause after “…at a glance,” leads the reader to a mystery only to give them back the image of the exact joyful dance of the flowers in the immediate line that follows, “tossing the heads in sprightly dance”. Things aren’t very different with S.T Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan or, A vision in a Dream: A Fragment”. It is a poem the title of which has been taken from the Mongolian Emperor, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan. It is an account of an Opium-induced dream as the title suggests. Although the poem has been interpreted variedly across the globe, nothing concrete is deciphered. It is therefore, mostly in its part a mysterious poem and indeed ‘mystery’ seems to be the very meaning of the poem. The structure and layout adopted in the poem shows random, dreamy, blurred and bleak images that add up to its nature of mystery. Some of the sentences are long and some, notably shorter. Stephen Schneider (2009) argues that there are five elements that make poem a poem: the line, the sound, the density, the associations and the irony. These elements are indeed present in Kubla Khan. Line brakes are abundantly used in the form of enjambments in the poem. The first five lines are good examples: In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. A suspense and mystery is created in the very first line, with the mention of both “Xanadu” and “Kubla Khan” – both unknown place and person. The mention of the “pleasure-dome” in the next line symbolizes a rather pompous and snobbish display of the ruler. The use of the enjambment functions as an intensifier of the mystery that keeps adding itself with the precedence of each line: “the sacred river, ran/” where? “Through caverns measureless to man/” where exactly? “Down to a sunless sea”. The suspense and mystery only intensifies but never gets unraveled. This function of enjambment is best explained by the argument of Mary Oliver (1994, p.75): A line may be a grammatical whole, a sentence, or at least a logical unit. Or a phrase of logic may be broken entirely. Or a logical phrase may be broken at an apparently sensible point, letting the reader feel satisfaction at the end of the line; then, the following line may deliver some continuing information which redevelops the previous line. Sometimes this information is merely continuing, sometimes it is surprising. Another famous Romantic poem that demands out attention is P.B. Shelley’s‘Ozymandias’. This sonnet provides the theme of the ultimate decline of one’s power and might against the rapid change of time, by the portrayal of a wreckage of the statue that was once of Ozymandias, the powerful and pompous king of Ancient Egypt. The simple and uncomplicated format of the sonnet developed using casual and almost equal-length lines play the function of representing irony. The sentences are constructed without the inclusion of elaborate turn of phrases. I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies… (Line 1-4). The short length of the lines, firstly are quite like those uttered in casual and laid-back conversation with another person. Yet, they seem more like representation of factual information spoken heartlessly. This irony of bitter truth and unfeeling expression seems to be imperative in underlying the meaning of the poem – that no wealth, power or prestige lasts forever. Like other poems under my investigation, this one too has the element of enjambment used in many occasions. We can find one along the lines continuing the fourth: Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read (Line 4-6) The function of the above enjambments best fits the argument of Watson (2001, p.334): “By going counter to the metrical flow of the poem, enjambment provides an element of variety. (Its) chief effect…though…is to bring verse closer to everyday speech”. It also functions for demonstrating the image of the sculpture vividly and clearly by pausing the line on the word “frown” (line 4) and then continuing with the description of “wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command” (line 5). Some lines also make an abrupt end of a sentence in the middle: Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of colossal wreck, boundless and bare (Line 13-14) This strengthens the function of casual and speech-like, yet ironic presentation of information that is based on the poem’s theme. The short line, “Nothing beside remains” is of a low, extended and a sinister tone that expresses the final ranting as if having come to the end after a long talk or having proved the point without even mentioning it. This helps in nothing but taking the poem closer to its meaning. The last poem for out investigation is the famous poem by even more famous poet: John Keats’ ‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’. One of the most quoted and celebrated poem of Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn discusses the themes of ‘Change versus Static’, ‘Sound versus Silence’ and ‘Mortality versus Immortality’. Looking at the static, soundless, immortal and unaltered figures made on the Urn, Keats evaluates their merits and demerits and compares them to the rapidly moving yet ephemeral lives of humans. The expressive, rhetoric and relatively longer lines of the poem portray a deep introspective, reflective and meditative mood of the poet as though he is yearning for the real meaning of life. Looking at the carvings of pipers on the urn he says: Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on; (Line 11-12) Most quoted among others the above lines play an important role in communicating the meaning of poem. The enjambment in the lines expresses better the existence of sweetness in unheard melodies – for they are enduring and undying at least: “those unheard/ Are sweeter…” And the pause after “unheard” intensifies the sweetness, both in the unheard melody as well as the poem. The construction of the lines with repetitive words and expressions such as the followings only add to the already existing glory of immortality and timelessness in the figures present on the urn: Ah, happy, happy boughs! That cannot shed Your leaves, not ever bid the Spring adieu; (Line 21-22) More happy love! More happy, happy love! For ever warm and still to be enjoy’d, (Line 25-26) Naude (2009. P.21) argues that typically “if the poem is bout the journey of life, the lines might be very long to show that life is continuous and a long, drawn-out process”. Yet, Keats’ lines are not just long; they are suggestive and expressive about the irony of life. This is produced by the construction of lines with the sporadic and random use of comma, pauses, exclamation marks, semi-colon and many other hidden interruptions and interjections. They suggest the extent of perplexity, confusion and irony present in human lives. And not to forget, the most famous lines ever of John Keats would perhaps not exist if it was not for its beautiful construction: ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty, – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.’(Line 49-50) Thus, having studied and analyzed how different usage and constructions of poetic lines affect the intended or derived meanings in Romantic poems, I have arrived at certain insightful conclusions. Foremost, one of the most important poetic structures of lines is what is known as ‘enjambments’, “the continuance of a phrase from one line to the next so that there is no pause at the end of the line” (Griffith, 2006, p.141). It helps to create appropriate tension and suspense that facilitates better understanding of the poem and it helps to, as Watson (2001, p.335) argues, “assist the forward movement of a poem by creating tension between meter and grammar”. McCorkle (Qt.1990, p.186) puts it better: “enjambments alone can dramatize the ‘curve of emotion’ in the text, from relaxation to tension to resolution. Secondly visual layout of poems affects the meanings by rendering the exact mood and expression portrayed in the lines. The length of the lines, thirdly, in poetry expresses appropriate frame of mind and message of the poet. If the message or events in the poems are fearful, intimidating or ironic, the lines could be shorter, random and fleeting, yet, if the meaning intended are of joy, emotions, life and love, the lines could be deliberately kept longer, extended and expressive. Overwhelmingly, poems could exist without any of the other poetic features, but it is unlikely that they could survive without the visual and connotative help that the poetic lines and structures render them. Bibliography Baer, W. , 2006. Writing Metrical Peotry: Contemporary lessons for mastering traditional forms. USA: F.W Productions, Inc. Blake, W. ,1982. 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Sharrock (Ed.), Selected poems of William Wordsworth (p. 85). Oxford: Heinemann Educatational Publishers. Wordsworth, W. The Daffodils. In M. I. Lovejoy, Poetry of the Seasons (p. 69). Ayer Company Publishers. Read More