Poetry: Exaggeration and Meter [7/14-7/17] July 15, 2008
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Our poetry for this week often demonstrates a combination of regular meters and exaggerated language/imagery. Pick one of our poems and help me understand how the two work together within the poem’s structure to help illuminate the poem’s theme.
- Establish how the meter is working: iambic pentameter or otherwise.
- Establish the rhyme scheme (if there is one).
- What words and/or images are exaggerated, whether overstated or understated?
- Does the poem’s rhythm do anything to highlight the exaggerated parts of the poem?
- Look for ways in which the regularity of the meter/rhythm are disrupted. Why would the poem change at this point?
Use these questions as a starting point to gather ideas about what is happening within the poem. Then, provide a brief analysis of its theme.
The Red Wheelbarrow is an interesting poem that gives you just enough information to figure it out for yourself and establish a meaning in which you come to on your own. The meter in this poem is irregular. It follows an AB CB CB AB pattern. A= 4 syllables B=2 syllables C=3 syllables. The commoness in the poem is held with the second line in each couplet. In each couplet the second line contains one word with two syllables. This is important because it stresses the meaning of the word. Another important feature is that if any one part of the poem was missing you would be left saying to yourself what the hell does this mean. There is no real rhymes scheme to this poem at all. The whole poem appears to be an understatment to me. It says how the things are important but doesn’t tell you why they are. The irregularity of the two middle couplets is supposed to place emphasis on the wheel barrow and the rain. It is supposed to make you view that the tool has rain on it. The rain is symbolic to giving life. Therefore the importance of the wheel barrow increases because the work will due to the rain. This is a good sign for the livelihood of one that obviously lives a hard life dependant upon things in nature in which he cannot control
I agree with Brandon on the pattern of the Redwheel Barrow and it does led to how the wheel barrow provides the neccessities of life.