A reader of poetry today might be surprised when poems seldom rhyme, have no obvious rhythm, and are devoid of adjectives and adverbs. Line breaks sometimes come where the thought ends, or they might run quickly on to the next line. Modern poetry could sound like daily language if it were not for its intent and intensity. So how do contemporary poets convey meaning to the reader/listener?
Poets today rely upon a series of well-crafted images to attempt to transfer ideas or feelings. Poet Robert Bly says "if there is any poetry, it is in the white spaces between the stanzas," suggesting that the real poetry happens in our minds as a result of the suggestion of words.
Poets began at the turn of this century to follow the trend towards free verse. Mary Oliver in Handbook of Poetry theorizes that free verse is a product of the times, that form may have been helped along by a desire on the part of early Twentieth Century poets to alter a poem's tone from "teacherly" to friendly. (Form follows function)
Change may also have been helped along by the idea of a democratic, and therefore, classless society emerging in America. Perhaps change coincided with the fact that more and more people could own books, and/or were better educated. Oliver concluded that when tone changed, it brought about a change in the line that was less formal and more conversational. Here, according to Oliver, speech entered the picture, and along with it, an affiliation with the iams (unaccented syllables) and dactyls (two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable) of our natural speech patterns.
One shoud not think, however, that modern poetry follows no rules. Some poets regularly compose three, four, five or six-foot lines. Comparisons from the known to the unknown are plentiful. Line breaks may occur at the end of the line creating a pause that allows the reader to ponder (endstop), or the thought might flow to the next line (enjambed) carrying the reader swiftly along with the thought or emotion.
A Poet's Dilemma - Abstract versus Concrete
A poet's job is to create a word-picture of actions in the mind of the reader so the reader will see, hear, taste, smell and touch the reality being created in the poem. Abstract words (love, hate, happy, funny, thrilled) leave us with only a general sense of what is happening. For example, beginners have a tendency to think,
Everyone knows what love is. But love has meaning only in the mind of the reader/listener. Emotions are complex, so it is necessary to demonstrate by use of actions the specific properties of the emotion.
The cardinal rule of poetry is: show, don 't tell. Compare the following: 1.) Mary was happy. 2.) Mary skipped down the garden path, singing along with the birds. Example 1 tells you and example 2 shows you how Mary feels. While both may be true, the first requires that the reader simply trust the poet's assessment of the situation; the second asks for the reader's assessment, thus involving the reader in the events of the poem.
Poetry is experiential; the idea is to transmit the experience in such terms that the reader is in it with you. Experienced poets have developed the judgment skills necessary to determine when to be concrete and when to become abstract. In time, the beginning poet can learn this distinction. For now, abstractions are where most poets get into trouble.
Crafting Images- Sound, Tone, and Voice
In England before the Norman Conquest, poems were unrhymed and sung. Anglo-Saxons based their poetry on a device called alliteration, the repetition of initial consonant sounds such as beat, barrel, broom, dull, dreary, drab, or memorial, murmur, mellow. Another device used to put music into unrhymed poetry was assonance, the repetition of vowel sounds such tiger, night, eve, vowel, owl, mouse, throw, oboe, know. Fit the sound to the subject, b's being rhythmic, d's being drab, and m's being mellow. Alliteration and assonance should always be subtle, never drawing attention to their use.
The overall effect of the poet's choice of words, subject, imagery and design is called tone. Voice (or persona) is a term that refers to the agent speaking through the poem.
Much of modern poetry's tone is friendly intimacy, the language being very similar to ordinary language, making the poem clear and accessible.
The mood that develops between the poet and the reader is confident, even intimate, giving the impression that the poem was written especially for the reader.
