Knowing Your Poetic Elements

The journey to exploring the world of poetry is long and interesting. Each stop uncovers a surprising new aspect of the genre. You will recall that in Year One you were introduced to lyrical and narrative poems. This section complements your exploration of the various forms of lyrical poetry such as elegy, ode, sonnet and haiku. This section also highlights how the forms of lyrical poetry are distinctive in terms of style and context.

Additionally, the section gives you an opportunity to compare language use in the various lyrical poetry forms to reveal their aesthetic appeal. You will also understand how the poetic elements of diction, imagery and tone aid the meaning of a poem.

Again, this section offers you an opportunity to analyse the poetic devices employed by lyrical poets to create style and meaning. An exploration of lyrical poetry is a step towards the broader field of poetry appreciation.

KEY IDEAS

• Lyrical poems are poems that express personal emotion and feelings.

• Notable forms of lyrical poems are ode, elegy, sonnet and haiku.

• Poets achieve effects by experimenting with different poetic devices.

• The language of lyrical poems is characterised by imagery, figurative and sound devices and personal voice.

• The elements of style in poetry include diction, symbolism, tone, mood and a range of literary devices.

One important poetic form that has been in existence since the dawn of poetry is lyrical poetry. It is one of the much written and much read among the types of poems.

Take a minute to read the poem below. Pay particular attention to how you feel as a reader.

Then think about how the poet might have felt while writing the poem.

The Futility of our Futurity by Shadrack Oteng Do I preach, cry, write or sing a song About the rape of our land When the wind of illegality has swept a trillion trees along When the degradation of our home homeland is out of hand?

In the market of greed On the altar of selfishness Many of our virgin forests have no weed.

The tomorrows of the unborn are swallowed in darkness.

The intestines of our rivers are truncated Causing cancerous diseases to us all As the unpatriotic Ghanaians gather gold excavated While our future fertile forests fall.

I look thirsty as you, my fellow But the muddy waters show no arrow.

Meaning of a Lyrical Poem

A lyrical poem is a type of poem that expresses the poet or persona’s (speaking voice) emotions, feelings and personal experiences often with musical or songlike qualities.

Lyrical poetry originated as a form of poetry that was meant to be sung accompanied with the playing of a musical instrument known as lyre.

Characteristics of Lyrical Poems

₁. Lyrical poems express personal emotions

2. They often have a musical quality.

3. They are often short and concise.

4. Lyrical poems have simple language.

5. Lyrical poems employ varied literary devices.

6. They typically use First Person Point of View.

7. Lyrical poems have a subjective tone.

Different Forms of Lyrical Poems (elegy, ode, son- net, haiku) Lyrical poems come in many forms. Each form is distinct from the other in terms of structure and the message it conveys. The major lyrical forms are explained below.

Figure 7.1 : A picture showing lyric poetry

1. Sonnet: A sonnet is a form of lyrical poem typically having fourteen lines and usually written in iambic pentameter (a type of rhyme consisting of ten syllables arranged in five metrical feet each consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllables). Basically, there are two main types of sonnets. They are Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets. Structurally, the Shakespearean sonnet is made up of three quatrains (four lines) and a couplet (two lines) making 3x4 = 12 + 2 =14 whereas the Petrarchan sonnet has an octave (eight) lines and a sestet (6 lines) making 8+6=14.

Fig 7.2: A picture showing a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets

2. Ode: An ode is a form of lyrical poem that is written in praise of a person, place, object or an idea. Ode comes in three main types. They are the Pindaric ode which is characterised by formal language and structure.The Horatian ode named after the ancient Roman poet Horace has a conversational tone, and a Keatsian ode named after English poet John Keats which focuses on beauty, truth and personal experience. John Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale is a major example.

3. Elegy: An elegy is a form of lyrical poem that mourns the death of a person. Elegies usually pay tribute to a departed soul. A good example of elegy is Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard which reflects on loss over the centuries.

4. Haiku: Haiku is a type of Japanese short lyrical poem that consists of three lines with a seventeen-syllable count of 5-7-5. In Ghana, a good example of Ghanaian haiku is the collection of poems compiled by Adjei Agyei-Baah.

Figure 7.3: A picture showing a collection of African haiku.

5. Villanelle: A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poetic form comprising five tercets (three lines) and a quatrain (four lines). An example of villanelle is Dylan Thomas’s Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.

6. Free verse: this is a form of lyrical poem that does not follow a specific rhyme or metrical pattern.

7. Blank verse: This is a lyrical poetry type that is usually written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is called “blank verse” because it doesn’t have a rhyme scheme.

Activity 7.1

Reviewing learners’ knowledge on poetic forms Form a group of five with your classmates, include males and females where possible and carry out the activities below:

1. Choose any three questions from the list below:

a. What is a lyrical poem?

b. What is a narrative poem?

c. What are the features of a lyrical poem?

d. What are the features of a narrative poem?

2. Discuss the selected questions in your group, taking turns to read the questions out aloud.

3. Share your ideas, listen to others’ perspectives and note down the main points your group agrees on. You could use the cyclic matrix picture below as a guide.

• Forms• Meaning

• Forms• Meaning Narrative Poems Features Features Lyrical Poems

Figure 7.4: A picture showing a cyclic matrix.

Activity 7.2

Researching on poetic forms

1. In your group, observe the cards image below carefully and read out the poetic forms written on them.

Figure 7.5: A picture showing forms of lyrical poem

2. Use your tablet or phone to research thoroughly about each of the lyrical poetic forms on the card above. Your search could be a written text, audio or video.

3. Make a PowerPoint presentation of your findings from your research.

4. Download an example of one African and one non-African poem that suit the lyrical poetic forms above.

Activity 7.3

Analysing and justifying lyrical poetic form In your group, carry out the activities below.

1. Read the poems below carefully.

2. Analyse the poems critically.

3. Categorise the poems based on their lyrical forms.

4. Support your categorisation with evidence from the poems.

A Song of Sorrow

I write and remove thy name In this way I punish my heart Thy love was nothing but a game And I was defeated by thy ways smart.

I am still alive leading a life of curse My vivacity departs, my light is fading.

No one is here to find me a nurse, And yet my peace thy memory is invading.

O soul, o life, be ready for something worse, Something thou would never have seen, My death will soon quench thy thirst Thou may get what I mean.

Mohammad Akmal Nazir

An ancient pool, A frog jumps in – The sound of water.

Matsuo Basho

Telephone Conversation

The price seemed reasonable, location Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived Off premises. Nothing remained But self-confession. “Madam” , I warned, “I hate a wasted journey - I am African.” Silence. Silenced transmission of pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came, Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully. “HOW DARK?”...I had not misheard....”ARE YOU LIGHT OR VERY DARK?” Button B. Button A. Stench Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak. Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed By ill-mannered silence, surrender Pushed dumbfoundment to beg simplification. Considerate she was, varying the emphasis- “ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT” Revelation came “You mean- like plain or milk chocolate?” Her accent was clinical, crushing in its light Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted I chose. “West African sepia”_ and as afterthought. “Down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic Flight of fancy, till truthfulness changed her accent Hard on the mouthpiece “WHAT’S THAT?”

conceding “DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.” “Like brunette.”

“THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?” “Not altogether. Facially, I am brunette, but madam you should see the rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet. Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused- Foolishly madam - by sitting down, has turned My bottom raven black- One moment madam!

- sensing Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap About my ears- “Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you rather See for yourself?

Wole Soyinka

(It is helpful to note that in the UK, during the middle of the twentieth century, there were red telephone booths on many city streets. Calls were made by putting coins in the slot, and pressing the button when the connection took place. If none was made, the other button returned the unused coins. Soyinka had come to the UK as a Nigerian student.)

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare

Activity 7. 4

Performing parts of poems studied

1. In your group, use your phone or tablet to scan the QR code above to watch a video on poetry performance.

2. Critically observe the personal voice, feelings and musicality used by the performer.

3. With your group, choose Wole Soyinka’s Night and memorise the lines.

4. After memorising the lines, perform the poem to suit the key features of lyrical poems.

5. As one member of the group performs, let another member take a video.

6. Upload your poetry performance on your social media platform.

Lyrical poems, as indicated in the first focal point of this section, come in different forms, such as sonnet, elegy, ode, haiku and others. These forms of lyrical poetry are distinctive in terms of their structure, rhyme scheme, message, language and context. Understanding their distinctive features is critical in identifying, analysing and understanding lyrical poems you may come across. The pictures below show the distinction among forms of lyrical poetry.

Figure 7.6: A picture showing the distinction between sonnet and villanelle as two distinct lyrical poetic forms

Figure 7.7: An image showing the differences between Blank verse and Free verse

Table 7.1: A table showing the differences between ode and elegy Ode Elegy Ode has a formal structure Elegy does not always have a formal structure Ode praises and glorifies Elegy mourns and laments It arouses positive emotion It arouses negative emotion

Activity 7.5

Review knowledge on forms of lyrical poetry You have been asked to peer teach your friends on the topic of lyrical poems. Prepare your notes to do the presentation based on the following prompts.

1. Explain to your peers the meaning of lyrical poems.

2. Explain the features that make the following lyrical poems.

a. Sonnet

b. Elegy

c. Ode

3. Present your notes using a Word document or PowerPoint presentation.

Activity 7.6

Interacting with level appropriate poems During a literature class discussion on poetry, Afiba Ewenam of Keta Senior High School argued that all poems categorised as lyrical poems will share a common feature. You have been granted the opportunity to help Ewenam out.

1. Use your phone or tablet to listen to or watch a performance of Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress, John Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale and Kofi Awoonor’s Rediscovery.

2. Interact with the poems by reading and analysing with your friend.

3. From your interaction, critically and creatively explore the distinct features of the poems.

4. Present your findings in a social media post to help Ewenam.

Activity 7.7

Agreeing or disagreeing with the subject matter Form a group of three or more members including males and females where possible to carry out the activity below.

1. Read carefully and critically the poems below.

2. Comment on the subject matter of the poems.

3. With evidence from the poems and vivid explanation, show to what extent you agree or disagree with the subject matter of the poems.

4. Present your response for class discussion.

Moon and stars wonder Where have all the people gone Alone in hiding Albert Classen On My First Son Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;

My sin was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy.

Seven years tho’ wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.

O, could I lose all father now! For why Will man lament the state he should envy?

To have so soon\ ‘scap’d world’s and flesh’s rage, And if no other misery, yet age?

Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say, “Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry.”

For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such, As what he loves may never like too much.

Ben Jonson (1572 - 1637) Poem 94 Nathlesse the cruell boy not so content, would needs the fly pursue:

And in his hand with heedlesse hardiment, him caught for to subdue.

But when on it he hasty hand did lay, the Bee him stung therefore:

Now out alasse (he cryde) and welaway, I wounded am full sore:

The fly that I so much did scorne, hath hurt me with his little horne.

Edmund Spenser (1552 - 1599) (The spelling in the two poems above is that of the period, over 400 years ago, when they were written.)

Activity 7.8

Reviewing literary devices in lyrical poems At the main office of an Association of Lyrical Poetry is the inscription “Literary devices beautify the language of lyrical poems”. Carry out the activity below to authenticate the statement above.

1. Use your tablet or phone to research the common literary devices in lyrical poems.

2. With your tablet or phone, read, listen or watch a performance of Wole Soyinka’s Night and John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14, ‘Batter my heart…’.

3. Critically examine how both poets use literary devices to enhance the language of the poems.

4. Use the identified literary devices to distinguish the features of lyrical poems.

Activity 7.9

Playing guessing game to consolidate learning In your poetry class, your teacher introduced the guessing game. Find a friend or two other learners to form a group and play the game.

Figure 7.8: A picture illustrating the guessing game The container below contains cards for the guessing game.

Figure 7.9: A picture showing task cards

1. Assuming your friend picked a card with the inscriptions below, read the inscriptions and respond accordingly.

2. Card 1: A form of lyrical poem with the rhyme scheme ababcdcdefefgg is ___________________________ What is the specific name of the lyrical poem shown in b?

3. Card 2: Felicia Minnow of Ningo SHS wrote a poem entitled Fare Thee Well Maku. Her poem had 19 lines structured as 3, 3, 3,3,3, 4.

a. What form of lyrical poem is Minnow’s poem in terms of theme?

b. What form of lyrical poem is Minnow’s poem in terms of structure?

c. Is Minnow’s poem a free verse or blank verse? Justify your answer.

Language Use in Lyrical Poetry

Language is every poet’s greatest tool and ingredient in creating a good poem. Like all types of poetry, stylised language is at the heart of lyrical poems. Since lyrical poems express emotions and personal experiences, the language of lyrical poetry can be simple and straightforward. The language of lyrical poetry is designed to evoke strong emotional feelings in readers. The language of lyrical poetry has melodic or musical appeal creating rhythm that enhance the readers’ involvement.

Features of the Language of Lyrical Poetry

Using language as a means of creating strong emotions and musicality, the language of lyrical poetry is characterised by certain unique features that distinguish them from other forms of poetry.

1. Imagery: Imagery involves the creation of sensory pictures by writers. Among common forms of imagery in poetry are images of seeing, images of hearing and other senses. Lyrical poems often create mental pictures and an inner voice as we read them. For instance, William Wordsworth’s London 1802 creates a vivid picture of an England in desolation and decline.

2. Figurative Language: One typical and powerful feature of the language of lyrical poetry is the extensive use of figures of speech or literary devices. Lyrical poems make use of figurative language such as personification, simile, metaphor, symbolism, synecdoche, and so on. These devices are used to express emotions and personal experiences. A good example is Wole Soyinka’s personification of night as having a heavy hand in his poem, Night.

3. Sound Devices: An equally important aspect of the language of lyrical poetry is the vast use of sound devices particularly alliteration, assonance, rhyme, consonance, and more. These sound devices can be used to create rhythm and musicality.

4. Emotional Tone: Lyrical poems often employ a tone that expresses emotion of the persona or speaking voice in the poem. The language of lyrical poetry includes joy, happiness, worry, nostalgia.

5. Personal Voice: The language of lyrical poems is generally personal. The voice in lyrical poems thus has personal appeal. The voice usually reveals the emotions and personal experiences of the poet or the narrator. The poet or persona in lyrical poems speaks directly to the reader or the audience. This connection of persona-reader relationship brings the reader closer to the poet to feel for him or her. Wordsworth’s Solitary Reaper for example creates intimacy with the reader through the personal voice of the poet.

6. Subjectivity: Language subjectivity has to do with the assumption that a text expresses a writer’s personal opinion, feelings, beliefs and perspectives. The language of a lyrical poem is personal, making use of First-Person Point of View. Shakespeare’s sonnets all express his personal beliefs about love, death and relationships.

Figure 7.10: A picture showing examples of figurative language

Activity 7:10

Reviewing knowledge on features of Sonnets

1. Use your phone or tablet to search online or watch a performance of William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130.

2. What particular feature makes the poem a sonnet?

3. What features make the poem a lyrical poem?

4. How is the poem distinct from other forms of lyrical poems you have read?

Activity 7.11

Analysing the language of lyrical poems

1. Analyse the poems below carefully and critically.

2. Identify the various forms of language that are employed by the poets.

3. Show how the poets develop the language of the poems with figurative language and sound devices.

4. Quote lines from the poems to show the poems as having the personal voice of the poets.

The Next War

War’s a joke for me and you, While we know such dreams are true.

Siegfried Sassoon (1886 - 1967) ~~~~~~ Out there, we’ve walked quite friendly up to Death, — Sat down and eaten with him, cool and bland, — Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.

We’ve sniffed the green thick odour of his breath, — Our eyes wept, but our courage didn’t writhe.

He’s spat at us with bullets and he’s coughed Shrapnel. We chorused when he sang aloft, We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe.

Oh, Death was never enemy of ours!

We laughed at him, we leagued with him, old chum.

No soldier’s paid to kick against His powers.

We laughed, — knowing that better men would come, And greater wars: when each proud fighter brags He wars on Death, for lives; not men, for flags.

Wilfred Owen (1893 -1918) Owen died in battle near the end of the First World War.

Ozymandias I met a traveller 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, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Mesh

We have come to the cross-roads And I must either leave or come with you.

I lingered over the choice But in the darkness of my doubts You lifted the lamp of love And I saw in your face The road that I should take.

Kwesi Brew

Activity 7.12

Thinking and Sharing elements of language Using the three poems in Activity 7.11, Identify one friend in your class, think-pair- share with him or her to answer the questions below.

1. What elements of language, specifically, subjectivity, personal voice are shown in the poems?

2. What emotional tone is evoked in the poems?

3. For what reasons are the emotions evoked?

4. How have these language elements contributed to the overall impact of the poems?

Elements of Style in Poetry

In poetry, elements of style involve the various tools, methods, techniques and principles that poets employ to create their poetic work and convey meaning. Elements of style promote the overall effects and aesthetics of the poem. Though, there are many elements of style in poetry, some are discussed below.

1. Diction: In poetry, diction is one of the main elements of style used by poets. Diction involves a poet’s use of words. The meaning of a poem as well as its beauty is best expressed through diction. Diction could be simple or complex. It could also be formal or informal. For instance, Wole Soyinka employs a varied diction to highlight the complex issue of racial discrimination in his poem Telephone Conversation.

2. Imagery: Imagery involves the creation of sensory pictures by writers. Among common forms of imagery, poetry includes images of sight, images of hearing amongst others. Imagery helps the poem to convey meaning by vividly describing the personality, object or idea being written about. The creation of the picturesque through imagery helps the reader to understand better. For instance, the vivid description of guns, brutality and fear in Kwesi Brew’s A Goodbye to Arms helps to clarify the evils of war and military rule.

3. Symbolism: This involves using concrete things to represent abstract things. When symbols are used, they help poets to convey meaning. Symbols could be objects, colours, animals or human beings. For example, in Kofi Awoonor’s The Anvil and the Hammer, he uses Anvil to represent African culture and Hammer as the attack on African culture by colonialism.

4. Figurative Language: The meanings conveyed in poetry are also expressed through the use of literary devices or figures of speech. Literary devices such as personification, metaphor, simile, irony, oxymoron, synecdoche and many more help readers to take the meaning of poems beyond the literal into the literary. For instance, in Afriyie Vidza’s Hearty Garlands, personification is used extensively. Words like ‘hope’, and ‘fight’, are given human attributes.

5. Tone: Poems also influence the mood and attitudes of readers through their words.

Tone is what moves the reader on an emotional journey. The tone sustains the reader from the beginning to the end of the poem. Usually, tone is influenced by diction and other stylistic elements like imagery and figurative language. For instance, in David Diop’s Listen Comrades, the tone is that of anguish and hope.

6. Voice: Voice has to do with the unique angle of presentation by the poet or persona.

Voice gives agency and authority to the message being put across. Voice helps to dramatise the poem. Voice helps to make the reader a part of the message through interactivity. Through voice, the inner thoughts of the poet or persona are revealed to the reader. For instance, in Lenrie Peter’s The Panic of Growing Old, the poet-person’s voice is full of anxiety about how quickly his life is coming to an end through aging.

7. Mood: Mood is the overall feeling the reader or audience go through as a result of reading a poem or listening to the performance of a poem. The mood of a poem helps the reader to deduce the meaning of the poem since it influences the emotion of the reader or audience. The mood of the poem could evoke joy, pain, uncertainty, inspiration among others. A.A. Amoako ignites readers’ anger at how Africans fight and kill their own more than European oppression in his poem, Peace Has Lost; War Has Won.

Activity 7.12

Exploring stylistic devices in Prescribed Poems During your mid-term break. Your literature teacher gave you a mid-term assignment. The assignment involved exploring stylistic devices in narrative poems. Perform the activity below to answer the assignment.

1. Use your tablet or phone to download, listen or watch a performance of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.

2. Read the poem critically to reflect and explore stylistic devices.

3. Identify and discuss with your friend stylistic devices in the poem.

4. Compare the stylistic devices identified to the stylistic devices in Gabriel Okara’s Once Upon a Time.

5. Share your experiences after interacting with the two poems and your findings on the stylistic devices with your peers during class discussion.

Activity 7.13

Exploring other devices that contribute to meaning Your friend in the literature class argues that beyond figurative language, diction, imagery, symbolism and mood, there are no other stylistic devices that contribute to meaning in poetry.

1. Form a group of three people ideally including males and females and carry out research using ICT tools like tablet or reading at the school library to explore other stylistic devices used by poets.

2. Tease out the new literary devices in any poem of your choice.

3. Discuss with your elbow partner in class how the stylistic devices you have researched contribute to the meaning of the poem you have selected.

4. Form a group of three people ideally including males and females and lead a discussion using flip chart presentation on the distinct style employed by S.O.H Afriyie in Hearty Garlands. (The poem can readily be downloaded to tablet or phone)

Elements of Style and Their Effects

In poetry, elements of style are employed by the poet to achieve the poem’s overall effects.

Such effects include the meaning of the poem, the stylishness or aesthetic appeal of the poem, as well as the degree of emotion in the reader. These effects are achieved through the poet’s use of stylistic elements like diction, imagery, figurative devices among others.

Below are some of the ways poets use the elements of style to create effect in their poems.

Figurative Language

The overall effect of a poem is largely on the poet’s use of appropriate literary devices.

Through the use of figures of speech such as simile, personification, metaphor, oxymoron, paradox and so on, the poet is able to bring deeper, more complex meaning to the poem.

Figurative language also helps to create more evocative effects as one thing is placed side by side the other. The depth of the reader’s emotion is also stressed through the use of literary devices. The use of literary devices also creates aesthetic appeal.

1. Imagery: By employing imagery and vividly creating mind-pictures in the poem, the poet aims to assist readers to understand and relate the object of description to something concrete. By using imagery to create sensory appeal, the poet creates memorable ideas and appeals to the emotions of the readers.

2. Diction: All effects of a poem are created using diction. It is the choice of words that creates emotional effect, aesthetic effect and aims to convey meaning. What is the meaning of a poem if there are no words? What is the power of a poem if its words do not elevate it? How can you bring your emotions to a poem if it is not by the words you read? For instance, the impact of Charles Kabuto Kabuye’s Great Escape lies in his choice of inspiring words.

3. Sound Devices: The rhythm and musical effects of poetry are achieved by poets through their use of sound devices. The use of sound devices like assonance, alliteration, rhyme, and onomatopoeia help to develop thematic issues which give meaning to the poem. Sound devices also create emotion and aesthetics.

4. Form and Structure: a poem’s form and structure involve the arrangement of lines, stanza, rhyme and metrical patterns. A poem’s form and structure such as sonnet, limerick, elegy, ode, haiku, help readers to make meaning as the form of a poem usually reveals its thematic concern. Form and structure also add to the aesthetic appeal. The beauty of Shakespearean sonnets is not only as a result of the diction but also the form.

5. Syntax: In poetry, the syntactic element of style involves arranging words, phrases and sentence structures. The meaning of a poem is affected by the syntactic arrangement;

a complex syntactic arrangement renders the poem difficult to comprehend by many people, whereas a simple syntactic arrangement assists in easy understanding. How the words and sentences are arranged also affect the mood of the reader reading the poem. Over-complicated syntax can dismay even the most sophisticated of readers.

6. Voice: The voice employed by the poet or persona has an effect on rhythm, musicality, emotion and beauty of the poem. Alternating the voice of the poem affects the emotion of the reader. For instance, David Diop’s lamenting voice in most of his poems invites readers to share in the pain of colonialism.

Activity 7.14

Exploring stylistic devices using Diamond 9 Strategy

1. Use your phone or tablet to read, listen to an audio version or watch a performance of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale.

2. Analyse the narrative poem and identify the stylistic devices employed throughout.

3. Based on the identified stylistic devices, complete the Diamond 9 strategy below by filling out each diamond box with a particular stylistic device.

Activity 7.15

Identifying aesthetic qualities in poems

1. The beauty of a poem is in the use of elements of style. Form a group of three learners and identified the various stylistic elements in Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise and Fleur Adcock’s The Telephone Call.

2. From your reading of the two poems, discuss with your group members the aesthetic qualities of poetic elements in the present in the poems.

3. Discuss with your friends in the group how the various styles identified help to achieve effects.

4. Together with your group members, discuss the importance of the effects created by the elements of style and how they contribute to the meaning of the poem.

5. Lead a discussion on the importance of style and how it contributes to the development of the overall structure of the poem.

How Different Poets Experiment with a Range of

Poetic Devices

All poets write differently. Different poets employ different poetic devices for different purposes. A study of the comparisons and contrasts between poets and their usage of such devices helps readers to gain insights into the power of the poetry, the emotion generated as well as the themes. Doing comparative analysis of two poems, requires that one creatively analyses two poems, identifies the usage of devices and looks for areas of convergence and divergence. The strategy below shows some of the ways comparative analysis of poems can be done.

1. Comparing the poems’ language: One way different poems experiment with different poetic devices is through their usage of language. Language is the driving force of poetry. When comparing poems by different poets, consider the two poets’ use of figurative language such as simile, personification, metaphor, irony, oxymoron and others. Consider how the poets use language to create a vivid picture of their message.

Comparison can be made about the form of language used - formal, informal, slang, jargon. The language might be complex or simple, openly descriptive or elliptical, abstract or concrete.

2. Comparing imagery and symbolism: comparing poems could also be done through the descriptive sensory images employed by the two poets. These sensory images create mental pictures that help readers to understand more clearly the ‘meaning’ of the poem. Again, how symbols are used by the poets to represent abstract ideas could be a source of distinction among poems. Comparing poems based on imagery and symbolism helps to identify the literal and more abstract meaning of poems.

3. Comparing poems using sound devices: Poems can also be compared based on the poet’s use of sound devices. Sound devices such as alliteration, assonance, rhythm, rhyme among others affect the mood and flow of the poems. Comparing the metrical patterns of the poems help to identify blank verse and free verse. This helps to reveal the overall effect of the poems.

4. Using tone and mood to compare poems: identifying the persona’s response to what the poem is discussing is another way of comparing poems. Some poems may have a serious, deadly, harsh tone while others may be joyful, funny or nonchalant. It is also important to compare the mood of the poems in relation to the themes explored.

5. Identify and compare themes and subject matter in poems: Analyse the subject matter of the poems and the themes or main ideas that are embedded in the subject matter. Compare how the poems use language to develop the themes and subject matter of the poems. How are the poem’s ideas revealing issues affecting the contemporary world? How do the poets address these contemporary issues in their poems?

Activity 7.16

Revising achieving effects with element of style

1. Use your phone or tablet to read, listen or watch a performance of David Diop’s Listen Comrades and Birago Diop’s Vanity.

2. Analyse the elements of style you identified in the poems.

3. Comment on how the poems use elements of style to achieve their effect.

Activity 7.17

Comparing and contrasting prescribed poems

1. Form a group of fewer than four literature friends.

2. With your group members, read S.O.H Afriyie – Vidza’s Hearty Garlands and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.

3. Compare and contrast the use of different poetic devices employed by both poets.

4. Discuss the literary devices in context and evaluate how they contribute to the overall meaning of poems.

5. With your friends in the group, discuss how the two poets above put their works together.

6. Share your findings with the whole class.

7. As a way of consolidating your understanding of comparing and contrasting poems, select any two different poems of your choice from two African poets and compare and contrast the poets with regard to their use of elements of style.

• Sonnet 18, 29, 73 116, 130 by William Shakespeare

• A Place We Call Home an Anthology by Kofi Anyidoho

• Pages 61 to 99 of Poems of Black Africa edited by Wole Soyinka.

• Senanu, K. E. & Vincent, T. (1989). A Selection of African Poetry. Longman.

• Pages 129 to 171 of A Pageant of Longer Poems edited by E.W Parker

• Pages 133 – 141 of Twentieth Century Narrative Poems

• The Rape of Lucrece by Shakespeare

1. Use your tablet to search and read Stephen Lubega Evening, Awoonor’s Songs of Sorrow, To the memory of my beloved Author, William Shakespeare by Ben Jonson, John Pepper Clark’s Olukon and John Donne’s Death Be Not Proud, Shall I compare Thee by Shakespeare. After reading, categorise them under the forms of lyrical poetry.

2. Your school is about to celebrate its annual Speech and Prize Giving Day. As part of the celebration, you have been tasked to write a poem in honour of the school head. Create a short ode or sonnet to be performed at the ceremony.

3. Compare and contrast Gabriel Okara’s Once Upon a Time and Wole Soyinka’s Night showing how the two poets experiment with different poetic devices.

4. Explain how the elements of style contribute to the meaning of Fleur Adcock’s The Telephone Call. (You might wish in addition to consider the poem in comparison with Wole Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation.)