Poem analysis

Poem analysis

People express their feeling in various ways, like songs and poems. Poets use poems to express their feelings and ideas to their audience. To achieve this, poets use various figures of speech to communicate with their audiences. Most used figures of speech include similes, metaphors, hyperboles, and personification. Furthermore, most poets present most of their ideas in a manner that creates imagery for the reader or the audience. Lastly, the idea that the poet wants to present to his/her audiences is presented in the form of a theme. To comprehend this, the essay below analysis three essays to show how figures of speech and imagery have been presented, and the theme of these poems. This essay will include three poems, namely “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold, “Drinking Alone by Moonlight” by Li Po, and “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. For these poems, this essay will focus on how figurative features are used, imagery, and the main theme in two of these poems.

1. Use of Figurative Features

Figurative features are used to enhance the effectiveness of the poem and to give the poem its meaning and state its purpose. Matthew, Li Po, and Elizabeth have used these features in their poems “Dover Beach”, “Drinking Alone by Moonlight”, and “The Fish, respectively.” Similes, personification, metaphor, and hyperboles have been used. In the poem “Dover Beach”, Mark Arnold uses similes to make the reader understand the kind of trust the author wants. “To one another! For the world, which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams” (Line 31 and 32 p563).

Poets use personification to give life to non-human beings to express their feelings. Li Po and Elizabeth Bishop each uses personification in their poems “Drinking alone by Moonlight” and “The Fish” respectively. Elizabeth personifies the fish by describing it to have a sullen face. “I admire his sullen face, the mechanism of his jaw’’ (Line 38-39 p.560). Elizabeth used personification to produce a tone of respect she had on the situation that the fish was in, hence relating it to a human being. Li Po gives shadow and the moon certain roles through personification. “The moon, alas, is nondrinker of wine; Listless, my shadow creeps about my side. Yet with the moon as a friend and the shadow as a slave” (Line 5-7 p.442). The narrator personifies this to show how he likes the company of the moon at night, but the shadow is always with him as a slave.

There is also the use of hyperbole in the poem “Drinking Alone by Moonlight”. Li Po uses hyperbole to show the extent of the narrator’s loneliness. “I drink alone, for no friends is near. Raising my cup, I call the bright moon, for he, with my shadow, makes us three” (Line 2-4 p.442).

2. Use of Imagery

To make audiences have a clear picture of the poem, poets apply the use of imagery to vividly describe the poem. Imagery can be in three forms; Visual Imagery, tactile imagery, and auditory imagery. Imagery is used by most poets to create a vivid picture of the reader. The poems “The Fish’’ by Elizabeth Bishop, “Dover Beach’’ by Matthew Arnold, and “Drinking alone by Moonlight’’ by Li Po.

Matthew Arnold uses imagery in his poem “Dover Beach.’’ In the poem, Arnold says that “the sea is calm, the tide is full, the moon lies fair.” (Lines 1 and 2 p.563) Through this, he tries to describe the setting of the poem, which is a calm, tide full, and the moon lying by. He continues to use imagery with “come to the window, sweet is the night air, from the long line of spray’’ (6 and 7 p.563).

Imagery is also used by both “Drinking Alone by Moonlight” by Li Po and in “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. In the “Drinking Alone by Moonlight,” the narrator describes “A cup of wine, under the flowering tree, I drink alone for there is no friends near. Raising my cup, I beckon the bright moon” (Line 1-3 p.442). This description creates a picture of a lonely man who is drinking beer under a flowering tree while looking upon the sky. He is trying to get solidarity by getting the moon to join him. He continues to use imagery by showing how the man is fighting her loneliness and find joy at all costs. The narrator says, “ I must make merry before the spring is spent” (8 p.442).

Imagery in “The Fish’’ poem is mainly tactile. The narrator says that “I caught a tremendous fish” (Line 1 p.560). She continues to describe the fish to create an image on the mind of the reader. “His brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like full-brown roses” (10-13 p.560). All these images were used to create the picture of a tremendous fish in the mind of the reader.

3. Themes

Themes are the main ideas in literary work. The poets of “Dover beach’’, “Drinking Alone by Moonlight’’, and “The Fish’’ have their message delivered to the audiences or readers in form of theme.

The main theme for “Drinking Alone by Moonlight”, “ and “The Fish” are supported below. In the Drinking Alone by moonlight poem, the main theme is loneliness. As the narrator suggests, the narrator is alone under the flowering tree being accompanied by the moon and the shadow.

The main theme for “The Fish’’ is Wisdom. The narrator wants us to realize how witty she is. He achieves this by saying that the fish had become wit from his struggles. He also says that the fish has beard that trails on his jaw. This is a representation of a beard that is a component of wisdom.