Monday, April 23, 2012

Descriptive Lines in Poetry

Although poetry can be difficult to understand and interpret, what drew me to poetry, were the beauty in a poet's descriptions.  Sometimes, with the strange breaks in the middle of sentences (ex: Bone) or seeing a phrase that is not complete, yet it is given a line of its own, poetry can often lose a reader.  Despite the confusion, I feel that I can learn a lot about how authors of poetry create intense and beautiful lines.  In poetry, I have read many single beautiful lines. This is probably because poetry has no rules.  Even when a piece as a whole is complex, there can always be lines that you remember because of description and how that hit you emotionally.

In the given poems, some of them, as a whole, were more difficult to understand. Still, I did connect with at least one line from each poem.  In some instances, I wasn't even sure why I was in love with the line, but I was.  I want to mention specific lines in various poems that I enjoyed the most because of those descriptions that leave questions and emotion in the reader.

In "Black Stone Lying On A White Stone" the first line "I will die in Paris, on a rainy day, on some day I can already remember."  The fact that the author is anticipating his death is interesting. Also, I liked that he gave the readers a place, Paris, and a rainy day.  One can just imagine the author writing this line as he's falling in love with Paris, staring outside a window at the falling rain.  In a short line, the reader is given the ability to use their imagination. When I first read this, I imagined him finally finding  a place he could love. So, he knew he'd die here.  Sometimes, our imaginations may lead us astray and what we imagine may be different than what the piece is about. However, creating those beautiful lines can leave lasting impressions and cause a reader to pause.

"Bone" written by Mary Oliver is full of descriptions.  The ending section says, "I believe I will never quite know. Though I play at the edges of knowing, truly I know our part is not knowing, but looking, and touching, and loving, which is the way I walked on, softly, through the pale-pink morning light."  I enjoyed that she tells the reader she doesn't understand and she may never. Still, knowing may not be the most important part.  But looking, loving, and being in existence and participating is important. Her word choices of "play at the edges," "softly," and "pale-pink morning light" all give a dainty or quiet tone.  By providing color she adds a different dimension to one's imagination.

I think my favorite was "Bird" by Neruda. As I read it aloud, there was a nice flow to the piece. This reminded me that word choice is important, but the flow of the work is just as great.  I really loved the line, "I saw how wings worked, how perfumes are transmitted by feathery telegraph..."  Wow.  Who would think do describe wings in this way?  Something so simple and what is not often thought about is described with so much care.  Imagine scents flowing off of a message from a bird or that wings glide, their flight itself is a beautiful message or telegraph. This line can be interpreted in many ways; which is also an interesting part, as well as confusing aspect of poetry.  We can all take away different meanings and understandings of a piece.

For me, getting captured by one line can be the most exciting part of reading.  I may be reading poetry wrong or any work for that matter.  Still, I like finding a line that allows me to imagine and uses good similes or descriptive words.  So as a writer, I need to try and find ways to describe ordinary life in the most captivating way.

Angela Payaban


2 comments:

  1. I couldn't agree more Angela. I'm not much of a fan when it comes to poetry, but there are those subtle lines that capture my full attention. It can only take a small collection of words to make a deep, profound impact on the reader.

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