Analyze 2 poems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analyze 2 poetrys - Essay ExampleDiction is poets special commission to convey the internal fire, the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings that beat the form of art and aesthetics to create the magical effects. The metrical compositions being analyzed in this leaven are For Malcolm, a Year After, by Etheridge cavalry and Because I Could Not Stop for Death, by Emily Dickinson. For Malcolm, A Year After, (Hill, n. p.) is a popular ballad. He wrote this poem as an inmate at the Indiana State Prison. This poem is a tribute to Malcolm X.(Hill, n. p.) He asked the fellow prisoners about Malcolm X the year after Malcolms assassination, (Hill, n. p.) what was that date. None was able to give the correct answer. An agitated Knight reverted to his barracks and wrote the poem. His angry mood is reflected through the poem. Because I could not stop for Death, is a lyric poem by Emily Dickinson, published posthumously in 1890. Compiled and edited by her friends Mabel Loomis Todd and Th omas Wentworth Higginson. The poem was titled, The Chariot, initially. It relates to Death. The poet elucidates Death as a noble individual, who rides the carriage with her body to take it to the grave. In effect, the poet personifies immortality. The main points discussed in the poems are two faces of death. One merging with the eternity, another is the tragic termination of the life-force. Emily Dickinson examines Death from a friendly encounter and from the philosophical perspective of immortality, whereas Etheridge Knight reacts to Death with controlled vehemence for the violent end of an ideologue and challenges the causes leading to that tragedy. The literary element discussed in this paper is diction. Poetic diction is the typical language employed by the poets that is not common day slang. Diction involves archaism, rhyme, neologisms and figures of speech. Poetic diction is much different from daily speech and they succeed in demanding the attention of the readers. Words ar e used intelligently by the poets to convey feelings, action and attitudinal issues. The choice of one word to challenge the other is diction. Dickinson does not acidulate away from mortality and the she challenges Death as if it is a friendly encounter, --Oh, Death, come on, I sport with you Thus the choice of diction is critical in the slant of the message of the poem. For Malcolm, A Year After, is a political support statement for a black leader who commanded the respect of the poet. He intelligently and deliberately manipulates metrical tensions and rhyme schemes,(Hill, n. p.) as he constructs the statement for the slain nationalist leader. He launches the attack with a stinging statement, but holds it well to check the self-destructive unrestrained explosion.(Hill, n. p.) Control the burst of angry words Or they might boil and break the dam (L, 3-4) Rhyme connects the form in the iamb (L, 2) and the anger in dam. (L, 4) He writes in the language of the white man, but from th e bottom of his heart, he rejects it. He detaches himself away from the rhyme in mad (L, 5) The second stanza emphasizes that while Knight uses the Euro-American cultures form, he uses it to advance the political cause of Black Nationalism. Inverting the traditional conceit of the poem living eternally despite the death of the man, Knight writes that his poem, an artifact of the tyrannical culture, will die, but its message, the message of Malcolm X, will live.