Sample Question 5-5-19

“The language of a poem is often that of one thing compared to another.” In the work of at least two poets you have studied, explore how poets have made their subjects come alive through
different means of comparing them.

     In poetry language is alive. Utilizing language can demonstrate the poet's ability to make certain elements jump of the page and grab readers. Language can also give inanimate objects a sense of liveliness. In many pieces of Emily Dickinson's poetry, we see her time and time again use personification to give the reader a better understanding of what she is trying to portray. 

     "Wild nights - Wild nights!" 

    "Futile - the winds -" 

  These two examples from her poem Wild Nights creates  vivid images in my head. I get the sense of the nighttime being frantic, exciting, dangerous, and possibly fun, and when thinking of futile winds,  it paints an image of something calm and peaceful. By describing these two inanimate things lively, I am given tools by the poet to make better connections to her work and think along the same lines as she did when she created the poem.

    "They looked like frightened Beads, I thought," 

   

   When describing needs as "frightened, I think of them of being timid and clustered.

He glanced with rapid eyes,

That hurried all abroad -

They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,

He stirred his Velvet Head. - 

We can get a sense for what Emily Dickinson was trying to portray by saying "frightened beads" through the context of the stanza. I was able to put together my own assumption of the entire stanza being about a person on a crowded boat during a time of frenzy. By adding these elements of personification into poetry, the poet is able to further extend the ability of their language and make things that have little live and make them into an entirely different thing.