The Power of Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Power of Poetry - Essay ExampleTo prove the military strength of metrical composition, the poem chosen here is called Aunt Jennifers Tigers and it was written by Adrienne Rich. This paper seeks to prove how poetry nates be social occasiond as a powerful medium to convey much more than than pretty verses. Poetry can be a vehicle for social critique, literary expertise and so much more. Aunt Jennifers Tigers is a relatively short poem of twelve lines that tells the story of the poets Aunt, a nervous and diminutive woman who lives in terror of her husband. It has a rhyme scheme of AABB with no variation. This rhyme gives it a very simple, almost childlike quality that belies its serious content. Another great issue about the choice of the structure for this poem is its short length. The brevity of the poem reinforces the tragic brevity of the living of Aunt Jennifer in the poem. Thus, it can already be noted that even the most apparent features of a poem can be of significanc e and hold more meaning than meets the eye. To move into the poem itself, the starting time lines are Aunt Jennifers tigers prance across a screen, / Bright topaz denizens of a world of unripe. The source words echo the title of the poem again, much like a nursery rhyme does, reinforcing the banter of the childlike style against a grim subject. The lines also introduce the subject of the poem Aunt Jennifer herself and her tigers. From the use of the metaphor prance across a screen, one can hazard a meditation that these are either tigers that Aunt Jennifer embroiders or knits. The imagery of glimmery topaz against a world of green is very visually evocative and also serves the purpose of setting up a contrast that bequeath tie in with the theme at a later point. The lines following these may come as a bit of a surprise to the reader. After introducing the rather pleasant scene of prancing tigers of bright topaz, the poet writes They do not fear the men at a lower place the tree They pace in sleek chivalric foregone conclusion (Rich 3-4) This negation of fear does not naturally follow a description of something. In usual conversation perhaps, or in prose, one would not jump from describing prancing to they do not fear. This sort of jump in logic to achieve an end one that will be cleared by the end of the poem can only be achieved with such mastery and simplicity in poetry. The lines introduce an element of gender. Men beneath the tree, given the context of tigers, evokes an image of hunters or hunting a traditionally male activity. sleek down chivalric certainty reinforces this image of hunters in their uniforms and presents a picture of masculinity. The oppression of women in a patricentric world is the major theme of this poem and it is introduced here. Given this knowledge then, the contrast present in bright topaz in a world of green can appear to symbolize the visible record of women in a world of men where they seem to stick out and canno t blend in easily. The turn paragraph of them poem begins with the identical phrase as the first, Aunt Jennifers this is a double reinforcing of the childrens nursery rhyme structure which usually has repetitions of phrases like these Aunt Jennifers fingers fluttering through her wool comment even the ivory needle hard to pull. The massive weight of Uncles wedding