The Magic World of Poetry
Poetry is one of the greatest creations of humanity. For so many centuries people have tried to explain how this art of word can evoke so many emotions in the readers’ hearts. However, no one still can understand the secret of magical poetry. Nevertheless, the best poems continue to inspire, motivate, cheer up, amaze others by means of “words.”
From the ancient Greek language “poetry” means “to create.” And it is no wonder because it is the art of creating the harmony of language by adding aesthetic qualities. Poems are the most useful sources for studying the language. It is where new words, meanings appear out of nothing – with the help of creativity. Just remember how many words and idioms William Shakespeare has invented in his famous poems. We cannot imagine the English language without those words which all of us use.
The rhyme and rhythm are the key elements in any poem. The rhyme can be of different types, and some poets even avoid it to make their writing more natural. The rhyme at the end of each line is a traditional type, and it is used in sonnets, ballads, rhyming couplets. The rhythm is a more traditional element because writes use it even in free verse. The rhythm is that feature which makes each line united.
There are lots of stylistic techniques which make poems sound melodious. Alliteration is one of them. It is the repetition of the initial consonants. The early Germanic and English poetry were based on alliteration. It played the same role as that of rhyme in later European poetry. Parallelism is another way to create a rhythmical sounding. It is a stylistic device which includes parallel repetition of the similar grammatical form, sounding, notional meaning in several lines. The Biblical poetry is that example where parallelism prevails, and it creates peculiar rhythm while reading the text.
Poetry and Rhetoric Devices
The main aim of poetry is to convey an emotional message, atmosphere, ideas to the reader. To achieve this result, famous poets resort to multiple creative methods. A rich spectrum of stylistic devices and expressive means enable writers to immerse in the world of poetic literature and show it at its greatest benign. Imagery, associations, comparison, similes, metaphors, different connotations of words, and many others notions help the authors reveal their emotions through poems.
The traditional understanding of poetry embraces a wide spectrum of devices which make the language richer. Even Aristotle mentioned that being “a master of metaphor” is the greatest gift ever. It means that before the times of Modernism, most famous poets aimed at using similes, personifications, metaphors, epithets, and many other devices to make their texts more striking. However, since the beginning of Modernism at 20th century and closer to our times, writers began discarding frequent implementations of rhetoric devices. Their aim is not to decorate language but to convey certain message which is realistic and even surrealistic.
The richness of poems is diverse. It has been changing with the development of the humankind, and each new literary period added something unique. Nowadays people can marvel at the beauty of word by reading various poems written by either authors from the Ancient Times or Postmodernism. Poetry is a great literary pool where rhyme, rhythm, and meaning get united. It creates an emotional bond between the poet and the reader and transmits its unique meaning from one generation to another.