LITR 4328: American Renaissance

Model Assignments Final Exam Essays 2018 (final exam assignment) Sample answers for B: poetry & styles of Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson

Ruth Brown

Poetry in Motion

          I have read poetry before in other classes, but I have always struggled to study it and never felt like I grasped any understanding of style or characteristics. Being able to focus on three poets for a whole semester and identify what makes their poetry unique or consistent to their voice was a beneficial experience. The pace was slow enough that I was able to learn about free verse and formal verse along with other mechanic choices, but it was specific enough for me to have examples of how these poems could be gothic, romantic, realistic, or centered on certain subject matters. Comparing and contrasting Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson allowed me to see three varying degrees of poetic expression. Each one was different from the other, but they complemented each other well and helped me to understand characteristics I wouldn’t have caught if I was studying them individually.

          When learning about the difference between free and formal verse, it was the quality of “sing-songness” that stood out to me. I knew that some poems were easier and more musical to read aloud than others, but I never pinpointed why. Formal verse is the more lyrical type of poetry that follows a formula of rhyme and meter. This makes it easier to read and memorize and gives it more of a dramatic effect. Free verse can also be musical sounding, but it doesn’t conform to a set formula. While there is no set rhyming or meter in free verse, there might be near-rhymes, catalogs, and vivid imagery or symbolism to add a poetic style.

          I had never studied any poetry by Poe before and I’m not sure if I even knew he wrote poetry beyond The Raven. It was easy for me to identify that Poe wrote formal verse. He has a very precise writing style and everything feels crafted, not a detail wasted. The lines rhyme, but sometimes there is a variation on whether it is back to back lines rhyming or every other line rhyming. His poetry style and content is similar to his prose writing, full of gothic details and elaborate or exotic subject matter. “The City in the Sea” is a great example of gothic poetry as he’s writing about death, thrones, turrets, and "time-eaten towers.” Often he writes about long ago times or far way lands, such as in Annabelle Lee when he writes, “It was many and many a year ago / In a kingdom by the sea.” His poetry is emotion filled and can definitely be identified as romantic.

          While Poe is a romantic, formal-verse poet, Whitman writes in free verse and borders between romantic and realistic. Whitman doesn’t write in the same formulaic way as Poe, but in “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” there is still a pattern to be identified. The first four lines all begin with “when,” and he uses lists or catalogs to help the flow. There is a theme of nature and it is romantic and shows a turning from the realistic charts, figures, and science of the beginning of the poem. The narrator wants the beauty and experience of nature and stands in the “mystical moist night-air.” Whitman is free not only in form, but also in content as he also writes pieces boarding on realism such as “The Wound Dresser.” It opens romantically with an old man looking back at the past and telling stories, but the content becomes realistic when he writes, “From the stump of the arm, the amputated hand / I undo the clotted lint, remove the slough, wash off the matter and blood.” This shows that Whitman has a wide range in subject matter and he is a poet that explores different styles and subjects.

          Dickinson is somewhere in between Poe and Whitman. She doesn’t write exclusively in free verse or formal verse, but mixes a little of each to form her own style. It reminds me of how students write papers by mixing lecture notes with their own words. Dickinson didn’t write to be published, she only wrote for herself, so style is her own voice. It seems more whimsical than either Poe or Whitman. Dickinson plays with the style by capitalizing different words and experimenting with dashes. In [I heard a fly buzz when I died], Dickinson uses dashes in all four of the last lines and this changes the way the poem is read out loud. She is more of a romantic writer like Poe and writes about topics such as death, grief, loss, and nature. The meaning of her poems might not always be understood or logical, but one can still tell that there is great depth and emotion.

          While poetry is different from novels, fiction, or works of prose, it can also belong to certain movements or styles of writing. I was able to see how Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson still exhibited characteristics of the American Renaissance that I had studied in other works this semester. I learned that poetry can be gothic or realistic, and it can evoke deep emotions or help you to consider historical times and real life events. By changing the style or form even a little, the whole feeling and flow of a poem will be changed. It helped me appreciate the decisions these poets made in their style and writing.