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Cynthia Cleveland
Varying Styles of American
Renaissance Poetry
Poetry can be a tricky genre, as it is
often governed by rather rigid and confining rules regarding composition.
However, every poet has a particular style that makes it easier to differentiate
between them. Poe is known for composing poems that are often Gothic in subject
and possessing a rigid, lyrical form. Dickinson is known to be less traditional,
and only slightly adheres to established traditions of composition—such as her
adherence to meter. Whereas Walt Whitman’s has essentially thrown out most
notions concerning traditional composition and composes his poetry in whatever
way suits his subject matter. In any case, each poet possesses a distinct flavor
concerning their poetry, which may be distinguished by examining those essential
elements of poetry—themes, styles, and forms.
“The City in the Sea” is undeniably a
composition by Edgar Allan Poe. The most obvious characteristic of any of Poe’s
poems is the Romantic and Gothic style. The Gothic style of Poe’s poem is in the
subject matter and the language—the poem itself is about a city that has been
swallowed by the sea, only perceptible by the “open fanes and gaping graves /
Yawn level with the luminous waves.” This particular style also lends itself to
the sublime, which is yet another characteristic of Poe’s literary style. This
use of the sublime is Romantic in style as well, as it presents the reader with
a certain awe of nature. The sublime lies in the horror that a once beautiful
city, with its “Babylon-like walls” and “bowers / Of sculptured ivy and stone
flowers” could be so overcome by the depthless ocean. Another particularly
interesting way to identify Poe’s romantic qualities is to consider the
architecture that he chooses for his poems and prose, as Ronnie Abshier writes
in her essay “Different Styles in Romantic Poetry”. Poe refers to towers and
palaces which, Abshier notes, are not typical of American architecture. This is
romantic in nature as it is an idealization of the past. This is an image that
inspires awe as well as terror. Poe’s poem is also identifiable in its adherence
to formal verse; it possesses a consistent rhyme scheme and meter with minor
variations and maintains a rather rigid structure, giving it a distinct lyrical
quality.
Emily Dickinson’s poems on the other
hand are slightly less rigid but maintain a semi-formal style of verse.” [I
heard a fly buzz when I died]” is a good example of the fluid nature of
Dickinson’s adherence to poetic form; its overall structure is rigid, as it is
divided into four quatrains. The poem does not possess any particular rhyme
scheme, but it possesses a very controlled meter, which is typical of
Dickinson’s poems as she often composes lyric poetry. Each quatrain follows a
pattern in which there are 8/6/8/6 beats per line, respectively. Another
particular way of identifying Dickinson’s poetry is her use of em dashes
throughout the poem, which contributes to the lyrical quality of her poetry, as
it creates stoppages and emphasis on particular words. The subject matter of
Dickinson’s poems is often identifiable as they deal with themes of death;
another good example of this is her poem “[I felt a funeral in my brain]”, in
which she describes a funeral, as the working title alludes.
Walt Whitman’s poems often depict every
day scenery that most people would often gloss over, and yet he brings a certain
appreciation for that of the seemingly mundane. “When I Heard the Learn’d
Astronomer” is a poem that is rather romantic in nature, as it describes a
seemingly mundane activity—such as attending a lecture—in which the poet becomes
weary of the talk of “proofs, the figures” and seeks to find himself out of
doors “In the mystical moist night-air” to look up “in perfect silence at the
stars.” This is romantic in its escape from society and his ability to find
repose in nature. The style of this poem is also undoubtedly Whitman, as he uses
several literary devices that are particularly characteristic of his poetry; one
of these devices is his use of anaphora—which can be seen in the first four
lines all of which begin with “When”. Another characteristic of Whitman’s poetry
is his use of listing, which is present in line two and three of the poem: “the
proofs, the figures”; “When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add,
divide, and measure them.” These devices may also be found in any number of his
poems, such as “I Sing the Body Electric”, there is more of the anaphora present
and listing.
Each of these poets have a distinct
style and it would be difficult to confuse them. The subject matter of Poe and
Dickinson are fairly similar, as they both deal heavily in themes of death and
have a Gothic style. However, what distinguishes them from one another is their
form and structure. Poe’s poems tend to be much longer and maintain a rigid
form—they adhere to an established rhyme scheme. Dickinson’s poems, in contrast,
often have no established rhyme scheme—and if they do, they are very loose
rhymes—but maintain a lyrical meter with a lot of stoppages (em dashes). The
most distinct poet of these three is Walt Whitman, as he does not follow any
rhyme schemes and the structure of his poems are rather fluid. Whitman writes in
free verse, which breaks those traditional rules governing the composition of
poetry. This is why Whitman’s lines are often uneven and inconsistent, but the
fact that he uses less formal verse and common language makes the poem
incredibly easy to read.
Each poet has their own particular style
and characteristics regarding the composition of their poems. Some of their
characteristics are similar to one another, but examination of their form, style
and themes make it easy to differentiate between them. The themes of Poe and
Dickinson tend to be similar, but examination of their execution creates a
distinction: Dickinson’s poems are short, clipped and semi-formal; Poe’s are
long, rigid and formal in verse; and Whitman is in another universe entirely.
