Choose the Poetic Word Like
Robert Frost
"All poetry is a reproduction of the tones of actual speech."
Robert Frost is praised for how he used the speech of his New England farm neighbors for his poetry. Everyday speech--which is particularly characteristic of contemporary poetry. Much of it is the sound of someone speaking--isn‘t that what poetry is? A way of speaking, either from the pages of a book or chapbook or delivered from a podium? It is this use of everyday language that can help people feel comfortable with poetry--especially when they find in it the words and combinations of words that lead them to exclaim, "That’s exactly how I feel!"
Wait a minute! Does that mean that every sentence we use is poetry? No. What does the poet do to turn our everyday language into poetry? The poet inputs a word or combination of words we know, but would not expect because they are infrequent in our vocabulary.
Take Robert Frost and his familiar poem, The Road Not Taken. He discusses his decision about which road he took. Well, I have had that experience. Allow me to tell you about it in my words:
"Two roads split in the woods. I was sorry I couldn’t take both. I stood for a long time and looked down one road as far as I could to where it turned in the woods. Then I took the other. It was just as good."
Does this sound like Frost? Yes. Is it poetry? No. Here is Frost speaking poetry:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair. . .
from "The Road Not Taken"
How does Frost accomplish this lovely change of language? He deletes the s in the word, woods. Deleting the zzz sound at the end leaves this one-syllable word with a definitely single sound. This is a focusing sound. When you pare back--either with a sound or word(s)--you leave the word standing alone within the context of the poem’s other language. This leaves that word more prominent and more powerful.
Take the word split - it is an every day word. It communicates. It is not used extremely often, but enough so that it comes to us with moderate familiarity. Even that diminishes excitement for the reader/listener. Could there be a more effective word? I would suggest that Frost did some dictionary and thesaurus checking and finally decided that the two roads did not part, did not separate, did not split. The two roads diverged. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood. Because of this little used word, diverged, Frost had fresh language. Fresh language is what a poem wants for the reader’s interest and involvement.
What is the season? Frost does not tell us. But he let’s us know with the adjective, yellow -- a yellow wood. This is his way of telling us it is an autumn woods without saying it since yellow refers to fall’s colorful leaves. Explaining something is not as lovely, not as interesting, not as powerful as when the poet suggests it with a combination of words or with a single word. Frost does this with the word, yellow.
Reversing word order is another way to an interesting poem. We are familiar with the word order: I stood for a long time. He puts the adverb first: long I stood/ and looked. . .That reversal makes the line poetic.
Look at the entire poem, The Road Not Taken. Do you find these poetic techniques elsewhere in the poem? What other poetic techniques do you find you find Frost using to make this into poetic language? Do you see any example of repetition?
