Essay on "Poetry Is One That Is Made Up"

Essay 4 pages (1337 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

poetry is one that is made up of countless flairs and structures allowing for a genre of work that is both broad and stylistically complex. However, there is one element of poetry that opens up the door for comparison between works that would likely never be placed beside each other, and that element is the theme. Thematic connectivity can be seen in looking at several famous poems: "Sindhi Woman," by Jon Stallworthy, "Shall I Compare Thee To a Summer's Day," by William Shakespeare, "What Is It That Compels?" By Ezra Tompkins, and "To See the World In a Grain of Sand," by William Blake. Though each of these works contains a range of similarities and differences, one can see highly themes connecting them all stemming from the complexity of the human condition.

"Sindhi Woman," by Jon Stallworthy reflects highly on the themes of personal grace and perseverance. The poem focuses on a woman living in the slums of Pakistan who goes about the business of the day regardless of the poverty and distress that lies around her. The poem, though short, provides vivid details that allow the reader to read much further into the life of the woman pictured. The woman at hand is seemingly making her way through the town or slum in which she lives in order to bring a jug of water back to her family. The jug, which she carries upon her head, does not hinder her physically, and neither do the "stones, garbage, excrement, and crumbs of class" upon which she walks (Stallworthy, 22).

In briefly describing the physical burdens placed upon this woman within the poem, the reader is able to delve more deeply in to assuming what this woman's entire life has been like. It can be assumed that the burdens described within the poem symbolize a much broader and emotionally-devastating set of burdens that this woman has dealt with throughout her life, through all of which she has remained strong. While the reader can assume that these issues may center upon poverty and life within a slum in Pakistan, in putting the poem into a broader context, this burden then expands. Only then can the reader understand the true weight of the water jug upon this woman's head. The woman in the poem has lived through poverty, violence, physical strife, gender inequality, and a world of duty and expectation placed upon her.

Stallworthy describes the woman's "undulant grace" as she "glides" through the streets despite the weight upon her, and the reader can understand that this grace extends much further into this woman's life. The narrator of the poem reflects on the strength of the woman, standing strong and holding her head high with the notation: "they stand most straight who learn to walk beneath a weight" (Stallworthy, 22). The narrator, and likely others who witness the woman described see a woman who has not been broken down by the difficult life she has led, and in holding her head high, she has become a model of grace in a world of disarray and hardship.

William Shakespeare's "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" is one of the most widely-known love poems of all time. The presentation and words within the poem is exceedingly straightforward in its goal, which is to explain the depths of the speaker's love for the poem's intended reader. The poem reflects the themes of undying love, consistence and timelessness. The speaker begins describing his love as compared to a series of some of the most beautiful things that are present in the world he lives in. Beginning with his description of an ideal summer's day, he notes that his love is both "more lovely and more temperate" (Shakespeare, 13). In taking the description of the perfect summer day, the speaker is noting that even this perfection cannot live up to the perfection that is his love.

As if being more true to the definition of perfection than a summer's day is not… READ MORE

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