Poetic diction refers to the choice of words and their arrangement in a poem. It plays a large role in determining the effect of the poem in particular and the poet overall. It is what gives a poet or poem their signature character or “style.”
For example, Robert Burns was a poet fond of using Scottish dialect to write his poems. Here is an example:
Burns, “A Red Red Rose” (1794):
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
The diction employed in the song is similar to folk songs that would have been popular among the common folk of his era. The poetic diction used here is folkish. The words are spelled to sound like how the Scottish working-class folk of the era would sound like. It gives the poem a certain charm and musical quality. More importantly, it gives the poet a restricted space to practice his craft.
A talented poet faced with the task of writing a poem in a common language that could achieve artistic effects similar to poems written in a “high style” would be faced with one major question: What devices or approach should I use to ensure this poem meets the universal principles of poetry?
The writer partially achieves this by using a regular meter and rhyming scheme, as well as tastefully choosing imagery and metaphor that effectively carry his point across. The persona’s promises to love his beloved “Till a’ the seas gang dry / . . . And the rocks melt wi’ the sun.” This would be stunning imagery even written in perfectly standard English.
The use of dialect, however, is only one factor that determines poetic diction. Several other factors can help establish the diction of a poem. In this article, we discuss the meaning of poetic diction and use examples from T.S. Eliot, Bob Dylan, and Milton to illustrate.
What Is Poetic Diction?
Poetic diction is a literary device that relates to the style of a poem as determined by the type of words and phrasing used by the poet. It is closely associated with poetic style.
Poetic styles or diction can be described in a variety of ways. It can be either:
Classical,
Folkish,
High,
Low,
Common,
Conversational,
Etc.
We will begin with an example from Bob Dylan, a famous folk singer who is renowned for his poetic lyrics.
Example of poetic Diction: Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Here is an excerpt from the beginning stanza of Bob Dylan’s famous song, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall:
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall
The diction used here just like in the example of Burns is folkish. It is the style of a common American folk song. The song is framed as a conversation between a mother talking to her “blue-eyed son.” The lines of the poem express a complete idea or though and don’t run over. This makes it fairly easy to read or hear. There is also a refrain at the end of the verse that includes American Southern dialect, namely "it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall."
However, the brilliance of the poem lies in its impressive and apocalyptic imagery and its peculiar attention to specific numbers, which probably have some mystic or spiritual significance. The tension between the simple and folkish diction and the mystery of vivid and mystic images makes the song or poem work quite well. This all goes to show that diction does not work by itself alone but in combination with the skillful use of other poetic devices.
T.S. Eliot: Journey of the Magi
The next poem we’re going to look at is T.S. Eliots’ “Journey of the Magi” (1927):
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
The poem recounts the journey of the Magi in meeting the newborn Christ by following the North Star as told in the Bible in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 2:1–12. It is portrayed as an epic journey, made by ancient men living in a place in an era quite different from the modern America and England that T.S. Eliot was familiar with.
Nonetheless, the thoughts and expressions of the speaking Magi recounting the story sound credible and convincing. We are there on this journey with them. We experience their physical difficulties and hardship. We also feel their spiritual “unease” after returning home. Why?
There are several reasons besides diction. The poet chose the “Journey of the Magi” as a symbol for his own conversion from Roman Catholicism to the Anglican faith. So, it was something that was personal to him and that gave the impetus for a heartfelt expression that a modern audience could understand. The other reason is that the story is so familiar and such a huge part of Western tradition that is appreciated at face value, without taking into account the personal allusion to the poet's conversion.
Western countries celebrate and reenact “The Journey of the Magi” through Christmas plays, decorations, ceremonies, and traditions every year. So, it really is not that ancient and foreign, but instead, a living tradition that can be described as a Western instead of a Middle Eastern tradition, even if it is set in the Middle East.
So what role does diction play here? The poet uses modern diction to tell the story. The poet makes frequent use of polysyndeton, that is, overusing the conjunction “and,” especially in Lines 12-15.
He also makes use of sentence fragments, such as “And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, / Lying down in the melting snow.” This helps reconstruct the effect of modern conversational speech. The success of Eliot’s poem lies in his ability to retell an ancient story in a modern conversational tone, which remains non-ironic and convincing.
In particular, the first five lines of the poem set the conversational tone for the rest of the poem:
'A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.'
Remarkably, the first five lines are in quotes because Eliot takes them from the 1622 nativity sermon by Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626). He was a famous Anglican bishop who played a big role in translating the King James Bible. We don't typically associate the 17th century with modern conversational cadence in speech and writing.
However, these lines were chosen by T.S. Eliot exactly because they capture so well how modern speakers would sound. They set the tone for the whole poem. Eliot even repeats parts of the quote or variations of it in lines such as "A hard time we had of it" (Line 16).
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Example of Poetic Diction: Milton, Paradise Lost
The following is an excerpt from the beginning of Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost:
Milton, Paradise Lost (1667):
OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, [ 5 ]
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill [ 10 ]
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues [ 15 ]
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread [ 20 ]
Dove-like sat brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence, [ 25 ]
And justify the ways of God to men.
This poem’s diction is formal and elaborate. The first 16 lines alone are a single sentence. The first 16 lines also make use of a device known as anastrophe. This is where the typical pattern of a sentence is inverted. “Heavenly Muse sing” is the subject and verb of the sentence. However, it occurs only in Line 6.
This makes the poem somewhat difficult to read. Highly elaborate and formal poetic diction of the sort used here by Milton makes it a feat for both the poet who constructed these ornate lines and the reader who has to go through it. On top of all that, Milton is leaning on centuries of tradition of epic poetry by beginning his poem with an appeal to a Heavenly Muse for inspiration.
These are more formal trapping-ons that someone familiar with epic Greek poetic tradition would expect. However, a modern reader may see it as a chore to go through. This is starkly different from T.S. Eliot’s diction, whose tone and style give the poem the earnestness of someone having a modern conversation.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, December 17). Poetic Diction | Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/poetic-diction-definition-examples |
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