Poetic Diction | Definition & Examples
- Melchior Antoine
- Dec 17, 2024
- 13 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
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 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.
The earliest mention of the term is in Aristotle's Poetics. He describes the ideal diction as being clear without being "mean." Mean here refers to common or everyday language. We can say then that poetic diction is a matter of striking a balance between clarity and elegance.
This is open to a wide range of interpretations. Some poets go too far in avoiding meanness. This results in poetry that can be described as too ornate and artificial. On the other hand, some writers go too far in the opposite direction, and they end up writing poetry that is too common or that is doggerel or bad.
T. S. Eliot, for example, is a poet who employs conversational language and diction in his writing. However, the context and meaning of his poems are often hard to locate for the average reader because they are so loaded with classical and literary allusions.
We can say that in his conversational prose-like diction, T. Eliot achieves clarity, whereas his frequent allusions to classical works of literature prevent his poetry from being mean. There are examples in T. S. Eliot's poetry where the allusions are not too dense, and we get poetry that is "readable" and easy to understand for the average reader. A good instance of this is "Journey of the Magi," which is discussed in detail later.
Example: Bob Dylan, A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
We will begin with an example from Bob Dylan, a famous folk singer who is renowned for his poetic lyrics. 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 thought 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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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 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.
Balancing Clarity and Ornateness
As mentioned earlier, Aristotle described poetic diction as being clear without being "mean." This means a poet should strive for balance without going too far in either direction. We will begin with an example from Alexander Pope. He was one of the more famous poets of the 18th century and was well-known for his "ornate" diction in poetry.
He wrote in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets. His themes mainly centered on satire and high society. Rhyming couplets are a form of verse where a complete thought is expressed in two lines that rhyme. He employed this in his famous satirical poem "The Rape of the Lock":
Say what strange motive, Goddess! could compel
A well-bred lord t' assault a gentle belle?
O say what stranger cause, yet unexplor'd,
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?
In tasks so bold, can little men engage,
And in soft bosoms dwells such mighty rage?
The subject matter of the poem is trivial. It is about a young man from one wealthy family cutting off a lock of hair from a young lady from another wealthy family. This is what passed for scandal in high society at the time. However, despite being trivial, it employs all the tropes of classical epic poetry. If the poet wanted to be clear, he could have simply said, "A young man cut off a lock of hair from a young woman."
However, he chose to be much more elaborate than that. The incident is turned into an epic battle as important and meaningful in consequences as the war for Troy. He goes so far that we are not sure if the satire is mocking the petty trivialities of the wealthy or simply indulging it.
The rhyming couplets, elaborate prologue addressing a deity, and classical allusions all contribute to a poetic diction that is elegant and "high." This style of poetry became popular in the nineteenth century. However, the results were not always as impressive.
Certain poets rebelled against this type of overly ornate poetic diction. For example, Wordsworth argued in favor of poetry using “the real language of men in any situation" in the preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802). Let's try to understand what he means by that by looking at one of his own poems, "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802":
Earth has not any thing to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!
The poem makes use of regular rhyme and meter. It is a classic sonnet. However, the form of diction used here is simple and anything but ornate. There is none of the clever turns of phrases or epigrammatic phrasing that we see in Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock. "Dear God!" in Line 13 even sounds awkward and "mean" or common. However, when placed within the broader context of the whole poem it works well.
Nevertheless, this lack of attention to ornateness doesn't always work. For example in the last stanza of "She dwelt among the untrodden ways" (1800), a similar exclamation comes across as awkward and corny and ends the poem with a whimper:
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,
The difference to me!
This is supposed to be an elegiac poem celebrating the life and death of "Lucy." But the awkward manner in which it ends calls more attention to the inelegance or commonness of its poetic diction instead of the value and importance of Lucy's death.
Walt Whitman is another example of a poet who emphasized the importance of naturalness of speech and language in his poetic diction. We can see this in "Song of Myself." But here we will look at his poem. 'When I heard the Learn'd Astronomer" (1865):
WHEN I heard the learn'd astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
This at first glance hardly reads as poetry. It comes across as prose. The language used is not the typical poetic diction that we are used to. There are no clever turns of phrases. There is no rhyme and regular meter. However, it still works. Whitman uses conversational language to create a mood, tension, and mystery.
Why did he get unaccountably sick listening to the astronomer? He never says exactly. He uses the power of suggestion, which imparts the poem with some mystery. We can say that Whitman was turned off by the astronomer using science and mathematics to take the mystery out of the stars and planets.
The lecture room is portrayed as stuffy and annoying, whereas the "mystical moist night-air" is freeing and relaxing. The poet seems to suggest that it's better not to question or measure mysteries that we do not fully understand. The diction that he uses to do this seems commonplace and ordinary.
However, it is only so at the surface. Whitman uses anaphora, that is, beginning successive phrases with the same words, skillfully. The First four lines that begin with "When" suggest how long, boring, and tedious the lecture given by the astronomer was. The last three lines break free from the pattern of anaphora to reflect the sense of freedom in walking out into the moist night air.
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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