What is poem?

There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined
poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickinson said, "If I
read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is
poetry;" and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or
cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or
nothing." Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. Homer's epic, The Oddysey,
described the wanderings of the adventurer, Odysseus, and has been called the
greatest story ever told. During the English Renaissance, dramatic poets like John
Milton, Christopher Marlowe, and of course Shakespeare gave us enough to fill
textbooks, lecture halls, and universities. Poems from the romantic period include
Goethe's Faust (1808), Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" and John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian
Urn." The story would have to continue through 19th century Japanese poetry, early
Americans that include Emily Dickinson and T.S. Eliot, postmodernism,
experimentalists, slam...

So what is poetry?

Perhaps the characteristic most central to the definition of poetry is its
unwillingness to be defined, labeled, or nailed down. But let's not let that stop us, shall
we? It's about time someone wrestled poetry to the ground and slapped a sign on it's
back reading, "I'm poetry. Kick me here."
Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the
poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you. Poetic definitions of poetry kind
of spiral in on themselves, however, like a dog eating itself from the tail up. Let's get
nitty. Let's, in fact, get gritty. I believe we can render an accessible definition of poetry
by simply looking at its form and its purpose: One of the most definable characteristics
of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in
the way they dole out words to a page. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and


clarity is standard, even for writers of prose, but poets go well beyond this, considering
a word's emotive qualities, its musical value, its spacing, and yes, even its special
relationship to the page. The poet, through innovation in both word choice and form,
seemingly rends significance from thin air.
One may use prose to narrate, describe, argue, or define. There are equally
numerous reasons for writing poetry. But poetry, unlike prose, often has an underlying
and over-arching purpose that goes beyond the literal. Poetry is evocative. It typically
evokes in the reader an intense emotion: joy, sorrow, anger, catharsis, love...
Alternatively, poetry has the ability to surprise the reader with an Ah Ha! Experience --
revelation, insight, further understanding of elemental truth and beauty. Like Keats said:
"Beauty is truth. Truth, beauty. That is all ye know on Earth and all ye need to know."
How's that? Do we have a definition yet? Poetry is artistically rendering words in such a
way as to evoke intense emotion or an Ah Ha! Experience from the reader.
Pretty unsatisfying, huh? Kind of leaves us feeling cheap, dirty, all hollow and
empty inside like Chinese food. Don't do this. Don't shackle poetry with our definitions.
Poetry is not a frail and cerebral old woman, we know. Poetry is stronger than we think.
Poetry is imagination and will break those chains faster than we can say "Harlem
Renaissance." To borrow a phrase, poetry is a riddle wrapped in an enigma swathed in
a cardigan sweater or something like that. It doesn't like your definitions and will shirk
them at every turn. If we really want to know what poetry is, read it. We need to read it
carefully, pay attention and read it out loud. Now read it again. There's our definition of
poetry. Because defining poetry is like grasping at the wind - once we catch it, it's no
longer wind.





History of poem

Poetry, from the Greek poesis meaning 'making' or 'creating', has a long history. Poetry
as an art may out date literacy itself. In prehistoric and ancient societies, poetry was used as a
way to record cultural events or tells stories. Poetry is amongst the earliest records of most
cultures with poetic fragments found on monoliths, rune stones, and stelae.
The oldest surviving poem is the Epic of Gilgamesh. The poem, based on the history of
King Gilgamesh, was written around 3000 BC in Sumer, Mesopotamia in cuneiform script on
clay tablets.
Ancient societies such as the Chinese Shi Jing developed canons of poetic works to
ritual, as well as aesthetic, importance. Recently, intellectuals have struggled to find a definition
that covers the entire poetic compass from the differences of haiku to Shakespearean to slam
poetry. Tatakiewicz, a Polish historian of aesthetics, wrote in The Concept of Poetry "poetry
expresses a certain state of mind."
Aristotle's Poetics describes three genres of poetry: epic, comic and tragic. Aristotle's
work was highly influential throughout the Middle East during the Islamic Golden Age, then
through Europe during the Renaissance. Later, aestheticians described poetry to have three
major genres: epic, lyric and dramatic, with dramatic holding the subcategories tragic and
comedy. During early modern Western tradition, poets and aestheticians sought to distinguish
poetry from prose by using the understanding that prose was written in a linear narrative form
and used logical explication, while poetry was more abstract and beautiful.
Modern theorists rely less on opposing prose and poetry as to focusing on the poet as
an artist. Intellectual disputes over the definition of poetry had erupted throughout the 20th
century resulting in rejection of traditional forms and structures of poetry, coinciding with
questioning of traditional definitions of poetry and its distinction between proses. More recently,
post-modernists began to embrace the role of the reader and highlight the concept of poetry;
incorporating its form from other cultures and the past.







DEFINITION OF SIMILE

simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often
introduced with the word "like" or "as". Even though similes and
metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to
remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things
without using "like" or "as". For instance, a simile that compares a person with a bullet
would go as follows: "John was a record-setting runner and as fast as a speeding
bullet." A metaphor might read something like, "John was a record-setting runner. That
speeding bullet could zip past you without you even knowing he was there." A
mnemonic for a simile is that "a simile is similar or alike." Similes have been widely used
in literature for their expressiveness as a figure of speech.
Examples of Simile:
Curley was flopping like a fish on a line.
The very mist on the Essex marshes was like a gauzy and radiant fabric
Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world like a Colossus.

Explicit similes

A simile can explicitly provide the basis of a comparison or leave this basis
implicit. For instance, the following similes are implicit, leaving an audience to determine
for themselves which features are being predicated of a target:
"My dad was a mechanic by trade when he was in the Army," Raymond Thompson
said. "When he got the tools out, he was like a surgeon." More detail is present in the
following similes, but it is still a matter of inference as to what features are actually
predicated of the target:
He fights like a lion.
He swims as fast as a fish.
He slithers like a snake.
He runs like a cheetah.
A


She kicks like a mule.

In contrast, the following similes explicitly state the features that are predicated of each
target:
When he got the tools out, he was as precise and thorough as a surgeon.
He drinks copiously like a fish.
She walks as gracefully and elegantly as a cat.
He was as a lion in the fight.
They fought as if they were warriors.


Unlike a metaphor, a simile can be as precise as the user needs it to be, to
explicitly predicate a single feature of a target or to vaguely predicate an under-
determined and open-ended body of features. Empirical research supports the
observation that similes are more likely to be used with explicit explanations of their
intended meaning;[5] this offers some support to the claim that similes are preferred if a
user wants to associate an unusual or out-of-the-ordinary property with a target.

Stereotypes

The most commonplace similes offer a window into the stereotypes that pervade
a given language and culture. For example, the following similes convey a stereotypical
view of people, animals and things:
as precise as a surgeon
as regular as a clock
as cunning as a fox
as ugly as a toad
as strong as an ox
as sour as vinegar
as lithe as a panther
as quiet as a mouse


as bumpy as a gravel road.

These similes have the status of a clich or platitude in English, and their use is
typically taken to signify a lack of creative imagination.
Some stereotypical similes express viewpoints that are technically incorrect but which
are widespread in a culture, such as:
as cruel as a wolf
as stubborn as a goat
as drunk as a skunk
as violent as a gorilla
as slow as a sloth
as proud as a peacock

Animal stereotypes provide a rich vein of similes in English, as does a persistent
body of ethnic stereotypes.
Similes do not have to be accurate to be meaningful or useful. To be "as proud
as a peacock" is "to be very proud" whether peacocks actually do exhibit pride or not.
What matters is that peacocks are commonly believed to be exemplary examples of
proud behaviour.

Irony

Some similes play against expectations to convey an ironic viewpoint, as in the
following examples:
as sharp as a bowling ball
as subtle as a sledgehammer
as straight as a round-about
as porous as steel
as bulletproof as a spongecake
as cuddly as a cactus
as charming as an eel


as pretty as a car crash
as smooth as sandpaper

The intended audience for such similes must sufficiently understand the concepts
involved so as to appreciate that the opposite of the expected meaning is being
conveyed.
Ironic similes create a humorous effect by setting up an expectation that is then
incongruously dashed. Incongruity is a core concept in the understanding of humor as a
cognitive mechanism.
Irony is a relatively common feature of similes that are used in web-based texts. Indeed,
researchers have estimated that between 10% to 15% of explicit web-based similes (by
unique type rather than by frequency) are ironic similes of the above kind.

Subversive use of irony

Bona-fide similes that express a widely-held stereotypical belief can also be
subverted for ironic purposes. The following explicit similes each subvert another non-
ironic simile to achieve a more obvious semantic incongruity and thus a greater
humorous effect.
as balanced as an upturned pyramid
as fast as a three-legged cheetah

Negated irony

Some similes work to undermine the trope of "playing against expectations".
Such similes honor and frustrate the well-trod conventions of the form.

as subtle as a sledgehammer nobody noticed
as balanced as an upturned pyramid doing a handstand
as fast as a three-legged cheetah wearing a state-of-the-art leg prosthetic




Without 'like' or 'as'

Similes are sometimes made without using the words "like" or "as." This often occurs
when making comparisons of differing values. Examples:


"Norman was more anxious to leave the area than Herman Milquetoast after
seeing ten abominable snowmen charging his way with hunger in their eyes."
"But this truth is more obvious than the sun--here it is; look at it; its brightness
blinds you."
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more
temperate:" - William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
"I'm happier than a tornado in a trailer park." - Tow Mater, Cars




















Definition of Metaphor

metaphor is a figure of speech concisely comparing two things, saying
that one is the other.The English metaphor derives from the 16th c. Old
French mtaphore, from the Latin metaphora carrying over, Greek
metaphor transfer, from metaphero to carry over, to transfer and from meta
between phero, to bear, to carry. Moreover, metaphor also denotes rhetorical
figures of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison, and
resemblance, e.g. antithesis, hyperbole, metonymy, and simile; all are species of
metaphor.

Structure

The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936), by I. A. Richards, reports that metaphor is in
two parts: the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is the subject to which attributes are
ascribed. The vehicle is the subject whose attributes are borrowed. Other writers
employ the general terms ground and figure to denote tenor and the vehicle. Consider
the All the world's a stage monologue from As You Like It: Examples:


All the worlds a stage,
And all the men and women merely actors;
They have their exits and their entrances;
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7)





A



In this metaphoric example, "the world" is compared to a stage, describing it with
the attributes of the stage; "the world" is the tenor, and "a stage" is the vehicle; "men
and women" is a secondary tenor, "players" is the secondary vehicle. In cognitive
linguistics, the terms target and source correspond to the terms tenor and vehicle. In
this nomenclature, metaphors are named with the small-capital typographic convention
target is source, and all-capitals when small-caps are unavailable; in this notation, the
metaphor discussed above would be life is theatre. In a conceptual metaphor the
elements of an extended metaphor constitute the metaphors mapping in the
Shakespeare quotation above, exits would be mapped to death and entrances
mapped to birth.
A metaphor is more forceful (active) than an analogy, because metaphor asserts
two things are the same, whereas analogy acknowledges difference; other rhetorical
comparative figures of speech, such as metonymy, parable, simile, and synecdoche,
are species of metaphor distinguished by how the comparison is communicated. The
metaphor category also contains these specialized types:

allegory: An extended metaphor wherein a story illustrates an important attribute of
the subject
catachresis: A mixed metaphor used by design and accident (a rhetorical fault)
parable: An extended metaphor narrated as an anecdote illustrating and teaching a
moral lesson

Common types

A dead metaphor is one in which the sense of the transferred image is absent.
Examples: "to grasp a concept" and "to gather what you've understood" use
physical action as a metaphor for understanding, most do not visualize the
action; dead metaphors normally go unnoticed. Some people distinguish
between a "dead metaphor" whose origin most speakers ignore, e.g. "to break


the ice". Others use dead metaphor to denote both concepts, and generally use it
to describe a metaphoric clich.
An extended metaphor (conceit), establishes a principal subject (comparison)
and subsidiary subjects (comparisons). The As You Like It quotation is a good
example, the world is described as a stage, and then men and women are
subsidiary subjects further described in the same context.
A mixed metaphor is one that leaps from one identification to a second
identification inconsistent with the first. Example: "If we can hit that bullseye then
the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate."
Per Hans Blumenbergs metaphorology, absolute metaphor denotes a figure or a
concept that cannot be reduced to, or replaced with solely conceptual thought
and language. Absolute metaphors, e.g. light (for truth) and seafaring (for
human existence) have distinctive meanings (unlike the literal meanings),
and, thereby, function as orientations in the world, and as theoretic questions,
such as presenting the world as a whole. Because they exist at the pre-
predicative level, express and structure pragmatic and theoretical views of Man
and the World.

Uncommon types
Other types of metaphor have been identified as well, though the nomenclatures are not
as universally accepted:

An absolute or paralogical metaphor (sometimes called an anti-metaphor) is one
in which there is no discernible point of resemblance between the idea and the
image. e.g. light as a metaphor for truth or virtue.
An active metaphor is one which by contrast to a dead metaphor, is not part of
daily language and is noticeable as a metaphor.
A complex metaphor is one which mounts one identification on another.
Example: "That throws some light on the question." Throwing light is a metaphor:
there is no actual light, and a question is not the sort of thing that can be lit up.


A compound or loose metaphor is one that catches the mind with several points
of similarity. Examples: "He has the wild stag's foot." This phrase suggests grace
and speed as well as daring.
A dying metaphor is a derogatory term coined by George Orwell in his essay
Politics and the English Language. Orwell defines a dying metaphor as a
metaphor that isn't dead (dead metaphors are different, as they are treated like
ordinary words), but has been worn out and is used because it saves people the
trouble of inventing an original phrase for themselves. In short, a clich.
Example: Achilles' heel. Orwell suggests that writers scan their work for such
dying forms that they have 'seen regularly before in print' and replace them with
alternative language patterns.
An epic metaphor or Homeric simile is an extended metaphor containing details
about the vehicle that are not, in fact, necessary for the metaphoric purpose. This
can be extended to humorous lengths, for instance: "This is a crisis. A large
crisis. In fact, if you've got a moment, it's a twelve-story crisis with a magnificent
entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour porterage and an enormous sign on
the roof saying 'This Is a Large Crisis.'" (Blackadder)
An implicit metaphor is one in which the tenor is not specified but implied.
Example: "Shut your trap!" Here, the mouth of the listener is the unspecified
tenor.
An implied or unstated metaphor is a metaphor not explicitly stated or obvious
that compares two things by using adjectives that commonly describe one thing,
but are used to describe another comparing the two.
An example: "Golden baked skin", comparing bakery goods to skin or "green
blades of nausea", comparing green grass to the pallor of a nausea-stic person
or "leafy golden sunset" comparing the sunset to a tree in the fall.
A simple or tight metaphor is one in which there is but one point of resemblance
between the tenor and the vehicle. Example: "Cool it". In this example, the
vehicle, "Cool", is a temperature and nothing else, so the tenor, "it", can only be
grounded to the vehicle by one attribute.


A submerged metaphor is one in which the vehicle is implied, or indicated by one
aspect. Example: "my winged thought". Here, the audience must supply the
image of the bird.
A synecdochic metaphor is a trope that is both a metaphor and a synecdoche in
which a small part of something is chosen to represent the whole so as to
highlight certain elements of the whole.
[edit] Use outside of rhetoric. The term metaphor is also used for the following
terms that are not a part of rhetoric:
A cognitive metaphor is the association of an object to an experience outside the
object's environment.
A conceptual metaphor is an underlying association that is systematic in both
language and thought.
A root metaphor is the underlying worldview that shapes an individual's
understanding of a situation.
A therapeutic metaphor is an experience that allows one to learn about more
than just that experience.
A visual metaphor provides a frame or window on experience. Metaphors can
also be implied and extended throughout pieces of literature.
















Definition of Personification

From the Encyclopedia

ersonification is figure of speech in which human characteristics are
attributed to an abstract quality, animal, or inanimate object. An example
is "The Moon doth with delight / Look round her when the heavens are
bare" (William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood," 1807). Another is "Death lays his icy hand on kings" (James Shirley, "The
Glories of Our Blood and State," 1659). Personification has been used in European
poetry since Homer and is particularly common in allegory; for example, the medieval
morality play Everyman (c. 1500) and the Christian prose allegory Pilgrim's Progress
(1678) by John Bunyan contain characters such as Death, Fellowship, Knowledge,
Giant Despair, Sloth, Hypocrisy, and Piety. Personification became almost an automatic
mannerism in 18th-century Neoclassical poetry, as exemplified by these lines from
Thomas Gray's "An Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard": Here rests his head upon
the lap of earth A youth to Fortune and to Fame unknown: Fair science.


From the Wikipedia.

Personification is an ontological metaphor in which a thing or abstraction is
represented as a person. The term "personification" may apply to:

A description of an inanimate object as being a living person or animal as in:
"The sun shone brightly down on me as if she were shining for me alone". In this
example the sun is depicted as if capable of intent, and is referenced with the
pronoun "she" rather than "it".
P


An outstanding example of a quality or idea: "He's invisible, a walking
personification of the Negative" (Ralph Ellison).
An artistic representation of an abstract quality or idea as a person, for example
the four cardinal virtues or nine Muses.

A national personification is an anthropomorphization of a nation; it can appear in
both editorial cartoons and propaganda. Some early personifications in the Western
world tended to be national manifestations of the majestic wisdom and war goddess
Minerva/Athena, and often took the Latin name of the ancient Roman province.
Examples of this type include Britannia, Germania, Hibernia, Helvetia and Polonia. A
national personification is not the same as a national animal, although in some cartoons
the national animal rather than the human personification is used to represent a country.

Example of Personification in literature.
Below are some classic poems that contain personification. If you like the poems, click
on the links below each one to find more of the poet's poems.

Two Sunflowers
Move in the Yellow Room.
"Ah, William, we're weary of weather,"
said the sunflowers, shining with dew.
"Our traveling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with a view?"
They arranged themselves at the window
and counted the steps of the sun,
and they both took root in the carpet
where the topaz tortoises run.
William Blake (1757-1827)







EXAMPLES OF
POEMS FROM
THE INTERNET






EXAMPLE OF POEM 1

Why Take My Fundamental Rights?
The Constitution gave me
Powers to be free
Why are your restricting me...
Taking my liberty?
Crafted by honored men
Written with special pens
Some with tested lens
While pressing on without relent.
Rights given unto those
Who opposed mean kings
Tyrannical ruler
Crushing worshipers as they pleased.
Pilgrims on our shores
Followed by many more
Some Quakers and Shakers
Still many more still died untold.
If I bow and bend my head
Why look at my dread?
Locks growing on my head?


They are natural from above!
If I bend on my knees
Head touching Mother Earth
Proclaimed a name to be
Why come and hassle me?
Standing one place and dance
Bells jingling like a trance
Moccasins on Mother Earth
Who stump me like dirt?
Hands raised fingers above
Spread like wings of a dove
Descending in God's love
Why tell me to hush?
Powers descending
Down to me natural rights
Embedded in golden words
Religions of Freedom.
Give us our royal rights
Let us live in His light
His name's noble on our tongue
His words we will proclaim!



EXAMPLE OF POEM 2
Friends Eternal
You're a true friend,
that I want you to know,
Our love for each other
has helped us to grow.
We've been through some tough times,
but we've made it through,
The only one I ever trusted was you.
You helped me through anger,
you've chased away fears.
You held me through sadness,
and kissed away tears.
You stayed by my side
when the world turned away.
You helped me see joy
when the skies were all gray.
You were the rainbow
at the end of the storm.
You help me be different
when I shouldn't conform.

You held my hand
when you knew we would fall.
Every heartache,
you saw me through it all.
I'm not sure
I'm always the best friend to you,
I know I'm not perfect,
but this much is true.
When life gets you down,
And there's nowhere to turn,
I'll help you through and
I'll share your concern.
I'll try my best to return every favor,
When you're sure that you'll drown,
then I'll be your lifesaver;
Even if we both go down.
Whether we sink or swim
doesn't matter at all,
Just know that I'll be there
whenever you call.
I'll pull you out
when life pulls you under.
I'll be the sun
when there's lightning and thunder.
And when it's all over,
And we've fought every war,
There's one thing I promise,
Of this I am sure,
When the time comes
that we're put to our rest.
Be sure that you know that,
My friend, you're the best.
And if there is Heaven,
then I know you'll be there,
That if you die first
then you'll hear every prayer.
And soon I'll join you,
but just know until then.
That I'll miss you each day
'til I see you again.
At the end of the tunnel,
you'll be my guiding light,
You'll lead me to heaven,
away from the night.

We'll be there together,
and we'll never grow old.
And we'll walk hand in hand
On the streets paved of gold.




POEM FROM THE INTERNET, WHICH WE CHOOSE:

The
'Frog
and the
Nightingale'




the poets autobiography

Vikram Seth was born in Calcutta in 1952. He left India to study at Oxford where
he earned degrees in philosophy, economics, and politics, and went on to study creative
writing at Stanford and classical Chinese poetry in China at Nanjing University. His first
novel, The Golden Gate, is written entirely in tetrameter sonnets, something that had
never been done in the English language before. The Suitable Boy, his prose fiction
debut, examined multigenerational Hindu or Muslim conflict in 1950s India and holds the
distinction of being the longest single volume ever published in English. But Seth is
much more than a literary statistic in the Guinness Book of World Records. Get
unlimited online Math tutoring, Algebra tutoring, Trigonometry Help and Tutoring in
English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geometry and all other subjects at $99.99 per
month!













The poem: the frog and the nightingale


Once upon a time a frog
Croaked away in Bingle Bog
Every night from dusk to dawn
He croaked awn and awn and awn
Other creatures loathed his voice,
But, alas, they had no choice,
And the crass cacophony
Blared out from the sumac tree
At whose foot the frog each night
Minstrelled on till morning night

Neither stones nor prayers nor sticks.
Insults or complaints or bricks
stilled the frogs determination
to display his heart's elation.
But one night a nightingale
In the moonlight cold and pale
Perched upon the sumac tree
Casting forth her melody
Dumbstruck sat the gaping frog
And the whole admiring bog
Stared towards the sumac, rapt,

And, when she had ended, clapped,
Ducks had swum and herons waded
To her as she serenaded
And a solitary loon
Wept, beneath the summer moon.
Toads and teals and tiddlers, captured
By her voice, cheered on, nraptured:
Bravo! Too divine! Encore!
So the nightingale once more,
Quite unused to such applause,
Sang till dawn without a pause.

Next night when the Nightingale
Shook her head and twitched her tail,
Closed an eye and fluffed a wing
And had cleared her throat to sing
She was startled by a croak.
Sorry was that you who spoke?
She enquired when the frog
Hopped towards her from the bog.
Yes, the frog replied. You see,
I'm the frog who owns this tree
In this bog I've long been known
For my splendid baritone
And, of course, I wield my pen
For Bog Trumpet now and then

Did you did you like my song?
Not too bad but far too long.
The technique was fine of course,
But it lacked a certain force.
Oh! the nightingale confessed.
Greatly flattered and impressed
That a critic of such note
Had discussed her art and throat:
I don't think the song's divine.
But oh, well at least it's mine.
That's not much to boast about.
Said the heartless frog. Without
Proper training such as I
- And few others can supply.


You'll remain a mere beginner.
But with me you'll be a winner
Dearest frog, the nightingale
Breathed: This is a fairy tale
And you are Mozart in disguise
Come to earth before my eyes.

Well I charge a modest fee.
Oh! But it won't hurt, you'll see
Now the nightingale inspired,
Flushed with confidence, and fired
With both art and adoration,
Sang and was a huge sensation.
Animals for miles around
Flocked towards the magic sound,
And the frog with great precision
Counted heads and charged admission.

Though next morning it was raining,
He began her vocal training.
But I can't sing in this weather
Come my dear we'll sing together.
Just put on your scarf and sash,
Koo-oh-ah! Ko-ash! Ko-ash!
So the frog and nightingale
Journeyed up and down the scale
for six hours, till she was shivering
and her voice was hoarse and quivering.

Though subdued and sleep deprived,
In the night her throat revived,
And the sumac tree was bowed,
With a breathless, titled crowd:
Owl of Sandwich, Duck of Kent,
Mallard and Milady Trent,
Martin Cardinal Mephisto,
And the Coot of Monte Cristo,
Ladies with tiaras glittering
In the interval sat twittering
And the frog observed them glitter
With a joy both sweet and bitter.

Every day the frog who'd sold her
Songs for silver tried to scold her:
You must practice even longer
Till your voice, like mine grows stronger.
In the second song last night
You got nervous in mid-flight.
And, my dear, lay on more trills:
Audiences enjoy such frills.
You must make your public happier:
Give them something sharper snappier.
We must aim for better billings.
You still owe me sixty shillings.

Day by day the nightingale
grew more sorrowful and pale.
Night on night her tired song
Zipped and trilled and bounced
Along,
Till the birds and beasts grew tired
At a voice so uninspired
And the ticket office gross
Crashed, and she grew more morose -


For her ears were now addicted
To applause quite unrestricted,
And to sing into the night
All alone gave no delight.

Now the frog puffed up with rage.
Brainless birds you're on the stage
Use your wits and follow fashion.
Puff your lungs out with your passion.

Trembling, terrified to fail,
Blind with tears, the nightingale
Heard him out in silence, tried,
Puffed up, burst a vein, and died.

Said the frog: I tried to teach her,
But she was a stupid creature
Far too nervous, far too tense.
Far too prone to influence.
Well, poor bird she should have known
that your song must be your own.
That's why I sing with panache:
Koo-oh-ah! ko-ash! Ko-ash!
And the foghorn of the frog
Blared unrivalled through the bog.













Paraphrasing the poem including
the literature device

The 'Frog and the Nightingale'.

Once in a bog, a frog sat under a Sumac tree and croaked all night and until the
sun comes out in a loud and unpleasant voice.

The other creatures loathed his voice but their complaints, insults and brickbats
couldn't stop him from croaking stubbornly and pompously, insensitive to the
disturbance he was causing. (Ref: stanza 2, line 1-4) Then, one night a nightingale
appears at the bog. Her melodious voice captures the admiring attention of the
creatures of the Bingle Bog.

Ducks and herons swim towards the Sumac tree to hear the nightingale
serenade. (Ref: stanza 3, line 2-3) Some lonely creature even weeps hearing her song.
When she stops, there is thunderous applause with the creatures demanding a repeat
performance (encore). The jealous frog disturbed by the intrusion of a challenging rival
listens to the nightingale dumbstruck.

Next night, when the modest bird prepares to sing, the plotting frog interrupts and
posing as a music critic. The bird was surprises when the toad talks to her. The frog
bragging at his own living place.

The nightingale ask the opinion on her song from the toad. The toad says that
the technique was fine, of course, but it lacks a certain force. Unassuming and not used
to any kind of criticism, she defends herself by saying, "At least its mine".



The heartless frog convinces the nightingale that she was in need of training that
only he could provide. The nightingale, lacking in confidence and extremely gullible
agrees and flatters him, saying that he was Mozart in disguise.

The frog capitalized on the nightingale's servile attitude and said that he would
charge a modest fee, which would not harm her. (Ref: stanza 7, line 1-2)
The nightingale soon became famous and the frog grew richer, earning money from her
concerts. Eminent personalities like the Owl (Earl) of Sandwich and Duck (Duke) of
Kent attend the concerts. The frog sat and watched with mixed feelings of happiness
and bitterness. Happy because he was earning money and jealous because the bird
was receiving so much attention.

Meanwhile, the frog makes the nightingale rehearse hard even when it rained
and constantly criticized and abused her, ensuring that she became broken in spirit.
Fired and spent, her voice lost its beauty and the creatures stopped coming to hear her
sing. Morose and depressed, she refused to sing, but the frog goaded her to practice.
Scared and unhappy, the nightingale tried, burst a vein, and died.

The frog, unsympathetic, dismissed her off - calling her 'stupid'. (Ref: stanza 12,
line 2). A shrewd judge of character, he summed her up saying that the nightingale was
too nervous and prone to influence, hence bringing her own downfall. Now, the frog
once more sings at night in his bog - unrivalled.

Now lets move on literature devices in the poem of the 'Frog and the Nightingale'.
The first literature component will be the personification. Personification is defined which
a thing or abstraction is represented as a person. So, in this poem we can identify this
literature component in the following line.

Did you did you like my song?
Not too bad but far too long.
(Ref: stanza 5 line 1-2)


This line told us that the bird Nightingale can sing song like human being and the
toad actually give comment for the song that sing by the bird. The word sing or song
is actually preferred to acting of human being. We human being is communicate in our
language where we are using vowels and consonants. But not for the birds. They
actually giving out sound where the poet considers the bird is singing and from here we
could say the whole poem is personified by the poet with his intelligent idea.
The next line is the:

And, when she had ended, clapped,
Ducks had swum and herons waded
(Ref: stanza 3 line 1-2)

In this line we can see that, after the nightingale had finish sing a song, all the animals
over there clap for the nightingale. This is also a kind of personification.

Then we can find out metaphor literature device in this poem. For an example:

Now the frog puffed up with rage.
Brainless birds you're on the stage
Use your wits and follow fashion.
Puff your lungs out with your passion.
Trembling, terrified to fail,
(Ref: stanza 14 line 1-6)

Other than metaphor, the poet also used literature devises like onomatopoeia
also sometimes called as echoism. It denotes a word or a combination of words where
whose sounds have some resemblance to the sound it denotes. So, in this poem we
can identify this literature component when the toad making the sound in the following
line:





That's why I sing with panache:
Koo-oh-ah! Ko-ash! Ko-ash!
(Ref: stanza 13 line 7-8)


The poet also use other literature devise such as Alliteration. Alliteration means
recurrent repetition of a speech sound presented in a sequence of close by words. Its
generally applied to consonants when the recurring sound starts words or stressed
syllable within a word. In this the 'Frog and the Nightingale' poem we can identify this
literature component in line below:

And the frog with great precision
Counted heads and charged admission.
(Ref: stanza 7 line 9-10)


In both line the last words end in same sound which is consonant n. Thus, this called as
alliteration.

Other example,

Oh! the nightingale confessed.
Greatly flattered and impressed
(Ref: stanza 5 line 6-7)









The poet also use other literature devise such as Assonance. Assonance means
recurrent repetition of a vowels sound presented in a sequence of close by words. Its
generally applied to vowels when the recurring sound starts words or stressed syllable
within a word. In this the 'Frog and the Nightingale' poem we can identify this literature
component in line below:

Well I charge a modest fee.
Oh! But it won't hurt, you'll see
(Ref: stanza 7 line 1-2)

In both line the last words end in same sound which is vowels e. Thus, this called as
assonance.