Annisa Fauziah

1400176/6A

An Appreciation of a Poem Entitled “Answers for Hope” by Christy Stover

Many ways you can do to appreciate a poem. For me, poetry reading is included in poetry
appreciation, but of course it is not just a cursory reading, we also have to try to understand what
the writer wishes to convey through the poem. Appreciation of poetry can also be done by
examining various elements contained in the poem, such as figurative language, theme, moral
values, diction, and etc. I had been looking for a right poem to be analyzed through this essay
and finally I chose a poem entitled Answers for Hope, written by Christy Stover that is just
published in 2017. I chose this poem because I found myself thrust into the atmosphere which is
being built by the writer. The first time I found and read this poem, I felt like I was reading my
own diary. The wording, which is fairly simple but still beautiful and appears like the flow of a
story, is able to make me bound to read it until the end of the poem. That is why I chose to
appreciate Stover’s Answers for Hope poem in my essay this time. This essay will be talking
about five elements of poetry which are Rhyme, Meanings, Repetition, Pattern of Discourse, and
Figurative language (Personification).

To begin with the first element, which is Rhyme, this poem is a highly rhyming poem, as
in nearly all the line ends contain matching rhymes sound. For example, in the first stanza, the
ends of the line 1 and line 2 also of the line 3 and 4 have the same syllable sounds. The lines read
like this respectively "An abundance of questions / Perpetually taunting / The darkest emotions /
To come out of hiding". Another example is in the next stanza, in which all the final syllables of
each line rhyme. As in the second stanza, the lines say “when trying to endure/ times of brutal
trial/ one thing holds allure,/ deceptive denial” This also appears in the third, fourth and final
stanza, which are also full of rhyming ending words. The rhyming stanzas made me very
comfortable in reading this poem. The similarity of sound produced at each end of the lines
makes it into a poem with the lines bound to each other. In addition, the interrelationship
between one line with the other also becomes more pronounced, as if there is just one line
missing from the poem, then the atmosphere that is trying to be built by the writer will be
destroyed.

Second of all, let me show you my appreciation towards the meaning of this very young
poem. Analyzing the meaning of the poem was what I had been waiting for when I read this
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poem. It is a pleasant to find poems that can accurately describe our feelings as a reader, and I
experienced that kind of feeling towards this poem. This poem describes the despair of someone
against something and an anxiety over what the person is running. Through the first stanza which
reads “an abundance of questions/ perpetually taunting/ the darkest emotions/ to come out of
hiding”, Stover shows the beginning of her anxiety’s emergence in which she says “the darkest
emotions to come out of hiding”, the words “darkest emotion” here represent the hard situation
of her, as dark is often meant as something gloomy, sad, tough, etc. Why is it meant as an
anxiety rather than sadness, then? Because there are these words: “abundance of questions
perpetually taunting”. Imagine we have a lot of questions in our mind and it forces our brain to
find the answers quickly when in fact we cannot. How does it feel? For me, it feels like
something is going to happen as the consequence of my inability to solve the questions, then I
cannot stop thinking about that consequence. It is an anxiety, right? So, in my opinion, this poem
has connotative meanings. My statement about the meanings of this poem is also supported by
the fourth stanza, which says “as emotion battles logic/ my heart throws a tantrum/ my soul
begins to panic/ as answers are held for ransom” This stanza depicts that the writer’s anxiety is
getting worse as the use of the words “emotion battles logic” reflect writer’s logic which begins
to be defeated by her emotions. It finally makes the writer even more anxious as she creates the
answers in a hurry, just so she can feel calmer without thinking whether the answers are right or
not. In this context, the answers represent what the writer does to solve her problems.

Now, talking about the next element which is Repetition, this poem does not contain any
repetition in it. As we already know, one of the aims of adding repetition is to highlight or to
stress the main idea of the poem so that the reader can more focus when reading the poem.
However, Stover seems not really interested in putting repetition in her poem entitled “Answers
for Hope”. But, she still strongly and successfully delivers the main idea of the poem through her
dictions. She still can show her anxiety through some of the wording, as in line 9 in the third
stanza, which reads “questions keep slithering” and then in line 11 and 14 which respectively say
“my sanity's withering” and “my heart throws a tantrum” There is no repetition at all in every
line of it but Stover is still able to portray that she is really anxious.

The next element to be discussed is the Pattern of Discourse. This poem is like a story, it
has an obvious plot. Starting from the emergence of the writer’s anxiety in the first and second
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stanza, then it becomes worse in the third stanza and reaches its climax in the fourth stanza when
the writer tries to overcome her anxiety with the answers she makes. Until finally, in the last
stanza, it shows the resolution or its ending in which in the end, the writer cannot solve her
problems and she ends up almost losing all of her hopes. This pattern is quite similar with a
pattern of plot that is commonly used in a story, it has the introduction, the rising of the problem,
the climax, the falling of the problem and finally the resolution.

Our last element is Figurative Language, but in this essay I will focus only on one
figurative language which is often used by the writer in this poem. It is personification. In this
poem, I found out that the writer uses personification eight times. Those are in the first stanza
when the writer says “an abundance of questions, perpetually taunting” and “the darkest
emotions, to come out of hiding” Stover depict as if questions can taunt something or someone
and as if emotions can hide from someone when in fact they cannot. Next in the third stanza,
there are two personifications being used by the writer, which are “questions keep slithering” and
“my sanity’s withering”. Then, in the fourth and fifth stanzas, four more personifications are
used; those are “as emotion battles logic, my heart throws a tantrum”, “patience just got bored,
and decided to move on”. All of those activities cannot be done by questions, emotions, sanity,
patience and heart, all those things belong to a person and that is why the figurative language is
called personification.

Source:

Answers for Hope (n.d.). Retrieved Feburary 22, 2017, from

https://www.poetrysoup.com/poem/answers_for_hope_879079
Annisa Fauziah
1400176/6A

Answers for Hope

Christy Stover

an abundance of questions
perpetually taunting
the darkest emotions
to come out of hiding
when trying to endure
times of brutal trial
one thing holds allure,
deceptive denial
questions keep slithering
through my mind
my sanity's withering
without answers to find
as emotion battles logic,
my heart throws a tantrum
my soul begins to panic
as answers are held for ransom
patience just got bored
and decided to move on
all the hope I had stored
is now almost gone