How to write the appreciation of a poem? What are the main things for writing poem appreciation?

 

How to write a poem appreciation What are the main things for writing poem appreciation?

Writing an appreciation on any literary branch sharpens qualities and defects. Concerned with its qualities and defects, it is related to criticism. But criticism is not like a theory  of science. It is personal; therefore it is related to emotion. Emotion, though being one type of science, is ignored by science due to some reason. Critics help us to understand the complexity of a work of art. A man who is involved in critical work must be an honest and sincere man. A paltry man trends, thinks and produces paltry. Writing of an appreciation is a fine work, and this is best produced by  him who is brutally and morally very honest. Though his emotional thread is alive, he naturally, skilfully and intellectually makes every statement. 

Before writing an appreciation we should not fail to perceive intention and perception and also the perspective of the work of art which we will deal with.

To which work of art we deal with is related to experience which comes out from the depth of life.

For writing an appreciation of poems, the following things are very important:

1. Almost all the poems are deeply rooted in two things: impulse and imitation. These two things make the content of the poem. The content is the subject matter of the poem which is truth and also seriousness.

2. Every good poem is related to life. So it is concerned with philosophical value. It means the revelation of what the poet feels and sees around him. He deals with complex ideas and philosophy of life.This is what includes a poetic message or the poet's vision and perspective.

3. A poem is  well borne by the criticism of life. Therefore, it may include a social, moral and an idealistic view.

4. As a poem overflows in the powerful feeling, it is related to emotion and has a special reaction. This may be the fireworks of a poem which is the positive force having profound influence.

5. A poem is a material composition. So it has the special application of language and art of employing words and expression. It has the inclusion of syllables, metres, rhyme schemes, stanza forms, figures ,types and a special type of grammatical application.

6. Lastly, in writing appreciation, it is to be remembered that the source of the poem is heart. Neither it is the exercise of the brain, nor it is the exertion of intellect.

        “Fool, said my muse to me, look in thy heart and write” 

                                               (Sidney: Astrophel and Stella)

An example:

                            THE SCHOLARS

                           W. B. YEATS

“Bald heads forget of their sins,

Old learned, respectable bald heads

Edit and annotate the lines

That young men, tossing in their beds,

Rhymed out in love’s despair

To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear.

All  shuffle there; all cough in ink;

All wear the carpet with their shoes;

All think what other people think;

All know the man their neighbour knows.

Lord, what would they say

Did their Catullus walk that way?”

APPRECIATION:

Old respectable and bald-headed scholars edit and annotate lines which lovers write in love’s hopelessness. They evade difficult portions, use laboured expressions, and express unoriginal views, leaving the question whether lovers actually wrote in that way unanswered.

The first stanza expresses what some learned, bald-headed and old scholars do. They indulge themselves in editing some rhymed poems composed by lovers: poems written in despair to soothe the unwilling ears of their beautiful mistresses.

The second stanza deals in describing the scholars’ difficulty in explaining some parts. Their laboured and hackneyed views depend on matters heard from others, for which the agreement of their views and those of the lover is open to question.

 The poem is an example of restricted poetry, for its narrow range is of particular interest to those poets who find that the scholars’ explanation of their lines is far from what they intended. The purpose lying behind the composition of the poem is to hold a section of all- knowing critics up to ridicule.

The tone of the poem is satire. It suggests that old men are unable to realize the complexity of love. A dig at their knowledge is made in the way they are described. They are, again, made a laughing stock on account of their fumbling at difficult areas, 

“ All shuffle there”

their avoidance of giving a clear-cut opinion

“ all cough in Ink”,

their unoriginal ideas 

“All think what other people think”,

and their reliance on secondary sources of information

“All know the man their neighbour knows”

The question made in the final couplet expresses the poet’s confidence that ordinary people will agree with him that the scholars’ way of explanation is far from what Catullus, a lovers’ representative, intended.

The poem is a short one whose contents are moulded as a lyric. It consists of two stanzas. Each stanza contains six lines. The first stanza describes the work that the critic does with poems which are written by lovers in deep despondency.

The second stanza is speaking about the art of their artwork having the conclusion that their scholarship is imvalued and they fail to realize the real spirit of the lovers’ lines. The rhyme-scheme of the is ababcc. It is written in iambic, but it has variety , i.e. trochaic in the first foot of the third line and anapaestic in the third feet  of the first line. It also has the metric flow , consisting of the fifth line of the stanza which brings fondness.  The fifth line of both the stanzas is trimetric and the remaining lines are tetrameric.

The diction is also very effective. Oftentimes, the words play a sharp effect : ‘old learned, respectable bald heads’, ‘all cough in the ink’ etc.  Some expressions are very mastery in diction and these are surprising because of doubtfulness; ‘ tossing on their beds’, ‘beauty’s ignorant ear’ etc.

There are images which are precisely and impressively supplied with.  Such are ‘youngmen tossing on their heads’ and ‘ beauty’s ignorant ear' as a profound soothing effect. There are also figurative images such as ‘Beauty’ that stands for concreteness in lieu of abstract, that is a beautiful woman. The special use of figures like ‘ ignorant ear’ is a fantastic example of synecdoche or a transferred epithet. ‘Catullus’ is an example of allusion. In inclusion with, ‘ Shuffle’, ‘cough’ , ‘carpet’ and ‘ boots’ are all used figuratively.

The poem has a satiric note that is observable and needs to be paid attention. Poet makes a sarcastic attack on the so-called critic. Lastly, the immortality of Yeats’ poem is to be acclaimed highly.