Analysis of Ars Poetica-Archibald MacLeish

Analysis of Ars Poetica- Archibald MacLeish

Analysis of Imagery: The poem is filled with imageries and each line has to be taken into account for analysing imagery. The poem on the whole talks about how a poem should be. It is a reflection of thoughts on "Ars Poetica" by Archibald MacLeish and therefore same title has been retained for this poem. The opening lines carry the image of a ‘globed fruit’. Globed fruit refers to the round shape of the fruit. As a fruit that is spherical in shape carries the palpable part along with seeds, so the poem should have contents that should be felt and easily understood. However, the meaning and content of the poem should not be directly thrown open to the readers. Fruit content is always good to eat; similarly the poem also should have a good feel to read. The usage of ‘as’ to bring a direct comparison with various other images indicates the implication of simile technique. The same technique is applied throughout the poem. The second line “Dumb As old medallions to the thumb” presents the comparison between the age old medallion and the poem. A medallion is an artefact of history. It has truth and innumerable stories inculcated within but at the outset it is a piece of calmness. The loads of greatness remains calm and one has to profoundly think for the comprehension of underlying facts. On par with this medallion, the poet compares the poem. A poem also should carry the truth and innumerable meaning and stories within but it has to remain dumb without throwing the wealth of messages directly to the readers. A reader has to read, relish and cull out the treasury buried in the poem. After the imagery of a ‘globed fruit’ and the ‘old medallion’ the third imagery used by the poet is casement ledges which are worn out by the touch of sleeves for many years. Despite the persistent touch and the damage caused to the casement, it remains silent forever. Such a silence is expected in a poem. Though the quality of silence in a poem is highly doubted still the silence here refers to the immense silence that is borne out of heavy truth. First three images deals with the sensory image of touch and sight while the fourth and fifth imagery are connected with the kinaesthetic movement.  The lines “A poem should be wordless as the flight of birds” is the fourth imagery that presents the comparison of a wordless poem with the flight of birds. The image of flight of birds is kinaesthetic and a reader may wonder about its comparison with the wordless poem. Infact the ‘poem should be wordless’ is confusing as one may wonder that how a poem can be without words. The implied meaning in this context is that a bird’s flight is generally smooth and gliding. A bird can be watched as a whole but its way of flight is not looked separately. The action of flight blends with the bird. Similarly, the words in the poem should give a smooth impression of reading. The word should blend with the poem and the words should disappear in the light of entire poem. The next four lines of the poem deals with the image of moon from the nature. A characteristic feature of the poem is compared with the moon. The motion of the moon cannot be easily deciphered. For an observer, the moon gives an impression as if it moves and climbs in-between the entangled trees leaving the winter leaves. Whereas the moon on the other hand stays in the space and revolves around its own orbit alone. A poem too should take the reader's imagination along with its images. A poem has to be motionless but like a moon that assumes the movement from the observer’s point of view, a poem too has to stimulate the emotions of a reader and it should appeal to the feel. A poem is not a history to tell the facts. This poem is a paradox in a way as it repeatedly mentions how a poem should be.

Analysis of Syntax: The poem consists of couplet and each portion of the initial line contains imagery. The usage of punctuations like comma, full stop and the hyphen helps the reader to sense the images with right comparison. The gerund form “leaving” is used twice to create a progressive effect. The repetition of a pattern occurs in ‘twig by twig’ and ‘memory by memory’. The lines “a poem should be equal to: Not true”, “A poem should not mean: But be” follows a same pattern. The lines 1 & 2 also begin with “a poem should be”. Like a refrain the lines “A poem should be motionless in time, As the moon climbs” is repeated twice. The words like ‘mute’, ‘dumb’, ‘silent’, and ‘wordless’ mean the same but has been syntactically arranged one behind the other pertaining to various comparisons.

Analysis of rhythm: The alliteration of the sound /t/ can be traced in the lines, “twig by twig the night-entangled trees”. Similarly the alliteration of the consonant /m/ sound is evident in the lines “Memory by memory the mind”. The first six lines of the poem have ‘ab’ rhyme pattern.  Many rhymes are consonance in nature based on sounds-for instance mute and fruit, releases and trees. There is also other rhyme pair like grief-leaf, stone-grown, and dumb-thumb etc. However, the poet has used the free verse style and the rhyme pattern is not uniformly applied throughout the poem.