Literary Analysis Essay on Marie Howe's Poem "What the Living Do"

Introduction

Poetry is one of the activities featured in literature and involves creative thinking and fixing ideas that makes meaning to the target audience. Poets utilize several poetic device and elements to communicate specific information to the particular audience at a particular point in time. There is a wide range of poetic devices used by poets in their process to communicate their message, among the poetic elements include imagery, different poet's types and formats, Symbolism, use of figurative languages, theme, sound variation, iron and use of gestures among other poetic elements. In this context, the paper aims to focus on Marie Howe's poem entitled "What the Living Do." Emphasizing on how the poet employs the above poetic elements and styles to communicate the intended message and meaning of the poem to the audience.

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After the death of her younger brother, she came up with a poem in form of a letter describing her loose and in his remembrance. First, in this poem, the poet in her mind was mourning the loss of her younger brother who died as a result of complications related to AIDS. The poem itself is a presentation of what human beings must do to survive the everyday problems. Therefore in her style, Mari concentrates on mundane things that are real in our daily lives as part of living. The poem "What three Living Do" following its structure is a Quatrain type of poem because it is made up of four independent line right from the first stanza to the second last stanza with the last line have three lines.

Poetic Elements and Styles in Marie Howe's Poem

One of the poetic styles, as depicted from the initial stages of the poem, is imagery. This is a visual description or a figurative language that the poet used applied to imply the pain she had been going through since the death of her brother. The imagery of the clogged drain and the crusty dishes aims to show the audience that the poet/ speaker is undergoing so much pain that gives her little space to cope up with everyday life. This feature further tries to explain the real-life events by explaining what happens in our daily lives when we lose the people we love. The author of this poem further utilizes different figurative language as a style in her work. She uses metaphors to make comparisons wherein the third line of the first stanza she relates the Drano smell with something dangerous "And the Drano won't work but smells dangerous". At the last stanza, the poet has also indicated some elements of personification where nonperson things can perform actions that only human beings can do.

She uses the blowing hair and chapping face to explain her situation to the audience. In several occasions, the poem writer uses alliteration features all along the poem structure. The first instance of alliteration is seen right at the third line of the first stanza the where the poet the term "won't and work" at the same line. Furthermore, the author continues to use alliteration in the first line of the third stanza where he says "the open living-room windows because the heat's on too high in here and I can't turn it off." Repetition is further noticed on the last line of the sixth stanza where the author sounds to emphasize something.

Themes Explored in the Poem

Marie uses repetition on the fourth stanza as to emphasize the point she wanted to deliver and make it understood by the audience. She intended to show her audience how hard times can make one loose memory to do simple things. The more she lives the stronger the memories of her dead brother a factor that came packed with confusion. The poet is mostly a matter-of-fact; she tends to narrate the story as it is. However, the roll call of every day is reflective in some parts of the poem. There are several themes that can be developed from Marie's poem "What the living do" the first and most evident theme in this poem is the theme of death. The primary purpose of the narration in this poem is related to the loose of the loved one and the poet is lamenting the death of her beloved brother. The brother died out of a complication that has a cross relationship with AIDS, a factor that has left memories in his living sister for a long time and seems not to end. The theme that can be extracted from this poem is the theme of grief. After the death of her brother, Marie in her poem expresses intense sorrow, sadness, misery, and suffering by explaining her confusion after the loose. At the east end of the poem, the author depicts that she still remembers her brother.

The other theme brought out clear in Marie's poem is the theme change. The death of her brother contributed to the several changes in Marie's greatly. Her life when he was living was different from the life she was leading after death. On the other hand, the theme of change comes in in a manner that the once living brother to Marie is no longer living. His life started to change when he contracted a disease that caused her his death. The author has also used a lot of diction and metaphors in her work to communicate to her audience. In poetry, authors sometimes use irony of specific types while addressing their audiences. In Marie's poem for instance, particularly in the whole body of the poem, the poet is addressing her brother John. From the first stanza, "Johnny, the kitchen sink has clogged for days, some utensils probably fell down there, and the Drano won't work but smell dangerous" under normal circumstances, the dead do not speak and listen nor do they respond in any way.

Conclusion

It is ironical that the Marie is addressing her dead brother as if he has the potential to function like any ling person. The author uses this style to make the audience notice the relationship and love that existed between the two people. In conclusion, poetry just like any other literary works employs a lot of poetic skills that facilitate the interpretation and understanding of the specific meaning of developed by the author. These poetic styles are further used by poetry authors to develop the themes in there works as well passing specific information to the intended. Authors use a wide range of elements and styles to develop the themes in their works and communicate certain messages to the intended or targeted audiences. Some of the stylistic features used include symbolism, imagery, tonal variations and irony among many others.

References

Frommer, M. S. (2005). Conceptions of Self and the Impact of Loss Reply to Commentaries. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 15(4), 549-577.

Hoagland, T. (2011). Soul Radio: Three American Spiritualist Poets. The American Poetry Review, 40(4), 31-34.