Blog 11, option one

A poem's form has a most literal way of guiding a poem's flow/ rhythm. There can be fast parts, slow parts, parts associated with a feeling that can be dying or rising, and parts can be emphasized or subdued in importance.

E.E. Cummings's “Buffalo Bill's Defunct” is a respectful ode to Buffalo Bill, and is remorseful of his passing. The second line is one word: “defunct”. The word “defunct” means “no longer operating or in use,” which gives Buffalo Bill a mechanical, machine-like element. This somewhat satirizes people's understanding of Buffao Bill as someone “who used to ride a watersmooth-silver stallion, [and so-on].” The word defunct procures its following description of Bill as the three facts that are presented about him in this poem; the things that everybody knew about him, and are no longer true. “Watersmooth-silver stallion” is given two lines to give the word stallion its own pedestal, enhancing its importance. The next line simply skips the spaces between the words to speed it up. Then the interjection is set off by its own line, and not indented quite as far as the last letters of the preceding line, mimicking how Bill's stunt would be reacted to in real time. The rest of the poem alternates between super-indented lines and lines that start at the edge margin. Only the names are capitalized. The time it takes us to get to the next word is normally periodic, like the lyrics of a song. Between each line there is a pause, usually of the same length. Buffalo Bill's Defunct has so many variations on this normal structure that all we can use to judge the beat and timing of the poem is the spacing.

The form in George Herbert's “Easter Wings” is much more shapely and has a pattern that is easy to follow. The progression of line length from large to small reflects the slope of deterioration that both such segments describe. The other sections of the poem give a rising sensation. The poem's text looks like a bird, or if viewed from the side, could be flames, storm clouds, even Devil horns. Or Sauron's helmet. A much more nerdy interpretation would be a sinusoidal graph, which would poetically support the same trend as the lengthening and shortening of the lines, even though science would provide us with no further understanding. “The flight in me” could represent the action the speaker is threatening to take, which I think might either be suicide or a strong indication of hope for future ability to achieve the “wealth and store” the Lord created in man in the beginning. It seems as though he is trying to point out the unfairness of the suffering he must endure because of Adam and Eve, stating that “my tender age in sorrow did I begin,” and that Adam and Eve had a chance to see what the “wealth and store” was like, but he didn't, and he wants to pursue it. The speaker points out how “affliction” will sill be his main motivation.