Poetry Analysis Essay

Echoes of Goodbye by Patricia A. Queen is a skilfully crafted poetry that describes the hardships of mortal who lost their father at a young age and is recollecting memories of their pertinacious past. The prevalent writings discussed in the numbers, concerning death, loss and suffering, be enhanced by the many an(prenominal) poetic devices employed by the poet. The scratch stanza adopts a foreboding touch and utilises vivid, striking resourcefulness to enhance its meaning. Emotion and passion is what really sets this metrical composition alight and brings it to life.In the first two lines, powerful, descriptive phrases such as endless footsteps and grieving people enrich the ideas and themes of loss, and create a resonating air typical of the gothic genre. The poet uses personification to evoke a distress yet cryptic aura The black clouds hide the crying chuck (3). The first stanza concludes by establishing an image of sadness in the readers mind Amid those timeworn, lonely echoes of goodbye. This quote further implies a haunting, let loose tone which is maintained throughout the poem.The rhyming pattern used in the first four lines is AABB, and this particular pattern emphasises the rhythm of the poem. Furthermore, the imagery in first stanza implies the setting is a gravegrard, with the endless footsteps and timeworn echoes of goodbye suggesting the verbaliser is in a place of sadness and death. These incredibly meaningful first four lines set the scene for the rest of the poem. The second verse of this poem introduces a different type of narration by recalling memories in the take form of an anecdote.This is seen in the first line, A young man lived here with a wife, a barbarian, a song. The cumulative listing of his most undecomposed assets reiterates all the earthly possessions he has left behind. The main ideas discussed in this stanza are isolation and abandonment. This is especially seen in the last line, Left them in a dark, black and shadowed shroud. The deliberate alliteration of the sh sound heightens the tenseness and displays use of another poetic proficiency.This line also makes reference to the undertone of sadness and sorrow that lie beneath the surface of the poem. The third stanza explores how botheration and guilt can be a central experience of the theme of loss and death, and this is specifically expressed through the symbolic association of the child in the poem, to ideas of innocence and ignorance. This is blatantly seen through the clever positioning of a rhetorical question in the last line Why hadnt he told he told me goodbye? This one line alone this instant questions the reader and plants seeds of doubt, especially when viewed from a naive childs perspective. This poem is also an allegory for the epitomes struggle, longing and loss. This effect is achieved by incorporating a personal touch seen in line 9 & 10 They buried my daddyI cried as I held Mommas hand. The painful imagery such as in the line, Those tears on her face revealed all the pain allows the emotion to seep through the words used, to strike chords of sorrow in our hearts.The reference to the funeral in line 13 forces the reader to associate it with death and also rouses sad connotations, which is the intended manipulation of the poem. In this stanza the poet also breaks the original four-lined stanza form and alters the rhyming pattern to ABAB/CDCD. This technique exemplifies the variety of the poem and introduces a new pulse. By arranging the ideas in the third stanza as a series of nostalgic yet comprehend memories, the poet reveals all the raw emotion and grief experienced by the persona which adds authenticity and a realistic edge to the poem.The fourth stanza is identical to the first, and this has purposely been done to create a suspenseful and ominous ending. The circular coordinate of the poem brings us back to where the poem began, to end it on a sinister and unpromising note. In this s tanza he technique employed by the poet is foreshadowing, since it leaves us unsure of events to come and places a cloud of uncertainty in our minds. Lastly the poem draws to a close, Amid those timeworn, lonely echoes of goodbye. The repeated sensory imagery provides a fitting conclusion to an exceptional poem.