Read the following poems:

 To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train

 O why do you walk through the field in gloves,
  Missing so much and so much?
 O fat white woman whom nobody loves,
 Why do you walk through the field in gloves,
 When the grass is soft as the breast of doves
  And shivering sweet to the touch?
 O why do you walk through the field in gloves,
  Missing so much and so much?

    - Frances Cornfield (1886-1960)

 homage to my hips

 these hips are big hips
 they need space to
 move around in.
 they don’t fit into little 
 petty places.  these hips
 are free hips.
 they don’t like to be held back.
 these hips have never been enslaved,
 they go where they want to go
 they do what they want to do.
 these hips are mighty hips.
 these hips are magic hips.
 i have known them
 to put a spell on a man and
 spin him like a top!

   - Lucille Clifton (b. 1936)

Now you might be wondering why we just stuck some poetry into a writing programme. What does poetry have to do with prose? A lot!  Poetry is the most concise of the language arts. Poets claim to be able to convey the greatest impact using the fewest words. And if you think of words as money - you’ve been given 150 words to describe something AND get an A for doing so - then the techniques of poetry become your most economic tools. Besides, we had these two hanging around and decided to use them.
We’re not suggesting you start using rhyme in your essays. No, you really don’t want to do that! Really. Really! Have we made that point? Good!

But let’s take a closer look at Cornfield’s famous triolet . She has clearly listened to the rhythm of the words she has selected. Writers do that.   Poetry, as you know, uses various patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables to create a rhythm. Sometimes, the pattern will vary from place to place, as it does here.  Cornfield uses various patterns. Sometimes the overall effect is slow and soft - even a little sad - " When the grass is soft as the breast of doves."  This line uses a combination of anapests and iambs.  .  The poem also makes use of the hard and soft sounds of words. The line about the grass uses soft vowel sounds - soft "a" - grass, as; soft "o" - soft, dove. It also uses more soft consonants - "r", "s" "th" - than it does hard - "d", "g". Notice the hard consonants are "softened" by their attachment to soft consonants - gr - or soft vowels - doves. This careful use of word sounds indicates the poet’s use of assonance and consonance.   Yes, gentle reader, you have to read the footnotes!

There are harder spots in the poem - "O fat white woman" - where the tone seems almost angry. You may notice that " O fat white woman" contains four consecutive stressed syllables before the rhythm gives us an unstressed break with -man. The combination of hard and soft consonants also "hardens" the line by making it more difficult to read. It almost sounds like we are spitting. 

Cornfield’s poem, then, teaches young writers to pay careful attention to common words - to their sounds and their syllabic structure. And, oh yes, she also even uses a simile - which you know all about - and synesthesia - which you don’t.   Synethesia occurs when a writer uses a word associated with one sense but does so in reference to another. When we are told that the grass is "shimmering sweet to the touch", we are given "sweet" which is associated with taste, but the poet uses it to describe how something feels when we touch it. Clever, eh? One of my favorite examples of synesthesia is this line by Kenneth Patchen: "Cathedral evening, tinkle of candles/ On the frosted air... . "

Clifton’s poem, homage to my hips, is, of course, very different. To some of you, it may not look or sound like poetry at all, and in fact, it could be changed to a paragraph easily - especially with a good word processor! 

These hips are big hips. They need space to move around in. They don’t fit into little petty places.  These hips are free hips. They don’t like to be held 

back.These hips have never been enslaved; they go where they want to go. They do what they want to do. These hips are mighty hips. These hips are magic hips. I have known them to put a spell on a man and spin him like a top!

Obviously, this piece is much better as a poem, and a careful look at it will show you how the line breaks Clifton uses add a great deal of emphasis to certain images, an emphasis that gets lost when we turn it into a paragraph.

But what we do see in the paragraph is the similar sentence openings. Every sentence begins with "these" or "they" and this adds power to the movement of the lines. All the sentences are short, the significant exception being the last. Thus, the sentences achieve a defiant "in your face" impact. These are sentences with attitude. You can almost see them strut their way across the page! 

Now, look at that last sentence. It contains that great simile, the one that reduces a man to a plaything - a top. Tops spin. Tops move quickly. Notice how quickly that sentence moves - no commas or double and triple syllable words to slow it down. And notice that the last five words can easily be read as if each word were stressed, something that adds speed, power and almost violence to the line.

Thus, the techniques we associate more with poetry are just as critical to the writing of effective prose. Got it?

Good!

To practise your poetic prowess, click here.
To move on to the next lesson, click here.

For more information about Lucille Clifton, check out the Academy of American Poets Exhibtion site. You can even hear her read "hommage to my hips" there!