Poetry 101

A poem I submitted to a college poetry 101 class in place of the final essay and, I’m rather proud to say, was a risk that paid off quite well for me:

Thus far
Or
What We’ve Learned This Semester

What we’ve learned this semester
Is first diction, and its poetic gesture.
Alongside syntax we are replete,
As in each poem it resides complete.

Thus far we know abundant true,
It is not in contrast we are to rue.
Rather like comparison and its fine detail,
Wherein its use the poet can not fail.

How then suppose you like a spring pool we ebb,
While imagery sticks as a fly in the web.
Simplistic and admitted, this verse to you will speak,
But we see simile like the smell of dung will reek.

Surprise! This stanza begins with a punctual break
But shock all the more for metaphor’s sake.
If we would pursue metaphor’s life,
Line after line, then conceit be rife;

But more eloquent may be if Helen’s face ever more,
Didn’t see the day allusion placed her frown in store.
Symbols still rise up from the words and much alike
Imagery is restored
Rhyme is abhorred
Form is adored
And enjambment and rhythm take a hike.

Still sweeter still is assonance’s strict stride
But bumpy is the blow when alliteration it can not abide.
And there is more to be sure in the aural profession
When flow of the cadence is put set in compression.