“I Said to Poetry” written by Alice Walker
...he conventional rules of grammar in poetry writing. The poet makes uses of the various language devices to bring out her intended message of perseverance to the readers. The originality of the poem is captured very eloquently by the poet’s use of the first speaker in the poetry. The use of ‘I’ produces an effect of closeness with the reader in this poem. It represents a live radio commentary between the speaker and the persona ‘Poetry’. The poet presents her confrontation with Poetry by making use of several literary devices. One of them is the attitude or tone in which the first speaker and the persona,’Poetry’ uses with each other. The dynamic change in tone or attitude of the speaker; irritability, condescending as seen in the 1st stanza to a calmer tone in the line ‘I didn’t hear that’ and conciliatory in the 9th stanza and finally cornered into acceptance in the ending couplet,’Bullshit/Bullshit’. This shift of journey of emotions captures the essence of the originality of the poem. The friendly banter between the two parties is indeed enhanced in the use of phrases like, ‘painless conventions’, ‘laid back and played dead’ and ‘funny noise’. The humour helps t...