Elements in Poetry

Not Only in Chemistry, We can Find Elements in Poetry Too!

by leony santoso, vincent s.

We can find a lot of elements in a poem. There are 2 kinds of elements, extrinsic elements and intrinsic elements. To determine them, we must read each poem carefully.

1. Extrinsic elements

Extrinsic elements are the elements that we can’t find inside the poem. It is about the information that supports and surround the poem itself. It could describe the author’s feelings or experiences or environment that is around the author.

• Author’s life : The things that the author experienced, could affect the plot and settings of the poem that he made
• Historical background : Historical background is the flow of the story. Historical background could be used to send moral message from the past.
• Cultural background : The cultural background could affect the plot and settings of the poem, and the author’s culture could be mixed there.
• Social background : Social background could be a social problem around the author’s community and also his biography or their life nowadays.

B. Intrinsic elements

Intrinsic elements are the elements that build up the poem. It’s easier to identify intrinsic elements since we can find them inside the poem.

• Character : An important part of a poem. The expression and behaviour of the characters help to deliver the message.

Types of character:

1. Protagonist : the good character, usually become the hero of the poem
2. Antagonist : the bad character who starts the fight
3. Main character : the character that often appear in the poem
4. Peripheral character : used to support the main character
5. Theme : the main topic of the poem

• Setting : The time, place and situation where the poem takes place. Includes all details like time and location
• Plot : The arrangement of the poem that builds up the poem.

1. Exposition : the beginning/introduction of the poem
2. Rising action : conflict starts to show
3. Climax : the character face the conflict
4. Falling action : character face more conflict, poem almost end
5. Resolution : solution of the conflict and the end of the poem

Examples:

Our Family

United by the sorrows and joys

That bind us… we are one.

One family, riding the roller – coaster

Of life…surviving the ups and downs

With “relative sanity,”

Never really knowing what’s around the bend

One family…sharing our space,

Our opinions, our hopes, our dreams,

Our fears and disappointments,

Cheering on each other on…

Through the best of times,

And putting up with the worst

In each other.

One family… through thick and thin,

Remaining steadfast and true,

Loving each other the way

That families do…

With the kind of love

That grows stronger every day,

Even in the face of adversity…

The kind of love that is…

And always will be..

Forever!

        Analysis (by Vincent) :

In life, there are few constants. United by the sorrows and joys. This poem is about a family which was united by blood, and they must go through sorrows and joys together. Of life…surviving the ups and downs.  A family that have ups and downs in their life. One family…sharing our space, our opinions, our hopes, our dreams, our fears and disappointments, cheering on each other on… A family which share spaces, opinions, hopes, dreams, fears, and disappointments. Cheering on each other on… A family which supports each other by cheering one another. Through the best of times, and putting up with the worst. A family which go through good times and bad times. With the kind of love that grows stronger every day.  A family which grows every day with love and will be forever. They would give you solutions and support you always. We could see that this poem has many feelings inside, because this poem is a poem that was made according to real experience that the author experienced. The author may be a person that grows in a good family which supports him from when he was born. The author put many feelings through real experience in his past. This poem tells us that a family is more important than our friends, because our family will not leave us alone. This poem has feelings inside it. I can feel the feeling of love. This poem uses some metaphor in it. We could see it in the second line, we are one. The metaphors in this poem supports the atmosphere in it and created a feeling of the poem. The extrinsic and intrinsic elements are important things in a poem, but sometimes there are only some extrinsic and intrinsic elements in it, and it is fine. We can get the feeling of the poem from the extrinsic and intrinsic elements.

Beautiful

By Erin Hanson

You see something that’s beautiful

So unfettered and so free,

And you yearn to know the secret,

Behind possessing such beauty,

So you catch it in your netting,

And you pin it to the ground,

Then poke and prod for hours,

Until its secret has been found,

You examine it so closely,

Always wanting something more,

Until you slowly start to notice,

Its golden blood across the floor,

You rush to find its heartbeat,

But find silence in its place,

And a realisation hits you,

As tears slip down your face,

That the secret wasn’t hidden,

Because it wasn’t there at all,

It was the simple act of living,

That had you so enthralled,

That you’d spent your whole life waiting,

For your beauty to be shown,

But in wanting someone else’s,

You had failed to see your own.

Analysis (by Leony):

This poem, beautiful, is beautifully written by Erin Hanson. Erin Hanson is not only a poet, but she is also a painter. She often expresses her feelings and emotion through her paintings and poems. After reading this poem, we can conclude that this poem is about the beauty of one’s self. Sometimes we focus too much on other’s beauty, or fame, or intelligence, until we forgot that each of us has our own beauty inside each of us. I imagined the ‘something’ in her poem as a butterfly. Butterfly can be really beautiful, but it’s not because it has a secret inside it, but because it’s beautiful just the way it was.

        In the first until the fourth line, it means that there is someone that you think is better than you. You can see that it has more beauty. From the next few lines, I get that sometimes, when we are to focused on other’s beauty, we can do things that hurt them. For example, there are some people who get jealous, and talk behind their backs or did something that hurt the person. The next few lines (line 11 until 16) explain that in the end we realize, what we did is useless. There’s no point of being jealous of others. The main message of the whole poem is stated in the last 2 line, which by wanting someone else’s beauty, we had failed to see our own beauty. The author didn’t write the whole message directly, instead she describe it as something else. The author did this, to make the poem more beautiful and meaningful. It also allows the reader to get a clearer image about the feelings and situation that she tried to create.

        The author may write this as her expression or thoughts about her haters, or the people that hurts her.  Or maybe the author wrote that after learning that it’s useless to want to be someone else. There are some rhymes used in this poem, for example, in line 6 and 8. The way of reading and pauses can vary, according of how the reader understands it.

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