Good Poetry and Bad: An Identification

Poetry, form of literature, spoken or written, that emphasizes rhythm, other intricate patterns of sound and imagery, and the many possible ways that words can suggest meaning. This form of literature evokes to its readers ideas that stimulate feelings and emotions in rhyme and metrical, figurative language. There are poems that are observed and criticized as good and bad. In evaluating a poem, first, a reader must understand fully a selected poem. Next is to know its central purpose and finally, to scale its perfection and significance. If a poem aces in one of these scales, it is good.

The following are two analyses of the poems, Little Boy Blue and The Toys. These analyses are the keys to determine the superior and inferior poetry.

Little Boy Blue: Analysis

The poem, Little Boy Blue written by Eugene Field, is about a child’s toys – little toy dog and little toy soldier – that were left alone by its owner. As described in the poem, the little toy dog is

“The little toy dog is covered with dust,

But sturdy and staunch he stands;”

and the little toy soldier is

“And the little toy soldier was red with rust,

And his musket moulds in his hands.”

Then the persona states in flashback that in the time that the toys were new the Little Boy Blue, after setting the toys, kissed it and sleeps good night.

“And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue

Kissed them and put them there.”

Then the boy said to his toys,

“Now, don’t you go till I come,” he said,

“And don’t make any noise!””

After long years, his toys untouched in the same position. It is thought that the boy dies in his sleep. The poem is assumed to be an anecdote about Fields' son who had died. The poem is in reference of his son’s death and is told from the perspective of his son's two toys.

The poems talks about a child’s death living his toys alone. The toys remains faithful to him as time passes. In the end of the poem, the persona asks

“What has become of our Little Boy Blue,

Since he kissed them and put them there.”

The color blue represents that the child is ailing. Perhaps, he can’t go out of the house to play with other kids. Thus, the little toy soldier and the little toy dog are his only companions.

The poet mainly used the imageries of kinaesthetic, visual, tactile and auditory.

“Kissed them and put them there” – Kinaesthetic

“And the little toy soldier is red with rust” - Visual

“And his musket moulds in his hands” – Tactile

“And, as he was dreaming, an angel song.” - Auditory

The figure of speech used by the author is:

“The little toy dog is covered with dust,

But sturdy and stanch he stands; and,

and the soldier was passing fair.” - Personification

The tone of the poem is nostalgic. The persona reminisces and narrates a past experience which is painful for him. Perhaps, the toys are the ones talking. It hurts them when they narrate the disappearance of their owner, the Little Boy Blue.

The theme is a child plays with his toys as his friends. A child not only sees his toys as material things but also as close friends who shared with him his childhood days and the ones who never left him through the passage of time.

The Toys: Analysis

The poem, The Toys by Coventry Patmore, is about a father who beat up his child but is forgiven by the Father.

The First lines of the poem talk about a child who talks and acts like a grown up (this is from the perspective of the father):

“My little Son, who looked from the thoughtful eyes

And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise”

Because of the child acts, on the seventh warning, the father got angry and beats him. The father sents him to his bed without the usual good night kiss they shared:

“I struck him, and dismissed

With hard words, unkissed,”

The grown-up acts that the child exhibits are due to his motherless status. Being motherless has a psychological effect on a child. The father thought that he must be tolerant on his child. He went to his child afraid that he might not get to sleep because of the previous happening. But when the father sees his child, he is quietly sleeping with his darkened eyelids and wet eye lashes proving his sobbing.

“But found him slumbering deep,

With darkened eyelids, and their lashes yet

From his late sobbing wet.”

He was moved by what he has seen and felt sorry for what he did. He kissed his son and while doing so, his attention was captured by the toys neatly arranged on a table beside the child’s bed. The toys – a box of counters, a red veined stone, a glass abraded by the beach, six or seven shells, a bottle with blue bells and the French Copper coins – gives comfort to the child. The father punishes the child of his doings but he realizes that God can also punish him for his own wrong doings or habits but still forgives him.

Symbolically, the poem manifests the sorrows of childhood and the love of God to his children as a father. The persona in the poem depicts a man doing bad things yet not punished by God but when the persona is doing a bad thing, he punishes the child not considering that the ultimate Father don’t punish him because of unconditional love – He sees not only one side of a person, He figures out a person as a whole.

The figure of speech that is used by the poet in writing this poem is:

“Than I whom thou has moulded from the clay.” – Allusion

This passage can be seen in the Bible. Man is thought moulded by God from clay.

The imageries that are present in the poem are:

“With Darkened eyelids, and their lashes yet.” – Visual

“And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise.” – Auditory

“I struck him, and dismissed.” – Kinaesthetic

The tone of the poem is serious, sympathetic and regretful. The dominant tone in the poem is serious because it is expressed in a seemingly not funny way. It is sympathetic because the father sympathizes with his child. It is also regretful because the father realizes that he himself does bad things and is not reprimanded by God. For the father, what he did to his child is shameful.

The theme of the poem is Man’s love can’t surpass God’s love. Man shows love not like the Father’s love. The Father’s love is unconditional. He sees everything on his lamb that’s why it’s hard for him to punish or judge one. Man’s love only sees a side of a matter. If a child does wrong, he punishes him not considering that the child is still young and don’t know what’s the right thing to do.

The Good Poetry

After understanding and analyzing the two poems, the result is finally concluded. The result of the evaluation of the two poems, Little Boy Blue and The Toys, is that the superior poetry is The Toys. The said good poem wraps it all up. It appeals to the readers senses. It is not rhetorical for it does not use extravagant words; not didactic because it does not communicates information and more instruction only; and not sentimental because it is not tear-jerking. Thus, it is in its right combination for a good poetry.

The Toys fully accomplished its thought or central purpose. The materials in the poem are integrated and unified. Hence, the purpose that it suggests is highly important as reflected on its theme.