"Poetry allows poets to give form to experiences and feelings which are difficult to put into words" do you agree with this view?

Essay by fred5000cheatHigh School, 12th grade June 2005

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All poems in this anthology deal with expression. However, John Clare's 'I am' and Christina Rossetti's 'Remember' are two of the best examples of expression and how it fits into poetical form. John Clare's 'I am' is an example of romantic poetry that deals with death and loneliness. It was written while John Clare was in a mental asylum, and it deals with his feelings and experiences there. The first line introduces us to his mental state 'I am: yet what I am none cares or knows'. This line is a personal statement of his existence, no one seems to care for him and he is completely alone with no one to help, 'I am the self consumer of my woes'. He has to try and convince himself that he is alive and he manages to do this through his religious beliefs. He believes that, although he is insane, god will save him 'there to abide with my creator, God'.

The poem continues in this religious vein, efflorescing into his deep, romantic, views of childhood. He believes, as Rousseau had led the romantics to believe, that Heaven was like a child's innocence.

The structure and form of John Clare's poetry is an important way that John Clare concentres his emotions for the reader. The structure, although not formal, has a strict rhyme scheme and meter. The three stanzas each have different endings; the first stanza ends with an enjambment which increases rhythm and pace. This ending fits perfectly with the rest of the first stanza, which is very fast with several dashes used to speed up the words. This shows us the chaotic ideas that John Clare has to try and explain in the poem. In most poetry the first stanza is usually the predicament and the...