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Expression of Poetry

 

            A poem can be described as a short story of expression, yet it is up to the author to decided what is the best manner in expressing themselves. Many poets go ahead and make it clear what emotion they might have during the poem, like in Sylvia Plath's Daddy (1965). She intentionally exaggerates points in this poem, to make sure that the reader knows her emotion. But not all poets use this approach when showing feeling in their poems, such as David Huddle who uses the opposite approach in Holes Commence Falling (1979), he actually says less then what is meant. Both poems hold the uniqueness of having so much anger expressed in different ways. .
             In Daddy, Sylvia Path takes an unusual approach to express the anger in the poem. The poem is based around a woman who describes her anger for her father and her husband, she hates them for something she perceives they are, but aren't in actuality. She describes her father as the devil "A cleft in your chin instead of your foot, But no less a devil for that" (54-55). Now obviously her father is not the devil, but that line describes her anger of her father, devil or not. The women in the poem talks about her father being a Nazi, but felt isolated from her father and described herself as a Jew, which would be a far reach after calling her father a Nazi. This poem also shows irony, she goes on through the poem saying how much she hates her father and everything her father was, but she also says this "Every women adores a fascist" (48). After lashing out at her father, she reveals that she adores a fascist and in turn marries one. Though she must have some love for her husband and even her father, she continues her bitterness throughout the poem. Plath really shows how emotion can dictate a poem, especially through over exaggeration of anger.
             A poem doesn't always need to show over exaggeration of emotion to get its point across. Holes Commence Falling is a great example of this, though the anger presented in the poem is understated, the impact of the poem is no less powerful.


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