Diction & Theme Connections
Szymborska’s Diction
The Classic
A few clods of dirt, and his life will be forgotten.
The music will break free from circumstance.
No more coughing of the maestro over minuets.
Poultices will be torn off.
Fire will consume the dusty, lice-ridden wig.
Ink spots will vanish from the lace cuff.
The shoes, inconvenient witnesses, will be tossed on the trash heap.
The least gifted of his pupils will get the violin.
Butchers’ bills will be removed from between the music sheets.
His poor mother’s letters will line the stomachs of mice.
The ill-fated love will fade away.
Eyes will stop shedding tears.
The neighbors’ daughter will find a use for the pink ribbon.
The age, thank God, isn’t Romantic yet.
Everything that’s not a quartet
Will become a forgettable fifth.
Everything that’s not a quintet
Will become a superfluous sixth.
Everything that’s not a choir made of forty angels
Will fall silent, reduced to barking dogs, a gendarme’s belch.
The aloe plant will be taken from the window
Along with a dish of fly poison and the pomade pot,
And the view of the garden (oh yes!) will be revealed—
The garden that was never here.
Now hark! Ye mortals, listen, listen now,
Take heed, in rapt amazement,
O rapt, o stunned, o heedful mortals, listen,
O listeners—now listen—be all ears—
The varied diction of this poem is what makes it effective. While the poet does not use enjambment or particularly adventurous syntactical techniques, she creates interest with the word choice. Many of the lines are formed with the simple subject, verb, noun structure, but the complexity of the words chosen make the sentences appear more complicated.
This is a narrative poem, but it has lyrical qualities evidenced through Szymborska’s diction choices. The poem tells the story of a conductor dying, but does so in a sonically pleasing manner. Consider the first few lines, where the speaker describes the destruction of the conductor’s personal items. The conductor is never mentioned directly; instead Szymborska chooses strong, action-filled verbs and unique subject/verb combinations: “ink spots will vanish from the lace cuffs” creates a much more vivid image than “the conductor had ink spots on his cuffs.” Having ink spots on cuffs is really quite mundane, but the choice for subject/verb modifies this to produce livelier imagery. Szymborska consistently chooses verbs with motion:
Break
Cough
Torn
Consume
Vanish
Tossed
Fade
Shed
Another method that Szymborska uses to create a narrative poem with memorable images is recounting specific details. The line “butchers’ bills will be removed from between the music sheets” is specific enough to necessitate additional consideration, since “butchers’ bills” seems incongruous with the “music sheets.”
Everything that’s not a quartet
Will become a forgettable fifth.
Everything that’s not a quintet
Will become a superfluous sixth.
Everything that’s not a choir made of forty angels
Will fall silent, reduced to barking dogs, a gendarme’s belch.
Szymborska also uses repetition to create a rhythm; the repetition of “everything that’s not…” is followed by musical terms, and this makes the reader think of the repetition of the lines as mirroring the musical themes of the poem. In these same few lines, the author uses alliteration in a dramatic manner—clearly, the adjectives “forgettable” and “superfluous” were chosen in part because they shared the same beginning sound as “fifth” and “sixth.”
Now hark! Ye mortals, listen, listen now,
Take heed, in rapt amazement,
O rapt, o stunned, o heedful mortals, listen,
O listeners—now listen—be all ears—
In the final few lines, Szymborska adopts a diction that is different than the rest of the poem. Instead of describing the death of the conductor, these lines have a didactic tone that plays off of the need to listen and the traditional construction of old-fashioned music. “Hark” is not used in 21st century speaking, unless during December when singing “Hark the Harold Angels.” The construction with the repetition of “O” is also reminiscent of old-fashioned music.
One of Szymborska’s strengths is her ability to mold the diction of her poems to the subject that she is describing as well as the message that she intends to convey. She could have written a poem using familiar, 21st century conversational diction. Instead, she writes in a style that supports the subject of her poem.
The Classic
A few clods of dirt, and his life will be forgotten.
The music will break free from circumstance.
No more coughing of the maestro over minuets.
Poultices will be torn off.
Fire will consume the dusty, lice-ridden wig.
Ink spots will vanish from the lace cuff.
The shoes, inconvenient witnesses, will be tossed on the trash heap.
The least gifted of his pupils will get the violin.
Butchers’ bills will be removed from between the music sheets.
His poor mother’s letters will line the stomachs of mice.
The ill-fated love will fade away.
Eyes will stop shedding tears.
The neighbors’ daughter will find a use for the pink ribbon.
The age, thank God, isn’t Romantic yet.
Everything that’s not a quartet
Will become a forgettable fifth.
Everything that’s not a quintet
Will become a superfluous sixth.
Everything that’s not a choir made of forty angels
Will fall silent, reduced to barking dogs, a gendarme’s belch.
The aloe plant will be taken from the window
Along with a dish of fly poison and the pomade pot,
And the view of the garden (oh yes!) will be revealed—
The garden that was never here.
Now hark! Ye mortals, listen, listen now,
Take heed, in rapt amazement,
O rapt, o stunned, o heedful mortals, listen,
O listeners—now listen—be all ears—
The varied diction of this poem is what makes it effective. While the poet does not use enjambment or particularly adventurous syntactical techniques, she creates interest with the word choice. Many of the lines are formed with the simple subject, verb, noun structure, but the complexity of the words chosen make the sentences appear more complicated.
This is a narrative poem, but it has lyrical qualities evidenced through Szymborska’s diction choices. The poem tells the story of a conductor dying, but does so in a sonically pleasing manner. Consider the first few lines, where the speaker describes the destruction of the conductor’s personal items. The conductor is never mentioned directly; instead Szymborska chooses strong, action-filled verbs and unique subject/verb combinations: “ink spots will vanish from the lace cuffs” creates a much more vivid image than “the conductor had ink spots on his cuffs.” Having ink spots on cuffs is really quite mundane, but the choice for subject/verb modifies this to produce livelier imagery. Szymborska consistently chooses verbs with motion:
Break
Cough
Torn
Consume
Vanish
Tossed
Fade
Shed
Another method that Szymborska uses to create a narrative poem with memorable images is recounting specific details. The line “butchers’ bills will be removed from between the music sheets” is specific enough to necessitate additional consideration, since “butchers’ bills” seems incongruous with the “music sheets.”
Everything that’s not a quartet
Will become a forgettable fifth.
Everything that’s not a quintet
Will become a superfluous sixth.
Everything that’s not a choir made of forty angels
Will fall silent, reduced to barking dogs, a gendarme’s belch.
Szymborska also uses repetition to create a rhythm; the repetition of “everything that’s not…” is followed by musical terms, and this makes the reader think of the repetition of the lines as mirroring the musical themes of the poem. In these same few lines, the author uses alliteration in a dramatic manner—clearly, the adjectives “forgettable” and “superfluous” were chosen in part because they shared the same beginning sound as “fifth” and “sixth.”
Now hark! Ye mortals, listen, listen now,
Take heed, in rapt amazement,
O rapt, o stunned, o heedful mortals, listen,
O listeners—now listen—be all ears—
In the final few lines, Szymborska adopts a diction that is different than the rest of the poem. Instead of describing the death of the conductor, these lines have a didactic tone that plays off of the need to listen and the traditional construction of old-fashioned music. “Hark” is not used in 21st century speaking, unless during December when singing “Hark the Harold Angels.” The construction with the repetition of “O” is also reminiscent of old-fashioned music.
One of Szymborska’s strengths is her ability to mold the diction of her poems to the subject that she is describing as well as the message that she intends to convey. She could have written a poem using familiar, 21st century conversational diction. Instead, she writes in a style that supports the subject of her poem.
posted by Lauren at 10:41 AM
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