"The poetry lesson" by Don Maclennan,
In the poem "The poetry lesson" by Don Maclennan, the poet is in a state of depression, he is finding it difficult to understand the reasons why he is doing poetry and teaching poetry to his students. The poem is also trying to make sense of poetry and trying to determine the purpose of it. The irony of this poem is that it is a poem about poetry and poem within itself. The type of irony that is shown in the poem is situational irony. We will have to look at the many reasons why Don Maclennan feels so depressed as such and how he feels about certain matters in his life. We will also be looking at the ironic remarks that he makes in the poem.The definition of irony in this poem is explained in the shorter oxford dictionary as " A figure of speech in which the intended meaning is the opposite of that expressed by the words used.." or " A contradictory outcome of events as if in the mockery of the promise and fitness of things." In the first stanza the poet describes his feelings of confusion and sadness. This sadness is shown to the reader when the poet says (l. 1) "I slide into [a] depression" This shows that the poet feels hopeless about his life and his understanding of poetry. His weakness which is portrayed in this stan
It is filling their silence meaning that the answers are coming to them individually because they are analyzing the meaning of poetry in silence. 34-40) " evolution has no purpose/ that mind and spirit , even god,/ are only words we use" this contrast the meaning represented in the forth stanza. In the poem the teacher makes quite clear how that he admires the students. In the second stanza the weakness of the poet is further explained by him (l. In the third stanza the poet follows with the idea of what poetry really is. za is further explained by him taking a (l. The poem discusses poetry in a patronizing way which then again brings back the form of irony in the poem. In the third stanza he further explains that he has some of his own fears, he elaborated by saying that (ll. This is ironic because Don Maclennan is a Poetry teacher for many years at the Rhodes University yet he still does not understand the reason he is teaching poetry to his pupils. The question that the teacher asked the students can be seen differently, as the teacher could be displaying a form of Socratic irony. The students believe that the teacher is using Socratic irony. The poem is full of irony and the irony takes form in many ways. In this case the pupils have gained the enthusiasm for poetry. The poet speaks about the words mind, spirit and god only being words we use and not things that can be seen or heard, but rather felt.
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