Journal 42: Elements of Poetry

Elements of poetry are very different from the elements of a story because in a story the necessary elements are plots settings, characters, resolutions and conflicts. Elements of poetry are related to imagery, figurative languages, rhyme, meter, assonance, alliteration, and a lot of techniques that gives the poetry a better flow and more appealing to acoustic sense. The objective of poetry and a story is very different. Both being as works of arts, story is used to illustrate a story and the elements in a story are to stimulate images and vivid imaginations of the reader's mind. Usually, in a poem, it is to express a thought rather than telling a story. Even when the objective of the poem is to tell a story, it is usually told in a very vague and ambiguous way relating to symbols and other poetic techniques. Poetry is a very delicate piece of writing because it usually does not have a distinct setting and/or character characterization, but it usually expresses a conflict or the thought of the author. In I Hear American Singing, the setting is in America, characters are from a list of ordinary working class people, but there are no conflicts. There are no conflicts because the poem is expressing the joy of the ordinary working class people and how the ordinary working class people work really hard but the works are fulfilling. It is expressing celebration of work in a lyrical sense and this is what a poem do.