Reflection
“How do poets reveal the theme of happiness in their poems?” is our essential question and I looked up approximately ten poems for the answer. For me the answer to this question is, poets reveal the theme of happiness by using poetic devices and using tone. By saying poetic devices, I mean metaphors, word repetitions, similes, allusion and symbolism. Poets creates a happy atmosphere by using words which have positive meanings in poetic devices. For example, if you read “And you my friend/ You are the angel/Brings me life and smile to my face” in this metaphor you can understand that the speaker is happy because s/he says, his or her “angel” friend brings to speaker happiness and life. On the other hand, if poet use “joy” , “smile” or “fun” words several times in poem and create a repetition, that poem is muhtemelen happy themed poem because the first image appears on people’s mind is happy memories. What can be stronger than a memory to create a theme. Also similes works as the same way with the metaphors, they create happy moments, or express the speaker's emotions in more effective and intense way. All these poetic devices help poet to use tone more effectively. Because poetic devices are creating the tone and the mood of a poem. Additionally using allusion can form happiness as theme. For example if a poet use “Euphrosyne” which is god of happiness and joy in greek mythology, the content of the poem is supposably about happiness or joy. Furthermore, symbolism is a powerful way to create happy theme too. If you are reading a native american poem or a poem about native americans and if there is dragonfly in it, the poem is most likely about happiness because dragonfly is a native american symbol which symbolizes happiness. So poetic devices like metaphors, similes, word repetition, allusion and symbolism can determine the theme of the poems. And as an answer to our essential question “How do poets reveal the theme of happiness in their poems?” , poets reveal the theme of happiness by using poetic devices like metaphors, word repetitions, similes, allusion and symbolism. |