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Repetition is a fancy word for repeating or restating something more than one time. Poets sometimes use repetition to make their writing more interesting and relatable. These are fancy words for being able to clearly get a point or feeling across to readers. This paper will highlight three poems that use repetition. In “The Raven”, “O me, O Life,” and “O Captain! My Captain”, the authors use repetition to make the poems more effective, more memorable and more relatable to readers.
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Although repetition can be effective in poetry, writers should use it carefully. In other words, too much or too little repetition may not make a good poem. Sometimes, “a little repetition goes a long way” (Family Friend Poems). Too much repetition can make the poem boring to read. For example, in Edgar Allen Poe’s poem, “The Raven”, the word “nevermore” is used ten times. Although that seems to be a lot, considering the longer length of the poem, it is just enough.
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“The Raven” is about how Poe thinks the raven is his wife. Sadly, he seems to go end up going crazy. Poe shows us that he really missed his wife, Lenore by saying her name over and over again. He repeated her name so much because he wanted the reader to feel the hurt and sadness that he felt from not having his wife anymore. He became really depressed and soon goes crazy. He soon began to think that the knocking at the door is Lenore.
Poe says, “And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, ‘Lenore?’/ This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, ‘Lenore!’ / Respite-respite and nepenthe from thy memories of ‘Lenore!” (Poe 19, 20, 69). In this poem, repetition effectively expresses hurt, anger, sadness, and even insanity.
Of the three poems, Walt Whitman’s, “O Me! O Life!” is the shortest and has the less repetition. The main focus of this poem is about the meaning of life. He was trying to figure out if life had a meaning and what was the meaning of life. The main repetition is of the actual title of the poem, “O Me, O Life” (Whitman “O Me! O Life!” 1,7) This is a characteristic of poems with repetition. The author either repeats a phrase or a specific line throughout the poem (Family Friend Poems). Also, this poem has the word “of” at the beginning of every line except two. (Whitman, “O Me, O Life” 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). This is another way that poets use repetition. They may repeat the same word several times in the poem (Family Friend Poems).
By putting the word “of” at the beginning of every line, Whitman wanted to help the reader experience what the person in the poem feels. His goal is to make every reader think about their own life and its meaning. By repeating the “of”, there is a rhythm and flow that pulls the reader in, to think and reflect. At the end of the poem, he realizes that life itself makes life meaningful. Simply being alive, is a reason to live and be thankful. Walt Whitman’s title is the true meaning of the poem. When he says, “O Me”, is thinking about his own purpose. When he says, “O Life”, he is talking about the worth of living life. Whitman uses repetition to express an interesting and important message. He tells us in the poem that people want things that they do not have but he admonishes the readers that they should be thankful for life. Although this poem had the least repetition it provided an important and memorable life lesson.
Walt Whitman’s poem,“O Captain! My Captain!” uses repetition a little differently (Whitman). The same two lines are repeated in all three stanzas. Each stanza begins with, “O Captain, My Captain” (1,9). The author is trying to express to readers that he is shocked and possibly scared. In the second stanza, the repetition of “O Captain, My Captain” is actually talking to the deceased captain. He tells the captain, “O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells” (Whitman “O Captain!” 9). Although he is talking to the captain, the captain cannot respond. In the third stanza, he realizes that the captain is dead. “It is some dream that on the deck, You’ve fallen cold and dead” (Whitman “O Captain! 15,16). The final repetition of these same lines is used as the man finally accepts that the captain is dead and will not be with them anymore. He says, “ walking the deck on the ship (Whitman “O Captain! ). By using these same two lines at the beginning and end of each stanza the author effectively get his emotions across to readers. He first expresses his shock of losing the captain. Then he talks to the dead which shows his unbelief that the captain is gone. Finally, he shows that he realizes that the captain is dead.
The poems, “The Raven”, “O Me, O Life” and “O Captain! My Captain” are great examples of the effective use of repetition in poetry. The use of repetition in these poems helped the reader better understand the poems and relate to the author’s sadness and joy. These poems are proof that repetition can make poetry more effective and more enjoyable to read. Although this was a somewhat hard topic to discuss, it is should improve readers’ knowledge of poetic repetition.
Repetition in American Poetry. (2022, Feb 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/repetition-in-american-poetry-essay
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