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Summary Of The Poem Blues

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Since the poem is a Blues, the phonological structure of the text is of great importance and at the same time it cannot be expected to find many regularities. This assumption can be validated at first glance: There is no veritable rhyme scheme. On the other hand, there two dysillabic internal rhymes {\tql}bunch, hunch{\tqr} (l.1) and {\tql}sputter, gutter{\tqr} (l.2-3). Still the author uses a lot of other sound patterns as for example Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance and Onomatopoeia. For each only one or two examples are given due to their high occurrence. Alliterations can be found in the sixth line: {\tql}\underline{p}ass \underline{p}estilence{\tqr} or the seventh:{\tql}\underline{b}ent, \underline{b}lack{\tqr}. The two internal rhymes …show more content…

G.E. Clarke often uses syntactic rhetorical figures for they provide adequatly to the Genre of Blues. The Asyndeton is applied when words or phrases succeed one another without conjoining them. For example, the first stanza is only one sentence where the happenings on the street are listed and ten commas and semicolons are used to seperate all the information. This feature continues in the second and third stanza although less incisive. Another example is to be found in line 14 {\tql}and cry beautiful darkness --{\tqr} where an abrupt cessation of the sentence is aplied which is called Aposiopesis. The application of these figures expressly underline its impact on the semantics of this poem: It disrupts the flow of reading and thus again is connected to the method of \textit{Syncopation} and strengthens its position as a Blues poem. However, on a more subtle level the use of these figures underscores the tension and the emotional atmosphere of the situation the poem depicts. It appears that the lyric I is taking stock of its surroundings and happenings that accompany the course of the timespan that the poem claims for itself. Last yet certainly not least are the semantic and rhetorical figures or the imagery, of which only the most important will be studied due to reasons of space. The most meaningful simile is written in line 7: {\tql}The harbour crimps \underline{like} a bent, black cripple{\tqr}. Here, the harbour is likened to a {\tql}bent, black cripple{\tqr} who combines two social minority groups, namely cripples and black people. It is clear that the harbour is 'squeezed' and 'curled', albeit it is in 'frail health' like a 'cripple', too\footnote{ Frail health also matches the picture of the harbour that is depicted in the first stanza}. The adjective {\tql}black{\tqr} is ambiguous: It may represent the

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