hinge on a single metaphor. Others like Sylvia Plath’s ‘Words’ (1981, p. 270)
develop through a number of different metaphors which are intercon-
nected. There is a network of comparisons running through this poem,
rather than just one central comparison. In more experimental poems there
is often a greater diversity, and flexibility, of metaphor, and this matter will
be dealt with in more detail in Chapter 8.
Grammar and syntax
Finally, you can experiment with unconventional grammar and syntax:
Example 2.34
Opening fronts door
whether wonderingIn this example the words are compressed, the subject is absent, and the
words are not ordered or joined together in the normal way. This results in
a more abstract impression. There is less emphasis on a clear visual image,
and cause and effect are loosened. The lines become a rapid succession of
impressions from which the central agent ‘she’ is removed: this also
releases several meanings simultaneously (fronts in this context makes us
think of confronts). Much experimental poetry adopts compression, and
abnormal grammar and syntax, in order to achieve greater multiplicity of
meaning. Again, this kind of linguistic experimentation will be explored at
greater length in Chapter 8.
You are now ready to write a short poem: you may want to use only a
sentence or make the poem longer. Try, however, to apply some of these
strategies I have outlined to organise, lay out and develop the poem. The
following poem by student Amy Tan combines the mirror referent from
the previous chapter with some of the strategies from this one. Note the
use of imaginative layout of the poem, and the way she has followed
through the metaphor:
Genre as a moveable feast 45