DDCPoetry

Poem found here: "To the Mannequins" by Howard Nemerov "Mannequins," I feel, automatically hold a symbolic quality -- aren't they just the physical representation of a human being to show something off?  So when I read this poem, I automatically was trying to figure out what the "mannequins" represented and in what context.  The first stanza's shift in perspective brings the idea of symbol to the forefront. "Adorable images, / Plaster of Paris / Lilies of the field" Note how these descriptions start out general "adorable images" then to something put on a higher level, "Lilies of the field" -- but these are just another names for mannequins which are promptly brought down with the concept of, "You are not alive, therefore / Pathos will be out of place."  Emotion -- we look at these figures without them and just look at them physically, but also note if we go along this thought train, should we look at these f...

Original poem reprinted online here: "Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry" by Howard Nemerov Originally read: March 10, 2013 More information about the Poet:  Howard Nemerov Six Lines -- a quatrain and a couplet.  On top of that there's an alternating rhyme scheme, and the poem is somewhat iambic pentameter.  I'm pointing this out this time because the main separating line between prose and poetry (before the advent of free verse) was that poetry was in form and prose was not.  And I think that's it...no, really. And this poem does address the differences in an ars poetica imagistic way.  The first line sets up a blur between words like "feeding" and "freezing."  These gerands have homophonic and visual similarities which parallels the debate between poetry and prose -- similar but something is different. In the second line, there's the introduction of the you which watches the drizzle into snow -- again similar visual...