![]() Here is what Randall Jarrell, in “Levels and Opposites: Structure in Poetry” (in Georgia Review 50.4 (Winter 1996): 697-713), says about dialectical structure: AudenĪnd here is some insightful commentary on this poem, which includes the fact that “Auden was always interested in this idea (from Hegel via Marx) that one thing (the thesis) always turns into its opposite (the antithesis) and that the interaction of the two leads to a synthesis, though this poem focuses on the thesis and antithesis more than the synthesis.” “‘We Get the Dialectic Fairly Well,'” by W. “The Eagle and the Mole,” by Elinor WylieĪnd here is a poem that begins with acknowledgement of the dialectic, to then inquire into its dynamics: “Transcendentalist,” by Alan Shapiro (in Old War (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008): 69-70). ![]() Merwin (in Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment, collected in The Second Four Books of Poems, p. Merwin (in The Carrier of Ladders, collected in The Second Four Books of Poems, pp. “Freedom of Speech,” by Mark Halliday (in Losers Dream On, p. “Reasons to Choose the Octopus as Your Lover,” by Adrienne Gruber “Look Around,” by Michael Fried (in The Next Bend in the Road, p. “You’re Beautiful,” by Simon Armitage (Whether or not this poem has a unifying synthesis depends on how one reads that final line…) The following poems also offer a thesis and an antithesis–or, as Stephen Dunn puts it here, mind’s “rift and counterdrift”–but no unifying synthesis: “The Clod and the Pebble,” by William Blake “a small number,” by Olena Kalytiak DavisĪnd here is William Blake’s take on the dialectical argument, a take that allows for opposing thesis and antithesis, but makes no room for a connecting synthesis: Here is another example of that kind of poem: In “The Dialectical Argument Structure,” John Beer also discusses negative dialectics, poetry that suggests that, due to larger conflicts, no smooth dialectical resolution is possible. Here are some poems modeled on Queeney’s poem. A lovely, sexy use of the dialectical argument structure. “Moment,” by Jane Hirshfield employs the dialectical structure in an interesting way: the thesis and antithesis (“Some in that moment / panic, / some sigh with pleasure.”) arise from and then are again subsumed by a surrounding synthesis.Īnd Courtney Queeney’s “Back to the Body” (in Filibuster To Delay a Kiss (NY: Random House, 2007): 77). “A Sonnet,” by James Kenneth Stephen also makes comic use of the dialectical structure, recognizing how two very different kinds of poems meet, but do not meld, in the person on William Wordsworth. Ultimate large-scale synthesis is given up for more important, and comically honest, self-understanding. But then, after mentioning the argument’s antithesis, its “other hand,” the speaker of the poem realizes that this poem may be less about Bukowski’s famously debauched lifestyle and more about realizing that such a lifestyle also is his own (that is, the speaker’s), as well. The poem starts out not only discussing universal order but also enacting it, discussing it in the dialectical argument’s orderly fashion. John’s dialectical argument, of course, kind of fails, but intentionally, comically. 135)Īnd John Beer has his own kind of dialectical argument poem: “Sheet Music,” by Geoffrey Young (in Fickle Sonnets, p. ![]() “Love Poem with Toast,” by Miller Williams “‘…What a Lovely Way You Have of Putting Things,'” by Mary Szybist (in Granted (Farmington, Maine: Alice James Books, 2003): 42). “Two voices are there: one is of the deep,” by J. (Perhaps “Naming of Parts” is dialectical–though it may be a poem of negative dialectics (see below).) “The Optimist, the Pessimist, and the Other,” by Jack Myers “The People of the Other Village,” by Thomas Lux ![]() “Reflection” is the synthesis of active and inactive thought. A fine use of the dialectical argument structure in which the thesis is returned to briefly in the penultimate stanza. “Articulation: An Assay,” by Jane Hirshfield (in After: Poems, p. “‘Nothing Lasts,'” by Jane Hirshfield (in Given Sugar, Given Salt: Poems, p. 42). “Cezanne,” by Michael Fried (in The Next Bend in the Road, p. “My Head,” by Russell Edson Edson’s prose poem also is a good example of the Circular Structure. Here is a helpful analysis of Dickinson’s seductive but (perhaps) difficult poem. The synthesis in the final stanza of Dickinson’s poems is thrilling and devastating. “I cannot live with you…,” by Emily Dickinson Here are some additional poems that use this structure: Below are supplemental poems and discussion. It turns from thesis (one argumentative position) to antithesis (a counterpoint to the thesis) to a synthesis, which combines the two seemingly opposing views. As John Beer notes in his essay “The Dialectical Argument Structure” in Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns, the dialectical argument structure is essentially a three-part structure.
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