poetry reflection

Alex Killian Hour 3

The Labyrinth
By Robert P. Baird

Torn turned and tattered

Bowed burned and battered

I took untensed time by the teeth

And bade it bear me banking

Out over the walled welter

cities and the sea

Through the lightsmocked birdpocked cloudcocked sky

To leave me light on a lilting planetesimal.

The stone walls wailed and whimpered

The bold stars paled and dimpled

Godgone time gathered to a grunt

And bore me bled and breaking

On past parted palisades

windrows and the trees

Over a windcloaked nightsoaked starpoked sea

To drop me where? Deep in a decadent’s dream.

Poem Reflection
Alex Killian
Hour 3

I chose the poem “The Labyrinth” by Robert P. Baird. Robert P. Baird is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, and lives in Seattle. His poem, “The Labyrinth”, has three poetic devices; alliteration, consonance, and personification. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. There are many examples of alliteration in “The Labyrinth”. In the first stanza, “Torn turned and tattered” and “Bowed burned and battered” are examples of alliteration. The uses of the t and b sounds are repeated through the phrases. In the last stanza, “bore me bled and breaking” and “Deep in a decadent’s dream” are more examples. Even though there are words without the repeated sounds, such as me and in, the repetition of the b and d sounds conveys alliteration. Another poetic device used is consonance. Consonance is similar to alliteration, except the repeated consonants are at the ending of words. In the second stanza, “Through the lightsmocked birdpocked cloudcocked sky” is an example of consonance. The “-cked” ending is the repeated sound. Another example is the phrase “Over a windcloaked nightsoaked starpoked sea”, in the last stanza. The “-ked” ending is the repeated sound in this example. Lastly, the other poetic device used in “The Labyrinth” is personification. Personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. In the third stanza, “The stone walls wailed and whimpered” is an example of personification. The poet is giving the stone walls human-like qualities. He is saying the walls wailing and whimpering, which, obviously, walls cannot actually do. Another example in the third stanza is “The bold stars paled and dimpled”. In this example, the poet is giving human characteristics to the stars. He is saying they paled and dimpled. The poem “The Labyrinth” had three poetic devices; alliteration, consonance, and personification. Along with the other devices, the rhythm and rhyme of this poem was more free verse, with a few rhyming couplets. They were broken down and explained. This poem by Robert P. Baird was written to convey death and despair.