Rita Dove

Part I: Scansion and Analysis

This essay presents analysis on the poem titled Describe Yourself in Three Words or Less, written by Rita Dove. The poem is a perfect example of a thematic mode in poetry. When you first read the poem, you hardly know what the writer is trying to say or what she’s even talking about. After reading the poem numerous times you start to grasp an understanding of the theme, that’s where the thematic mode comes in. Symbolism is also presented in this poem. “then I sing to the bright-beaked bird outside, then to the manicured spider between window and screen”(17-20). A bright beakered bird and the manicured spider is not a norm in society and cant be defined as a stereotype in her life, which makes this a form of symbolism. Rita is attempting to neglect the
Each stanza in the poem consisted of two lines, which is called couplets. The first letter of ever couplet was capitalized. Also, it seemed like she purposely inputs grammatical errors along with not following the rule of every first letter of every first word should be capitalized. If you noticed, this is more of a free verse poem, there are no rules. There wasn’t any rhyme scheme, it’s more of a narrative poem where she tells a story from her own voice. She makes use of metaphoric language and characterization. An example would be when she stated: “Each night I set my boat to sea” (9), in this line she is comparing her thoughts to boats. She uses different objects to characterize the thoughts running through her head and to get her point across. Like all free verse poems, this poem doesn’t have any set meter. The writer uses line breaks to separate the poem into three paragraphs. As far as organization goes, it was very unstable and disorganized. Almost like a hand full of different subjects being thrown at you when you're reading it. It