A. E. Housman’s “Terence, this is stupid stuff” is a poem that starts out as a friend of Terence talking to him, but it then shifts to Terence talking to his friends. Then shifts from a humorous tone to a more serious tone. It also shifts in setting, time, place, and idea. This poem demonstrates figurative language which is language employing figures of speech; language that cannot be taken literally or only literally.
This poem also has several different poetic devices, which is a device that contributes to content and poetic structure that does not involve meaning in term of language. This poem in certain lines is very hard to follow without knowing the background. The first verse of this poem Terence friend is speaking to him about how sad all his poems are; all of them are about death. His friend is telling him he needs to lighten up and get drunk. His friend says, “It gives a chap the belly-ache… To hear such tunes as killed the cow.” Terence’s friend is referring to Terence’s poetry.
He is also referring to his poetry that it killed the cow because it was so sad. These are both an example of a hyperbole (overstatement) that is a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth. All the verses in this poem have a rhythm, which is any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound. The rhythm is eight beats per line. The second verse in the poem Terence is talking to his friends about getting drunk and having a good time.
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TERENCE SMITH: Juleyka Lantigua, 25, is managing editor of Urban Latino Magazine in New York. The bi-monthly is targeted to young, English speaking Hispanics, who have not let go of their cultural roots. JULEYKA LANTIGUA: We live in English, but we enjoy our lives in Spanish. I come to work every day and I speak in English to my fellow Latinos, but I think when we each go home, we speak to our ...
He also says that it’s great to get drunk and forget all your problems, but they are still there the next morning when you wake up. Terence uses humor in this verse to get across his point. Terence says, “And malt does more than Milton can To justify God’s ways to man.” When Terence uses malt he is using it as a synecdoche, which is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole. Malt is only half the beer you could never just drink the malt. Milton is a famous poet and he was the first to say to justify God’s way of man.
It is a famous line from his story “Paradise Lost.” The third verse moves to a serious tone. Terence is saying how the world is full of evil that there is less good than evil. For instance he says, “Much good, but much less good than ill… Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure… .” . This is the theme of the poem.
He is describing his view of the world, which is his poetry. He goes on to say that “And I will friend you, if I may… In the dark and cloudy day.” He is saying that through his poetry that he will befriend you. The forth verse changes setting, time, place, tone, and idea.
Terence changes from discussing his poetry to giving an example of interpretive fiction, which provides valid insights into the nature of human life or behavior. He begins telling a story of a king that everyone is trying to poison, but they don’t know that everyday he takes a little poison so he is immune to there attempts. Housman says, “I tell the tale that I heard told… Mithridates, he died old.” This is an example of alliteration, which is The repetition at close intervals of the initial consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words. The king died old because he learned from experience he knew not to trust the people. Each verse break in this poem is significant to the poem.
The shift in speaker, tone, setting, time, idea, and place is what makes this poem so great. This poem illustrates that life is hard and a lot of people forget about their troubles temporarily by getting drunk and having fun. It also illustrates Housman poetry how it is sad and actually close to the reality of life. He ends this poem by demonstrating his point by giving us a taste of his poetry. “Terence, this is stupid stuff” is a poem that has many excellent examples of figurative language and poetic devices..
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The poem " Introduction to Poetry" by Billy Collins encompasses numerous ideas behind the art of analyzing poetry. Billy suggests that the reader of a poem should not necessarily search for a "cut and dry" answer regarding the meaning and significance of the poem, but he or she should simply enjoy it; marvel at its beauty, structure, ambiance, cadence, metaphorical language, word usage, etc. The ...
