LIT 01 – LITERATURES OF THE WORLD

REPORT

Name: Lowee Antoinette M. de Guzman Yr. & Section: BEEd 2-A Grade:________

Ars Poetica
By Archibald Macleish

A poem should be palpable and mute

As a globed fruit,

Dumb
As old medallions to the thumb,

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone

Of casement ledges where the moss has grown-

A poem should be wordless

As the flight of birds.

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases

Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind winter leaves,

Memory by memory the mind-

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs.

A poem should be equal to:

Not true.

For all the history of grief

An empty doorway and a maple leaf
 For love
The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea-

A poem should not mean

But be.

Author
Archibald Macleish
- He was an American poet, playwright, essayist, Librarian of Congress
and lawyer.
- Three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize
- Macleish’s poetry retained a simple lyricism that set him apart from
his more experimental colleagues.
- Macleish has been sadly underappreciated by subsequent generations
of writers, though there remain a handful of poets who discover his
poetry, and, in it discover one of the most thoughtful poets in the
American Canon.

Analization:
 Palpable – this stance states that a poem’s main work is to act upon the reader
viscerally.
 Mute, dumb and wordless – Macleish is suggesting that the poem should not be overly
cerebral or explanatory.
 Motionless in time – like the moon’s steady and timeless presence
- A poem should be the same way the moon lightens branches at night,
but also darkens the leaves when viewed behind them
 A poem should be “equal to” rather than true about a thing. It should exist on the same
plane as other things. For example, rather than describing a globed fruit, it should be like
one.
 The next two stanzas suggest that a poem should leave images or traces of something
much more immense and profound as if all of the grief that has ever occured only left an
empty doorway and a maple leaf or as if love that has passed away only left behind
some leaning grass and two lights above the sea.
 Last stanza which is that a poem should not emit meaning for one to dissect, but rather,
should just unfold, allowing the reader and the poem to encounter each other. The poem
may act upon the reader, teaching him something but not through verbal explanation or
careful dissections of meaning.
 The central theme of Ars Poetica is that a poem should captivate the reader with the same
allure of a masterly painting or sculpture - that is, it should be so stunning in the subtlety
and grave of its imagery that it should not have to explain itself or conveyan obvious
meaning.

Figures of Speech used:

Simile: Lines 1-8 use like or as to compare a poem to a globed fruit, old medallions, the stone of
casement ledges and a flight of birds.
Alliteration: Line 5 repeats the s sound. (Silent as the sleeve-worn stone)
Paradox: Lines 9-16 suggest that a poem should be motionless like a climbing moon appears
 motionless when it is observed at any guven moment.
Metaphor: Lines 9-16 compare the “motionless”poem by implication to universality, the
property of a literary work that make sit relevant for people of all ages and
cultures.
Anaphora: The phrase a poem should be occurs five times.