Poetry Explication Essay

The poem under analysis “My Son, My Executioner” written by Donald Hall (1990) deals with interpreting feelings of the parents when their first child is born. The poem represents a rhythmic sound of syllables meant to carry the emotion of the idea to a reader. The lines contain both short and long lines which form a rhythm due to which the poem is easy to read, comprehend and analyze. The example of short and long lines can be seen in the following lines where the author accentuates on the pleasure of the feeling of losing the previous life (without a child) and getting the new one: “Sweet death, small son, our instrument / Of immortality” (lines 5-6). The poem is rhythmically composed perfectly as the words in different lines are stressed in the certain places, for example, in the following piece of the poem final words of the lines are stressed: “I take you in my arms / And whom my body warms” (lines 2, 4). The other words like “take” (line 2) and “body” (line 4) are also meant to be emphasized by the tone of a reader, but the words “arms” and “warms” are evidently the main creators of rhythm in these lines.
The most indicative lines in the poem telling about the young age of the parents and their realization of the new fresher life, are accentuated by one of components of rhythm, meter: “We twenty-five and twenty-two / Who seemed to live forever / Observe enduring life in you / And start to die together” (lines 9-12). Line 9 is written by the author in an iamb meter as the first words are not accentuated while these are the second syllables where the stress falls. And the last three lines of the poem (10-12) are written in anapest meter which implies accentuation of the third syllables while the first two are unstressed with the help of which the principal points are logically emphasized. Applying poetic devices the author succeeded in carrying to the reader emotions he meant to imply as well as help him identify the main deep sense of the poem to young parents.

Works Cited

Hall, Donald. "My Son, My Executioner." Old and New Poems. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1990. 19. Print.