When it comes to being a poet, gaining stamina for syntax––the sentence structure and punctuation of prose––is important. Sentence structure helps create brevity in poetry, and brevity then goes on to control how often one takes a breath within the sentence; further amplifying the tone, and the mood of the poem. It is why run-on sentences mimic drowning, and why single-word sentences represent panic attacks. It. Is. What. Helps. To. Create. Chaos. And. Forces. The. Reader. To. Pause. With. Every. Word, mimicking the idea of losing oxygen…just to create tension for the reader.
Consider this:
Standing in an open field of red chrysanthemums, I am completely surrounded by a horde of buzzing hummingbirds: who are willing to go through me just so they can reach their sweet nectar.
Versus
Red flowers call dancing hummingbirds,
Swaying winds control beating wings,
Frenzying around singular posts.
While both are a style of prose, there is a whole mood shift between the examples. Despite what is read first: either the sentence, or the stanza; each verb phrase, and each noun phrase, within the poem creates its own backstory, its own tension, and its own brevity, which then forces the reader to either take a deep breath––preparing for the long sentences that are ahead of them––or a small, concise breath to get through the lines of a stanza.
A Simple Switch Changes Everything:
Another great example of syntax in poetry is Howl, by Allen Ginsberg.
Take the first line:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.
The first thing one should look at are the phrases. If the verb phrase had been set in front of the noun phrase, the line would read how the subject of the sentence ‘I’ is the one who is starving, hysterical, naked, rather than the object of the sentence ‘the best minds of my generation,’ being the ones who are starving, hysterical, naked. By leaving the comma in place, but re-arranging the noun phrase and verb phrases…the mood of the poem shifts…and, as a result, places the subject inside of the madness. Whereas currently––and in perfect form––the subject is excluded from the madness and is, instead, an outsider who is looking in and analyzing the object.
Also, one should take note: by omitting the oxford commas (or, the serial commas) in the verb phrase, where the three words are being listed for specific purpose––even though they are not in alphabetical order––it leaves a certain kind of un-easiness the narrator is striving to achieve, because it breaks all the conventional rules for grammar and structure. While all three of the words are adjectives, they’re being used as qualifiers for the object, which means they should…by rules of grammar and structure…they should have commas to separate their qualities.
It's why mastering syntax is so important for being a poet, regardless of the said person being an aspiring artist or someone who is already established within the community. Syntax not only helps create both mood and tone in the poem by using brevity, but it also helps create clarity and direction in the given work. Whereas the rest of it: the allusions, the cesuras, the diction choices, the different moods, and motifs, and metaphors, and punctuations, and themes, and tones; that will all comes later. For the more a writer can play with syntax, the more they look for inspiration. And the more they look for inspiration for their work, the more they will learn about their surrounding world and everything in it.
Written by Gregory Gonzalez
Writer Bio: Gregory Gonzalez graduated from Sierra Nevada University, where he earned both a BFA and an MFA in Creative Writing. He's studied under and many other wonderful artists, and his works can be seen in the San Joaquin Review Online, Hive Avenue: A Literary Journal, the Dillydoun Review, Wingless Dreamer Publishing, Bridge Eight: Film & TV, Drunk Monkeys: Literature and Film, Causeway Literature, Nat 1 LLC, Vermilion Literature, Writing Workshops, and Havik Literary Journal.