Combining generic conventions and understanding of poem in one essay

My task is to write an essay like:

Discuss how your investigations of the generic conventions of poetry have influenced your understanding of at least one poem that you have studied in this unit.

I can write this essay with just meaning alone, but not together. My poem of choice is Finale by Judith Wright:


The cruellest thing they did
was to send home his teeth from the hospital.
What could she do with those,
arriving as they did days after the funeral?

Wrapped them in one of his clean handkerchiefs
she'd laundered and taken them down.
All she could do was cradle them in her hands;
they looked so strange, alone -

utterly jawless in a constant smile
not in the least like this. She could cry no more.
At midnight she took heart and aim and threw
them out of the kitchen-door.

It rocketed out, that finally-parted smile,
Into the gully? the scrub? the neighbour's land?
And she went back and fell into stupid sleep.
knowing him dead at least, and by her hand.


It's a freeverse elegy. I cannot seem to find any generic conventions employed. So how am I to write an essay combining the two? What I can show is some notes I've taken and parts of the essay:

NOTES ::

The letting go of death is represented in Wright's poem, Finale. The emotions of the woman is emphasised in the couplets caesuras. Full stop plays an integral part in the poem as it ends each line of the woman's thought process and actions, which strengthens the meaning and it's significance to me.

False teeth have taken a whole new connotation in Finale. Seen as such a distant, painful and horrid thing. The last remnants of her husband. She can't handle it as the most she can do is be "by his hand" as stated in the last stanza.

Knowing the historical context of Judith Wright as writing profound death poems, and being an activist of environmental conversation and Indigenous rights has immensely assisted me in making a far more genuine meaning of Finale; as well as knowing the generic conventions employed [PERHAPS CONCLUSION]

Finale takes an analysis of the human condition with death. Wright writes Finale in the view of a woman handling the death of a loved one and when it's not handled properly. The emotions expressed by the woman: wrapping the teeth in handkerchief, exhaustion from crying, thought's of the medical system and throwing the remnant of her husband out the window. Finale accurately expresses how people grieve in these circumstances, especially when it's not handled humanly/morally (ie. The hospital's actions). [PERHAPS INTRODUCTION OR FIRST PARAGRAPH]


Only employing generic conventions in poetic analysis is insufficient in making a genuine meaning of the poem. One would also have to look into the context of the poet to ensure a more complete of the poem. [THESIS STATEEMENT AND NEXT SENTENCE]

ESSAY ::

Only employing generic conventions in poetic analysis is insufficient in making a genuine meaning of the poem. One would also have to look into the context of the poet to ensuring a more complete interpretation of the poem. By specifically using generic convention in the analysis of Finale, one would make a superficial meaning of the poem. Yet by also employing the context of Judith Wright, one could make are more enriched meaning as desired by Wright herself.

Finale is structured in couplet form as a means to convey the meaning in sections more digestible to the reader. The feeling of grief is very sudden and often unexpected.


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Thanks in advance.

What textbook are you using? Because I'm going to assume that whatever chapter you're on has discussed certain "generic conventions" in poetry and how that influences our understanding. It would be difficult for anyone to help you out if we don't know what the textbook means by "generic conventions." One technical thing I will point out is that there are no "couplets" in this piece. Couplets are pairs of rhyming lines, such as

I went to the bark
Alone in the dark

The poem you linked to employs quatrains in an ABxB scheme.

We're using Form and Feeling Second Edition - Poetry For Senior Students. We've also looked at Portable Blake. But this book has the glossary at the back with generic conventions. I've also looked at the poetry section in English Handbook and Study Guide. Even in class, we've taken down notes on generic conventions.

Thanks, I thought I was wrong about there being couplets. How will I relate quatrains and ABxB scheme to it influencing my meaning and thus writing an essay on it?

Are you locked into that poem? I mean, if you can't find what you need to write the essay on in that poem, wouldn't it be easier to choose one that works for what you need to do?

It's too late to switch. Took me some time to choose it anyway. Isn't there a way to write it?

Hmmm, I have not heard of Form and Feeling... Looking on Amazon I see Feeling and Form by Susanne Langer and Forms of Feeling by John Morgan and I'm unfamiliar with both of them. As for what to write about the ABxB form, you could note the fact that even though the poem has a rhyme scheme of ABxB, half-rhymes instead of full rhymes are used up until the last two stanzas, and that there's no consistent meter (which is unusual in rhymes poetry). I'll let you take it from there.

How exactly can I find these ABxB rhyming schemes? If I can get that down pat, I think I can write something which I'll post later.

Probably the most common usage of ABxB is in ballads.

can you give me examples of it used in this poem? And then I'll try and find the rest.

utterly jawless in a constant smile
not in the least like this. She could cry no more.
At midnight she took heart and aim and threw
them out of the kitchen-door.

Here, the first and third lines do not rhyme, but the second and fourth one does. That's ABxB. In Stanzas 1 and 2 the second and fourth lines utilize half-rhymes where only the final consonant has the same sound. Good luck.

Oh my gosh! I can't believe I couldn't find such this, thanks. Though how are down and alone half-rhymes? The remaining stanzas makes sense.

So I could say that ABxB and half-rhymes have connecting themes (if that's the right word)? They speak of her actions with emotion; the pain, hurt and anguish. Oh such grief. The remaining lines (the non-rhyming ones) speak of the action in a plain and perhaps superficial manner.

Could one say this poem is a psychological analyst like poem. Speaking of the human condition in times of death and grief.