Poetic device and themes used in “The Fence” (By Lenrie Peters)

Poetic device and themes used in “The Fence”

THE FENCE (BY LENRIE PETERS)
There where the dim past and future mingle
their nebulous hopes and aspirations
there I lie.

There where truth and untruth struggle
in endless and bloody combat,
there I lie.

There where time moves forwards and backwards
with not one moment’s pause for sighing,
there I lie.

There where the body ages relentlessly
and only the feeble mind can wander back
there I lie in open-souled amazement

There where all the opposites arrive
to plague the inner senses, but do not fuse,
I hold my head; and then contrive
to stop the constant motion.
my head goes round and round,
but I have not been drinking;
I feel the buoyant waves; I stagger

It seems the world has changed her garment.
but it is I who have not crossed the fence,
So there I lie.

There where the need for good
and “the doing good” conflict,
there I lie.

The poetic device and themes used in “the fence” are:

 1. Personification: It is the figure of speech where objects, qualities or anything are qualified as human being in literature. This is evident in lines 4, 7 and 20.

• There were truth and untruth struggle
• There were time moves forward and back ward
• It seems the world has changed her garment

These helps to communicate the intention of the poet

2. Imagery: It is an expression or language that creates a mental picture. Such a language processes image or pictures in the mind of the readers

• I feel the buoyant ——–
• I stagger———

3. Refrain: The poet uses the phrase “there i lie”at the end of the every stanza and it creates a kind of rhythm that a responsible song produces

4. Symbolism “fence”: It symbolizes the poets inability to make decision under the situation he found himself or simply put , fence symbolizes indecision

5. Contrasts: This is used to bring out conflicting ideas in the poem

6. Diction: The language of the poet is simple, all the words reinforced, the theme of dilemma and struggle of the poet with opposing forces.

7. Mood: The poet’s mood is that of bewilderment as a tone of despair

  Themes

The poem is about  a person who finds himself in multiple dilemmas in the society. He finds himself hedge in between no aspiration, no progress, ideas and opportunities to fertilize ideas. But what caused this? moral decadence in the society and the result is debilitating indecision, hopelessness and discouragement of citizens. The themes in the poem therefore include

• Moral indecision and decadence in the society
• the poets dilemma
• The struggle between good and evil
• The need for decisiveness in the face of conflicting ideas
• Difficulty in the attainment of moral victory.
• Indecision breeds regression
• Time and tide waits for no one

Note:

The poem contains twenty-five lines in seven unequal stanzas. The dominant literary device in the poem is refrain with the repetition of the expression, “there I lie”. The emphasis on this particular expression is significant in the poem. It buttresses the persona’s total indecisiveness. As he battles with the forces of good and evil in “bloody combat”, he tries to make a decisive resolution on which side to switch but all his efforts are futile. He remains on the fence.