Ars Poetica Literary Elements

Most likely, the poet himself (or one who feels strongly about poetry)

12 couplets with some rhyme and slant rhyme. An iambic lull in certain places, punctuated with spondaic phrases and other inconsistent meter.

Similes describing what a poem should be like:

"Globed fruit"

"Old medallions"

"Sleeve-worn stone / Of casement ledges"

"Flight of birds"

"The moon"

Metaphors for what a poem should be:

"Not true"

"An empty doorway and a maple leaf"

"The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea"

All these metaphors and similes serve MacLeish's argument that a poem should: be significant without demanding analysis, silently evoke a sensation or make an impression, purely and freely exist, operate within a realm beyond logic, seem whole, timeless and lasting, and appear sparse and elusive.

Assonance:

"mute...fruit": long "U" sound

"dumb...thumb": short "U" sound

"stone...grown": long "O" sound

"wordless...birds": "ER" sound

"Leaving...releases...trees...leaves": long "E" sound

"time...climbs": long "I" sound

"behind...mind": long "I" sound

"to: / Not true": long "U" sound

"grief...leaf": long "E" sound

Alliteration:

"Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,": repetition of "T" sound

"Memory by memory the mind--": repetition of "M" sound

"For love / The leaning grasses and the lights...": repetition of "L" sound

The irony here is that MacLeish asserts that a poem should not have meaning or make demands on the reader to decipher its meaning. However, the poem itself has a clearly motivated agenda, not even attempting to emulate this ideal. The compilation of similes and metaphors and the repetition of the word "should" form a powerful treatise that embodies contradiction.

Modernist; Manifesto

Passionate, thoughtful

Although there is no direct conflict, the speaker is presumably criticizing poetry that he feels does not align with his assertions in the poem.

The final couplet:

"A poem should not mean
But be."

This couplet advances a major argument about what poetry as a whole should do, and how it should be constructed. This statement became a manifesto for Modernist work, and gave MacLeish his reputation as the epitome of a Modernist poet.

The title is an allusion to the Latin poet Horace's "Ars Poetica"

"Globed fruit" is described as "mute"

"the flight of birds" is described as "wordless"

"Old medallions" are described as "dumb"

"A poem" is potentially "motionless"

"the moon" can "climb," "release," and "leave"

"A poem should be equal to / ...For all the history of grief / An empty doorway and a maple leaf"

Obviously, the history of grief in the years that humans have been on earth leaves us with more than "An empty doorway and a maple leaf." However, MacLeish uses this example to show that a poem should not be overwrought with detail, but instead, leave some space for suggestive imagery, mystery, memory and imagination.