Diction Tone Voice

In this chapter, Mary Oliver addresses three very important parts of a poem which are diction, tone, and voice. She begins by discussing how each of these elements combine in the contemporary poem. They create a sense of friendliness between the poet and the reader. This makes the poem extremely accessible-something that was sorely lacking from the conservative types of poetry. This accessibility has allowed many people to begin reading and writing poetry who otherwise may have been frightened off by the formality of certain formed poems.
Another very interesting idea is that I had never heard of is “negative capability.” I have seen it in action many times, but I never knew there was a specific term for it. I have always thought that a lot of poetry (in my mind too much) can be sad and or depressing. Very few poems that I have read so far are very happy. This has to do a lot with negative capability, which Keats believes is the means by which a poet can fully understand/ sympathize with his/her subject. Because of this ideal, many poets view themselves as the negative force in the poem which often means that their poems will exude a negative/sad/depressing tone or subject.
I appreciated Oliver’s addition to the end of the chapter. It was nice to finally be given in layman’s terms certain things which I should avoid when writing poetry. This entire book is about what one should do when writing poetry, but Oliver has never addressed what one should not do until now. Many of these do nots are common sense, such as using clichés and inversion. But still it is very refreshing to know exactly what I should not do when I am writing (or attempting to) poetry.