Dance Of The Merry Essay, Research Paper

Dance of the Merry

There is no better dance than a dance of joy. Whether it s the joy of having fun, knowing the right moves, or being in an altered state, dancing is an important part of every culture all around the world. Most people might agree that a poem about a dance has never been so exquisitely well written as in The Dance, considering the length of the poem and the elements used. The author, William Carlos Williams, employs a variety of literary devices to empower his poem. We can feel the clumsily rhythmic dancing almost as well as the peasants in the picture because of William s brilliant imagery. William s describes the instruments of the merry folks with human qualities that provide whimsical images of celebration. Not only do the dancers go round and around with their dance, but the poem prances a lofty waltz; we receive a vision of joyful drunkenness in peasantry life.

Williams uses enjambment to make the poem dance alluringly. To set the feel of the poem, Williams makes the end of each line continuing onto the next. Kicking and rolling about the Fair Grounds, swinging their butts, those shanks must be sound to bear up under such The only part where an idea ends at the end of the line is the final line In Breughel s great picture, The Kermess. This mesmerizing effect allows the poem to flow continuously and roundly, as if it were dancing around. The poem only contains 2 periods; the rest it seems randomly speckles with commas, creating a varied pace. In turn this adds to the deliberate gawkiness of the piece. This makes it seem as though it is the painting that describes the poem.

The author brings the instruments to life using personification. Williams proposes that even the instruments are tipping their bellies and are off balance during this time of celebration. The squeal and the blare and the tweedle of bagpipes, a bugle and fiddles tipping their bellies (round as the thick- sided glasses whose wash they impound) their hips and their bellies off balance to turn them. Williams attributes human qualities to the instruments while using a simile to describe the size of the glasses. The hips and the bellies of the instruments are off balance, as are the peasants who play them. The poet suggests that the content of the painting itself is off balance with the people spread throughout the village dancing about in a drunkenly daze with the instruments squealing, blaring, and tipping their bellies.

The author uses repetition to make the poem take on circular motion. The dancers go round, they go round and around. This line sets circularity in the poem as well as presenting the idea that the peasants must not be sober if they specifically go round, round, and around. As mentioned earlier, ideas in this poem never end at the end of the line, they are only cut off. This also creates an effect of roundness; the rest of an idea is continued in going around to the beginning of the next line. The poem begins and ends with In Breughel s great picture, The Kermess, to link the idea that the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning, an unremitting circle.

Having read this poem an individual might infer that Williams has been given the grace of an amazing ability to write poetry. Williams has crafted a flawless combination of literary devices. They intertwine together to entice the reader into a state of bewilderment, a feeling of drunken dancing continuing around in circles in this middle 1900th century poem, unfolding an image of merry peasantry.