Of all the forms of literature that exist, poetry is possibly the most difficult to compose. Novelists, playwrights, and essayists have the luxury of space in which to develop their plots, themes and characters. Whole pages and chapters can be dedicated to expressing a singular idea. The poet however, must express the theme, mood, and characters of a poem within a very limited structure. Being the shortest and least verbose of any form of literature, the poem is sometimes underestimated by some to be the simplest form of writing. Yet this is not so. Each word within a poem has been chosen for a specific purpose, whether it be to convey a specific feeling or to maintain a theme. When examining the poems presented in the "Work and Literature" module of the class, the reader will see that the poets represented in the readings, were especially conscientious of language. No word or writing technique was included for aesthetic purposes only, but to enhance the reader's ability to understand what the poet intended to say. Alliteration, metaphor, and onomatopoeia are three such techniques that can be identified within the poems introduced in the readings. Before examining specific poems that contain these three techniques, it is important to consider why a poet would choose to use these techniques when writing about work and work-related issues and how they aid in communicating theses themes.
During the first lecture the class was called upon to discuss popular themes in poetry; love, death, and nature were among the responses given. This begged the question of why there were no poems about work, especially when work is a very influential aspect of ones life. However, upon further discussion many reasons for the omission of work as a central theme in literature, specifically in poetry, were revealed. One reason was that the major poets at one time were not members of the working class and were not exposed to the many trials and tribulations one faced as a worker of any sort, for that reason there were scarcely any poems about work.
