18 pages • 36 minutes read
Tear it Down
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Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Tear It Down” is written in free verse—a poetic form where the lines have no consistent rhyme or meter. In free verse poetry, though there is no limiting structure, craftsmanship and the utilization of specific poetic conventions—imagery, allusion, metaphor—are still apparent. Poets toil to find the correct syntax (the way they structure their sentences, or lines) and diction (specific vocabulary choices) to make their writing work to whatever effect they are trying to produce.
Gilbert believed that fixation on form produced inadequate poetry. He thought that on some level all poetry needed to be concerned with form, but that a preoccupation with the technical aspects of a poem inhibited the poem itself. Gilbert was more concerned with content, or subject(s) of a poem, and the feelings the poem created and invoked. This is evident in “Tear It Down” through the specific verbiage Gilbert uses.
The poem is one stanza consisting of 18, unrhymed lines.
Narrative Voice
Gilbert uses first person narrative voice (also called point of view or perspective) in the poem. The plural pronoun “we” is consistent throughout, connecting the reader and speaker with the poem’s message. If Gilbert had used “I” instead, his content would have been more singular and personal; his use of “we” encapsulates both himself and the reader, as well as the general human population at large.
The way the speaker of the poem expresses themself—how they structure their wording—is also part of narrative voice. “Tear It Down” alternates between declarative and imperative sentences, allowing the poem to be read as simultaneously factual and instructive. Declarative sentences make statements or state facts, while imperative sentences give commands. These sentence structures are concise and straightforward and though the poem is highly interpretive, its syntax—the arrangement of wording—is rigid. This dichotomy conveys the message of the poem—an instructive guide to reconceptualizing human life—and while the transition is fixed, the destination is ambiguous.
Figurative Language
“Tear It Down” utilizes connotative language to allow the reader more interpretive, subjective, and philosophical space. Denotation refers to the specific, literal meaning of a word, while connotation refers to the associations (good and/or bad) people think of in response to a word. Words that divert from their denotation in the poem include the heart, morning, darkness, love, and the body. The message of the poem is emphasized by this language. If one were to ask “What is the heart?”, an array of interpretations could be offered. When the speaker mentions “morning” and “darkness,” they do not mean day and night; rather, these are references to the cycle of emotions and periods humans go through during life (e.g. joy and sorrow). “Love” has a precise definition but can (and will) be differently interpreted depending upon the reader. In the last lines of the poem, “body” shifts back and forth between its denotative and connotative meanings. “Tear It Down” asks the reader to reconceptualize the world itself—as well as the language used within the poem—connecting the poetic diction with its overarching message.
Gilbert also uses paradox to offer a varying viewpoint of love. A paradox is a seemingly contradictory statement that when examined can be found truthful. In Line 5 the speaker states, “By insisting on love we spoil it.” It would be assumed that by insisting on something, one would find success or satisfaction. However, in the poem, the insistence on love spoils the love. The speaker believes that shallow love should be reexamined so that a deeper love may be attained. By insisting on love, the superficiality of it is spoiled in order to “get beyond / affection” (Lines 5-6) and see a more refined and complex love.
“Tear It Down” includes both standard and implied metaphor. Standard metaphors compare two different subjects with both subjects being presented. Implied metaphors compare two differing subjects without presenting one of the subjects. Early in the poem, the speaker writes about “redefining the morning” to “find a morning that comes just after darkness” (Lines 2-3). This is an implied metaphor and the reader can interpret through connotation (relative understanding of used verbiage) that the morning and the darkness signify the positive and negative tides of a person’s life.
In Line 7, there is another implied metaphor: “We must unlearn the constellations to see the stars.” The poem’s message is about reconceptualizing the world and this line asks the reader to disregard the constellations as a whole to be able to better individually see each star. Unlearning the constellations to view the stars is an implied metaphor of what the speaker is asking the reader to do in all life’s subjects. The metaphor represents how redefinition does not take away the beauty or significance of the stars in the same way redefinition does not take away the initial importance of the subjects which can be redefined in everyday life.
The standard metaphor in the poem comes in Lines 11-14. The speaker compares reconceptualizing Rome to reconceptualizing raccoons in the garbage. While Rome is a vast, important historical city and raccoons in the garbage seem trivial by comparison, the metaphor allows for an equaling of the two subjects. Thus, the speaker is able to convey the importance of redefinition in both the grand and humble aspects of life.
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