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Chaos is a broad topic that, in poetry, refers to occasions when things don’t go as planned. A situation might be spiraling out of control; someone might be experiencing a cascade of contradictory emotions, and much more.
A chaotic situation is any situation in which it’s hard to keep track of all the troubling and sometimes very stressful elements it is composed of. For example, poets might imbue their depictions of relationships (romantic or familial) with chaos. Two people may struggle to communicate, fight constantly, and do nothing to resolve their issues, only making them worse in the process.
Often, in chaotic poems, the writer mimics the situation their describing in the way they compose their lines and rhymes. Their rhyme scheme might begin and end suddenly, the capitalization may be sporadic, or they might use lines of very different lengths for seemingly no reason.
Auden’s ‘Consider This and in Our Time’ captures a society poised on the brink, blending serene imagery with ominous undertones of political upheaval.
As the hawk sees it or the helmeted airman:
The clouds rift suddenly - look there
At cigarette-end smouldering on a border
At the first garden party of the year.
William Butler Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’ delves into the hopeless atmosphere of post-World War I Europe through apocalyptic imagery.
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
‘Rubble’ by Jackie Kay is a dramatic monologue that was included in her collection, Darling: New & Selected Poems. It conveys an individual’s cluttered and chaotic mind.
What was the thought that I just had in my head?
‘The Minotaur’ by Ted Hughes explores familial strife, emotional turmoil, and the cyclical nature of violence within relationships.
The mahogany table-top you smashed
Had been the broad plank top
Of my mother's heirloom sideboard-
Mapped with the scars of my whole life.
‘Eggs’ by Gertrude Stein explores the complexity hidden in ordinary objects, like an everyday object holding unexpected layers of meaning.
Kind height, kind in the right stomach with a little
sudden mill.
Cunning shawl, cunning shawl to be steady.
In white in white handkerchiefs with little dots in a
‘Rehabilitation’ explores the pain of the refugees after the Partition of Bengal. With stark imagery, it delves into the lasting impact of this tragic event.
Whatever I had around me
Grass and pebbles
Reptiles
Broken temples
‘Peace, Blessed Peace’ by Edward Dyson brings humor and horror together, highlighting soldiers’ resilience in the face of relentless war.
Here in the flamin' thick of thick of things,
With Death across the way, 'n' traps
What little Fritz the German flings
Explodin' in yer lunch pe'aps,
‘Corsons Inlet’ is a complex, nuanced poem on the natural world and the character of reality by one of the major American poets of the latter half of the 20th century.
I went for a walk over the dunes again this morning
to the sea,
then turned right along
the surf
In ‘The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven,’ a culinary catastrophe turns comical as a turkey’s unconventional escape leads to hilarious mayhem.
Take a turkey, stuff it fat,
Some of this and some of that.
Get some turnips, peel them well.
Cook a big squash in its shell.
‘Darkness’ by Lord Byron is a foreboding poem that predicts haunting consequences for humanity in the rapidly changing modern world.
I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
‘Air Raid’ by Chinua Achebe is a poem that provides a glimpse into the Nigerian/Biafran Civil War using symbolism and dark humor.
It comes so quickly
the bird of death
from evil forests of Soviet technology
A man crossing the road
‘Nineteen hundred and Nineteen’ by W.B. Yeats is a complex poem that deals with his complex emotions as he looks at a war that crushed Ireland.
We too had many pretty toys when young:
A law indifferent to blame or praise,
To bribe or threat; habits that made old wrong
Melt down, as it were wax in the sun's rays;
‘September Twilight’ by Louise Glück reflects on the creative act, the role of God, and the failings of mankind.
I gathered you together,
I can dispense with you—
I’m tired of you, chaos
of the living world—
‘Week-night Service’ creates a vivid scene of a church at night. The sound of bells disturbs the otherwise quiet church yard and the nature that surrounds it.
The five old bells
Are hurrying and eagerly calling,
Imploring, protesting
They know, but clamorously falling
This poem explores nature’s overwhelming force and its impact on human lives, capturing a tense struggle between man and the environment.
This house has been far out at sea all night, The woods crashing through darkness, the booming hills, Winds stampeding the fields under the window Floundering black astride and blinding wet
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