Poem for a dead poet

He was a poet he was.

A proper poet.

He said things

that made you think

and said them nicely.

He saw things

that you or I

could never see

and saw them clearly.

He had a way with language.

Images flocked around

him like birds,

St Francis he was,

of the words. Words?

Why he could almost make 'em talk.

(Roger McGough)

Analysis

Right from the title the reader understands the poet and his identity are the focus of the coming lines. The alliterative use of the plosive sound –p connects the poet and his ordinary production. The text does not develop a specific pattern; it rather creates a crescendo: from the first two lines that assert a statement about the qualities of the real poet, one who works in a “proper” way, the text develops moving from a group of three lines (lines 3-5) where the reader is informed about what the proper poet of the composition did with language. His lines elicited reflection in a pleasant way, from the tercet the poet moves to the quatrain that has the specific function to make clear the difference between ordinary speakers and the poet: he can see what the common people can’t. His view of reality is clear (lines 6-7-8-9).

Then comes the sestet where his skills and competences are conveyed through a metaphor where the proper poet is juxtaposed to St. Francis, who was able to communicate with what generally is impossible for the human being. As did the saint, the proper poet knows how to speak through images and therefor he is really able to visualize reality. The simile with bird recalls St. Francis partial gift, one that probably came from God.

The poem concludes its climax focusing the attention on a question simply consisting of one word which is symbolically a way to highlight that the nature of the poetry as well as its material is made of words.

The key position of the question concludes the poets (Roger McGough) argumentation with an explanation: the proper poet is such because paradoxically he “could…make words talk”.