Syntax
the ordering of words into patterns or sentences. If a poet shifts words from the usual word order, you know you are dealing with an older style of poetry or a poet who wants to shift emphasis onto a particular word.
Agamede's Song
Arthur Upson
Grow, grow, thou little tree,
His body at the roots of thee;
Since last year’s loveliness in death
The living beauty nourisheth.
Bloom, bloom, thou little tree,
Thy roots around the heart of me;
Thou canst not blow too white and fair
From all the sweetness hidden there.
Die, die, thou little tree,
And be as all sweet things must be;
Deep where thy petals drift I, too,
Would rest the changing seasons through.
Arthur Upson wrote his poem “Agamede’s song” in quatrains, or stanzas consisting of four lines. The first stanza is about the birth of a tree, “Grow, grow, thou little tree”. The second stanza is about the development of the tree, “Bloom, bloom, thou little tree”. The third and final stanza is about the death of the tree, “Die, die, thou little tree”. By using the syntax in this manner, Upson is able to classify each stage of the tree’s life, from it’s birth to it’s death.
"No one longs to live more than someone growing old." ~Sophocles
Arthur Upson
Born at Camden, New York, in 1877. Educated at Camden Academy and the University of Minnesota. He is the author of "Westwind Songs", 1902; "Octaves in an Oxford Garden", 1902; "The City: A Poem Drama", 1905; "The Tides of Spring, and Other Poems", 1907. Mr. Upson died August 14, 1908. His death was an inestimable loss to American literature, as he was a poet of rare gifts which were maturing with each expression.
(http://poetry.poetryx.com/poets/296/bio/)
