“Men at Forty” is a very well written poem so clearly the diction was chosen well. There are so many things that can be considered diction when writing like if you want to be more sensuous which means you write to appeal to the senses or you have the choice to make it emotional of even esoteric so only the few amount of people who have the proper knowledge to understand it do. A couple of words that describe how this poem was written are precise, emotional, abstruse and esoteric could even tie in with that.
Precise writing is marked by exactness or accuracy and “Men at Forty” in my eyes is very accurate. I do believe that what Donald writes about is exactly what happens once a man gets to forty. In the first stanza it says “Men at Forty Learn to close softly The doors to rooms they will not be Coming back to.” This is a metaphor about how since he is older he must come to terms with the fact that he might never reach some of his goals in life.
Emotion is a big part of writing because what’s the point in writing if there is no emotion. No one will even want to read your writing because they get bored easily with it. In stanza 3 it states “And deep in mirrors They rediscover The face of the boy as he practices tying His father’s tie there in secret” this is very emotional because the man is looking in the mirror and he still feels young but that is on the inside the outside shows he is growing old, and no one likes growing old because it’s a sad reality that we are getting closer and closer to death.
This poem can be very abstruse because it could go over some peoples’ head. Like in stanza one if the person didn’t understand it was a metaphor they would think Donald was talking about an actual door being closed. Or even in stanza two they could think that he is talking about an actual floor moving beneath the forty year old men.
Diction is a huge part of writing and without it stories or even poems would be boring and worthless. It gives the story life. It gives you the opportunity to choose if you want to appeal to the senses or the intellectual part of the bodies of the people reading your story and or poem.
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