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THE ART OF STRUCTURE
An artist uses color to describe thoughts and feelings, to express to his
audience an image that will capture their imaginations and send them careening
into the mental experience that he is attempting to create. But the term
"artist" doesn't necessarily apply only to those who use brushes and
color; writers are artists as well. Writers take a basic human word and enhance
it with rhythms, rhymes, images, ironies and personas, to create pictures as
vivid as any artist's, pictures that capture our hearts and our minds. These
writer's tools are to the writer as paint is to the traditional artist. One of
the writers' most effective tools is structure; if used correctly it heightens
the experience of the audience. There are several works in the section on Faith
And Doubt in the "Bridges" text that utilize structure to a very
effective end. Of particular note are the poems "Nothingness" by René
Depestre and "Quetzalcoatle" by Omar Salinas, and the short play
"Death Knocks" by Woody Allen.
The poem "Nothingness" by René Depestre, a work illustrating the
pain of depression, is a shinning example of structure. By utilizing structure
in a creative way, Ms. Depestre has written a wonderfully visual poem. She has
taken what normally would have been a very simple work and turned it into an
emotional experience.
"My heart /
is slowly /
sinking inside me" (lines 1-3).
By dropping her lines in this manner, Ms. Depestre is not only telling you
how she feels, she is showing you. As you read the lines, your eyes dropping
downward…you can practically feel your own heart sinking. And she continues
this structural pattern throughout the poem, furthering us on our empathetic
journey, until the author's heart-as well as the reader's-rests upon her knee.
This work demonstrates, beautifully, the main purpose of structure: to take the
reader even deeper into the work.
In "Death Knocks", a short play by Woody Allen, a work in which a man
is confronted with a very unexpected persona of "Death", we see a
different type of structure taking place. Rather than using it in a formatted
sense,
Mr. Allen takes a more auditory road, one that only reveals itself as the
piece is being read.
"NAT: What the hell is that?
DEATH: Jesus Christ. I nearly broke my neck.
NAT: Who are you?
DEATH: Death.
NAT: Who?
DEATH: Death. Listen-can I sit down? I nearly broke my neck. I'm shaking
like a leaf. NAT: Who are you?
DEATH: Death. You got a glass of water?"
NAT: Death? What do you mean, Death?
DEATH: What is wrong with you? You see the black costume and the whitened
face?
NAT: Yeah.
DEATH: Is it Halloween?
NAT: No.
DEATH: Then I'm Death. Now can I get a glass of water-or a Fesca"
(Allen 927-28)?
The structure of this play is a fast, unbroken pace with no frills. 99% of
the sentences are no more than ten or eleven words long. As Ms. Depestre did
with her poem "Nothingness", Mr. Allen is using structure to enhance
the reader's experience-by switching quickly from the persona of Nat Ackerman to
the persona of death, he's created a vaudevillian effect that heightens comedic
timing and adds to the humor of the play. A more traditional structure would
have weighed this piece down, destroying the humorous visual image the writer is
trying to create for his audience.
Unfortunately not all poets are equal in their ability to use structure.
Standing in stark contrast to the vivid images evoked by the brilliant structure
of "Nothingness" and "Death Knocks" is the apparent
senseless use of it in the poem "Quetzalcoatle", a poem depicting a
Native American icon, by Omar Salinas. The lines
"You lunged and caught fire
flowers falling from a disenchanted /
sky" (lines 1-3)
have been structured in a manner that add little if nothing to the poem
itself. In fact the use of structure in this self-indulgent manner takes away
rather than adds to the work, distracting the reader rather than enhancing their
experience. Thus, poor use of structure causes the opposite of it's true intent
which is to create deeper meaning.
So it seems that with structure, as with painting, judicious use of the
artist's tools is paramount. While "Nothingness" and "Death
Knocks" enhance our experience with their insightful use of structure,
"Quetzalcoatle" by Omar Salinas falls short of its mark, reminding us
that sometimes less is more.
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