The Poetry of Robert Creeley Literary Elements

The majority of Creeley's poems are written from the point of view of a first-person speaker. They are usually distinguished by their plain language and matter-of-fact observations. While Creeley is not always explicitly the speaker of these poems, he often shares a number of character traits with them. The stylistic consistency of his work creates a strong resemblance between the different speakers he uses.

Creeley often wrote in free verse, with occasional instances of rhyme. He also commonly employed quatrains and tercets.

Creeley's poetry almost never uses metaphors or similes.

Creeley doesn't use a great deal of alliteration or assonance in his work. However, in the poem "The World," the lines "grey lost tired bewildered / brother, unused, untaken" contain alliteration in their B and U sounds. In the poem, "The Language," there is assonance in the -ear/-or sounds of the line: "I heard words."

Most of Creeley's work thoroughly avoids irony.

Creeley's writing ranged from domestic poetry to experimental verse.

Creeley's poems are frequently set in domestic spaces.

The tone of Creeley's poetry is often dry, straightforward and casual.

The protagonist of Creeley's poems is often a speaker grappling with the meaning of their life; the antagonist is commonly a feeling of dread or despair.

The major conflict in Creeley's poetry often has to do with the speaker's trying to understand their place in the world or the meaning of something in their lives.

In most of Creeley's work, the climax occurs in the final stanza. The speaker often imparts a bit of information that shifts the reading of the rest of the poem.

The opening of "The World" foreshadows that the speaker's wife is struggling with some kind of pain or loss.

In the poem "I Know a Man," the speaker's friend's warning about watching where he's going is an understatement.

Creeley occasionally reference to other literary works, though not especially often. In the poem "Heroes," he alludes to Virgil and his heroic epic, the Aeneid.

Creeley rarely utilized metonymy or synecdoche in his works.

Creeley almost never used personification.

In the poem "I Know a Man," the speaker's reference to the "darkness" surrounding them is a hyperbolic way of describing the ills of the world. Hyperbole appears in Creeley's work to highlight a concept or feeling in a heightened way.

Creeley very rarely included onomatopoeia in his work. The repetition of the word "fill" in the lines "To / fill, fill." is onomatopoeic.