Poetry: Language condensed to an artistic effect. If a piece of literature has both the intention to create art and takes longer to explain than to read, it is poetry.
Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "If" is not a short poem, but the explanation is even longer. Compare the lengths of the poem: http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_Kipling/kipling_if.htm with the explanation: http://www.enotes.com/if.
There is no such thing as a correct answer in literature!
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The poem Hidden Meanings at first seems to be a strange poem with some pretty messed up facts about fairytales. Reading more into the poem, however, we saw that the theme was actually the differences between women and men - basically that women have easy lives and they are cruel to men, and men have to put up with it. The poem also contains some unpleasant images of impotence, castration and autoeroticism, probably to show more about what the author, Dabney Stuart, thought were the differences between men and women.
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Diction is the study of one word at a time. While reading, we must constantly be thinking about why each particular word was chosen. There are so many words in the English language that can technically mean the same thing, but bring about completely different emotions in the reader. This is connotation versus denotation.
Denotation is the definition of a word. For example, 'thin,' 'slender,' and 'skinny' all mean the same thing in a dictionary.
Connotation is the assumed meaning of a word. Culture and history makes words that seem the same actually bring about very different emotions.
gaunt................skinny..................-thin-....................slender................svelte
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perjorative/negative honorific/positive
Concreteness versus abstraction is another point where the reader must ask why the author decided to be so specific or so vague.
clothes.............................pants............................jeans.........................Levis
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vague specific
Whether a word was intentionally vague/specific does not matter, because even unintended emotions are spread through words. Also keep in mind that if an author uses words that are too specific or too vague, it can add a comical effect.
Precision is the specificity of a word. Good! and Nice! are very empty words. Again, ask why the author chose to use the precise or not precise words.
Elevation versus coloqualism has no real definition. Different people and different sources have different definitions for this word. The levels fade from one word to another.
sure dude..........................................yes.................................................yes sir
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slang epic diction
regionalism: Different areas have different terms for the same idea: 'Pop' is used in the great lakes basin, 'coke' is used in a few areas in the south, and 'soda' is the most common term, used in most areas. The standard dialect in America is Standard American English. There are different dialects within this, however, for different areas in Michigan.
Jargon is a specialized language for people gathered together for one purpose. For example, during marching band everybody understands what is being said, even though an outsider might have no clue. The different command ("Ten Hut" and "Set") make clear sense to the band, but probably not to others.
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