What is the poetic function and how to know its structure

The human being is the only mammal that is born with the ability to communicate verbally. At the same time, it has been possible to develop in such a way that it is possible, and even easy, for you to communicate in writing.

It is true that for some people the writing is easier That for others, but regardless of how easy it is for you to communicate by writing, it is implicit that you can do it.

In ancient times, written communication was linked only to a few who had the monetary capacity to study and learn to read and write. And despite how difficult it was at that time, and that not everyone could count With the luxury of being part of the world of letters, even so, many of the poets emerged from ancient times, who in these days laid the foundations for today's poetry.

In our times, poetry remains as or more important than it was in the days of yore, when the immortal bard will create his works. In this post we will delve into the world of writing and poetry to learn a little more about what the poetic function is.

What do we mean by poetic function?

This term, coined in the 90s, more specifically speaking in 1959, is known as the characteristic function of literary language, in which the dominant factor is the aesthetics of the message itself.

What the writer intends to do by letting himself be carried away by this function is arouse in the reader, or receiver, a series of sensations of beauty, influence and creativity through the form of your message. All literary resources are valid here.

We can even find this function within colloquial language. After all, each individual, when constructing a message, consciously or unconsciously selects the words to use to express that message in the most effective way possible.

The poetic function in poetry

Poetry is known as the most artistic expression of beauty through the word, which is subject to the measure and cadence, from which the verse is obtained as a result.

Lyrical poetry has multiple modalities of compositions that, according to their form, intention and tradition, are capable of expressing deep and particular feelings, such as love, pain, admiration and censorship.

By using the poetic function within poetry we can count on expressive resources such as rhyme, alteration And some others.

If we want to take an example:

  • Well dressed, well received.
  • Casa Zabala, the one that when selling, gives away.

It is message oriented. It appears whenever the expression of art draws attention to its form. It is constantly used in language and advertising spots.

Another example that we can appreciate is found in a poem by Federico García Lorca, titled The unfaithful married woman:

And I would take her to the river, / thinking she was a girl, / but she had a husband.

How can it be used?

Language, whether oral or written, expresses the moods of those who want to communicate. The poetic function seeks to connect through aesthetics and the arrangement of the message that wants to be expressed. And some of its most common ways to be used are:

  1. Musicality and rhyme: Although the expression is not a rhythm per se, it can be expressed with a certain musicality.
  2. ideas: Today dawned clear.
  1. Poetic expression: Today is a radiant, smiling and bright morning.
  2. comparisons: Poetic comparison is also a means used to enrich expression.
  3. ideas: Maria looks good.
  1. Poetic expression: Today Maria looks like an April rose.
  2. Word Games: They are expressions in which similar sounds, context and double meaning are used.
  3. IDEA: Come buy bread at the bakery "La princesa"
  1. Poetic expression: If you enjoy putting horns on the table for your husband, buy them at the “La princesa” bakery
  2. Euphemisms: Nuanced expressions are used, or turned around, in order to mention a concept or idea in a concrete way.
  3. IDEA: His mother died yesterday.
  1. Poetic expression: Yesterday his mother passed away.
  2. Contradictions: Contradictory expressions or ideas are used in order to highlight the main idea. It is something like a comparison between contradictory ideas.
  3. IDEA: He is an unpleasant person.
  4. Poetic expression: He is a person as sweet as garlic bread.

Examples of poetic function

This function can be found in many of the words that we usually hear or read: in sayings, advertising wedges, poems and song lyrics. Here are some examples of the poetic function.

  • The stony road, annoying
  • The mischievous moon watched us through the park.
  • Here I am stunned by so much silence.
  • In the end the big losers are the ones who keep everything to themselves.
  • Who kills iron, dies iron.
  • I'd give it my all to see her smile one more time.
  • Kiss me and you will know how important I am.
  • And who does rice smile at, with endless white teeth?
  • Some simple things require complicated design, while complicated facts have a number of simple explanations.
  • This is perseverance: even a weak drop of water pierces the stones.
  • He is the law. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
  • An ignorant leader is a blind man leading another.
  • If you want to buy tomato, come to Don Mate.
  • Is it true that they deal transparent cards all over the sky?
  • To heaven begging and with the mallet giving.
  • He watched the cars go by with a certain melancholy. Somehow he knew that she would never return.
  • Tonight the moon shines high as if it were a diamond.

Some poems where this function is present

This function it is present in books, fragments of poems and fragments of songs. Here we can find some of them.

Every time he saw her, his heart was filled with joy. He couldn't understand how or why it happened, but every time he saw her, he felt in his veins how life was beating.

I felt cold. It was the cold they had in your bedroom. Your cheeks and your temples and your adored hands. Among the snowy whites. Of the mortuary sheets. It was the cold of the grave, it was the cold of death, It was the ice of nowhere.

They were the best moments of my life, those days when walking down the street seemed like a feat and listening to instinct became the best strategy to get out undefeated in hide and seek. When I stop to think about where those years were, I immediately want to go back to them.

I felt the pain in his aura, but I refused to look at him, my heart was beating with the same force of the day I saw him arrive. He only commented that it would always be the greatest of his loves, how should he take it? I was speechless for a second, believing it was a dream and in that moment, I just lost it forever.

And I took her to the river thinking she was a girl, but she had a husband. It was the night of Santiago, and almost by compromise, the lanterns were turned off and the crickets were lit. In the farthest corners I touched her sleeping breasts, and they suddenly parted like bouquets of hyacinths.

The afternoon was gray, undoubtedly manifesting the intensity of my feelings that afternoon. I was sitting in front of the window, clouded, I felt like I was short of breath. I had cried so much that they could not let go of another tear. It took me a moment to understand that my heart had gone with his, never to return.

The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and to mention them you had to point your finger at them. Every year in the month of March, a family of ragged gypsies pitched their tent near the village, and with a great uproar of whistles and kettledrums they made known the new inventions.

She danced through the flames with a sensual fury that made the ground vibrate on her feet, while her heart beat wildly and emotions awoke in all those who looked at her, wrapped in an ancient and mysterious beauty that seemed to have no limits.


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