Sunday, December 2, 2007

Structural wit

In the context of 10B, to use "wit" means to find similarites between different subjects. Structural wit, therefore, is the use of wit as a basis and recurring technique throughout a whole work.

Though structural wit is more common among Neoclassical poets (Dryden, for example), it can be found in romantic poems such as Lord Byron's "Don Juan." Byron satirizes England's poet laureate Robert Southey not only with his mock heroic title character, but also with the intentionally poor style in which the poem is written.

-Kevin Sanders

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