Poetry has numerous meanings to people. Authors use various writing techniques to relate meanings of poems. According to Bedford/ St. Martin "Part of what makes poetry interesting is its indirectness, its refusal to state something simply as the way it is." W.H. Auden's "Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone," John Updike's "Ex-Basketball Player" and Donald Hall's "My Son, My Executioner" use irony, symbolism and hyperboles to show the meaning of their poems. …showed first 75 words of 602 total…

…showed last 75 words of 602 total…relate the meanings of their poems. Works Cited Auden, W.H. "Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone." Kirsner and Mandell. 541. Bedford and St. Martin. VirtualLit: Elements of Poetry. 16 April 2002 <http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/virtualit/irony_def.html> Hall, Donald. "My Son, My Executioner." Kirsner and Mandell. 682-683. Kirsner, Laurie, and Stephen Mandell. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 4th ed. Fort Worth: Harcour and Brace, 2000. Updike, John. "Ex-Basketball Player." Kirsner and Mandell. 668.