What are the social and emotional impacts of having a STI?
Hi Lauren, Anonymous makes some very good points from personal experience. To add a little sociology I'd suggest that with certain STD's the social and emotional impact could be rather minor. That would include those which are treatable with antibiotics. For the others though, one must deal with a permanent stigma. Sociological concepts like "master status" and "spoiled identity" can be used to understand this stigmatizing aspect of an incurable STD. With AIDS for example, the label of AIDS stamps many individuals with a master status that supersedes all other roles and statuses. Such individuals are viewed and may view themselves as AIDS positive. Nothing else may be able to compensate for that. Their identity is spoiled in the sense that no amount of achievement can counteract the stigma. On a less serious level, herpes simplex can produce similar effects on the individual and those with whom s/he's involved. While neither example is generally overtly observable as would be the case with race or gender, the potential primary relationships of such individuals may be seriously impaired due to the STD and the master status it confers. Regards.
How do archaic words add to the emotional impact of the poem?
Hi CQ, I have to agree with the first answerer. And now I will add that often I see this sort of thing most when I read poets attempting to write formal poetry. It's a mistake in believing that formal poetry must use archaic idioms and conventions. This could be because most formalists hold hundred year old poetry in high regard, like Dickinson, Elliot, Kipling, Poe, and others. They have read it so often that it seems so natural to want to imitate these writers including their archaic words. But read Berryman or early James Wright, or Jarrell. A poet must communicate to the living audience. Those older writers are forgiven because they ARE from a different time. If I was going to use archaic language in a modern poem today, it would be in a line of jest or a line meant to accentuate just how OLD something is.
Are poets more likely to rely on logical or emotional appeal to persuade their readers?
"A mix" is the easy answer, of course, but a truer answer is "emotional appeal." Because the emotive qualities of language are what poetry does differently than other media. It's done in subltle ways, in careful word choice, in the placement of line breaks for emotional impact. Logic is the barrel of the poet's gun, but emotion is hot flying lead.