Let's Play Guitar Hero

April is International Guitar Month, and that means scads of strumming, plenty of picking, and tons of twanging in our poetry! For thousands of years, musicians have plucked and played guitar-like instruments, filling the air with vibrating, resonating sound from India and Central Asia, through Europe, and across the ocean to the Americas. 

There are two primary types of guitars: acoustic and electric. Most often, acoustic guitars are constructed from hollowed wood or sturdy plastic and are strung with six strings made from animal gut, nylon, or steel. Electric guitars, first introduced in the 1930s, feature solid bodies and electronic amplifiers to create their distinctive tone. 

Our International Guitar Day poem makes good use of personification, a writing technique that gives human qualities to something that isn't living-- an inanimate object like a guitar, for example.  Clever Poetry Paraders will notice double meaning in the fourth verse: fretting can mean anxious and worried-- or how we place our fingers on the neck of the guitar: 

The Guitar 

The guitar is just as comfortable

In blue jeans or in tails.

He's equally at home with jazzy riffs

Or bluesy wails.

His home can be the coffeehouse,

The front porch, or the bar,

The opera or the classroom

Or the hood of Daddy's car.

Amplified, he rocks the house.

Unplugged, he can be dreamy,

As soothing as a lullaby,

Or sultry, hot, and steamy.

Whether he's strummed or picked or plucked,

That won't make him start fretting.

He's just as excited if he gets invited

To a festival, concert, or wedding.

-- Brian P. Cleary

Guitars are versatile instruments: they play blues and bluegrass: they rock, they jazz, they pop!  They add twang to country music, soul to soul music, and a bit of flame to flamenco. We conclude our Guitar Day celebration with very groovy Muppet Floyd Pepper performing The Beatles' hit While My Guitar Gently Weeps: