POETRY

Exploring the Genre

In a poem the words should be as pleasing to the ear as the meaning is to the mind. -- Marianne Moore

Poetry: Exploring the Genre

Whether telling a story, capturing a single moment, or describing nature in a whole new way, poetry is the most musical of all literary forms.

Poetry: Exploring the Genre

Definition:

Main Entry: poetry Pronunciation: \p--tr, -i-tr also p(-)i-tr\ Function: noun Date: 14th century
1 a : metrical writing : verse b : the productions of a poet : poems 2 : writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm 3 a : something likened to poetry especially in beauty of expression b : poetic quality or aspect <the poetry of dance
Source: Merriam-Webster
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Poetry

The Basics

Poetry: The Basics

Knowing a little something about the way different types of poems are organized and about common elements of poetry can help you know what to look at when you are reading. There is no simple formula for what a poem should or should not look like. In some poems, the sound and rhyme are important; in others, the imagery or figurative language is striking. The following outlines some of the basics you will need to know when trying to read poetry. As we explore different types of poems, we will dig deeper into each of these elements.

Poetry Basics: Lines and Stanzas

A line in poetry is like A stanza in poetry is a sentence in like a paragraph in prose. prose. They are a group of lines set off by blank lines. Stanzas are important in poetry because they give a poem shape and help create meaning.

Poetry Basics: Free Verse

This type of poetry is written without rhyme. It typically is used to mimic ordinary conversation.
No Rhyme No Rhythm No Meter This is free verse.

Poetry Basics: Idioms

An idiom is a common phrase made up of words that cannot be understood by their literal or ordinary meaning. Look at the following examples:
Its raining cats and dogs. Do not pass the buck.

Poetry Basics: Imagery

But the slowly wrought words of love Imagery is language that And the thunderous words of appeals to the five heartbreak senses: touch, These we hoard.

taste, smell, hearing, and sight. It helps to create a picture in your mind.

The poet wants you to imagine hearing the soft, deliberate words of love exchanged between two people and then the BOOMING thunder of heartbreak.

Poetry Basics: Allusion

An allusion is a reference to something with which the reader is likely to be familiar, such as a person, place, or thing from history or literature.

She hath Dians wit(from Romeo and Juliet). This is an allusion to Roman mythology and the goddess Diana.
The three most common types of allusion refer to mythology, the Bible, and Shakespeares

Poetry Basics: Figurative Language

Figurative language is made up of all the tools that a poet uses to create a special effect or feeling. It includes metaphor, simile, alliteration, personification, and onomatopoeia.

Poetry Basics: Repetition

This means to repeat something. It is the use of any element (sound, word, phrase, or sentence) more than once.

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Poetry Basics: Rhyme

End Rhyme End rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds at the ends of lines of poetry.
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Internal Rhyme Internal rhyme occurs within a line when two words have similar sounds.
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Poetry Basics: Rhyme Scheme

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A repeated regular pattern of rhymes usually found at the ends of the lines of poems.

Poetry Basics: Symbolism

A word or image that signifies something other than what is literally represented.
Examples: Dark or black images in poems are often used to symbolize death. Light or white images are often used to symbolize life.

Poetry Basics: Tone and Voice

Tone is the attitude the writer takes toward the audience, the subject, or a character.
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The voice, or speaker, is the character or perspective that is taken on by a writer or poet. Often, the voice is not identified by name.

Poetry Basics: Denotation and Connotation

A words denotation is the definition found in the dictionary.

The connotation of a word is the emotional response or suggestions that a word triggers within you.
Often, words can have positive or negative feelings associated with them.

Poetry: Strategies for Reading

Reading poetry is like solving a mystery. The poet provides you with clues in the form of words and phrases. Studying the clues carefully helps you put pieces together to form a complete picture. Use these strategies to help you in your poetic detective work (Prentice Hall 705).

Poetry: Strategies for Reading

1. Interpret Figurative Language
Figurative language is language not meant to be taken literally. Helps to create vivid, clear mental pictures. Think: What is the writer trying to SHOW you

2. Read lines according to punctuation

Keep reading when a line has no punctuation at the end. Pause at commas, dashes, and semicolons. Stop at end marks, like periods, question marks, or exclamation points.

Poetry: Strategies for Reading

3. Paraphrase
Look up any words that you do not know and replace them with familiar synonyms. Use the language you use in everyday speech in place of formal language. REREAD the passage to see if your new interpretation makes sense when read with surrounding text.

4.

Use your senses

Poets LOVE to use sensory details!!

A Reading Plan for Poetry

1.

On a first reading, read for enjoyment.

-Get a feeling for the poems words.

2. On a second reading, read for meaning.

Look

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for clues that help you understand what the poem is saying.

A Reading Plan for Poetry

3. On the third reading, study the structure and the language of the poem.
What kind of poem is it? Does it have a rhyme scheme? How many stanzas are in it? Examine the images, organizations, and sounds. Think about how they add to the poems message.

4. On a fourth reading, read for feeling.

What are the mood and tone of the poem? How does the poem make you feel as you read it?
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Poetry: Narrative and Lyric

The Cremation of Sam McGee

Washed in Silver

Winter

Poetry: Narrative Poetry

Narrative Poetry:
Poetry that tells a story. Like a story, narrative poetry has a plot, characters, and a setting. Unlike a story, a narrative poem makes use of sound devices, such as rhythm and repetition.

Poetry: Lyric Poetry

Lyric Poetry:
Verse that expresses a poets thoughts and feelings about a single image or idea. Lyric poetry is written in vivid, musical language

Poetry: Common Figures of Speech

SIMILE A comparison between two unlike things using like or as Example: The old man walked as slowly as a turtle creeping uphill. Example: She sang like an angel.

Poetry: Common Figures of Speech

METAPHOR A comparison between two unlike things without using like or as Example: The horses coat was a sheet of velvet. Example: Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

Poetry: Common Figures of Speech

HYPERBOLE Exaggeration meant to produce a particular effect. Example: I tried a thousand times. Example: The guard was twelve feet tall with muscles of steel.

Poetry: Common Figures of Speech

PERSONIFICATION Giving human characteristics to a nonhuman subject Example: The tree waved happily at us as we walked along the road. Example: The washing machine danced across the floor.

The Cremation of Sam McGee

The only society I like is that which is rough and toughand the tougher the better. Thats where you get down to bedrock and meet human people.
Robert Service (1874-1958)

The Cremation of Sam McGee

Robert Service was born in England and raised in Scotland. He was sent to the Yukon Territory by the bank he worked for. There, he came face to face with the rough world of fur trappers and gold prospectors. Soon, he began to write poems about these lively rough and tumble characters. Eventually, Service left the bank for a full time life of writing. He traveled to the Yukon and other Artic areas for eight years recording his adventures.

The Cremation of Sam McGee

Historical Background In 1896, George Carmack, Tagish Charlie, and Skookum Jim discovered gold on the Bonanza Creek. This discovery marked to beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YFflJCrZtGE

The Cremation of Sam McGee

This is a narrative poem. Like a narrative written in prose, The Cremation of Sam McGee will follow the events of the plot diagram. This poem will use exaggeration, humor, and fantasy to tell the tale of two gold prospectors and the promises made, promises kept.

Comparing Literary Works

The Cremation of Sam McGee Sim il e Explanat ion Washed in Silver

Me taphor

Explanat ion

Hyperbo le

Explanat ion

Person ifica tion

Explanat ion

Comparing Literary Works

The Cremation of Sam McGee Simile cold like a driven nail

Explanation
Metaphor Explanation Hyperbole Explanation Personification Explanation

The cold feels like a stab

a promise made is a debt unpaid Comparing a promise made to another to paying off money owed chilled clean through to the bone It is extremely cold the heavens scowled the stars came out and they danced about Scowling is a human attribute Dancing is a human attribute.

Literary Analysis
Plot Characters Sam and Cap are Sam McGee looking for gold. and Cap Cap promises to cremate Sam if he dies. Sam dies and Cap cremates him. Cap then finds Sam alive and warm in the fire though he is really dead. Setting The Yukon Territory
Dawson Trail

Literary Analysis Questions

2. The central conflict is Caps promise to cremate Sam even when he is tired from carrying the body and doesnt have any fuel to start a fire with.
3. The poem is different from a story in that it is structured like a poem and it rhymes.

Washed in Silver

James Stephens grew up in a poor neighborhood in Dublin, Ireland. He was a veracious reader and read everything he got his hands on. His writing and poetry often includes his love of Irelands powerful legends and fairy tales. Washed in Silver captures the magical quality of Irish legends.

Winter

Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Over the past thirty years, her outspokenness, in her writing and in lectures, has brought the eyes of the world upon her. One of the most widely-read American poets, she prides herself on being "a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English." Giovanni remains as determined and committed as ever to the fight for civil rights and equality. The author of some 30 books for both adults and children, Nikki Giovanni is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Literary Analysis: Washed in Silver

Washed in Silver Simile Explanation Metaphor Explanation Hyperbole Explanation X X washed in silver Comparing moonlight to silver blazing in silver The sea is reflecting the moon

Personification
Explanation

the moon drives royally

Driving is a human skill

Literary Analysis: Questions

4. Winter and Washed in Silver both focus on nature. The feelings that are expressed in each poem are also similar in that they both communicate a feeling of awe about their surroundings. 5. Answers will vary--be sure you provide an explanation

Poetry: Concrete and Haiku

Seal

The Pasture

Three Haiku

Literary Analysis: Form in Poetry

Form refers to the physical structure of the poem. It also refers to the rules the poet follows to achieve a particular structure.
There are many different forms of poetry including stanza, concrete poem, and haiku.

Literary Analysis: Form in Poetry

Stanza:
A group of lines that might be thought of as corresponding to a paragraph in prose. Most traditional English poems are divided into stanzas.

Literary Analysis: Form in Poetry

Concrete Poem:
A poem in which the shape of the words suggests its subject. The poet arranges the letters and lines to create a visual image.

Literary Analysis: Form in Poetry

Haiku:
A traditional form of Japanese poetry. A haiku always has three lines and seventeen syllables. There are 5 syllables in the first and third lines and 7 syllables in the second.

Seal

Born in Louisiana, William Jay Smith (b. 1918) has had a very busy life--teaching college students, writing poetry and essays, translating Russian and French, and even serving in the Vermont State Legislature. Many of Smiths poems are made for young people and can be described as being pure, simple, and fun.

Concrete Poetry

A poem in which the shape of the words suggests its subject. The poet arranges the letters and lines to create a visual image. In Seal, the poet uses a seals shape to describe the animal as he dives and swims through water.

The Pasture

Born in 1874, Frost spent most of his life in New England. At different times in his life, he worked as a framer and as a part time teacher. Frost had a long and distinguished career as a poet, winning the Pulitzer Prize four time--more than any other poet. In The Pasture, the speaker describes spring cleaning on a farm. Instead of avoiding his duties, the speaker looks forward to the signs of the new season.

Three Haiku

Matsuo Basho is known as the first great poet in the history of haiku. Basho's haikus are dramatic, and they exaggerate humor or depression, ecstasy or confusion. These dramatic expressions have a paradoxical nature. The humor and the despair which he expressed are not implements to believe in the possibility of the human being and to glorify it. If anything, the literature of Basho has a character that the more he described men's deeds, the more human existence's smallness stood out in relief, and it makes us conscious of the greatness of nature's power.

Haikus

A traditional form of Japanese poetry. A haiku always has three lines and seventeen syllables. There are 5 syllables in the first and third lines and 7 syllables in the second. The three haiku by Matsuo Basho express different images and feelings: a view of a mountain path, mist on a mountain, the smell of flower blossoms. In addition to describing these images, the haiku evoke surprise and wonder.

Comparing Literary Works: Seal, The Pasture, Three Haiku

Attitud e Seal playful toward natur e Words from the Poem that Conv ey the Attitud e dill pickle

The Pasture

excitement toward the thin gs he Ill only stop to rake the leaves will experience in natur e away deep respect toward natur e A perfect evening

Three Haiku

Comparing Literary Works: Seal, The Pasture, Three Haiku

1.

Who do you think is being addressed as you in Seal and The Pasture? Name at least two details from each poem to support your answer.
Seal-the reader=you

you and your in lines 18 and 27 could be addressed to anyone

The Pasture-someone the speaker lives with = you

going out and shant be gone long

2. What do you think Bashos favorite season was? Support your answer.
Spring because he talks about flowers and asks if spring has come

Poetry: Rhythm and Rhyme

Annabel Lee Martin Luther King

Rhythm in Poetry

Rhythm is a poems pattern of stressed (`) and unstressed (u) syllables. It is the accents of the syllables in the words fall at regular intervals like the beat of music.
u ` u ` u `

He came/upon/an age de dumm de dumm de dumm

Meter in Poetry

The meter of a poem is its rhythmical pattern. The BEAT of poetry FEET is called its meter.
Feet in poetry is single units of stressed (`) and unstressed (u) syllables

A poems meter is made up of what kind of feet are used and how many feet are in each line.
u ` u ` u `

Beset/ by grief,/ by rage This line of poetry has three feet. Each foot has two syllables: an unstressed followed by a stressed

Rhyme in Poetry

Rhyme is the repetition of a sound at the ends of nearby words

Example: age/rage; dame/same

Types of rhyme:
SINGLE RHYME- love/dove DOUBLE RHYME- napping/tapping TRIPLE RHYME- mournfully/scornfully

Annabel Lee Martin Luther King

Both of these poems have a regular rhythm, but the number of feet in the lines creates a different effect in each poem. Both poems also use pairs of rhyming words at the ends of lines but the arrangement is different.

Questions to Consider How do the rhythm and rhyme schemes differ? How do the rhythm and rhyme give both poems a musical quality? Which poems sound is more appealing to you?

Annabel Lee

In Annabel Lee, Poe explores the unknown realm of death. The narrator mourns his lost love, Annabel Lee, who was taken from him at a young age, but whom he will never forget.

Martin Luther King

Raymond Richard Pattersons (19292001) poety shows his passion for sharing his knowledge of African American history. In just ten lines, Martin Luther King captures the essence of Kings life and his contribution to America.

The Civil Rights Movement

The Civil Rights Movement sought to abolish the barriers caused by racism in America. The movement lasted from 1945 through the late 1960s. At that time, African-Americans were denied many rights and were segregated in public places including schools, restaurants, and public facilities. This movement focused on making change through nonviolent protests including marches and sit ins.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix Ekj40bRII

Annabel Lee and MLK: Comparing Literary Works

1. Why can both poems be described as having a regular rhyme scheme? Both poems have a rhyming pattern that is repeated throughout the poem.

Annabel Lee and MLK: Comparing Literary Works 2. How do the rhyme schemes differ? How do the rhythms of the poems differ? Every other line rhymes in Annabel Lee. In Martin Luther King, each stanza consists of two lines that rhyme. Martin Luther King has the same pattern of stress in each line; Annabel Lee does not.

Annabel Lee and MLK: Comparing Literary Works 3. Both Annabel Lee and MLK pay tribute to a person. In what ways are the poems different? In Annabel Lee, the narrator mourns his lost love, who was taken from him at a young age, but whom he will never forget. Martin Luther King captures the essence of Kings life and his contribution to America.

Annabel Lee and MLK: Literary Analysis Questions

1. Describe the love between the speaker and Annabel Lee. What words/images support your description? The speaker and Annabel Lee were soul mates. They shared a love so strong that it seemed to last beyond this world. The speaker says that nothing can separate him from her.

Annabel Lee and MLK: Literary Analysis Questions 2. How does the last stanza make the sense of sadness in the poem seem immediate and never-ending?
The poet uses the present tense rather than the past. Also, he describes his grief as a feeling that goes on with no remedy in sight.

Annabel Lee and MLK: Literary Analysis Questions 3. What two personal qualities did King bring to this age? He brought love and passion.

Annabel Lee and MLK: Literary Analysis Questions 4. What kinds of action resulted from these personal qualities? Kings personal qualities resulted in people finding their worth and their freedom.

Poetry: Sound Devices

Full Fathom Five Onomatopoeia Maestro

Sound Devices: Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia
The use of words whose sounds suggest their meaning Example: sputter, drip, whisper, hiss, hoot, meow, murmur
Crack an Egg Crack an egg. Stir the butter. Break the yolk. Make it flutter. Stoke the heat. Hear it sizzle. Shake the salt, just a drizzle. Flip it over, just like that. Press it down. Squeeze it flat. Pop the toast. Spread jam thin. Say the word. Breakfast's in .

Sound Devices: Alliteration

Alliteration
Repeated consonant sounds at the beginning of words Example:

Often the sounds and meanings of the words combine to create a mood.
Here, repetition of b and t stresses a feeling of urgency.
Hear the loud alarum bells-Brazen bells! What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

Full fathom five thy father lies In a summer season, where soft was sun

-Edgar Allen Poe, "The Bells"

Sound Devices: Assonance

Assonance
The repetition of the same vowel sound in different words Example: would blend again and again O harp and alter, of the fury fused

This selection uses the repetition of the o sound and then the a sound.

Slow things are beautiful: The closing of the day, The pause of the wave That curves downward to spray.

--Elizabeth Coatsworth, "Swift Things are Beautiful

Sound Devices: Consonance

Consonance The repetition of similar final consonant sounds at the ends of words or accented syllables.

Examples: splatters, scatters, spurts

Full Fathom Five

Many people consider William Shakespeare to be the greatest writer in the English language. He wrote 37 plays many of which are still being performed today. In this excerpt, a song from the play The Tempest, we learn that the young princes father has drowned and has undergone a change on the sea floor. He has become part of the coral life there.

Onomatopoeia

Eve Merrimans facination with words began at an early age. This poem describes the sounds and look of water flowing from a rusty faucet.

Maestro

Pat Mora grew up in El Paso, Texas on the border between the USA and Mexico. Many of her writings speak of her experiences as a Mexican-American. She has won many awards for her stories and poetry. In Maestro when a musician bows to the audience after a performance, he hears not the clapping but only his mothers singing. He recalls the rich musical experiences of his childhood.

Comparing Literary Works Questions

Full Fathom Five Onomatopoeia
Alliteration

Onomatopoeia

Maestro

Ding dong
Full fathom five thy father lies Five, lies (I sound)

Spurts, sputters, splatters, plash

Spigot, sputters Splatters, scatters Slash, splatters, scatters (a sound)

clap
He hears her Would blend again and again (en sound

Assonance

Consonance

Ding, dong (g sound)

Splatters, scatters, Rows of spurts (s sound) hands (s sound)

Literary Analysis Questions

1.

2.

3.

Full Fathom Five involves water drowning a man. Onomatopoeia involves water coming out of a rusty spigot. A man drowns and turns into part of the sea in Full Fathom Five. In Onomatopoeia, water comes out of a rusty spigot. Lunas, amor, voz, guiterra, and violin. Are the Spanish words used in the poem. The words give the reader a sense of the Mexican songs and cultural background that influenced the performers feelings toward music.