“Emotion recalled in tranquility”
“The right word in the right place”
How to Eat a Poem
Don’t be polite
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe whenever you are.
You do not need a knife or fork or spoon or plate or napkin or tablecloth
For there is no core
Or stem
Or ring
Or pit
Or seed
Or skin
To throw away
POETRY APPRECIATION
TERMS TO KNOW:
Kinds of poems according to content:
1. Ballad – an objective narrative, recounting a pathetic,
tragic event.
2. Dramatic Monologue- a speaker recounting in poetry
a dramatic incident
3. Epic-long, historic, dignified, tragic poem
4. Idyll-shot poem of rustic, pastoral serenity—often
deals with chivalry.
5. Lyric—a poem, brief and discontinuous,emphasizing sound and pictoral
imagery rather than narrative or dramatic movement.
It is subjective and deals with a highly emotional state.
A lyric may be descriptive, philosophic or reflective,
dramatic;
it emphasizes the musical and pictorial
content of the words.
6.
Ode—long, stately lyric poem in stanzas –
longer, slower, solemn, meditative
7.
Elegy—a poem on death or other serious loss.
8.
Dirge—a lamenting funeral poem / song.
Terms to know:
Metre – “the measured pulse of poetry”
- deals with the regular or irregular pattern of feet
Foot – a metrical unit in poetry; an accented syllable with
accompanying syllable or syllables.
Rhythm – measured flow of repeated sound patterns
Eg.IAMBIC PENTAMETRE (light/heavy), trochaic (heavy/light)
“ But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?”
(5 feet, each consisting of two syllables, iambic rhythm)
Syntax – the order of the words.
STANDARD POETIC FORMS (based on structure, not content.)
1.
Ballad – narrative in 4 line rhyming stanzas (usually lines 2 and 4), repetition,
refrain
2.
Sonnet – 14 lines of iambic pentametre; tend to be didactic or lyric rather than
narrative.

Petrarchan sonnets contain an octave (ABBA,ABBA) and a sestet (CDE,CDE or
CDCDCD)
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3.
Shakespearean sonnets contain 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet.
Rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.
Blank verse – is written in iambic pentametre
4.
Limerick – 5 line stanzas, Rhyme scheme AABBA
5.
Haiku – a Japanese verse form in three lines, unrhymed, with a syllable count
of 5/7/5
Example of Haiku:
A Mother’s Day Haiku from the Cat
Nice lady pets me
Scoops the poop out of my box
I call her mommy.
6.
Free verse – (vers libre) – form is as its name implies, but there is still rhythmic
repetition to distinguish it from prose. Not used by most classical poets.
FICURES OF SPEECH:
•Simile – a comparison of unlike things using “like” or “as”
Eg. Her face turned as white as chalk.
Her voice is like a finely tuned violin.
•Metaphor – a comparison of two unlike things without using “like” or “as”
Her fears were revealed by her chalky cheeks
Her violin voice soothed the children.
•Personification – giving human characteristics to inanimate objects or non living
beings.
Eg. The sun smiled on our picnic!
POETIC / LITERARY DEVICES:
•Allegory – a poem which may be read on two levels; the poet is suggesting “By this I
mean that”. Allegories usually have a moral or didactic purpose, which is conveyed
by symbols, symbolic characters, or symbolic incidents.
•Allusion – a reference to someone, something with which the author assumes the
reader will be familiar. May be historical, literary, mythical, religious etc.
Antithesis – contrasting statements in parallel form
Eg. The more haste, the less speed.
Apostrophe – addressing the absent as though present
Eg. Oh Sun, shine your rays on me
Epigram – a very short, polished, terse verse often with a witty ending
Eg. Swans sing before they die—’twere no bad thing
Should certain people die before they sing.
Coleridge
Euphemism – a polite way of saying something harsh or distasteful
Eg. “Comfort station” instead of toilet.
Hyperbole – an exaggeration for effect
Eg. I’ve told you that a million times.
Irony – a)Verbal – saying something contrary to what it means.
The appearance is what the words say; the reality, their
contrary meaning
b) of Situation – events occur the opposite to what is expected or what
should naturally occur.
Metonymy – Name of one object is substituted for another which it naturally
suggests. Eg. The pen is mightier than the sword.
or The White House announced
instead of The President announced.
Oxymoron – a contradiction in terms, usually an adjective followed with a contrasting
noun Eg. Silent scream, freezing fire
Paradox – an apparently contradictory statement which, upon reflection, expresses a
truth Eg. The child is father of the man.
Symbolism – a concrete object is used to suggest abstract ideas.
Synecdoche – a kind of metaphor where a part of something stands for the whole or the
whole stands for a part. Eg. Hired hand for a laborer, or the law meaning
a policeman.
Transferred Epithet – (an epithet is a term characterizing something. Eg. “brave
Macbeth)
- a transferred epithet is an adjective modifying a noun not
usually associated with it. Eg. Cold war, happy tree
ALLITERATION – the same sound is used to begin words in succession.
Eg. Caroline kicked the Christmas cake!
ASSONANCE – the contained vowel sound of successive words is the same.
Eg. Green leaf, hope floats, brain flamed, sand castle, high tide
CONSONANCE – the repetition of two or more consonants, but with a
change in the intervening vowel.
Eg. Live – love, pitter – patter, horror – hearer
- repeating consonants in any position.
Eg. Crawl with legs (L’s)
Thunder without lightning (TH’s)
ONOMATOPOEIA – the sound of the word imitates the sound of the action.
Eg. Swoosh, murmur, hiss, burp
EUPHONY – an agreeable combination of sounds.
Eg. Numerous marigolds shone beside the babbling brook.
CACOPHONY – a disagreeable combination of sounds.
Eg. Coarse, cackling laughter characterized the snarling, sinister
serviceman!
• Prose:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Literal, concrete
States
Clear and straightforward
Standard sentence structure, proper punctuation
How the passage sounds is secondary
Prose comes from the brain
• Poetry:
–
–
–
–
Figurative, abstract
Suggests
Can be ambiguous
No regular sentence structure, little or no
punctuation
– Sound is key
– Poetry comes from the heart
Neruda’s Style
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Neruda wrote in many styles focusing in on Surrealist poetry, Historical Epics, Sonnets, Odes and
Political Manifestos
Surrealism - Surrealism emerged as the direct result of the publication of Andre Breton's first Le
Manifesto du Surrealism (Manifesto of Surrealism) (1924). In this manifesto, Breton presented two
definitions of surrealism:
SURREALISM, noun, masc., Pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either
verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control
exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.
ENCYCL. Philos. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of
association heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of the dream, and in the disinterested play of
thought. It leads to the permanent destruction of all other psychic mechanisms and to its substitution
for them in the solution of the principal problems of life. The first definition speaks to the surrealist
methodology--the use of techniques, such as automatic writing, self-induced hallucinations, and word
games like the exquisite corpse, to make manifest repressed mental activities. The second definition
lays out the surrealist view of reality and expresses the surrealist desire to open the vistas of the arts
through the close observation of the dream state and the free play of thought.
Surrealism Cont.
•
The final stage of surrealism began after the end of World War II. By this
point surrealism had disseminated around the world in various diluted forms.
The far-flung practitioners were held together by their use of personal
juxtapositions, placing distant realities together, so that the interconnections
between them were only apparent to the creator.
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As a “surrealist”, although Neruda never openly called himself this, we see
these strange juxtapositions and the Dali like images in certain poems
(“Walking Around”, and “Gentleman Alone” to name two).
Epic
An epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and
achievements of a hero...epics deal with the traditions, mythical or
historical, of a nation and its peoples. Examples: Beowulf, The Iliad and
the Odyssey, Aeneid and a related poem – “From the Heights of Maccho
Picchu”.
The merit under discussion should be named, illustrated from the text of the poem and,
if possible, commented on as to the effectiveness or result. This is where SCASI can be
used as another way to analyze and appreciate the poem
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The quality or impressiveness or the importance of the thought expressed.
The emotional effects of the passage and how they are created
The effective use of imagery or colour or sound patterns.
The effects of particular figures of speech and/or poetic devices.
The kind of diction and the effect of its use.
The merits of the verse form and rhyme scheme and the rhythm and melody of the
language