Reader
Writer
Text
Meaning
An Introduction
POETRY
Fears about poetry
Fear of an “unknown language”
 Fear of a academic texts for elites
 Fear of emotions in poetry
 Fear of free verse poetry: poetry need not
rhyme!
 Fear of figurative language—but, guess
what? You use it every day!
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Schools of Analysis:
Ways of reading poetry (or any art)
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Formal: Use of form and structure, diction, meter, etc.
This type focuses on the “Text” point on the triangle,
trying to reduce any variation from the author or
reader.
Cultural: This analysis is based on trying to place the
poem in a context, either historically or biographically,
therefore emphasizing the “Writer.”
Experiential (Reader Response): This type of reading
merely appreciates the poem for its sounds, images,
and the feelings evoked. Therefore, it relies highly on
the “Reader.”
Stanley Fish’s Experiment
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Stanley Fish, a college professor, conducted an
experiment with his class.
He concluded that texts rely entirely on the reader’s
lens of perspective.
He suggested that we determine a text’s meaning in
“Interpretive Communities”:
 i.e., texts will have whatever meaning we assign
them, based on whatever lens we are using while
reading. Culture, expectations, and even time of
day can affect this lens.
Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on
the shore.
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light
switch.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with
rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
Introduction to Poetry
What is Billy Collins suggesting about studying poetry in
the classroom?
 What downfalls are there to studying poetry in a formal
manner?
 What benefits are there?
 How do you think Collins wants us to experience poetry?
 Can you do both (study formally and experience it)?
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this is just to say
william carlos williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
What’s in a poem?
Was this a poem?
 What if I told you that it began as
a note to his wife left on the
refrigerator?
 What makes a poem a poem?
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Ok, Stanley Fish,
What is Poetry?
Uses figurative rather than literal
language
Does what it says
Creates or recreates an experience
Cannot be summarized without changing
the meaning
Some genres of poetry utilize
recognizable conventions
Formal Analytical
Kinds of Poetry: Lyric
Expresses intense personal emotions
st
 Usually written in 1 person
 Has musical qualities
Derived from Greek lyre, a musical
instrument used for songs about these
subjects
What is your favorite lyric poem (i.e.,
song)?
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Kinds of Poetry: Narrative
Tells a story
 Epic: a long, narrative poem
 Has a conflict that starts and resolves
 Is not a short story because it doesn’t develop
things like motivation, character
 Narrative poems have been mostly replaced
by short stories and novels
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Sonnets
Some Poetry
 Haikus
Genres and Forms
 Ballads
 Epics
 Free Verse
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Sonnets, Petrarchan/Italian
14 lines
 Specific rhyme and meter
 Italian/Petrarchan
 Octave: abbaabba
 Sestet: cdecde or cdcdcd
 Unrequited, unrealistic love
 Petrarchan conceit
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Sonnets, English/Shakespearean
14 lines
 Specific rhyme and meter
 English/Shakespearean
 Three quatrains and couplet:
ababcdcdefefgg
 Anti-petrarchan sentiments and truer, more
lasting love
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Epic Poetry
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Long, narrative poem
Examples include The Illiad and The Odyssey
Were usually memorized; therefore they are repetitive
Develops poetic language and elements
Heightened language b/c it’s about heroes and gods
Tells a story from start to finish
Has character development, unlike other narrative poems
 Hero is called on a journey, battles elements, returns a hero
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Different than novels because of its often lyrical
qualities; however, some novels and movies are
considered “epics.”
Beginning of The Odyssey
Tell me, O Muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far
and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy.
Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with
whose manners and customs he was acquainted;
moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save
his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what
he might he could not save his men, for they perished
through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the
Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from
ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things,
oh daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may
know them.
Ballad
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Often has a refrain.
Usually a pattern of quatrains of alternating lines of iambic
tetrameter and iambic trimeter, the trimeter lines rhyming.
occasionally employ incremental repetition
The subjects are frequently noble, usually about love, often tragic.
By contrast, the folk ballads tend to be more plain-folksy in
scope.
The simple language and the impersonal tone often seem to cover
deep feeling and the refrain often adds either a note of solemn
ritual or a lyrical contrast to the start tale.
Tend to be rural, dramatic, heroic, and inclined to the
supernatural.
Folk Ballad
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Usually passed down through generations
Tells a story (is a kind of narrative)
 Uses very little imagery or character development
Usually accompanied by music (a kind of lyric) and a dance
 Usually has refrains or repetition
Folk ballads come from oral tradition
Told from 3rd person
Usually tragic or sensational (like supernatural, wars, etc);
sometimes tragi-comic (as in this example)
About community life or local characters and events (folklore)
Traditional patterns (rhyme and meter)
Get Up and Bar the Door
The wind blew high, the wind blew cold, It blew across the moor,
When John Jones said to Jane, his wife, "Get up and bar the door."
"Oh, I have worked all day," said she, "I've washed and scrubbed the floor, You
lazy man, get up, I say, Get up and bar the door.”
"Oh, I have worked so hard," said he, "I know I can't do more; So come, my own,
my dearest wife, Get up and bar the door.”
Then they agreed between the two,
A solemn oath they swore,
That the one who spoke the very first word
Would have to bar the door. The wind blew east, the wind blew west,
It blew all over the floor,
But neither one would say a word
For barrin' of the door.
Three robbers came along that way,
They came across the moor;
Cont.
They saws Light and walked right in, Right in through the open door.
"Oh, is the owner of this house A rich man or a poor?"
But neither one would say a word
For barrin' of the door.
They ate the bread, they drank the ale,
Then said, "Come, give us more."
But neither one would say word
For barrin' of the door.
"Let's pull the old man's beard" said one,
"Let's beat him till he's sore." But still the old man wouldn't speak
For barrin' of the door.
"I'll kiss his pretty wife," said one, "Oh, her I could adore."
And then the old man shook his fist And gave a mighty roar.
"Oh, you'll not kiss my wife," said he, "I'll throw you on the floor.
Said she, "Now, John, you've spoken first, So get up and bar the door.”
Dramatic Monologue
By Robert Vaux, eHow Contributor
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A piece of poetic verse, spoken by a single character
conveys his inner thoughts and emotions.
must come from a single character (not the writer
himself) and constitute the entire poem;
it must be directed at an existing listener, whether
present or inferred;
must reveal some aspect of the character to the
listening audience.
often takes on an assertive or argumentative tone
develops the character’s perspective/viewpoints
Find your own poems
http://www.poetryfoundation.org