Poetic Forms
Free Verse, Villanelle, Sestina, Sonnet & Shape Poem
http://lewisturco.typepad.com/poetics/villanelles/
0-1. Responses
Outline
0-2 Poetic Form
Free
Verse
• 1.【Identity G5-6-9】 Walt Whitman “A Noiseless
Patient Spider” (p. 1106)
Vilanelle
• 2.【Life/Death G7-8-10】Thomas, Dylan “Do Not Go
Gentle into That Goodnight” (p. 878)
Sonnet
Sestina
Shape
• 3.【Society/Art G12-11】Gwendolin Brooks “First
Fight, Then Fiddle” (898)
• 4.【Love G1-2】Shuttleworth, Ciara. “Sestina” (881)
• 5.【Identity G3-4】Cummings, E. E. “l(a” (883)
Housekeeping
• Grouping – adjustment by Kate? (Opinions
expressed by email before 1/16)
• Makeup journals – due by 1/16
• Responses to journal 3– delayed
• Group Discussion report – comparison should
start with a main argument, which is supported by
the analysis that follows. Evidence, Organization.
• There will be an online questionnaire; please
help!!!
• Poetry 5: Poetic Form and Dramatization
Poetic Forms
Traditional Poetry
Open Form
Meter, rhyme, stanza
Free verse
Ballad, Sonnet,
Villanelle, Sestina
Shape Poem
Blank verse
(no rhyme)
A Noiseless Patient Spider
【Identity G5-6-9】
Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892)
A noiseless patient spider
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory (隆突) it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast(1) surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of it self,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. (2)
apostrophe
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking (4) the
spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile (柔軟的)
anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my
soul.
(1. consonance, 2, assonance, 3. alliteration, 4. internal rhyme)
A Noiseless Patient Spider:
Discussion Questions
• Symbol: What are the implications in comparing the soul
to a spider?
• Compare & Contrast: How are the activities of the
spider similar to and different from those of the soul?
• Figurative language: What are the effects of the
repetition of his apostrophizing (頓呼) the soul ("O my
soul")?
• Sound effects?
• Form: the pattern of free verse depends a lot on
repetition (with variation) of different poetic
elements. Why are there not as many repetitions in the
second stanza? From stanza one to two, we see similar
kind of variation of line length (which gets longer and
longer). What effects are achieved here?
Poetic Form and Techniques
Free Verse
•Unrhymed; no regular length;
•Rhythmical lines varying in length
•Patterns produced through repetition and
parallel grammatical structure.
•Apostrophe-- figure of speech in which an
absent person, a personified inanimate being, or
an abstraction is addressed as though present;
-- the poet talks to (and personifies) the one
addressed.
A noiseless patient spider as a symbol
• Figurative language: the soul, something active
(like spider working), brought closer and cherished
(via apostrophe).
• Symbol: a spider  the soul:
– difficult, quiet and laborious work in setting up
structures out in empty space. (launching,
unreeling/spinning, speeding)
– The soul’s action: musing, venturing, throwing,
seeking, bridging, anchoring – intellectual and
various.
• Sound effects? –signifying their actions (slow,
soft, quiet, continuous and non-violent).
• Form: rhythm – regular; increasing line lengths -the extension of their threads and connections.
•
(for your reference: http://www.cc.nctu.edu.tw/~sheen/al/notes.html#2 )
Extension Questions:
A Noiseless Patient Spider
• 1. If you were going to compare yourself to an
animal, what animal would you choose? Why?
• 2. Can you relate to the action of spinning a web,
or making connections, in the world or universe? Is
it difficult for you?
• 3. The song "Sound of Silence" can be seen as
another search for inner soul--by talking to
darkness as an old friend. Please pay attention to
the contrasts in imagery between darkness and
light, silence and sound. The phrase "sound of
silence" is an oxymoron; can you explain why?
Walt Whitman
• A printer, teacher, journalist poet
 hospital worker, government
clerk, later fired because of his
poetry.
• Publishes Leaves of Grass in 1855,
later revised 8 times.
• A free thinker, sometimes without
regular jobs. (source)
•
portrait: from an 1854 engraving by Samuel Hollyer
Dylan Thomas (1914 – 1953)
【Life/Death G7-8-10】
Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night, sleep/restful death; metaphor
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Accepting death
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they Creates no impact
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
regret
Do not go gentle into that good night
(2)
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Live life wildly
& celebrate it
Do not go gentle into that good night
Questions
1. Speaker, Tone and Main Idea:
-- Who is the speaker speaking to? What is his main
message? How would you describe his tone?
-- How does the speaker try to explain that there is a
need to "burn and rave" at old age? What does he say
that wise men, good men, wild men and grave men do?
2. Language and Metaphor:
-- If we further examine the examples the speaker give,
we will find that the four kinds of men stay active and
passionate at their old age for different reasons: what
are they?
3. Pattern and Overall Meaning:
-- How is the speaker’s idea developed? What is view
of life presented?
-- Do you find the poem passionate, selfish, or
desperate & hiding a great sense of futility?
Response Patterns
wise
men
good
men
wild
men
grave
men
accept
regret
know dark is right Because their words had
forked no lightning
-Crying how bright /Their
frail deeds might have
danced in a green bay
caught and sang learn too late, they grieved
the sun in flight
it[the sun] on its way
Blind eyes could with blinding sight
blaze like meteors
and be gay
Wise Men, Good Men, Wild Man
and Grave Man
Stanzas 2 and 3 deal with men who have failed to
achieve the ends they "have aimed at.
-- "Because their words had forked no lightning" (5)
-- “because their "frail deeds" never "danced" (8).
Stanzas 4 and 5 deal with men who have achieved
their aims, but either regret their success or is losing
it.
-- "Wild men," in their hedonist actions, regret "they
grieved it on its way" (10-11).
--"Grave men," who may have spent their lives in the
gloomy contemplation of life's sorrows, see the
possibility of “gaiety“ (“blaze like meteors and be
gay”) with blinding sight (about to lose it).
Father and Son:
use of oxymoron
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.  power
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.  futility
Dylan Thomas
• Born in Wales. Wrote several poems on
his birthdays which are to do with death.
• Thomas: under strong influence of his
father.
• "the only person I can't show the little
enclosed poem to is, of course, my father,
who doesn't know he's dying" (Letters 359)
Dylan Thomas’s Father
David John, known as D. J. According to biographer Paul
Ferris, D.J. was
1."an unhappy man... a man with regrets" (27); born with brains
and literary talent, his ambition was to be a man of letters, but he
was never able to advance beyond being "a sardonic provincial
schoolmaster" in South Wales, feared for his sharp tongue (2633).
2.After his first serious illness, though--cancer in 1933--"A
mellowing is said to have been noticeable soon after; his sarcasm
was not so sharp; he was a changed man" (104). As he grew
more chronically ill in the 40's, mostly from heart disease and with
one of the complications being trouble with his sight, the
mellowing intensified: As Ferris puts it, "It must have been [D. J.'s]
backbone of angry dignity that his son grieved to see breaking
long after, when he wrote 'Do not go gentle into that good
night'" (27), and the poem is "an exhortation to his father, a plea
for him to die with anger, not humility" (259).
(MARC D. CYR, DYLAN THOMAS'S "DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD
NIGHT": THROUGH "LAPIS LAZULI" TO KING LEAR” )
Literary Techniques (4): Poetic Form—
Villanelle
A chiefly French verse form running on two
rhymes and consisting typically of five tercets
and a quatrain in which the first and third lines
of the opening tercet recur alternately at the end
of the other tercets and together as the last two
lines of the quatrain. –line 1 = 6, 12, 18; line 3 =
line 9, 15, 19.
一種源自法國的兩韻詩(由五個三聯句(tercet)及一
個四行詩(quatrain)組成；開頭三聯句的第一、三
行輪流出現於其他三聯句的最後一行、再一起出
現為四行詩的結尾兩行)。
two rhyming sounds: aba aba aba aba aba
abaa.
Literary Techniques (4): Poetic Form—
Villanelle
The beauty of villanelle –
". . . the form [of villanelle] has remarkable unity of
structure. The echoing and reechoing of the refrains give
the villanelle a plaintive, delicate beauty that some poets
find irresistible."
Difficulties of villanelle –
"Since it has only two rhymed endings, the poem can
easily become monotonous. The risks of monotony is
increased by the incessant appearance of the refrains
that constitute eight of the poems' nineteen lines -- nearly
half of the poem. This skilled author of the villanelle,
thus, is careful to achieve the maximum tonal range and
to fit the refrains lines as naturally as possible into the
logic of the poem" (The Heath Guide to Literature 637)
e.g. One Art; Mad Girl’s Love Song
Sound & Sense -- Do not go
gentle into that good night
spondee
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
command
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
No action
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
action
Scanning -- Do not go
gentle into that good night (2)
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Questions for you …
• What would you say to an aging elderly (relative
or parent) if they are fading into the sunset?
• Would you be able to categorize yourself as a
wise man, good man, wild man and grave man?
Or which would you aspire to be?
• After reading two poems about death, which
attitude would you possibly take if you were to
face death? Or with the awareness of its
inevitability, would you cherish life more and in
what ways?
First Fight, Then Fiddle
Gwendolin Brooks
(1949)
【Society/Art G12-11】
First Fight. Then Fiddle.
First fight. Then fiddle. Ply the slipping string A
With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note B
With hurting love; the music that they wrote B
Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing A
Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen thing A
For the dear instrument to bear. Devote B
The bow to silks and honey. Be remote B
A while from malice and from murdering. A
But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate C
In front of you and harmony behind. D
Be deaf to music and to beauty blind. D
Win war. Rise bloody, maybe not too late C
For having first to civilize a space E
Wherein to play your violin with grace. E
Muzzle & Thread/Hemp
•
The music that they wrote?
•
Image source
“First Fight, Then Fiddle” Questions
• Overall Meaning & Structure: What do it mean:
“first fight, then fiddle”? What does “fight” &
“fiddle” mean respectively? Why does the poem
do it the other way around (reversing the order)?
Is either completely rejected?
• Form: Petrarchan sonnet –effects (turn?)
–
–
–
–
Rhyme: masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme
Rhythm & meter: iambic pentameter
Sound: alliteration
Enjambment vs. short lines
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 ~2000; Chicago)
Poem published in 1949
“First Fight, Then Fiddle”: Fiddle
• sense – plays the music which is sweet,
melodious and mesmerizing (feathery
sorcery, bewitch, bewilder),
– filled with repressed emotions,
– detached from cruel reality (malice and
murdering)
– but not sharp-sounding, coarse but lively
tunes.
– sound – repetition of melodious & nasal
sounds such as [m], [ing], [ind], [sl];
– use of enjambment
Why not?
Other’s music.
“First Fight, Then Fiddle”: Fight
• sense – [But]
One must go to war (arms and armor—to
fight and protect oneself), carrying hate in
front and harmony behind (as support)
purpose: -- “to civilize a space” where
playing music is possible
• sound –short one-syllable words
• use of short imperatives: “win war. Rise
bloody.”
Why not?
Other’s music.
Sestina
(2010)
Ciara Shuttleworth
【Love G1-2】
You
Used
To
Love
Me
well.
Me,
too,
used . . .
well. . .
you.
Love,
Well,
you—
me—
Used
Love
to . . .
love
me.
You,
Too
Well
used,
to . . .
well . . .
love.
You
Used
me.
used
Love
well.
Me,
too.
You!
You Used
to Love
me well.
2
speakers
A:
You Used To Love Me
well.
B.
Used Love to .
A.
You Used me.
B.
Me, too, used you. . .
A.
Love me.
B.
Used Love well.
Me, too. You!
A.
You Used
to Love
me well.
Sestina
Sestina: a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of
six lines each, normally followed by a threeline envoi. (Wikipedia)
Source:
Wikipedia
Sestina: Questions
• 1. How many speakers are there in this
poem? When does one stop speaking and
another begin?
• 2. What is the role of punctuation in
“Sestina”? Can you describe the tones of
each stanza?
【Identity G3-4】
l(a
(1958)
Cummings, E. E.
l(a
l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness
l(a: Questions
• What does the poem mean and how are
the meanings conveyed through the image,
the words and the shape of the poem?
• “A leaf falls. Loneliness.” Why is this one
not a poem, but “l(a” is? Is there meter or
rhythm in the poem?
l(a: loneliness=singleness
• the image = a leaf
• the words = la, le, fa, af, ll (words falling
and reversing), i-ness, I
• the shape of the poem = “l”
• Regularity (meter) in the falling and
multiple meanings of the characters.
References
• Owens, Clarke W. “Brooks's First Fight.
Then Fiddle.” The Explicator 52.4
(Summer 1994): 240.
Poetry I: Identity and Daily Life
Tone & Sound Pattern
“We Real Cool”
“Those Winter
Sundays”
“Stopping By
Woods”
• Short lines w. stresses & pauses
• Repetition showing regret
• Soft-spoken and rhythmic; repetition
“I’m Nobody…”
• Soft-spoken, secretive
“This is Just to
Say”
• Casual, intimate
“The Word Plum”
• Pleasure w/ a variety of sounds
“Noiseless Patient Spider”
Poetry II: Nature and Love Relations
Diction & Figurative Language
Metaphor
Repetition,
Ambiguity and
Twisted Syntax
Simile
Imagery
Symbol
• Linda Pastan “Marks”
• “A Noiseless Patient Spider”
• Behn, Aphra “On Her Loving Two
Equally”
• Burns, Robert “A Red, Red Rose”
• Wordsworth “I Wandered Lonely
as a Cloud”
• Mary Oliver “Wild Geese”
• “Wise Geese” “Spider” “Snake”
Imagery, Symbolism, Irony
Poetry III: Society and Mortality
“The Sick Rose”
• What the worm and “bed of crimson joy” represent
• Alteration between 2-syllable feet and 3-syllable feet
First Fight,
Then Fiddle
“Harlem”
• A series of rhetoric questions put in terms of metaphors
“Because I could not stop for Death---”
• Death personified as a gentleman and a bridegroom
• Changes in the speaker’s tone
“Do Not Go Gentle into That Goodnight”
• The four types of responses; the form of villanelle
“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”
• The use of public mourning to represent one’s own grief; use
of hyperbole and imperatives
Poetry IV: Arts and Modern Society
Rhyme, Rhythm and Symbol
“In a Station of the Metro”
• Beauty of Transience & Science
• Imagism
Musee des Beaux Arts (1938)
• Art vs. Sufferings
The Dance (1962)
• Art vs. Physical Pleasures; Internal rhymes
Anecdote of a Jar (1923)
• Art/Artifice vs. Nature; Symbol; Rhyme
Final Exam (3 hours)
• Close Analysis 30% (each 10%) – the
poems and the play
• Short Essay Questions (each 15%) -- 30%
• Essay Questions 40% (each 20%)
– A. comparison
– B. on the 3 endings of Pygmalion: what does
the play mean if it ends at the end of Act 3,
Act 5, and w/ the postscript?
Title
• Text