Poetry
It’s not just what is said, but how it’s said.
Content and form are equal.
Diction
• Word choice
– Consider connotations and denotations
– p. 3 With a wide mouth: 1) talkative, 2) odd looking
• Latinate and Germanic Diction
– Poetry is often associated with fancy or elaborate
vocabulary.
– Is French a more poetic language than German?
– This need not be the case. Hesse uses simple, clear,
unpretentious language
– Much more Germanic or Anglo-Saxon than Latinate
Latinate and Anglo-Saxon Diction
• Old English is Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) in its forms, structures, and
vocabulary. But at around 1100, the Normans invaded England
causing French, a romance language (meaning it is derived from
Latin) to mix with Old English. During the Renaissance (1400-1700),
thousands more words were imported directly from Latin.
• For this reason, English today mixes Germanic and Latinate roots.
Often we can find pairs of words, near synonyms, of which one
comes from an Anglo-Saxon root and one from a Latinate root.
Sometimes there are three closely related words, one each from
Anglo-Saxon, from Latin via French, and directly from Latin, as in
kingly (Germanic), royal (from French roi), and regal (from Latin rex,
regis).
• As a (very rough) general rule, words derived from the Germanic
ancestors of English are shorter, more concrete, and more direct,
whereas Latinate words are longer and more abstract: compare, for
instance, the Anglo-Saxon thinking with the Latinate cogitation.
• Most “bad” language is of Anglo-Saxon ancestry: compare, for
instance, shit (Germanic) with excrement (Latinate).
Germanic
anger, wrath
ask
begin
belief
bodily
brotherly
child
come
deadly
earth
fatherly
first
Latinate
rage, ire
inquire
commence
creed
corporal
fraternal
infant
arrive
mortal
soil
paternal
primary
Germanic
flood
friendly
give
go
god
help
hen
hill
motherly
new
shut
teach
Latinate
inundate
amicable
provide
depart
deity
assist
poultry
mount
maternal
novel, modern
close
educate
Figurative Language:
• Metaphor 193: the dream Piano is mother, can touch the substitute
for mother. Mothers generally reflect back in their children- mirror.
• Imagery We rely on five sense to know the world
–
–
–
–
–
Visual is most used 43
Aural is second
Taste and scent
Tactile 62
Visceral; pertaining to the body 32
• Symbols an object that represents an idea.
– Symbols are always pertinent to themes and must be supported by the
text
– Apples – mother. Tart and sweet
– Stubborn will to survive where they were not meant to be
– 202 Mother as tumbleweed, sod is Pa, wheat is Billie Jo
– Apple tree- life betrayal death.
Language
• Sound
–
–
–
–
Assonance- repeated vowel sounds 107
Alliteration- repeated initial consonants 21
Consonance- repeated internal consonants 47 /r/
These things make language flow smoother, and can
evoke emotions.
• Rhyme
– Moves readers forward
– In best poems, rhyme may not be noticed
Language
• Structure
– To kill poetry, analyze the meter, iamb, trochee, anapest,
dactyl, spondee, pyrrhic
– Free verse and metered (of course this is free verse)
– Organized in stanzas
– Concrete poems: p 13 “On Stage” looks like a piano.
– 3 genres, lyric communicates feeling 23, narrative tells a story,
epic tells a long story.
– The Ballad is a combination of genre and structure
•
•
•
•
•
Because I could not stop for death
8
He kindly stopped for me
6
The carriage held but just ourselves
8
And immortality
6
If it fits the tune of Gilligan’s Island, then it’s a ballad.
Language
• Tone – exists in all communication.
– the emotion of the narrator’s voice is trying to
convey (or “accidentally” conveys)
– Different characters can be used to express
different tones.
– In good novels, the tone changes frequently