RVP, Week 2
Blake: Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Close-reading techniques: polyvalence and the OED, basic
scansion/rhythm
Close-reading exercise: the poetry of Anna Barbauld
Part One
Wrapping up “Heaven and Hell”
Marriage of H&H: Questions
• Why is some of the poem in verse, and some in
prose? (takeaway: notice and read alternations in
form and verse)
• Thematic changes?
• Changes in content?
• Does it give the poem a progression, or even a plot?
• Who is Rintrah?
Close Reading Rintrah
• Why do the Rintrah lines repeat?
• Who is Rintrah, and what does this suggest about
him?
• Why doesn’t the poem (not your annotations) give
you more information about who he is—why
withhold this information?
• What does an absence do, more generally, within
literature?
The Proverbs
• What is the rhythm of the proverbs?
The Memorable Fancies
• Why are these sections in prose?
• Is there a rhythm to this section, nevertheless?
• If Swedenborg is such an idiot, why is he in here,
and repeatedly? Why borrow the form of his fancies?
The Memorable Fancies
1. Divide into groups of n/4, where n is the number
of students in the class
2. Explain, or try to explain, a system in the poem
3. Identify at least two things that do not seem to
cohere with this system
Part Two
Poetry Reading Technique:
An Extremely Brief Guide to Scansion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5diMI
mYIIA
Scansion, very briefly
• Every poem has a base meter; every interesting poem
exceeds it for emphasis
• Base meter: a line of a set number of feet
• English feet have two or (rarely) more syllables;
English lines have 3-5 (rarely more) feet
• So, iambic (feet ,/) pentameter (penta-five) feet
• The takeaway: a poem has a rhythm; notice when
that rhythm changes
Scansion very briefly, two
• Almost always stress when sounds repeat
(alliterative syllables (“thoughts against thoughts in
groans grind”)
• Stress marks add stress (wingèd)
• Look for “wobbles” (not scientific name)
• thoughts against thoughts in groans grind
/
, /
/
,
/
/
• That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
,
/
,
/
, /
,
/
/ /
Scansion very briefly, three
• “Caesura” is the word “pause” gone to posh schools
• In print, dashes, semicolons, colons, exclamation
marks in mid-line indicate pauses
• Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
Scansion very briefly, four
• Lines are units of information, and also imply excitement
or containment
• Set, fixed, rigid, or well-understood ideas stick to their
lines
• Laugh where we must, be candid where we can;
But vindicate the ways of God to man.
• Excited, passionate, etc. ideas overflow their lines:
• A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—
Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.
Part Three
Poetry Reading Technique: Polyvalence and the OED
Anna Barbauld - .pdf Poems
Purple: polyvalence, yellow:
ambiguity
The Baurbauld .pdf.
• “A Summer’s Evening Meditation,” “Epistle to
William Wilberforce, Esq.,” “To Mr. S.T. Coleridge,”
“The Caterpillar”
• In groups (n/3), survey these poems
• Bring back to us: one stanza with an unusual
stress/meter/sound effect; one moment of polyvalence,
with the multiple meanings explained conceptually