Carol Ann DuffY
We remember your childhood well
• Think about the title.
• The poem is a dramatic monologue:
• The speaker sounds very much on the
defensive: clearly the grown-up child has
complained about something or asked an
awkward question. The parent insists that
the child was brought up well and was
loved
IOC
• Interactive oral commentary at the church
• You will choose a poem randomly
• You will have 20 minutes to prepare your
commentary in a quiet room
• You will be escorted to my room and sit
across the table from me and talk for 8
minutes about the poem.
• Commentary needs to be formal, organized
and reveal how well you are able to identify
poetic features and how they support the
poet’s purpose.
• I will give you a minute warning to wrap
it up.
• I will ask some follow up questions and
we have a short 2 minute discussion on
the poem
• Then we transition to a ten minute
discussion on either Lear or SL. (Again I
go down a list of questions and where
you are when you walk in is what I ask.
Carol Ann Duffy
• Born on December 23 1955, in Glasgow,
Scotland's largest city.
• Attended Liverpool University
The first female, Scottish Poet Laureate in
the role's 400 year history,
• Accepted position in 2009
• “the queen of modern British poetry"
• "The beginning of a poem is always a
moment of tiny revelation, a new way of
seeing something, which almost
simultaneously attracts language to it and then the impulse is to catch that with
a pen and paper.” Carol Duffy
Education for Leisure
Dramatic Situation
• Dramatic monologue
• Speaker is a young adolescent male who is
bored and tired of being ignored, overlooked.
He wants attention in the worst way…by
committing Violence, playing god, causing
destruction and fear as a means of feeling
powerful.
• Speaking to the reader
• Tone is sinister: Today I am going to kill
something
• Tone is also ironic: contrast between the
speaker’s view of himself and reality.
Structure
• Regular lined verses
– Five stanzas - four lines each
• Poem moves from a threat to action
• Builds tension with escalating images of
violence
• Syntax: Short “jabbing” sentences. …Why?
• Other lines that are more lyrical
– Line 4
– Last line
STRUCTURE
• Punctuation
– Use of end stops and enjambment.
Title?
Ironic. Leisure of the unemployed, the drop outs,
the underclass. Time on their hands because
they have either dropped out of school or have
been expelled.
Language
• Colloquial diction, slang
• direct address at end
• Connotation of the word “genius”
– We usually associate the word with creativity, but
here word is used with irony. Not as bright as he
thinks. Irony of a poor education
– . “God”: association of omnipresent being who
created the world, but here used to show how
speaker takes joy in destruction: “I see that it is
good.” Capable only of destruction, not creation
Language
Imagery:
Grey with boredom [day]
Pavements Glitter:
Interesting contrast. Glitter with what?
(blood, something to do?)
language
• Allusion to Gloucester’s line in King
Lear.(WHY?)
• Image of fly being squashed
• Another Language. ( death vs language of
art)
• Ironic humor to show discrepancy
between speaker’s egotistical view of
himself and our view of him.
Musical Devices?
• Unrhymed free verse
• Non-metrical (pattern of stressed and
unstressed syllables.)
• Except for some Iambic meter in lyrical
lines (line 4 and last line) (yearning)
• Flat, plodding rhythm…reinforces the
monotony of his life.
Thesis
• Duffy
uses______________,___________,
• and__________________to
show_________________________.
• Duffy uses colloquial diction, allusions
to God, and a threatening tone to
dramatize the increasingly violent
actions of a frustrated and
disenfranchised youth.
War Photographer
• From Duffy’s first collection: Standing
Female Nude 1985
Warm up
• Take your commentary and either read
it to partner, or tell them what you
discovered about the poem.
• If you were not here on Friday, read the
poem on your own and write down your
first impressions of it. What is it about?
Identify two most significant poetic
features.
War Photographer
• The poem comes from Duffy’s friendship
with Don McCullin and Philip Jones Griffiths,
two well-respected stills photographers who
specialised in war photography.
• Duffy is fascinated by what makes someone
do such a job and how they feel about being in
situations where a choice often has to be
made between recording horrific events, and
helping.
Vietnam War
Vietnam
Iraq, 2005
Iran, 1979
War Photographer
Terms:
Alliteration: repetition of (usually)
consonant sounds at the beginning of a
sentence. Big Bad Bear
Connotation: the emotional association we
have with a word.
Caesura: a pause within a line of poetry.
Used for dramatic effect, or to create
tension, surprise
Diction: word choice (contributes to tone)
Imagery: use of figurative language to create
images in mind of reader
Make notes on the structure of the
first verse
In his darkroom he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
Is this continued throughout? Why?
Structure
• 4 stanzas
• 6 lines per stanza
• Regular rhyme scheme – ABBCDD, etc.
WHY?
• Imposes order in the chaos of war
• Like the photographer – order with the
photos, making sense of the chaos
Imagery
• Four groups…underline and analyze images
in assigned stanza.
• how do they support topic & theme of poem?
– First by self
– Discuss with group
– -class
In his darkroom he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
• In his darkroom he is finally alone
• with spools of suffering set out in
ordered rows.
• The only light is red and softly glows,
• as though this were a church and he
• a priest preparing to atone a Mass.
• Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh
is grass.
alliteration –
what is the
effect?
Contrast to what?
What are the
connotations
of the
colours?
In his darkroom he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to atone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
Litany of horror;
what is the effect
of the caesura?
Simile –
reverence and
devotion to the
pictures
1. regularity/order
– reflects
structure
2. Suggestion of
graves/bodies
Isaiah 40:6 –
shortness of life
He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
beneath his hands which did not tremble then
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
of running children in nightmare heat.
Ambiguity –
chemicals/solutions to
war
Implies
carelessness
He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
beneath his hands which did not tremble then
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
Why did
they not
tremble
then?
Why
now?
of running children in nightmare heat.
Suggests
idyllic life
True meaning to
the poem contrast
Contrast: barefoot
children running in
grass for fun/those
running from war – end
of innocence and,
possibly, life.
Cannot compare to
pain of war
Something is happening. A stranger’s features
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
Without words to do what someone must
and how the blood stained into foreign dust.
Something is happening. A stranger’s features
Ambiguous:
Literal –
developing the
photo. Figurative
– person in pain
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
Without words to do what someone must
and how the blood stained into foreign dust.
Metaphor – 1. image
on photo, 2. death
Photographer’s
dilemma – has a job to
do.
A hundred agonies in black-and-white
from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
He earns his living and they do not care
1. Photo
Trivialises;
we are only
moved
momentarily
2. Good/evil
3. Truth/lies
A hundred agonies in black-and-white
from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick
Contrast
to war
zone
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
He earns his living and they do not care.
Chooses photos
to suit the
article; don’t
convey the full
horror of war
Who
are
they?
Suggests they
are used for
entertainment
En route to
another
assignment; poem
is cyclical;
unceasing wars
Discussion Points
• How do you think this photographer feels about
their job? Pride or guilt?
• How do you think Duffy feels towards the
newspaper editors?
• What does Duffy seem to be suggesting about the
way the readers react to seeing these images?
• What is Duffy trying to point out about life in
Britain compared to Beirut etc?
• Themes?
Diction
• Which words or phrases seem significant
in contributing to the tone of the poem?
• For example alone…in first stanza
• Suggests isolation, detachment.
Theme?
• Effects of war
• Shows trauma caused by witnessing
tragedy, horrors of war.
• Juxtaposition of photographer’s inner
conflict, (being impassive, objective
among such horror) and the public’s
fleeting interest and lack of concern for
such events..
Group Thesis
How does author +verb+ lit. feature+ verb+lit.
effect + why.
War Photographer
• Duffy uses________, ______, and ______ to
reveal_______________.
• Write it down and share with class. turn it in.
Thesis example
• Duffy uses a regular rhyme scheme, a
shifting tone, and the contrasting
imagery of war and rural England to
reveal the cyclical nature of conflict and
the impassivity that some feel toward
others’ suffering.
terms
• Colloquialism: in a conversational manner that may
include slang:
• Connotations: emotional association a reader has for
a certain word:
– God …. in Education it has a – connotation not as
creator but destroyer.
• Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at
beginning of sentences;
• Assonance: repetition of same vowel sound
– : open, broken; remembered, tendered
• Consonance: identical consonant sound at end of
word preceded by different vowel:
• Home, same, breath, worth
Dramatic Situation?
Conflict?
There is a lot of tension
between the speaker and
listener. We get the
impression that the listener is
not given much chance to
speak - or, if they do, that it
is ignored
• As readers, we cannot be sure whose
memory is more accurate - the parents' or
the child's.
• Is the child exaggerating about the
horrors that appear to have taken place?
Or are the parents guiltily trying to
convince themselves that they didn't
happen?
Structure
• The poem consists of six stanzas of
three lines, each of roughly the same
length.
Each stanza begins with a
statement that denies what
the child believes to have
happened - 'Nobody hurt you'
Language
• There are many frightening ideas in the
poem that are suggested but not
developed:
• "The bad man on the moors" (line 2),
• a door being locked (line 3),
• the child being "sent ... away" (line
13).
• definite sense of fear on the part of the
child.
• "skidmarks of sin" (line 16) are and
what is meant by “laid you wide open
for Hell" (line 17).
violent verbs • 'hurt, argued, forced, begged' which add to the sense of danger.
• Onomatopoeia is used to describe
the voices, "Boom. Boom. Boom.
We associate a booming sound
with explosions and bombs,
• It is ironic that the parent uses the
metaphor "called the tune" (line
10) to indicate the control they
had over the child, when the
'music' produced was so violent.
theme
• "the secret police of your childhood”
• Poem about memory, childhood,
truth lies.
• A parent trying to soft peddle a
difficult childhood?
For Tomorrow
• Commentary on Standing Female Nude
• Socratic Seminar Ticket 10 pts.
• I am collecting both.
Stealing: central questions
• Why does Duffy use a contrast of
colloquial and poetic diction? What is
the effect?
• Discuss the central image of the
snowman in the poem. How does Duffy
use it?
• Colloquialism: in a conversational manner that may
include slang:
• Connotations: emotional association a reader has for
a certain word:
• Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at
beginning of sentences;
• Assonance: repetition of same vowel sound
– : open, broken; remembered, tendered
Stealing
•
•
•
•
Dramatic Situation?
Dramatic Monologue
Angry tone
Speaker? Who is he talking to?
Structure
• 5-5lined regular verse.
• Unrhymed and irregular in meter.
• Begins and ends with question.
Nothing unusual about syntax
Stanzas control the poem…keep it from spilling
over. Contains the energy
Language
• Slang: “Better off dead.”
• One word sentences
• Lyrical lines: “A tall white mute/beneth the
winter moon.” Why?
• Sharp violent verbs: piercing my gut
– Slice of ice. Why?
language
• Metaphor: snowman, Why significant?
• Simile: “ a mind as cold as the slice of ice
within my own brain.
• Caesuras in the middle of the lines. Why
effective
Musical devices
• Internal rhyme: “I started with the head/
better off dead
– Slice of ice
• Alliteration: ripped out in rags
• Repetition: Again. Again.
• Assonance: mute, moon, mats, mind:
For Monday
• Shooting Stars
• Annotate poem. Use different colors
highlighters or pencils. If you don’t have that
use boxes, circles and underlines.
• One color for images
• One color for diction (words that seem
carefully chosen for effect
• Punctuation
• Write a working Thesis at the bottom or top
of page.. Don’t write a commentary until after
we discuss it on Monday
Standing Female Nude
• Title Poem of her first Collection of poetry:
Standing Female Nude
– 1985
Picasso
Standing
Female Nude
The Grand Nude; 1908
Gorges Braque 18921963
• Who has more power in this poem?
• What is Duffy saying about art?
What is Duffy saying about
“ART” other themes?
• Gender and class struggles
• Objectification of women
• Exploitation of women/artists and
commercialization of art.
• She is paid little, the artist’s work is later
sold and resold for millions of dollars.
•
Think about Power, Gender
and class struggles, the male
gazeideas, contrasts
Line breaks emphasize
and juxtapositions.
• Why in the last stanza do we have two one
word lines? What do they represent or
support?
• Finished… enjambment: line continues
just as the work seems to never end.
Tone?
• Cynical tone of a prostitute who poses for
money.
• “The bourgeoisie will coo…
– Inequality of the classes
– She stands for 6 hours for a few francs
– Poem ends on the mention of francs also.
Me
• Reassertion of the model’s
individualism.
• “Finished …..me.” Two lines stick out
and form their own thought
• Speaks also to the artist’s
transformation of model into an
unrecognizable version of herself.
Francis Bacon painting breaks
new record
• Sold last year for record breaking price of
$142,405,000 sold in 6 minutes
Some thoughts on structure
• Duffy likes regular lined stanzas
• “I found that [Stealing] fell naturally (as
most of my poems do) into regular-lined
verses- in this case, 5 5-lined verses.
The verses are unrhymed and irregular
in meter. These free verses work for me
like small canvasses to hold the words
of the poem. They help to control the
rhythm of the poem… ”
For Wednesday
• Read “Warming her Pearls.” We will
annotate and discuss in class.
• Write a Formal 1/3-1 page commentary
typed on Shooting Stars (10 pts)
• Follow flow sheet
– Thesis
– At least 2 or 3 poetic devices used and to
what effect
– Cite lines
Comments on commentary
Commentaries need to be a a paragraph, not a
list of observations. Work on this for the rest.
Must be specific
Some imagery is used to show ….
Which imagery?
Many of you are not stating how features are
used:
Syntax is regular
– Why? How does fit poem?
Commentary
• Use formal third person
• No first person.
• Need to focus on literary devices and how
they contribute to the meaning of the
poem.
Commentary continued
• Commentaries should have a thesis:
• How does author +verb+ lit. feature+
verb+lit. effect + why.
• In the poem Mrs. Aesop, Carol Ann
Duffy uses a sarcastic tone and
humorous allusions to Aesop’s Fables
to show the wife’s discontent in her
marriage and to depict her husband as
an unoriginal bore.
• Don’t refer to persona in poem as
narrator. It is a speaker
• Avoid empty phrases: It seems to me, in
my opinion, interesting to note. They
don’t add to commentary. They only
take up space.
“I have no choice.” Different
interpretations here, but the artist might
mean 1. needs $. 2. must paint because
he loves it. It is what he does
Good comments
• The phrase “Belly nipple arse” lacks
punctuation which shows that she is
being looked at as an overall item, not
for her individual attributes.
• This enjambment creates a broken
rhythm to the poem that relates to the
poverty of the model.
Student Thesis
• Duffy uses a lack of punctuation, a
cynical tone, and enjambment to
illustrate the deception behind the ideals
of art; it is not a free, truthful medium,
but rather a business and industry in
which the subjects have little power to
define themselves.
Shooting Stars Class
Performance
• Six groups (count off)
• Each group will present one stanza. Use
choral voices, poses, actions to bring
meaning to poem.
• We will perform with no break
More Poetry terms
A caesura is a strong pause within a line,
and is often found alongside enjambment.
Enjambment: the running over from one line
to another
Shooting Stars
Small Group:
1. Reflect on title: make web of denotations and
connotations.
2 what is the dramatic situation and how is it
demonstrated through structure ( form, movement,
end-stopped lines: enjambment)/ Why 6 Stanzas?
3. Who is the speaker?
Large Group
4. What is the significance of the images and how do
they contribute to theme[s]?
5: What type of diction is used, what tone is created,
and how does it support theme or action of poem?
6 Discuss use of punctuation and how it supports
theme or poet’s intention.
Terms
Anaphora: the repetition of a word or
phrase at the beginning of successive
clauses.
Euphemism: mild or indirect word or
expression substituted for one considered to
be too harsh or blunt when referring to
something unpleasant or embarrassing.
Shooting Stars
After I no longer speak they break our fingers
to salvage my wedding ring. Rebecca
Homework For Friday: Use
flowchart (10 pts)
• Read Mrs. Aesop and write an introduction
paragraph, followed by thesis
• Title?
• Structure?
• Context ( topic common to writer?)
• Speaker?
• Literal meaning?
• Deeper Meaning
• Then thesis
We Remember Your childhood is from Duffy’s collection
The Other Country. The title suggests that parents are
talking to their grown children. Typical for Duffy, the poem is
written in regular lined stanzas( in this case 3 lines per
stanza) and display irregular end rhyme. These tight
stanzas represent the containment of memory discussed in
the poem, more specifically the parents desire to control, or
deny the frightened memories of the child. The address of
the poem is a dramatic monologue, in which we hear only
the parents’ denial of the child’s questions about her
childhood. On a symbolic level, this poem is about memory
and the tendency of those in authority to control the past.
•Duffy uses mysterious and dark imagery, colloquial diction,
and caesura to reveal the tension created by conflicting
memories between parent and child.
upright as statues, brave. You would not look at me. You waited for the bullet.
Fell. I say, Remember.
Remember those appalling days which make the
forever bad. One saw I was alive. Loosened
world
his belt. My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear. Between the gap of corpses I
How would you prepare to die, on a perfect April
evening with young men
gossiping and smoking by the graves? My bare feet felt the earth and urine trickled
down my legs. I heard the click. Not yet. A trick.
After immense suffering someone takes tea on the lawn. After the terrible moans a boy
Sister, if seas part us, do you not consider me?
at dusk
Tell them I sang the ancient psalms
inside the wire and strong men wept. Turn thee
am desolate and lost.
unto me with mercy, for I
Persona
• A strong woman( speaking from the grave?)
describing how the women were brave as
statues.
• Ends with song (psalm 26-16) one of King
David’s, pleads with God for deliverance from
affliction, shame and death: ‘let not my
enemies exult over me’ (verse 2).
Punctuation
• Lack of commas between names to
show loss of individuality.
• Elipses…. The names go on and on….
• Rhetorical questions: How would you
prepare to die? Do you not consider
me?
• 4th stanza: no commas…horror runs into
the mundane
Shooting Stars
• Use of emotional and biblical diction to
show the cruelty of the Nazis and the
speaker’s plea to remember these
atrocities and for humankind to show
mercy.
• Duffy juxtaposes violent Imagery of The
Holocaust with the mundane to show the
indifference to human suffering.
“The world/turns in its sleep”
Warming Her Pearls Selling Manhattan.
Copyright © 1987
Annotate by self
• Box important images (simile,
metaphor, concrete images)
• Circle diction and Language that is
significant (word choice)
• Underline sounds (musical devices)
• Mark aspects of structure that seem
significant
Warming Her Pearls as group:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Title?
Structure?
Context ( topic common to writer?)
Speaker?
Literal meaning?
Deeper Meaning? (can fill this out later)
Identify poetic devices in assigned stanza
2. Structure
3. Language
3f. Images
4.Musical
Devices
From Duffy in The Guardian
Book Club Feb 2012
• It appears alongside "Warming Her Pearls", a lesbian
love poem in the voice of a lady's maid who fancies not
the mistress's pearls but the mistress herself. I think
what I was interested in at the time of writing these
poems was in finding a language and imagery for the
erotic and the hidden or secret. The pearls warmed by
the pining servant's skin are, of course, a metaphor for
her desire; but a poem is also like a pearl – a languagejewel provoked into existence by the grit of feeling or
revelation.
Terms
• Satire: A type of literature in which folly,
evil or topical issues are held up to scorn
through ridicule, irony or exaggeration.
• Euphemism: an inoffensive word or
phrase substituted for one considered
offensive or harmful.
Write thesis for poem
• How does author +verb+ lit. feature+ verb+lit.
effect + why.
• Example:
• Carol Ann Duffy uses a sarcastic tone and
humorous allusions to Aesop’s Fables to
show the wife’s discontent in her marraige
and to depict her husband as an unoriginal
bore.
Evidence for Thesis
• 5-8 items Author uses______to (show,
illustrate, portray)
– State line number say the line and explain how it
connects to thesis, or poem’s theme. ( “In line 6,
stanza 2 Duffy alludes to King Lear: say line”.)
– Explain the literary effect (“Duffy uses allusion in
stanza two in order to show the alienation of this
young man from his education.”)
– Move to next example
• Little Red Cap
Allusion: using an old literary character little girl, pawn,
victim. Here more realistic. What could happen. She can
take care of herself . Making fun…turning story on its head.
Reflection on marriage …loss of innocence. Broken away
from marriage. She saves herself. Bones… past oppression
of grandmother who was eaten, could not escape.
Short internal rhyme, similariteis to older fok story.
Rhyme…creepy images…foreshadowing
Structure: short pwerul phrases… she becomes the the
power.
Repetition of axe: to emphasize the oppression and her
breaking from it.
Allure of the wolf
Symbolism of the wolf: men house becomes a place where
women are subjugated by men.At childhoods end…end of
being safe
Allusion of original story, likes his appearance. She is on
the make.
Pawl Drawl: consonnance … internal rhyme. Pacing
increased…Heightens the emotions, emotion
attachement.
String of words…excitement
Third stanza of…metaphor into the tangled thorny place”
POETRY!!!Winged innoncences is now knowledge
books… repetition of words.
Allusion: a reference to another literary work, famous
person, myth, poem Childhoods end? Adolescent
First Stanza: long sentence. The edge of the town…the end
of childhood
Images: mmmmalliteration muted….soft sound…life is
sheltered.
Second stanza: Reading poetry. His maturity and
intelligence. Authority allusion to the original …She was
scared of the wolf in the original, here this is what attra ts
her. Internal line,,Rushed pacing…excitement
Third Stanza: my first: emphas on first “encounter”First
line: coloquial language. Informal…youth of speaker she is
defending the situation. Short sentences. Periods create
caesura.Poetry.
Terms
• Insult Poem: Poking fun at someone using exaggeration
(Sisyphus, Aesop)
• Satire: a piece of work that ridicules human Folly, evil or
a topical issue.
• Doggeral verse trite sentimental verse with forced
rhyme or rhythm to create comic effect. (Sisyphus)
• Revisionism:Rewriting well known text in which
character or plot is changed to challenge the original
view, or to present it with a different perspective.
Re-rendering of Fairy Tales
• Little Red-Cap takes on a feminist twist to
the original tale in which a young girl falls
victim to a predator.
• Here, Little Red-Cap initiates the
relationship with a “wolf” or older man for
the sexual experience, but also to be
introduced to the world of poetry.
• The poem serves as an metaphor for
female writers in a male world, finding
voice
Sound Device: consonance
• Consonant sound preceded by a
different vowel sound:
– Home, same/ worth, breath,
• Used to underscore emotion behind
words
• Gives poem a lyrical feel
• At times creates a certain beat
• Perk, shriek, cork, park, gawk,
(Sisyphus) contributes to angry tone.
Sound Device: assonance
• Repetition of vowel sounds in middle of
word
– Near rhyme
– Slow down the pace
– Creates mood, tone
Item: I gyve unto my wief my second best bed.”
(from Shakespeare's will)
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where he would dive for pearls. My lover's words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, now assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed
A page beneathhis writers’s hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love –
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed.
Anne Hathway -tribute poem
• Epigraph (best bed saved for guests)
• Sonnet: love poem
• Bed as metaphor for the marriage of love and
language
• Diction: lively words, spinning, dancing
– Create a cheerful tone, warm tone
• Sound: alliteration, assonance, consonance, iambic
pentameter
• Imagery: of language, of lovemaking
• Allusions to his play
• Lyrical voice of speaker-an equal match.
• Duffy uses imagery of writing and
lovemaking, lively diction, and iambic
pentameter to reveal the speaker’s love
and admiration for husband, William
Shakespeare.
Penelope
• At first,
– She looked for her husband, but by the
end she has found satisfaction in
independence
• Tapestry becomes a metaphor for her
life
• Concrete images throughout
• Use of color and sound that depicts
young life with Odysseus
• Irregular rhythm in 4th verse that is
suggestive of the picking apart what she
knitted at night
Penelope
• Alliteration line 25 of the l sound.
• Metaphor “loose gold stitching of sun”
– Sun setting on their relationship
– Beautiful lyrical image and sound supported
by alliteration sm0oth s sound
• of needle as weapon 44-45
Organize by features
• jI will discuss each feature and how they
are present in each stanza.
• My Thesis:
• In “The Dolphins” Duffy uses regular lined
structure, unusual syntax, repetition and
imagery of loss to create pathos for the
dolphins whose world has been reduced to
an artificial pool.
The Dolphins Organize by
features
Topic
Sentences
1 Syntax is irregular to show how their world has
been changed.,
– “World is what you live in.” The Object (world)
becomes the subject
– Short sentences =flat tone
2 Repetition is used to reinforce the loss of
freedom and repetitive nature of their captivity.
(world, man, space, blessed, disappeared)
– Reinforces the repetitive motion of
– swimming in circles
3 Imagery of loss is shown through concrete images
and metaphor
5. Additional features: assonance, sorrowful tone,
Activity
• 1. Meet in groups to discuss assigned poem
• 2. Identify poetic devices and how they are
used: what is their effect?
• 3. Come up with thesis statement
• Get with someone who has a different
poem and deliver a five minute oral.
– I will ring bell.
Practice Oral intro:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Intro
Title?
Structure?
Context ( topic common to writer?)
Speaker?
Literal meaning?
Deeper Meaning? (can fill this out later)
Thesis
Commentary:
–
–
–
–
Dramatic situation
Structure
Language
Musical devices
The Grammar of Light
• Rules of light. Light brings order to life just
as parts of speech bring order to language
The Grammar of Light: About the way light
defines and brings order to our lives
Moments of Grace: about time time and
memory. Discussion of senses and how they
pull us into the past, as well as bring us back
into the present…”Now I smell you peeling an
orange.:
Blessings and grace; religious diction to honor
those moments of memory and present time.
Exam on Monday
• As you enter you will draw your poem and show me your
stamped commentaries.
• You may start writing as soon as you sit down.
• You must finish by the end of the hour
• Staple your rubric to the front of essay and turn in.
• Bring a lap top if you want and share it with me on google
by the end of the period. Do not share it with me 1 or 2
hrs. after class.
• You may write in pencil, but please make sure it is dark
and easy to read. If I can’t read your writing you may lose
points.
Opening comments for Oral
• General comments of poem: Title, poet, context
(collection)
• Structure: Duffy uses…
• What is it about? Literal meaning
– Identify dramatic situation The speaker. Is it a dramatic
monolgue? Be clear with pronouns. She? Duffy? Or the
speaker
• Deeper meaning? Say one or two sentences here.
• Thesis
• Continue with analysis. Be sure to cite lines when you
discuss literary devices and their effects
approaches
1 Stanza by Stanza
2 Or by most obvious literary features in
poem stated in thesis
3 Or:(Dramatic situation, structure,
Language, musical devices)
• Make sure you are relating back to thesis,
literary effect and poet’s intent.
Evidence for Thesis
• 5-8 items Author uses______to (show,
illustrate, portray)
– State line number say the line and explain how it
connects to thesis, or poem’s theme. ( “In line 6,
stanza 2 Duffy alludes to King Lear: say line”.)
– Explain the literary effect (“Duffy uses allusion in
stanza two in order to show the alienation of this
young man from his education.”)
– Move to next example
Away And See
• With partner discuss the meaning of the poem
• What are the main literary features and how are
they used…to what effect?
• Class Discussion
• Title?
– imperative sentence. A command to travel, live life, embrace the
world and all the experience it has to offer
• What is it about?
– A parent telling a grown child to explore
• Speaker
– parent
• Structure?
– Five four lined stanzas. The last lines are four word commands to enjoy the world.
Use the senses, inhale the world she seems to be saying
• Context?
– As in the previous two poems, she honors the written word. She personifies
language giving it flight, giving words life.
• Literal meaning?
– clear
• Deeper meaning?
–
use the senses to interpret the world and words to express its abundence.
• Thesis: Duffy uses Repetition, imagery of the senses, and
personification to command us to embrace the gifts of the world.