Theodore Roethke
(1908-1963)
Doyle Thibert
Elegy for Jane
Jeff
Carman
The Far Field
I Knew A
Woman
How to read literature
And Why it is important.
Illustrating the impact of the literature on culture, society,
and the individual.
• Figurative
•
•
•
•
•
Language
Structure
Who is the speaker
Diction
Imagery
Other Aural and
Visual Details
• Archetypes
• Symbolism
• Metaphor
• Influence
• Personification
• Why
Elegy for Jane
(1953)
I Knew a Woman
(1954)
The Far Field
(1964)
1. How to read literature
O Figurative language
O The use of words that go beyond their
ordinary meaning. It requires you to use your
imagination to figure out the author's
meaning.
Structure
O Literary devices:
O What kind of figurative language is the poem using—
for example,
O simile, metonymy, hyperbole, apostrophe, or conceit?
What about symbolism or literary
O allusions?
O Other aural and visual details: What about
punctuation? When read aloud, do the
O sounds of the words contribute to the poem’s
meaning?
Who is the speaker?
O What is the structure
of the poem? Two of
the most important
features to note here
are
O stanza and meter
form.
O What, primarily, is the
poem about, and how
do you know that?
O Does the poem fall
into an identifiable
subgenre—for
example, is it a
sonnet, ballad,
O haiku, or dramatic
monologue?
Diction (word choice):
O Why has the poet
chosen these
particular words?
O What words might
have used instead,
and why were they
rejected in favor of
others?
Imagery:
O What images does
O How has the poet
the poem evoke?
O How are they
evoked?
placed them?
O How do different
images connect or
contrast with one
another?
Other aural and visual details:
O What about punctuation?
O When read aloud, do the
O sounds of the words contribute to the
poem’s meaning?
Archetypes.
(also called prototype)
O The original model or pattern from which
copies are made or from which something
develops.
O It is also a symbol, theme, setting, or
character that is thought to have some
universal meaning and recurs in different
times and places in myth, literature, folklore,
dreams, and rituals.
Symbolism:
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1. The practice of representing things by means of symbols or of
attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or
relationships.
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2. A system of symbols or representations.
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3. A symbolic meaning or representation.
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4. Revelation or suggestion of intangible conditions or truths by
artistic invention.
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5. Symbolism The movement, theory, or practice of the late 19thcentury Symbolists.
Metaphor:
O A figure of speech in which an implicit
comparison is made between two unlike
things that actually have something in
common.
O "The [first thing] is a [second thing].“
example: Her home was a prison.
Influence:
O A power affecting a person, thing, or course
of events, especially one that operates
without any direct or apparent effort:
O Most poems or poets derive from influence,
even their own.
Personification
O A figure of speech in which an inanimate
object or abstraction is endowed with
human qualities or abilities.
O Examples: The radio sprang to life at the
touch of a button.
The wind whispered softly in the night.
Why Should we read?
O · The United States ranks fifth on adult literacy skills when
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compared to other industrialized nations.
Adult low literacy can be connected to almost every socioeconomic issue in the United States:
More than 65 percent of all state and federal corrections
inmates can be classified as low literate.
Low health literacy costs between $106 billion and $236
billion each year in the U.S.
Seventy-seven million Americans have only a 2-in-3 chance
of correctly reading an over-the-counter drug label or
understanding their child's vaccination chart.
Low literacy’s effects cost the U.S. $225 billion or more
each year in non-productivity in the workforce, crime, and
loss of tax revenue due to unemployment.
Demonstrating an understanding and
appreciation for one major writer, work,
genre, literary theory, or literary movement
Is not hard when you follow these steps.
References
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http://voices.yahoo.com/analyzing-theodore-roethkes-knew-woman-1295869.html?cat=38
http://www.helium.com/items/1708051-analysis-of-theodore-roethkes-poem-i-knew-a-woman
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/172104
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/theodore-roethke
http://www.dobhran.com/Roethke.htm
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/roethke/bio.htm
http://www.proliteracy.org/page.aspx?pid=345
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:LsSyDPn4q9gJ:uwp.duke.edu/uploads/assets/poetry.pdf+wha
ts+structure+poem&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESghGmeaKXz4gogKAtfj-u7EHVWGldPMyzU4LzSJjNZaHA0YPlTrHT8S0SE4ARHaEouWgYQjlWo94YqFlAYmju2A0pRG44GI2DLA910oCheRulHGTOmhtiFME_N8Pc3x
XFoq3Qe&sig=AHIEtbRHs5Y2RYZP_4rbnKDqZbMYXlHv5A