Analyzing Poetry
“Poetry is nearer to vital truth
than history” (Plato)
And Dr. Seuss uses it, too!
Prose
The ordinary form of spoken or written
language, without metrical structure, as
distinguished from poetry or verse.
Prose is the form of written language that is
not organized according to formal patterns
of verse. It may have some sort of rhythm
and some devices of repetition and balance,
but these are not governed by regularly
sustained formal arrangement. The
significant unit is the sentence, not the line.
Hence it is represented without line breaks
in writing.
Novels, short stories, articles, works of
nonfiction
Poetry
The art of rhythmical composition, written or
spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful,
imaginative, or elevated thoughts.
Literary work in metrical form; verse.
Poetry is language spoken or written according
to some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes
relationships between words on the basis of
sound as well as meaning. This pattern is
almost always a rhythm or meter (regular
pattern of sound units). This pattern may be
supplemented by ornamentation such as rhyme
or alliteration or both.
Poetry project due April 21
This partner-optional project will challenge you to
use both your left and right sides of the brain. The
left side, which is analytical, tends to see
sequences, causes and effects, and differences.
The right side, however, looks for patterns,
emotions, images, analogies, and pictures.
For this assignment, you will select a poem that is
12-30 lines long from poetryoutloud.org. On a
sheet of tag board, you will arrange the poem and
poet in the center and arrange the right- and leftbrain parts around it.
The project will be worth 50 points. Please refer to
the below rubric as you construct your project.
The assignment is due Thursday, April 21, in the
library (do not bring it to 259 on that day).
Left-Brain Components
Left-brain components include the
following: an analysis of the poem
(see sample on page 7 and TPCASTT explanation in packet), five
key facts about the poet that are
phrases IN YOUR OWN WORDS
(give credit for this information) and
three defined words (more credit).
Submit all three parts to turnitin.com.
Right-Brain Components
Right-brain components consist of
images from the poem and
connections to your life (films, songs,
or literature the poem reminds you of;
colors; reactions; your original efforts
inspired by the poem you’ve chosen.
These should not just be images
printed off the Internet. Be creative!
Vary textures, colors, shapes, sizes.
Poetry Project Rubric (Remember that the
analysis must be submitted to turnitin.com, and
the key facts need documentation!
See rubric for expectations
Use a flat piece of tag board (2 x 3 feet)
Use a variety of textures and colors (unless
black and white for artistic effect)
Do not roll up the project to bring to school
(please keep flat)
Begin in the middle and work your way to
the edges
Document your sources—OR NO CREDIT.
Rhythm in Poetry
While not all poetry has rhyme,
rhythm, or both, some does.
The basic “beat” of poetry is called a
FOOT.
A foot could have one, two, or three
syllables. Only one syllable is
stressed for each foot.
A stressed syllable = /
An unstressed syllable = U
Rhythm devices with three syllables
Anapestic: three-syllable foot
made of two unstressed syllables
followed by a stressed syllable. An
example of this would be
comprehend (com-pre-HEND).
Hmmm…how would Dr. Seuss
handle the anapestic foot?
If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss
U U / U U
/
"So I'd open each cage.
U U / U U /
I'd unlock every pen.
U U / U U /
Let the animals go
U U / U U /
And start over again."
Rhythm devices with three syllables
Dactylic: three-syllable foot made of a
stressed syllable followed by two
unstressed syllables. An example of
this would be merrily (MER-ri-ly).
This is like the waltz beat: ONE two
three, ONE two three (think
pterodactyl doing the waltz)
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
/ U U / U U /
U U /
"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees."
Rhythm devices with two syllables
Iambic: two-syllable foot made of an
unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable. An example of this
would be regard (re-GARD).
Shakespeare used this, and so did
Robert Frost. What about Dr. Seuss?
U / U /
U
/
U /
“I do not like green eggs and ham.
U / U /
U
/ U /
I do not like them, Sam I Am."
Rhythmic devices with two syllables
Trochaic: two-syllable foot made of a
stressed syllable followed by an
unstressed one. Think Poe's The
Raven! An example would be raven
(RAV-en).
So Poe liked this. Did Dr. Seuss?
What do YOU think?
/
U
/
U
/
U
/
U
"One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.."
Name the rhythmic device
“And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.”
Anapestic
U U /
U U / U U / U U /
“And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street.”
Name that rhythmic device
“I saw a pair of pale green pants
With nobody inside them.”
Iambic
U / U / U /
U
/
I saw a pair of pale green pants
Name the TWO rhythmic devices
“Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee,
Where the cotton blooms and blows”
Iambic and anapestic
U
/
U /
U U
/
U /
Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee
Name the rhythmic device
“Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forest of the night!”
Trochaic
/ U / U / U /
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright!
Name the rhythmic device
Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures,
What a wild crowd of invisible pleasures!
Anapestic
/ U U / U U
/
U U / U
Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures
What’s a foot in poetry?
The number of stressed beats in a line of
poetry is a foot. Most poems have more
than one foot per line:
Dimeter (two beats)
Trimeter (three beats)
Tetrameter (four beats) Green Eggs and Ham by Seuss
Pentameter (five beats)—SHAKESPEARE!
Hexameter (six beats)
Septameter (seven beats)
Octameter (eight beats)—”The Raven” by Poe
How many feet in these lines?
Robert Service’s “The Cremation of Sam McGee”:
Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”:
Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me.
Robert Browning’s “The Laboratory”:
Had I but all of them, thee and thy treasures.
Dr. Seuss’ The Sneetches:
Now the star-bellied Sneetches had bellies with stars,
But the plain-bellied Sneetches had none upon thars.
William Blake’s “The Tyger”:
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night
SOUND DEVICES--what helps
with rhyme? sound pictures?
Alliteration: Repetition of initial sounds of
words in a row. Example: Peter Piper
picked a peck of pickled peppers. (Of
course, alliteration is not always so
concentrated)
Assonance: Repetition of internal vowel
sounds of words close together in poetry.
Example: I made my way to the lake.
Consonance: Repetition of internal or
ending consonant sounds of words close
together in poetry. Example: I dropped the
locket in the thick mud.
Onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their
meaning. Example: splash, boom, whizz
Rhyme
True rhyme: words that rhyme with all
ending sounds: Example: trouble and
bubble.
Sight rhyme: words that look alike but do
not rhyme. Example: though and bough;
good and food
End rhyme: words that rhyme and occur at
the ends of different lines of poetry
Internal rhyme: two words that rhyme
within one line of poetry
ex. “We were the first that ever burst”
Rhyme Scheme:
the pattern of rhyme in a poem. To get the
rhyme scheme, each line in the poem is
assigned a letter. The first line gets an "A".
If the next line rhymes with the first, give it
an "A" also. If not, give it a "B". Continue
throughout the poem, following the same
rules: if the end word rhymes with anything
before, match that letter. If not, give it the
next unused letter of the alphabet.
“Alone” by Edgar Allen Poe
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
a
a
b
b
c
c
d
d
What is the scansion (type of rhythm and number
of feet)?
Iambic tetrameter
Beyond simile, metaphor,
hyperbole, and personification
Apostrophe Words that are spoken to a person who is
absent or imaginary, or to an object or abstract idea. The
poem "God's World" by Edna St. Vincent Millay begins with
an apostrophe: “O World, I cannot hold thee close
enough!/Thy winds, thy wide grey skies!/Thy mists that roll
and rise!”
Conceit A fanciful poetic image that likens one thing to
something else that is seemingly very different. An example
of a conceit can be found in Shakespeare's sonnet “Shall I
compare thee to a summer's day?” and in Emily Dickinson's
poem “There is no frigate like a book.”
Litotes A figure of speech in which a positive is stated by
negating its opposite. Some examples of litotes: no small
victory, not a bad idea, not unhappy. Litotes is the opposite
of hyperbole.
Metonymy A figure of speech in which one word
is substituted for another with which it is closely
associated. For example, in the expression The
pen is mightier than the sword, the word pen is
used for “the written word,” and sword is used for
“military power.”
Synecdoche A figure of speech in which a part is
used to designate the whole or the whole is used
to designate a part. For example, the phrase “all
hands on deck” means “all men on deck,” not just
their hands. The reverse situation, in which the
whole is used for a part, occurs in the sentence
“The U.S. beat Russia in the final game,” where
the U.S. and Russia stand for “the U.S. team” and
“the Russian team,” respectively.
Which type of figurative language?
"for life's not a paragraph
and death I think is no parenthesis" (e.e. cummings).
“I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (T.S. Eliot)
“But the hand!
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling” (Robert Frost)
“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are”
(Mother Goose)
“This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is” (John
Donne).
TPCASTT: A way to analyze poetry
Title
Paraphrase
Connotation
Attitude
Shifts
Title
Theme
Title
Ponder the title before reading the poem.
Make up questions about the title. There
are two kinds of titles: interactive titles and
naming titles. Interactive titles are have
some sort of interplay with poem itself and
can affect its meaning. Naming titles may
give less crucial information. If a poem
lacks a title, you can do this step with the
first line of the poem or skip it.
Paraphrase
Translate the poem into your own
words. And I mean translate! Word for
word! Find synonyms for every
possible word. Summarizing is NOT
paraphrasing (see page 7 of the
packet for a sample).
Connotation
Contemplate the poem for meaning
beyond the literal. Identify and figure
out the figurative language. Look for
symbols and conceits (extended
metaphors). Here also is where you
will examine the form (rhythmic
devices, for example).
Attitude
After identifying a subject/topic of the
poem, figure out how the speaker
(and/or the poet) feels about it.
Look at word choice. Is the diction
formal or informal?
Look at tone. Is the poem ironic?
Don’t assume the speaker and the
poet are the same. Who is the
narrator of the poem? Male or
female? Young or old?
Shifts
Note transitions in the poem. Shifts in
subject, attitude, or mood. Look for
words like but or then.
Look at the punctuation, like
questions and answers
Look for a change in verb tense (said
to says) or person ( I to you, or I to he
or she?)
Look for a change in time
Title (second time)
Examine the title again, this time on
an interpretive level. Answer your
questions. Figure out how the title
illuminates the poem. Remember a
"naming title" may not mean much.
Remember you can do this with the
first line of a poem if it lacks a title or
you can skip this step altogether.
Theme (NOT A MORAL!)
After identifying a subject/topic of the
poem, determine what the poet thinks
about the subject. What is the poet
saying about life? Remember, it
cannot be a command (no bossing
the reader).
Theme: Imagination can be powerful.
Moral: Let your child daydream.
Sample paraphrase—no figurative
language allowed—and no big words!
I enjoy seeing it drink up the miles and use
its tongue to consume the valleys. Then it
pauses to eat at a watering tank. After that
it takes a gigantic step around some
mountains while haughtily peeking into
some crudely built huts on the roadsides.
It slices through an open pit of rocks just
enough to squeeze itself through. It
complains constantly with a repetitive
sound and then speeds down the hill,
making a thunderous noise. Right on time
it stops, nicely and powerfully, at its shed.
Sample connotation—analyze!
“I Like To See It Lap the Miles” is an extended metaphor
because the train is compared to a horse. In fact, train engines
were referred to as “iron horses,” which is probably where
Dickinson got the idea for this poem. The feeding tanks are
the water and coal needed to fuel the engine, the complaints
and neighs are the sounds a train makes as it goes up and
down hills or toots its whistle. The “stable door” is the station.
In order to make the engine seem like a living creature,
Dickinson uses personification. A train engine does not have
a tongue, so it can’t “lap the Miles” or “lick the Valleys up.” It
doesn’t have a mouth or stomach, so it could not “feed itself at
Tanks.” The language gives the engine many attributes of a
horse: mouth, stomach, eyes, legs, and vocal chords.
Dickinson also uses an allusion in the phrase “neigh like
Boanerges.” Boanerges means “son of thunder” and is what
Jesus called James and John, the sons of Zebedee, in the New
Testament.
Besides imagery, the poet uses sound devices. The second
and fourth lines of each verse either rhyme or have near
rhyme: “up” and “step,” “Star” and “door.” The entire poem
is iambic, with the first and third lines in tetrameter and the
second and fourth lines in trimeter. Dickinson also uses
alliteration: “like to see it lap” and “horrid—hooting.”
Sample attitude
The speaker of the poem seems to be a
child with a good imagination. Many of the
words are simple, though “supercilious,”
“prodigious,” “Boanerges” and “omnipotent”
require most people to find a dictionary.
Still, a child growing up in a religious
household in the nineteenth century would
have been familiar with these words. The
speaker may have been describing this
scene to a friend or to a parent—or may
have simply been wondering aloud.
Sample shift
The poet uses "then" four times.
Each time the train stops what it has
been doing and begins another
activity. This is similar to the many
stops a train makes during the day.
In fact, steam engines had to stop
every seven miles, which is why so
many towns in rural areas are only
seven miles apart.
Sample theme
The theme seems to be the power of
imagination or wonder of a child.
Just as the speaker is able to
compare a steam engine to a horse,
children have the capability of
pretending that one object is really
something else.