Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Poetry Analysis
Poetry is one of the most difficult genres to understand. Every word counts and every image has limitless
possibilities. While no one system of analysis has all the answers, the TP-CASTT system devised by the
College Board offers a tool for entering a poem, understanding its parts, and internalizing its significance
to the human experience.
Title -
Ponder the title before reading the poem.
Paraphrase -
Translate the poem into your own words.
Clever Language -
Contemplate the poem for meaning beyond the literal.
Attitude and Audience Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitude (tone).
Speaker
Identify the speaker and his/her audience
Shifts -
Note shifts in speakers and in attitudes.
Title -
Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level.
Theme -
Determine the poet’s message about what it means to be human.
1. The initial look at the title can be misleading. Sometimes the title can be ironic or contain levels of
meaning beyond the obvious, but the first impressions offer a starting place for interpretation.
2. Paraphrasing will help solidify the literal, an aspect often ignored by the student. Actually translate
the poem line by line into your own words. If the stanza’s meaning is obvious a sentence or two may be
enough. This step is easy to skip because it is difficult to do, but it is crucial to forming more in depth
understandings.
3. Connotation is where all those literary devices and terms come into play. Look for metaphor, simile,
alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, and the list goes on......After identifying these elements,
contemplate how these devices of language create meaning. Does more than one level of meaning exist?
4. After examining closely the connotative language, look for the speaker’s attitude. Ask if the attitude
shifts and how it affects the theme (meaning).
5. Look for all kinds of shifts: place, characters, diction, structure (line/stanza length), key words (but,
yet, however, although), punctuation, sound, images. Rarely does a poem end at the same place it begins.
Shifts show gradual realizations of what it means to be human.
6. At this point look again at the title, this time for subtle, ironic, or multiple meanings.
7. Now that the parts have been examined, put them together. What is the theme (meaning). Ask how
the theme sheds light on the human experience.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Wordsworth Presentation

Students had their classmates finger paint three paintings as they listened
to three popular songs chosen for their relation to the poetry.

Presenters put overheads of the poems on the overhead and students
guessed which songs went with which poems.
o “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” – Cranberries, “Daffodil Lament”
o “O Gentle Sleep” – The Zombies
o “The World is Too Much With Us” - – Tracy Chapman, “The Rape of
the World”
Other Fun Poetry Activities:

Read arounds of student poetry – no pressure

Bring in the world’s best and worst poetry

Coffee House

Poetry Club with the Jazz Band

Act out a poem to an instrumental

Magnetic Poetry

Go outside for 3 minutes, listen to sounds, return to classroom. List 4
sounds on quadrants of paper. For each sound add 1) color 2) male/female
object 3) object in the room 4) season. Then choose 2 words with a
relationship to build a poem.

Holler Back Poem – Instead of a reader response, have students write a
rebuttal poem.

Cut Shakespeare’s sonnets into individual lines and have them
reassemble.

Write a poem in response to a work of art.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Symbols
Three Categories:
Archetypal – The first symbols of humankind that have replicated themselves in stories throughout the
ages and across all cultures. They appear in the stories of groups from cavemen to 21 st century authors.
The term “archetype:” was coined by Carl Jung who used them as the basis of “collective unconscious”
theory.
Cultural – As cultural groups use archetypal symbols to represent their values, fears, beliefs, and
expectations, these objects take on meaning specific to that group. For example, the cross is an ancient
archetypal symbol. When cultural groups adopt it, the meanings become both universal and specific. For
most cultures the cross holds spiritual significance; hence its archetypal meaning. For the Christians the
cross takes on specific representation of Christ’s crucifixion.
Nuance – These objects take on symbolic meaning in the work in which they appear. Modern writers
often create their own symbols by repeatedly using the object in meaningful ways. For example, Golding
uses the conch shell to represent order and governmental control. Orwell uses a paper weight to
represent the doomed relationship between Julia and Winston.
Notable Archetypal Symbols, Characters, and Story Patterns:
Characters:
Hero (Epic, Classical, Romantic, Realistic, Anti-Hero), Outcast, Scapegoat, Trickster, Platonic Ideal,
Monster, Temptress, Star-crossed lovers, Clown/Jester, and the Prophet.
Story Patterns:
Rite of Passage/Initiation, Creation, Fall, Expulsion, Death and Rebirth, Journey, and, Quest
Symbols (Archetypal symbols have a dual nature and are often objects that we find in nature):
Water, Fire, Wind, Earth, All Colors, Snakes, Birds/Flight, Trees, Gold, Iron, Silver, Sun, Moon, Cross, the
Four Seasons
Why study myth and symbols?


They enrich our encounters with art and literature as we discover the layers of meaning they hold.
We understand the values of cultures different from our own and at the same time discover the
universality of the human experience.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Can we read too much into symbolism?

Absolutely. If interpretations don’t make sense in the context of the work as a whole, we are
probably stretching.
Do authors intentionally use symbols?

The question is moot. An author’s work takes on a life of its own after it is created. The message
it communicates succeeds or fails as audiences encounter it. If the archetypes and symbols
communicate with others, then the author has created a work that is not only his/her property, but
also that of the reader/viewer. That said, most artists are familiar with symbols and their
traditional meanings. Whether they emerge from the subconscious or intentionally doesn’t really
matter.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Poetry Review
Today in order to prepare for the poetry parts of the AP Exam, you will work with some older
poets. Those seem to be causing the most trouble on our practice exams. All work should be
completed today. One of the skills we need to work on is speed in analyzing poetry. Another is
articulating “how the poem means,” in other words what literary devices and rhetorical strategies
does the poet use?
1. You have been divided into groups and assigned a poet. Get a Dover edition book for that
poet and choose as a group one poem of at least 30 lines.
2. As a group analyze the poem for its thematic meaning. You might consider using TP CASTT
or SOAPSTones if you are at a loss as to where to begin. Whatever method you choose your
final analysis should include the literal meaning of the poem, the theme, the tone, and a list of
devices used along with the lines (write them out please) in which they occur.
3. After your group has a solid understanding of the poem, write five good AP type multiple
choice questions and an essay prompt for the work.
4. Next you should find a picture that represents the essence of the poem. You may use the
internet, one of the art books in the room, or one that you draw. If you choose to draw a picture,
art materials are in the tall cabinet.
5. Finally, as a group write a parody of the poem using the theme and/or form as a reference
point. I don’t expect prize winners, but rather evidence that you have internalized the poem
enough to allude to it in a sustained way.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
American Poetry Project
Assignment: You will choose a poet from the list of American poets and research that poet’s
life, works, and criticism. Beginning May 10th, you will present your poet to the class for
consideration as the next American Poet Laureate. Your final project and presentation will
include the following:
 a title page appropriate for that poet
 a bibliography of the poet’s works
 a timeline of poem publication and the historical events in the author’s life
 a general introduction to the poet’s writing (one to two pages)
 a collection of 15 poems from that poet
 five poems of the 15 analyzed in the TPCASTT format
 five poems of the fifteen with explications of your own for each poem
 two poems with a combined written analysis including criticism, parenthetical documentation,
and a works cited page
 an annotated bibliography of five literary criticisms about that poet (or if enough criticism is
not available: five additional poems with explications)
 a final works cited for the whole project
 an overhead transparency of at least one poem to be discussed during your presentation in
which you discuss why your chosen poet demonstrates the qualities of the American Poet
Laureate
For each class, one 2002-2003 Junior Class American Poet Laureate will be chosen. Class vote,
based upon strength and persuasion of the presentation, will determine the winner for that class.
Extra credit will be awarded for this honor.
Necessary Information: All projects are due May 13. Extra credit will be awarded for presenting
on May 10. Only one person per poet. You must sign up for your poet with me.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Modernist Poetry
Student Led Lessons
Laurence Perrine suggests, “People have read poetry or listened to it or recited it because they liked it, because it
gave them enjoyment. But this is not the whole answer. Poetry in all ages has been regarded as important, not
simply as one of several alternative forms of amusement, as one person might choose bowling, another chess, and
another poetry. Rather, it has been regarded as something central to existence, something having unique value to the
fully realized life, something that we are better off for having and without which we are spiritually impoverished.”
John Ciardi writes, “Everyone who has an emotion and a language knows something about poetry. What he knows
may not be much on an absolute scale, and it may not be organized within him in a useful way, but once he
discovers the pleasure of poetry, he is likely to be surprised to discover how much he always knew without knowing
he knew it. He may discover, somewhat as the character in the French play discovered to his amazement that he had
been talking prose all his life, that he had been living poetry. Poetry, after all, is about life. Anyone who is alive
and conscious must have some information about it.”
Your group will teach assigned poems by one of the major modernist poets: Hardy, Eliot, Yeats, Lawrence, Auden,
and D. Thomas
These presentations should capture both the life of the poetry as well as the art of it.
Your group will be responsible for teaching a poem by your assigned poet for one-half of a regular class period. We
will cover two poets on each of the next three Fridays: March 7, 14 and 21.
Remember that a good presentation has variety, audience involvement, and substantive material. You will not
receive higher than a “C” if you tell the class what the poem means! If group members are absent, the show will go
on!
Presentations should include:
a) Music that enhances meaning and copies of sufficient lyrics to understand meaning
b) Art work that augments meaning
c) Vocabulary
d) Activities that engage the audience
e) Selected biographical details
Your audience should have an understanding of:
a) Theme
b) Tone (Attitude)
c) Language Devices (please include sound devices)
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
d) Historical background
e) Syntax
March 7 – Hardy and Yeats
March 14 – Lawrence and Eliot
March 21 – D. Thomas and Auden
Hardy “The Man He Killed”
Yeats “Sailing to Byzantium
Lawrence “Snake”
Eliot “The Journey of the Magi”
Thomas “Do not Go Gentle Into that Good Night
Auden “Musee des Beaux Arts”
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Form Follows Function - Shakespearean Sonnets
Directions: Using you knowledge of sonnet forms and your extensive understanding of poetic
devices, unlock Shakespeare’s theme in each of the following sonnets. Then answer the
questions that follow each sonnet.
XXIX.
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
1. What noteworthy syntax, diction, or literary devices does this poem contain?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
2. How do the quatrains and couplet relate to one another?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
3. Write a sentence that encapsulates both the theme and tone of this sonnet.
____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
XXX.
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
4. What noteworthy syntax, diction, or literary devices does this poem contain?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
5. How do the quatrains and couplet relate to one another?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
6. Write a sentence that encapsulates both the theme and tone of this sonnet.
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
CXXX.
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
7. What noteworthy syntax, diction, or literary devices does this poem contain?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
8. How do the quatrains and couplet relate to one another?
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
9. Write a sentence that encapsulates both the theme and tone of this sonnet.
_______________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Approaches to Writing About Poetry
1. Read the poem aloud two or three times. Remember that poetry is to be read aloud for its fullest
effect. Experiment with sounds, tone, loudness, emphasis of different words, rate of reading, etc.
Note how different readings affect the meaning of the poem.
2. First writing on the poem: Reflect on your feelings about the poem.
a. Write down some specific things you like and explain.
b. Write down some specific things you did not like and explain.
3. Second writing on the poem: Paraphrase the poem. Look up all the words that you do not know.
4. Third writing on the poem: Find the most striking use of language. This might include such things
as:
a. Sounds of words such as vowel sounds, flow, harshness of the utterance, the interplay of one
syllable on another.
b. Double meanings, puns, words that relate to theme, repetitions, etc.
c. Rhythm of the words in a line.
5. Fourth writing on the poem: Elaborate on the images. Write freely about each set of images. Begin
with each of the five senses and see if there are images that respond to statements that begin:
a. I see...
b. I feel...
c. I hear...
d. I taste...
e. I smell...
Or you can might create a chart that delineates which image appeals to which sense.
6. Fifth writing on the poem: Look at the structure and the form of the poem. What strikes you? How
does the structure (how the poem is built) and the form contribute to its meaning.
7. Read carefully what you have just written, then write a one sentence assertion about the poem. This
is you THESIS STATEMENT.
NOW YOU ARE READY TO WRITE YOUR PAPER
INTRODUCTION
1. The introduction should include the thesis, title of poem and the poet’s name.
2. It should acclimate the reader to what to expect.
3. It should have a strong personal voice and be of interest to the audience. Avoid: “I think,” “I
believe,” “I feel,” and “I am going to prove to you.”
BODY
1. Group(Classify or Categorize) your discoveries from the prewriting stage.
2. Note how you can group ideas most effectively:
a. element by element: images, sounds, figurative language such as simile, metaphor,
personification, and structure of the poem.
b. dominant impressions or feelings: coldness or hardness or stiffness or loneliness or wetness or
hollowness...
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
3. Structure of the poem such as in the case of the sonnet would be an interesting approach. For
example, if it is an Italian sonnet, note the octave and sestet. If an Elizabethan sonnet, note the three
quatrains and the couplet.
4. Always use details from the poem to support your ideas. These details are such things as words,
lines, sounds in the poem, etc. Integrate the quotations smoothly within the text. Keep quotations as
spare and concise as possible.
CONCLUSIONS:
1. All of the elements must be brought together in a judgment of the work. No literary work can be
studied if it is divorced from the human and social context in which it was created.
2. A reference should be made to your thesis. The connection may be direct or it may be implied.
3. Some connection of the poem to life, some link between the specific ideas of the poem and universal
ideas that concern all men is also appropriate. Note: Do not be didactic: Poems do not usually teach
us anything; they do provide us with an insight into our lives and at the same time give us an aesthetic
experience.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Sound in Poetry
“The measure is English Heroic Verse without rime, as that of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin;
Rime being no necessary Adjunct or true Ornament of Poem and of good Verse, in longer Works
especially... Not without cause therefore some both Italian and Spanish Poets of prime note have rejected
Rime both in longer and shorter Works, as have also long since our best English Tragedies.”
Milton
“True musical delight in poetry consists in apt Numbers, fit quantity of Syllables, and the sense variously
drawn out from one Verse into another, not in the jingling sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the
Learned Ancients both in Poetry and all good Oratory.”
Milton
Poe said that poetry is “music combined with a pleasurable idea.”
Poets use sound in their works both produce an auditory response and to enhance meaning. Good poets
achieve both goals simultaneously by the choice and arrangement of sounds and by the arrangement of
accents (meter).
“This occasional variation number of syllables is not introduced wantonly or for the mere ends of
convenience, but in correspondence with some transition in the nature of imagery or passion.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Arrangement of Sounds – Look for repetition and variation. All art is based on these two components. Repetition
saves us from chaos and bewilderment; while variation saves us from boredom.
Effects of Repetition:
1. Pleasing to the ear
2. Emphasizes the repeated word
3. Gives structure to the poem
Methods of repetition:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Alliteration – Repetition of initial consonant sounds
Assonance – Repetition of vowel sounds
Consonance – Repetition of consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of the word
Rhyme – Repetition of accented vowel sounds and all succeeding sounds
Masculine Rhyme – When only one syllable rhymes, Ex: decks and sex or support and retort
Feminine Rhyme – When the rhyme sounds involve tow or more syllables, Ex: Turtle and Fertile
Internal Rhyme – When one or more words are within the line
End Rhyme – When the rhyming words are at the ends of lines.
Slant Rhyme ( Approximate) – When sounds are similar but not perfectly repeated
Sound and Meaning – The sound of letters and words can connote meaning
Methods of creating sounds:
1. Onomatopoeia - Word that supposedly sound like what they mean, Ex: Swish, Boom, Hiss
2. Phonetic Intensives – Sound of letter may connect with the meaning of the word or passage
An initial Fl – Associated with moving light, as in flame, flare, flash, flicker, flimmer
An initial gl - Also associated with moving light, glare, gleam, glint, glow, glisten
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
An initial sl – Often introduces words meaning “smoothly wet,” as in slippery, slick, slide, slime,
slop, slosh, slobber, slushy
An initial st – Suggests strength, as in staunch, stalwart, stout, sturdy, stable, steady, stocky, stern,
strong, stubborn, steel
A short I - Often associated with the idea of smallness, as in inch, imp, thin, slim, little, bit chip,
sliver, chink, slit, sip, whit, title, snip, wink, glint, glimmer, flicker, pigmy, midge, chick, kid, kitten,
minikin, miniature
A long O or OO – May suggest melancholy or sorrow, as in moan, groan, woe, mourn, forlorn, toll,
doom, gloom, moody
A final –atter – Suggests some kind of particled movement, as in spatter, scatter, shatter, chatter,
rattle, prattle, clatter
A final – er and – le – Suggests repetition, as in flutter, glitter, shimmer, whisper, jabber, chatter,
clatter, sputter, flicker, twitter, mutter, and ripple, bubble, twinkle, sparkle, rattle, rumble, jingle
A ck – Indicates a cessation of movement, as in crack, peck, pick, hack, and flick
3. Sounds grouped by effect (euphonious or cacophonous)
Vowels are in general more pleasing than the consonants, for the vowels are the musical tones, whereas
the consonants are merely noises. A line with a high percentage of vowel sounds in proportion to
consonant sounds will therefore tend to be more melodious than one in which the proportion is low. The
vowels and consonants themselves differ considerably in quality.
Long vowels are more resonant than short ones
Some consonants are melodic: Liquid consonants l, m, n, and r; Soft s, v, f, w, and y; Combinations
such th, sh, and wh
Plosive consonants are harsh: b, d, g, k, p, and t
Sibilant sounds produce a hissing
4. Good writers mix sounds for both pleasing effects and meaning. Analyze the sounds found in
the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice. How do they add to the meaning of both the sentence
and the novel?
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
Jane Austen
Analyze the sound devices in the famous sentence above. How to the devices help create ironic
meaning and an amused tone?
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Metaphysical Poetry
John Donne, along with similar but distinct poets such as George Herbert, Andrew
Marvell, and Henry Vaughn, developed a poetic style in which philosophical and spiritual
subjects were approached with reason and often concluded in paradox. This group of
writers established meditation—based on the union of thought and feeling sought after in
Jesuit Ignatian meditation—as a poetic mode.
The metaphysical poets were eclipsed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by
romantic and Victorian poets, but twentieth century readers and scholars, seeing in the
metaphysicals an attempt to understand pressing political and scientific upheavals,
engaged them with renewed interest. In his essay "The Metaphysical Poets," T. S. Eliot, in
particular, saw in this group of poets a capacity for "devouring all kinds of experience."
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5662
Useful Concepts:
1. Syllogism – a three part argument consisting of a major premise, minor premise, and a
conclusion. You can use the syllogism to construct a thesis or an argument. All syllogism
are faulty and can be argued. Example:
Major Premise: Fourth quarter seniors should put friends before school.
Minor Premise: It is now fourth quarter.
Conclusion: Friends come first.
The reasons you use to justify your syllogism become your textual support. They do,
however, usually have counterarguments that you need to weigh.
 Reason: We are already in college
Counter: College Admission is conditional or college is not the end game
 Reason: This is the last time we will be with our friends
Counter: You can be with friends and still do school work. You have done so for 13
years
2. Augustan Concepts of Love
 Erotic – Selfish
 Agape – Selfish and Selfless
 Platonic - Selfless
3. Metaphysical Conceit - An elaborate or unusual comparison--especially one using unlikely
metaphors, simile, hyperbole, and contradiction. Before the beginning of the seventeenth
century, the term conceit was a synonym for "thought" and roughly equivalent to "idea" or
"concept." It gradually came to denote a fanciful idea or a particularly clever remark. In
literary terms, the word denotes a fairly elaborate figure of speech, especially an extended
comparison involving unlikely metaphors, similes, imagery, hyperbole, and oxymora. . . A
conceit is usually classified as a subtype of metaphor.
http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_C.html#conceit_anchor
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
THE FLEA.
by John Donne
MARK but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deniest me is ;
It suck'd me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be.
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead ;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two ;
And this, alas ! is more than we would do.
O stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is.
Though parents grudge, and you, we're met,
And cloister'd in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
Cruel and sudden, hast thou since
Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?
Wherein could this flea guilty be,
Except in that drop which it suck'd from thee?
Yet thou triumph'st, and say'st that thou
Find'st not thyself nor me the weaker now.
'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,
Will waste, as this flea's death took life from thee.
THE INDIFFERENT.
by John Donne
I CAN love both fair and brown ;
Her whom abundance melts, and her whom want betrays ;
Her who loves loneness best, and her who masks and plays ;
Her whom the country form'd, and whom the town ;
Her who believes, and her who tries ;
Her who still weeps with spongy eyes,
And her who is dry cork, and never cries.
I can love her, and her, and you, and you ;
I can love any, so she be not true.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Will no other vice content you ?
Will it not serve your turn to do as did your mothers ?
Or have you all old vices spent, and now would find out others ?
Or doth a fear that men are true torment you ?
O we are not, be not you so ;
Let me—and do you—twenty know ;
Rob me, but bind me not, and let me go.
Must I, who came to travel thorough you,
Grow your fix'd subject, because you are true ?
Venus heard me sigh this song ;
And by love's sweetest part, variety, she swore,
She heard not this till now ; and that it should be so no more.
She went, examined, and return'd ere long,
And said, "Alas ! some two or three
Poor heretics in love there be,
Which think to stablish dangerous constancy.
But I have told them, 'Since you will be true,
You shall be true to them who're false to you.' "
THE CANONIZATION.
by John Donne
FOR God's sake hold your tongue, and let me love ;
Or chide my palsy, or my gout ;
My five gray hairs, or ruin'd fortune flout ;
With wealth your state, your mind with arts improve ;
Take you a course, get you a place,
Observe his Honour, or his Grace ;
Or the king's real, or his stamp'd face
Contemplate ; what you will, approve,
So you will let me love.
Alas ! alas ! who's injured by my love?
What merchant's ships have my sighs drown'd?
Who says my tears have overflow'd his ground?
When did my colds a forward spring remove?
When did the heats which my veins fill
Add one more to the plaguy bill?
Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still
Litigious men, which quarrels move,
Though she and I do love.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Call's what you will, we are made such by love ;
Call her one, me another fly,
We're tapers too, and at our own cost die,
And we in us find th' eagle and the dove.
The phoenix riddle hath more wit
By us ; we two being one, are it ;
So, to one neutral thing both sexes fit.
We die and rise the same, and prove
Mysterious by this love.
We can die by it, if not live by love,
And if unfit for tomb or hearse
Our legend be, it will be fit for verse ;
And if no piece of chronicle we prove,
We'll build in sonnets pretty rooms ;
As well a well-wrought urn becomes
The greatest ashes, as half-acre tombs,
And by these hymns, all shall approve
Us canonized for love ;
And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love
Made one another's hermitage ;
You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage ;
Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove
Into the glasses of your eyes ;
So made such mirrors, and such spies,
That they did all to you epitomize—
Countries, towns, courts beg from above
A pattern of your love."
THE ECSTACY.
by John Donne
WHERE, like a pillow on a bed,
A pregnant bank swell'd up, to rest
The violet's reclining head,
Sat we two, one another's best.
Our hands were firmly cemented
By a fast balm, which thence did spring ;
Our eye-beams twisted, and did thread
Our eyes upon one double string.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
So to engraft our hands, as yet
Was all the means to make us one ;
And pictures in our eyes to get
Was all our propagation.
As, 'twixt two equal armies, Fate
Suspends uncertain victory,
Our souls—which to advance their state,
Were gone out—hung 'twixt her and me.
And whilst our souls negotiate there,
We like sepulchral statues lay ;
All day, the same our postures were,
And we said nothing, all the day.
If any, so by love refined,
That he soul's language understood,
And by good love were grown all mind,
Within convenient distance stood,
He—though he knew not which soul spake,
Because both meant, both spake the same—
Might thence a new concoction take,
And part far purer than he came.
This ecstasy doth unperplex
(We said) and tell us what we love ;
We see by this, it was not sex ;
We see, we saw not, what did move :
But as all several souls contain
Mixture of things they know not what,
Love these mix'd souls doth mix again,
And makes both one, each this, and that.
A single violet transplant,
The strength, the colour, and the size—
All which before was poor and scant—
Redoubles still, and multiplies.
When love with one another so
Interanimates two souls,
That abler soul, which thence doth flow,
Defects of loneliness controls.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
We then, who are this new soul, know,
Of what we are composed, and made,
For th' atomies of which we grow
Are souls, whom no change can invade.
But, O alas ! so long, so far,
Our bodies why do we forbear?
They are ours, though not we ; we are
Th' intelligences, they the spheres.
We owe them thanks, because they thus
Did us, to us, at first convey,
Yielded their senses' force to us,
Nor are dross to us, but allay.
On man heaven's influence works not so,
But that it first imprints the air ;
For soul into the soul may flow,
Though it to body first repair.
As our blood labours to beget
Spirits, as like souls as it can ;
Because such fingers need to knit
That subtle knot, which makes us man ;
So must pure lovers' souls descend
To affections, and to faculties,
Which sense may reach and apprehend,
Else a great prince in prison lies.
To our bodies turn we then, that so
Weak men on love reveal'd may look ;
Love's mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
And if some lover, such as we,
Have heard this dialogue of one,
Let him still mark us, he shall see
Small change when we're to bodies gone.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Analysis of Donne’ Poetry
Directions: For homework you were to analyze the syllogism(s) and evidence in four of John
Donne’s more famous poems. Using the information on syllogisms that you received last week
and that on Augustine’s platonic theory on love from today, complete the following sheet.
You do not need to print. Just save your document to the shared file under your name.
“The Flea”
1. On what syllogism(s) does Donne base his argument?
2. What words tell you that he is constructing a syllogistic argument?
3. What points does he assert and what evidence does he use to support them?
4. What lines do you think are most important? Why? Do these lines contain any literary
devices?
5. What is his theme (complete sentence please) and tone?
6. Examine the style chart and determine which words would be appropriate to apply to an
analysis of this poem.
“The Indifferent”
1. On what syllogism(s) does Donne base his argument?
2. What words tell you that he is constructing a syllogistic argument?
3. What points does he assert and what evidence does he use to support them?
4. What lines do you think are most important? Why? Do these lines contain any literary
devices?
5. What is his theme (complete sentence please) and tone?
6. Examine the style chart and determine which words would be appropriate to apply to an
analysis of this poem.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
“The Canonization”
1. On what syllogism(s) does Donne base his argument?
2. What words tell you that he is constructing a syllogistic argument?
3. What points does he assert and what evidence does he use to support them?
4. What lines do you think are most important? Why? Do these lines contain any literary
devices?
5. What is his theme (complete sentence please) and tone?
6. Examine the style chart and determine which words would be appropriate to apply to an
analysis of this poem.
“The Ectasy”
1. On what syllogism(s) does Donne base his argument?
2. What words tell you that he is constructing a syllogistic argument?
3. What points does he assert and what evidence does he use to support them?
4. What lines do you think are most important? Why? Do these lines contain any literary
devices?
5. What is his theme (complete sentence please) and tone?
6. Examine the style chart and determine which words would be appropriate to apply to an
analysis of this poem.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Andrew Marvel (1621-1678)
To His Coy Mistress
Had we but World enough, and Time,
This coyness Lady were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long Loves Day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges side
Should'st Rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood:
And you should if you please refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than Empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should grow to praise
Thine Eyes, and on thy Forehead Gaze.
Two hundred to adore each Breast:
But thirty thousand to the rest.
An Age at least to every part,
And the last Age should show your Heart.
For Lady you deserve this State;
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I alwaies hear
Times winged Charriot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lye
Desarts of vast Eternity.
Thy Beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound
My echoing Song: then Worms shall try
That long preserv'd Virginity:
And you quaint Honour turns to dust;
And into ashes all my Lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hew
Sits on thy skin like morning [dew],
And while thy willing Soul transpires
At every pore with instant Fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our Time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapt pow'r.
Let us roll all our Strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one Ball:
And tear our Pleasures with rough strife,
Through the Iron gates of Life.
Thus, though we cannot make our Sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Don’t Let That Horse
by: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Don’t let that horse
eat that violin
cried Chagall’s mother
But he
kept right on
painting
And became famous
And kept on painting
The Horse With Violin in Mouth
And when he had finished it
he jumped up upon the horse
and rode it away
waving the violin
And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across
And there were no strings attached
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Polonius
by: Miroslav Holub
Behind every arras
he does his duty
unswervingly.
Walls are his ears,
keyholes his eyes.
He slinks up the stairs,
oozes from the ceiling,
floats through the door
ready to give evidence,
prove what is proven,
stab with a needle
or pin on an order.
His poems always rhyme,
his brush is dipped in honey,
his music flutes from marzipan and cane.
You buy him
by weight, boneless,
a pound of wax flesh,
a pound of mousy philosophy,
a pound of jellied flunkey.
And when he’s sold out
and the left-overs wrapped
in a tasseled obituary,
a paranoid funeral notice.
And when the spore-creating mould
of memory covers him over,
when he falls
arse first to the stars,
the whole continent will be lighter,
earth’s axis straighten up
and in night’s thunderous arena
a bird will chirp in gratitude.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
The End of the World
by: Archibald MacLeish
Quite unexpectedly as Vasserot
The armless ambidextrian was lighting
A match between his great and second toe
And Ralph the lion was engaged in biting
The neck of Madame Sossman while the drum
Pointed, and Teeny was about to cough
In waltz-time swinging Jocko by the thumbQuite unexpectedly the top blew off.
And there, there overhead, there, there, hung over
Those thousands of white faces, those dazed eyes,
There in the starless dark, the poise, the hover,
There with vast wings across the canceled skies,
There in the sudden blackness, the black pall
Of nothing, nothing, nothing-nothing at all.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Jabberwocky
by: Lewis Carroll
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The fruminous Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he soughtSo rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish ghoughthe stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
‘Twas brilling, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe,
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Hint for unlocking meaning: Portmanteau – Words that are concocted by telescoping two
words into one. The word portmanteau, from the French name for a stiff leather suitcase that
opens into two compartments like a book. “Slithy” is a combination of lithe and slimy and
“mimsy” come from miserable and flimsy.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
AP Poetry Questions
(Modified to apply to any poem)
1998 - Read the poem carefully and then write an essay in which you analyze how the poem
reveals the speaker’s complex conception of [her world].
1997 - Read the following poem carefully. Then write an well-organized essay in which you
explain how formal elements such as structure, syntax, diction and imagery reveal the speaker’s
response to [the main event or symbol in the poem].
1996 - Read carefully the following poem. Then write a well-organized essay in which you
discuss how the poem’s controlling metaphor expresses the complex attitude of the speaker.
1995 - Read the following poem carefully. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze how the
speaker uses the varied imagery of the poem to reveal his attitude toward [his theme].
1994 - Read two poems carefully. Considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form
and tone, write a well-organized essay in which you contrast the speakers’ views.
1993 - Read the following poem carefully,. Then write an essay in which you discuss how such
elements as language, imagery, structure, and point of view convey meaning in the poem.
1992 - Write an essay in which you trace the speaker’s changing responses to his experience and
explain how they are conveyed by the poem’s diction, imagery, and tone.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Daughters in Poetry
by Eavan Boland
There are far too few daughters in poetry. They turn up surprisingly rarely in nineteenth century
poems, considering how they crowded into the available fictional equivalents. So it's a relief to
start the twentieth century with this big, ornate and controversial poem by William Butler
Yeats. In a way it was overdue. He married late. He was well on the way to being sixty when he
wrote this poem for his only daughter Ann.
What exactly is it he wants for her? What is it he wants to keep her away from? If a wealthy
marriage and Irish politics are the first and second answers here, they still can't shadow or
trivialize the beautiful context of the piece. As a complex statement about patriarchy, the poem
falters. But as an image of a father on a wild Atlantic night in the west of Ireland, trying to put
words between his child and danger, it is memorable. And as an image-system of coastal
thrushes, poisoned wells and the struggle against hatred it remains an absolutely compelling
poem.
The absence of daughters in earlier poems raises an interesting question. Does a sudden, new
and permitted subject matter--or gradually sudden as in this case--discover the poem, or the
other way around? Probably the first. Certainly, the idea of daughters--the down-to-earth and
vast register of human feeling compressed into the very word--has opened up a wonderful
landscape of tone and intimacy and bold subversions in recent poetry, some of which I've tried
to include here.
To start with, there's "Morning Song" by Plath. No sonorous authority here. Not only does this
first, joyful birth of her daughter Freida in 1960, find Plath in good heart and fine voice. But
this is a place where she tries out the anti-narrative she would perfect in later poems like
"Balloons." The language is startling and exact. The baby's mouth is as clean as a cat's. The
baby is at first a plump, ticking watch but then quickly lets out a bald cry which turns her into a
statue, which makes emotion a museum and motherhood a spectatorship. And suddenly,
skillfully, the poem has darkened.
Are daughters part of the domestic subject matter which is so often mistaken and devalued in
talk about poetry? I would hope so. And the intimacy and grace of Richard Wilbur's beautiful
poem for his writer-daughter shows how skillfully he blends those inward and indoor elements:
the trapped starling and the old authorities of father versus daughter shimmering and dissolving
as one writer listens for the emergence of another.
If Wilbur's poem is narrative, Derek Mahon's is all music. His daughter and her "difficult art"
are beautifully lost in the musical effect of memory and regret. But Rita Dove breaks back into
narrative in this fascinating poem, "The Bistro Styx," of the unresolved history between a
mother and daughter, the mythic loss that takes place in the ordinary surroundings of a meal out
being worked out in witty dialogue and implied grief.
I suppose it was something of that tension between myth and ordinariness that drew me into the
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Pomegranate, with its signature of the Ceres and Persephone myth: the loss of the child, the
innovation of the seasons. And for me, the actual, practical experience of a daughter growing
up. One of the true human legends.
But legends can darken. Daughters can not only grow up, but away. And then this subject
matter, released into poetry, needs to be discovered again with age-old strategies of wit and
elegy.
Hold it up to the light against Yeats's poem and Tom Lux's knock-about, turn-on-a-sixpencesyntax just seems wonderful, elegant and funny, until--as Berryman said of Henry Reed's
"Naming of Parts"--"suddenly you want to weep."
Jill Bialosky goes a step further in this extract from her strong, eloquent sequence "Fathers in
the Snow." The daughter is not just spoken to or about here. She speaks. This is a subversive
piece. There are no legends allowed to intrude on the dark, unswerving tone of pain and
disruption. One of the interesting things about poetry is that territory discovered by tone,
strategy and poetic boldness stays on the map forever.
But finally, I have to admit my own attraction to the lyric moment lurking in this subject. And it
seems to me realized in this superb poem by Nan Cohen, a recent Stegner Fellow and strongly
emerging young poet who was in my workshop at Stanford. Stumbling on this poem there was
like stubbing my toe on a diamond. Here in these plain, bold cadences the subject matter is
herded into accurate language and steered back to the lyric moment which, I think--and I may
be prejudiced--is always lurking in it.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/17142
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
It's A Woman's World
Eavan Boland
Our way of life
has hardly changed
since a wheel first
whetted a knife.
Maybe flame
burns more greedily
and wheels are steadier,
but we're the same:
we milestone
our lives
with oversights,
living by the lights
of the loaf left
by the cash register,
the washing powder
paid for and wrapped,
the wash left wet:
like most historic peoples
we are defined
by what we forget
and what we never will be:
star-gazers,
fire-eaters.
It's our alibi
for all time:
on the scene of the crime.
When the king's head
gored its basket,
grim harvest,
we were gristing bread
5
or getting the recipe
for a good soup.
It's still the same:
10
30
35
our windows
moth our children
to the flame
of hearth not history.
And still no page
scores the low music
of our outrage.
15
Appearances reassure:
that woman there,
craned to
the starry mystery,
20
is merely getting a breath
of evening air.
While this one here,
her mouth a burning plume 25
she's no fire-eater,
just my frosty neighbour
coming home.
as far as history goes
we were never
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
A Prayer for my Daughter - William Butler Yeats
Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory's wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.
May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.
I have walked and prayed for this young child an
hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there's no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.
May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger's eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.
An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of Plenty's horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?
Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the
spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-leggd smith for man.
It's certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.
Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.
And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony's a name for the rich horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.
In courtesy I'd have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty's very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
"Eve to her Daughters"
"It was not I who began it.
Turned out into draughty caves,
hungry so often, having to work for our bread,
hearing the children whining,
I was nevertheless not unhappy.
Where Adam went I was fairly contented to go.
I adapted myself to the punishment: it was my life.
But Adam, you know...!
He kept on brooding over the insults,
over the trick They had played on us, over the scolding.
He had discovered a flaw in himself
and he had to make up for it.
Outside Eden the earth was imperfect,
the seasons changed, the game was fleet-footed,
he had to work for our living, and he didn't like it.
He even complained of my cooking
(it was hard to compete with Heaven).
So he set to work.
The earth must be made a new Eden
with central heating, domesticated animals,
mechanical harvesters, combustion engines,
escalators, refrigerators,
and modern means of communication
and multiplied opportunities for safe investment
and higher education for Abel and Cain
and the rest of the family
You can see how pride had been hurt.
In the process he had to unravel everything,
because he believed that mechanism
was the whole secret-he was always mechanical-minded.
He got to the very inside of the whole machine
exclaiming as he went So this is how it works!
And now that I know how it works, why, I must have invented it.
As for God and the Other, they cannot be demonstrated,
and what cannot be demonstrated
doesn't exist.
You see, he had always been jealous.
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Poetry Lessons
Rebecca McFarlan
mcfarlan@ih.k12.oh.us
Yes, he got to the centre
where nothing at all can be demonstrated.
And clearly he doesn't exist; but he refuses
to accept the conclusion.
You see, he was always an egotist.
It was warmer than this in the cave;
there was none of this fall-out.
I would suggest, for the sake of the children,
that it's time you took over.
But you are my daughters, you inherit my own faults of character;
you are submissive, following Adam
even beyond existence.
Faults of character have their own logic
and it always works out.
I observed this with Abel and Cain.
Perhaps the whole elaborate fable
right from the beginning
is meant to demonstrate this: perhaps it's the whole secret.
Perhaps nothing exists but our faults?
At least they can be demonstrated.
But it's useless to make
such a suggestion to Adam.
He has turned himself into God,
who is faultless, and doesn't exist."
Poem by: Judith Wright.
From the book: Five senses
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