Poetics: The Speaker and Dramatic Situation
Answering two questions is often the best way to start understanding a poem: Who is the
speaker and what is the situation of the poem? In other words: the who, what, when,
where, and why of the poem.
The Speaker (or Persona)
The reader must remember that oftentimes the words in a poem come, not from the poet
him or herself, but from a fictional character created by the imagination of the poet for that
particular poem. The more dramatic a poem is, the more crucial it is to gain as precise and
thorough a portrait of that particular character as possible. Sometimes the speaker does
speak in the voice of the poet.
A reader cannot assume that the speaker of a poem represents the views of the poet.
However, it is also a mistake to assume that the poet and speaker share nothing in
common. Sometimes a poet’s biography can illuminate a poem.
Some
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Questions to Consider(Just a starting point)
What is the speaker’s age?
What is the speaker’s background?
What is the speaker’s economic situation?
What is the speaker’s racial, ethnic, religious identity?
What sort of language does the speaker use?
Is the speaker sympathetic, or not?
The Dramatic Situation (or Circumstance or Occasion)
The dramatic situation of a poem refers to the entire imagined situation that the poet has
conceived. Understanding the dramatic situation of a poem is crucial to understanding the
whole story that a poem tells. The circumstance includes, but also extends beyond, a
poem’s setting—the time and place of the poem. The occasion of a poem may be ambiguous
or highly specific, depending on the poem’s needs.
Some
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Questions to Consider
What is happening?
Where is it happening?
Who is the speaker speaking to? What is their relationship?
Who else is present?
Why is this event occurring?
Speaker Assignment:
1. Read the poem below several times.
2. Underline or circle details that answer some of the following questions about the speaker
of this poem.
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What is the speaker’s age?
What is the speaker’s background?
What is the speaker’s economic situation?
What sort of language does the speaker use?
What is happening?
Where is it happening?
Who is the speaker speaking to? What is their relationship?
Who else is present?
Why is this event occurring?
3. Draw an arrow from the text you underlined to the margin and write yourself a note that
answers one of the above questions. Your note may also address definitions, connections to
your own experiences or to other works you’ve read.
4. Then write a response on the back or on a separate sheet of paper in the form of ONE
perfectly written paragraph (not a loosely written journal-type response) with a clear
assertion (argument or statement), supporting details, and examples or quotations from the
poem. Your paragraph must include at least one quotation from the poem. These
quotations must be embedded, not left to stand alone.
“My Papa’s Waltz”
By Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Another Example Poem that has a Strong Sense of Speaker
"Maybe Dat's Yowr Pwoblem Too"
All my pwoblems
who knows, maybe evwybody's pwoblems
is due to da fact, due to da awful twuth
dat I am SPIDERMAN.
I know. I know. All da dumb jokes:
No flies on you, ha ha,
and da ones about what do I do wit all
doze extwa legs in bed. Well, dat's funny yeah.
But you twy being
SPIDERMAN for a month or two. Go ahead.
You get doze cwazy calls fwom da
Gubbener askin you to twap some booglar who's
only twying to wip off color T.V. sets.
Now, what do I cawre about T.V. sets?
But I pull on da suit, da stinkin suit,
wit da sucker cups on da fingers,
and get my wopes and wittle bundle of
equipment and den I go flying like cwazy
acwoss da town fwom woof top to woof top.
Till der he is. Some poor dumb color T.V. slob
and I fall on him and we westle a widdle
until I get him all woped. So big deal.
You tink when you SPIDERMAN
der's sometin big going to happen to you.
Well, I tell you what. It don't happen dat way.
Nuttin happens. Gubbener calls, I go.
Bwing him to powice, Gubbener calls again,
like dat over and over.
I tink I twy sometin diffunt. I tink I twy
sometin excitin like wacing cawrs. Sometin to make
my heart beat at a difwent wate.
But den you just can't quit being sometin like
SPIDERMAN.
You SPIDERMAN for life. Fowever. I can't even
buin my suit. It won't buin. It's fwame wesistent.
So maybe dat's youwr pwoblem too, who knows.
Maybe dat's da whole pwoblem wif evwytin.
Nobody can buin der suits, dey all fwame wesistent.
Who knows?
-Jim Hall