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Unseen Poetry
Exercises
Ms Temple
Imagery in a poem is used to create a picture in our minds, so a lot of information is
‘shown’: implied or suggested, rather than explicitly written. Start by highlighting
and labelling the imagery in this poem.
THE EAGLE by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Task:
1. List all the ways we know that the eagle is very high up, even though we
aren’t explicitly told so. Just quote phrases.
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2. Notice the line: ‘The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls ‘; what can you
say about the words ‘wrinkled’ and ‘crawls’ being used together in one
image?
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3. What does this emphasise in the poem?
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Here imagery and layout work together to ‘show’ the point the poet is making.
Constantly Risking Absurdity
BY LAW RENCE FERLINGHETTI [B. 1919]
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of day
performing entrechats*
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he's the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence
entrechats* [say on-trish-ahs ]
In ballet, a leap in which the dancer's legs
are crossed rapidly in the air and the heels
are beaten together
Task:
1. Quote the simile that is sustained throughout in metaphors , layout and
implied meaning.
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2. Notice the layout: how does it support the point the poet is making?
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3. What do you notice about the punctuation? Think about what this might
contribute to the image.
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4. Condense what Ferengetti says about the poet into 4 brief points.
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When writing about any poem it is essential to discuss the imagery using the correct
terminology. You also need to do more than name the figure of speech [e.g. simile],
you need to discuss how it contributes to what the poem is trying to show or
emphasise. Read this poem and highlight all the imagery; underline other words
that contribute, for example using the words associated with one idea to write
about another.
In the Friendly Dark
-
by
DENNIS BRUTUS
In the friendly dark, I wheel
Dennis Brutus served 18 months of hard
labour on Robben Island due to his political
activities during the Apartheid era, after
which he was permitted to leave South
Africa with his wife and family.
as a bird checks in flight
to glide down streams
and planes of slanting air
so I turn, worn by work
5
and the dull teeth of care
to find your face, your throat
and the soft dark of your hair;
flesh lies snuggled in sheets
the brain, wrapped close in folds
10
of the still-blanketing night,
awaits the easy balm of dreams,
but my heart soars and wheels
hurtling through the friendly dark
to find your mouth and your heart
15
and nest quietly there.
Task:
1. Name the figures of speech you’ve found e.g. [metaphor, oxymoron,
personification etc] by labelling the poem.
2. Write about the central image in the poem.
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3. What does this emphasise in the poem?
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Do not neglect the title or the punctuation when exploring a poem: both carry useful
information. As you read the poem below, think about what they contribute.
The Coffins
BY Michael Chitwood
Two days into the flood
they appear, moored against
a roof eave or bobbing caught
in the crowns of drowned trees.
Like fancy life boats
from an adventurer’s flag ship,
brass plating and grips,
walnut sheen, scroll work,
they slip through the understory
on this brief, bad river.
What have they discovered
and come back to account?
Or is this the beginning
of the marvellous voyage
and they plan never to return?
Task:
1. In 4 brief points, say what the poet does in each of the 4 sentences.
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2. Why do you think the poet says it is a ‘brief, bad river’?
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3. The ‘understory’ is literally a layer of small trees and bushes below the level
of the taller trees in a forest; but poets choose words for the associated ideas
of a word too… How would you link ‘understory’ to the questions that end
the poem?
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In a poem, key words often carry more than one connotation [idea associated with
the word]. As you read this poem, notice how the poet uses connotations for effect.
Base details by Siegfried Sassoon
If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath,
I'd live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
You'd see me with my puffy petulant face,
Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
Reading the Roll of Honour. "Poor young chap,"
I'd say--"I used to know his father well;
Yes, we've lost heavily in this last scrap."
And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
I'd toddle safely home and die--in bed.
Task:
1. Give two meanings suggested by the title, ‘Base details’.
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2. What meanings can be associated with ‘scarlet Majors’?
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3. The rhyme scheme of the poem – abab – ending with a couplet, is typical of a
sonnet, yet the poem is only 12 lines long. How might the poet be
deliberately using the hint [suggestion] of a sonnet that is unfulfilled to
support his message.
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4. What is the implication of the opening word ‘If’?
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Often a poem is superficially about one thing, but at a deeper level about another.
Read this description of the swans and look beyond it to what it tells us of the
speaker’s feelings. [Autobiographical information on Yeats suggests he’s expressing
his own feelings on this occasion]
The Wild Swans At Coole by W.B. Yeats
THE trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty Swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
This poem is set in Coole Park
where W.B. Yeats spent his
summers for 20 years [from
the age of 32] as the guest of
his patron, Lady Augusta
Gregory.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?
Task:
1. Highlight words and phrases that, as well as describing the scene, suggest
that Yeats is middle-aged at the time of writing.
2. In stanza four there is an implied comparison between the swans’ and Yeats’
situation. Say in what ways he feels the swans are better off.
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