READING THE WORLD – POETRY UNIT
EIR - January / February 2012
Day 1
CW: Begin Poetry Unit, What is Poetry?
HW: Do Vocab 11 & 12; Bring “Reading the World” text to class
Day 2
CW: Review vocab, introduce Speaker (personae)
“Mirror” by Sylvia Plath (United States) packet
HW: “Hazel Tells Laverne” (United States) packet
Day 3
CW: Tone – “Song of Becoming” – Tuqan (Palestine / Israel) p. 400
HW: Read “Thoughts of Hanoi” – Thi Vihn (Vietnam) p. 515
Day 4
CW: Rhyme Scheme and Meter
“Ten Songs” – Auden (Britain) p. 161
HW: Read “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” – Thomas (Wales) p. 153
Day 5
CW: Continue with meter work
“My Papa’s Waltz” – Roethke (America) packet
HW: Scansion work (Packet)
Day 6
CW: Alliteration / Assonance
“The Reapers” – Toomer (America) packet
HW: “First Frost” – Voznesesky (Russia) p. 237
Day 7
CW: Personification
“The Guitar” – Lorca (Spain) p. 182
HW: Read “And Yet the Books” – Milosz (Poland) p.215
Day 8
CW: Figurative Language – Similes and Metaphors
“Two Bodies” – Paz (Mexico) p. 53
HW: “Alone” – Transtomer (Sweden) p. 233
Day 9
CW: Imagery
“Sweet Like a Crow” – Ondaatje (Sri Lanka / Canada) p. 456
HW: “Love after Love” – Walcott (St. Lucia) p.71
Day 10
CW: Symbols
“Clearances” – Heaney (Ireland) p. 150
HW: Read “The Shadow” – Sankichi (Japan) p. 539
Day 11
CW: Review poetry, practice poetry quiz
HW: Prepare for poetry quiz
Day 12
CW: Poetry quiz
Poem Analysis: A Guide
In analyzing poetry, employ a consistent strategy, looking at the poem from the outside in. Look first to form,
then to content, then to theme. Begin as follows.
1. Identify the form of the poem. Is it free verse? If yes, what patterns are part of the poem. If no, what is the
rhyme scheme and the meter? Is the pattern something you easily recognize? (e.g. Is it a sonnet?) Be sure to
note any variations in the patterns.
2. Look at the sound devices used in the poem. Identify alliteration and assonance, repetitions, rhyme, meter.
What effect do they create?
3. Identify the speaker. What information can you infer about the speaker? Is there more than one speaker?
4. Look at the images in the poem. What are the similes? the metaphors? Is there any personification?
5. Identify the tone words in the poem. Circle any words that create a mood. What is the tone of the poem?
6. Summarize the events of the poem.
7. Identify and explore the themes of the poem.
Poetry Terms
SPEAKER
TONE
TYPES OF IMAGERY:
SIMILE
METAPHOR
PERSONIFICATION
SOUND DEVICES:
ALLITERATION
ASSONANCE
REPETITION
RHYME SCHEME
METER
FREE VERSE
NARRATIVE
STANZA
Mirror by Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful –
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
5
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it
so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Reapers – by Jean Toomer
Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones
Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones
In their hip-pockets as a thing that’s done,
And start their silent swinging, one by one.
Black horses drive a mower through the weeds,
And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds,
His belly close to the ground, I see the blade,
Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, 10
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the
moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of
hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes. 15
Each morning it is her face that replaces the
darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me
an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible
fish.
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 pens
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.
Day 2 Homework
“Hazel Tells LaVerne”
By Katharyn Machan Aal (United States)
last night
im cleanin out my
howard johnsons ladies room
when all of a sudden
up pops this frog
musta come from the sewer
swimmin aroun an tryin ta
climb up the sida the bowl
so i goes to flushm down
but sohelpmegod he starts talkin
bout a golden ball
an how i can be a princess
me a princess
well my mouth drops
all the way to the floor
an he says
kiss me just kiss me
once on the nose
well i screams
ya little green pervert
an i hitsm with my mop
an has ta flush
the toilet down three times
me
a princess
SPEAKER
a. Who is the speaker of this poem?
b. What are the clue words?
c. How would you describe the speaker? How does her use of language characterize her?
Day 3 Homework “Thoughts of Hanoi” – Thi Vihn (Vietnam) p. 515
1. Who is the speaker of the poem? Who is the speaker speaking to? Provide a line or two that shows the
speaker.
2. What is the tone of the first stanza? What is the tone of the third stanza? Provide three words or
phrases from each stanza that show the theme. Why does the poet switch the tone?
3. What is a possible theme of the poem? How does the author use the speaker and tone to establish that
theme?
Day 4 Homework “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night” – Thomas (Wales) p. 153
1. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? Where does the rhyme scheme change? Why did the author
change the rhyme scheme here?
2. Who is the speaker of the poem and who is he speaking to? Provide a line that shows the speaker and
audience clearly?
3. What is the meter of the poem? Give an example where the meter does not match the rest of the poem.
How does the meter and change in meter help to reinforce the message of the poem?
Day 5 Homework Scansion work
SCANSION HOMEWORK – What is the meter of the following lines?
To scan a poem means to discover its metrical pattern. The meter for poetry has many patterns, but some of the
most popular are the following:
The stress patterns for poetry (metrical feet)
Iambic (iamb) unstressed stressed
Anapestic (anapest) unstressed unstressed stress
Trochaic (trochee) stressed unstressed
Dactylic (dactyl) stressed unstressed unstressed
The length of lines
Monometer = one foot
Dimeter = two feet
Trimeter = three feet
Tetrameter = four feet
Pentameter = five feet
Hexameter = six feet
Heptameter = seven feet
Octameter = eight feet
So by combining the feet with the length, we can identify a line of poetry's meter.
Question: What is the meter of the following line of poetry?
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
˘ ΄ ˘
The stress pattern would be:
΄
˘ ΄˘ ΄
˘
΄
Shall I com - pare thee to a sum - mer's day?
˘
The repeated pattern is unstressed
then stressed
There are five repeated feet = pentameter
΄
= iamb foot pattern
Answer : So the line is scanned as “iambic pentameter”
Mark the stress patterns of the following lines of poetry and identify the meter.
1. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
2. He was louder than the preacher
3. I am called to the front of the room
4. Sing it all merrily
5. She lived in storm and strife
6. And the outrageous cannon
7. If we shadows have offended
8. Happiness is a warm gun, mama
Day 6 Homework “First Frost” – Voznesesky (Russia) p. 237
1. Provide an example of alliteration in the poem. Provide an example of assonance. What do these sound
devices do for the poem?
2. What is the tone of the poem? Provide a few words that suggest this tone.
3. What do you think the girl just experienced? Why doesn’t the author explicitly say what has happened
in the poem?
Day 7 Homework “And Yet the Books” – Milosz (Poland) p.215
1. What inanimate objects are personified in the poem? Provide a few lines that show this use of
personification.
2. What is the message of the poem? How does the title reinforce the message of the poem?
Day 8 Homework “Alone” – Transtomer (Sweden) p. 233
1. Provide an example of a metaphor or a simile in the poem. Why does the author connect these
dissimilar objects?
2. What is the tone of the first section of the poem? What is the tone of part II? Provide some words that
show the tone of each.
3. What does the title of the poem mean in both parts of the poem? How is it the same? How is it
different?
Day 9 Homework “Love after Love” – Walcott (St. Lucia) p.71
1. This poem seems to have occurred after the narrator has had a messy breakup with a lover. What are
some images in the poem that suggest what the relationship used to be like? What are some images that
show what the narrator is hoping to become?
2. What does the imagery of bread and wine suggest for this poem?
3.
What is the significance of the title? How does the title connect to the theme of the poem?
Day 10
Homework “The Shadow” – Sankichi (Japan) p. 539
1. “The Shadow” could represent a couple of ideas in the poem. First it is a physical shadow, then it could
represent an emotional shadow. Using lines from the poem, define how the shadow is used in the poem
as both an image and a symbol.
2. What is the theme of the poem? Should we let the shadow fade?
Practice Quiz
“The Nobel Prize” – Pasternak (Russia) p. 235
1. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? What is the meter? Does the meter vary in the poem?
2. What is the overall tone of the poem? Provide some words and phrases that help to illustrate the tone.
3. Who is the speaker of the poem? What are some lines that suggest who the speaker may be?
4. Provide an example of figurative language (metaphor, simile, imagery, symbol).
5. How does the title help to set up what the poem is about?
In a brief paragraph (five to eight sentences), using the devices above, explain and support what the theme of
the poem may be.