Connecting device with meaning.
Paragraph/analysis structure
• C – Claim – Topic Sentence
• S – Set up (the context; where the evidence is
in the poem, who is speaking, what is
happening)
• E – Example (quotation, concrete detail)
• E – Explanation – connecting the device to
meaning. (3 to five sentences)
Analysis of “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” satirizes contemporary
American society’s emphasis on physical beauty as the
major criterion of value for girls and women. The toy that
became the twentieth century icon of young girls’
aspirations for their personal appearance—a doll with a
slim figure, perfect face, fashionable makeup and clothing—
is presented here as a symbol of false values that enforce
stereotypical thinking about females who cannot conform
to the doll’s image and suffer terribly as a result.
Paragraph 2: verbal irony analysis
The poem’s verbal irony is its most notable technique for
conveying this theme. The young girl whose life Piercy charts was given
numerous toys from an early age, all of them gender-related and
intended to shape the girl’s thinking about herself and her future role
in society: dolls that “pee-pee” like infants, “miniature GE stoves and
irons,” and tiny lipsticks. But when a classmate informs her that she
has a “great big nose and fat legs”—in fatal contrast to Barbie’s snub
nose and slender limbs—the girl begins to feel inadequate. Her
personal qualities are those normally praised in boys but unwelcome
in girls: high intelligence, physical strength, a strong sex drive, and
“manual dexterity.” The seeming non sequitur after the list of positive
attributes –“She went to and fro apologizing” – indicates that the girl
has internalized her society’s false values and has suffered a near-total
loss of self-esteem.
Paragraph 3: simile analysis
As the girl grows older, presumably well-meaning
adults advise her to compensate for her physical appearance
by developing personality traits that might appeal to men: she
should “play coy,” “smile and wheedle.” The poem’s inspired
lines employ an unexpected simile drawn not from Barbie’s
ultra-feminine world but from the masculine realm of car
parts: “Her good nature wore out/ like a fan belt” (14-15).
Piercy uses an image here that the girl herself, with her
manual dexterity and other stereotypically masculine traits,
might well have appreciated. But, in this context the simile
represents failure, exhaustion, or perhaps simply giving in to
societal pressures completely. The masculine imagery that
was “good” becomes imagery of failure.
Paragraph 4: verbal irony and allegory
Moving the poem into surrealistic allegory, the final stanza
completes the death of the girl’s spirit as she amputates the offending
nose and legs, then lies in a casket wearing “undertaker’s cosmetics”
and thus managing the closest resemblance to Barbie she will ever
achieve. Piercy’s verbal irony grows almost savage in the final lines, as
fatuous onlookers in the funeral home remark that the girl is now
“pretty” : “Consummation at last./ To every woman a happy ending”
(24-25). This line is the strongest critique from the speaker. The girl’s
casket is much like a boxed Barbie, dead and encased for the world to
view—but the girl has been transformed. The words consummation
sums it up; she has literally been consumed by social pressures. Piercy
ends the poem with a verbal “bomb”—the scene is anything but happy
for the girl and thus for every woman confronted with the same
societal pressures. The final word, “woman” extends the critique
beyond the girl in the scene—it now relates to all.
Analysis of “My Last Duchess”
Robert Browning: structure connects to meaning
Browning constructs this poem without breaks; the
absence of multiple stanzas highlights the length of the Duke’s
monologue, therefore empowering his speech. The shape of the
poem emphasizes his thoughts and also his power over the
listener and the deceased Duchess. Additionally, the conflict
described by the Duke is accentuated by the flow of his words;
his monologue navigates from the painting, to the Duchess, to
her flaws, and ends at his upcoming marriage.
Tone connects to meaning
The poem, My Last Duchess has a natural conversational tone due to
Browning’s use of rhyming couplets in combination with enjambment
(Napierkowski 169). The use of rhyme keeps the lengthy poem from being
monotonous and flat. The poem’s relaxed flow is established early on in the
poem, “I call that piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands worked busily a
day, and there she stands,” (Browning 2). The punctuation and enjambment
used accentuate the informal language. Browning used enjambment to
create the rhyming couplets throughout the fifty-six line poem, while still
maintaining a conversational essence. The Duke’s monologue is enhanced by
the rhyme used, keeping the reader and the emissary he is speaking to
interested. The informal sense throughout Browning’s poem is furthered by
the use of colloquial vocabulary. Even though the Duke holds more power
than the man he is speaking to, he uses everyday speech to make it seem as if
they were equal men. Browning’s main character once again manipulates the
listener by creating a comfortable setting through careful word choice. When
the elements of rhyme, enjambement, and diction are combined the poem is
understood as a conversational monologue describing a woman and her
faults, in hopes of expressing the expectations of an upcoming marriage.
Now, you try.
• Find a poem we have studied thus far.
• Write one paragraph analyzing the devices, structure
and connect them to meaning.
• Use CSEE.
• Be brilliant, not opprobrious.
• Remember that practice is salubrious for the English
student.
• A final quest is imminent so remember that all practice
prepares you for greatness.
• It is your destiny to be awesome.
• Go +