IMAGERY AND METAPHOR;
RHYME AND RHYTHM

Responses, Review & Your Questions
Unit 2: General Questions
◦ Poems
--
Wordsworth
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (p 677)19 th C
--
Whitman
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” (p. 1106) 19 th C
--
Mary Oliver “Wild Geese” 20
th C
-Robert Burns “A Red, Red Rose” (p 808) –late 18
th C
--
Aphra Behn
“On Her Loving Two Equally” (p. 684) –17 th C
◦ For Pleasure:
◦ Sting
“Shape of My Heart” (Ref. Linda Pastan
“Marks” p 806)
◦ Conclusion
& Next Week
◦
Reference: Understanding Poetic Language: Figures of Speech,
Rhyme and Rhythm

◦ theatrical performance, both front and back stage,
◦ “the stage” and overcoming stage fright,
◦ team work and professionalism,
◦ communication (including solving problems and expressing appreciation).

“We Real Cool”
• Short lines w. stresses & pauses
“Those Winter
Sundays”
“Stopping By Woods”
• Repetition showing regret
• Soft-spoken and rhythmic; repetition
“I’m Nobody…” • Soft-spoken, secretive
“This is Just to Say” • Casual, intimate
“The Word Plum” • Pleasure w/ a variety of sounds

Identity and Tone: Your
Interpretation
1) “We Real Cool”: The “We” makes me put emphasis on the certain group, these individual words form to be collective, and I noticed that there are seven “We” at the bottom of the lines.
2) The Afro-Americans would die if they want freedom.
2) “I’m Nobody” This poem consists of a few words, but they convey an impressive theme: how a nobody can enjoy a private space of dignity . The speaker conveys an idea that being famous is a terrible thing. For her, “nobody” is incompatible with “somebody,” so the speaker stops another “nobody” to stay quiet for fear of their exile.

Identity and Tone: Your
Interpretation
2) The author was lonely and sick of her life.
2) The poem talks about the pursuit of soul inside our mind.
2) “I’m Nobody” In this poem, the author elucidates a strong dislike of “being somebody”. In terms of denotation  Apparently, it seems that the author  When the speaker asks, “I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you— nobody—too?” she is both careful and happy about finding another person, seemingly due due to her loneliness. But if we look at it in terms of connotation, 
However, from the way she opposes nobody and somebody, it turns out that she is thrilled and happy because she has discovered another individual who is as smart as her and chooses to be a “nobody”. ….

Identity and Tone: Your
Interpretation
3) “Stopping By Woods” This poem gives us a sense of loneliness and desolation. The picture in front of us is crystal white and the sound is deep quite as well. The narrator is on the way back to his hometown. It seems like he has been doing his own business (or other things) outside for a long period. …. At last, even the forest and the surrounding atmosphere is attractive and enchanted, the narrator had already made up his mind to reach his missing lovely place, home.

Identity and Tone: Your
Interpretation
3) “Those Winter Sundays” Second, here comes the personification.
“ The chronic angers of that house ” literally means the house is angry, but figuratively it means that it is like a person in a bad shape, and thus is angry about itself. Also, it can be explained as the angers of family members, which suggests that the atmosphere of the family is quite unhappy. … Next, the explosive consonant sounds ([k],[p] [b]) in phrases like
“blueblack cold,” “banked fired blaze,” and “the cold splintering, breaking, ” create a sense of harshness and difficulty, make the coldness much more severe and vivid.

Identity and Tone: Your
Interpretation
3) “Those Winter Sundays” In this poem , writer put much emphasis on father’s old and sick image in the beginning. ?
4) “the darkest evening of the year” –the brightest day?
5) we sing sin  repent and improve themselves?
6)

General Questions:
Love and Nature
love

1) putting the poems together
2) reading the poem out loud
3) answering another group’s questions
I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud” (p 677)19 th C
• Poet – G 4 Reader – G 9
Whitman “A Noiseless
Patient Spider” (p.
1106) 19 th C
Mary Oliver “Wild
Geese” 20 th C
• Poet – G 7 Reader – G 5
• Poet – G 11 Reader – G 8
Burns, Robert “A Red, Red
Rose” (p 808)–late 18 th C
• Poet – G 3 Reader – G 12
Behn, Aphra “On Her
Loving Two Equally” (p.
684) –17 th C
• Poet – G 10 Reader – G 2
Linda Pastan “Marks”
• Poet – G 1 Reader – G 9

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770 –1850)

1.
How are the speaker and the daffodils set in contrast, each with different similes and/or metaphors ?
2.
Tense: What is the function of the use of present and past tenses?
3.
What does “ inward eye ” refer to?
4.
Rhyme and Rhythm : what do they convey?

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd ,
A host, of golden daffodils ;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance .

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee :
A poet could not but be gay ,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude ;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

WALT WHITMAN (1819 - 1892)

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory ( 隆突 ) it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast (1) surrounding,
It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament , out of it self,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. (2)
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking (4) the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductile ( 柔軟的 ) anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul .
(1. consonance, 2, assonance, 3. alliteration, 4. internal rhyme)

1.
the spider bridges the open space between the two sticks
2. establishes the so-called proto-hub video http://pages.unibas.ch/dib/nlu/staff/sz/webconstruct.ht
ml

3. the construction of the frame and the radii
4. The circling of the hub  the construction of
the auxiliary (or temporary) spiral.
 the sticky spiral http://pages.unibas.ch/dib/nlu/staff/sz/webconstruct.ht
ml

A Noiseless Patient Spider: Discussion Questions
Symbol: What are the implications in comparing the soul to a spider?
Compare & Contrast: How are the activities of the spider similar to and different from those of the soul ?
Figurative language: What are the effects of the repetition of his apostrophizing ( 頓呼 ) the soul ("O my soul")?
Sound effects?
Form: the pattern of
free verse
depends a lot on repetition (with variation) of different poetic elements . Why are there not as many repetitions in the second stanza? From stanza one to two, we see similar kind of variation of line length (which gets longer and longer). What effects are achieved here?

Unrhymed; no regular length;
Rhythmical lines varying in length
Patterns produced through repetition and parallel grammatical structure.
Apostrophe -- figure of speech in which an absent person, a personified inanimate being, or an abstraction is addressed as though present;
-- the poet talks to (and personifies) the one addressed.

Rhyme is a sound device that usually entails the repetition of the final vowel and consonant sounds in two words . internal rhyme: Some poems have rhymes within the lines.
This is called .
Assonance is the repetition of vowels sounds , either at the beginning of words or within words.
Head rhyme: Alliteration is related to assonance in that alliteration also involves the repetition of sounds, this time the repetition of consonants at the beginning or middle of words.
Walt Whitman "A Noiseless Patient Spider “
1. Poem animation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLYFC1nBWU
2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ui3PDC5to&feature=relate d

A noiseless patient spider as a symbol
Figurative language : the soul, something active (like spider working) and cherished (via apostrophe).
Symbol: a spider  the soul:
◦ difficult, quiet and laborious work in setting up structures out in empty space.
◦ The soul ’ s action: musing, venturing, throwing, seeking – intellectual and various.
Sound effects? – signifying their actions (slow, soft, quiet, continuous and non-violent).
Form: rhythm – regular; increasing line lengths -- the extension of their threads and connections.
(for your reference: http://www.cc.nctu.edu.tw/~sheen/al/notes.html#2 )

1. If you were going to compare yourself to an animal, what animal would you choose? Why?
2. Can you relate to the action of making connections in the world or universe? Is it difficult for you?
3. The song "Sound of Silence" can be seen as another search for inner soul--by talking to darkness as an old friend . Please pay attention to the contrasts in imagery between darkness and light, silence and sound. The phrase
"sound of silence" is an oxymoron; can you explain why?

A printer, teacher, journalist  poet  hospital worker, government clerk, later fired because of his poetry.
Publishes Leaves of Grass in 1855, later revised 8 times.
A free thinker, sometimes without regular jobs.
( source ) portrait: from an 1854 engraving by Samuel Hollyer

-- challenged an American literary establishment that he believed was too influenced by Old World literary tradition.
He characterized his poetry as experimental, termed his poetic mission "a war," and fought the battle to establish a body of truly American poetry-one that featured American language, American life, an American vision, and musical free verse--to his dying breath.

"Song of Myself“ – democracy and individualism
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume, you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
(ll. 1-3, part 1)
…
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse ( 使流出 )my flesh in eddies ( 漩渦 ), and drift it in lacy jags ( 小
路 ).
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
(ll. 7-10, part 52)

“
1. Speaker and Tone:
Who is the "you" the speaker of this poem addresses in the first and the third parts of the poem?
2. Goodness vs. Soft Body –How are they opposed?
3. Despair vs. the Living World: Describe how nature is presented and what it suggests (with two kinds of movement: the sun and rain moving across different places, and the wild geese heading home).
4. lonely you vs. the world: What does the speaker say the world can do for "you" (or us)?
Why is the world's call "harsh and clear" like wild geese?

“
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves .
Tell me about despair, yours , and I will tell you mine .

“
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are , no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and excitingover and over announcing your place in the family of things.

“
1. Speaker and Tone:
You– can be the reader or the wild geese; (at the end) any being.
2. Theme: the poem celebrates the naturalness of our being (Soft Body), and communication among natural beings despite their loneliness.
3. Pattern: long lines and the repetition of “meanwhile” suggest the world’s connectedness and continuity. Two basic moments: regular and natural + ‘home’
4. lonely you vs. the world: The world is not just beautiful; we are lonely.
But the world’s various beings and happenings are there for us to comprehend and imagine, so the world’s call is "harsh and clear" like wild geese.

“
1. Speaker and Tone:
Who is the "you" the speaker of this poem addresses?
2. Goodness vs. Soft Body –How are they opposed?
3. Despair vs. the Living World: Describe how nature is presented and what it suggests
4. lonely you vs. the world: What does the speaker say the world can do for "you" (or us)? Why is the world's call " harsh and exciting " like wild geese?
5. Is this a free verse? Why?
6. How is “Wild Geese” different in its approach to nature from that of “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud?”

“
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves .
Tell me about despair, yours , and I will tell you mine .

“
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese , high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are , no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and excitingover and over announcing your place in the family of things.

“
1. Speaker and Tone:
You– can be the reader or the wild geese; (at the end) any being.
2. Theme: the poem celebrates the naturalness of our being (Soft Body), and communication among natural beings despite their loneliness.
3. Pattern: long lines and the repetition of “meanwhile” suggest the world’s connectedness and continuity. Two basic moments: regular and natural + ‘home’
4. lonely you vs. the world: The world is not always beautiful, and we are lonely. But the world’s various beings and happenings are there for us to comprehend and imagine, so the world’s call is "harsh and exciting" like wild geese.

Muenster, Germany) http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6130000/newsid_6137400/61374
06.stm

(1759-1796)
Song versions: 1 , 2
Also the song writer of “Auld Lang Syne” ( 「 驪歌 」 )

My love is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June :
My love is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I :
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry .
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi ’ the sun :
And I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run .
And fare thee weel, my only love,
And fare thee weel a while !
And I will come again, my love,
Thou’ it were ten thousand mile.

1. Why does the speaker compare his love to red rose “sprung in
June” and sweet melody that
“play in tune”?
2. Besides the two similes above, he also uses some hyperbolic expressions (till the sea goes dry, the sun melts the rock and while sand of life “runs”). What could they possibly mean?
3. At the end the speaker says that he’ll be back though “it were ten thousand mile.” Is it real or hyperbolic?

(p. 684; ref. 684-)

The poem starts with a very interesting question : when one loves two persons at the same time, will his/her love be diminished in strength ? What does the speaker think? And you?
2. How are rhymes and the poetic syntax used to convey the speaker’s sense of struggle between the two? (Pay attention to repetition, parallel syntax and the rhymes.)

ON HER LOVING TWO EQUALLY
I.
HOW strongly does my passion flow,
Divided equally 'twixt two?
Damon had ne'er subdued my heart ,
Had not Alexis took his part;
Nor could Alexis powerful prove,
Without my Damon's aid, to gain my love.
II.
When my Alexis present is ,
Then I for Damon sigh and m ourn ;
But when Alexis I do miss ,
Damon gains nothing but my s corn .
But if it chance they both are by ,
For both alike I languish, sigh, and die .
Double negative
Double negative; inserted phrase
Alternating rhymes
Repetition of twoness and “die”

ON HER LOVING TWO EQUALLY
III.
Cure then, thou mighty winged god ,
This restless fever in my blood;
One golden-pointed dart take back:
But which, O Cupid, wilt thou take?
If Damon's, all my hopes are crossed ;
Or that of my Alexis, I am lost .
Cupid, love personified
Shot by his arrow= falling in love
Request made and regretted

Aphra Behn (1640-1689)
1.
2.
3.

My husband gives me an A for last night's supper, an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average , an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve .
My daughter believes in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass . Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.

1. The poem uses an extended metaphor for us to see how the female speaker gets evaluated by her family. What are the connotations when family relations get compared to teacher-student relations ? What does each grade say about the graders, or the graded?
2. What do you think the ending mean?
3. Is your mother treated this way?
4. What do you think about receiving grades at school?
To what degree do they matter?

He deals the cards as a meditation
And those he plays never suspect
He doesn't play for the money he wins
He doesn't play for respect
He deals the cards to find the answer
The sacred geometry of chance
The hidden law of a probable outcome
The numbers lead a dance
I know that the spades are swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that's not the shape of my heart
He may play the jack of diamonds
He may lay the queen of spades
He may conceal a king in his hand
While the memory of it fades

I know that the spades are swords of a soldier
I know that the clubs are weapons of war
I know that diamonds mean money for this art
But that's not the shape of my heart
And if I told you that I loved you
You'd maybe think there's something wrong
I'm not a man of too many faces
The mask I wear is one
Those who speak know nothing
And find out to their cost
Like those who curse their luck in too many places
And those who fear are lost
[refrain]

Form
Free verse
Long and short lines
Content
“A Noiseless Patient Spider”
“Wild Geese”
Tetrameter
Metaphor & Simile
Image
Symbol
“I Wandered Lonely as a
Cloud”
“A Red, Red Rose”
Images of Nature in “ Wild
Geese ”
Spider
A separate existence Wild geese

Literary Techniques (1): Tone and Voice
Voice: that of the speaker’s; in lyrics, it’s usually the first-person.
The tone of a poem , like the tone of our speech, implies the speaker's attitude( s) towards the poem's subject. The speaker's attitude can sometimes be subtly expressed, and we need to carefully study the poem's wording, rhythm and images to understand the tone .
The tones can range from being ironic, neutral, ambiguous, to being emotional and angry.

Literary Techniques (2): Figures of Speech ( 比喻
語言 )
Poets often deviate from the denotative meanings of words to create fresher ideas and images . Such deviations from the literal meanings are called figures of speech or figurative language.
•
Example: If you giddily whisper to your classmate that the introduction to literature class is so wonderful and exciting that the class sessions seem to only last a minute, you are using a figure of speech .
• Example: If you say that our textbook is your best friend, you are using a figure of speech .
•
Kinds : metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole, understatement, paradox, and pun.
Used by you in writing, speaking and joking.

Literary Techniques (2-1): image ( 意象 )
Image means " a concrete picture" (Harper
Handbook 235). In daily language image is usually a composite of visual details, but literary images can be those of sights, sounds, tastes, touch and smells .
When your composition teacher asks you to give concrete, sensory details in your narrative, you are asked to recall/re-create images of your experience so that your readers can experience and feel them, too. If you give your images figurative meanings or other meanings beyond the literal level, you are creating figurative images (metaphors or similes) or symbols.
" .

Literary Techniques (2-2): Imagery
(Please refer to my lecture on “Araby”)
An ”image” is
-“a word or sequence of words that refers to any sensory experience”
(Kennedy and Gioia 741).
An image cluster (group)
-- evokes a mental image, an atmosphere, or creates symbolic meanings.

Literary Techniques (2-2): Metaphor
A Metaphor is a type of speech that compares or equates two or more things that have something in common . A metaphor does NOT use like or as .
Example:
Life is a box of chocolate. You'll never know what you're going to get.
A bowl of cherries. – Eat it up!
More life metaphor /similes here!
http://crinago1172.blogspot.com/2007/12/life-metaphors.html
( reference )

Literary Techniques (2-3): Simile, etc.
Simile: -- [e.g.] Her voice was like nails on a chalkboard.
Personification : Describing an object or animal as though it had human characteristics.
-- [e.g.] Emily’s “coquettish” house in “A Rose for
Emily”
Apostrophe : a direct address to an imaginary object or absent person.
-[e.g.] “A Noiseless Patient Spider”
( reference )

Literary Techniques (2-4): Symbol
When an image is made to stand for two things , as when a rose represents itself and also the color in a young woman's cheeks, the image turns into a
METAPHOR, SIMILE, or other form of
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE. [e.g. "A Simile for her
Smile"]
When an image or an object has its own meaning/existence, but then is also used to suggest complex or multiple meanings. For instance, when a rose represents itself, young women generally, and also beauty and fagility, it becomes a SYMBOL." (Harper Handbook 236)
( reference )

Literary Techniques (3): Rhyme
1. [usually] End Rhyme: the repetition of the final syllable (vowel and consonant sounds) in the last words of poetic lines.
Different positions:
2. internal rhyme: rhymes within the lines.
Sound Patterns:
1. Consonance –repetition of consonants
2. Assonance -- repetition of vowel sounds
3. Alliteration -- repetition of the first consonant (or syllables)
Different Kinds of Rhyme: Exact rhyme vs. slant
(false) rhyme (“room” & “Storm”), feminine rhyme
(of unstressed syllables)

Literary Techniques (4): Rhythm
& scanning a poem
Rhythm ( 音韻 ) refers to the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem
. (Like 平仄 in Chinese poems.)
M eter ( 格律 )-the pattern found among stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem. E.g. iambic
( 抑揚 ) trochaic ( 揚抑 ) scansion --the analysis of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
Steps:
1) Mark the syllables 音節
2) Mark the feet. 音步 (2 to 3 syllables e.g. iambic
抑揚 )
3) Mark the caesuras (noticeable pause in a line of poetry)

1. Analysis & Comparison
2. Creative Adaptation – Translation,
Singing, Turning it into an Ad,
Comparison, Writing a Story, Relevance to our world

Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature:
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and
Drama.
7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999.
Literary Terms: PowerPoint Presentation
< http://www.clintweb.net/ctw/littermsppt.p
pt >