Exploring poetry
Universitas Singaperbangsa Karawang
Anisa Risatyah,S.Pd
Outline
• Review :
1. types of poetry
2. Voice
3. Diction
4. Imagery
5. Figurative language
6. Symbolism
• First assignment
1. Types of poetry
• Poetry can be grouped into narrative and lyric poetry
• Narrative poetry: tell stories and describe actions
e.g.
- Epics (long narrative poems that record the adventures
of a hero whose exploits are important to the history of a
nation
- ballads
- romance
1. Types of poetry (cont.)
• Lyric poetry focuses more on the emotion.
• Lyrics an be defined as subjective poems, often brief,
expresses the feelings and thoughts of a single speaker
(who may or may not represent the poet).
• E.g.
- Epigram (a brief witty poem that is often satirical)
- Ode (a long stately poem in stanzas of varied
length, meter, and form)
- Aubade (a love lyric expressing complaint that the
speaker must part from his lover)
- Sonnet
2. Voice and tone
• The speaker’s voice conveys tone
• Tone is an abstraction we make from the
datails of a poem’s language: meter,
diction, imagery, figures of speech.
• Listen to a poem’s language, hear the
voice of its speaker -> we catch the tone
and feeling and meaning
• What is the tone in Wordsworth’s
I wandered lonely as a cloud?
3. Diction
• Words choice
• To understand not only the words’ meaning but
also understand what the words imply or
suggest.
• Words have both denotation (dictionary
meaning) and connotation (association
meaning, implied meaning).
• William Wordsworth’s I wandered lonely as a
cloud.
William Wordsworth’s I wandered lonely as
a cloud
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.
*Golden (adj) : made of gold, the colour of gold
connotation meaning: light (it shines and glitters),
wealth (money and fortune)
4. Imagery
• Images are words or phrases that appeal to our senses.
• Imagery refers to the combinations or clusters of images
that are used to create a dominant impression.
• Imagery may be
visual (something seen)
aural (something heard)
tactile (something felt)
Olfactory (something smelled)
Gustatory (something tasted)
Thomas Hardy’s Neutral Tones
We stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
-- They had fallen from an ash, and were gray
5. Figurative Language
Any use of language which deviates from
the obvious or common usage in order to
achieve a special meaning or effect.
e.g. simile, metaphor, metonymy,
synecdoche, personification, hyperbole,
euphemism, etc.
Simile
• Figure of speech in which
a comparison between
two distinctly different
things is indicated by the
words ‘like’ , ‘as’, or ‘than’
• 3 elements: tenor,
vehicle, ground
Life is like a rollercoaster
Tenor (subject) : life
Vehicle (comparison):
rollercoaster
Ground (tenor + vehicle
have in common) : it has
its ups and downs
Metaphor
• Implied comparison which
creates a total
identification between the
two things being
compared.
• 3 elements: tenor,
vehicle, ground.
e.g. Life is a rollercoaster
Tenor?
Vehicle?
Ground?
Metonymy
Synecdoche
• Greek: a change of name
• Term for one thing is
applied to another which
it has become closely
associated.
e.g. crown refers to a king
the White House refers
to official Washington
home for the President/
the American government
itself
• Greek: taking together
• A part of something is
used to signify the whole,
or vice versa.
e.g. Many hands make light
work (proverb)
I am reading Dickens
Personification
Hyperbole
• A form of comparison in
which human
characteristics, such as
emotion, personality,
behaviour, and so on, are
attributed to animal,
object, or idea.
• Is intended to make ideas
clearer to the readers by
comparing the object to
everyday human
experience.
e.g.?
• A figure of speech which
employ exaggeration,
extreme, or excessive.
• E.g. ?
6. Symbolism
A symbol is any object or action that means
more than itself, any object or action that
represents something beyond itself.
e.g. rose : beauty, love
tree : family’s root and branches
soaring bird : freedom
light : hope, knowledge, life
Cultural or shared
symbols
• are widely recognized
and accepted
• are needed careful
examination
e.g. Dawn = hope
white = innocence
dark = ignorance
light = knowledge
Literary or personal
symbols
• Authors’ own original
symbols
• Do not have preestablished associations :
the meaning emerges
from the context
First assignment
• Format
- Times New Roman, 12, double space, A4, normal margin.
- Tittle : First Assignment – Exploring Poetry
An analysis on (poem’s tittle)
by: (names of group)
• Due date and time
- Submit the assignment via e-mail before or on the
agreed due date and time
- Late submission will not be accepted
- Any plagiarism/ copy-pasted assignment results on zero
score. No revision.