What do the next four
passages have in common?
You will see the four slides
for 10 seconds, 3 times
each.
I drive on her streets
Cause she’s my companion
I walk through the hills
Cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
I never worry
Now that is a lie
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Well, Son, I’ll tell you
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpets on the floor,…
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Fast, fast, fast.
I drive on her streets
Cause she’s my companion
I walk through the hills
Cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
I never worry
Now that is a lie
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Well, Son, I’ll tell you
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpets on the floor,…
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Fast, fast, fast.
I drive on her streets
Cause she’s my companion
I walk through the hills
Cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
I never worry
Now that is a lie
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Well, Son, I’ll tell you
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpets on the floor,…
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Fast, fast, fast.
What do you think these
samples have in common?
I drive on her streets
Cause she’s my companion
I walk through the hills
Cause she knows who I am
She sees my good deeds
And she kisses me windy
I never worry
Now that is a lie
Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun!
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief
That thou her maid art far more fair than she.
Romeo and Juliet: Act 2, Sc. ii (the famous
balcony scene of course) - Shakespeare
Well, Son, I’ll tell you
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpets on the floor,…
Mother to Son – Langston Hughes
A Poet of the Harlem Renaissance
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz
Oh what a relief it is.
Fast, fast, fast.
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HANDOUTS
Poetry is “A short piece of imaginative
writing, of a personal nature and laid out
in lines” that creates an emotional
response in the reader, “through meaning,
sound, and rhythm”
www.poetrymagic.co.ik and Merriam Webster
Why study poetry?
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•
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•
Language arts is about learning to read, write, listen and
speak, in essence, to effectively communicate and
comprehend the world and other people around us as well as
ourselves.
All human beings have an innate need to connect to others
and to express ourselves. Poetry is one of the many vehicles
of pure expression in art. There are many poems that extend
stanza after stanza to explain a single emotion or event.
Elements of poetry are all around us, as exemplified by the
examples in the beginning, and if we had hours we could see
thousands more examples. We can appreciate the poetry in
music, art, advertisements and even cartoons! This is
because poetry acts as a mirror in which we can see
ourselves and the world in a unique way. “Art imitates life
imitates art.”
Knowledge → Understanding/Appreciation → Action
Poetry Analysis
There are many ways to think about a particular poem but
the two most important questions are what does the
poetry relate to the reader and how does the poet
achieve this.
One might think of a poem as, in the words of William
Carlos Williams, a "machine made of words". Machines
produce some effect, or do some work. They do
whatever they are designed to do. The work done by
this "machine made of words" is the effect it produces in
the reader's mind. A reader analyzing a poem is akin to
a mechanic taking apart a machine in order to figure out
how it works.
Wikipedia
Topics to consider in analysis:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Biographical or historical context
Speaker
Meaning
Physical form and/or type of poem
Tone
Musicality
Figurative language
Word choice, diction and syntax
Speaker
Speaker is the character or PERSPECTIVE
through which the poem is told and is not
always the author / poet.
Example: Watch me whip / watch me Nae
Nae is by sung by Silento but each person
or dancer becomes the speaker because
each person is asking the audience to
“watch me”
Tone
Tone is the attitude a writer takes toward a
subject or character: serious, humorous,
sarcastic, admiring, ironic, satirical, tongue-incheek, solemn, sense of wonder, objective, etc.
Note: This is similar to mood although mood is the
READER’S attitude created by the writing.
Forms of poetry
10)
11)
12)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Lyric - expresses the thoughts and feelings of the
speaker; may resemble a song in form or style (
sonnet or an ode)
Ode - lyric poem praising some subject and written in
dignified or elevated language
Elegy - lamenting the dead; mourning a loss
Narrative – tells a story (ballad, epic) with a full plot
structure (intro, conflict, rising action, climax, resolution)
Ballad – narrative poem that has a full plot, similar to a
folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain
Epic – long, serious narrative poem usually dealing
with a heroic character (the Odyssey by Homer)
Free verse - rhymed or unrhymed lines that have no
set meter
Sonnet - 14 lines long, has a set structure
Didactic – designed to teach an ethical, religious or
moral lesson
More Forms of Poetry
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12)
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14)
15)
16)
17)
Fable – short tale in prose or poetry teaching a moral
lesson (didactic)
Concrete - takes the shape of the object it describes
Carpe Diem – seize the day, inspirational
Love – poems that sing of friendship or romantic love
Descriptive – poems that explain or describe
something
Historical – poems about countries, peoples, wars, etc.
(epic)
Religious – poems about God(s) or man’s relationship
with God(s)
Humorous – poems to make you laugh (Limerick,
epigram)
Poems will fall into more than one category in many cases.
Musicality
1)
2)
3)
Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza,
or metrical pattern is employed as a basic unifying device
(such as a refrain).
Rhyme - similarity in sound
Alliteration – repetition of consonants, especially at the
beginning of words, aka front-rhyme
Ex: Come see the softer side of Sears.
3)
4)
5)
Assonance – repetition of similar vowel sounds in a poetic
line Ex: A moony tune made me swoon.
Meter and Rhythm - musical quality produced by the
repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables.
Onomatopoeia – words formed in such a way that the
sound of words in themselves imitate the sounds of the
thing they describe. Ex: Plop, plop, fizz, fizz … or Snap, Crackle,
Pop!
Figurative Language

Metaphor – two things are identified with each other; an implied
comparison (without like or as)
Ex: I was an exiled child in the crackling dusk of the underworld .

Simile –
two objects are compared and shown to have one or more
qualities in common using like, as or as if
Ex: The ocean looks like a thousand diamonds / Strewn across a blue blanket.

Allusion –
direct or indirect reference to something outside the poem
Ex: He was a Scrooge and would not donate to charity.

Hyperbole – obvious exaggeration
Ex: I was so hungry that I could have eaten a horse.

Personification – human form or characteristics are given to animals,
objects or ideas
Ex: I walk through the hills / Cause she knows who I am

Synecdoche - a part is used to designate the whole or the whole is used to
designate a part.
Ex: “all hands on deck” means “all men on deck,” not just their hands

Apostrophe – a person, a thing or an abstract quality is addressed
Ex: Oh Earth! Oh Earth! You are my salvation.
Word Choice, Diction and Syntax

Word Choice / Diction - A writer’s choice of words, phrases,
sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help
create meaning (formal/informal, casual, slang, dialect) Does the
writer use any words or phrases that are unique or stylistic?

Connotation/Denotation – implied attitudes carried by the word
versus the dictionary definition

Syntax – word order, arrangement of words and phrases

Enjambment - the continuation of a phrase beyond the end of a line
of verse
Ex: April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing…
Steps to Analyzing a Poem
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Observe the poem’s physical attributes
many lines, syllables, shape, unusual grammar, etc.)
(how
Read to detect the rhythm and musicality
Read again for meaning
Note use of figurative language and other
poetic devices
Decide how the poetry applies to you or makes
you feel about the subject – your opinion or
how you connect with the poem