Poetry
What’s the Point and Poetic Devices
Poetry: What is it?
• Poetry is what gets lost in translation.
Robert Frost
• A poet's work is to name the un-nameable, to point at frauds,
to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it
going to sleep.
Salman Rushdie
• Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.
Plutarch
• Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
T.S. Eliot
Poetic Devices
• Poetic devices allow us to say what we want in only a few
words.
• Poets rely on the background knowledge of their audiences to
express complex ideas in the short format of a poem.
• When we read poetry, we decode some of this extra
information to form our own responses to the poem.
Glossary of Poetic Terms
(Handout)
• Alliteration: Repetition of consonants at the beginning of words: e.g.
lily lips
• Allusion: Brief reference to a person, place, thing, or event assured
to be sufficiently well-known to be recognized by the reader: e.g. it
was a David and Goliath struggle.
• Connotation: Associated meanings or implications for a word.
• Denotation: Dictionary definition of the word, exact or precise
meaning.
• Diction: The authors’ choice or use of words.
• Imagery: Descriptive passages in poetry using figurative language,
primarily similes and metaphors.
• Metaphor: An implied comparison between two dissimilar objects: e.g. love
is a red rose.
• Mood: Emotional impact of a poem or piece of writing.
• Onomatopoeia: Use of words whose sounds seem to resemble the sounds
they describe: e.g. rustle, hang, boo, hiss.
• Oxymoron: Two contrasting terms side by side: e.g. bitter sweet, sweet and
sour.
• Personification: An inanimate object or an abstract concept, which is
described as if it had human attributes: e.g. time flies.
• Pun: A play on words, which are similar in sound but very different in
meaning: e.g. Marriage is a wife sentence.
• Satire: Making an object look ridiculous by mocking it or showing contempt
for it.
• Simile: A comparison between two essentially dissimilar objects using words
“like” or “as”: e.g. love is like a red rose.
• Symbol: A concrete object used to represent an abstract idea or concept: e.g.
the maple leaf of Canada.
Literary Analysis
• This decoding is called Literary Analysis: the detailed
examination of the components of literature.
• Analysis must be supported by evidence.
• In the study of literature our evidence is the text.
• Literary analysis requires us to understand every word, look up
every reference in order to conduct a thorough and complete
analysis.
INFER
• The most basic way to analyze literature is to infer?
• Use your dictionaries to look it up.
• Inference |ˈinf(ə)rəns| noun
• a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning.
• the process of reaching such a conclusion: From the bright
sunlight and smoke coming from the chimney’s I can infer that
it is cold outside.
Bullfrogs
-for Ernie, Larry and Bob
sipping a Schlitz
we cut off the legs
packed them in ice, then
shucked the rest back into
the pond for turtles
ready to go home
we looked down and saw
what we had thrown back in:
quiet bulging eyes nudging along
the moss’s edge
asking for their legs
-David Allen Evans
Inference Activity.
• Using your inference skills and the text conduct the following
analysis.
Part 1.
• Setting: Describe the poem’s setting in as much detail as
possible. Where are they? What does it look like? What time
of day is it? What season? What year?
• Character: Create character profiles and backstory for Ernie,
Larry and Bob. Who are these men? How do they know each
other? Where are they from? What are their jobs?
Part 2.
• What is your reaction to this poem? How does it make you
feel? Does it remind you of something else?
• Your response can be a normal paragraph, it can be in your
normal written voice, in the poetic voice.
• This can be from the frog’s perspective, from another silent
observer to the scene, in the voice of Ernie, Larry or Bob.
From whatever makes sense to the text.
Response. Looking behind the story.
• Activity: Choose two of the following activities for Journal Entry 1.
(You can only choose one drawing activity and one writing activity).
• Draw what you think is the most important image of the poem.
Explain why you choose this image .
• Create a comic strip or a cartoon about the poem.
• Rewrite the poem from the perspective of the frog, a family member
of one of the frogs, maybe a some other observer.
• Create character profiles and backstory for Ernie, Larry and Bob.
Who are these men? How do they know each other? Where are
they from?
Analysis: Voice
• Your analysis should attempt to answer these fundamental
questions:
• 1. Identify the voice of the poem? Who do you think is
speaking?
• What does the voice have to do with what is happening in the
poem; what is it’s attitude, what is the tone of the voice (tone
can be viewed as an expression of attitude).
Analysis: Setting
• What is the poem setting?
• There is the setting in terms of time and place, and there
is the setting in terms of the physical world described in
the poem.
Analysis: Subject
• What is subject of the poem? Meaning, what is this poem
about? Does the poem teach a lesson or say something about
what’s important or unimportant the world?
• To help analyze your poem: start with the basic situation, and
move to consider any key statements; any conflicts or tensions;
key relationships, parallels, contrasts; any problems posed or
solved (or not solved); the poem's tone; the historical, social,
and emotional setting.
Sherman Alexie
Denotation vs. Connotation
• Denotation is the dictionary definition of the word, its exact or
precise meaning.
• Example: A frog is a green amphibious animal.
• Connotations are associated meanings or implications for a
word.
• Example: In a fairy tale a frog can represent a prince who has
been cursed. If a princess kisses this enchanted frog, he will
turn into a prince and they will live happily ever after.
Figures of Speech
• Figurative Language uses words to paint a picture, draw an
interesting comparison, or create a poetic effect.
• For example: “His feet were as big as boats.”
• With figurative language we don’t really mean what we are
saying.
• ex: Prisoner X: Do you see anyone?
• Prisoner Y: The coast is clear.
Figurative vs Literal
• Figurative language does not mean what it says.
• “My briefcase weighs a tonne.”
• figurative language can also be defined as any deliberate departure
from the conventional meaning, order, or construction of words.
• The opposite of figurative language is literal language.
• Ex: If something happens literally," says children's author Lemony
Snicket, "it actually happens; if something happens figuratively, it
feels like it is happening. If you are literally jumping for joy, for
instance, it means you are leaping in the air because you are very
happy. If you are figuratively jumping for joy, it means you are so
happy that you could jump for joy, but are saving your energy for
other matters.” (The Bad Beginning. Thorndike Press, 2000)
Simile vs Metaphor
• “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your
gonna get.”
• A simile is a figure of speech in which two fundamentally
unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase
introduced by like or as.
• "[Lord Emsworth] had mislaid his glasses and without them
was as blind, to use his own neat simile, as a bat."
More Similes
• Shake it, Shake it, like a polaroid picture. (Outkast)
• "[H]e looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice
of angel food." (Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely,
1940)
• "She dealt with moral problems as a cleaver deals with
meat." (James Joyce, "The Boarding House")
Metaphor
• A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied
comparison is made between two unlike things that actually
have something important in common.
• The word metaphor comes from a Greek word meaning to
"transfer" or "carry across.”
• Metaphors "carry" meaning from one word, image or idea to
another.
• Unlike similes they do not use like or as.
More Metaphors
• "Life is a journey. Enjoy the Ride." (Nissan) life/car
• "Before I met my husband, I'd never fallen in love. I'd stepped
in it a few times." (Rita Rudner) love/dog poo
• "I can mingle with the stars, and throw a party on Mars; I am
a prisoner locked up behind Xanax bars." (Lil Wayne, "I Feel
Like Dying”) prison/xanax
• Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied
narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal
operation. (Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo) Time
Sylvia Plant ‘Cut”
• What a thrill—
My thumb instead of an onion.
The top quite gone
Except for a sort of hinge
Of skin....
A celebration this is. Out of a gap
A million soldiers run,
Redcoats every one.[3]
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And
then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over- like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Langston Hughes
Challenges/Problems
• Neil Hilborn http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnKZ4pdSU-s
• Think of a challenge or problem. It can be a challenge or problem
you have faced or a challenge or problem someone else has faced.
So you could write from your own perspective or from someone else
(even someone or something you don't know). This
problem/challenge could still exist or it no longer exists.
• Write as much about the problem or challenge as you can. Describe
the contours of the problem/challenge, when, how and why it's a
problem. It's effect and possible resolution. Give this piece of writing
a title.
• It doesn't have to be something deep though it can be. For instance,
my daughter likes to wake up at 4 in the morning and all she wants
to do is stand. Getting her back to sleep is a challenge.
Repetition
• a reiteration of the same word or phrase with the view of
expressiveness.
• repetition of all kinds is widely used in poetry and prose.
• Sometimes repetition is repetitive (bad). But not all
repetition is bad. Used strategically, repetition can wake
our readers up and help them to focus on a key idea--or,
at times, even raise a smile.
Types of Repetition
• Anaphora (pronounced "ah-NAF-oh-rah”) Repetition
of the same word or phrase at the beginning of
successive clauses or verses.
• ex: M.L.K “I have a dream” speech
• Commoratio (pronounced "ko mo RAHT see oh")
Repetition of an idea several times in different words.
• Ex: He's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has
ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his
maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace!
Etc . . .
Diacope
Diacope (pronounced "dee-AK-o-pee") Repetition broken up by
one or more intervening words.
Someone ate the baby,
It's rather sad to say.
Someone ate the baby
So she won't be out to play.
We'll never hear her whiny cry
Or have to feel if she is dry.
We'll never hear her asking, "Why?"
Someone ate the baby.
Shel Silverstein
• Look at Master’s Cleanthus Trilling
Personification
• Mac Guy vs PC
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfv6Ah_MVJU
Personification
• Occurs when objects, ideas, or animals are given human
qualities.
• Ex: “Hello I’m a Mac.”
• Ex: The sun smiled down on me.
• Personification can be found in a variety of forms.
Mr. Clean
The Jolly Green Giant
Example of Personification
• Pink is what red looks like when it kicks off its
shoes and lets its hair down. Pink is the boudoir
color, the cherubic color, the color of Heaven's
gates. . . . Pink is as laid back as beige, but while
beige is dull and bland, pink is laid back with
attitude.
(Tom Robbins, "The Eight-Story Kiss." Wild Ducks
Flying Backward. Random House, 2005)
Carl Sandberg: Fog
Carl Sandburg: The Grass
• See Wiki.
• Discuss Allusion
Allusion in Literature
• An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference
to a place, person, or something that happened.
• This can be real or imaginary and may refer to anything,
including paintings, opera, folk lore, mythical figures, or
religious manuscripts.
• The reference can be direct or may be inferred, and can
broaden the reader’s understanding.
Allusion cont . . .
There are several ways that an allusion can help a writer:
• Allusions engage the reader and will often help the
reader remember the message or theme of the
passage.
• Allusions allow the writer to give an example or get a
point across without going into a lengthy discourse.
Examples of Allusions
• “I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchio’s.” This
refers to the story of Pinocchio, where his nose grew whenever he
told a li e. It is from The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Carlo
Collodi.
• “When she lost her job, she acted like a Scrooge, and refused to buy
anything that wasn’t necessary.” Scrooge was an extremely stingy
character from Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol.
• “Chocolate was her Achilles’ heel.” This means that her weakness
was her love of chocolate. Achilles is a character in Greek mythology
who was invincible. His mother dipped him in magical water when
he was a baby, and she held him by the heel. The magic protected
him all over, except for his heel.
Leonard Cohen
The 80s
The 70s
The 60s
Marita
The Fly
All There is to Know about
Adolph Eichmann
Adolph Eichmann
Eichmann on Trial
Hannah Arendt
Eichmann in the yard of his cell
The book
The Genuis