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Poetry Out Loud
Prep Work
Tips on Reciting
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Teachers, coaches, and students may also find it useful to view the judge’s scoring rubric. Many of the following categories also
have links to videos of student performances which illustrate mastery of that specific category.
Learning Recitation Videos
Created to illustrate the art of poetry recitation.
watch the series
Evaluation Criteria:
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Physical Presence
Voice and Articulation
Dramatic Appropriateness
Level of Complexity
Evidence of Understanding
Overall Performance
Accuracy
PHYSICAL PRESENCE
Eye contact, body language, and poise.
Tips:
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Present yourself well and be attentive. Use good posture. Look confident.
Use eye contact with the entire audience. Don’t focus solely on the judges.
Nervous gestures, poor eye contact with the audience, and lack of poise or confidence will detract from your score.
Relax and be natural. Enjoy your poem—the judges will notice.
Qualities of a strong recitation:
Ease and comfort with the audience. Engagement with the audience through physical presence, including appropriate body
language, confidence, and eye contact—without appearing artificial.
Video Examples:
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Sophia Elena Soberon “Bilingual/Bilingue” by Rhina P. Espaillat
Shawntay A. Henry “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden
William Farley “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams
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VOICE AND ARTICULATION
Volume, pace, rhythm, intonation, and proper pronunciation.
Keep in Mind: Contestants will use a microphone at the National Finals.
Tips:
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Project to the audience. Capture the attention of everyone, including the people in the back row. However, don’t
mistake yelling for good projection.
Proceed at a fitting and natural pace. Avoid nervously rushing through the poem. Do not speak so slowly that the
language sounds unnatural or awkward.
With rhymed poems, be careful not to recite in a sing-song manner.
Make sure you know how to pronounce every word in your poem. Articulate.
Line breaks are a defining feature of poetry. Decide whether a break requires a pause and, if so, how long to pause.
Qualities of a strong recitation:
All words pronounced correctly, and the volume, rhythm, and intonation greatly enhance the recitation. Pacing appropriate to the
poem.
Video Examples:
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Jackson Hille “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins
Sophia Elena Soberon “Bilingual/Bilingue” by Rhina P. Espaillat
Shawntay A. Henry “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden
Madison Niermeyer “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Kareem Sayegh “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop
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DRAMATIC APPROPRIATENESS
Recitation is about conveying a poem’s sense with its language. It is closer to the art of oral interpretation than theatrical
performance. (Think storyteller or narrator rather than actor.) A strong performance will rely on a powerful internalization of
the poem rather than distracting dramatic gestures. You represent the poem’s voice, not a character’s. You must subtly
enhance the understanding and enjoyment of the poem without overshadowing the language.
Tips:
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Do not act out the poem. Too much dramatization distracts from the language of the poem. Movement or accents must
not detract from the poem’s voice.
You are the vessel of your poem. Have confidence that your poem is strong enough to communicate without a physical
illustration. Let the words of the poem do the work.
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Depending on the poem, occasional gestures may be appropriate, but the line between appropriate and overdone is a
thin one. When uncertain, leave them out.
Avoid monotone delivery. However, too much enthusiasm can make your performance seem insincere.
Qualities of a strong recitation:
The dramatization subtly underscores the meaning of the poem without becoming the focal point. The style of delivery is more
about oral interpretation than dramatic enactment. A low score in this category will result from recitations that have affected
character voices and accents, inappropriate tone and inflection, singing, distracting and excessive gestures, or
unnecessary emoting.
Video Examples:
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Stanley Andrew Jackson “Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem” by Gregory Corso
Madison Niermeyer “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Kareem Sayegh “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop
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LEVEL OF COMPLEXITY
A poem with complex content conveys difficult, sophisticated ideas, that are challenging to comprehend and express. A poem
with complex language will have intricate diction and syntax, meter and rhyme scheme, and shifts in tone or mood. Poem length
is also considered in complexity. Please keep in mind that longer poems are not necessarily more difficult. Poems with
significantly challenging content and language may not need length to score well.
Tips:
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For competitions beyond the classroom level, select poems of various styles, time periods, themes, and tones. Diversity
of poem selection will allow judges to see your mastery of various elements of complexity.
Make sure each poem you choose is one that speaks to you. If you are able to connect with a poem, that internalization
will ripple positively throughout all of your scores.
Video Examples:
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Stanley Andrew Jackson “Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem” by Gregory Corso
Allison Strong “Sonnet CXXX: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare
Carolyn Rose Garcia “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
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EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING
This category is to evaluate whether you exhibit a true understanding of the poem in your recitation.
Tips:
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You must understand the poem fully. Be attentive to the messages, meanings, allusions, irony, tones of voice, and other
nuances in your poem.
Be sure you know the meaning of every word and line in your poem.
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Listen to track 4 on the audio CD (or in the audio section) in which poet David Mason introduces Yeats’s “The Lake
Isle of Innisfree.” He advises you to think about how you should interpret the tone, volume, and voice of your poem. Is
it a quiet poem? Is it a boisterous poem? Should it be read more quickly or slowly, with a happy or mournful tone?
Your interpretation will be different for each poem, and it is a crucial element of your performance.
Qualities of a strong recitation:
The meaning of the poem is powerfully and clearly conveyed to the audience. The interpretation deepens and enlivens the poem.
Meaning, themes, allusions, irony, tones of voice, and other nuances are captured by the performance. A low score will be
awarded if the interpretation obscures the meaning of the poem.
Video Examples:
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Jackson Hille “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins
Allison Strong “Sonnet CXXX: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare
Carolyn Rose Garcia “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
William Farley “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams
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OVERALL PERFORMANCE
This category is to evaluate the degree to which the recitation has become more than the sum of its parts.
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Did you captivate the audience with the language of the poem?
Did you bring the audience to a better understanding of the poem?
Did your physical presence, voice and articulation, and dramatic appropriateness all seem on target and unified to
breathe life into the poem?
Did you understand and show mastery of the art of recitation?
Judges may also consider the diversity of your recitations with this score; you are less likely to score well in overall performance
when judges note that your style of interpretation remains the same regardless of poem choice. A low score will be awarded for
recitations that are poorly presented, ineffective in conveying the meaning of the poem, or conveyed in a manner inappropriate to
the poem.
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ACCURACY
A separate judge will mark missed or incorrect words during the recitation, with small deductions for each. If you rely on the
prompter during your recitation, points will also be subtracted from your accuracy score. Eight points will be added to your score
for a perfectly accurate recitation. Refer to the accuracy score sheet for details.
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Weak
Below
Average
Average
Good
Excellent
Outstanding
Body language
and eye contact
are at times
unsure, at times
confident
Comfortable;
steady eye
contact and
confident body
language
Poised; body
language and
eye contact
reveal strong
stage presence
Authoritative; body
language and eye
contact show
compelling stage
presence
Clear, adequate
intonation, even
pacing
Clear,
appropriate
intonation and
pacing
Very clear,
crisp, effective
use of volume,
intonation,
rhythm, and
pacing
Very clear, crisp,
mastery of rhythm
and pace, skillful
use of volume and
intonation
Physical
Presence
Stiff or agitated;
lacks eye contact
with audience;
appears
uncomfortable
Timid; unsure; eye
contact and body
language reflects
nervousness
Voice and
Articulation
Inaudible; slow;
distracting rhythm;
singsong; hurried;
mispronunciations
Audible, but
quiet; too loud;
monotone; paced
unevenly; affected
tone
Dramatic
Appropriateness
Poem is
overshadowed by
significant
distracting gestures,
facial expressions,
inflections or
accents; acting out
of poem; singing;
over-emoting;
inappropriate tone
Poem is secondary
to style of delivery;
includes instances
of distracting
gestures, facial
expressions, and
vocal inflections;
inappropriate tone
Poem is neither
overwhelmed
nor enhanced
by style of
delivery
Poem is
enhanced by
style of
delivery; any
gestures, facial
expressions,
and movement
are appropriate
to poem
Contains two
elements of
challenging
content,
language, or
length
Contains very
challenging
content and
language;
length is
appropriate to
complexity of
poem
Contains extremely
challenging content
and language;
length is
challenging for a
poem of this
complexity
Conveys
meaning of
poem well
Interprets
poem very well
for audience;
nuanced
Masterfully
interprets poem for
audience, deftly
revealing poem’s
meaning
Enjoyable
recitation;
successfully
delivers poem
Inspired
performance
shows grasp of
recitation skills
and enhances
audience’s
experience of
the poem
Captivating
performance—
whole equals “more
than the sum of the
parts”; shows
mastery of recitation
skills
Level of
Complexity
Simple content,
easy language, short
length
Straight-forward
language and
content; moderate
length
One element of
challenging
content,
language, or
length
Evidence of
Understanding
Obscures meaning
of poem
Doesn’t
sufficiently
communicate
meaning of poem
Satisfactorily
communicates
meaning of
poem
Overall
Performance
Ineffective or
inappropriate
recitation; does
disservice to poem
Inadequate
recitation;
lackluster; does
disservice to poem
Sufficient
recitation; lacks
meaningful
impact on
audience
Style of
delivery
reflects
precedence of
poem; poem’s
voice is well
conveyed
Style of delivery
reflects
internalization of
poem; all gestures
and movements feel
essential to poem’s
success
THE TONE LIST
Here is a list of tones that students may find in poems. It is not comprehensive, and students should be
encouraged to add to it as needed; as the teacher, you should also feel free to trim it to suit your students and
class level. Keep in mind that the longer the list is, the more nuanced and powerful your students’ emotional
vocabulary will be.
abashed
bristling
disrespectful
horrified
provocative
solemn
abrasive
brusque
distracted
humorous
questioning
somber
abusive
calm
doubtful
hypercritical
rallying
stern
ref lective
straightforward
acquiescent
candid
dramatic
indifferent
accepting
caressing
dreamy
indignant
reminiscing
stentorian
acerbic
caustic
dry
indulgent
reproachful
strident
resigned
stunned
admiring
cavalier
ecstatic
ironic
adoring
childish
entranced
irreverent
respectful
subdued
affectionate
child-like
enthusiastic
joking
restrained
swaggering
aghast
clipped
eulogistic
joyful
reticent
sweet
allusive
cold
exhilarated
languorous
reverent
sympathetic
amused
complimentary
exultant
languid
rueful
taunting
angry
condescending
facetious
laudatory
sad
tense
anxious
confident
fanciful
light-hearted
sarcastic
thoughtful
apologetic
confused
fearful
lingering
sardonic
threatening
apprehensive
coy
flippant
loving
satirical
tired
approving
contemptuous
fond
marveling
satisfied
touchy
arch
conversational
forceful
melancholy
seductive
trenchant
ardent
critical
frightened
mistrustful
self-critical
uncertain
argumentative
curt
frivolous
mocking
self-dramatizing
understated
audacious
cutting
ghoulish
mysterious
self-justifying
upset
awe-struck
cynical
giddy
naïve
self-mocking
urgent
bantering
defamatory
gleeful
neutral
self-pitying
vexed
begrudging
denunciatory
glum
nostalgic
self-satisfied
vibrant
bemused
despairing
grim
objective
sentimental
wary
benevolent
detached
guarded
peaceful
serious
whimsical
biting
devil-may-care
guilty
pessimistic
severe
withering
bitter
didactic
happy
pitiful
sharp
wry
blithe
disbelieving
harsh
playful
shocked
zealous
boastful
discouraged
haughty
poignant
silly
bored
disdainful
heavy-hearted
pragmatic
sly
brisk
disparaging
hollow
proud
smug
Abandoned Farmhouse By Ted Kooser
He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.
A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.
Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm--a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.
Ted Kooser, "Abandoned Farmhouse" from Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1980
by Ted Kooser. Reprinted by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.
Source: Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems (Zoland Books, 1980)
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Anthem for Doomed Youth By Wilfred Owen
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Source: The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen (1984)
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
“Alone” By Edgar Allan Poe
From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone—
And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—
Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still—
From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d
In its autumn tint of gold—
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by—
From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—
Source: American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (1993)
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be By John Keats
When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,
Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love—then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Writing By Howard Nemerov
The cursive crawl, the squared-off characters
these by themselves delight, even without
a meaning, in a foreign language, in
Chinese, for instance, or when skaters curve
all day across the lake, scoring their white
records in ice. Being intelligible,
these winding ways with their audacities
and delicate hesitations, they become
miraculous, so intimately, out there
at the pen’s point or brush’s tip, do world
and spirit wed. The small bones of the wrist
balance against great skeletons of stars
exactly; the blind bat surveys his way
by echo alone. Still, the point of style
is character. The universe induces
a different tremor in every hand, from the
check-forger’s to that of the Emperor
Hui Tsung, who called his own calligraphy
the ‘Slender Gold.’ A nervous man
writes nervously of a nervous world, and so on.
Miraculous. It is as though the world
were a great writing. Having said so much,
let us allow there is more to the world
than writing: continental faults are not
bare convoluted fissures in the brain.
Not only must the skaters soon go home;
also the hard inscription of their skates
is scored across the open water, which long
remembers nothing, neither wind nor wake.
Howard Nemerov, “Writing” from The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov. Copyright © 1977 by
Howard Nemerov. Reprinted with the permission of Margaret Nemerov.
Source: The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov (The University of Chicago Press, 1977)
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Elegy on Toy Piano By Dean Young
For Kenneth Koch
You don't need a pony
to connect you to the unseeable
or an airplane to connect you to the sky.
Necessary it is to love to live
and there are many manuals
but in all important ways
one is on one's own.
You need not cut off your hand.
No need to eat a bouquet.
Your head becomes a peach pit.
Your tongue a honeycomb.
Necessary it is to live to love,
to charge into the burning tower
then charge back out
and necessary it is to die.
Even for the trees, even for the pony
connecting you to what can't be grasped.
The injured gazelle falls behind the
herd. One last wild enjambment.
Because of the sores in his mouth,
the great poet struggles with a dumpling.
His work has enlarged the world
but the world is about to stop including him.
He is the tower the world runs out of.
When something becomes ash,
there's nothing you can do to turn it back.
About this, even diamonds do not lie.
Source: Poetry (October 2003).
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
The Widow’s Lament in Springtime By William Carlos Williams
Sorrow is my own yard
where the new grass
flames as it has flamed
often before, but not
with the cold fire
that closes round me this year.
Thirty-five years
I lived with my husband.
The plum tree is white today
with masses of flowers.
Masses of flowers
load the cherry branches
and color some bushes
yellow and some red,
but the grief in my heart
is stronger than they,
for though they were my joy
formerly, today I notice them
and turn away forgetting.
Today my son told me
that in the meadows,
at the edge of the heavy woods
in the distance, he saw
trees of white flowers.
I feel that I would like
to go there
and fall into those flowers
and sink into the marsh near them.
William Carlos Williams, “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” from The Collected Poems of William
Carlos Williams, Volume I, 1909-1939, edited by Christopher MacGowan. Copyright 1938, 1944,
1945 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing
Corporation.
Source: Poetry (January 1922).
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Two Guitars By Victor Hernández Cruz
Two guitars were left in a room all alone
They sat on different corners of the parlor
In this solitude they started talking to each other
My strings are tight and full of tears
The man who plays me has no heart
I have seen it leave out of his mouth
I have seen it melt out of his eyes
It dives into the pores of the earth
When they squeeze me tight I bring
Down the angels who live off the chorus
The trios singing loosen organs
With melodious screwdrivers
Sentiment comes off the hinges
Because a song is a mountain put into
Words and landscape is the feeling that
Enters something so big in the harmony
We are always in danger of blowing up
With passion
The other guitar:
In 1944 New York
When the Trio Los Panchos started
With Mexican & Puerto Rican birds
I am the one that one of them held
Tight like a woman
Their throats gardenia gardens
An airport for dreams
I've been in theaters and cabarets
I played in an apartment on 102nd street
After a baptism pregnant with women
The men flirted and were offered
Chicken soup
Echoes came out of hallways as if from caves
Someone is opening the door now
The two guitars hushed and there was a
Resonance in the air like what is left by
The last chord of a bolero.
Victor Hernández Cruz, "Two Guitars" from Maraca: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2000.
Copyright © 2001 by Victor Hernández Cruz. Reprinted with the permission of Coffee House Press.
www.coffeehousepress.org.
Source: Maraca: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000 (Coffee House Press, 2001)
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Medusa By Louise Bogan
I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved,—a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.
When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.
This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.
The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground.
And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.
Source: Body of this Death: Poems (1923)
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Mending Wall By Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Slant By Suji Kwock Kim
If the angle of an eye is all,
the slant of hope, the slant of dreaming, according to each life,
what is the light of this city,
light of Lady Liberty, possessor of the most famous armpit in the world,
light of the lovers on Chinese soap operas, throwing BBQ’d ducks at each other
with that live-it-up-while-you’re-young, Woo
Me kind of love,
light of the old men sitting on crates outside geegaw shops
selling dried seahorses & plastic Temples of
Heaven,
light of the Ying ‘n’ Yang Junk Palace,
light of the Golden Phoenix Hair Salon, light of Wig-o-ramas,
light of the suntanners in Central Park turning over like rotisserie chickens
sizzling on a spit,
light of the Pluck U & Gone with the Wings fried-chicken shops,
the parking-meter-leaners, the Glamazons,
the oglers wearing fern-wilting quantities of cologne, strutting, trash-talking,
glorious:
the immigrants, the refugees, the peddlars, stockbrokers and janitors,
stenographers and cooks,
all of us making and unmaking ourselves,
hurrying forwards, toward who we’ll become, one way only, one life only:
free in time but not from it,
here in the city the living make together, and make and unmake over and over
Quick, quick, ask heaven of it, of every mortal relation,
feeling that is fleeing,
for what would the heart be without a heaven to set it on?
I can’t help thinking no word will ever be as full of life as this world,
I can’t help thinking of thanks.
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Romance By Claude McKay
To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,
Scented and warm against my beating breast;
To whisper soft and quivering your name,
And drink the passion burning in your frame;
To lie at full length, taut, with cheek to cheek,
And tease your mouth with kisses till you speak
Love words, mad words, dream words, sweet senseless words,
Melodious like notes of mating birds;
To hear you ask if I shall love always,
And myself answer: Till the end of days;
To feel your easeful sigh of happiness
When on your trembling lips I murmur: Yes;
It is so sweet. We know it is not true.
What matters it? The night must shed her dew.
We know it is not true, but it is sweet—
The poem with this music is complete.
Claude McKay, "Romance" from Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay (New York:
Harcourt, 1922). Courtesy of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay,
Schombourg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and
Tildeen Foundations.
Source: Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay (Harcourt Inc., 1922)
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
A Thank-You Note By Michael Ryan
For John Skoyles
My daughter made drawings with the pens you sent,
line drawings that suggest the things they represent,
different from any drawings she — at ten — had done,
closer to real art, implying what the mind fills in.
For her mother she made a flower fragile on its stem;
for me, a lion, calm, contained, but not a handsome one.
She drew a lion for me once before, on a get-well card,
and wrote I must be brave even when it’s hard.
Such love is healing — as you know, my friend,
especially when it comes unbidden from our children
despite the flaws they see so vividly in us.
Who can love you as your child does?
Your son so ill, the brutal chemo, his looming loss
owning you now — yet you would be this generous
to think of my child. With the pens you sent
she has made I hope a healing instrument.
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Reverie in Open Air By Rita Dove
I acknowledge my status as a stranger:
Inappropriate clothes, odd habits
Out of sync with wasp and wren.
I admit I don’t know how
To sit still or move without purpose.
I prefer books to moonlight, statuary to trees.
But this lawn has been leveled for looking,
So I kick off my sandals and walk its cool green.
Who claims we’re mere muscle and fluids?
My feet are the primitives here.
As for the rest—ah, the air now
Is a tonic of absence, bearing nothing
But news of a breeze.
Source: Poetry (March 2003).
Analysis of Literary
Techniques
Comments for Performance
Analysis and Interpretation Notes
Group Work
Vocal and Physical Delivery Notes
Group Work
WRITING and READING PROTOCOLS
The Snappy Guide to Scanning a Poem
Adapted by Dr. K from materials at
http://www.english.bham.ac.uk/staff/tom/teaching/firstyear06/howtoscan.htm and
http://www.amittai.com/prose/meter.php
Note: This Guide is heavily based on, and deeply indebted to, Stephen Fry's excellent book, The Ode
Less Travelled, which anyone interested in poetry should read. It also draws from John Hollander’s
Rhyme’s Reason, an equally informative and entertaining book.
If you’ve grown up on a steady diet of free verse, it probably comes as a nasty surprise to you that
not all poetry in English is written that way. Robert Frost told the students at Milton Academy in 1935
that “Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down,” and many poets before and since
have chosen to meet the challenge of meter and rhyme when creating their works. Part of being an
English major (and taking the GRE subject exam, etc., etc.) is learning how to “scan” a poem—that is,
to determine its meter and its rhyme scheme. In doing so, you’ll gain insight not only into what the
poet wanted to emphasize in the poem but also be able to connect it to other works (by the poet and
others) in the same metrical and prosodic forms, helping you to place a poem in its historical period
and circumstances. So learning to play poetic “tennis” by mastering meter and rhyme is a big part of
your development as critical readers of literature. Let’s look at the two main areas separately, starting
with meter.
Name that foot
The basic meter of English poetry is iambic: two syllables to a foot. That’s part of our Indo-European
language heritage, since Indo-European featured short syllables as building blocks for words. Note that
the names follow a consistent pattern: an adjective describing the shape of the foot or basic stress
pattern, and a noun telling you how many feet are in a line. Thus, iambic pentameter tells you that
you have five iambs in your line. Pretty simple, once you know what the feet are. And since there only a
handful of stress patterns, once you get them down, you just have to count the syllables in the line and
you’re in business.
OK, so what do these funny words mean?
The basic six sound patterns in English have names of Greek etymology and look like this:
iamb
(_ /)
_
/_
/
_
/_
/
_/
/
_
/
_
The
falli
out
of
fait
frie
ren
is
of
love
ng
hful nds, ewi
ng
trochee
(/ _)
/_
/_
/
_
/_
Double,
double
toil
and
trouble
anapest
(_ _ /)
_
_
/_
_
/
_
_/
I
am
monar
of
all
I
survey
ch
dactyl
(/_ _)
/
_
_
/__
Take
her
up
tenderly
spondee
pyrrhic
-and the
/
whit
e
/
brea
st
(/ /)
(_ _)
-of
the
/
dim
/
sea
ROSE Quadrant
Used to increase detail and the variety of detail.
The R and S will be from the student’s research.
The O and E will be from the student’s non-textual experience and stories
The R and the O are general and/or more superficial.
The S and the E are more specific and more expert.
R(eadings) Generally, anything written.
O(bservations) Generally, what you see from the side.
S(tudies) Generally, what the experts say.
E(xperience) Generally, what you’ve gone through.
Four Corners
• Teacher posts questions, concepts, or
vocabulary words in each of the corners
of the room.
• Each student is assigned a corner. Once
in the corner, the students discuss the
focus of the lesson in relation to the
question, concept, or words.
• Students may report out or move to
another corner and repeat.
• After students have moved, as a
writing assignment they should be
encouraged to reflect on changes in
opinion or what they have learned.
The 4 As Text Protocol
Write Comments on the text based upon the following A words. Be sure to underline or notate which
sentence and/or concept you are referring to. Think of this as a strategy to use to have a more in
depth written conversation. Make your comments meaningful, relevant to the text, and supported.
1. The group reads the text silently, highlighting it and writing notes in the margin on post-it notes in
answer to the following four questions
• What Assumptions does the author of the text hold?
• What do you Agree with in the text?
• What do you want to Argue with in the text?
• What parts of the text do you want to Aspire to?
2. In a round, have each person identify one assumption in the text, citing the text (with page numbers, if
appropriate) as evidence.
3. Either continue in rounds or facilitate a conversation in which the group talks about the text in light of
each of the remaining “A”s, taking them one at a time – what do people want to argue with, agree with,
and aspire to in the text? Try to move seamlessly from one “A” to the next, giving each “A” enough time
for full exploration.
4. End the session with an open discussion framed around a question such as: What does this mean for
our work with students?
5.Debrief the text experience.
If you wish to abbreviate, you may use the following: ARGUE(ARG) – What would you disagree with?
Why? AGREE(AGR) – What would you agree with? Why? ASPIRE (ASP) – What would you aspire to?
Why? ASSUME (ASM)– What needs to be assumed to make this point true? Why?
The text might look something like this:
My comments
Text (Sample from Sparknotes)
ASM: There is
Strong Gender
Roles in Nigeria.
Ezinma, Okonkwo’s favorite daughter and the only child of Ekwefi, is bold in the way
ARG: What about
his “adopted” son?
remarks to himself multiple times that he wishes she had been born a boy, since he
ASP; This is a
packed sentence. I
would like to write
like this.
AGR: Achebe seems
to be suggesting a
similar spirit
between father and
daughter.
that she approaches—and even sometimes contradicts—her father. Okonkwo
considers her to have such a masculine spirit. Ezinma alone seems to win
Okonkwo’s full attention, affection, and, ironically, respect. She and he are kindred
spirits, which boosts her confidence and precociousness. She grows into a beautiful
young woman who sensibly agrees to put off marriage until her family returns from
exile so as to help her father leverage his sociopolitical power most effectively. In
doing so, she shows an approach similar to that of Okonkwo: she puts strategy
ahead of emotion.