C.E. Chaffin
C. E. Chaffin's Blog
http://cechaffin.blogspot.com/
Ongoing personal narrative by C. E.
Chaffin M.D., FAAFP, Editor of The Melic
Review. Widely published as a poet,
critic and essayist, he began this blog as
therapy but fears it has a larger
audience than his other works. As an
unapologetic manic-depressive (bipolar),
he also hopes his adventures in mood
fluctuation may be of some benefit to
others so afflicted.
C.E. Chaffin
Dear Ms. Stewart,
I am flattered to know that anyone is reading me, high school juniors especially.
Unfortunately biblical familiarity has declined in the past decades. The line is a
play on a quote by Jesus:
"A city set on a hill cannot be hid", he said, just as men do not "light a lamp and put
it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house" (see Matt
5:14 KJV).
The meaning should be revealed in my bastardization of the original, substituting
revulsion for admiration.
I have a new book coming out that includes the poem; perhaps I could give one to
your class as a prize of some sort? Just a thought.
Rarely do I receive a letter so gratifying.
Sincerely,
C. E. Chaffin
http://www.cechaffin.com/
Poetic Terms
A Review
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)
Robert Lee Frost was born in San
Francisco, and after his father’s death in
1885, he moved with his family to
Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he
became interested in reading and writing
poetry while in high school. Frost
attended Dartmouth College and
Harvard University, but never received a
degree. He was a jack of all trades, and
had many different occupations after
leaving school, including a teacher, a
cobbler, and an editor of the local
newspaper
Robert Frost (1874 - 1963)
In 1912, he sold his farm and moved his
family to England, where he could devote
himself entirely to his writing. It was in
England where he met and was influenced
by such poets at Rupert Brooke and Robert
Graves, and where he established his lifelong friendship with Ezra Pound, who helped
to promote and publish his work.
Frost returned to the United states in 1915,
and by the 1920's, he was the most
celebrated poet in North America, and was
granted four Pulitzer Prizes. Robert Frost
lived and taught for many years in
Massachusetts and Vermont, and died on
January 29, 1963 in Boston.
Imagery
the use of words to represent things, actions or ideas by
sensory description. Poetry indirectly appeals to our senses
through imagery.
Telling (Idea/Concept)
You’ve got nice legs.
When I was young I never thought of
death.
I snore loudly.
Showing (Image)
Your thighs are apple trees/whose
blossoms touch the sky.
-William Carlos Williams
I was a boy, I never knew cessation/
Of the bright course of blood along the
vein. - Allen Tate
For I can snore like a bullhorn
- Galway Kinnell
Imagery
Poets are not the maker of puzzles. Their objective is
not to confuse you. It is to provide a meaningful insight
into a particular feeling, idea, or event. Imagery and
figurative language can hold more association than
literal language.
An “Image” is that which presents an
intellectual and emotional complex in
an instant of time.
- Ezra Pound
Visual Imagery
Describes how something looks, and enables the
readers to visualize the objects or actions in
the poem.
• After Apple-Picking - magnified apples appear and
disappear...every fleck of russet showing clear
• Once by the Pacific - the clouds were low and
hairy...like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
• Birches - the iced branches shed "crystal shells"
Auditory Imagery
Tries to capture a sound on paper, usually
using a comparison to do so.
• Mowing - the scythe whispering to the ground
• The Runaway - the miniature thunder... the clatter of
stone
• An Old Man's Winter Night - the roar of trees, the
crack of branches, beating on a box
Olfactory Imagery
Represents a smell
• To Earthward - musk from hidden grapevine springs
• Out, Out - the sticks of wood "sweet scented stuff"
• Unharvested - A scent of ripeness from over a
wall...smelling the sweetness in no theft.
Gustory Imagery
Represents a taste
• To Earthward - I craved strong sweets ...now no joy
but lacks salt
• Blueberries - the blueberries as big as your
thumb...with the flavor of soot
• A Record Stride - the walking boots that taste of
Atlantic and Pacific salt
Tactile Imagery
Describes how something, even something
intangible, feels, either to touch or to
experience with the whole body.
• Moon Compasses - "So love will take between the
hands a face.."
• The Witch of Coos - the bed linens might just as well
be ice and the clothes snow
• On Going Unnoticed - You grasp the bark by a rugged
pleat,/ And look up small from the forest's feet.
Organic Imagery
Internal sensation: hunger, thirst, fatigue, fear
• After Apple-Picking - My instep arch not only keeps
the ache, / It keeps the pressure of a ladder round
• Storm Fear - My heart owns a doubt, / It costs no
inward struggle not to go
• Birches - It's when I'm weary of considerations /
And life is too much like a pathless wood, etc
Kinesthetic Imagery
Movement or tension
• After Apple-Picking - "I feel the ladder sway as the
boughs bend."
• A Late Walk - I was walking slowly past the gate
/ When I saw a small bird broken there / Winged and
faltering it stumbled over
• Once by the Pacific - "Shattered water ...Great waves
looked over others coming in,"
Imagery
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Visual
Auditory (sound)
Olfactory (smell)
Gustory (taste)
Tactile (touch)
Organic (internal sensation)
Kinesthetic (movement)
Find three examples of imagery in this poem. There may be metaphors,
personification, etc. within the imagery. Imagery is often created through
the use of these devices.
Short Assignments
•
Describe an object, any object. Try to make
your reader see, feel, hear, smell, taste this
object (as applicable). Use figurative language
to make comparisons. Place your description
in your writing folder. (due Monday)
Object Imagery
(no silent reading today)
Identify and label your use of imagery in
your object description.
Place your object description in your folder
to be evaluated.
Imagery Examples
The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
from
Dover Beach
by Matthew Arnold
Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back,
and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
from
Whoever You are, Holding Me now in Hand
by Walt Whitman
Or, if you will, thrusting me beneath your clothing,
Where I may feel the throbs of your heart, or rest
upon your hip,
Carry me when you go forth over land or sea;
For thus, merely touching you, is enough—is best,
And thus, touching you, would I silently sleep and
be carried eternally.
from
The Eve of St. Agnes
by John Keats
And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep,
In blanched linen, smooth, and lavender’d,
While he from forth the closet brought a heap
Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd;
With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferr’d
From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one,
From silken Samarcand to cedar’d Lebanon.
from
Elijah Browning
by Edgar Lee Masters
A woman lifted her open mouth to mine.
I kissed her. The taste of her lips was like salt.
She left blood on my lips.
from
The Wind, Growing Up
by Roo Borson
The wind. It comes at night,
trying to claw the house apart.
It goes at all the windows.
The windows shudders in their frames.
The wind wants you to come out and be blown
forever through a world moving too fast
for you to see it. The way the wind see it.
from
How Do I Love Thee
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
Figurative Language
Figurative language uses "figures of speech" - a
way of saying something other than the literal
meaning of the words.
Poet Robert Frost often referred to them simply
as "figures." Frost said
Every poem I write is figurative in two senses. It will
have figures in it, of course; but it's also a figure in
itself - a figure for something, and it's made so that
you can get more than one figure out of it.
Figurative Language
Part of a poet’s work is to make original
comparisons.
In the Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
- Ezra Pound
Definition of Metaphor
A figure of speech in which a comparison is made
between two things essentially unalike.
To Frost, metaphor is really what poetry is all about.
Poetry begins in trivial metaphors, pretty metaphors,
'grace metaphors,' and goes on to the profoundest
thinking that we have. Poetry provides the one
permissible way of saying one thing and meaning
another. People say, 'Why don't you say what you mean?'
We never do that, do we, being all of us too much poets.
We like to talk in parables and in hints and in indirections
Definition of Metaphor
A figure of speech in which a comparison is made
between two things essentially unalike.
In the Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
- Ezra Pound
Definition of Simile
A metaphor in which a comparison is expressed by
the specific use of a word or phrase such as: like, as,
than, seems or Frost's favourite "as if"
Examples:
• Mending Wall: like an old-stone savage armed
• Stars: like some snow-white/ Minerva's snow-white marble eyes
• Going for Water: We ran as if to meet the moon ---- we paused
like gnomes
• Birches: Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Definition of Personification
A type of metaphor in which distinct human
qualities, e.g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are
attributed to an animal, object or idea.
Examples:
• Mowing: the scythe whispers
• Range-Finding: the spider sullenly withdraws
• Tree at my Window: the tree watches him sleep; it has
tongues talking aloud
Definition of Personification
A type of metaphor in which distinct human
qualities, e.g., honesty, emotion, volition, etc., are
attributed to an animal, object or idea.
The Fog by Carl Sandberg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Definition of Metonymy
A type of metaphor that uses a closely associated
object as a substitute for the original object. The
substitution makes the analogy more vivid and
meaningful.
Examples:
• Out, Out: the injured boy holds up his hand "as if to
keep / the life from spilling." The literal meaning is to
keep the blood from spilling. Frost's line tells us that
the hand is bleeding and the boy's life is in danger.
Definition of Metonymy
A type of metaphor that uses a closely associated
object as a substitute for the original house. The
substitution makes the analogy more vivid and
meaningful.
Examples:
• “I’m reading Robert Frost.” ( I’m reading his poems.
The actual person, Robert Frost, is unreadable,
besides being quite dead.)
• “The White House” spoke today with world leaders.
Definition of Synecdoche
A type of metaphor in which a part represents the
whole object or idea.
Examples:
• “Not a hair perished”
Shakespeare, The Tempest
• “And all mankind that haunted nigh,
Had sought their household fire” Thomas Hardy,
“The Darkling Thrush”
To learn how to pronounce an unfamiliar word, visit
http://www.dictionary.com
Definition of Allegory / Parable
A poem in the form of a narrative or story that has a second
meaning beneath the surface one. Frost is notable for his use
of the parable using the description to evoke an idea. Some
critics call him a "Parablist."
Examples:
• After Apple-Picking: the apple harvest suggests a story of
accomplishment
• The Grindstone: the grinding of the blade suggests the idea of
judging and recognizing limits
• The Lockless Door: a story of self escape
• Birches: the climbing suggests the value of learning and
experience
Definition of Allusion
A brief reference to a person, event, or place, real or
fictitious, or to a work of art. Casual reference to a famous
historical or literary figure or event. An allusion may be
drawn from history, geography, literature, or religion.
Examples:
As the cave's roof collapsed, he was swallowed up in the dust
like Jonah, and only his frantic scrabbling behind a wall of rock
indicated that there was anyone still alive.
"Well," said the Lieutenant, who had listened with amused interest to all this,
and now waxing merry with his tipple; "Well, blessed are the peacemakers,
especially the fighting peacemakers! "
Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but
she seldom purchased anything except the bare necessities
Definition of Symbol
A thing (could be an object, person, situation or action)
which stands for something else more abstract. The use
of symbols in Frost's poetry is less obvious. Frost was
not known as a Symbolist. The Symbolists were a late
19thc. movement reacting against realism. Frost
preferred to use metaphors.
Examples:
• The Road Not Taken: the forked road represents
choices in life. The road in this poem is a text book
example of a symbol.
• Rose Pogonias: Early in Frost's poetry, flowers
become a symbol for the beloved, his wife Elinor.
Definition of Hyperbole
A bold, deliberate overstatement not intended to be
taken literally, it is used as a means of emphasizing
the truth of a statement. This is relatively rare in
Frost. He has a penchant for fact and truth.
Examples:
• After Apple-Picking: Ten thousand thousand fruit to
touch.
• Stopping by Woods: The woods filling up with snow.
Definition of Understatement
The presentation of a thing with underemphasis in
order to achieve a greater effect. Frost uses this
device extensively, often as a means of irony. His
love poems are especially understated. He cautions,
"Never larrup an emotion."
Examples:
• Hyla Brook: the last line "We love the things we love
for what they are."
• Brown's Descent: After falling down an ice crusted
slope, Farmer Brown still clutching his lantern says,
"Ile's (oil's) 'bout out!"
Imagery
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Visual
Auditory (sound)
Olfactory (smell)
Gustory (taste)
Tactile (touch)
Organic (internal sensation)
Kinesthetic (movement)
Figurative Language
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Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Metonymy
Synecdoche
Allegory / Parable
Hyperbole
Understatement
Symbol
Definition of Irony
Verbal irony is a figure of speech when an expression used
is the opposite of the thought in the speaker's mind, thus
conveying a meaning that contradicts the literal definition.
Dramatic irony is a literary or theatrical device of having a
character utter words which the the reader or audience
understands to have a different meaning, but of which the
character himself is unaware.
Irony of situation is when a situation occurs which is quite
the reverse of what one might have expected.
Often, Frost's use of irony conveys one meaning by word
and syntax, and another by the tone of voice it indicates by
contradicting the words. Frost's irony is usually tricky
because it is so subtle.
Definition of Irony
Verbal irony
Dramatic irony
Irony of situation
Often, Frost's use of irony conveys one meaning by
word and syntax, and another by the tone of voice it
indicates by contradicting the words. Frost's irony is
usually tricky because it is so subtle.
Definition of Irony
Verbal irony is a figure of speech when an expression used
is the opposite of the thought in the speaker's mind, thus
conveying a meaning that contradicts the literal definition.
next to of course god america i
next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
-- e. e. cummings
Definition of Irony
Dramatic irony is a literary or theatrical device of
having a character utter words which the the reader
or audience understands to have a different meaning,
but of which the character himself is unaware.
(Found most commonly in narrative poetry)
Definition of Irony
Irony of situation is when a situation occurs which is
quite the reverse of what one might have expected.
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
by Samuel Coleridge
Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink
Considering Form
Find five examples of form that contribute to
the effectiveness of “At the War Memorial”.
•
•
Work together
Be prepared to explain your answer
Doors
1. You have the rest of the period to go out into the school to
complete the following assignment. This assignment is time
sensitive. You must come back to class at with at least 5 minutes
remaining in the period.
2. You may go anywhere inside the school, but you must not
position yourself in a way that disturbs or distracts other students’
learning. Be on your best behaviour. Your actions are a reflection
on me and misconduct will have consequences.
3. This assignment is due at the end of the class. Pass it in on a
clean piece of paper.
4. Spelling, grammar, and neatness need not apply. Description and
spontaneous figurative description is your objective.
Words
Words
Words
Words
What is your favourite word or words?
If you've never thought about it, consider a word
you've heard that strikes you as sounding odd or
interesting.
Be prepared to discuss your choice on Wed.