Unit 5: Poetry

English 12, NEST+m, Ms. Palmer6 weeks: February 3 – March 20

Essential Questions: What is poetry, what is its purpose, and why should we care? How can we understand, appreciate, and explicate poetry? What are different forms of poetry and how can their characteristics be defined? How can we understand speaker versus author, poetic structure, as well as the

meaning and usage of a variety of poetic devices? What is the purpose of figurative language and musical devices in poetry? How can we use emulation and other techniques to write our own powerful and

meaningful poetry?

Essential Texts: Selected poems, spanning various forms, culture, and literary eras (many taken

from Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, by Thomas R. Arp)

Assessments: Responses to discussion questions (daily assignment) Literary Devices quiz (daily assignment) Wordly Wise Book 12 Chapters 8, 9, and 10 vocab quizzes (daily assignment) Unit Exam (major assignment) Poetry Writing Project (major assignment)

Name: __________________ Date:______

What is poetry?

The EagleLord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Last WordsJason Fotso (1996- )

I – I – I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t be.You see me.You see thug.You see sin.I see the letters of “hate” alive in your “heart”.Can’t I breathe? Can’t I breathe? Can’t I be?

EnslavedEmmett* ‘till Eric.

Tombstone same. Just new names.

I-I-I can’t breathe. I can’t be.I, too, am a human being, yet you can’t let me be.

These empty deaths, live, on top of his Dream.

mpmttmpnff…

*reference to Emmett Till, a an African-American teenager who was murdered in 1955 in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman

Jason Fotso, 17, of Maple Grove, MN, composed his poem by rearranging the letters of the final words uttered by Eric Garner, who was wrestled to the ground by police in New York and died following a chokehold administered by one officer.

Excerpt from “Man’s Death After Chokehold Raises Old Issue for the Police,” by Joseph Goldstein and Nate Schweber, The New York Times, July 18, 2014

The 350-pound man, about to be arrested on charges of illegally selling cigarettes, was arguing with the police. When an officer tried to handcuff him, the man pulled free. The officer immediately threw his arm around the man’s neck and pulled him to the ground, holding him in what appears, in a video, to be a chokehold. The man can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” over and over again as other officers swarm about.

Now, the death of the man, Eric Garner, 43, soon after the confrontation on Thursday on Staten Island, is being investigated by the police and prosecutors. At the center of the inquiry is the officer’s use of a chokehold — a dangerous maneuver that was banned by the New York Police Department more than 20 years ago but that the department cannot seem to be rid of.

On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High D. C. Berry (1942- )

Before I opened my mouth I noticed them sitting there as orderly as frozen fish in a package.

Slowly water began to fill the room though I did not notice it till it reached my ears

and then I heard the sounds of fish in an aquarium and I knew that though I had tried to drown them with my wordsthat they had only opened up like gills for them and let me in.

Together we swam around the room like thirty tails whacking words till the bell rangpuncturing a hole in the door where we all leaked out

They went to another class I suppose and I home

where Queen Elizabeth my cat met me and licked my fins till they were hands again.

Homework: Read “Reading the poem” (pp.6-8). Next, try out this technique on the poem “The Man He Killed” (p.7) as you complete a commentary/explication responding to the poem (See “How to explicate a poem,” pp.9-10, and “How to Write a Poetry Commentary,” p.11).

HOW TO EXPLICATE A POEM(Thanks to Betsy Draine of the University of Wisconsin-Madison)

A good poem is like a puzzle--the most fascinating part is studying the individual pieces carefully and then putting them back together to see how beautifully the whole thing fits together. A poem can have a number of different “pieces” that you need to look at closely in order to complete the poetic “puzzle.” This sheet explains one way to attempt an explication of a poem, by examining each “piece” of the poem separately. (An “explication” is simply an explanation of how all the elements in a poem work together to achieve the total meaning and effect.)

Examine the situation in the poem:

Does the poem tell a story? Is it a narrative poem? If so, what events occur?

Does the poem express an emotion or describe a mood?

Poetic voice: Who is the speaker? Is the poet speaking to the reader directly or is the poem told through a fictional “persona”? To whom is he speaking? Can you trust the speaker?

Tone: What is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the poem? What sort of tone of voice seems to be appropriate for reading the poem out loud? What words, images, or ideas give you a clue to the tone?

Examine the structure of the poem:

Form: Look at the number of lines, their length, their arrangement on the page. How does the form relate to the content? Is it a traditional form (e.g. sonnet, limerick) or “free form”? Why do you think the poem chose that form for his poem?

Movement: How does the poem develop? Are the images and ideas developed chronologically, by cause and effect, by free association? Does the poem circle back to where it started, or is the movement from one attitude to a different attitude (e.g. from despair to hope)?

Syntax: How many sentences are in the poem? Are the sentences simple or complicated? Are the verbs in front of the nouns instead of in the usual “noun, verb” order? Why?

Punctuation: What kind of punctuation is in the poem? Does the punctuation always coincide with the end of a poetic line? If so, this is called an end-stopped line. If there is no punctuation at the end of a line and the thought continues into the next line, this is called enjambment. Is there any punctuation in the middle of a line? Why do you think the poet would want you to pause halfway through the line?

Title: What does the title mean? How does it relate to the poem itself?

Examine the language of the poem:

Diction or Word Choice: Is the language colloquial, formal, simple, unusual?Do you know what all the words mean? If not, look them up.What moods or attitudes are associated with words that stand out for you?

Allusions: Are there any allusions (references) to something outside the poem, such as events or people from history, mythology, or religion?

Imagery: Look at the figurative language of the poem--metaphors, similes, analogies, personification. How do these images add to the meaning of the poem or intensify the effect of the poem?

Examine the musical devices in the poem:

Rhyme scheme: Does the rhyme occur in a regular pattern, or irregularly? Is the effect formal, satisfying, musical, funny, disconcerting?

Rhythm or meter: In most languages, there is a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a word or words in a sentence. In poetry, the variation of stressed and unstressed syllables and words has a rhythmic effect. What is the tonal effect of the rhythm here?

Other “sound effects”: alliteration, assonance, consonance, repetition. What tonal effect do they have here?

Has the poem created a change in mood for you--or a change in attitude? How have the technical elements helped the poet create this effect?

How to Write a Poetry Commentary

There’s no one right way to write about poetry. The goal is to engage with the poem, to interact with it, to find a way in that interests you. If you’re not sure where to start, consider responding to these questions:

What is the poem saying? What’s the theme? Paraphrase it. Who is the speaker and who is being spoken to? What is the occasion of the

poem? What is its cultural context? What’s the purpose of the poem? How do you know? How does the poem make you feel? What specifically about the language and/or

the form contributes to those feelings? What questions does the poem raise? What does it make you wonder about? What

specifically about the language and/or the form contributes to those thoughts? How do the words, structure, and/or rhythm contribute to the poem’s meaning? How does the author use repetition or other literary devices purposefully?

Your poetry commentaries are more formal than a diary or blog, but less formal than an English paper—feel free to experiment, and to take a stab at an idea about which you’re not certain. In other words, think on paper. Aim for 150-250 words, which is enough space to get some interesting, preliminary thoughts on paper. Hopefully you’ll find this to be a fun and engaging exercise.

Commentary on “The Man He Killed”:

Poetic Devices- Glossary

allegory A story in which people, things, and events have another meaning. Examples of allegory are Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and Orwell’s Animal Farm.

alliteration The repetition of identical or similar consonant sounds, normally at the beginning of words. “Gnus never know pneumonia” is an example of alliteration, because despite the spellings, all four words begin with the “n” sound.

allusion A reference in a work of literature to something outside the work, especially to a well-known historical or literary event, person, or work. Lorraine Hansberry’s title A Raisin in the Sun is an allusion to a phrase in a poem by Langston Hughes. When T. S. Eliot writes, “To have squeezed the universe into a ball” in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” he is alluding to the lines “Let us roll all our strength and all / Our sweetness up into one ball” in Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.” Ken Kesey’s title One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is an allusion to a children’s nursery rhyme.

apostrophe Direct address, usually to someone or something that is not present. Keats’s “Bright star! Would I were steadfast” is an apostrophe to a star, and “To Autumn” is an apostrophe to a personified season.

assonance The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. “A land laid waste with all its young men slain” repeats the same “a” sound in “laid,” “waste,” and “slain.”

ballad meter A 4-line stanza rhymed abcb with 4 feet in lines 1&3, 3 feet in lines 2&4.

O mother, mother make my bed.O make it soft and narrow.Since my love died for me today,I’ll die for him tomorrow.

blank verse Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Blank verse is the meter of most of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as that of Milton’s Paradise Lost:

Men called him Mulciber; and how he fellFrom heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry JoveSheer o’er the crystal battlements: from mornTo noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve.

connotation The implications of a word or phrase, as opposed to its exact meaning (denotation). Both China and Cathay denote a region in Asia, but to a modern reader, the associations of the two words are different. The name “Nurse Ratched” connotes negativity, sounding similar to the word “wretched.”

consonance the repetition of the same consonant sound two or more times in short succession, as in “pitter patter” or in “all mammals named Sam are clammy.”

denotation The dictionary meaning of a word, as opposed to its connotation.

elegy A solemn, sorrowful poem or meditation about death or for one who is dead.

end-stopped line A line with a pause at the end. Lines that end with a period, comma, colon, semicolon, exclamation point, or question mark are end-stopped lines.

enjambment Incomplete syntax at the end of a line of poetry; the meaning runs over from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation. Lines without enjambment are end-stopped. Example from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”:

April is the cruellest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.

epic a long, narrative poem that describes the history of a nation, community, or race. The central figure is the epic hero who experiences legendary, mythical adventures where he displays extraordinary strength, courage, and moral fiber against supernatural forces. Epic poems include Beowulf, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Paradise Lost.

epigram A pithy saying, often using contrast. Example from John Dryden: “Here lies my wife: here let her lie! / Now she’s at rest – and so am I.” Example from Nikos Kazantzakis: “I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”

euphemism A figure of speech using indirection to avoid offensive bluntness, such as “deceased” for “dead” or “remains” for “corpse.”

figurative language Writing that uses figures of speech (as opposed to literal language or that which is actual or specifically denoted) such as metaphor, simile, and irony. Figurative language uses words to mean something other than their literal meaning. “The black bat night has flown” is figurative, with the metaphor comparing night and a bat. “Night is over” says the same thing without figurative language. No real bat is or has been on the scene, but night is like a bat because it is dark.

foot a single rhythmical unit of verse

types of feet: 1. iamb: A two-syllable foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable. The iamb is the most common foot in English poetry. The rhythm can be written as: da DUM. The da-DUM of a human heartbeat is the most common example of this rhythm. The following line from John Keats‘ To Autumn is a straightforward example of iambic pentameter, meaning a line containing five iambs: “To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells.”

2. trochee A two-syllable foot with an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable. The rhythm can be written as: DA dum. Examples include pizza and chorus and planet and market and Memphis.

3. spondee A two-syllable foot with two accented syllables. Examples: football, Mayday, D-Day, heartbreak, Key West, shortcake, dead man, dumbbell, childhood.

4. anapest A metrical foot of three syllables: two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable. Examples: understand, interrupt, comprehend, anapest, New Rochelle, contradict, “get a life.”

5. dactyl A metrical foot of three syllables: an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. An example is the first line of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow‘s poem Evangeline, in which the first five feed of the line are dactyls: This is the / forest prim- / eval. The / murmuring / pines and the / hem locks,

free verse Poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but is still rhythmical. The poetry of Walt Whitman is perhaps the best known example of free verse.

genre the term used to categorize art, film, music, poetry, and other works based on style, content, or technique. Common literary genres include tragedy, comedy, lyric, and satire.

heroic couplet Two end-stopped iambic pentameter lines rhymed aa with the thought usually completed in the two-line unit. Shakespeare often employs heroic couplets at the ends of scenes in Othello. Examples from Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock”:

When those fair suns shall set, as set they must,And all those tresses shall be laid in dust,This lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame,And ‘midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name.

hexameter A line of poetry containing six feet.

hyperbole Deliberate exaggeration, overstatement. As a rule, hyperbole is self-conscious, without the intention of being accepted literally. “The strongest man in the world” and “a diamond as big as the Ritz” are hyperbolic.

imagery The images of a literary work; the sensory details of a work; the figurative language of a work. Imagery has several definitions, but the two that are paramount are the visual, auditory, or tactile images evoked by the words of a literary work or the images that figurative language evokes. When you are asked to discuss the images or imagery of a work, you should look especially carefully at the sensory details and the metaphors and similes of a passage. Some diction (word choice) is also imagery, but not all diction evokes sensory responses.

internal rhyme Rhyme that occurs within a line, rather than at the end. Line 3 of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” contains the internal rhyme of “so” and “bow”:

“God save thee, ancient Mariner! / From the friends, that plague thee thus!- / Why look’st thou so?” - With my crossbow / I shot the Albatross.

irony A figure of speech in which intent and actual meaning differ, characteristically praise for blame or blame for praise; a pattern of words that turns away from direct statement of its own obvious meaning. The term irony implies a discrepancy. In verbal irony (saying the opposite of what one means), the discrepancy is between statement and meaning, i.e. something is “soft as a brick” or “as pleasant as surgery.” Sometimes, irony may simply understate, as in “Men have died from time to time . . .”

1. verbal irony The use of words to mean something different than what the person actually means or says they mean.

2. situational irony The difference between what is expected to happen and actuality.

3. dramatic irony When the audience is more aware of what is happening than the characters.

jargon The special language of a profession or group. The term jargon usually has pejorative associations, with the implication that jargon is evasive, tedious, and unintelligible to outsiders. The writings of the lawyer and the literary critic are both susceptible to jargon.

lament a poem that expresses grief, not necessarily about death

metaphor A figurative use of language in which a comparison is expressed without the use of a comparative term like “as,” “like,” or “than.” Simile: “Night is like a black bat”; metaphor: “the black bat night.” When Romeo says, “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun,” his metaphors compare her window to the east and Juliet to the sun.

meter The pattern of repetition of stressed (or accented) and unstressed (or unaccented) syllables in a line of verse. Lines of verse that connect one or more feet.

onomatopoeia The use of words whose sound suggests their meaning. Examples are “buzz,” “hiss,” and “honk.”

overstatement and understatement figures of speech to intentionally make a situation seem more important or less important than it really is.

oxymoron A combination of opposites; the union of contradictory terms. Romeo’s line “feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health” has four examples of the device.

parable A story designed to suggest a principle, illustrate a moral, or answer a question. Parables are allegorical stories.

paradox A statement that seems to be self-contradicting but, in fact, is true. The figure in Donne’s holy sonnet that concludes I never shall be “chaste except you ravish me” is a good example of the device. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet says, “I must be cruel to be kind.” Hamlet is talking about his mother, and how he intends to kill Claudius revenge his father’s death. This act of Hamlet will be a tragedy for his mother who is married to

Claudius. Hamlet does not want his mother to be the beloved of his father’s murderer any longer, and so he thinks that the murder will be good for his mother.

parody A composition that imitates the style of another composition normally for comic effect. Many parodies have emerged in the wake of the erotic love novel phenomenon of Fifty Shades of Grey—Fifty Shades of Chicken cookbook, Selena Gomez’s Funny or Die “Fifty Shades of Blue” in which she falls in love with a house painter, etc.

pentameter A line containing five feet. The iambic pentameter (a line containing five iambs) is the most common line in English verse written before 1950.

personification A figurative use of language that endows the nonhuman (ideas,inanimate objects, animals, abstractions) with human characteristics. Examples:

Look at my car. She is a beauty, isn’t she? The wind whispered through dry grass. The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.

refrain phrase, line, or group of lines repeated at intervals throughout a poem, generally at the end of the stanza.

rhyme royal A seven-line stanza of iambic pentameter rhymed ababbcc, used by Chaucer and other medieval poets.

satire Writing that seeks to arouse a reader’s disapproval of an object by ridicule. Satire is usually comedy that exposes errors with an eye to correct vice and folly. A classical form, satire is found in the verse of Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson, the plays of Ben Jonson and Bernard Shaw, and the novels of Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

scansion the act of scanning (or analyzing) a line of verse based on feet and accent (strong and weak). When one scans an iamb, for example, one points out the da-DUM pattern of a weak and then a strong syllable; when one scans a trochee, one points out the DA-dum pattern of a strong and then a weak syllable.

simile A directly expressed comparison; a figure of speech comparing two objects, usually with “like,” “as,” or “than.” Examples: My love is like a fever; my love is deeper than a well; my love is as dead as a doornail.

sonnet Normally a fourteen-line iambic pentameter poem, often about the subject of love. The conventional Italian, or Petrachan, sonnet is rhymed abba, abba, cde, cde; the English, or Shakespearean, sonnet is rhymed abab, cdcd, efef, gg.

stanza Usually a repeated grouping of three or more lines with the same meter and rhyme scheme. A stanza is poetry’s equivalent of the paragraph in prose.

syllogism A form of reasoning in which two statements are made and a conclusion is drawn from them. A syllogism begins with a major premise (“All tragedies end

unhappily.”) followed by a minor premise (“Othello is a tragedy.”) and a conclusion (Therefore, “Othello ends unhappily.”).

symbol Something that is itself and also a sign of something else. Winter, darkness, and cold are real things, but in literature they are also likely to be used as symbols of death. Birds are real things, but in Wide Sargasso Sea they often portend danger.

syntax The structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words. For example, consider the length or brevity of the sentences, the kinds of sentences (questions, declarative sentences, rhetorical questions - or periodic or loose; simple, complex, or compound).

terza rima A three-line stanza rhymed aba, bcb, cdc. Dante’s Divine Comedy is written in terza rima.

tetrameter A line of four feet.

villanelle a nineteen-line poem with two rhymes throughout, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with the first and third lines of the opening tercet recurring alternately at the end of the other tercets and with both repeated at the close of the concluding quatrain.

Homework: Read Poems 1 and 2, answer the questions, and write a commentary about one of them.

1. The Lost PilotJames Tate (1943- )

for my father, 1922-1944

Your face did not rotlike the others—the co-pilot,   for example, I saw him

yesterday. His face is corn-mush: his wife and daughter,   the poor ignorant people, stare

as if he will compose soon.He was more wronged than Job.   But your face did not rot

like the others—it grew dark,and hard like ebony;the features progressed in their

distinction. If I could cajoleyou to come back for an evening,   down from your compulsive

orbiting, I would touch you,   read your face as Dallas,   your hoodlum gunner, now,

with the blistered eyes, reads   his braille editions. I wouldtouch your face as a disinterested

scholar touches an original page.   However frightening, I would   discover you, and I would not

turn you in; I would not make   you face your wife, or Dallas,   or the co-pilot, Jim. You

could return to your crazy   orbiting, and I would not try   

to fully understand what

it means to you. All I know   is this: when I see you,   as I have seen you at least

once every year of my life,   spin across the wilds of the sky   like a tiny, African god,

I feel dead. I feel as if I were   the residue of a stranger’s life,   that I should pursue you.

My head cocked toward the sky,   I cannot get off the ground,   and, you, passing over again,

fast, perfect, and unwilling   to tell me that you are doing   well, or that it was mistake

that placed you in that world,and me in this; or that misfortune   placed these worlds in us.

Who is the speaker of this poem? How do you know?

Who is the “you” in this poem? What is the speaker’s attitude towards the “you”? How do you know?

What words or phrases stand out to you about the poem? What feelings or thoughts do they evoke?

2. Suicide NoteLangston Hughes (1902-1967)

The calm, Cool face of the riverAsked me for a kiss.

Who is the speaker of this poem? How do you know?

Paraphrase the poem. What do you think it means?

Commentary on one of the poems (150-250 words):

Denotation and Connotation:

The average word has three component parts: notation, denotation, and connotation Notation: combination of tone and noises that make up a written word that has a

meaning Denotation: the dictionary meaning attached to a notation (may be multiple- use

context clues for specific meaning) Connotation: what the word suggests beyond what is expressed

Which word in the group has the most “romantic” connotation? steed, horse, nag king, ruler, tyrant, autocrat Chicago, Pittsburgh, Paris, Detroit

Which word in each group is the most emotionally connotative? Female parent, mother, dam Offspring, children, progeny Brother, sibling, bro

Arrange the words in each of the following groups from the most positive to most negative in connotation:

Skinny, thin, gaunt, slender Prosperous, loaded, moneyed, affluent Brainy, intelligent, egg-headed, smart

Homework: Read poems 3 and 4, answer the questions, and write a commentary on one of them.

3. One ArtElizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)

The art of losing isn’t hard to master;so many things seem filled with the intentto be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the flusterof lost door keys, the hour badly spent.The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:places, and names, and where it was you meantto travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, ornext-to-last, of three loved houses went.The art of losing isn’t hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gestureI love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evidentthe art of losing’s not too hard to masterthough it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Choose 2 words in the poem and write the denotative and connotative meanings for them. How do the connotations evoke a different feeling than the denotative meanings?

How does the context of the poem help you determine the connotative meanings behind the words you chose?

4. Roll Call for Michael BrownJason McCall (age unclear—probably in his 40s)

It will happen,an honest mistakein a hot August classroom.Someone will blinkat the name and swear this“Michael Brown” can’t bethat “Michael Brown.” Or someonewill be too busy with her head downfinishing syllabi to look up and see the flashgrenades and teargas. Someone will be runninglate, his mind on the copsthat will probably ticket himfor not having a permit.Someone won’t see why a nameis such a big deal. Someone willread his name like the next item on a listof groceries and move to the next studentbefore the first groan rumblesthrough the stale Missouri air.Someone will start to speakhis name and then cover his mouthlike a Roman priest closing Janus’s doorand praying all the violence of the world will stopshort of his porch. Someone will ask,“Michael Brown? Is Michael Brown here?”and we will all have to answer.

Jason McCall: “This poem was inspired by the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed black teen killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri. His death is one of the many recent cases of unarmed black males dying at the hands of police officers. He was scheduled to begin the college this semester.” August 17, 2014.

Choose 2 words in the poem and write the denotative and connotative meanings for them. How do the connotations evoke a different feeling than the denotative meanings?

How does the context of the poem help you determine the connotative meanings behind the words you chose?

Write a commentary (150-250 words) on one of the poems:

5. Living in SinAdrienne Rich (1929-2012)

She had thought the studio would keep itself;no dust upon the furniture of love. Half heresy, to wish the taps less vocal, the panes relieved of grime. A plate of pears, a piano with a Persian shawl, a catstalking the picturesque amusing mousehad risen at his urging.Not that at five each separate stair would writheunder the milkman’s tramp; that morning lightso coldly would delineate the scrapsof last night’s cheese and three sepulchral bottles;that on the kitchen shelf among the saucersa pair of beetle-eyes would fix her own–envoy from some village in the moldings…Meanwhile, he, with a yawn, sounded a dozen notes upon the keyboard, declared it out of tune, shrugged at the mirror, rubbed at his beard, went out for a cigarettes;while she, jeered by the mirror demons, pulled back the sheets and made the bed and founda towel to dust the table-top, and let the coffee-pot boil over on the stove. By evening she was back in love again, though not so wholly but throughout the nightshe woke sometimes to feel the daylight cominglike a relentless milkman up the stairs. 

Annotate the poem for imagery, along with the types of senses evoked (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, or organic).

Pick one image: Is the image literal or conceptual? What is the author’s purpose in bringing this image to life?

Are the various images complementary, or are they contrasting images? What effect does this have on the message of the poem?

Homework: Read Poem 6, answer the questions, and write a commentary.

6. The Youngest DaughterCathy Song (1955- )

The sky has been darkfor many years.My skin has become as dampand pale as rice paperand feels the waymother’s used to before the drying sun   parched it out there in the fields.

Lately, when I touch my eyelids,my hands react as ifI had just touched somethinghot enough to burn.My skin, aspirin colored,   tingles with migraine. Motherhas been massaging the left side of my face   especially in the evenings   when the pain flares up.

This morningher breathing was graveled,her voice gruff with affection   when I wheeled her into the bath.   She was in a good humor,making jokes about her great breasts,   floating in the milky waterlike two walruses,flaccid and whiskered around the nipples.   I scrubbed them with a sour taste   in my mouth, thinking:six children and an old manhave sucked from these brown nipples.

I was almost tenderwhen I came to the blue bruisesthat freckle her body,places where she has been injecting insulin   for thirty years. I soaped her slowly,she sighed deeply, her eyes closed.It seems it has alwaysbeen like this: the two of usin this sunless room,

the splashing of the bathwater.

In the afternoonswhen she has rested,she prepares our ritual of tea and rice,   garnished with a shred of gingered fish,a slice of pickled turnip,a token for my white body.   We eat in the familiar silence.She knows I am not to be trusted,   even now planning my escape.   As I toast to her healthwith the tea she has poured,a thousand cranes curtain the window,fly up in a sudden breeze.

Annotate the poem for imagery, along with the types of senses evoked (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, or organic).

Pick one image: What is the author’s purpose in bringing this image to life?

What is the speaker’s attitude towards her mother? How do you know, and how does the imagery help evoke this attitude? Refer to specific images.

Write a commentary (150-250 words) on Poem 6:

Homework: Read Poems 8 and 9 and answer the questions.

8. MetaphorsSylvia Plath (1932-1963)

I’m a riddle in nine syllables,An elephant, a ponderous house,A melon strolling on two tendrils,O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

This poem is a riddle to be solved by identifying the literal terms of its metaphors. Annotate the metaphors and guess at their meanings. What do you think this poem is about? How do you know? If you’re unsure, take a guess! (Don’t cheat and look it up!)

Okay, if you haven’t yet “solved” the riddle, look it up. Pick one of the metaphors and explain its meaning. What is its tone? How does it help explain the speaker’s attitude toward her condition?

Is the poem a celebration or a complaint? How do you know?

9. Dream DeferredLangston Hughes (1902-1967)

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 ?

Who is the speaker here, and how do you know?

Identify an image in the poem. What sense is being used (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, or organic) and how effective is it in evoking a vivid image?

Annotate the poem for similes and personification. Explain how these uses of figurative language help convey the poem’s theme/message.

What do you think the tone of the poem is? What do you make of the last line?

10. --Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.Whatever I see I swallow immediatelyjust as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.I am not cruel, only truthful—the eye of a little god, four-cornered.Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so longI think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,Searching my reaches for what she really is.Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.I am important to her. She comes and goes.Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old womanRises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

Annotate the poem for figurative language. Discuss each phrase in a small group. What do you think the poem is describing?

I’ve left off the title of this poem. What do you think the title is? Why? (Don’t cheat and look it up!)

Once you figure out the title (we’ll review as a class), consider: How does the figurative language help contribute to the meaning of the poem?

11. DiggingSeamus Heaney (1939-2013)

Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Against the inside knee was levered firmly.He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deepTo scatter new potatoes that we picked,Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a dayThan any other man on Toner’s bog.Once I carried him milk in a bottleCorked sloppily with paper. He straightened upTo drink it, then fell to right awayNicking and slicing neatly, heaving sodsOver his shoulder, going down and downFor the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slapOf soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edgeThrough living roots awaken in my head.But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumbThe squat pen rests.I’ll dig with it.

Annotate the poem for symbols. What do you think they represent?

What comments does the poem make through its symbol(s)?

How does this poem function as an allegory? What is the lesson learned?

Homework: Find a poem that uses symbols or allegory that you find to be interesting. Print out or copy down the poem. Write a commentary (150-250 words) on that poem.

Love Poems:

12. may i feel said he e.e. cummings (1894-1962)

may i feel said he(i’ll squeal said shejust once said he)it’s fun said she

(may i touch said hehow much said shea lot said he)why not said she

(let’s go said henot too far said shewhat’s too far said hewhere you are said she)

may i stay said he(which way said shelike this said heif you kiss said she

may i move said heis it love said she)if you’re willing said he(but you’re killing said she

but it’s life said hebut your wife said shenow said he)ow said she

(tiptop said hedon’t stop said sheoh no said he)go slow said she

(cccome?said heummm said she)you’re divine!said he(you are Mine said she)

13. SeparationJames Wright (1927-1980)

Your absence has gone through meLike a thread through a needle.Everything I do is stitched in color.

14. Leaning Into The Afternoons Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Leaning into the afternoons I cast my sad netstowards your oceanic eyes.

There in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens and flames,its arms turning like a drowning man’s.

I send out red signals across your absent eyesthat move like the sea near a lighthouse.

You keep only darkness, my distant female,from your regard sometimes the coast of dread emerges.

Leaning into the afternoons I fling my sad netsto that sea that beats on your marine eyes.

The birds of night peck at the first starsthat flash like my soul when I love you.

The night gallops on its shadowy mareshedding blue tassels over the land.

15. A GlimpseWalt Whitman (1819-1892)

A glimpse through an interstice caught,Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.

16. Sorting LaundryElisavietta Ritchie (1932- )

Folding clothes,I think of folding youinto my life.

Our king-sized sheetslike table clothsfor the banquets of giants,

pillow cases, despite so manywashings seams stillholding our dreams.

Towels patterned orange and green,flowered pink and lavender,gaudy, bought on sale,

reserved, we said, for the beach,refusing, even after years,to bleach into respectability.

So many shirts and skirts and pantsrecycling week after week, head over heelsrecapitulating themselves.

All those wrinklesto be smoothed, or elseignored, they’re in style.

Myriad uncoupled sockswhich went paired into the foamlike those creatures in the ark.

And what’s shrunkis tough to discardeven for Goodwill.

In pockets, surprises: forgotten matches,lost screws clinking on enamel;

paper clips, whatever they heldbetween shiny jaws, nowdissolved or clogging the drain;

well-washed dollars, legal tenderfor all debts public and private,intact despite agitation;

and, gleaming in the maelstrom,one bright dime,broken necklace of good gold

you brought from Kuwait,the strangely tailored shirtleft by a former lover...

If you were to leave me,if I were to foldonly my own clothes,

the convexes and concavesof my blouses, panties, stockings, brasturned upon themselves,

a mountain of unsorted washcould not fillthe empty side of the bed.

Discuss this poem, including its usage of overstatement, and how the overstatement works to enhance the meaning of the poem. Jot down notes.

Jot down 2-3 discussion questions for your classmates based on this poem, and work to answer the questions yourself.

17. History TeacherBilly Collins (1941- )

Trying to protect his students’ innocencehe told them the Ice Age was really justthe Chilly Age, a period of a million yearswhen everyone had to wear sweaters.

And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,named after the long driveways of the time.

The Spanish Inquisition was nothing morethan an outbreak of questions such as“How far is it from here to Madrid?”“What do you call the matador’s hat?”

The War of the Roses took place in a garden,and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atomon Japan.

The children would leave his classroomfor the playground to torment the weakand the smart,mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,

while he gathered up his notes and walked homepast flower beds and white picket fences,wondering if they would believe that soldiersin the Boer War told long, rambling storiesdesigned to make the enemy nod off.

Discuss this poem, including its usage of understatement, and how the understatement works to enhance the meaning of the poem. Jot down notes.

Jot down 2-3 discussion questions for your classmates based on this poem, and work to answer the questions yourself.

18. in the inner cityLucille Clifton (1936-2010)

In the inner cityOrLike we call itHomeWe think a lot about uptownAnd the silent nightsAnd the houses straight asDead menAnd the pastel lightsAnd we hang on to our no placeHappy to be aliveAnd in the inner cityOr Like we call ithome

Discuss, in what context is the term “inner city” often used, and what is it usually meant to imply? Jot down notes.

What are the connotations of “silent nights” (6), “straight as / dead men” (7-8) and “pastel lights” (9)? By implication, what contrasting qualities might be found in the life of the inner city?

Discuss the usage of irony in the poem.

Jot down 2-3 discussion questions for your classmates based on this poem, and work to answer the questions yourself.

Homework: Read Poem 19 and 20, answer the questions, and write a commentary about one of the poems (or about 16, 17, or 18—not the one you discussed in groups in class).

19. IncidentCountee Cullen (1903-1946)

Once riding in old BaltimoreHeart-filled, head-filled with glee,

I saw a BaltimoreanKeep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked outHis tongue, and called me “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of BaltimoreFrom May until December;

Of all the things that happened thereThat’s all that I remember.

Who is the speaker and what is the occasion of this poem?

Comment on the title. Does it match up with the subject of the poem?

What accounts for the effectiveness of the last stanza?

Does the last stanza understate or overstate Cullen’s reaction? Explain with evidence.

20. Barbie DollMarge Piercy (1936- )

This girlchild was born as usualand presented dolls that did pee-peeand miniature GE stoves and ironsand wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,possessed strong arms and back,abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.She went to and fro apologizing.Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,exhorted to come on hearty,exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.Her good nature wore outlike a fan belt.So she cut off her nose and her legsand offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she laywith the undertaker’s cosmetics painted on,a turned-up putty nose,dressed in a pink and white nightie.Doesn’t she look pretty? everyone said.Consummation at last.To every woman a happy ending.

Discuss the contrasts between the living girl described in this poem and a Barbie doll.

What’s irony in phrase “the magic of puberty” and in the last 3 lines?

What is the target of this poem’s satire?

Write a commentary on Poem 19 or 20 (or on Poem 16, 17, or 18—not the poem your small group discussed in class)—150-250 words:

Understanding Rhythm:

21. Sonnet 19William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,And look upon myself, and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth bringsThat then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Types of rhyme:

Masculine rhyme:

Feminine rhyme:

Internal rhyme:

End rhyme:

Approximate rhyme:

Homework: Read Poem 22 and answer the questions.

22. My Mistress’ EyesWilliam Shakespeare (1564-1616)

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

Annotate the poem for the rhyme scheme. What kind of poem is this?

Who is the speaker and who is the subject of the poem? How does the speaker feel about the subject and about love in general?

What is the poem’s tension and how is it resolved in the end?

Musical elements in poetry:

Refrain:

Repetition of syllable sound:

o Alliteration

o Assonance

o Consonance

o Assonance + Consonance =

Homework: Read Poems 23 and 24 and answer the questions.

23. That night when joy beganW. H. Auden (1907-1973)

That night when joy beganOur narrowest veins to flush,We waited for the flashOf morning’s leveled gun.

But morning let us pass,And day by day reliefOutgrows his nervous laugh,Grown credulous of peace,As mile by mile is seenNo trespasser’s reproach,And love’s best glasses reachNo fields but are his own.

Who is the speaker of this poem and who is the “we”?

What has been the past experience of the two people in the poem? What is their present experience? So what has changed and how do you know?

What basic metaphor underlies the poem? This is tricky: Try and work it out stanza by stanza.

What is “the flash/ Of morning’s leveled gun” (3-4)? What are the possible different meanings of “glasses” (11)?

The rhyme pattern in this poem is intricate and exact. Work it out, considering alliteration, assonance, and consonance. Annotate examples of each in the poem.

24. We Wear the MaskPaul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

We wear the mask that grins and lies,It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—This debt we pay to human guile;With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,In counting all our tears and sighs?Nay, let them only see us, while               We wear the mask.We smile, but, O great Christ, our criesTo thee from tortured souls arise.We sing, but oh the clay is vileBeneath our feet, and long the mile;But let the world dream otherwise,               We wear the mask!

Explain the extended metaphor explored throughout the poem. Based on this metaphor, what guesses can you make about the speaker’s identity?

A refrain is a repeated line or group of lines. Annotate for the rhyme scheme and then note how the refrain interrupts the rhyme scheme. How does this interruption emphasize the theme?

Annotate the poem for alliteration and assonance. Now annotate for internal rhyme. How do these elements contribute to or reinforce the meaning of the poem?

Meter and Scansion

Rhythm is the pattern of stresses in a line of verse. When you speak, you stress some syllables and leave others unstressed. When you string a lot of words together, you start seeing patterns.

Pauses in poetry:

End-stopped line: the end of a line corresponds with a natural speech pause Enjambment: the line moves on without pause into the next line Caesuras: a pause that occurs within a line.

Meter: Traditional forms of verse use established rhythmic patterns called meters (meter means “measure” in Greek). Meter is a generally regular pattern of stressed ( / ) and unstressed (^) syllables in poetry or verse. Just as we can measure distance in meters, we can measure the beats in a poem in meter.

Each rhythmic unit is called a foot, the individual building blocks of meter.

Here are the most common feet, the rhythms they represent, and an example of each:

Iamb: duh-DUH: “collapse” Trochee: DUH-duh: “pizza” Anapest: duh-duh-DUH: “but of course!” Dactyl: DUH-duh-duh: “honestly”

Repetition of feet: To build a line of verse, poets can string together repetitions of one of these feet. Such repetitions are named as follows:

1 foot: monometer 2 feet: dimeter 3 feet: trimeter4 feet: tetrameter 5 feet: pentameter 6 feet: hexameter

Scanning verse:

Stressed syllables are marked with a ( / ) above the syllable Unstressed syllables are marked with a (^) above the syllable Each foot is separated by a line

Examples:

^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /The falling out of faithful friends, renewing is of love

/ ^ / ^ / ^ / ^Double, double toil and trouble

Scan the following:

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks

The whiskey on your breath

Had we but world enough, and time

Purpose: Just as a poet might change the rhyme scheme for a specific purpose, a change in meter might indicate that the poet is trying to change the topic or make some other type of transition.

Consistent meter also shows a high level of intelligence or status. Shakespeare usually had his noble characters (e.g., kings, queens, generals) speak in iambic pentameter, but his lower characters (e.g., servants and peasants) would speak in regular language.

Terminology of stanza types:

2 lines: couplet 3 lines: tercet 4 lines: quatrain5 lines: quintain 6 lines: sestet 7 lines: septet 8 lines: octave

Homework: Read Poems 25 and 26, and answer the questions.

25. To My Dear and Loving HusbandAnne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

If ever wife was happy in a man,

Compare with me ye women if you can.

I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,

Or all the riches that the East doth hold.

My love is such that rivers cannot quench,

Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.

Thy love is such I can no way repay;

The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.

Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,

That when we live no more we may live ever.

Scan the poem and identify its meter (note: “ever” is pronounced as one syllable, as in “e’er”).

What is the message of the poem? How does the meter affect the message?

26. OzymandiasPercy Bysshe Shelley (1792-122)

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert… Near them on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Scan the poem and identify its meter.

In order to make the meter regular in certain lines, do you have to change the way you pronounce certain words? Note a few examples.

Who is the speaker of the poem? What is the poem saying? Annotate it line by line.

How does the meter affect the message of the poem?

More practice with scansion:

27. The Tropics of New YorkClaude McKay (1889-1948)

Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root

Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,

And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,

Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,

Sat in the window, bringing memories

of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,

And dewy dawns, and mystical skies

In benediction over nun-like hills.

My eyes grow dim, and I could no more gaze;

A wave of longing through my body swept,

And, hungry for the old, familiar ways

I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.

Work alone or with a partner to scan the above poem.

28. In Media ResMichael McFee (1955- )

His waist,like the plot,thickens, weddingpants now breathtaking,belt no longer the cinchit once was, belly’s cambiumexpanding to match each birthday,his body a wad of anonymous tissueswung in the same centrifuge of yearsthat separates a house from its foundation,undermining sidewalks grim with joggersand loose-filled graves and familiesand stars collapsing on themselves,no preservation society capableof plugging entropy’s dike,under the zipper’s sneera belly hibernation-soft, ready forthe kill.

What is the pattern of the poem and how does it make sense?

What deeper comments does the poem make through symbols? What do you think each of the symbols represents?

29. l(ae.e. cummings (1894-1962)

l(a le af fa ll s) one l iness

Write the poem out on one line, adding spaces and punctuation where you believe appropriate. Does this change your understanding? What does the poem mean?

Why do you think the author chose to write the poem spread out over so many lines? What does this accomplish?

Would the poem retain its meaning if the parentheses were removed? Explain.

Homework: Write your own concrete/shape poem. Bonus if you can use Wordly Wise Chapter 9 words.

Emulation: Imitating the form, function, and literary style of another work—using it as a guide in order to create an entirely new work.

30. This is just to sayWilliam Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

This is just to sayI have eatenthe plumsthat were inthe icebox

and which you were probablysavingfor breakfast

Forgive me they were deliciousso sweet so cold

Student emulation:

This is just to sayI have ignoredthe linkthat was inyour post

and whichyou were probablyhoping for praise

Forgive meit was lengthyso hugeand so long.

Now try your own emulation:

31. WhatifShel Silverstein (1930-1999)

Last night, while I lay thinking here,some Whatifs crawled inside my earand pranced and partied all night longand sang their same old Whatif song:Whatif I’m dumb in school?Whatif they’ve closed the swimming pool?Whatif I get beat up?Whatif there’s poison in my cup?Whatif I start to cry?Whatif I get sick and die?Whatif I flunk that test?Whatif green hair grows on my chest?Whatif nobody likes me?

Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?Whatif I don’t grow talle?Whatif my head starts getting smaller?Whatif the fish won’t bite?Whatif the wind tears up my kite?Whatif they start a war?Whatif my parents get divorced?Whatif the bus is late?Whatif my teeth don’t grow in straight?Whatif I tear my pants?Whatif I never learn to dance?Everything seems well, and thenthe nighttime Whatifs strike again!

Choose a particular way to emulate the poem and use the space below or to the right of the poem to write down your emulation. Think about your decisions as a writer.

Homework: Write (or type) out an emulation of Poem 32, “Where I’m From.” You must be willing to share at least a stanza with the class. Have fun with the activity!

32. Where I’m FromGeorge Ella Lyon (1949- )

I am from clothespins,from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride*.I am from dirt under the back porch.(Black, glistening,it tasted like beets.)I am from the forsythia bushthe Dutch elmwhose long-gone limbs I rememberas if they were my own.

I’m from fudge and eyeglassesfrom Imogene and Alafair**.

I’m from the know-it-allsand pass-it-nos,

From Perk up! and Pipe down!I’m from He restoreth my soul

with a cottonball lamband ten verses I can say myself.

I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,fried corn and strong coffee.From the finger my grandfather lost

to the auger,the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress boxspilling old pictures,a sift of lost facesto drift beneath my dreams.I am from those moments—snapped before I budded—leaf-fall from the family tree.

*chemical used in some fire extinguishers and dry cleaning**names of women in the neighborhood

33. We Real CoolGwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)

The Pool Players.Seven At The Golden Shovel.

We real cool. WeLeft school. We

Lurk Late. WeStrike Straight. We

Sing sin. WeThin gin. We

Jazz June. WeDie soon.

Who is the speaker and what is the occasion of this poem?

What irony can you identify?

This poem uses “enjambment,” in which sentences run over from one line to the next. Try reading it with the pronouns at the start of lines instead of at the end. What is lost?

Try emulating this poem:

What is a sonnet?

34. Sonnet 147William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

My love is as a fever, longing stillFor that which longer nurseth the disease,Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,The uncertain sickly appetite to please.

My reason, the physician to my love,Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,Hath left me, and I desp’rate now approveDesire is death, which physic did except.

Past cure am I, now reason is past care,And frantic mad with evermore unrest,My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,At random from the truth vainly expressed;

For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

How many lines are there?

How many stanzas?

How many lines per stanza (and what are these types of stanzas called)?

What is the rhyme scheme?

What is the rhythm of each line? Try scanning a few lines.

What does the poem mean and how does the structure/form help convey the meaning? Focus in on the meaning of each stanza and how the poem progresses—particularly in the last 2 lines.

35 and 36. Japanese Haiku

[unnamed] [unnamed]Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) Arakita Morikate (1473-1549)

The lightning flashes! The falling flowerAnd slashing through the darkness I saw drift back to the branchA night-heron’s screech. Was a butterfly.(translated by Earl Miner) (translated by Babette Deutsch)

From these two examples, what would you say are the characteristics of effective haiku?

37-39. Limericks

There was an Old Man of Nantucket A bather whose clothing was strewedWho kept all his cash in a bucket. By winds that left her quite nudeHis daughter, called Nan, Saw a man come alongRan away with a man, And unless we are wrongAnd as for the bucket, Nantucket. You expected this line to be lewd.

- Anonymous - Anonymous

There was an old man with a beardWho said, “it’s just how I feared! Two owls and a hen Four larks and a wren Have all built their nests in my beard.

- Anonymous

What meter and rhyme schemes do you notice in limericks?

What themes and tone do you notice emerging as a pattern in this poetic form?

40. Someone Puts a Pineapple TogetherWallace Stevens (1879-1955)

The hut stands by itself beneath the palms.Out of their bottle the green genii come.A vine has climbed the other side of the wall.

The sea is spouting upward out of rocks.The symbol of feasts and of oblivion.White sky, pink, sun, trees on a distant peak.

The lozenges are nailed-up lattices.The owl sits humped. It has a hundred eyes.The cocoanut and cockerel in one.

This is how yesterday’s volcano looks.There is an island Palahude by name –An uncivil shape like a gigantic haw.

These casual exfoliations areOf the tropic of resemblance, sprigsOf Capricorn or as the sign demands,

Apposites, to the slightest edge, of the wholeUndescribed composition of the sugar-cone,Shiftings of an inchoate crystal tableau,The momentary footings of a climbUp the pineapple.

41. To a daughter leaving homeLinda Pastan (1932- )

When I taught youat eight to ridea bicycle, loping alongbeside youas you wobbled awayon two round wheels,my own mouth roundingin surprise when you pulledahead down the curvedpath of the park,I kept waitingfor the thudof your crash as Isprinted to catch up,while you grewsmaller, more breakablewith distance,pumping, pumpingfor your life, screamingwith laughter,the hair flappingbehind you like ahandkerchief wavinggoodbye.

(just for fun)42. Did I Miss Anything?Tom Wayman (1945- )

Nothing. When we realized you weren’t hereWe sat with our hands folded on our desksIn silence, for the full two hours.

Everything. I gave an exam worth40 percent of the grade for this termand assigned some reading due todayon which I’m about to hand out a quizworth 50 percent.

Nothing. None of the content of this courseHas value or meaningTake as many days off as you like:Any activities we undertake as a classI assure you will not matter either to you or meAnd are without purpose.

Everything. A few minutes after we began last timeA shaft of light suddenly descended and an angelOr other heavenly being appearedAnd revealed to us what each woman or man must doTo attain divine wisdom in this life andThe hereafterThis is the last time the class will meetBefore we disperse to bring the good news to all peopleOn earth.

Nothing. When you are not presentHow could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroomIs a microcosm of human experienceAssembled for you to query and examine and ponderThis is not the only place such an opportunity has beenGathered

But it was one placeAnd you weren’t here.