eng 260 guide to reading and writing about literature presentation 5: poetry eng 260—literature of...

ENG 260 GUIDE TO READING AND WRITING

ABOUT LITERATURE

Presentation 5: Poetry

ENG 260—Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 2

This presentation will discuss

• what poetry is• elements of poetry • how to read a poem• writing about poetry

Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 3

What is poetry?

In contrast to prose, which is the normal use of language for communication in both fiction and non-fiction, poetry is a special use of language.

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 4

Poetic language is– concise but rich– usually not literal (relies heavily on

connotation, i.e. meanings associated with a word beyond its literal one)

– meant to appeal to senses and emotions– dependent on sound, both of individual

words and whole phrases

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 5

All poems have a “speaker” (or “persona” or “voice”); unlike other forms of imaginative literature (fiction and drama), the speaker is usually identified with the author (poet) but they are not necessarily the same.

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 6

Most poems are quite short, but some, called “narrative” poems, can be rather long and have several characters and a plot, just like drama (in fact, some plays are written in poetry or “verse”). Very long narrative poems are called “epic” poems.

Song lyrics can also be considered poetry.

Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 7

The elements of poetry

• basic unit: the line (may or may not be a complete sentence and have punctuation at the end

• stanza-a group of lines separated by a space (usually grouped for a reason, e.g. rhyme, unit of thought)

• couplet-two consecutive lines of a poem that rhyme and/or have the same meter

• quatrain-a stanza or whole poem of four linesmore . . .

Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 8

Features of poetry:– rhyme: lines ending in identical or

similar syllables (external rhyme) or containing identical/similar syllables (internal rhyme)• consecutive lines may rhyme, or the

pattern may be different (e.g. abab)• poems without rhyme are called “free

verse”

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 9

– rhythm (or prosody): measured by meter • basic unit of meter: the foot (a

combination of stressed and unstressed syllables)

• click here to view names for different rhythmic patterns in poetry

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 10

– sound• alliteration (repetition of consonants, especially at the

beginning of words)• assonance (repetition of vowel

sounds)• onomatopeia (words sounding like

natural sounds)

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 11

– syntax (arrangement of words)• syntax in poetry is often very free;

words are often out of their normal order

– other literary devices mentioned in Presentation 1

• click here to view ones often encountered in poetry

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 12

– other characteristics of poetry

• personification (ascribing human properties

to an inanimate object)• hyperbole (exaggeration) and

understatement• irony

Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 13

How to read a poem

• read it a few times first for literal meaning and general impressions

• then read it several more times and closely for deeper meaning, larger themes

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 14

• analyze each line and stanza; look for various poetic elements as described above and think how they add to the overall meaning of the poem

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 15

• try to read the poem out loud or listen to it read for you; remember that poetry is meant primarily to be heard, so pay particular attention to the sound of the poem

Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 16

Writing about poetry

• poems can be written about by themselves, i.e. you can do an explication (close analysis) of a poem or a comparative analysis of two or more poems– apply your interpretation of the poem and

its elements

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 17

• you can also compare poetry when writing about other forms of literature (the analysis of poetry here will usually be less intense)

Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 18

conventions: • put titles of poems in quotation

marks (some long narrative or epic poem titles go in italics)

• when quoting two whole lines or from two lines of a poem, separate the lines with a forward slash ( / ), with a space on each side

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Literature of Sports, Fall 2002

ENG 260 Guide to Reading and Writing about Literature

Presentation 5, Slide 19

• when quoting more than two lines, keep the lines separate and set them off with indentation (and don’t use quotation marks)

• give the line number of each line quoted (e.g. “(2)”, “(3-5)”