Finding Poetry in Prose and Prose in Poetry: Discrete SkillsHeart of Darkness

Poetry vs. Prose

Prose Poetry• From Latin prosa meaning

straightforward• Also connotes everyday

speech.• Artful prose employs

literary devices.

• Any Rhythmical or Metrical Composition

• Intricate Structure• Evokes Emotional and

Intellectual Response• Rich and Intricate Levels of

Meaning

Poetry vs. Prose

• Vers libre [free verse] has not even the excuse of a polemic; it is a battle-cry of freedom, and there is no freedom in art. And as the so-called vers libre, which is good is anything but 'free', it can better be defended under some other label.

• T.S. Eliot• REFLECTIONS ON VERS LIBRE

Rhetoric vs Prosady

Rhetoric Prosody• The Art of Persuasion

through speaking and writing

• Artful use of stylistic devices to:– Persuade– Praise or Blame– Create Guilt or Innocence

• The Study of Versification, especially– Meter– Rhyme– Rhythm– Sound Patterns

Synonyms

Poetry Prose• Words• Phrases• Sentences• Paragraphs• Chapters

• Syllables• Feet• Lines• Stanzas• Cantos

Figures of Speech

Rhetorical Figures Tropes• Language used to create

special effects:– Antithesis– Apostrophe– Chiasmus– Parallelism– Rhetorical Question– Syllepsis– Zeugma

• To turn or twist the meaning of a word or phrase to make it mean something else– Metaphor– Simile– Metonymy– Synecdoche– Personification

Common Elements of Poetic Prose

• Fragmentation• Compression• Repetition• Rhyme• Epithets

• Inversion, • Lengthy Periodic

Sentences • Nouns and Abstracts

Before Verbs, • Antithesis

Loose and Periodic Sentences

Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzenmast.

Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzenmast.

He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol

He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol.

Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzenmast.

Adverbial Phrases

Marlow sat cross-legged right aft, leaning against the mizzenmast.

He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol

Epithets or Adjective Phrases

He had sunken cheeks, a yellow complexion, a straight back, an ascetic aspect, and with his arms dropped, the palms of hands outwards, resembled an idol

Marlow’s first words about the Manager

• My first interview with the manager was curious.

• PERIODIC SENTENCE• SIMPLE SENTENCE

• He had no learning and no intelligence.• PERIODIC SENTENCE• Litote• Parallel

Short Periodic Sentence

• But he was great.