Looking at Poetry Literary Devices Interpreting the Meaning Behind the Words

UntitledPoised between going on and back, pulled

Both ways taut like a tightrope-walker,Fingertips pointing the opposites.

Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ballOr a kid skipping rope, come on, come on,

Running a scattering of steps sidewise,How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases,Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,

Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate—now!

THE BASE STEALERPoised between going on and back, pulled

Both ways taut like a tightrope-walker,Fingertips pointing the opposites.

Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ballOr a kid skipping rope, come on, come on,

Running a scattering of steps sidewise,How he teeters, skitters, tingles, teases,Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,

Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate—now!-Robert Francis

Literary devices ?

Metaphor?• Is the “The Base Stealer” explicitly about a baseball

player?• Or is it a metaphor about life?(Look beyond the literal meaning and suggest the metaphorical interpretations of the poem)

>To the outside eye, “The Base Stealer” is just an abstract poem about getting a good jump off the pitcher while on first base. What it really is, however, is a depiction of the scattered split second thoughts bouncing around anyone’s head before a decision he or she makes.

>In short, the moment just before base stealing is a tense one, a battle of nerves between the runner and the pitcher. Like many of life’s experiences, it is also a battle between the runner and himself, a test of his poise and daring. It is this moment that the poem examines.

Interpretations

• “Poised between going on and back” Making a decision to move forward and take a chance, or stay…• “Pulled both ways like a tightrope walker”Life is full of difficult decisions that pull us in opposing directions• “He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,

Delicate, delicate, delicate, delicate—now!”

Finally taking that chance, and going for what you want

Literary Terms

•1) Assonance

•2) Alliteration

•3) Onomatopoeia

•4) Repetition

•5) Allusion

•6) Hyperbole

•7) Metaphor

• 8) Simile • 9) Personification • 10) Paradox • 11) Pun • 12) Oxymoron • 13) Irony • 14) Imagery

ALLITERATION vs ASSONANCE

Alliteration is a repetition of beginning consonant sounds. Assonance is a repeated vowel sound within a word.

Identify whether the statements below contain either an alliteration or an assonance. ___ 1. Pride is alive in ninety-five___ 2. The big blue blimp blew by the building.___ 3. The sunset splashed down the sky.___ 4. She balanced upon the high wire.___ 5. The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees.___ 6. The boys coldly spoke.___ 7. How now brown cow.

SIMILES vs METAPHORSA simile is a comparison using the word like or as. A metaphor is an implied comparison.

Identify whether the statements below contain either a metaphor or a simile

___ 1. Her hair was as soft as silk.___ 2. The stadium was a ghost town after the game.___ 3. That joke is as old as Greece.___ 4. Larry’s friend has a heart of stone.___ 5. Like a contented cat, the baby fell asleep.___ 6. The candle on the table flickered like a firefly.___ 7. The river is a blue ribbon winding through the mountains.___ 8. Jane’s legs turned to marshmallows every time she saw Jeff.___ 9. The silken waves caressed her.

ONOMATOPOEIA vs PERSONIFICATION

Onomatopoeia is a word which imitates a sound. Personification means giving a human quality to something not human.

Identify whether the statements below contain either an onomatopoeia or a personification.

___ 1. We heard the screech of his tires.___ 2. Dancing leaves played in the wind.___ 3. The stars looked down on the campers.___ 4. We walked through the lonely woods.___ 5. The tick-tock of the clock kept me awake.___ 6. The door blew shut with a bang.___ 7. The arms of the rainbow stretched across the sky.___ 8. The snake hissed in the grass.___ 9. The book spoke to me of lands far away.

OXYMORON & HYPERBOLEAn oxymoron is a seeming contradiction. Hyperbole is an exaggeration for effect.

Identify whether the statements below contain either an oxymoron or a hyperbole.

___ 1. He always kills me when he tells that joke.___ 2. It looked pretty ugly outside.___ 3. I am so excited I could explode.___ 4. I cried a river of tears when we broke up.___ 5. The dessert tasted awfully good.___ 6. My father went on a working vacation to Las Vegas.___ 7. I am so excited I could just scream.___ 8. They are selling jumbo shrimp!

Paradox At the most basic level, a paradox is an apparently contradictory statement, with an element of truth in it.

NOTE: Unlike oxymoron, paradox uses many words, even a whole paragraph, to explain a thing. Paradox is a typically a true statement, which seems to lead to some contradiction.

Examples: Fair is Foul and Foul is FairDrowning in the fountain of eternal lifeDeep down, you're really shallow…

Allusion vs Imagery

An allusion is a reference to another work of literature, person, or eventImagery is descriptions that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, taste)

Identify whether the statements below contain either imagery or allusion. ___ 1. Her blue eyes were as bright as the Sun, blue as the sky, but soft as silk___ 2. Her face blossomed when she caught a glance of him___ 3. This place is like a Garden of Eden.___ 4. The eerie silence was shattered by her scream.___ 5. You are a Solomon when it comes to making decisions___ 6. I thought the software would be useful, but it was a Trojan Horse.

Irony vs Pun Irony (Dramatic Irony): irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.Puns are play on words, sometimes on different senses of the same word

Identify whether the statements below contain either irony or pun.___ 1. Watching the movie Titanic ___ 2. “This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses.”___ 3. A chicken farmer's favorite car is a coupe___ 4. A boiled egg every morning is hard to beat___ 5. Reading while sunbathing makes you well red___ 6. Scary movie, knowing the killer is behind the door.

Repetition

Repetition is the simple repeating of a word, within a sentence or a poetical line, with no particular placement of the words, in order to secure emphasis.Examples:

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Though wise men at their end know dark is right,Because their words had forked no lightning theyDo not go gentle into that good night.

Farce, Parody and Satire Although the three devices mentioned here might share some fundamental elements, they are meant to serve very distinct purposes!A Parody (spoof) is essentially imitative work. It uses the skeleton of an original work and adds its own comedic elements that strive towards either exaggerating the flaws of the original work or trivializing it. A Satire on the other hand uses irony, and in some cases, exaggeration to expose vices and shortcomings. Humor might be part of it, but It is used to elicit thinking and realization in the audience. A Farce is a comedy that uses highly exaggerated situations to entertain its audience. These situations are more often than not exaggerated and improbable situations

What do you think the author expects the reader to learn or experience from the poem?

• An analysis of a poem is not a summary. An analysis requires an interpretation (explanation) by the reader.

The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken• This poem is about actual and figurative roads:

the roads we walk and drive on, and the roads we take through life. As the speaker of this poem discusses, for every road we take, there's a road we don't take. Wrong turn or not, the roads we take can end up making significant changes in our lives. And we'll always wonder about the roads that we didn't try

• We are free to choose, but we do not really know beforehand what we are choosing between. Our route is, thus, determined by an accretion of choice and chance, and it is impossible to separate the two.

The Seven Ages of Man by William Shakespeare.All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players,They have their exits and entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchelAnd shining morning face, creeping like snailUnwillingly to school. And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful balladMade to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justiceIn fair round belly, with good capon lin'd,With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws, and modern instances,And so he plays his part. The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,Turning again towards childish treble, pipesAnd whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mere oblivion,Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

The Seven Ages of ManIn Act II, Scene 7 of William Shakespeare's "As You Like It," • Puking infant.• Whining school boy.• Young, sighing lover.• Soldier.• The "justice" or upstanding leader.• Silly old man who thinks he's still young ("pantaloon")• Super-old man, toothless, blind, and as helpless as a baby.

Shakespeare wants to render a message through his poem, “The Seven Ages of Man” that men and women are ‘merely players’ in the drama of life. They are termed as ‘merely players’ because no one lives forever but plays his or her part and departs. At birth, they enter a stage and during death, they leave it. Man passes through seven phases of life in accordance with their age.

Interpretations

Nothing Gold Can Stay – Robert Frost

Nature's first green is goldHer hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf's a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay.

Nothing Gold Can Stay • You can see that the word “gold” has been used

three times in this poem: in the title, in the first line, and in the last line.

• A word being mentioned so many times in such a short work should be a signal to you that this word is probably and important key to understanding the poem. Gold often indicates the top level of something, such as the gold metal of a sporting event. The poet is saying that possessions and achievements may be golden, and people may strive to have them, but they will fade in time.

• The “first green’ of youth may be something that people long for even after they age.