Poetry

1. Poetry Definitions, Classes, Terms, and “Casey at the Bat”

2. Definition • Special kind of writing in which language, pictures, and sounds combine, creating a special emotional effect • Written in units called “stanzas” • More musical than prose writings (the effect of the language used) • Subject matter is wide in range • Poems can be about ANYTHING

3. Classes of Poetry • Narrative – tells a story • Has a plot and characters, BUT only focus one part of the story • The selection and arrangement of these events make the poem unique. • Has been popular for centuries beginning with the English ballads • Lyrical – expresses personal thoughts, feelings, and/or emotions • Short and musical

4. “Casey at the Bat” • First Stanza – sets the scene of the poem. • Fifth Stanza – lines 17 – 19 use exaggerated language • The crowd’s cheering and its impact on the surrounding countryside • Creates suspense and adds tone to the poem • Tone is the attitude or feeling of the poem

5. “Casey at the Bat” (cont.) • Fifth Stanza – lines 18-19 contains parallelism to describe the sound and resonance of the crowd’s cheering; also builds suspense as Casey approaches the plate. • Parallelism – the repeating of phrases or sentences so that the repeated parts are alike in structure or meaning. • Can you identify the parallelism?

6. “Casey at the Bat” (cont.) • Stanzas 6-8 – Casey’s pride is expressed through visual images and tone of voice. • Stanza 9 – contains the use of simile to add an exaggerated description of the scene (line 34). • Simile – a figure of speech that directly compares two seemingly unlike things using a comparison word such as “like” or “as” • Stanza 10 – lines 37-38 contain irony • Irony – contrasts b/t reality and what seems to be real • Casey is described as if he is a saint soothing angry hordes of people, which contrasts the previous descriptions of the larger than life, prideful hero.

7. “Casey at the Bat” (cont.) • Stanza 10 – lines 37-38 contain irony • Irony – contrasts b/t reality and what seems to be real • Casey is described as if he is a saint soothing angry hordes of people, which contrasts the previous descriptions of the larger than life, prideful hero. • Stanzas 14-15 – lines 49-52 use elevated, philosophical language to heighten the drama of the situation • The author’s change to the present tense in these stanzas increases the immediacy of the poem’s climax. • Climax – the point of highest interest and greatest emotional involvement in a narrative.

8. LYRIC POETRY

9. Lyric Poetry • Poetry in which the speaker reveals personal thoughts and feelings. • Comes from the Greek word lyrikos, a short poem sung to the music of the lyre, a small harp-like instrument.

10. “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” • Wordsworth describes his memory’s ability to change his “vacant” or “pensive” mood to pleasure (ll. 20-24). • This is considered the main idea of the poem. • He feels the seemingly trivial moment brought him great and unexpected “wealth” (l. 18). What are some examples of personification in this poem?

11. IMAGERY & FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

12. “Dreams” • What are the two metaphors linked together in this poem that describe dreams? • What do these metaphors imply about the necessity of dreams? • What warning does Hughes issue in his poem about dreams?

13. “The Seven Ages of Man” • Speaker – Jaques (a character from Shakespeare’s As You Like It) • The poem is an example of an extended metaphor. What is the metaphor being extended throughout this poem?

14. “The Seven Ages of Man” • Stages of man in the poem • (1) Infancy – “mewling and puking” • (2) Child – “whining school boy” • (3) Youth of a Lover – “sighing like furnace” • (4) Later Youth of a Soldier – “bearded like the pard” • (5) Maturity and Middle Age of a Judge – “in fair round belly”

15. “The Seven Ages of Man” • Stages (cont.) • (6) Old Age – “spectacles on nose” • (7) Senility – “second childishness • In As You Like It Jaques is a cynic, a man who doubts the goodness and kindness of human beings. Explain how your reaction to the poem changes once you know Jaques’ personality.

16. The Total Effect • The title addresses the poet’s main concern. • The speaker is the person or thing that acts as the voice in the poem. • The choice of wordsshould fit the speaker. • The sound of the poem – its use of rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism – should suit its mood.

17. The Total Effect (cont) • Imagery and figures of speech, such as personification, simile, and metaphor, should allow the poem to appeal directly to your senses and to your own experience. • Remember that narrative poems tell stories and lyric poems express an emotion.

18. “maggie and milly and molly and may” • Maggie, Milly, Molly, and May go to the beach. Each discovers a special part of herself in what she sees on the shore. • Maggie – troubled; sea comforts her • Milly – friendly, poetic • Molly – timid, not inquisitive • May – alone in a small world • What literary devices are used by Cummings?

19. “The Bells”by Edgar Allan Poe • First Stanza • What type of bells are being described? • What effect of Poe’s use of alliteration and assonance have on you as the reader?

20. “The Bells”by Edgar Allan Poe • Second Stanza • Type of bells? • Effect of alliteration and assonance? • Notice the presence of parallelism and personification?

21. “The Bells”by Edgar Allan Poe • Third Stanza • Type of bells? • Alliteration/Assonance? • Onomatopoeia?

22. “The Bells”by Edgar Allan Poe • Fourth Stanza • Type of bells? • Personification?

23. “The Bells”by Edgar Allan Poe • Structure of the poem • Although each stanza begins and ends similarly, each stanza’s middle section is progressively larger and more developed. • This allows Poe to show how horror gradually grows out of joy. Cheery, isn’t it?

24. Speaker and Word Choice In Poetry

25. Definitions • Speaker – the voice of the poem OR the role that the poet plays in the poem • Word Choice – the selection of words in a piece of literature to convey meaning, suggest attitude, and create images

26. “Knoxville, Tennessee” • Themes – the seasons and childhood • Speaker – The reference to “daddy” tells the reader that the speaker is more than likely a child. • Tone – The use of the word “you” and the lack of punctuation give the poem an informal tone. • The use of parallelism also gives the poem an informal tone. • Can you see the parallelism?

27. “Child on Top of a Greenhouse” • Theme – individualism and youth vs. age • Speaker – the use of the word “my,” combined with the use of sophisticated words, establishes the speaker as an adult looking back on childhood. • Word choice – vivid participles (flashing, rushing, plunging, tossing) denote a delight in the senses for the crowd watching. • How does the child on the roof feel?

28. “The Base Stealer” • Theme – taking risks • Speaker – At first, the speaker is unidentified, but the reader later learns that the speaker is an observer when the third person pronoun “he” is used (line 7). • Word Choice – The poet interjects into his descriptions of the base stealer the informal, “under the breath” urgings of the excited fan: “come on, come on,” “crowd him, crowd him,” and “Delicate, delicate, delicate – now!” (ll. 5, 9, 10).

29. “The Base Stealer” (cont.) • The poet uses similes in lines • 2 – “like a tightrope walker,” • 4 – “bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball,” • 5 – “. . . or a kid skipping rope,” and • 8 – “hovers like an ecstatic bird” • Theme revisited – Francis suggests the exhilaration of taking risks by the use of the word “ecstatic” and by the exclamatory “now!” at the climax of the poem. • The base stealer’s urgency suggests the necessity of taking risks. • As a reader, how does Robert Francis make you feel about this small event?

30. Narrative Poetry “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and “Lord Randal”

31. “The Charge of the Light Brigade • Theme: Courage and Honor, a soldier’s duty on the battlefield • Throughout the poem, the author uses repetition to show the rhythm of the marching, well as to emphasize the lesser numbers of the Light Brigade. • Repetition – the repeating of sounds, letters, words, or lines, which helps give the poetry its meaning, form, and sound. • “Rode the six hundred”

32. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (cont.) • Stanza 2 – ll. 13-15 refers to the soldier’s duty, which is to follow orders without talking back or questioning and carrying them out even if the result is death. • Stanza 3 – in ll. 24-25 Tennyson makes use of metaphors • He uses fiercely dramatic metaphors to describe the challenges the British soldiers face in the battle with the Russians. • Metaphor – A figure of speech that makes a comparison b/t two seemingly unlike things

33. “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (cont.) • Main idea in stanzas 3-6 portray the brigade’s courage against overwhelming odds through the graphic images of being surrounded by cannons. • Constant loss of soldiers coupled with being completely cut off from escape shows how strong the Light Brigade’s courage was

34. “Lord Randal” • Theme – trust and betrayal • Ballad – a short, musical narrative poem • Each stanza opens with the mother asking a question. • This suggests that the son is answering his mother reluctantly. Why? • What literary effect is being used in the questioning?

35. “Lord Randal” (cont.) • Main idea – In Stanza 4, the mother’s question suggests that Lord Randal did not realize he had been poisoned until he saw his dogs die. • He put blind faith in this true-love. • Stanza 5 – In typical ballad form, the love story reaches a tragic end through dialogue, repetition, simplicity of detail, and a limited number of characters.

36. IMAGERY & FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

37. Literary Terms • Literal language – the ordinary language of everyday • Figurative language – use of devices such as figures of speech (similes, metaphors, hyperbole, etc.)

38. “Dreams” • What are the two metaphors linked together in this poem that describe dreams? • What do these metaphors imply about the necessity of dreams? • What warning does Hughes issue in his poem about dreams?

39. “The Seven Ages of Man” • Speaker – Jaques (a character from Shakespeare’s As You Like It) • The poem is an example of an extended metaphor. What is the metaphor being extended throughout this poem?

40. “The Seven Ages of Man” • Stages of man in the poem • (1) Infancy – “mewling and puking” • (2) Child – “whining school boy” • (3) Youth of a Lover – “sighing like furnace” • (4) Later Youth of a Soldier – “bearded like the pard” • (5) Maturity and Middle Age of a Judge – “in fair round belly”

41. “The Seven Ages of Man” • Stages (cont.) • (6) Old Age – “spectacles on nose” • (7) Senility – “second childishness • In As You Like It Jaques is a cynic, a man who doubts the goodness and kindness of human beings. Explain how your reaction to the poem changes once you know Jaques’ personality.

42. LYRIC POETRY

43. Lyric Poetry • Poetry in which the speaker reveals personal thoughts and feelings. • Comes from the Greek word lyrikos, a short poem sung to the music of the lyre, a small harp-like instrument.

44. “The Courage That My Mother Had” • Main Idea - Loss leads the speaker to turn to her inheritance as a consolation, yet she yearns for a less tangible inheritance. • What is the rhyme scheme of this poem? • Point out some literary devices used by the author in this poem.

45. The Total Effect

46. Literary Terms • Literal language – the ordinary language of everyday • Figurative language – use of devices such as figures of speech (similes, metaphors, hyperbole, etc.)

47. The Total Effect • The title addresses the poet’s main concern. • The speaker is the person or thing that acts as the voice in the poem. • The choice of wordsshould fit the speaker. • The sound of the poem – its use of rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, repetition, alliteration, assonance, and parallelism – should suit its mood.

48. The Total Effect (cont) • Imagery and figures of speech, such as personification, simile, and metaphor, should allow the poem to appeal directly to your senses and to your own experience. • Remember that narrative poems tell stories and lyric poems express an emotion.

49. “maggie and milly and molly and may” • Maggie, Milly, Molly, and May go to the beach. Each discovers a special part of herself in what she sees on the shore. • Maggie – troubled; sea comforts her • Milly – friendly, poetic • Molly – timid, not inquisitive • May – alone in a small world • What literary devices are used by Cummings?

50. “Lost” • Loneliness is the strongest theme. • The poem’s strong visual images allow Sandburg to compare a fogbound ship to a lost child (ll. 1-9) • There are some examples of assonance and alliteration in this poem. Identify some of these and discuss their effect on the poem.