Writing about Poetry (95)

Writing about Poetry (95) • Annotations • Free-writing • Comparison • Observation of the details • Making connections and inferences • Drawing conclusions

Diction (96) • Diction refers to the choice of words • Diction has multiple concerns; register — words being either formal or informal in social context — is the foremost. • Most ideas have a number of alternate words that the writer can select to suit his purposes. “Children,” “kids,” “youngsters,” “youths,” and “brats,” for example, all have different evocative values.

Connotations Associations Suggestions William Wordsworth Wandered lonely as a cloud… Golden vs. Yellow Lonely vs. Alone A host of golden daffodils; A crowd of daffodils Vs. a a lonely wanderer Diction Attributes to Added Values (96)

Alliteration (96) • the use of the same consonant (consonantal alliteration) or of a vowel, not necessarily the same vowel (vocalic alliteration), at the beginning of each word or each stressed syllable in a line of verse, as in around the rock the ragged rascal ran • Beside the lake, beneath the trees

Simile My love is like a red red rose. A is like B… In certain aspects… A is not like B in other aspects I wandered lonely as a cloud… Metaphor My love is a red rose. Inward eye, a metaphor for memory Simile and Metaphor (97-98)

Symbols (98) • Symbols in poems are objects that stand for something beyond themselves—feelings, experiences, or abstract ideas/ideals

Syntax (98) • Syntax is the order or sequence of words in a sentence. • Inversion for rhyming purpose or thematic emphasis

Rhyme (99)Rhyming Naturally • What is the rhyming scheme in Wordsworth’s poem?

Open Form (sometimes called "free verse“Free verse” which refrains from meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern) seeks to find fresh and uniquely appropriate forms for each poem, letting the structure grow out of the poem's subject matter or inspiration. A common perception is that open form is easier and less rigorous than closed form (Robert Frost remarks that an open form is like "playing tennis without a net" Closed Form A poet writing in closed form follows a specific pattern, a specific design. Some designs have proven so durable and so suited to the English language that they survive for centuries and are renewed with each generation of poets (sonnets, ses’tinas, ‘limericks, and so forth) Blank verse is a type of poetry, distinguished by having a regular meter, but no rhyme. In English, the meter most commonly used with blank verse has been iambic pentameter (as used in Shakespearean plays). Structure (99)

English Sonnet Shakespearean Three four-line ;quatrains and a concluding couplet Abab cdcd efef gg Italian Sonnet Pe’trarchan An eight-line octave—addressing a problem; six-line ses’tet—offer a solution, Abba abba cde cde Sonnet

Ses’tina a poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, originally without rhyme, in which each stanza repeats the end words of the lines of the first stanza, but in different order, the envoy using the six words again, three in the middle of the lines and three at the end. ‘Limerick a form of comic verse consisting of five ana’paestic lines of which the first, second, and fifth have three metrical feet and rhyme together and the third and fourth have two metrical feet and rhyme together ‘Anapaest, a metrical foot of three syllables, the first two short, the last long Sestina and Limerick

an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best-known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the Harlem Renaissance saying that "Harlem was in vogue." Langston Hughes(February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967)

The Harlem Renaissance • The Harlem Renaissance refers to the flowering of African American intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke. Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, many French-speaking black writers from African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the Harlem Renaissance.

Sequence, Parallelism and Repetition(100) • The night is beautiful, • So are the faces of my people. • The stars are beautiful, • So the eyes of my people. • Beautiful, also, is the sun. • Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

Themes (100) • Theme refers to the idea of a poem, its meaning and significance. • Avoid oversimplification

The Road Not Taken

Writing about Poetry (95)