Introduction to poetry

1. Introduction to poetry (also known as literary analysis boot camp)

2. “I’ll know it when I see it.” • Poetry is hard to define—for our purposes, it’s everything that isn’t prose or drama. • The next slides will show you what we’ll be focusing on in our poetry discussions.

3. Diction • This means WORD CHOICE. Writers choose their words very carefully, and a good reader pays close attention. • Look at your handout. The poem by Emily Dickinson uses very specific diction. What is implied by her word choice? Look at capitalization and spelling, too.

4. Things to look at: • What is capitalized? Why do you think it was capitalized? • What is NOT capitalized that might have been? What does this tell you? • What words have connotations beyond their literal meaning?

5. Syntax • SYNTAX is the order in which words appear and how the words are arranged on the page. • Look again at the Dickinson poem, this time focusing on syntax. What word orders are unexpected or significant?

6. Structure • STRUCTURE looks at the poem as a whole. This is where we’ll talk about rhythm, rhyme schemes, stanzas, etc. • Look at Dickinson again. What divides her stanzas? Summarize their main ideas. • Use letters to show her rhyme scheme. • Look at the LINE BREAKS. The words poets use to end or begin lines can be significant to analysis.

7. e e cummings • Read the poem all the way through. Don’t make any notes this time. • Look at the compound words cummings created. (This is diction, by the way) • What other significant word choices do you see?

8. cummings, continued • Look at the way things are phrased. (What are we doing now? SYNTAX!) • Look for parallel structures, repetition, inverted syntax, and line breaks. • Look at punctuation. • How is this poem structured? Are the stanzas equal in length? Is there a rhyme scheme? How does this fit the idea of the poem?

9. TP-CASTT This is a basic analysis tool. Write it down. • T—Title. Ponder it before reading. • P—Paraphrase. Translate the poem into your own words, one sentence per stanza. • C—Connotation. Find meaning beyond the literal • A—Attitude. Figure the tones of both the author and the speaker. • S—Shifts. Find the changes in the speaker’s attitude. • T—Title. Again, but on an interpretative level. • T—Theme. Summarize what the poet is saying in one complete sentence. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “Neutral Tones,” “Some Days”

10. Your Assignment: • TP-CASTT on three poems • Marginal notes (extensive, please!) on three poems • For ALL poems assigned: a one-sentence statement of theme AND a question. Prufrock, “Some Days,” “Neutral Tones”—TP-CASTT “That the Science of Cartography is Limited,” “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,” and “Nightclub”—marginal notes