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Analyzing Poetry: Considering Elements of Craft

Analyzing Poetry: Considering Elements of Craft. Wartburg EN112 UNI 620:005 by Kim Groninga. Two Kinds of Poetry. Free Verse

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Analyzing Poetry: Considering Elements of Craft

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  1. Analyzing Poetry: Considering Elements of Craft Wartburg EN112 UNI 620:005 by Kim Groninga

  2. Two Kinds of Poetry • Free Verse Free verse is poetry without a regular pattern of meter or rhyme. (Free verse can still contain rhyme and meter.) Modern and contemporary poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries often employ free verse. • Formal Verse • Formal verse is poetry which adheres to the rules of a given form. Rules might indicate a rhyme scheme, a specific meter, or a required placement of repeated words. Modern and contemporary poets often bend the rules of conventional forms and have also created new poetic forms; formal verse is not dead!

  3. Elements of Craft:Diction Diction: Word choice. Examples:“I came out lactic. Craving ashes / licking bricks” Amymarie Baldwin “And the clouds fretted and flew, as though / there was a reason for their acting distraught.”John Ashbury Why that word? What baggage does it carry? (or not carry?) Describe the overall word choice. Is it archaic? Conversational? Common? Scientific? Why?

  4. Elements of Craft:Rhyme Rhyme: the matching of final vowel or consonant sounds in two or more words. Full Rhyme:Cat/Hat Down/Town Slant Rhyme:Infants/Nests Down/Found Hand/World Trojan/Orange Look at paired words. Is there a relationship? Rhyme can occur at the ends of lines (called end-rhyme) or within lines (called internal rhyme).

  5. Elements of Craft:Alliteration Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words. Examples:“Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads” from “Arms and the Boy” by Wilfred Owen “the marbled moonlit trees rose like fresh memorials ” Mark Strand What do the repeated sounds remind you of? What do they imply?

  6. Elements of Craft:Assonance Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds. Examples:“How Now Brown Cow” “Snug as a gun” (Seamus Heaney) What do the repeated sounds remind you of? What do they imply?

  7. Elements of Craft:Simile Simile: a comparison between seemingly unlike things using like, as, or as though. Examples:“Life is like a box of chocolates.” (Forrest Gump) “Rain breaks and falls like the mismatchedhalves of haloes.” (Emma Howell) What two things is the author comparing and why?

  8. Elements of Craft:Metaphor Metaphor: saying (or implying) something is something else. Examples:“Nicole is homework” “My family lives inside a medicine chest: / Dad is the super-size band aid, strong and powerful” (Belinda) What is implied in the author’s choice of items to compare?

  9. Elements of Craft:Imagery Imagery: The use of vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. Examples: “I can hear the library humming in the night, / a choir of authors murmuring inside their books / along the unlit alphabetical shelves.” (Billy Collins) “I might miss / The feet of god / Disguised as trees.” (Joy Harjo) What choices has the author made and why? How does the imagery enhance the meaning of a given poem?

  10. Elements of Craft:Personification Personification: Giving human characteristics to non-human things Examples:“In the morning when I found History / snoring heavily on the couch, / I took down his overcoat from the rack. / And placed its weight over my shoulder blades.” (Billy Collins) “A tree that looks to God all day, / And lifts her leafy arms to pray” (Joyce Kilmer) It’s not enough to be able to define and notice personification; you must now consider how it adds to (or creates another dimension of) meaning.

  11. Elements of Craft:Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia: Words that mimic the sounds of the item or action they are describing. Examples:Think Batman & Robin: Biff, Pow, Bam Also: Crash, Clank, Swish, Rattle “Wood crackled and hissed, an owl / Hooted in the darkness.” (anonymous) How do sounds like these enhance the meaning of the poem?

  12. Other Elements of Craft • Symbolism • Meter/Rhythm • Short lines vs. Long lines • Setting • Speaker • Subject • Style • Narrative • Voice

  13. As you analyze a poem, ask yourself which of these elements of craft are present. How do these elements—these poetic choices—enhance the meaning of the poem?

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