A few More Poetry Judgments

1. A few More Poetry Judgments Get Ready!

2. Sound and meaning • Rhythm & Sound produce the Music of Poetry • Two purposes: • Enjoyable itself • Reinforce meaning and intensify communication

3. Ways to Reinforce Meaning • Use of words that sound like what they mean. • Hiss • Bang • Creak • Cock-a-doodle-do • Limited • Group of words whose sound to some degree connects with their meaning. • “fl” in flame, flare, flash, flicker, flimmer • “sl” in slippery, slick, slime, slop, slosh • “d” in down, damn, don, dank, doom Onomatopoeia Phonetic Intensives

4. Example 1: Alfred, Lord Tennyson Break, Break, Break Break, break, break,         On thy cold gray stones, O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter         The thoughts that arise in me. O, well for the fisherman's boy,         That he shouts with his sister at play! O, well for the sailor lad,         That he sings in his boat on the bay! And the stately ships go on       To their haven under the hill; But O for the touch of a vanish'd hand,       And the sound of a voice that is still! Break, break, break        At the foot of thy crags, O Sea! But the tender grace of a day that is dead          Will never come back to me.

5. More ways to reinforce Meaning • Smooth and pleasant sounds grouped together • Typically long vowel focused: • Fate, reed, rhyme, coat food, dune • But some consonants are “smooth”: • L, m, n, r, v, f, w, y, s… • Sl, wh, th… • Rough and harsh sounds grouped together • Typically short vowel focused: • Fat, red, rim, cot, foot, dun • But some consonants are “harsh”: • B, d, g, k, p, t… • St, tr, str, ck… Euphony Cacophony

6. Example 2: A. E. Housman Eight O’Clock • He stood, and heard the steeple       Sprinkle the quarters on the morning town. One, two, three, four, to market-place and people      It tossed them down.  • Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour,       He stood and counted them and cursed his luck; And then the clock collected in the tower       Its strength, and struck. 

7. And More meaning reinforcement…. • Unaccented syllables move faster than accented syllables • Spondee slows you down • Phyrric speeds you up • Vowel lengths and consonant placement speed us up or slow us down: • Watch dogs catch much meat • My aunt is away • Rhythmic Word placement signals significance: • Words before pauses • Rhymed words • A change in meter signals significance • Extra syllables indicate importance • Changes should mimic content Meter Speed Emphasizing Words through Meter

8. Emily Dickenson Line 1: Iambic Tetrameter Scansion Practice The morns are meeker than they were, The nuts are getting brown; The berry’s cheek is plumper, The rose is out of town. u / u / u / u / u / u / u / u / u / u / u The rest: Iambic Trimeter u / u / u /

9. The Bat by Frank Jacobs Trochaic Tetrameter Scansion Practice Bats have webby wings that fold up; Bats from ceilings hang down rolled up; Bats when flying undismayed are; Bats are careful; bats use radar; / u / u / u / u / u / u / u / u Iambic is the most common meter in English—so using Trochaic “flips” the standard / u / u / u / u / u / u / u / u

10. Annabel Lee by Edgar Alan Poe Lines1-5: Alternating Anapestic Tetrameter & Trimeter Scansion Practice For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / Notice the change in the last three lines….Why? u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u u / u /

12. Your Task: • Read your stanzas—and determine a meaning • Then, analyze the poem’s use of • Onomatopoeia • Phonetic Intensifiers • Euphony • Cacophony • Meter Speed • Meter Emphasis • How does these sound emphasis add to the total meaning of the piece?

13. Examining and PRESENTING OUR POEMS

14. Pattern Structure: The arrangement of ideas, images, thoughts, and sentences Form: External shape Continuous Stanzaic Fixed

15. Form: Continuous • The lines follow each other without formal grouping. • Only breaks are dictated by units of meaning. • Examples: • “Widows Lament in Springtime” (693) • “After Apple Picking” (698) • “Ulysses” (745) • “My Last Dutchess” (768) What do you notice?

16. Form: Stanzaic • Grouped in a series of stanza that are similar in: • Length • Metrical Patter • Rhyme Scheme • There are traditional stanza patterns that act as literary allusions • TerzaRima • Ballad Meter • Rhyme Royal • Spenserian Stanza “Naming of Parts” (680) And “Cross” (682) Don’t ask…just know they exist.

17. Side Note: Rhyme Scheme The Pulley by George Herbert When God at first made man, Having a glass of blessings standing by, “Let us,” said he, “pour on him all we can. Let the world’s riches, which dispersèd lie,    Contract into a span.”    So strength first made a way; Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure. When almost all was out, God made a stay, Perceiving that, alone of all his treasure,    Rest in the bottom lay.   “For if I should,” said he, “Bestow this jewel also on my creature, He would adore my gifts instead of me, And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature;    So both should losers be.    “Yet let him keep the rest, But keep them with repining restlessness; Let him be rich and weary, that at least, If goodness lead him not, yet weariness    May toss him to my breast.”

18. Form: Fixed A traditional pattern that applies to a whole poem. Sonnet Villanelle And…. Rondeaus, Rondels, triolets, sestinas, ballades, double ballades Don’t ask…just know they exist.

19. Sonnets English or Shakespearean • Divided between • Three quatrains (4 lines) • One couplet (2 lines) • Abab cdcd efef gg • Units of rhyme show a division of thought • Three examples & a conclusion • Three metaphorical statements & an application If it is Square, it’s a Sonnet! • Divided between • an octave (8 lines) • abbaabba • a sestet (6 lines) • Cdcdcd • The divide signals a divide in thought • Situation & comment • Idea & example • Question & answer Italian orPetrarchan

20. ItalianOn First Looking into Chapman’s Homer Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,    And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;    Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told    That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;    Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies    When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes    He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—    Silent, upon a peak in Darien. John Keats

21. English That time of year That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. William Shakespeare

22. Villanelle • Complex pattern of repetition and rhyme • Requires • 2 rhyme sounds • 19 lines • 5 tercets (3 line stanza) • 1 quatrain (4 line stanza) • Refrain lines • 1st line repeated at the ends of the second and fourth stanzas • 3rd line repeated at the ends of the third and fifth stanzas • In concluding stanza, the refrains are repeated as lines 18 & 19 • French wrote them light-heartedly, the English were more Serious

23. Villanelle Do not Go Gentle Into That Good Night 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.Good men, the last wave by, crying how brightTheir frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sightBlind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad height,Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Dylan Thomas

24. Take Aways • Traditional forms are both • a challenge for poets • an allusion to the literary past for readers • Structure lies within the ideas of the poem • Form is the outside format • Both support and enhance meaning

25. Your Task • Read and determine a total meaning for your poem • Determine what structure and form is in place • Discuss how that form & structure enhances the meaning of the poem

26. Homework: Research Tennessee Williams. Who was he? What types of plays did he write?

27. Do Now On the board, write one thought you had about Tennessee Williams Play

28. Symbols Unicorn Glass Menagerie Fire Escape Blue Roses

29. Motifs Screen words and Images Abandonment Music

30. Themes Impossibility of True Escape Accepting Reality Power of Memory

31. Tennessee William’s Poetry

32. Poetry Analysis Essay Released Item 2003

33. Walk around the room, and look at the released items Determine what score you got, and write me an argument about why you deserve that score. Do Now:

34. Reading for Style/Language

35. Evaluating Poetry 2 Poetic Excellence

36. How to Judge Poetry • What is its central purpose? • Dealt with in the analysis of content, structure, and form • How fully has this purpose been accomplished? • Addressed in the judgment of its sentimentality, didactic nature, and rhetoric • How important is this purpose? • today

37. What is its purpose? Example One • Little Jack Horner Little Jack Horner Sat in the corner, Eating a Christmas pie; He put in his thumb, And pulled out a plum, And said, "What a good boy am I!" How well does it achieve its purpose? Is that purpose important?

38. What is its purpose? Example Two • It Sifts from Leaden Leaves It sifts from Leaden Sieves - It powders all the Wood. It fills with Alabaster Wool The Wrinkles of the Road - It makes an even Face Of Mountain, and of Plain - Unbroken Forehead from the East Unto the East again - It reaches to the Fence - It wraps it Rail by Rail Till it is lost in Fleeces - It deals Celestial Vail To Stump, and Stack - and Stem - A Summer’s empty Room - Acres of Joints, where Harvests were, Recordless, but for them - It Ruffles Wrists of Posts As Ankles of a Queen - Then stills it’s Artisans - like Ghosts - Denying they have been - How well does it achieve its purpose? Is that purpose important?

39. What is its purpose? Example Three • That Time of Year That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie, As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by. This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. How well does it achieve its purpose? Is that purpose important?

40. According Perrines • Good poetry engages the whole person • Senses • Imagination • Emotion • Intellect • Does not merely touch us on one or two sides of our nature. • Seeks not to merely entertain, but to bring us fresh insights into the nature of human experience.

41. But come on…. • Know the difference between Canonization and personal preference • Think about why a college professor would like a poem, then ask… • Does it speak to you?

42. Choose your favorite poem in the “Poems for Further Reading” Section pp. 943-1020, and be prepared to argue why it might be the best poem. Homework

43. Socratic Seminar Our Poems

44. Revise one of your poetry analysis essays, turn it into Turnitin.com by Sunday night. Homework

45. Debate! Is poetry relevant in today’s society? Should we teach it at all?

46. Poetry Practice Test