Sunteți pe pagina 1din 123

A five class course Max Heinegg Grade 10 and 12 ELA Medford High School, October and November 2011,

C213

Overview and Purpose of the Class


Day 1: To review all the terms the new standards expect students to know To discuss the distinctions between denotation and connotation To discuss the distinction between literal and figurative language Day 2: To look at the major types of narrative poems and analyze some famous examples in

terms of form and content; we will mainly look at ballads, and a bit of epics, idylls, and lays. form and content in lyric poems. We will start with the visual formal poets: e.e. cummings, Herbert, and move to the technical ones: Basho, Shakespeare, Auden.

Day 3: To look at the major types of lyric poems and analyze some famous examples in terms of

Day 4: Continued from day three, lyric poems, with a focus on content. Day 5: To review everything MCAS has asked our students to know about poetry, so we know

how our teaching of poetry is measured; to review other poems that teach the same skills

Sources: Grade 10 ELA MCAS 2005-2010, modern lyric and narrative poetry from 100 Best Loved

Poems, a simple Dover Thrift Edition I have purchased, and from the public domain, as well as from our anthology.

Here are the formal devices from the New Standards, aka Poetic Terms

Ballad: a songlike poem; folk ballads = London Bridge and literary ones = Rime of the Ancient Mariner S.T. Coleridge Chorus: the repetitive part of the song; teach this with any contemporary song Consonance: east/ west, struts/frets Diction: word choice what informs style Extended Metaphor Rihannas Take a Bow good for an activity
Heroic couplet: O could I flow like thee, and make thy stream / My great example, as it is my theme!

Iambic pentameter: five iambic feet (soft, loud syllables) Metaphor: when we pretend (and say) one thing is another, e.g All the worlds a stage Meter: The beat of the line and the metrical unit of choice (how you use your Feet) Onomatopoeia: When a word means what it sounds like. Pastoral: The Passionate Shepherd to his Love teach with the Nymphs Reply Personification: giving human characteristics to non-human things; the sky is crying Rhyme: cat/ sat! Assonance plus consonance = rhyme usually. Simile: a comparison using like or as; a simile activity would be good for middle school, use I am as your base Sonnet: 14 lines poem, usually about love, with some rigid requirements. Stanza: a group of lines in a poem Style: Word choice that creates voice; the way the writer works verbally Syntax: word order; teach this with Yoda quotes or Beowulf Tone: Authorial attitude towards subject; read an editorial Theme: the broad idea, message, or moral Voice: authorial style that conveys personality Verse: another word for poetry, but in a song its the stanzas that are the body of the song, and not the chorus

Here are terms the standards skipped


Enjambment: run on line End stopped line: where the meter and the meaning conclude at the end of the line Caesura: a complete pause in the middle of a line of poetry Foot: The foot is the basic metrical unit in a line of verse, e.g. iambic pentameter ( five iambic feet) Trochee, dactyl, anapest, spondee (types of feet) Lyric: A poem that expresses thoughts and feelings Narrative: A poem that tells a story Free verse: poetry without rhyme or meter; blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter Elegy: poem for the dead; the most famous include For the Union Dead and O Captain Acrostic, limerick, cinquain types of short poems (acrostic is the visual one) Ode: lyric poem on a serious subject Villanelle: 19th century poetic form that uses only two rhyme sounds Couplet, tercet, quatrain, cinquain, sestet, septet, octet Ottava rima: rhyming stanza form of Italian origin - abababcc Repetition: repetition. Refrain: line or lines repeated in verse or song in a song its usually the chorus Near rhyme, slant rhyme, internal and external rhyme Metonymy: when one word is substituted with another word with which it is closely related Synecdoche: in figurative language, where the part stands for the whole, or vice versa Rhapsodes, scops, griots (oral tradition)

Sample Lesson to Teach Literary Terms: Thanksgiving Rap Battle



Tricks of the trade: Alliteration Assonance

Repetition of same initial letter: Sally sells sea shells Repetition of the vowel sounds of words, but not rhyming: Face and fade, night and like Consonance Repetition of the ending consonants, but not rhyming: East and west, caught and, built Dialect Using the slang and specific words based on where you are from Internal Rhyme Rhyming inside the lines: I see the bee fly free End Rhyme Rhyme at the end of lines: The old cat/ On the rug sat Rhyme Scheme The pattern of end rhymes Poetic License Changing the spelling of words to suit your purpose Meter The beat of the lines, the rhythm of it, patterns of syllable stress Poetic tricks you are familiar with, like simile, metaphor, and personification are also used. Examples for Jay-Zs 99 Problems Half-a-mil for bail cause I'm African All because this fool was harrasin them Tryin to play the boy like hes saccharine Terms used: End rhyme, rhyme scheme, You know the type: loud as a motor bike But wouldn't bust a grape in a fruit fight The only thing that's gonna happen is I'mma get to clappin He and his boys gon be yappin to the captain Terms used: Simile, Assonance, Dialect In groups or alone, compose your own rap verse about what you love about Thanksgiving: She/He who uses the most terms correctly wins a turkey. No, seriously.

Another lesson for Literary Terms: Beowulf!


The Beowulf Brag This Anglo-Saxon inspired brag is due Thors day (ha) 20 lines for Standard - 30 lines for Honors (essentially you need to hit a term every other line) has to: (a la Beowulf to Unferth) address someone and promise you will do something, while announcing proof that you will accomplish this act, or just brag about your awesomeness a la Run DMC The King of Rock technical bits: Honors (do all) Standard (do 8) 1) alliteration 2) allusion (preferably Biblical) 3) assonance 4) caesura 5) consonance 6) epithet 7) homily 8) hyperbole 9) kenning 10) litotes 11) simile 12) personification at the bottom of the poem, provide footnotes that explain each of the pieces you used (number them) for that extra bit, you may weave in some religious or pagan imagery like the Beowulf poet and/or the monk did

rubric: you will be graded on your correct and effective use of the terms, the richness of your diction (word choices), the extent to which tone and style cohere, and the overall development, and effect of your brag Humor is always welcome and effective.

Were you so inclined. Meter.


iamb one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (e.g. describe, Include, retract) trochee one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (e.g. picture, flower) dactyl one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables (e.g.annotate an-no-tate) anapest two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed syllable (e.g. comprehend com-prehend) spondee two stressed syllables together (e.g.enough) pyrrhic two unstressed syllables together (rare, usually used to end dactylic hexameter)

The number of metrical feet in a line are described in Greek terminology as follows: monometer - one foot dimeter two feet trimeter three feet tetrameter four feet pentameter five feet hexameter six feet heptameter seven feet octameter eight feet

For example: Iambs: To swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells (Keats)
Trochees: Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater Anapests: Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house Spondees: This labour, by slow prudence to make mild (Tennyons Ulysses http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meter_(p oetry)

Language Distinctions

We begin with two major distinctions in language: denotation and connotation.


A word's denotation is its literal definition. For example: Snake: a limbless reptile with a long, scaly body
A word's connotation is all the association we have with it. For example: "snake in the grass," the biblical serpent, the danger of poisonous snakes, our own fear of snakes, or a malevolent (evil, bad) person might be called "a real snake" Connotation can depend on the person who hears the word and brings his or her own associations to it. * A plumber might immediately think of a plumbing tool called a snake. *A biologist might think of the rare Indigo Snake he felt lucky to see the past weekend. Some words, though, have shades of meaning that are commonly recognized. While "serpent" is literally a snake, the word "serpent" is usually associated with evil. In today's society, "politician" has somewhat negative associations, while "statesman" sounds more positive. Directions: For these conditions, first think of a word with a positive connotation, and then think of a word with a negative connotation.

Condition 1. overweight 2. short 3. not smart 4. unattractive 5. non-athletic

Positive Connotation ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________ ________________________

Negative Connotation ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________ ___________________

http://teacherweb.com/AR/LakesideJuniorHighSchool/MrsCannellsEnglish9/DenotationConnotationClusters.doc

Class Activity on Connotation and Denotation


Word

denotation

connotation

Apple Bed Dream Rain Love Father Mother Flower Grave Winter Spring Shadow River Graveyard

Car Activity:
Which car names have an actual denotation, and which play on our sense of a word, its connotation or its roots connotation? Some names conjure an image but have no real definition, as a word need not have a true denotation to have a connotation; it need only have a root we know, or sound like another word For each of the following 15 cars (some of the most popular in the US), say what it means (denotation) makes you think of (its connotation); if it has no apparent denotation, say its connotation (to you) and any images that come to your mind.
Camry Sorrento Altima

Sonata
Equinox Elantra Accord

Focus
Escape Explorer Cruze

Fiesta
CR-V RAV-4 F-150

Cars and connotation, continued


Car Names: Here are some car names from the past: Thunderbird, Falcon, Charger, Comet, Mustang, Barracuda, Rabbit, Pinto, Gremlin. Choose one of these cars & answer these questions: 1. What sort of image do you get from this name?________________________________ 2. What kind of performance would you expect from this car?___________________________ 3. What kind of person would this product target?_____________________________________ Now, you think of a name for a car. First, decide if your product is a mini-van, SUV, sports car, luxury car, whatever?_________________________________________________________ Then, think of your target consumer:________________________________________________ Then, think of a name for your product that describes its function and performance and would appeal to your target consumer:____________________________________________________ http://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/098_PDF/06Sep15Connotation_Denotation.pdf

Literal and Figurative Language

Figurative language, i.e. figures of speech (most of our literary terms are these); Parting is such sweet sorrow (Romeo and Juliet); this is alliteration and metaphor: such sweet sorrow (repetition of s) and the metaphorical idea of leaving a loved one is emotionally bittersweet; in addition, one could nearly argue the rendering of the emotion as a flavor is synaesthesia Have students make a list of dead boring literal statements, and then, side by side, make them figurative: L: Its raining outside F: Its raining cats and dogs L: I think its cold in MHS F: MHS is as cold as Hell! L: I enjoy going to work. F: I am in love with work. Stop laughing.

Class Activity with Literal and Figurative Language


Literal

Figurative

I am in love with her ________________________________ Shaquille ONeal is tall ________________________________ I enjoyed this meal ________________________________ I am quite tired ________________________________ I am very bored ________________________________ The temperature is high ________________________________ The temperature is low ________________________________ My friend is kind ________________________________ My friend is annoying ________________________________ My home is pleasant _________________________________ My finances are in disrepair _________________________________ You spend a lot of time at the gym_______________________________ MH

Making Figurative Language Literal

Many students have trouble understanding poetry because they get lost in figurative language. For each of the following examples, translate the figurative language into literal

"The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!" (Homer Simpson, The Simpsons)

"The road isn't built that can make it breathe hard!" (slogan for Chevrolet automobiles)

"Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing gloves." (P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves, 1930)

[inside SpongeBob's mind] SpongeBob boss: Hurry up! What do you think I'm paying you for? SpongeBob worker: You don't pay me. You don't even exist. We're just a clever visual metaphorused to personify the abstract concept of thought. SpongBob boss: One more crack like that and you're outta here! SpongeBob worker: No, please! I have three kids! ("No Weenies Allowed," SpongeBob SquarePants, 2002)

"Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there." (proverb quoted by Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos)

"Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will. Jawaharlal Nehru "Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use. Charles M. Schulz
http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/personifterm.htm

Figurative and Literal Language Activity: Explain each metaphor in literal language
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Dying is a wild night and a new road Dickinson Conscience is a mans compass Van Gogh Chaos is a friend of mine Bob Dylan Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life Picasso All religions, arts, and sciences are branches of the same tree Einstein All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind Kahlil Gibran A good conscience is a continual Christmas Benjamin Franklin All the worlds a stage and the men and women merely players/ They have their entrances and exits / Their acts being seven stages Shakespeare I am a rock / I am an island Paul Simon "Life is a journey, but don't worry, you'll find a parking spot at the end. Isaac Asimov "Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act. Truman Capote "Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. John W. Gardner http://www.drmardy.com/metaphor/inevermetaphor.shtml http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/famous-metaphors

Form and Content


Form is the shape the poem takes, from how it appears on the page (see Charles Olson or e.e.

cummings, who saw the page the way a painter sees a canvas), and from line to line. A line is analogous to a sentence in prose, but it is different, because the poet is also a musician. A line can follow the breath, as in Whitman or his heir Allen Ginsberg, or it can be boxed in (often beautifully) by meter, see Frost and other practitioners of blank verse, i.e. unrhymed iambic pentameter. Form is the auditory techniques the poet uses to make a poem sound like a prayer, song, or spell; techniques like assonance, consonance, dissonance, alliteration, and the grand-pappy of them all: rhyme, which can be internal, external, or slant Form is also the techniques used to make new associations between things or experiences similes, metaphors, and variations on these: personification, kenning, metonymy, synecdoche Form includes the poets bag of tricks, her or his arsenal of figurative language techniques, things like imagery, i.e. language that appeals to the senses and from the world of rhetoric, anaphora, epistrophe, symploce (repetition of the beginning or end of a line symploce is when you have both) and antithesis Ask not what your country can do for you/ Ask what you can do for your country which is also anaphora and parallel structure

Content: Main idea, theme, message, moral

MH

Day Two: Narrative poetry


Today I want to introduce narrative poetry and then focus on several groupings of narrative poetry. Poetry by groups Group #1: What we wont be reading today, but what you could do if you had a lot of time, i.e. a class. This includes epics which will be given short shrift. Im just looking at three. Group #2: Fun narrative poems, to show that poetry neednt be stuffy or obfuscating-ly suffused with impenetrable erudition. We will focus on Lewis Carroll. Group #3: Ballads and particularly murder ballads. Just like the sick interest in CSI et cetera, popular songs that tell macabre stories are quite teachable! Group #4: Mysterious narratives, to illustrate how the magic of language can work in lovely concert with mysterious content (as in the classs title, Form and Content); here we will focus on the femme fatale. Group #5: How poetry is perfectly suited to tell the story of universal experiences, from childhood reveries to elegies. Here we will focus on the Nobel prize winning poet (and local professor) Seamus Heaney. Group #6: Famous or just excellent narrative poems that we may not have time to get to- ones that work to teach particular techniques or that work well to assign writing.

MH

Two main types of poems: Lyric and Narrative


Poetrys roots are both lyric and narrative; from the Greeks and Romans for example, we have the poetry of Homer and Sappho, from the Romans, Virgil and Catullus Narrative poetry has a plot; lyric does not Lyric poetry is concerned with the poets thoughts and feelings about experiences, life, love, death, objects, travel, et cetera Epic narratives spoke to the souls desire for grandeur and great adventure epic tales and epic heroes; the lyric speaks to the level of the everyday, our loves, thoughts, dreams and perceptions Poetry has traditionally been accompanied by music; from the Greek lyre to the Celtic harp, from The Odyssey to Beowulf to todays rock and folk musicians with guitars, from Elliott Smith to Bob Dylan, poetry enchants the ear and has a natural friend in music and the singing voice. Epic poems and romances were poetic narratives; much poetry today is lyric, as is most music (except country!) Country music is a great resource for narrative poetry; folk music is a great resource for ballads. Poetry is also the form of choice in much drama Shakespeare for example.

MH

Intro to narrative poetry


Narrative poetry is poetry that has a plot. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be simple or complex. It is usually non-dramatic, with objective regular scheme and meter.[1] Narrative poems include epics, ballads, idylls and lays. Realistically, its epics, and ballads. They also include romances; the romance is a medieval verse narrative depicting a knight on a journey for the love of a lady of a high ideal examples of this would be the Arthurian legend, and in particular, Tristan and Iseult. I teach the Bedier translation its 89 pages and rocks. Other examples include the Romance of the Rose or Tennyson's Idylls of the King. Although these examples use medieval and Arthurian materials, romances may also tell stories from classical mythology. A good example of that would be Ovids Metamorphoses; you could take his retelling of the story of Icarus or Narcissus if you like.

Shorter narrative poems are often similar in style to the short story. Sometimes these short narratives are collected into interrelated groups, as with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Some literatures contain prose narratives that include poems and poetic interludes; much Old Irish poetry is contained within prose narratives, and the Old Norse sagas include both incidental poetry and the biographies of poets. An example is "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert Service. In terms of what works in high school, and what we teach in 10th grade, the Canterbury Tales works best, in particular, if you are confident, the Millers Tale, the Wife of Baths Tale, the Reeves Tale, The Pardoners Tale, and of course, the general prologue which is a masterpiece. Chaucers The Pardoners tale is the best story to teach Irony. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_poetry (a reference for this page)

Famous narratives to use in class

Epics signature aspects



An epic or heroic poem; a long narrative poem; On a serious subject Written in a grand or elevated style; Centered on a larger-than-life hero. Epics also tend to have the following characteristics: An opening in medias res (in the middle of the action) An invocation to the Muse (you see this in Homer and Milton) A concern with the fate of a nation or people; A correspondingly large scale, often ranging around the world (and in Milton's case, beyond the earth and into heaven); The intervention of supernatural figures, who are interested in the outcome of the action (the system of gods, demons, angels, and such is often called machinery); Extended similes, generally called epic similes (you find this a lot in Homer) Long catalogues, whether of ships, characters, or places; Extensive battle scenes (particularly the Iliad) A few stock episodes, including a visit to the underworld (the Odyssey)

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/epic.html

Epic poetry

Homer wrote the oldest surviving epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, from around 750 B.C.E. To be precise, change wrote to composed: Homer, even if there was a single individual called Homer, was probably illiterate, and probably composed orally. Virgil, although thoroughly literate, consciously imitated many of Homer's techniques, and produced the most famous epic poem of Augustan Rome, the Aeneid. Many of the characteristics of later epic derive from the quirks of oral composition.I n both Greek and Latin, the most common epic meter was dactylic hexameter. That's a difficult meter to pull off in English, though; English epics aren't associated with any one meter, though most of them beginning with Spenser are in pentameter. Famous English epics include the Old English poem Beowulf (written inalliterative meter); in the Renaissance, Spenser's Faerie Queene (with its complicated Spenserian stanza) and Milton's Paradise Lost (in blank verse). In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, heroic couplets were considered the best form for epics; Dryden's translation of Virgil and Pope's translation of Homer use heroic couplets. The history of the epic is worth studying in some detail. The Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid are the most famous epics of antiquity, but not the only ones; Statius'Thebaid, for instance, is worth reading. In the Middle Ages, the dominant long narrative form is the romance, which is epic's kissin' cousin.

Dante's Divine Comedy is probably best described as an epic. It has three parts, LInferno, Puratorio, and Paradiso, or Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. Most MHS seniors read the Inferno. As you get into the Renaissance, the familiar pattern of the classical epic becomes more visible: Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (1516) mixes romance with epic, but Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata (1575) is clearly modeled on the epics of Homer and Virgil. Camoens's Lusiads are the great Portuguese epic. The first great English epic of the Renaissance is Spenser's Faerie Queene (159096), followed by Milton's Paradise Lost (1667-74). But then the form seems to disappear, or at least to trasform itself radically. For most MHS students, I would say they should be familiar with Gilgamesh The Iliad The Odyssey The Aeneid Beowulf The Divine Comedy Paradise Lost
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Terms/epic.html

The Iliad

The ten year war between the Greeks and Trojans over Helen (of Sparta, then of Troy) The poem details the rage of Achilles after losing Briseis, his war prize, to Agamemnon, the general. He prays that the Greeks lose the war until he re-enters the battle so everyone will see his worth. Zeus grants his mothers wish that this be so and for about 20 books the lesser warriors duke it out until Achilles puts on his armor (which takes a whole book) and kills Hector after which he drags his body around Troy still angry that Hector has killed his friend Patroclus. In the end of the book, Achilles returns Hectors body to Priam and Hector is buried. Many people do not realize that Achilles is alive and Troy is standing at the end of the Iliad. The book exalts courage, friendship, the power of the gods, and also is critical of various human traits, including hubris, cowardice (Paris), vanity etc. It is unrivaled for action and war scenes.

The Odyssey
The greatest story ever told IMHO. This is the ten year return of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, from the Trojan War. After angering Poseidon, the god of the sea, by blinding his son Polyphemus (a cyclops), he struggles to reach home. Along the way he faces the sirens, the straits of Scylla and Charybdis, the island of the Lotus, the temptation of eating the cattle of Hyperion, the magic of Circe, and the loveliness of Calypso, before benefitting from Alcinous and the Phaecians, who send him home on a boat. Once there, he uses his wits and the help of his patron goddess Athena, and his son Telemachus to craft a plan to violently take back his home from the suitors who seek to steal his world. Disguised as an old man, he gets his wife to hold an archery competition in a weaponless room; once cornered, he wins the competition, reveals himslef, and brutally kills them all, thus retaking his home!

Beowulf:
Anonymous 3200 line epic that details the exploits of the hero Beowulf as he brings peace to Denmark and slays three magical monsters: Grendel, Grendels mother, and a dragon.
Hallmarks: kennings (compound metaphors) alliteration alliterative verse, not metrical, Homily (advice), litotes (understatement via the double negative), hyperbole, personification, and the typical tricks: simile, metaphor
As you probably know, the key concepts in the poem are : Lof: fame for valor Wyrd: the sense of destiny Comitatus: loyalty between king and thane, valor for gold Wergild: every life has its price It follows Joseph Campbells The Heros Journey and exalts a fatalistic warrior culture, placing emphasis on loyalty, courage, and doing what you say youll do. It has a mixture of pagan and Christian motifs, and is boatloads of bloody fun.

http://www.jnanam.net/beowulf_art/keepin g-beowulfgrendlesma-e.jpg

Fun Narrative poem #1, The Jabberwocky


JABBERWOCKY Lewis Carroll (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872) `Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Activity #1: Have students write down the action of the poem and describe the poems participants Activity #2 Language Enrichment: have students create their own portmanteaus here: http://werdmerge.com/ The word "portmanteau" was first used in this sense by Lewis Carroll in the book Through the Looking-Glass (1871),[4] in which Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice the coinage of the unusual words in Jabberwocky,[9] where "slithy" means "lithe and slimy" and "mimsy" is "flimsy and miserable." Humpty Dumpty explains the practice of combining words in various ways by telling Alice, 'You see it's like a portmanteau -- there are two meanings packed up into one word.' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau

He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. "And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/jabber/jabberwocky.html

Fun Narrative poetry #2: Lewis Carroll


The Walrus and The Carpenter Lewis Carroll (from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might: He did his very best to make The billows smooth and bright-And this was odd, because it was The middle of the night. The moon was shining sulkily, Because she thought the sun Had got no business to be there After the day was done-"It's very rude of him," she said, "To come and spoil the fun!" The sea was wet as wet could be, The sands were dry as dry. You could not see a cloud, because No cloud was in the sky: No birds were flying overhead-There were no birds to fly. The Walrus and the Carpenter Were walking close at hand; They wept like anything to see Such quantities of sand: "If this were only cleared away," They said, "it would be grand!" "If seven maids with seven mops Swept it for half a year. Do you suppose," the Walrus said, "That they could get it clear?" "I doubt it," said the Carpenter, And shed a bitter tear.

And shook his heavy head-Meaning to say he did not choose To leave the oyster-bed.

We can begin to feed."

But four young Oysters hurried up, All eager for the treat: Their coats were brushed, their faces washed, Their shoes were clean and neat-And this was odd, because, you know, They hadn't any feet. Four other Oysters followed them, And yet another four; And thick and fast they came at last, And more, and more, and more- All hopping through the frothy waves, And scrambling to the shore. The Walrus and the Carpenter Walked on a mile or so, And then they rested on a rock Conveniently low: And all the little Oysters stood And waited in a row. "The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealingwax-Of cabbages--and kings-And why the sea is boiling hot-And whether pigs have wings." "But wait a bit," the Oysters cried, "Before we have our chat; For some of us are out of breath, And all of us are fat!" "No hurry!" said the Carpenter. They thanked him much for that. "A loaf of bread," the Walrus said, "Is what we chiefly need: Pepper and vinegar besides Are very good indeed-Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,

"But not on us!" the Oysters cried, Turning a little blue. "After such kindness, that would be A dismal thing to do!" "The night is fine," the Walrus said. "Do you admire the view? "It was so kind of you to come! And you are very nice!" The Carpenter said nothing but "Cut us another slice: I wish you were not quite so deaf-I've had to ask you twice!" "It seems a shame," the Walrus said, "To play them such a trick, After we've brought them out so far, And made them trot so quick!" The Carpenter said nothing but "The butter's spread too thick!" "I weep for you," the Walrus said: "I deeply sympathize." With sobs and tears he sorted out Those of the largest size, Holding his pocket-handkerchief Before his streaming eyes. "O Oysters," said the Carpenter, "You've had a pleasant run! Shall we be trotting home again?' But answer came there none-And this was scarcely odd, because They'd eaten every one.

"O Oysters, come and walk with us!" The Walrus did beseech. "A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk, Along the briny beach: We cannot do with more than four, To give a hand to each." The eldest Oyster looked at him, But never a word he said: The eldest Oyster winked his eye,

Ballad 101

Ballad Writing Tips often have verses of four lines usually have a rhyming pattern: either abac or aabb or acbc (usually the easiest to rhyme) repetition often found in ballads entire stanzas can be repeated like a song's chorus lines can be repeated but each time a certain word is changed a question and answer format can be built into a ballad: one stanza asks a questions and the next stanza answers the question Ballads contain a lot of dialogue. Action is often described in the first person Two characters in the ballad can speak to each other on alternating lines Sequences of "threes" often occur: three kisses, three tasks, three events, for example

Ballad: a relatively short narrative poem, written to be sung, with a simple and dramatic action. The ballads tell of love, death, the supernatural, or a combination of these. Two characteristics of the ballad are incremental repetition and the ballad stanza. Incremental repetition repeats one or more lines with small but significant variations that advance the action. The ballad stanza is four lines; commonly, the first and third lines contain four feet or accents, the second and fourth lines contain three feet. Ballads often open abruptly, present brief descriptions, and use concise dialogue. The folk ballad is usually anonymous and the presentation impersonal. The literary ballad deliberately imitates the form and spirit of a folk ballad. The Romantic poets were attracted to this form, as Longfellow with "The Wreck of the Hesperus," Coleridge with the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (which is longer and more elaborate than the folk balad) and Keats with "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (which more closely resembles the folk ballad).

http://www.studyguide.org/ballads.htm

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/lit_term.html

Folk Ballad #1

Get up and Bar the Door IT fell about the Martinmas time, And a gay time it was then, When our good wife got puddings to make, And shes boild them in the pan. The wind sae cauld blew south and north, 5 And blew into the floor; Quoth our goodman to our goodwife, Gae 1 out and bar the door. My hand is in my hussyfskap, 2 Goodman, as ye may see; 10An it shoud nae be barrd this hundred year, Its no be barrd for me. They made a paction tween them twa, They made it firm and sure, That the first word whaeer shoud speak, 15 Shoud rise and bar the door. Then by there came two gentlemen, At twelve oclock at night, And they could neither see house nor hall, Nor coal nor candle-light. 20 Now whether is this a rich mans house, Or whether is it a poor? But neer a word wad ane o them speak, For barring of the door. And first they ate the white puddings, 25 And then they ate the black; Tho muckle thought the goodwife to hersel,

Yet neer a word she spake. Then said the one unto the other, Here, man, tak ye my knife; 30 Do ye tak aff the auld mans beard, And Ill kiss the goodwife. But theres nae water in the house, And what shall we do than?What ails thee at the puddingbroo, 3 35 That boils into the pan? O up then started our goodman, An angry man was he: Will ye kiss my wife before my een, And scad 4 me wi pudding-bree? 40 Then up and started our goodwife, Gied three skips on the floor: Goodman, youve spoken the foremost word, Get up and bar the door. Note 1. Housewifery. [back]Note 2. Water in which the puddings were boiled. [back]Note 3. Scald. [back]Note 4. Dry, make. [back]

Describe the argument and deal the husband and wife make Describe who enters the house and how the spouses react What happens at the end of the ballad? What is the joke?

Lord Randall

Narrative Poetry: Lord Randall murder ballad #1, plus its echo

"Oh where ha'e ye been, Lord Randall, my son! And where ha'e ye been, my handsome young man!" "I ha'e been to the wild wood: mother, make my bed soon, For I'm wearied wi' hunting, and fain wald lie down." "An wha met ye there, Lord Randall, my son? An wha met you there, my handsome young man?" "I dined wi my true-love; mother, make my bed soon, For I'm wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie doon." "And what did she give you, Lord Randall, my son? And what did she give you, my handsome young man?" "Eels fried in broo; mother, make my bed soon, For I'm wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie doon." "And wha gat your leavins, Lord Randall, my son? And wha gat your leavins, my handsome young man?" "My hawks and my hounds; mother, make my bed soon, For I'm wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie doon." "What become a yer bloodhounds, Lord Randall, my son? What become a yer bloodhounds, my handsome young man?" "They swelled and they died; mother, make my bed soon, For I'm weary wi huntin, and fain wad lie doon." "O I fear ye are poisoned, Lord Randall, my son! I fear ye are poisoned, my handsome young man!" "O yes, I am poisoned; mother, make my bed soon, For I'm sick at m' heart, and I fain wad lie doon."

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lord-randall-2/ Ask: What do you notice in terms of dialect? Tell me what the mother discovers from her questions? What is the repetitive base of Lord Randall? Who is responsible for poisoning him?

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? Oh, where have you been, my darling young one? Ive stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains Ive walked and Ive crawled on six crooked highways Ive stepped in the middle of seven sad forests Ive been out in front of a dozen dead oceans Ive been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard And its a hard, and its a hard, its a hard, and its a hard And its a hard rains agonna fall Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son? Oh, what did you see, my darling young one? I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin I saw a room full of men with their hammers ableedin I saw a white ladder all covered with water I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children And its a hard, and its a hard, its a hard, its a

hard And its a hard rains agonna fall And what did you hear, my blue-eyed son? And what did you hear, my darling young one? I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin Heard ten thousand whisperin and nobody listenin Heard one person starve, I heard many people laughin Heard the song of a poet who died in the gutter Heard the sound of a clown who cried in the alley And its a hard, and its a hard, its a hard, its a hard And its a hard rains agonna fall Oh, who did you meet, my blue-eyed son? Who did you meet, my darling young one? I met a young child beside a dead pony I met a white man who walked a black dog I met a young woman whose body was burning I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow I met one man who was wounded in love I met another man who was wounded with hatred And its a hard, its a hard,

its a hard, its a hard Its a hard rains a-gonna fall Oh, whatll you do now, my blue-eyed son? Oh, whatll you do now, my darling young one? Im a-goin back out fore the rain starts a-fallin Ill walk to the depths of the deepest black forest Where the people are many and their hands are all empty Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison Where the executioners face is always well hidden Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten Where black is the color, where none is the number And Ill tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it Then Ill stand on the ocean until I start sinkin But Ill know my song well before I start singin And its a hard, its a hard, its a hard, its a hard Its a hard rains a-gonna fall

Murder Ballad #2 and #3 : Frankie and Johnny and Hey Joe Comparison activity

Frankie And Johnny Recorded by Hank Snow written by Jimmie Rodgers G Now Frankie and Johnny were sweethearts Oh Lord how they did love CG Swore to be true to each other true as the stars above D7 G He was her man but he wouldn't do her wrong Now Frankie went down to the corner Just for a bucket of beer CG She said Mr. Bartender has my loving Johnny been here D7 G He's my man he wouldn't do me wrong I don't want to cause you no trouble Woman I ain't gonna lie CG But I saw your lover an hour ago with a girl named Nellie Blie D7 G He's your man but he's doing you wrong Now Frankie looked over the transom She saw to her surprise CG There on the couch sat Johnny making love to Nellie Blie D7 G He's my man but he's doing me wrong Frankie threw back her Kimono Took out her little 44 CG

Rutty too-too three times she shot right through that hardwood door D7 G Shot her man he was doing her wrong Now bring out your rubber tired hearses Bring out your rubber tired hack CG I'm taken my man to the graveyard and I ain't gonna bring him back D7 G He was my man but he done me wrong Bring round a thousand policemen Bring 'em around today CG To lock me down in that dungeon cell and throw that key away D7 G I shot my man he was doing me wrong Now Frankie she said to the warden What are they going to do CG The warden he said to Frankie it's the electric chair for you D7 G You shot your man he was doing you wrong Now this story has no moral This story has no end CG This story just goes to show that there ain't no good in man D7 G He was her man but he done her wrong

Hey Joe by Tim Rose As played by Jimi HendrixHey joe, where you goin' with that gun of your hand Hey joe, i said where you goin' with that gun in your hand, oh I'm goin' down to shoot my old lady You know i caught her messin' 'round with another man Yeah, i'm goin' down to shoot my old lady You know i caught her messin' 'round with another man Huh! and that ain't cool Huh hey hoe, i heard you shot your mamma down You shot her down now Hey joe, i heard you shot your lady down You shot her down in the groud yeah! Yeah! Yes, i did, i shot her You know i caught her messin' round messin' round town Huh, yes i did i shot her You know i caught my old lady messin' 'round town And i gave her the gun And i shot her Alright Shoot her one more time again baby! Yeah! Oh dig it Oh alright Hey joe, Where you gonna run to now where you gonna go Hey joe, i said Where you gonna run to now where you gonna go I'm goin' way down south Way down to mexico way Alright I'm goin' way down south Way down where i can be free Ain't no one gonna find me Ain't no hang-man gonna He ain't gonna put a rope around me You better believe it right now I gotta go now Hey, joe You better run on down Goodbye everybody Hey hey joe

Hendrix image: http://www.thisdayinmusic.com/upload/jimi_hendrix_hey_joe_13101.JPG Elvis image: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JC8BY1W9L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Not a Ballad, but still murder! A Poison Tree, by William Blake


I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I watered it in fears Night and morning with my tears, And I sunned it with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright, And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine,-And into my garden stole When the night had veiled the pole; In the morning, glad, I see My foe outstretched beneath the tree

1. Play my adaptation! 2. Describe the events in the narrative? 3 What is the speakers tone? 4. What is the symbol at work in this narrative poem? 5. What is the message about repressed anger?

Femme Fatale! Mysterious Narrative#1: Keats


I. O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has witherd from the lake, And no birds sing. II. O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms! 5 So haggard and so woe-begone? The squirrels granary is full, And the harvests done. III. I see a lily on thy brow With anguish moist and fever dew, 10And on thy cheeks a fading rose Fast withereth too. IV. I met a lady in the meads, Full beautifula faerys child, Her hair was long, her foot was light, 15 And her eyes were wild. V. I made a garland for her head, And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; She lookd at me as she did love, And made sweet moan. 20 VI. I set her on my pacing steed, And nothing else saw all day long, For sidelong would she bend, and sing A faerys song.

VII. She found me roots of relish sweet, 25 And honey wild, and manna dew, And sure in language strange she said I love thee true.
VIII. She took me to her elfin grot, And there she wept, and sighd fill sore, 30 And there I shut her wild wild eyes With kisses four. IX. And there she lulled me asleep, And there I dreamdAh! woe betide! The latest dream I ever dreamd 35 On the cold hills side. X. I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; They criedLa Belle Dame sans Merci Hath thee in thrall! 40

XI. I saw their starved lips in the gloam, With horrid warning gaped wide, And I awoke and found me here, On the cold hills side.
XII. And this is why I sojourn here, 45 Alone and palely loitering, Though the sedge is witherd from the lake, And no birds sing.

Item #1 play my adaptation! Questions: Who are the speakers? Chart the relationship between the knight and the lady? What elements of a medieval romance do we see? What things she does make her seem magical? Why is she a femme fatale? Where is the knight at the poems end?

Background to the Lorelei


Etymology The name comes from the old German words "lureln" (Rhine dialect for "murmuring") and the Celtic term "ley" (rock). The translation of the name would therefore be: "murmur rock" or "murmuring rock". The heavy currents, and a smallwaterfall in the area (still visible in the early 19th century) created a murmuring sound, and this combined with the special echo the rock produces which acted as a sort of amplifier, giving the rock its name.[1] The murmuring is hard to hear today owing to the urbanization of the area. Other theories attribute the name to the many accidents, by combining the German verb "lauern" (to lurk, lie in wait) with the same "ley" ending, with the translation "lurking rock". Original folklore and the creation of the modern myth The rock and the murmur it creates have inspired various tales. An old legend envisioned dwarves living in caves in the rock. In 1801 German author Clemens Brentano composed his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine as part of a fragmentary continuation of his novelGodwi oder Das steinerne Bild der Mutter. It first told the story of an enchanting female associated with the rock. In the poem, the beautiful Lore Lay, betrayed by her sweetheart, is accused of bewitching men and causing their death. Rather than sentence her to death, the bishop consigns her to a nunnery. On the way thereto, accompanied by three knights, she comes to the Lorelei rock. She asks permission to climb it and view the Rhine once again. She does so and falls to her death; the rock still retained an echo of her name afterwards. Brentano had taken inspiration from Ovid and theEcho myth. In 1824 Heinrich Heine seized on and adapted Brentano's theme in one of his most famous poems, Die Lore-Ley. It describes the titular female as a sort ofsiren who, sitting on the cliff above the the Rhine and combing her golden hair, unwittingly distracted shipmen with her beauty and song, causing them to crash on the rocks. In 1837 Heine's lyrics were set to music by Friedrich Silcher in a song that became well known in German-speaking lands. A setting by Franz Liszt was also favored, and over a score of other musicians have set the poem to music.[2] The Loreley character, although originally imagined by Brentano, passed into German popular culture in the form described in the Heine-Silcher song and is commonly but mistakenly believed to have originated in an old folk tale. The French writer Guillaume Apollinaire took up the theme again in his poem "La Loreley".

Narrative (ballad): The Lorelei


Heinrich Heine The Lorelei I wish I knew the meaning, A sadness has fallen on me. The ghost of an ancient legend That will not let me be. The air is cool in the twilight And gently flows the Rhine; A mountain peak in the setting sun Catches the faltering shine.

Teach this poem in conjunction with Keatss. How is she like a siren? What happens to the boatman when he hears her song? How does she fit the idea of the femme fatale? What is mysterious about the story? How does the language echo her song (what is hypnotic in the language)?

The highest peak still gleaming Reveals enthroned in the air, A Siren lost in her dreaming Combing her golden hair. With golden combs she caresses Her hair as she sings her song; Echoing through the gloaming Filled with a magic so strong.
The boatman has heard, it has bound him In throes of desire and love. He's blind to the reefs that surround him, He sees but the Maiden above. And now the wild waters awaken Then boat and the boatman are gone. And this is what with her singing, The Lorelei has done.

http://fanzone50.com/Tales/Lorelei.html

Narrative Poetry: Death Of A Naturalist by Seamus Heaney

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart Of the townland; green and heavy headed Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods. Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun. Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell. There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies, But best of all was the warm thick slobber Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied Specks to range on window-sills at home, On shelves at school, and wait and watch until The fattening dots burst into nimbleSwimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how The daddy frog was called a bullfrog And how he croaked and how the mammy frog Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too For they were yellow in the sun and brown In rain. Then one hot day when fields were rank With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges To a coarse croaking that I had not heard Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus. Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped: The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting. I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

Activity: Have students compose a narrative

poem about an episode in their childhood that changed the way they looked at things. Chart his attitude towards nature before, during, and after this experience. What imagery is used to describe the horrors of nature in all its viscous grotesquery? Focus on mood shift! When does it turn?

Narrative as the poetry of experience #2:Seamus Heaney Mid-Term Break


Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney I sat all morning in the college sick bay Counting bells knelling classes to a close. At two o'clock our neighbors drove me home. In the porch I met my father crying-He had always taken funerals in his stride-And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow. The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram When I came in, and I was embarrassed By old men standing up to shake my hand And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble," Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest, Away at school, as my mother held my hand In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs. At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him For the first time in six weeks. Paler now, Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple, He lay in the four foot box as in his cot. No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear. A four foot box, a foot for every year.

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/seamus_heane y/poems/12698

1. Describe the tone; the authors attitude towards his subject 2. Describe the style, the word choice (diction) and what kind of feelings you get from his voice? 3. Describe the participants in the poem, the speaker, the deceased 4. Describe the scene at the funeral 5. How does he describe his parents? 6. How did the boy die? 7. What is the overall feeling the narrative creates? 8. How might this poem be at odds with what you might expect From an older brothers elegy for his younger brother? 9. To further that, what is most missing from the poem?

Narrative Poetry: Frost


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep Of easy wind and downy flake. Write a short profile of the speaker/narrator/traveler. True, the poem provides little information about him (or her). However, we do know that (1).he apparently does not want to be seen observing the woods by the man in the village; (2) he owns a little horse; (3) he is a keen observer and reporter, who tells us what the horse may be thinking http://www.ketzle.com/frost/snowyeve.htm and describes the sounds of the wind and snowflakes; (4) he appreciates nature; (5) he keeps his promisesor at least tries to do Image: http://www.susanjeffersso. http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Frost.html art.com/images/snowypg.jpg The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

Famous Narrative: to teach Dramatic Irony


The Chimney Sweeper From the Songs of Innocence William Blake

When my mother died I was very young, And my father sold me while yet my tongue Could scarcely cry 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! So your chimneys I sweep, and in soot I sleep.
There's little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head, That curled like a lamb's back, was shaved: so I said, "Hush, Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare, You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair." And so he was quiet; and that very night, As Tom was a-sleeping, he had such a sight, That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, and Jack, Were all of them locked up in coffins of black. And by came an angel who had a bright key, And he opened the coffins and set them all free; Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run, And wash in a river, and shine in the sun. Then naked and white, all their bags left behind, They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind; And the angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy, He'd have God for his father, and never want joy. And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark, And got with our bags and our brushes to work. Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy and warm; So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.

http://www.online-literature.com/blake/628/ Questions to ask: what do the coffins symbolize? What does the speaker not realize? How is this an indictment of Christianity?

Narrative Poems Story told via dialogue Yesterday


by W. S. Merwin My friend says I was not a good son you understand I say yes I understand he says I did not go to see my parents very often you know and I say yes I know

oh I say feeling again the cold of my father's hand the last time he says and my father turned in the doorway and saw me look at my wristwatch and he said you know I would like you to stay and talk with me oh yes I say

though there was nowhere I had to go and nothing I had to do

Activity: Underline what the friend said to separate it from what the poet is remembering or thinking. What is the import of the conversation? Contrast / compare the statements of each person What is the tone of the speaker? What feelings does the poem evoke? What is universal here?

but if you are busy he said I don't want you to feel that you have to even when I was living in the same city he just because I'm here says maybe I would go there once I say nothing a month or maybe even less I say oh yes he says my father said maybe he says the last time I went to see my you have important work you are doing father or maybe you should be seeing I say the last time I saw my father somebody I don't want to keep you he says the last time I saw my father he was asking me about my life how I was making out and he went into the next room to get something to give me I look out the window my friend is older than I am he says and I told my father it was so and I got up and left him then you know

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_Fop5FXliHo/TX0cQ3yBy3I/AAAAAAAAD QY/DAlLQRHDsfk/wsmerwin.jpg

Richard Cory
by Edward Arlington Robinson

Whenever Richard Cory went down town, We people on the pavement looked at him: He was a gentleman from sole to crown, Clean-favored and imperially slim. And he was always quietly arrayed, And he was always human when he talked; But still he fluttered pulses when he said, "Good Morning!" and he glittered when he walked. And he was rich, yes, richer than a king, And admirably schooled in every grace: In fine -- we thought that he was everything To make us wish that we were in his place. So on we worked and waited for the light, And went without the meat and cursed the bread, And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet in his head.
Formal questions 1. What is the basic structure? 2. What is the rhyme scheme 3. What elements of rhetoric is used in stanza two? 4. What formal device is used in line 13? 5. How does the poet make his suicide a surprise? 6. Describe his style which is informed by his diction; in what way does his word choice fit his chosen narrator?

Content questions 1. Who is the speaker? 2. Describe Richard Cory physically 3. Describe whats enviable about him from the townspeoples perspective 4. Why is his suicide surprising?

Two good old ballads


Barbara Allen In Scarlet town where I was born There was a fair maid dwelling And every youth cried well away For her name was Barbara Allen Twas in the merry month of May The green buds were a swelling Sweet William on his deathbed lay For the love of Barbara Allen

Poem #237) The Ballad of Father Gilligan The old priest Peter Gilligan Was weary night and day For half his flock were in their beds Or under green sods lay. Once, while he nodded in a chair At the moth-hour of the eve Another poor man sent for him, And he began to grieve. 'I have no rest, nor joy, nor peace, For people die and die; And after cried he, 'God forgive! My body spake not I!' He knelt, and leaning on the chair He prayed and fell asleep; And the moth-hour went from the fields, And stars began to peep. They slowly into millions grew, And leaves shook in the wind And God covered the world with shade And whispered to mankind. Upon the time of sparrow chirp When the moths came once more, The old priest Peter Gilligan Stood upright on the floor. 'Mavrone, mavrone! The man has died While I slept in the chair.' He roused his horse out of its sleep And rode with little care.

He rode now as he never rode, By rocky lane and fen; The sick man's wife opened the door, 'Father! you come again!'
'And is the poor man dead?' he cried 'He died an hour ago.' The old priest Peter Gilligan In grief swayed to and fro. 'When you were gone, he turned and died, As merry as a bird.' The old priest Peter Gilligan He knelt him at that word. 'He Who hath made the night of stars For souls who tire and bleed, Sent one of this great angels down, To help me in my need. 'He Who is wrapped in purple robes, With planets in His care Had pity on the least of things Asleep upon a chair.' -- William Butler Yeats

He sent a servant unto her To the place she was dwelling Saying you must come to his deathbed now If your name be Barbara Allen

Slowly slowly she got up Slowly slowly she came nigh him And the only words to him she said Young man I think you're dying

As she was walking oer the fields She heard the death bell knelling And every stroke it seemed to say Hardhearted Barbara Allen

Oh mother mother make my bed Make it long and make it narrow Sweet William died for me today I'll die for him tomorrow

They buried her in the old churchyard They buried him in the choir And from his grave grew a red red rose From her grave a green briar

They grew and grew to the steeple top Till they could grow no higher And there they twined in a true love's knot Red rose around green briar (Trad./ Arranged by Harvey Reid)

Poetry and MCAS What they ask


MCAS likes to use Shakespeare whether its from plays like Macbeth or sonnets, and the classics - Virgils Aeneid for example, as much as they use contemporary poets: Roethke, Sexton, Cofer, and even Bob Dylan. As such, students should be used to reading narrative and lyric poems, oldfashioned poems with antiquated diction, as well as free verse in the vernacular Having students analyze poems is a good idea, but also give them songs to pick apart One of my essays is Who is your favorite lyricist?; students have to analyze three songs and prove to me their favorite lyricist is talented (which means they have to formulate an aesthetic and prove their choice fits it. MCAS asks for reading comprehension It asks for main ideas and theme It has students close read lines and stanzas, mainly for meaning Literary terms are not the focus of the test, but they are valuable to us as ELA teachers and to the new standards

Lyric poetry Form and Content Analyses: William Blakes Auguries of Innocence
To get started, heres some William Blake:

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.

The form is a quatrain written in accessible, simple word choices, in the rhyme scheme ABAB. The diction is simple, the style unadorned; there is parallel structure in the two pairs. The style is balanced and accessible; the poet wants to be understood, but also to pass along the mystery present in the mundane. The content or message is that the part contains the whole, and that separateness is an illusion; heaven is here and now; to see the divine in the mundane. He suggests we can see the big picture a world in the smallest thing a grain of sand. He suggests that, paradoxically, you can experience an eternity in an hour, which I hope will not be your experience today!

Content Reading

Lyric poetry with literal Language: Miracles by Walt Whitman


1819-1892 Why, who makes much of a miracle? As to me I know of nothing else but miracles, Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan, Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky, Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water, Or stand under trees in the woods, Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night with any one I love, Or sit at table at dinner with the rest, Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car, Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon, Or animals feeding in the fields, Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air, Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet and bright, Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring; These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles, The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place. To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle, Every cubic inch of space is a miracle, Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same, Every foot of the interior swarms with the same. To me the sea is a continual miracle, The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the ships with men in them, What stranger miracles are there?

What is a miracle? in the general sense that he expects people to have in their mind before reading his poem This poem is pure content and rhetoric; it is nearly devoid of figurative language How does this echo the content in terms of not gilding the lily? What are the natural images he thinks are lovely? What aspects of the city does he love? What is the connection between the part and the whole the scenes and his sense of life? What is a miracle to the poet?

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/miracles/

2002 MCAS ELA: Shakespeare


The Seven Ages of Man from As You Like It by William Shakespeare Jacques: All the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, 5 His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurses arms. Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, 10 Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard1, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble2 reputation 15 Even in the cannons mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon3 lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances4; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts 20 Into the lean and slippered pantaloon5 With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes 25 And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans6teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

1 pard leopard or large cat 2 bubble short-lived 3 capon a young, fattened chicken 4 instances examples to prove a point 5 pantaloon foolish old man in Italian comedy 6 sans without "The Seven Ages of Man" from AS YOU LIKE IT by William Shakespeare. In the public domain. Question #14 In line 3, what do the words "exits" and "entrances" represent in this selection?A. sorrow and love B. illness and health C. death and birth D. misfortune and happiness Question #15 How does Shakespeare characterize a soldier in lines 1115?A. A soldier is short-tempered and eager for fame. B. A soldier is loving and faithful to his mistress. C. A soldier is honorable and loyal to the throne. D. A soldier is jealous and cowardly in battle. Question #16 In lines 2325, what does Shakespeare most likely mean by "his big manly voice, / Turning again toward childish treble, pipes / And whistles in his sound"?A. The aging man plays many musical instruments. B. The aging mans voice changes from deep to high. C. The aging man snores loudly in his sleep. D. The aging man sings playful songs to his grandchildren. Question #17 In line 27, the word oblivion most likely meansA. liveliness. B. courage. C. nothingness. D. misery. Question #18 (Open-Response Question) All the worlds a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.Explain what Shakespeare means by the lines above. Use evidence from each of the ages to support your answer.

2003 MCAS ELA: Spenser


Sonnet 26 Sweet is the rose, but grows upon a briar; Sweet is the juniper, but sharp his bough, Sweet is the eglantine, but pricketh near; Sweet is the r bloom, but his branch is rough; 5 Sweet is the cypress, but his rind is tough; Sweet is the nut, but bitter is his pill; Sweet is the broom ower, but yet sour enough; And sweet is moly, but his root is ill. So every sweet with sour is tempered still, 10 That maketh it be coveted the more: For easy things, that may be got at will, Most sorts of men do set but little store. Why then should I account of little pain, That endless pleasure shall unto me gain! Edmund Spenser

What contrast is established by the use of the word but in the rst eight lines of the poem? A. good versus evil B. life versus death C. pleasure versus pain * D. knowledge versus ignorance Edmund Spensers use of the words pricketh and maketh A. reects poetic language of his time. * B. introduces rhyme into the poem. C. emphasizes the actions of the speaker. D. suggests the disbelief of the speaker. What does the poet suggest in lines 1112? A. People easily take the things they want. B. People desire more than they can have. C. People do not value things that come easily. * D. People should be satised with who they are. What is the purpose of the last two lines of the poem? A. to add humor to the poem B. to reassert the speakers anger C. to summarize the poems meaning * D. to repeat the poems visual imager

Create another title for Sonnet 26 and explain why your title is appropriate. Use information from the poem to support your answer

2004 MCAS ELA: Sara Teasdale


Barter Life has loveliness to sell, All beautiful and splendid things, Blue waves whitened on a cliff, Soaring re that sways and sings, And childrens faces looking up Holding wonder like a cup. Life has loveliness to sell, Music like a curve of gold, Scent of pine trees in the rain, Eyes that love you, arms that hold, And for your spirits still delight, Holy thoughts that star the night. Spend all you have for loveliness, Buy it and never count the cost; For one white singing hour of peace Count many a year of strife well lost, And for a breath of ecstasy Give all you have been, or could be. Sara Teasdale

What is emphasized in stanzas 1 and 2? A. examples of beauty in life * B. reasons for the reader to take action C. the importance of reevaluating ones life D. the poets affection for children

Which of the following gures of speech is used in line 4? A. simile B. analogy C. onomatopoeia D. personication *
What does line 10 suggest to the reader? A. the surprises one can nd in nature B. the need for aggressive action C. the warmth of humanity * D. the unpredictability of kindness Which of the following lines from the poem states that beauty is worth any sacrice? A. Life has loveliness to sell B. Holy thoughts that star the night C. Spend all you have for loveliness * D. For one white singing hour of peace The word barter means to trade something in exchange for something else. Explain why Barter is an appropriate title for the poem. Use relevant and specic information from the poem to support your answer

2005 MCAS ELA Selection #1: Shakespeares Macbeth


William Shakespeares The Tragedy of Macbeth is a story of greed and dangerous ambition. In this soliloquyone of the most famous passages in English literatureMacbeth, the king of Scotland, has just learned of the death of his wife Lady Macbeth, who had encouraged him in his deadly quest for power. Read the soliloquy and use the information to answer the questions that follow.

11 In line 5, what does the metaphor brief candle suggest? A. The speaker is on his deathbed. B. The speaker fears being alone. C. The speaker believes life is short. * D. The speaker prefers darkness to light. Read the lines from the soliloquy in the box below. . . . it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. 12 What does Macbeth mean in these lines? A. He believes people should be humble. B. He is retelling stories of others. C. He believes life has no meaning. * D. He is surprised that he is still alive. 13 Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word syllable as it is used in line 3? A. song B. speech C. motion D. moment *

from Macbeth by William Shakespeare To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 5 The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 10 Signifying nothing. *

2005 MCAS ELA grade 10 selection #2: Roethke


Night Journey Now as the train bears west, Its rhythm rocks the earth, And from my Pullman berth I stare into the night While others take their rest. Bridges of iron lace, A suddenness of trees, A lap of mountain mist All cross my line of sight, Then a bleak wasted place, And a lake below my knees. Full on my neck I feel The straining at a curve; My muscles move with steel, I wake in every nerve. I watch a beacon swing From dark to blazing bright; We thunder through ravines And gullies washed with light. Beyond the mountain pass Mist deepens on the pane; We rush into a rain That rattles double glass. Wheels shake the roadbed stone, The pistons jerk and shove, I stay up half the night To see the land I love.

English Language Arts Session 1 14 How does the poet help the reader understand that the view from the train is changing rapidly? A. by using technical railroad terms B. by using short lines * C. by using a nighttime setting D. by using passive voice 15 What does the poet most likely mean when he writes Bridges of iron lace in line 6? A. bridges that are cold and fragile B. bridges that are light and dark C. bridges that have history and value D. bridges that have strength and elegance * 16 What does the speaker mean when he says in line 14, My muscles move with steel? A. His body feels powerful. B. He exercises his body. C. His body responds to the motion. * D. He stretches in his Pullman berth. 17 What idea is conveyed by the shift to the pronoun we in lines 18 and 22? A. The other passengers are waking up. B. The man and machine are briey one. * C. The train is increasing its speed. D. The man is dependent on trains.

18 Explain how the poem builds to its concluding line. Use relevant and specic information from the poem to support your answer

Torn Down From Glory Daily 2006 MCAS ELA grade 10 Poetry Selection

29 Read lines 13 in the box below. All day we watched the gulls striking the top of the sky and riding the blown roller coaster. What image do the lines most likely suggest? A. gulls bobbing on the waves B. gulls being carried by wind currents C. gulls chasing people on the beach D. gulls diving into the ocean 31 In stanza 4, what is the effect of the metaphor city of wings? A. It indicates gulls living in an urban area. B. It suggests a large number of gulls in a group. C. It emphasizes the gulls power and strength. D. It points out the competitiveness of the gulls. 32 Read lines 3436 in the box below. Oh see how they cushion their shy bellies with a brothers crumb. What do the lines most likely suggest? A. The gulls have to compete with each other to survive. B. The gulls oat on the water to look for sh. C. The gulls use the bread to make their nests. D. The gulls search for food with their families

All day we watched the gulls striking the top of the sky and riding the blown roller coaster. Up there godding the whole blue world and shrieking at a snip of land. Now, like children, we climb down humps of rock with a bag of dinner rolls, left over, and spread them gently on stone, leaving six crusts for an early king. A single watcher comes hawking in, rides the current round its hunger and hangs carved in silk until it throbs up suddenly, out, and one inch over water; to come again smoothing over the slap tide. To come bringing its flock, like a city of wings that fall from the air. They wait, each like a wooden decoy or soft like a pigeon or a sweet snug duck: until one moves, moves that dart-beak breaking over. It has the bread. The world is full of them, a world of beasts thrusting for one rock. Just four scoop out the bread and go swinging over Gloucester to the top of the sky. Oh see how they cushion their fishy bellies with a brother's crumb. Anne Sexton

2008 ELA grade 10 MCAS Selection: Bob Dylan


The following song lyrics by Bob Dylan were written during the 1960s, a turbulent time in American history. Read the lyrics to Blowin in the Wind and The Times They Are A-Changin and answer the questions that follow.

Blowin in the Wind How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man? Yes, n how many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand? Yes, n how many times must the cannon balls fly Before theyre forever banned? The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind, The answer is blowin in the wind. How many times must a man look up Before he can see the sky? Yes, n how many ears must one man have Before he can hear people cry? Yes, n how many deaths will it take till he knows That too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind, The answer is blowin in the wind. How many years can a mountain exist Before its washed to the sea? Yes, n how many years can some people exist Before theyre allowed to be free? Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head, Pretending he just doesnt see? The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind, The answer is blowin in the wind. Bob Dylan

2007 MCAS grade 10 ELA Selection: Walt Whitman


How much of what we learn adequately explains the world around us? Read the poem When I Heard the Learnd Astronomer to learn what the poet has to say about this question. Answer the questions that follow.

14 Which of the following statements represents the main theme of the poem? A. Science cannot fully express the wonder of the world. B. Nature is ones best source of recreation. C. Technology causes more problems than it solves. D. Learning causes one to become ill and fatigued. 15 In line 5, what is conveyed by the phrase tired and sick? A. the speakers sorrow and loss experienced in his life B. a sense of approaching danger C. a sense of the speakers poor health D. the speakers boredom and disappointment with the lecture 16 What is the main purpose of the phrase perfect silence in the last line of the poem? A. to explain why he has to leave the lecture room B. to convey a sense of loneliness and sorrow C. to contrast with the sounds in the lecture room D. to highlight the pleasure of science and learning 17 What do the last three lines of the poem suggest? A. the importance of personal experience with nature B. the dangers of losing track of time C. the importance of learning about astronomy D. the dangers of wandering off alone

18 Which of the following is the best synonym for the word learnd as it is used in line 1? A. aware B. remembered C. knowledgeable D. invented Question 19 is an open-response question. 19 In the poem, a shift occurs at the end of line 4. a. Explain what happens before and after the shift. b. Explain what causes the shift. Use relevant and specific information from the poem to support your answer

When I Heard the Learnd Astronomer When I heard the learnd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I, sitting, heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room, How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wanderd off by myself, In the mystical* moist night air, and from time to time, Lookd up in perfect silence at the stars. Walt Whitman

2008 MCAS Grade 10 ELA Selection: Bob Dylan

The Times they are a-Changing

Come gather round people Wherever you roam And admit that the waters Around you have grown And accept it that soon Youll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you Is worth savin Then you better start swimmin Or youll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin. Come writers and critics Who prophesize with your pen And keep your eyes wide The chance wont come again And dont speak too soon For the wheels still in spin And theres no tellin who That its namin. For the loser now Will be later to win For the times they are a-changin. Come senators, congressmen Please heed the call Dont stand in the doorway Dont block up the hall For he that gets hurt Will be he who has stalled Theres a battle outside And it is ragin. Itll soon shake your windows And rattle your walls For the times they are a-changin. Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land And dont criticize What you cant understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is Rapidly agin. Please get out of the new one If you cant lend your hand For the times they are a-changin. The line it is drawn The curse it is cast The slow one now Will later be fast As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly fadin. And the first one now Will later be last For the times they are a-changin

9 In lines 3 and 5 of Blowin in the Wind, which of the following contrasting pairs do the white dove and the cannon balls symbolize? A. peace and war B. order and chaos C. freedom and slavery D. nature and machines

10 What is the effect of writing Blowin in the Wind as a series of questions? A. It encourages the listener to think about the speakers concerns. B. It causes the listener to care about the speakers life. C. It emphasizes the speakers confusion. D. It emphasizes the speakers curiosity. 11 What is the message of the first verse of The Times They Are A-Changin? A. Changes in society are about to occur. B. Changes in society can cause confusion. C. Most people will embrace changes in society. D. Creative people can make changes in society. 12 They Are Based on The Times

A-Changin, why does the speaker most likely single out senators, congressmen and mothers and fathers? A. They understand the problems of society. B. They represent an outdated set of values. C. They are the most open to change. D. They are role models for the speaker. 13 The songwriters use of contractions in both songs reveals that he most likely feels he represents A. the common man. B. the political leaders. C. the religiously devout. D. the artistic community

2009 MCAS grade 10 ELA Selection: Judith Cofer


In The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica, Judith Ortiz Cofer describes the relationship between the owner of a Spanish grocery and her customers. Read the poem and answer the questions that follow.

The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica*

Presiding over a formica counter, plastic Mother and Child magnetized to the top of an ancient register, the heady mix of smells from the open bins of dried codfish, the green plantains hanging in stalks like votive offerings, she is the Patroness of Exiles, a woman of no-age who was never pretty, who spends her days selling canned memories while listening to the Puerto Ricans complain that it would be cheaper to fly to San Juan than to buy a pound of Bustelo coffee here, and to Cubans perfecting their speech of a glorious return to Havanawhere no one has been allowed to die and nothing to change until then; to Mexicans who pass through, talking lyrically of dlares to be made in El Norte

all wanting the comfort of spoken Spanish, to gaze upon the family portrait of her plain wide face, her ample bosom resting on her plump arms, her look of maternal interest as they speak to her and each other of their dreams and their disillusions how she smiles understanding, when they walk down the narrow aisles of her store reading the labels of packages aloud, as if they were the names of lost lovers: Suspiros, Merengues, the stale candy of everyones childhood. She spends her days slicing jamn y queso and wrapping it in wax paper tied with string: plain ham and cheese that would cost less at the A&P, but it would not satisfy the hunger of the fragile old man lost in the folds of his winter coat, who brings her lists of items that he reads to her like poetry, or the others, whose needs she must divine, conjuring up products from places that now exist only in their hearts closed ports she must trade with. Judith Ortiz Cofe

36 In line 1, what does the word presiding suggest about the woman? A. She wants to return to her home country. B. She is tired of listening to her customers. C. She holds a position of status to her customers. D. She is a source of amusement to her customers.

by the comparison of the womans face to a family portrait? A. The customers are consoled by her familiar looks. B. Many of the customers are related to the woman. C. Many of the customers look like the woman. D. The customers think she is attractive. 40 In line 14, why does the poet most likely use quotation marks? A. to show that the Cubans can speak English well B. to show that the Cubans are learning a new language C. to indicate that the woman has heard the words often D. to indicate that the woman is speaking to the customer

37 Based on lines 14 and 15, how do the exiled Cubans think of Cuba? A. They think it has been ruined. B. They think of it as frozen in time. C. They think it is a forbidden place. D. They think of it as unsophisticated.
38 In line 17, what is the most likely reason the poet includes the Spanish terms dlares and El Norte? A. to make a connection with her probable audience B. to show that the woman is welcoming to all cultures C. to describe the products the woman sells in the store D. to indicate that the customers still speak in their native tongue

39 Based on lines 1821, what is suggested

2010 MCAS Grade 10 ELA: William Shakespeare


SONNET 73 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 ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou seest the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Deaths second self, that seals up all in rest. In me thou seest the glowing of such fire That on the ashes of his youth doth lie As the death-bed whereon it must expire, Consumed with that which it was nourished by. This thou perceivst, which makes thy love more strong, To love that well which thou must leave ere long. William Shakespeare

10 What do the images in the sonnet suggest is happening to the speaker as he ages? A. He is declining in strength. B. He is losing his conviction. C. He is sharpening his judgment. D. He is developing his imagination. 11 What aspect of the season does the poet most emphasize in the first four lines of the sonnet? A. the brilliant colors of foliage B. the dreaded approach of winter C. the abundant harvest of autumn D. the cautious movements of wildlife 12 Which line from the sonnet describes sleep? A. When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang B. In me thou seest the twilight of such day C. Deaths second self, that seals up all in rest D. As the death-bed whereon it must expire 13 What is the main theme of the sonnet? A. Age differences are no barrier to love. B. People need to be loved as they grow older. C. Happiness changes to worry as loved ones grow older. D. People love more intensely when they know life is ending

Mock MCAS Dulce et Decorum Est


DULCE ET DECORUM EST(1) Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4) Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind. Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . . Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12) Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13) To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.(15) Wilfred Owen 8 October 1917 - March, 1918

Identify the speaker Discuss his tone What is ironic about the title? Find examples of caesuras What is the message about war / Discuss the authors attitude towards the soldiers death What is his overall message about the rhetoric of war, versus the actual carnage

Vote

Literal Language: Charles Bukowski: Two poems

the secret of my endurance I still get letters in the mail, mostly from cracked-up men in tiny rooms with factory jobs or no jobs who are living with whores or no woman at all, no hope, just booze and madness. Most of their letters are on lined paper written with an unsharpened pencil or in ink in tiny handwriting that slants to the left and the paper is often torn usually halfway up the middle and they say they like my stuff, I've written from where it's at, and they recognize that. truly, I've given them a second chance, some recognition of where they're at. it's true, I was there, worse off than most of them. but I wonder if they realize where their letters arrive? well, they are dropped into a box behind a six-foot hedge with a long driveway leading to a two car garage, rose garden, fruit trees, animals, a beautiful woman, mortgage about half paid after a year, a new car, fireplace and a green rug two-inches thick with a young boy to write my stuff now, I keep him in a ten-foot cage with a typewriter, feed him whiskey and raw whores, belt him pretty good three or four times a week. I'm 59 years old now and the critics say my stuff is getting better than ever.

CONFESSIO N waiting for death like a cat that will jump on the bed I am so very sorry for my wife she will see this stiff white body shake it once, then maybe again "Hank!" Hank won't answer. it's not my death that worries me, it's my wife left with this pile of nothing. I want to let her know though that all the

nights sleeping beside her even the useless arguments were things ever splendid and the hard words I ever feared to say can now be said: I love you.

This is free verse. Set free from meter, it defies the pompous Robert Frost description of playing tennis without a net and reclaims the voice. Harnessed by Whitman (a greater poet than Frost btw) it is an instrument that only works in the hands of someone with a sense of music and rhythm. Think of it like jazz or a skillful conversationalist. Use these poems, which use no figurative language at all, to teach content and HONESTY.

Analysis! Blakes The Sick Rose


Commentary While the rose exists as a beautiful natural object that has become BY WILLIAM BLAKE infected by a worm, it also exists as a literary rose, the conventional O Rose, thou art sick! symbol of love. The image of the worm resonates with the Biblical The invisible worm That flies in the night, serpent and also suggests a (yep). Worms are quintessentially In the howling storm, earthbound, and symbolize death and decay. although thats Has found out thy bed dumb to gardeners., who love worms. http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/blake/s Of crimson joy: The which the worm creeps both the natural And his dark secret love ection10.rhtml bed into also the lovers bed. Thedenotessick, and the poem Does thy life destroy. flowerbed and rose is implies that love is sick as well. Yet the rose is unaware of its sickness. Of course, an actual rose could not know anything about Content its own condition, and so the emphasis falls on the allegorical Who is the speaker addressing? suggestion that it is love that does not recognize its own ailing What does the speaker tell the rose? state. This results partly from the insidious secrecy with which the What enabled the worm to sneak into the worm performs its work of corruptionnot only is it invisible, it garden? enters the bed at night. This secrecy indeed constitutes part of the What happens to the rose (ultimately)? infection itself. The crimson joy of the rose connotes both sexual Form How is the poem organized? pleasure and shame, thus joining the two concepts in a way that What is the rhyme scheme? Blake thought was perverted and unhealthy. The roses joyful How many beats in each line? attitude toward love is tainted by the aura of shame and secrecy How does the rhythm fit the poems mood? that our culture attaches to love.
The Sick Rose

Extended Metaphor

Oh, how about a round of applause? Yeah, standing ovation? Ooh, oh yeah Yeah y-yeah yeah You look so dumb right now Standing outside my house Trying to apologize You?re so ugly when you cry Please, just cut it out Dont tell me youre sorry 'cause youre not And baby when I know you?re only sorry you got caught But you put on quite a show, really had me going But now it?s time to go, curtain?s finally closing That was quite a show, very entertaining But its over now (But its over now) Go on and take a bow Grab your clothes and get gone You better hurry up before the sprinklers come on Talking? 'bout, ?Girl, I love you," "You?re the one" This just looks like a rerun Please, what else is on? [ From : http://www.elyrics.net/read/r/rihanna-lyrics/take-a-bow-lyrics.html ] Don?t tell me you?re sorry 'cause you?re not And baby when I know you?re only sorry you got caught But you put on quite a show, really had me going But now it?s time to go, curtain?s finally closing That was quite a show, very entertaining But it?s over now (But it?s over now) Go on and take a bow Oh, and the award for the best liar goes to you (Goes to you) For making me believe that you could be faithful to me Let's hear your speech out How about a round of applause? A standing ovation? But you put on quite a show, really had me going Now it?s time to go, curtain?s finally closing That was quite a show, very entertaining But it?s over now (But it?s over now) Go on and take a bow But it's over now

This song is not a challenging piece But it will work for many classes Have students come up with a concept / metaphor And write a 20 lines piece that extends it.

Lyric poem types: ballade

Poetic Form: Ballade The ballade was one of the principal forms of music and poetry in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century France. Not to be confused with the ballad, the ballade contains three main stanzas, each with the same rhyme scheme, plus a shorter concluding stanza, or envoi. All four stanzas have identical final refrain lines. The tone of the ballade was often solemn and formal, with elaborate symbolism and classical references. One of the most influential writers of early ballades was Franois Villon. He used the exacting form and limited rhyme scheme to create intense compositions about poverty and the frailty of life. Inspired by debauchery and vagrancy of his criminal life, his work often included scathing attacks on the wealthy and declarations about injustice. In English, ballades were written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth-century, and revived by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Charles Swinburne in the nineteenth-century. Aside from adaptations of Villon composed by Ezra Pound, there are few modern examples of the ballade and it is most often reserved for light verse.

Ballade [I die of thirst beside the fountain] by Franois Villon translated by Galway Kinnell I die of thirst beside the fountain I'm hot as fire, I'm shaking tooth on tooth In my own country I'm in a distant land Beside the blaze I'm shivering in flames Naked as a worm, dressed like a president I laugh in tears and hope in despair I cheer up in sad hopelessness I'm joyful and no pleasure's anywhere I'm powerful and lack all force and strength Warmly welcomed, always turned away. I'm sure of nothing but what is uncertain Find nothing obscure but the obvious Doubt nothing but the certainties Knowledge to me is mere accident I keep winning and remain the loser At dawn I say "I bid you good night" Lying down I'm afraid of falling I'm so rich I haven't a penny I await an inheritance and am no one's heir Warmly welcomed, always turned away. I never work and yet I labor To acquire goods I don't even want Kind words irritate me most He who speaks true deceives me worst A friend is someone who makes me think A white swan is a black crow The people who harm me think they help Lies and truth today I see they're one I remember everything, my mind's a blank Warmly welcomed, always turned away. Merciful Prince may it please you to know I understand much and have no wit or learning I'm biased against all laws impartially What's next to do? Redeem my pawned goods again! Warmly welcomed, always turned away.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19210

How to Write a Limerick


Limerick

Name________________________________

Group_______________________

A limerick is a humorous five-line poem that originated in Ireland. It uses a predictable meter and a rhyme scheme of AABBA. Typically, limericks go untitled.

#1 There once was a ___________________ from __________________________(A)

_________________________________________________________________ (A)
___________________________________________(B) ___________________________________________(B) _________________________________________________________________(A)

#2

There once was a ___________________ from __________________________(A)


_________________________________________________________________ (A) ___________________________________________(B) ___________________________________________(B) __________________________________________________________________(A)

Lyric poem type: Villanelle


Poetic Form: Villanelle The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2. Strange as it may seem for a poem with such a rigid rhyme scheme, the villanelle did not start off as a fixed form. During the Renaissance, the villanella and villancico (from the Italian villano, or peasant) were Italian and Spanish dance-songs. French poets who called their poems "villanelle" did not follow any specific schemes, rhymes, or refrains. Rather, the title implied that, like the Italian and Spanish dance-songs, their poems spoke of simple, often pastoral or rustic themes. While some scholars believe that the form as we know it today has been in existence since the sixteenth century, others argue that only one Renaissance poem was ever written in that manner--Jean Passerats "Villanelle," or "Jay perdu ma tourterelle"--and that it wasnt until the late nineteenth century that the villanelle was defined as a fixed form by French poet Thodore de Banville. Regardless of its provenance, the form did not catch on in France, but it has become increasingly popular among poets writing in English. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5796

Dylan Thomass "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 they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their 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 grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night. Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind 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.

Lyric poem type: Sestina


Poetic Form: Sestina The sestina is a complex form that achieves its often spectacular effects through intricate repetition. The thirty-nine-line form is attributed to Arnaut Daniel, the Provencal troubadour of the twelfth century. The name "troubadour" likely comes from trobar, which means "to invent or compose verse." The troubadours sang their verses accompanied by music and were quite competitive, each trying to top the next in wit, as well as complexity and difficulty of style. Courtly love often was the theme of the troubadours, and this emphasis continued as the sestina migrated to Italy, where Dante andPetrarch practiced the form with great reverence for Daniel, who, as Petrarch said, was "the first among all others, great master of love." The sestina follows a strict pattern of the repetition of the initial six endwords of the first stanza through the remaining five six-line stanzas, culminating in a three-line envoi. The lines may be of any length, though in its initial incarnation, the sestina followed a syllabic restriction. The form is as follows, where each numeral indicates the stanza position and the letters represent end-words: 1. ABCDEF 2. FAEBDC 3. CFDABE 4. ECBFAD 5. DEACFB 6. BDFECA 7. (envoi) ECA or ACE The envoi, sometimes known as the tornada, must also include the remaining three end-words, BDF, in the course of the three lines so that all six recurring words appear in the final three lines. In place of a rhyme scheme, the sestina relies on end-word repetition to effect a sort of rhyme. Many twentieth-century poets have taken on the form, including Ezra Pound and John Ashbery. In the dramatic monologue "Sestina: Altaforte," Pound, in one of his many responses to his great influence, the Victorian poet Robert Browning, adopts the voice of troubadour-warlord Bertrans de Born. The poem is a tour-de-force in the praises of war as de Born, addressing Papiols, his court minstrel, laments that he "has no life save when the swords clash." This poem is a good example of the possibilities of end-word repetition, where, in expert hands, each recurrence changes in meaning, often very subtly. Note, too, the endwords Pound chose: "peace," "music," "clash," "opposing," "crimson," and "rejoicing." The words, while general enough to lend themselves to multiple meanings, are common enough that they also present Pound with the difficult task of making every instance fresh. Here are the first two stanzas (after a prefatory stanza which sets the scene):

Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape by John Ashbery The first of the undecoded messages read: "Popeye sits in thunder, Unthought of. From that shoebox of an apartment, From livid curtain's hue, a tangram emerges: a country." Meanwhile the Sea Hag was relaxing on a green couch: "How pleasant To spend one's vacation en la casa de Popeye," she scratched Her cleft chin's solitary hair. She remembered spinach And was going to ask Wimpy if he had bought any spinach. "M'love," he intercepted, "the plains are decked out in thunder Today, and it shall be as you wish." He scratched The part of his head under his hat. The apartment Seemed to grow smaller. "But what if no pleasant Inspiration plunge us now to the stars? For this is my country."

Her long thigh. "I have news!" she gasped. "Popeye, forced as you know to flee the country One musty gusty evening, by the schemes of his wizened, duplicate father, jealous of the apartment And all that it contains, myself and spinach In particular, heaves bolts of loving thunder At his own astonished becoming, rupturing the pleasant Arpeggio of our years. No more shall pleasant Rays of the sun refresh your sense of growing old, nor the scratched Tree-trunks and mossy foliage, only immaculate darkness and thunder." She grabbed Swee'pea. "I'm taking the brat to the country." "But you can't do that--he hasn't even finished his spinach," Urged the Sea Hag, looking fearfully around at the apartment. But Olive was already out of earshot. Now the apartment Succumbed to a strange new hush. "Actually it's quite pleasant Here," thought the Sea Hag. "If this is all we need fear from spinach Then I don't mind so much. Perhaps we could invite Alice the Goon over"--she scratched One dug pensively--"but Wimpy is such a country Bumpkin, always burping like that." Minute at first, the thunder Soon filled the apartment. It was domestic thunder, The color of spinach. Popeye chuckled and scratched His balls: it sure was pleasant to spend a day in the country.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16189

Suddenly they remembered how it was cheaper in the country. Wimpy was thoughtfully cutting open a number 2 can of spinach When the door opened and Swee'pea crept in. "How pleasant!" But Swee'pea looked morose. A note was pinned to his bib. "Thunder And tears are unavailing," it read. "Henceforth shall Popeye's apartment Be but remembered space, toxic or salubrious, whole or scratched." Olive came hurtling through the window; its geraniums scratched

Types of lyric poems: Cinquain

The cinquain, also known as a quintain or quintet, is a poem or stanza composed of five lines. Examples of cinquains can be found in many European languages, and the origin of the form dates back to medieval French poetry. The most common cinquains in English follow a rhyme scheme ofababb, abaab or abccb. Sixteenth and seventeenth-century poets such as Sir Philip Sidney, George Herbert, Edmund Waller, and John Donnefrequently employed the form, creating numerous variations. Among the many cinquains written by Herbert is "The World," which begins: Love built a stately house, where Fortune came, And spinning fancies, she was heard to say That her fine cobwebs did support the frame, Whereas they were supported by the same; But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.Other examples of the form include "To Helen" by Edgar Allen Poe, which begins: Helen, thy beauty is to me Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, The weary, wayworn wanderer bore To his own native shore.Adelaide Crapsey, an early twentieth-century poet, used a form of 22 syllables distributed among the five lines in a 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 pattern, respectively. Her poems share a similarity with the Japanese tanka, another five-line form, in their focus on imagery and the natural world.

The World by George Herbert Love built a stately house, where Fortune came, And spinning fancies, she was heard to say That her fine cobwebs did support the frame, Whereas they were supported by the same; But Wisdom quickly swept them all away. The Pleasure came, who, liking not the fashion, Began to make balconies, terraces, Till she had weakened all by alteration; But reverend laws, and many a proclomation Reformd all at length with menaces. Then entered Sin, and with that sycamore Whose leaves first sheltered man from drought and dew, Working and winding slily evermore, The inward walls and summers cleft and tore; But Grace shored these, and cut that as it grew. Then Sin combined with death in a firm band, To raze the building to the very floor; Which they effected,--none could them withstand; But Love and Grace took Glory by the hand, And built a braver palace than before. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5775

Lyric poem form: triolet


The triolet is a short poem of eight lines with only two rhymes used throughout. The requirements of this fixed form are straightforward: the first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines; the second line is repeated in the final line; and only the first two end-words are used to complete the tight rhyme scheme. Thus, the poet writes only five original lines, giving the triolet a deceptively simple appearance: ABaAabAB, where capital letters indicate repeated lines. French in origin, and likely dating to the thirteenth century, the triolet is a close cousin of the rondeau, another French verse form emphasizing repetition and rhyme. The earliest triolets were devotionals written by Patrick Carey, a seventeenth-century Benedictine monk. British poet Robert Bridges reintroduced the triolet to the English language, where it enjoyed a brief popularity among late-nineteenth-century British poets. Though some employed the triolet as a vehicle for light or humorous themes, Thomas Hardy recognized the possibilities for melancholy and seriousness, if the repetition could be skillfully employed to mark a shift in the meaning of repeated lines.

In "How Great My Grief," Hardy displays both his mastery of the triolet and the potency of the form: How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee! - Have the slow years not brought to view How great my grief, my joys how few, Nor memory shaped old times anew, Nor loving-kindness helped to show thee How great my grief, my joys how few, Since first it was my fate to know thee?

Lyric form: the ode


The Ode

An ode is a poem that is addressed to something. That is to say, the poem speaks directly to an object such as a Grecian urn or a nightingale, an idea such as freedom or melancholy, or an event such as a great wind. The original ancient odes were written in Greece, delivered by a chorus singing and performing an elaborate dance. Odes are usually written in the second person. When we use the second person today we use the words you and your. Many great odes from the past used words such as thou, thee, thy, thine instead of the modern you and your. This isn't just because the poems were written in the past. They used this special language in their odes to suggest the grandeur and importance of the things they were writing about. This is the opening of Shelley's Ode to a Skylark. Replace any old-fashioned words with modern choices. Hail to thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert, That from Heaven, or near it, Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire: The blue deep thou wingest, And singing dost soar, and soaring ever singest. Read out your version, then the original. Decide which you prefer and why. http://teachnet-lab.org/Goldman/poetry/teachnet/ode.htm

J. Keats CCLV. Ode to Autumn SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease; For Summer has o'erbrimm'd their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twind flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; 20 Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours. Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, While barrd clouds bloom the soft-dying day And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river-sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. http://www.bartleby.com/106/255.html

10

15

25

30

John Berryman Lyric poet


Dream Song 1:

Dream Song 14

Huffy Henry hid the day, unappeasable Henry sulked. I see his point,a trying to put things over. It was the thought that they thought they could do it made Henry wicked & away. But he should have come out and talked. All the world like a woolen lover once did seem on Henry's side. Then came a departure. Thereafter nothing fell out as it might or ought. I don't see how Henry, pried open for all the world to see, survived. What he has now to say is a long wonder the world can bear & be. Once in a sycamore I was glad all at the top, and I sang. Hard on the land wears the strong sea and empty grows every bed. John Berryman

Life, friends, is boring. We must not say so. After all, the sky flashes, the great sea yearns, we ourselves flash and yearn, and moreover my mother told me as a boy (repeatingly) Ever to confess youre bored means you have no Inner Resources. I conclude now I have no inner resources, because I am heavy bored. Peoples bore me, literature bores me, especially great literature, Henry bores me, with his plights & gripes as bad as Achilles, who loves people and valiant art, which bores me. And the tranquil hills, & gin, look like a drag and somehow a dog has taken itself & its tail considerably away into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving behind: me, wag.

Lyric poet Robert Lowell


Skunk Hour BY Elizabeth Bishop) Nautilus Islands hermit heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage; her sheep still graze above the sea. Her sons a bishop. Her farmer is first selectman in our village; shes in her dotage. Thirsting for the hierarchic privacy of Queen Victorias century, she buys up all the eyesores facing her shore, and lets them fall.

where the graveyard shelves on the town. . . . My minds not right. A car radio bleats, Love, O careless Love. . . . I hear my ill-spirit sob in each blood cell, as if my hand were at its throat. . . . I myself am hell; nobodys here only skunks, that search in the moonlight for a bite to eat. They march on their soles up Main Street: white stripes, moonstruck eyes red fire under the chalk-dry and spar spire of the Trinitarian Church. I stand on top of our back steps and breathe the rich air a mother skunk with her column of kittens swills the garbage pail She jabs her wedge-head in a cup of sour cream, drops her ostrich tail, and will not scare.

The seasons ill weve lost our summer millionaire, who seemed to leap from an L. L. Bean catalogue. His nine-knot yawl was auctioned off to lobstermen. A red fox stain covers Blue Hill. And now our fairy decorator brightens his shop for fall; his fishnets filled with orange cork, orange, his cobblers bench and awl; there is no money in his work, hed rather marry. One dark night, my Tudor Ford climbed the hills skull; I watched for love-cars. Lights turned down, they lay together, hull to hull,

Louise Gluck Lyric poet


The Triumph Of Achilles In the story of Patroclus no one survives, not even Achilles who was nearly a god. Patroclus resembled him; they wore the same armor. Always in these friendships one serves the other, one is less than the other: the hierarchy is always apparent, though the legends cannot be trusted-their source is the survivor, the one who has been abandoned. What were the Greek ships on fire compared to this loss? In his tent, Achilles grieved with his whole being and the gods saw he was a man already dead, a victim of the part that loved, the part that was mortal.

Mock Orange t is not the moon, I tell you. It is these flowers lighting the yard. I hate them. I hate them as I hate sex, the mans mouth sealing my mouth, the mans paralyzing body and the cry that always escapes, the low, humiliating premise of union In my mind tonight I hear the question and pursuing answer fused in one sound that mounts and mounts and then is split into the old selves, the tired antagonisms. Do you see? We were made fools of. And the scent of mock orange drifts through the window. How can I rest? How can I be content when there is still that odor in the world?

Lyric Poetry and Social Issues


I, Too I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-I, too, am America. Langston Hughes

This is an extended metaphor where Langston Hughes is discussing America as a family and how black people are treated today and how they will be treated tomorrow.
What is his style / diction? What is the form of the poem? Is this free verse? Discuss content and poetry as a

way of addressing complex social issues Why will they be ashamed? What is the message of the end?

Symbols in Poetry
SYMBOL EXERCISE It is important to consider the qualities and associations of a symbol within a poem. If you are looking into the symbolic value of an apple, for instance, you may begin by saying, Sweet, crisp fruit, juicy, tastes good in the fall, red and white in sharp contrast. Those are a few of an apples qualities. You should be able to go beyond those associations into some others you have with apples, like Adam and Eve: loss of innocence or gaining of knowledge. Or Sir Isaac Newton and gravity. Or Snow White: temptation and danger. One apple probably cannot signify all of these things, but along with the context surrounding it, you may get closer to an understanding of its symbolic value: I took the apple from her hand And ate it, feeling almost guilty As the juice dripped down my chin. DEFINITION OF SYMBOL Its probably safe to eliminate Isaac Newton here: We seem to be pretty firmly in Eden. The next step is to examine that symbol for some of its other qualities and use them to begin to formulate an interpretation.

A symbol works two ways: It is something itself, and it also suggests something deeper. It is crucial to distinguish a symbol from a metaphor: Metaphors are comparisons between two seemingly dissimilar things; symbols associate two things, but their meaning is both literal and figurative. A metaphor might read, "His life was an oak tree that had just lost its leaves"; a symbol might be the oak tree itself, which would evoke the cycle of death and rebirth through the loss and growth of leaves. Some symbols have widespread, commonly accepted values that most readers should recognize: Apple pie suggests innocence or homespun values; ravens signify death; fruit is associated with sensuality. Yet none of these associations is absolute, and all of them are really determined by individual cultures and time (would a Chinese reader recognize that apple pie suggests innocence?). No symbols have absolute meanings, and, by their nature, we cannot read them at face value. Rather than beginning an inquiry into symbols by asking what they mean, it is better to begin by asking what they could mean, or what they have meant.

What are the symbolic possibilities of the following things? A blind man, A dove, A river, The stars, A play, A computer screen, Lightning, A mountain Consider both their inherent qualities and their cultural associations. Once you have brainstormed about their possibilities, consider how each item might be used as a symbol within a poem.

Lyric poems about family


These poems discuss relationships between family

members or are the poets way of discussing her/his attitudes and emotions concerning family members. I think that having students write poems about their families might be tricky, but perhaps a www.favoritepoem.org type assignment, where students ask their parents what their favorite poem (or song lyrics are) and then analyze them might work. Here are a series of poems that share this universal subject.

Family: Seamus Heaneys Digging


Digging by Seamus Heaney Between my finger and my thumb The squat pin rest; snug as a gun. Under my window, a clean rasping sound When the spade sinks into gravelly ground: My father, digging. I look down Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds Bends low, comes up twenty years away Stooping in rhythm through potato drills Where he was digging. The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Against the inside knee was levered firmly. He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep To scatter new potatoes that we picked, Loving their cool hardness in our hands. By God, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man. My grandfather cut more turf in a day Than any other man on Toner's bog. Once I carried him milk in a bottle Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up To drink it, then fell to right away Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods Over his shoulder, going down and down For the good turf. Digging. The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge Through living roots awaken in my head. But I've no spade to follow men like them. Between my finger and my thumb The squat pen rests. I'll dig with it.

Lyric poetry: Theodore Roethke


My Papas Waltz

Analysis of the poem


My Papa's Waltz The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.

For basic readers / Content questions: How is the poem organized? What is the diction like / how does it fit the speaker? Why is hard for the son to waltz with his father? What is the mothers reaction to the fathers dance with his son? What is the fathers working life like / how do we know this? How does the father rough up his son / does he mean to? Symbol in "My Papas Waltz" The central symbol of the poem is the waltz itself. It is described as a waltz (as a noun) only in the title; it is a verb when it appears in the poem. On the literal level, the father is doing a kind of dance with his child, but the fact that it is a waltz probably says something about the way they interact when they arent waltzing. The fact that the title is written in the singular possessive casemy Papas waltz as opposed to our waltzemphasizes the control implicit in the symbol. - line 4 - "Such waltzing was not easy" As dances go, a waltz is not that complicated or technically difficult. It is more like the foxtrot than the tango. Someone must lead in a waltz, which underscores the fathers dominance over his child. It is not the fact that the child is being led, but instead the way the father is leading that makes the dance not easy. - line 15 - "Then waltzed me off to bed" This last line complicates any easy interpretation of Roethkes poem. The use of waltz as a figure of speech invites us to interpret the fathers waltz as a symbol (the child is being waltzed, figuratively and literally, to bed). The poem indicates early on that the waltz is not easy, and yet it ends with the comfort and stability of bed.

Questions for response 1). How does this examination of the symbolism of the waltz change your understanding of how the poem works as a whole?

2). Do you think the waltz is ultimately a positive symbol? a negative symbol?

Sapphos poetry for a daughter

Sleep, darling I have a small daughter called Cleis, who is like a golden flower I wouldn't take all Croesus' kingdom with love thrown in, for her ---

Don't ask me what to wear I have no embroidered headband from Sardis to give you, Cleis, such as I wore and my mother always said that in her day a purple ribbon looped in the hair was thought to be high style indeed
but we were dark: a girl whose hair is yellower than torchlight should wear no headdress but fresh flowers Sappho tr Barnard

Morning Song, by Sylvia Plath


Love set you going like a fat gold watch. The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry Took its place among the elements. Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue. In a drafty museum, your nakedness Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls. I'm no more your mother Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow Effacement at the wind's hand. All night your moth-breath Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen: A far sea moves in my ear. One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral In my Victorian nightgown. Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try Your handful of notes; The clear vowels rise like balloons. Who is this poem written for? Who is the speaker in relation to the intended? What is her tone? Take note of formal devices; cf. with Blakes Infant Joy

Love poetry / lyric poems


Love is the universal poetic subject the primary

reason why many poets begin composing! We have an unlimited treasure trove of works to choose from, and there is a strong likelihood that adolescents will prefer this as a subject. Assigning an essay on love that asks the students to discuss three poems that capture their idea of what love is would work Assigning pairs of love poems like The Passionate Mistress and the Nymphs reply is a classic activity

Love quotes, from Shakespeare and others!


Love quotes: page 1 is Shakespeare; page 2 is assorted


Such is my love, to thee I so belong, That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.
When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew.

Love is not consolation. It is light. ~Friedrich Nietzsche True love is a discipline in which each divines the secret self of the other and refuses to believe in the mere daily self. ~William Butler Yeats Love is what you've been through with somebody. ~James Thurber, Love is being stupid together. ~Paul Valery The heart has its reasons that reason knows nothing of. ~Blaise Pascal, Penses, 1670 At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet. ~Plato I love you as you are, but do not tell me how that is. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin Love is a canvas furnished by Nature and embroidered by imagination. ~Voltaire Love is my religion - I could die for it. ~John Keats Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost. ~G.K. Chesterton

Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts. For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

If music be the food of love, play on


I'll follow you and make a heaven out of hell, and I'll die by your hand which I love so well.

Doubt thou the stars are fire / Doubt the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar / but never doubt thy love. Do I love you because you're beautiful, Or are you beautiful because I love you? ~Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, Cinderella Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. ~Boethius, A.D. 524 Who, being loved, is poor? ~Oscar Wilde

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.

They do not love that do not show their love.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

Love is a spirit of all compact of fire.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

My bounty is as deep as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.

Love must be as much a light, as it is a flame. ~Henry David Thoreau The hours I spend with you I look upon as sort of a perfumed garden, a dim twilight, and a fountain singing to it. You and you alone make me feel that I am alive. Other men it is said have seen angels, but I have seen thee and thou art enough. ~George Moore Love is a game that two can play and both win. ~Eva Gabor A man is not where he lives, but where he loves. ~Latin Proverb

My heart is ever at your service.

So they lov'd as love in twain Had the essence but in one; Two distinct, divisions none...

One half of me is yours, the other half yoursMine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours, And so all yours!

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.

Love poetry from the Bible


Song of Solomon 7:10-12 I belong to my lover, and his desire is for me. Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. Let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened, and if the pomegranates are in bloom there I will give you my love. ________________________________________ Song of Solomon 8:6-7 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away. If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned. ________________________________________ Song of Solomon 2:10-13 My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me."

Love Poetry and the cliche


Sonnet 130 is the upending of the (love) sonnet
It moves through the classic compliments a man might

give a woman (heterosexist tradition?)

Comparison of Clich!

George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron. 17881824 600. She walks in Beauty SHE walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that 's best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes: Thus mellow'd to that tender light 5 Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impair'd the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o'er her face; 10 Where thoughts serenely sweet express How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o'er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!

SONNET 130 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground: And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

15

Have students write a poem for a beloved using only cliches!

Day Four of Poetry Class!


To cover general types of lyric poems
To cover the sonnet To look at various exemplary sonnets

To look at lyric poetry that discusses love

Lyric poetry: Courting


C. Marlowe V. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 1599 COME live with me and be my Love, And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dale and field, And all the craggy mountains yield. There will we sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, to whose falls Melodious birds sing madrigals. There will I make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle. A gown made of the finest wool Which from our pretty lambs we pull, Fair lind slippers for the cold, With buckles of the purest gold. A belt of straw and ivy buds With coral clasps and amber studs: And if these pleasures may thee move, Come live with me and be my Love. Thy silver dishes for thy meat As precious as the gods do eat, Shall on an ivory table be Prepared each day for thee and me. The shepherd swains shall dance and sing For thy delight each May-morning: If these delights thy mind may move, Then live with me and be my Love. 25 5

The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Raleigh 1600 If all the world and love were young, And truth in every shepherd's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move To live with thee and be thy love. Time drives the flocks from field to fold, When rivers rage and rocks grow cold; And Philomel becometh dumb; The rest complain of cares to come. The flowers do fade, and wanton fields To wayward winter reckoning yields; A honey tongue, a heart of gall, Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy bed of roses, Thy cap, thy kirtle, and thy posies, Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten, In folly ripe, in reason rotten. Thy belt of straw and ivy buds, Thy coral clasps and amber studs, All these in me no means can move To come to thee and be thy love. But could youth last and love still breed, Had joys no date nor age no need, Then these delights my mind might move To live with thee and be thy love.

10

15

20

http://www2.latech.edu/~bmagee/201/marlowe/shepherd_&_notes.htm

Love lyrics: Ben Jonson


To Celia By Ben Jonson 1573-1637

DRINK to me only with thine eyes, And I will pledge with mine; Or leave a kiss but in the cup And I'll not look for wine. The thirst that from the soul doth rise Doth ask a drink divine; But might I of Jove's nectar sup, I would not change for thine. I sent thee late a rosy wreath, Not so much honouring thee As giving it a hope that there It could not wither'd be; But thou thereon didst only breathe, And sent'st it back to me; Since when it grows, and smells, I swear, Not of itself but thee! http://www.daypoems.net/poems/186.html

This lyric poem details the lingering effects of love, utilizes hyperbole, allusion, and for our students, archaic language. For questions of form, students can focus on the elegance of the phrasing and music of the meter and how this accentuates the romantic content. Questions for tone would, in the first stanza ask what the speaker thinks of Celia - students would use quotes to illustrate this; in the second stanza to ask what his intention was in sending her the wreath (since he's asking her to do the impossible) and what her intention might be in sending it back. To this one might ask them to construct two arguments: 1) that this is a requited love poem 2) that this is an unrequited love poem

Lyric poetry: Love - Roethke


I Knew a Woman I knew a woman, lovely in her bones, When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them; Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one: The shapes a bright container can contain! Of her choice virtues only gods should speak, Or English poets who grew up on Greek (I'd have them sing in chorus, cheek to cheek.) How well her wishes went! She stroked my chin, She taught me Turn, and Counter-turn, and stand; She taught me Touch, that undulant white skin: I nibbled meekly from her proffered hand; She was the sickle; I, poor I, the rake, Coming behind her for her pretty sake (But what prodigious mowing did we make.) Love likes a gander, and adores a goose: Her full lips pursed, the errant note to seize; She played it quick, she played it light and loose; My eyes, they dazzled at her flowing knees; Her several parts could keep a pure repose, Or one hip quiver with a mobile nose (She moved in circles, and those circles moved.) Let seed be grass, and grass turn into hay: I'm martyr to a motion not my own; What's freedom for? To know eternity. I swear she cast a shadow white as stone. But who would count eternity in days? These old bones live to learn her wanton ways: (I measure time by how a body sways.)

Odds are, this is more for adults. However, this is a poem that is rich in sound devices, poetic techniques, and is highly suggestive. The idea is that students would look for all the ways in which her physical beauty astounds the speaker. Cf. w/sonnet 130

Marriage Kahlil Gibran

This one is probably also for the adults, but this is a poem that discusses how love is not dependent on dependence, or co-dependence; it extols a love that is based on two people being wonderful in their own respective ways. You might have them compare this with any number of popular love songs that talk about the lovers need and how this is supposed to be romantic, when in actuality, it can be a bit creepy.

In terms of what to look for


Form: Antithesis Parallel structure Personification Metaphor Analogy Content: have students summarize Gibrans message of what an ideal marriage is like and then compare it to their own.

On Marriage Kahlil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days. Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Perhaps have them write about their idealized sense of marriage or love first.
Adding in the media component would make for three viewpoints and an interesting paper.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Image: http://www.iwise.com/authorIcons/12319/Kahlil%20%20Gibran_128x128.png

Vote

After Making Love, We Hear Footsteps by Galway Kinnell


For I can snore like a bullhorn or play loud music or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman and Fergus will only sink deeper into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash, but let there be that heavy breathing or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house and he will wrench himself awake and make for it on the runas now, we lie together, after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies, familiar touch of the long-married, and he appearsin his baseball pajamas, it happens, the neck opening so small he has to screw them on and flops down between us and hugs us and snuggles himself to sleep, his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child. In the half darkness we look at each other and smile and touch arms across this little, startlingly muscled body this one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his making, sleeper only the mortal sounds can sing awake, this blessing love gives again into our arms.
Image: http://www.nndb.com/people/252/000098955/galway-kinnell-1.jpg

Again, not for the kids perhaps, but this is another stellar lyric poet with insight into real life and love.

Loves lyric laments: A. Akhmatova


White Night Oh, Ive not locked the door, Ive not lit the candles, you know Im too tired to think of sleep. See, how the fields die down, in the sunset gloom of firs, and Im drunk on the sound of your voice, echoing here. Its fine, that alls black, that lifes a cursed hell. O, that youd come back I was so sure, as well.

This is another poem, a la Frosts Snowy Evening where students need to figure out what the backstory is.

Lyric Love poetry

To Be In Love by Gwendolyn Brooks


To be in love Is to touch with a lighter hand. In yourself you stretch, you are well. You look at things Through his eyes. A cardinal is red. A sky is blue. Suddenly you know he knows too. He is not there but You know you are tasting together The winter, or a light spring weather. His hand to take your hand is overmuch. Too much to bear. You cannot look in his eyes Because your pulse must not say What must not be said. When he

Shuts a doorIs not there_ Your arms are water. And you are free With a ghastly freedom. You are the beautiful half Of a golden hurt. You remember and covet his mouth To touch, to whisper on. Oh when to declare Is certain Death! Oh when to apprize Is to mesmerize, To see fall down, the Column of Gold, Into the commonest ash.

"Fragments on Eros" by Sappho

translated by Peter Saint-Andre


Eros shook my soul like the wind attacking trees on a mountain. ~ Sweet mother, I lack the power to strike the loom -- I am consumed with love from slender Aphrodite. ~ Once again limb-loosening Eros shakes me, a helpless crawling thing, sweet-bitter.

Take a classical and modern poem and compare the way that love is described as all-consuming; again, some of this may be too PG-13 for our clientele.

Love Lyric Lullaby by W. H. Auden


Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral: But in my arms till break of day Let the living creature lie, Mortal, guilty, but to me The entirely beautiful. Soul and body have no bounds: To lovers as they lie upon Her tolerant enchanted slope In their ordinary swoon, Grave the vision Venus sends Of supernatural sympathy, Universal love and hope; While an abstract insight wakes Among the glaciers and the rocks The hermit's carnal ecstasy. Certainty, fidelity On the stroke of midnight pass Like vibrations of a bell And fashionable madmen raise Their pedantic boring cry: Every farthing of the cost, All the dreaded cards foretell,

Shall be paid, but from this night Not a whisper, not a thought, Not a kiss nor look be lost. Beauty, midnight, vision dies: Let the winds of dawn that blow Softly round your dreaming head Such a day of welcome show Eye and knocking heart may bless, Find our mortal world enough; Noons of dryness find you fed By the involuntary powers, Nights of insult let you pass Watched by every human love.

Content: describe the participants Tone: the poets attitude towards the sleeper Discuss the choice of title, and how it is used in an unexpected way What is the authors attitude towards the transitory nature of youth and for that matter, our existence What does the poem have to say about love?

e.e. cummings

Form How does he use hyperbole in the fourth stanza? How does he compare her to Spring? Content Who is the speaker and what is his relationship to the person in the poem? How does her look unclose him? What are her hands and their powers?

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look will easily unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skillfully, mysteriously)her first rose or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility whose texture compels me with the color of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

Sonnet 101

Origin and Development of the Sonnet ....... .......The sonnet originated in Sicily in the 13th Century with Giacomo da Lentino (1188-1240), a lawyer. The poetic traditions of the Provenal region of France apparently influenced him, but he wrote his poems in the Sicilian dialect of Italian. Some authorities credit another Italian, Guittone d'Arezzo (1230-1294), with originating the sonnet. The English word "sonnet" comes from the Italian word "sonetto," meaning "little song." Some early sonnets were set to music, with accompaniment provided by a lute. .......The Italian poet Petrarch (1304-1374), a Roman Catholic priest, popularized the sonnet more than two centuries before Shakespeare was born. Other popular Italian sonneteers were Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Italy's most famous and most accomplished writer, and Guido Cavalcante (1255-1300). The format of Petrarch's sonnets differs from that of Shakespeare. Petrarch's sonnets each consist of an eight-line stanza (octave) and a six-line stanza (sestet). The first stanza presents a theme, and the second stanza develops it. The rhyme scheme is as follows: (1) first stanza (octave): ABBA, ABBA; (2) second stanza (sestet): CDE, CDE (or CDC, CDC; or CDE, DCE). .......The sonnet form was introduced in England by Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547). They translated Italian sonnets into English and wrote sonnets of their own. Surrey introduced blank verse into the English language in his translation of the Aeneid of Vergil. Wyatt and Surrey sometimes replaced Petrarch's scheme of an eight-line stanza and a six-line stanza with three four-line stanzas and a two-line conclusion known as a couplet. Shakespeare adopted the latter scheme in his sonnets. .......Besides Shakespeare, well known English sonneteers in the late 1500's included Sir Philip Sydney, Samuel Daniel, and Michael Drayton. .......In Italy, England, and elsewhere between the 13th and early 16th Centuries, the most common theme of sonnets was love. Sonnets in later times also focused on religion, politics, and other concerns of the reading public. http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xSonnets.html

Iambic Pentameter 101


Shakespeare's predominant meter was iambic. A unit of iambic meter, called an iambic foot, consists of a soft stress followed by a sharp one: da-DUM. (A good example of an everyday word that acts as an iambic foot is toDAY.) Shakespeare wrote most of his poetry in iambic pentameter, five units of iambic beat to a line: "But SOFT, what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS." daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM But a lot of the songs from his plays are written in iambic tetrameter, four units of iambic beat to a line: You SPOTted SNAKES with DOUble TONGUE daDUM daDUM daDUM daDUM This meter is common in songs and in children's poetry. Dr. Seuss is a great example: i DO not LIKE green EGGS and HAM i DO not LIKE them, SAM i AM http://www.folger.edu/edulesplandtl.cfm?lpid=583

Classical lyric poets: #1 Sappho


The sapphic dates back to ancient Greece and is named for the poetSappho, who left behind many poem fragments written in an unmistakable meter. Sapphics are made up of any number of four-line stanzas, and many Greek and Roman poets, including Catullus, used the form. It was introduced to Roman and European poets byHorace, who frequently used sapphics in his Odes, and later became popular as a verse form for hymns during the Middle Ages. Modern sapphics have been written by Ezra Pound, John Frederick Nims, andAnne Carson. The original sapphic form was determined by quantitative meter, based on the nature of the ancient Greek language in which syllables were either long or short, depending on vowel length and ending sound. However, modern sapphics are rendered in accentual meter determined instead by the stress and intensity of a syllable. The accentual meter of the sapphic approximates the original form by equating long syllables with stressed ones, and short syllables with unstressed ones. The main building blocks of the sapphic are trochees and dactyls. The trochee is a metrical foot with one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, while the dactyl contains a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones. The first three lines of the sapphic contain two trochees, a dactyl, and then two more trochees. The shorter fourth, and final, line of the stanza is called an "Adonic" and is composed of one dactyl followed by a trochee. However, there is some flexibility with the form as when two stressed syllables replace both the second and last foot of each line. For example, the following stanzas from Sapphos "The Anactoria Poem," here translated by Richard Lattimore: Some there are who say that the fairest thing seen on the black earth is an array of horsemen; some, men marching; some would say ships; but I say she whom one loves best is the loveliest. Light were the work to make this plain to all, since she, who surpassed in beauty all mortality, Helen, once forsaking her lordly husband, fled away to Troy--land across the water. Not the thought of child nor beloved parents was remembered, after the Queen of Cyprus won her at first sight. The strict meter of the sapphic, with its starts and stops, creates a powerful emotion that the language of the poem intensifies. Starting with a stressed syllable, as opposed to the familiar iambic foot that begins on an unstressed syllable, provides a sense of forcefulness and urgency to the sapphic, while the extra unstressed syllable at the core of the first three lines, offers a pause, or caesura, within the driving movement. The short fourth line may offer either a rest or a quick turn to the poem, or even an opportunity for conclusion, as with the final two lines of a Shakespearean sonnet. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5790

Sonnet 101 Contd


Rhyming Pattern .......The following presentation of Sonnet 18, one of Shakespeare's most famous, will help you visualize the rhyming pattern of the sonnets. I capitalized the last part of each line and typed a letter to the left of the line to indicate the pattern. The meaning of each line appears at right. Sonnet XVIII (18) Addressed to the Young Man Quatrain 1 (four-line stanza) A Shall I compare thee to a summer's DAY? If I compared you to a summer day B Thou art more lovely and more temperATE: I'd have to say you are more beautiful and serene: A Rough winds do shake the darling buds of MAY, By comparison, summer is rough on budding life, B And summer's lease hath all too short a DATE: And doesn't last long either: Comment: In Shakespeare's time, May (Line 3) was considered a summer month. Quatrain 2 (four-line stanza) C Sometime too hot the eye of heaven SHINES, At times the summer sun [heaven's eye] is too hot, D And often is his gold complexion DIMM'D; And at other times clouds dim its brilliance; C And every fair from fair sometime deCLINES, Everything fair in nature becomes less fair from time to time, D By chance or nature's changing course unTRIMM'D; No one can change [trim] nature or chance; Comment:."Every fair" may also refer to every fair woman, who "declines" because of aging or bodily changes. Quatrain 3 (four-line stanza) E But thy eternal summer shall not FADE However, you yourself will not fade F Nor lose possession of that fair thou OWEST; Nor lose ownership of your fairness; E Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in hisSHADE, Not even death will claim you, F When in eternal lines to time thou GROWEST: Because these lines I write will immortalize you: Couplet (two rhyming lines) G So long as men can breathe or eyes canSEE, Your beauty will last as long as men breathe and see, G So long lives this and this gives life to THEE. As Long as this sonnet lives and gives you life. As you can see, the rhyme scheme of the sonnet is as follows: First stanza, ABAB; second stanza, CDCD; third stanza, EFEF; and the couplet, GG. .......Notice that Shakespeare introduces the main point of the sonnet in the first two lines of Stanza 1: that the young man's radiance is greater than the sun's. He then devotes the second two lines of Stanza 1 and all of Stanza 2 to the inferior qualities of the sun. In Stanza 3, he says the young man's brilliance will never fade because Sonnet XVIII will keep it alive. He then sums up his thoughts in the ending couplet.

Sonnets: Shakespeare

Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon my self and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least, Yet in these thoughts my self almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state, (Like to the lark at break of day arising From sullen earth) sings hymns at heaven's gate, For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings, That then I scorn to change my state with kings

Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed, And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed: But thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee

Poem: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/29.html Image: http://fivebamboo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/shakespearecartoon.gif

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/18.html

The Sonnets to Orpheus


Sonnets to Orpheus From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Sonnets to Orpheus (German: Sonette an Orpheus) are a cycle of sonnets written byGerman-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke (18751926) in 1922. He dedicated them as a memorial (Grab-Mal, literally "grave-marker") for Wera Ouckama Knoop (19001919), a playmate of Rilke's daughter Ruth.

There are 55 sonnets in the sequence, divided into two sections: the first of 26 and the second of 29. The sonnets follow certain trends, but they include many different forms.
All of the sonnets are composed of two quatrains followed by two triplets. Additionally, all of the sonnets have some rhyme scheme, generally ABAB CDCD or ABBA CDDC in the quartets, and EEF GGF, EFG EFG or EFG GFE in the triplets. The sonnets are also all metered, but their meters vary more greatly between poems; dactylic and trochaic are the most common feet, with line length varying greatly, sometimes even within a particular sonnet. The vast majority of the sonnets were written in an extremely short period of time, from February 2-5, 1922, at the Chteau de Muzot in Switzerland. The rest of the poems were composed during the rest of the month of February. During this time, Rilke was also working on his masterpiece, the Duino Elegies. The content of the sonnets is, as is typical of Rilke, highly metaphorical. The character of Orpheus (whom Rilke refers to as the "god with the lyre"[1]) appears several times in the cycle, as do other mythical characters such as Daphne. There are also biblical allusions, including a reference to Esau. Other themes involve animals, peoples of different cultures, and time and death. Although Rilke claimed that the entire cycle was inspired by Wera, she appears as a character in only one of the poems. He insisted, however, that "Wera's own figure [...] nevertheless governs and moves the course of the whole".[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnets_to_Orpheus

Sonnets to Orpheus - Rilke

Tree arising! O pure ascendance! Orpheus Sings! Towering tree within the ear! Everywhere stillness, yet in this abeyance: seeds of change and new beginnings near.

Gods are able. Tell how a man, though, could possibly thread the lyre's narrow modes? Vacillating at the heart's dark crossroads, he beholds no temple of Apollo.

Creatures of silence emerged from the clear unfettered forest, from dens, from lairs. Not from shyness, this silence of theirs; nor from any hint of fear,
simply from listening. Brutal shriek and roar dwindled in their hearts. Where stood a mere hut to house the passions of the ear, constructed of longing darkly drear, haphazardly wrought from front to rear, you built them a temple at listening's core.

Song, you teach us, is beyond achievable desire, it is rather the sheer reality of immanent being: simplicity itself for deity, but how may we partake? When will you inspire
our being, bestowing earth and stars by turn? This has no relation, youth, to your enamored care: mouth forced wide by the thrust of your voice - learn to set aside impassioned music. It will end. True singing breaths a different air. Air without object. A gust within God. A wind.

http://www.hunterarchive.com/files/poetry/s onnetstoorpheus.html

E. B. Browning Sonnets

XLIII. "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

XIV. "If thou must love me, let it be for nought..." If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say 'I love her for her smile---her look---her way Of speaking gently,---for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'--For these things in themselves, Belovd, may Be changed, or change for thee,---and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,--A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

http://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/elizabethbarrettbrowning/p oems/sonnetsfromtheportuguese/howdoilovetheeletmecounttheways.ht ml

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19429

Neruda love sonnets


Pablo Neruda Sonnet XVII (100 Love Sonnets, 1960) I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul. I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries hidden within itself the light of those flowers, and thanks to your love, darkly in my body lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

Sonnet XLVIII Two happy lovers make one bread, a single moon drop in the grass. Walking, they cast two shadows that flow together; waking, they leave one sun empty in their bed. Of all the possible truths, they chose the day; they held it, not with ropes but with an aroma. They did not shred the peace; they did not shatter words; their happiness is a transparent tower. The air and wine accompany the lovers. The night delights them with its joyous petals. They have a right to all the carnations. Two happy lovers, without an ending, with no death, they are born, they die, many times while they live: they have the eternal life of the Natural.

Love sonnets e.e. cummings


it may not always be so; and i say it may not always be so;and i say that if your lips,which i have loved,should touch another's,and your dear strong fingers clutch his heart,as mine in time not far away; if on another's face your sweet hair lay in such a silence as i know,or such great writhing words as, uttering overmuch, stand helplessly before the spirit at bay; if this should be, i say if this should beyou of my heart, send me a little word; that i may go unto him, and take his hands, saying, Accept all happiness from me. Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird sing terribly afar in the lost lands. ee cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Concrete poetry
Easter Wings by George Herbert

Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poore: With Thee O let me rise, As larks, harmoniously, And sing this day Thy victories: Then shall the fall further the flight in me. My tender age in sorrow did beginne; And still with sicknesses and shame Thou didst so punish sinne, That I became Most thinne. With Thee Let me combine, And feel this day Thy victorie; For, if I imp my wing on Thine, Affliction shall advance the flight in me.

Poem by Eugene Gomringer, 1954

http://www.educationdigitalmedia.com/view/13

http://www.wild-about-woods.org.uk/elearning/concretepoetry/

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/herbert/wings.h tm

Imagery
Have students describe a

mood with color and imagery and have their classmates guess the mood Natural imagery: shadows, rain, sun, etc Have students describe the weather in poetry for several days Give students photographs of places and weather and have them describe them Nouns: branches, leaves, rivers, oceans

Have students view art and

write responses to the works using imagery

Imagery in lyric poems

In a Station of the Metro


The apparition of these faces in the crowd, Petals upon a wet, black bough. - Ezra Pound

What are the faces like, beautiful or scary? Where do you think the speaker is viewing the faces from? What is the difference between line one and two in terms of figurative language? How is this poem like a haiku

Simic and his objects


Stone BY CHARLES SIMIC Go inside a stone That would be my way. Let somebody else become a dove Or gnash with a tiger's tooth. I am happy to be a stone. From the outside the stone is a riddle: No one knows how to answer it. Yet within, it must be cool and quiet Even though a cow steps on it full weight, Even though a child throws it in a river; The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed To the river bottom Where the fishes come to knock on it And listen. I have seen sparks fly out When two stones are rubbed, So perhaps it is not dark inside after all; Perhaps there is a moon shining From somewhere, as though behind a hill Just enough light to make out The strange writings, the star-charts On the inner walls.

Have students write poems about objects that they feel are mysterious or are infused with some sembalance of animism

Charles Simic and Lyric Object poems


The Spoon An old spoon Bent, gouged Polished to an evil Glitter. It has bitten Into my life -This kennel-bone Sucked thin. Now, it is a living Thing: ready To scratch a name On a prison wall -Ready to be passed on To the little one Just barely Beginning to walk.

Fork This strange thing must have crept Right out of hell. It resembles a birds foot Worn around the cannibals neck. As you hold it in your hand, As you stab with it into a piece of meat, It is possible to imagine the rest of the bird: Its head which like your fist Is large, bald, beakless, and blind.

For each of these, write an explanation of what hidden qualities or associations the poet has with the objects and what qualities he is illustrating. Have students write about an object and attempt to either view it fresh, or try to capture what else the mundane object makes them think of.

The Eagle, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson


He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.

Locate all the examples of alliteration, assonance, personification, and simile Then discuss how the sound techniques, imagery, and the figurative language (especially personification) bring the eagle and his beautiful surroundings, and his dive to life.

The Snow Man


One must have a mind of winter To regard the frost and the boughs Of the pine-trees crusted with snow; And have been cold a long time To behold the junipers shagged with ice, The spruces rough in the distant glitter Of the January sun; and not to think Of any misery in the sound of the wind, In the sound of a few leaves, Which is the sound of the land Full of the same wind That is blowing in the same bare place For the listener, who listens in the snow, And, nothing himself, beholds Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

Form Questions: The poem is divided into? Can you find the meter? Can you find examples of consonance? Content Questions Who is the Snow Man? What does the poet suggest you need to see nature in winter and not think of misery? What does the listener experience / realize in his wintry epiphany? What is the nothing that is not there (the everything)? What is the nothing that is? / What does this say about life and experience?

Imagery in Lyric Poems


The Red Wheelbarrow William Carlos Williams

so much depends upon a red wheel barrow

glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

Haiku Basho (the master!)


1a Moonlight slants through The vast bamboo grove: A cuckoo cries 2a Ah, summer grasses! All that remains Of the warriors dreams. 3a Along this road Goes no one; This autumn evening. 4a From time to time The clouds give rest To the moon beholders.. 5a The butterfly is perfuming It's wings in the scent Of the orchid. 6a Yes, spring has come This morning a nameless hill Is shrouded in mist. 7a It is deep autumn My neighbor How does he live, I wonder. 8a The old pond A frog jumps in The sound of water.

The Master of Elegy W. H. Auden


He disappeared in the dead of winter: The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted, And snow disfigured the public statues; The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day. What instruments we have agree The day of his death was a dark cold day.

Far from his illness The wolves ran on through the evergreen forests, The peasant river was untempted by the fashionable quays; By mourning tongues The death of the poet was kept from his poems. But for him it was his last afternoon as himself, An afternoon of nurses and rumours; The provinces of his body revolted, The squares of his mind were empty, Silence invaded the suburbs, The current of his feeling failed; he became his admirers.

But in the importance and noise of to-morrow When the brokers are roaring like beasts on the floor of the Bourse, And the poor have the sufferings to which they are fairly accustomed, And each in the cell of himself is almost convinced of his freedom, A few thousand will think of this day As one thinks of a day when one did something slightly unusual. What instruments we have agree The day of his death was a dark cold day. II You were silly like us; your gift survived it all: The parish of rich women, physical decay, Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry. Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still, For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives In the valley of its making where executives Would never want to tamper, flows on south From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs, Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives, A way of happening, a mouth.

Earth, receive an honoured guest: William Yeats is laid to rest. Let the Irish vessel lie Emptied of its poetry. In the nightmare of the dark All the dogs of Europe bark, And the living nations wait, Each sequestered in its hate; Intellectual disgrace Stares from every human face, And the seas of pity lie Locked and frozen in each eye. Follow, poet, follow right To the bottom of the night, With your unconstraining voice Still persuade us to rejoice; With the farming of a verse Make a vineyard of the curse, Sing of human unsuccess In a rapture of distress; In the deserts of the heart Let the healing fountain start, In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise.

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections, To find his happiness in another kind of wood And be punished under a foreign code of conscience. The words of a dead man Are modified in the guts of the living.

III

Blake - Side by Side


These two poems from Blakes Songs of Innocence and Experience present the voices of children; a simple compare and contrast would work; students can write their own poem to capture the dramatic irony of what a child does not see

Mother to Son Langston Hughes


Mother to Son Well son, Ill tell you: Life for me aint been no crystal stair. Its had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor Bare. But all the time Ise been a-climbin on, And reachin landins, And turnin corners, And sometimes goin in the dark Where there aint been no light. So boy, dont you turn back. Dont you set down on the steps Cause you finds its kinder hard. Dont you fall now For Ise still goin, honey, Ise still climbin, And life for me aint been no crystal stair.

Have students imagine themselves as parents And write a poem of inspiration or advice to their future children.

This poem would be good to teach voice, rhetorical strategies, dialect, and extended metaphor.

Family / elegy

On My First Son by Ben Jonson Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy ; My sin was too much hope of thee, lov'd boy. Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the just day. Oh, could I lose all father now ! For why Will man lament the state he should envy? To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage, And if no other misery, yet age ! Rest in soft peace, and, asked, say, Here doth lie Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry. For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such As what he loves may never like too much.

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/s on.htm

Elegy: Funeral Blues W.H. Auden

Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973)

Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone. Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, Silence the pianos and with muffled drum Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead Scribbling in the sky the message He is Dead, Put crpe bows round the white necks of the public doves, Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong. The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun. Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Lyric poems of advice If by Rudyard Kipling


If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breath a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on"; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

W.S. Merwin - For The Anniversary Of My Death


Every year without knowing it I have passed the day When the last fires will wave to me And the silence will set out Tireless traveller Like the beam of a lightless star Then I will no longer Find myself in life as in a strange garment Surprised at the earth And the love of one woman And the shamelessness of men As today writing after three days of rain Hearing the wren sing and the falling cease And bowing not knowing to what

The Panther Rainer Maria Rilke His vision, from the constantly passing bars, has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else. It seems to him there are a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world. As he paces in cramped circles, over and over, the movement of his powerful soft strides is like a ritual dance around a center in which a mighty will stands paralyzed. Only at times, the curtain of the pupils lifts, quietly--. An image enters in, rushes down through the tensed, arrested muscles, plunges into the heart and is gone.

O Captain my Captain
Walt Whitman
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won; The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise upfor you the flag is flungfor you the bugle trills; For you bouquets and ribboned wreathsfor you the shores acrowding; For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head; It is some dream that on the deck, Youve fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still; My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will; The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done; From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

This is a poem written after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.


Questions of Form
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

What is the structure of the poem? Is it lyric or narrative? Where do you find internal and external rhyme? What is the rhyme scheme? Why is this an elegy? How is it an extended metaphor?

Questions of Content
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What happens in the poem? On one level there is a trip, a ship, and a captain? What happens to each in the poem on the literal level? Reading it as an extended metaphor, what is Whitman saying about Abraham Lincoln (an his feelings for him)? The ship (that is the United States)? The trip (the Civil War)?

Akhmatovas Elegiac Verse

Shade

know

What does a certain woman of the hour of her death? -

Mandelshtam

Tallest, most suave of us, why Memory, forcing you to appear from the past, pass down a train, swaying, to find me clear profiled through the window-glass? Angel or bird? How we debated! The poet thought you translucent straw. Through dark lashes, your eyes, Georgian, looked out, with gentleness, on it all. Shade, forgive. Blue skies, Flaubert, insomnia, late-blooming lilac flower, bring you, and the magnificence of the year, nineteen-thirteen, to mind, and your unclouded temperate afternoon, memory difficult for me now Oh, shade!

The souls of those I love are on high stars. The souls of those I love are on high stars. How good that theres no-one left to lose and one can weep. All created in order to sing songs, this air of Tsarskoye Selos. The river banks silver willow touches the bright September stream. Rising from the past, my shadow is running in silence to meet me. So many lyres hung on branches here, but it seems theres room for mine too. And this shower, sun-drenched, rare, brings me consolation, good news.

David St. John Hush


HushBy David St. John for my son The way a tired Chippewa woman Whos lost a child gathers up black feathers, Black quills & leaves That she wraps & swaddles in a little bale, a shag Cocoon she carries with her & speaks to always As if it were the child, Until she knows the soul has grown fat & clever, That the child can find its own way at last; Well, I go everywhere Picking the dust out of the dust, scraping the breezes Up off the floor, & gather them into a doll Of you, to touch at the nape of the neck, to slip Under my shirt like a ragthe way Another mans wallet rides above his heart. As you Cry out, as if calling to a father you conjure In the paling light, the voice rises, instead, in me. Nothing stops it, the crying. Not the clove of moon, Not the woman raking my back with her words. Our letters Close. Sometimes, you ask About the world; sometimes, I answer back. Nights Return you to me for a while, as sleep returns sleep To a landscape ravaged & familiar. The dark watermark of your absence, a hush. http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/176970

Recommended Readings: Elegies Lyric poems about death


First, teach the difference between elegy and eulogy (eu means something positive, logos means words, ergo eulogy means good words speeches for the dead are typically positive). The most famous are: "Funeral Blues" by W. H. Auden "To the Dead" by Frank Bidart "Fugue of Death" by Paul Celan "Because I Could Not Stop For Death" by Emily Dickinson "Dying Away" by William Meredith "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A. E. Housman "Death Stands Above Me" by Walter Savage Landor "The Reaper and the Flowers" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow "For the Union Dead" by Robert Lowell "Dirge Without Music" by Edna St. Vincent Millay "Elegy for Jane" by Theodore Roethke "November" by Edmund Spenser "Question" by May Swenson "In Memoriam" by Lord Alfred Tennyson "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" by Dylan Thomas "O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman Kaddish, by Allen Ginsberg We will look at a few. These are EASY to teach and if you can handle it, make for great student reflections

S-ar putea să vă placă și