Universidade Federal da Bahia

POESIA DE LNGUA INGLESA Ivana Lidiane Ranulfo

HOW POEMS COME ABOUT: INTENTION AND MEANING.

Understanding poetry p. 464-492

The most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry. (Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1891)

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

The interest is in the origin of the poem and its quality. The materials and the process whereby the poem is made.

How poems come about: intention and meaning

MATERIALS: The Language Literary Convention Ideas Personal experiences

How poems come about: intention and meaning

THE LANGUAGE

The poet uses language arranged in lines, with a regular rhythm and often a definite rhyme scheme. These words chosen by poets to convey their ideas, guide our reactions. The English of one time is not like the English of another.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

LITERARY CONVENTION
Is a traditional rule or practice, the use of accepted forms or structures such as verse form, rhythm and rhyme in poetry, the features of the ballad form (a story told in verse and usually meant to be sung), etc.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

PETHARCHAN CONVENTION:
Began in Italy in the thirteenth century, and, under the later influence of the Italian poet Petrarch, became internationally popular. Petrarch also established the convention of the sonnet sequence as a series of love poems written by an adoring lover to an unattainable and unapproachable lady of unsurpassed beauty. The Petrarchan sonnet convention, in other words, established, not merely the form of the poem, but also the subject matter.

BLAME NOT MY CHEEKS

Blame not my cheeks, though pale with love they be; The kindly heat into my heart is flown To cherish it that is dismayed by thee, Who art so cruel and unstedfast grown. For nature, called for by distressed hearts, Neglects and quite forsakes the outer parts. But they whose cheeks with careless blood are stained, Nurse not one spark of love within their hearts; And when they woo they speak with passion feigned, For their fat love lies in their outward parts; But in their breasts, where Love his court should hold, Poor Cupid sits and blows his nails for cold.
THOMAS CAMPION

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

CONVENTION OF THE PASTORAL ELEGY Class of literature that presents the society of shepherds as free from the complexity and corruption of city life. Many of the idylls written in its name are far remote from the realities of any life, rustic or urban.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

A distinct kind of elegy is the pastoral elegy, which borrows the classical convention of representing its subject as an idealized shepherd in an idealized pastoral background and follows a rather formal pattern. It begins with an expression of grief and an invocation to the Muse to aid the poet in expressing his suffering.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

Milton composed a pastoral elegy called Lycidas, which commemorates the death of a fellow student at Cambridge, Edward King, who drowned while crossing the Irish Sea.

LYCIDAS

Et once more, O ye Laurels, and once more Ye Myrtles brown, with Ivy, never sea I com to pluck your Berries harsh and crude, And with forc'd fingers rude, Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear, Compels me to disturb your season due: For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime, Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer: Who would not sing for Lycidas? he knew Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. He must not flote upon his watry bear Unwept, and welter to the parching wind, Without the meed of som melodious tear. MR, John Milton

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

IDEAS A poet may do something original with the ideas available to him. The ideas are conditioned by his time.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES Sometimes, very often in fact, the event in a poem are fictitious, are products of imagination. But the imagination is not entirely free; it is conditioned, too by the experience of the poet.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

London, London Caetano Veloso Composio: Caetano Veloso I'm wandering round and round, nowhere to go I'm lonely in London, London is lovely so I cross the streets without fear Everybody keeps the way clear I know I know no one here to say hello I know they keep the way clear I am lonely in London without fear I'm wandering round and round, nowhere to go While my eyes go looking for flying saucers in the sky

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

Oh Sunday, Monday, Autumn pass by me And people hurry on so peacefully A group approaches a policeman He seems so pleased to please them It's good at least, to live and I agree He seems so pleased, at least And it's so good to live in peace And Sunday, Monday, years, and I agree
While my eyes go looking for flying saucers in the sky (2x) I choose no face to look at, choose no way I just happen to be here, and it's ok

Green grass, blue eyes, grey sky (2x) God bless silent pain and happiness I came around to say yes, and I say
While my eyes go looking for flying saucers in the sky

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

PROCESS OF COMPOSITION
What do we mean by the process of composition? -Does it begin when the poet first takes a pen in hand? -Does it begin when, without necessarily intending a poem, he begins to think about the material and try to interpret it? -Does it really matter which view we take?

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

A POEM MAY START FROM

-Personal experience of the poet; -A general idea; -Theme; -Seek episodes and images to embody it; -From a story, an episode or a situation heard or read.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

NATURE OF POEM PROCESS -Some poets work very slowly and carefully -Some poets work by fits and stanzas trust in to the suggestion of the moment -Some poets have been dreamed up in an instant -Some have required years of thought

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

SORTS OF WAYS OF COMPOSITION -Robert Frosts, poems come spontaneously without effort -Sheakespeare, apparently composed with great speed and fluency, and did a little revision -Dryden, the thoughts outran the pen -Bonnard, all the words seemed to crowd in at the same time, so he had the impression of having a thousands voices -A. E. Housman, one part of the same poem may be composed in almost a flash and another part may require long and tedius efforts.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

I hoed and trenched and weeded, And took the flowers to fair: I brought them home unheeded; The hue was not the wear. So up and down I sow them For lads like me to find, When I shall lie below them, A dead man out of mind. Some seed the birds devour, And some the season mars, But here and there will flower The solitary stars, And fields will yearly bear them As light-leaved spring comes on, And luckless lads will wear them When I am dead and gone.

How poems come about: intention and meaning.

Be on Your Way
Im so sad. I ache for love. You werent the one who could give it. You had your chance. You made cry. A consequence is That now there is no turning back. What I say you seem to reject When you feel sorry for yourself Claiming youre always correct? I can forgive; I wont forget: Nobodys perfect. Please leave. There is no need to plead. Ive already decided. Now youre free, to be who youll be. Meet your destiny. Be on your way. Be happy. We wont have to wake with this ache any more. Be on your way, baby now we are free, And our lives can go on as before.