Do Now:
Pick up your copy of the poetry packet. Turn to the back of the packet and locate the 12 Question Poetry Analysis Worksheet and the Poetry Explication Page. Review the 12 questions and refer back to your poem. In anticipation of the 12 questions that you need to answer, spend a few minutes reviewing your poem and annotating significant poetic devices.
Today We Will:
Familiarize ourselves with Poetry Analysis, Poetry Explication and the upcoming Poetry assignment.
SWBAT:
Assess poetry
Ask critical questions
Understand how to write a brief poetry explication
Homework:
Assess your selected poem. Based on your answers to the 12 questions on the poetry analysis worksheet, apply the principles of poetry explication. Due Friday, January 4th.
Parameters:
Your explication should be between 400-500 words. The conventions of standard written English apply. Blogs must be posted before class on Friday, January 4th.
Refer to the definitions in on the power point below:
http://www.slideshare.net/mmcminn/poetry-and-figurative-language
The dramatized situation in “The Eagle” by Lord Tennyson Alfred is an eagle perched above the sea looking out. In a poem with only six lines, the poet depicts a lone eagle that falls from his perch. The speaker is an observer of the scene, telling the tale to anyone who might listen and be interested, for he was amazed by the eagle’s grace. A conflict that is in this poem could be within the last line, “And like a thunderbolt he falls”. This line can be interpreted in two different ways. The imagery infused by this line is an eagle diving towards the sea, but the reader does not know what he is going for. Maybe he is diving for fish, or maybe he is simply flying away.
ReplyDeleteThe poem seems to contain hidden imagery of the eagle, however. The poem consists of two triplets. Each line contains eight syllables, four feet, and they run on through the whole stanza, separated only by commas and semi colons. The poem is also a lyric, and follows an aaa bbb rhyme scheme, with the last word in each line rhyming. Each adjective contained two syllables, while the nouns each had only one syllable. This puts emphasis on those adjectives, such as “crooked hands”, “lonely lands”, and “wrinkled sea”. Each of these adjectives could be describing the bird as well, making the bird older, as hinted at by “crooked” and “wrinkled”, and alone, as described by “lonely”. Furthermore, the eagle is not being described by himself; he is being described in comparison to humans. This is pointed out in the comparison of the eagle’s claws to hands. There is also alliteration in the poem, in lines such as line two with “lonely lands”, or lines four and five with “wrinkled” and “watches”. The last lines of both stanzas were very interesting, especially when compared to one another. In the first stanza, the last line stated “Ring'd with the azure world, he stands” (3), but then the final line of the poem says “And like a thunderbolt he falls” (6). The former gives off an image of the eagle clutching to his perch high above the ocean, and the latter depicts it falling through the air.
Furthermore, all of the word play and the structure of the poem combine to give a sense of the eagle ruling. The sea is “wrinkled” (4), showing that the eagle is very high above it, since one would have to be for waves to appear as wrinkles. Also, the line “And like a thunderbolt he falls” (6) depicts the bird falling from a high place very quickly, considering the fact that thunderbolts come from very high up in the clouds. These are examples of the imagery used to show that the eagle rules in this poem, not humans.
The overarching conflict of the speaker in Sonnet 138: “When my love swears that she is made of truth” is the fact that the relationship between him and his mistress is not truly love. In other words, his mistress is unfaithful and he himself believes he is too old to please his mistress, therefore she becomes unfaithful. What occurs in this poem is the acceptance of his unfaithful mistress of the speaker, where he feels that his young mistress is a liar and unjust, thus an emerging theme of unfaithfulness begins to show, and overall he believes that due to his old age their sexual relationship is what makes his mistress unjust, although, he is still able to accept her. Unfaithfulness seems to be exhibited as a theme throughout the poem, because initially as the poem begins the first line is “When my love swears that she is made of truth,” moreover, that is even the title of the poem, thus what can be inferred from the first line and the title of the poem is that the speakers mistress is a liar, and being a liar shows unfaithfulness.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare’s most famous form of poetic writing is the form of a sonnet, which is what is exhibited in this piece of writing. It is known that this poem is a sonnet due to the fourteen line specific rhyme scheme and the ending couplets. In detail, the sonnet has a rhyme scheme of: abab cdcd efef gg; the importance of this rhyme scheme is that, looking specifically at the rhythmic words, for example “truth” and “youth,” is seems to be that Shakespeare is trying to express that fact that the speaker is no longer young, but the speaker himself cannot admit it; and again it is being expressed between words “old” and “told.” Additionally, the rhythmic words “best” and “suppressed” stress that fact that since he is no longer young, his sexual activity is no longer the same, therefore, tying in with fact that the speaker believes that is why his mistress is unjust towards him, although he does not want to admit it. Moreover, the ending couples “me” and “be” hints the idea of the speaker love and acceptance of wanting his mistress to be with him, although she lies and is unfaithful and although is not young anymore, he accepts everything as is and so does his mistress, thus Shakespeare expresses that he wants her to still be with him, the speaker. Therefore, having such rhyme schemes add on to the meaning of the poem in detail.
Within Sonnet 138 Shakespeare takes use of rhetorical questions. For example, the speaker states “But wherefore says she not she is unjust?” in other words the question asks, “Why does she not admit to having other sexual partners?” This question is rhetorical because since the speaker already knows that his mistress is unfaithful, and the fact that she is having sexual relationships with other men, he does not want to hear about, but the truth is he has already knew about her affairs. Moreover, Shakespeare adds more uses of rhetorical patterns, by asking another rhetorical question, which states “And wherefore says not I that I am old? In other words “And why do I not admit I am old?” What is rhetorical about this question is that, the speaker is asking this towards himself, although he knows that answer is that if he openly admits that he is old his mistress may leave him, and he is afraid of that happening, since he already knows that she is unfaithful without her saying so. Therefore, he is afraid of what might occur if the truth is let out, the fact that he is old thus meaning his mistress may leave him and fact that his mistress is unfaithful may cause an even deeper purpose of his mistress leaving. Thus, this is how Shakespeare takes use of rhetorical patters and rhyme schemes in his sonnets to create a deeper meaning and understanding.
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ReplyDeleteThis poem “The world is too much with us” by William Wordsworth dramatizes the problem of people just being completely occupied with manmade creations that they tend to forget the glory of nature. In this poem, the author conveys the message that people should keep in touch with nature in order to progress their heart spiritually. The speaker of the poem is a person who is really concerned with idea of human beings losing their much needed connection with the Nature. The speaker introduces the conflict of humans just focusing on their money by saying “Getting and Spending, we lay waste or power”, which means that people are so busy just to make and spend money on materials and manmade items that they forget to think about life on a higher spiritual level.
ReplyDelete“The world is too much with us” is a lyric poem which is in an Italian sonnet form and follows the abbaabbacdcdcd rhyme scheme. The line of the poem is in iambic pentameter, so each line has five syllables. Also, each pair consists of an unstressed pair followed by a stressed pair. This emphasis phrases which refer to nature such as “the sea” “the moon” and “the winds”. This poem consists of an eight-line stanza and a six-line stanza. The first eight lines of this poem talks about the problem of people ignoring nature because they are too into their worldly material but the next six lines of the poem gives a solution to the speakers problem by saying “I’d rather be A pagan suckled in a creed outworn” which means that if he was a pagan he would be appreciating nature and will spend time in nature rather than a regular human being who forgets nature and only worries about their worldly things. The tone of the poem seems to be angry and sarcastic. This can be evident when the author uses Diction like “waste” and “sordid”. Also the speaker’s sarcasm is evident when he says sarcastically that he would rather be Pagan just to be in touch with the nature. Furthermore, there is also alliteration on the lines, such as on line 1 “world, with” and on line 2 “we, waste” which emphasis that we waste a lot of our time with the materials of the earth which don’t give us purity.
The poem ends with the phrase “So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” this tells us that the speaker wishes to live as a pagan or in the past where nature was appreciated rather than now where technology and manmade objects are destroying the earth. Also, the final image that ends the poem is of the speaker standing in an open land, looking at the sea where he sees Proteus and Triton.
The poem “The Coming of Wisdom with Time” by William Butler Yeats dramatizes the conflict between age and wisdom, as suggested by the poem’s title. Right from the title of the poem much can be analyzed and interpreted. For example, it is evident that the poem will dramatize the struggle between age and wisdom; however the poem may also take a different path and describe wisdom and time separately, especially because of the unique capitalization in the title. From the first line, “Through leaves are many, the root is one;” (2) the speaker connects how ideas all originate from one source, or that there may be many rumors and speculations; but there is only one truth. The speaker then jumps to childhood of man and the notion that a child will believe anything presented to him or her. The speaker also describes the learning of a child by stating the truth of whatever he or she learns is not understood. Finally, the speaker progresses to adulthood and labels the skill adults have acquired to weed out the truth from nonsense. In this way, the speaker seems to simply say that wisdom is attained with time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the poem has quite a few oddities in its four lines that may twist the meaning of the work as a whole. The tone of this poem is very frank and to the point because the message of this poem is conveyed in four lines. Nevertheless, there are still some areas that are open to further interpretation such as determining if the speaker is actually a plant or a human. This uncertainty is apparent because the idiom present in line 4, “Now I may wither into the truth” (4) raises ambiguity about the poem as a whole because it does not help clarify who the speaker is, a plant or human. Overall, lines 1 and 3 have something to do with nature, whereas lines 2 and 4 are along the lines of a human.
Throughout the poem there are many examples of nature and the nature of man. Therefore, due to this vagueness of the speaker’s true form, the meaning can be interpreted to indicate wisdom is gained over time, or a plant has a simple origin, blooms flowers, and then dies, or in other words describes the cycle of life. For example, the first and third lines, “Though leaves are many, the root is one;” (1) and “I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;” (3) both evidently relate to plants, however, they can be interpreted as the nature of man and describe how many rumors exist in a person’s lifetime and may circulate and die, but the root or truth will always remain. Also, the line 3 refers to the time of youth, when a child is yearning for knowledge and soaks up every bit of it. The use of the word “sun” by the poet made me think of how a child plays under the sun and whatever is learned is not as important to them as it will be when they become adults.
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ReplyDeleteSana Suhail
ReplyDeleteAP English Literature
January 3, 2013
Mrs. O’Donnell
This poem, “The Road Not Taken,” written by renowned poet, Robert Frost, incorporates literary rhetoric revolving around two divergent roads to illuminate its prevalent themes. The poet, Frost, is known for writing poems that signify aspects of life through the incorporation of metaphors, particularly, metaphors of nature. Consistent with this, in this poem, Frost depicts a speaker who has arrived at the fork of a road, observing two paths that lead into a forest. It is autumn as leaves are fallen on both paths and the woods are described as “yellow.” In the first stanza, the speaker contemplates both paths that bend into the woods, considering which one is better for him to take. In the next two stanzas, he is describing his ambivalence and uncertainty over which path he should have taken and which one he actually took. In the last stanza, the speaker looks at this experience in retrospect, claiming that the path he took has made all the difference in his life, leaving the readers with a mood of resignation and content.
After an initial read of the poem, the optimistic reader will believe that taking the road less traveled by has made the speaker successful and he is glad he made the right decision. However, a more crucial analysis of the poem reveals the ambiguity throughout the poem as to what the speaker actually accomplished or missed out on. One consistent theme is the impossibility of trying out two things at once. Although the speaker desires to try out both paths to see which one is more suitable, he must take a risk. This is symbolic of a person arriving at a crossroad in life, where he has to make one decision that has the potential to affect his future. The roads serve as the extended metaphor throughout this piece, describing the two outcomes for the speaker. The speaker claims that he tries to look down the paths until “they bent in the undergrowth;” this signifies how no one is completely certain about the outcome of any decision in life.
The poem has an ABAAC rhyme scheme which adds emphasis on words that connect with each other. For example, in the first stanza, “wood,” “stood,” and “could” all rhyme to emphasize how the speaker has come to a standstill and if he could he would delay making a decision, but he has reached a dead end. The language is casual and laid back, having an effectively indifferent tone, leaving the reader with a mood of wonder and pondering. Has the speaker achieved what he wanted by taking the path he did, or does he regret it? The last two lines are the most significant because they summarize the themes of acceptance of fate and regret in retrospect. The author uses the imagery of a wood in autumn to substantiate his metaphor because autumn represents a season of change, right before a season of obscurity. He uses the bending paths to signify the different routes our lives can take us. However, whether the “road less traveled by” was better or worse, whether it made a negative or positive “difference” is left for the reader to ponder.
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ReplyDeleteArchit Singh
ReplyDelete3 December 2013
A.P. Literature and Composition
Poem Explication- “The Hound” by Robert Francis
Life the hound
Equivocal
Comes at a bound
Either to rend me
Or to befriend me.
I cannot tell
The hound's intent
Till he has sprung
At my bare hand
With teeth or tongue.
Meanwhile I stand
And wait the event.
This poem dramatizes about the conflicts that life can hold and how it can never be predicted beforehand. The speaker of the poem compares a dog to life through the use of metaphor when he/she says, “equivocal” (2) to show that life is too uncertain to figure out just like dogs. The speaker seems to be in a troubled state of mind in a man vs. self-conflict where he is trying to figure out what he/she expects from his life. He/she wants to know what is coming his way; a harsh bite or a playful nature of a dog. It says that like a dog, life is questionable. The speaker of the poem shows that he/she is defenseless when he/she says, “Meanwhile I stand and wait the event” (11, 12). In other words, the speaker is waiting for something to happen in his life, something good or bad, as if he/she is anxious to see what life has in store for them, just like when a dog comes toward you. Do you stand up to your guard? Or do you welcome the greeting dog with joy? This is the most important line of the poem because of the suspense mood that it creates and shows life as a phenomenon that cannot be handled as easily as one would think. Life is the overall theme in this poem where the speaker of the poem struggles to grasp it well.
The poem starts with “Life the hound equivocal” (1, 2) which sets the tone for the rest of the poem. The speaker has a man vs. self- conflict that he does by comparing characteristics of a dog to life, such as biting and licking. The speaker creates a mood that actually depends a lot on the reader based on their own lives and what they think about it. Robert Francis tells his audience that life is difficult to understand, it is unpredictable and ambiguous. He tells that the future would be easy if one could see in the future and there would be no surprises, no anxiety and no excitement in life. The uncertainty about life creates who we are as human beings. For example, the speaker says, “Comes at a bound either to rend me or to befriend me” (3, 4) which shows the significance of the rhyme by showing the speakers confusion and his/her struggle to understand what the dog is going to do to him/her, which in further terms is saying that what is life going to bring him/her? Lines 1 and 3 rhyme when the speaker states, “Life the hound…Comes at a bound” (1,3) which tells the audience that every person has to face what comes up in their lives no matter what it is, what has to happen eventually comes around the corner for which everyone has to be ready for. Furthermore, the words “intent”(7) and “event”(12) rhyme and signify the speakers troubles by contrasting on what he hopes will happens compared to what will happen. It shows that no matter how hard the speaker tries, he/she is going to have to face what life is bringing him no matter what it is.
The poem progresses in a manner where the speaker thinks a lot about life and then he or she faces it head on not knowing what is going to happen as the dog approaches the speaker either to play with or to bite where the poem ends in a cliffhanger leaving the reader and the speaker the same, anxious. The message that Francis tries to give here through his message is that nothing in life can be predicted, it can never be put together beforehand, it is ambiguous and unclear and therefore we have to make paths in which our life will follow.
Ryan Lawson
ReplyDelete1/4/13
A.P. Literature and Composition
Poetry Analysis
Emily Dickenson’s, “A narrow fellow in the grass” dramatizes the conflict between man and nature, with the main example of the narrator’s relationship, or lack thereof, with snakes. The narrator describes snakes by comparing their shapes to a, “whip-lash” (Dickenson, 13). He also describes the movement of snakes as, “wrinkled” (16), and says that snakes enjoy staying in a “boggy acre” (9). Even with all this knowledge about snakes, the narrator has never caught one. He reveals that when he attempted to catch one, it slipped away from him.
The form of this poem of quatrains suggests more than the basic story of the poem. For example, the lines of the first two stanzas were unrhymed and consecutively switched between octameter and hexameter. This pattern ended in the third stanza, in which the four lines unrhymed consecutively swap between heptameter and hexameter. For each of the remaining three stanzas, the lines are rhymed in an ABCB rhyme scheme, while the lines continued to follow the heptameter to hexameter pattern. This change in form indicates that it is the author’s intent for the reader to pay close attention to how the final three stanzas compare to the first two. Examining the poem again on this basis, I found that the mood at the beginning and end of the poem are very different. In the first two stanzas, Dickinson uses phrases such as, “You have met him?” (3) and “His notice instance” (4), to invoke a curious mood in the reader, as if they were embarking on a search to find this mysterious, “fellow in the grass” (1). In contrast, the final three stanzas set a tone of uncertainty as the narrator compares his feelings, “Of cordiality” (20) towards other animals to his lack of acquaintance with the snake. This sudden tone of uncertainty affects the mood of the reader, causing it to quickly change from curious to anxious. The anxious tone is especially noticeable in the final stanza of the poem, “But never met this fellow, / Attended or alone, / Without a tighter breathing / And zero at the bone” (21-24). The anxiety is especially powerful here because of the ambiguity of this statement, leaving the reader a cliffhanger of sorts.
The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon
ReplyDeleteBy:
William Wordsworth
THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
This poem “The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon” by William Wordsworth dramatizes the conflict between mankind and nature. The poem focuses on nature and how man should not take it for granted. This could suggest that Wordsworth is conveying the fact that nature cannot be made or recreated by man and if we do not take time to stop from our lives that we have given up to the world than nature will go unrecognized. One of the main lines that convey this idea is line four, “Little we see in Nature that is ours”. The “that is ours” part of the line could be suggesting the fact that nature cannot be manmade. It can also suggest the bid difference between nature and humans.
This poem also seems to have hidden imagery in it. This imagery helps understand the poem better by giving a visual of what the author is trying to have the audience see about nature. An example of this comes in the last line of the poem, “Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn” (14). This poem is only one stanza and it is fourteen lines. It is a narrative, and follows the a bb aa bb acacaca rhyme scheme each of the ending words rhyming. One of the words that was always capitalized throughout the poem was “Nature”. Nature was always compared with mankind and how mankind should try to get more involved with nature and try to live lives that don’t revolve around business and other societal places and actions that a person would go to. What was also interesting to point out was how that most of the ending words were nouns with a few exceptions. What could also be suggested in the poem is that the author is talking to God. What is important is the word “Great” is capitalized. This shows that this person is religious. Part of the rhetoric that was odd was in line 2 “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers”. What was odd was the “Getting and spending”. What this part of the line could have been suggesting was that when people get into the world of consumerism and this is how they be overcome or “lay waste our powers”.
What is also used in “The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon” is sound effects. There was a beat and rhythm to the poem at the end of each line. It also flowed better between each line. In line 2 there was an example of consonance, which was, “Getting and spending” the “ing” at the end of each word. One of the major visuals in the poem was how there is only one stanza and that there is 14 lines.
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ReplyDeleteJosaua Desai
ReplyDeleteAP American Literature and Composition
Ms. O’Donnell
January 4, 2013
Nature’s first green is gold
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf’s a flower
But only so an hour
The leaf subsides to leaf
So Eden sank to grief
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay
Robert Frost’s fundamental theme in his lyric poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is change and how something that seems “golden” can never stay forever. Frost effectively illuminates change in humanity through his extended metaphor between nature and mankind. “Nature’s first green is gold” (1), Frost immediately brings this up as the preliminary thought to create a setting that seems to be during the summer, a period of time commonly acknowledged when there is much light a symbol of innocence and good defining this period almost as a “golden” era. The poem then pivots and creates a negative connotation when Frost states, “But only so an hour” (4), and progressively becomes negative, ultimately showing the downfall of man, and concluding with the idea “Nothing gold can stay” (8).
Frost writes this poem in iambic hexameter as a one stanza poem that is eight lines, or an octave. He uses the rhyme scheme pattern of aabbccdd, with the last words of each of the lines rhyming with the previous ones last line, which draws the audience in to his key words that define his play and tell the meaning as a whole. He uses a generally sad tone, created by his diction and negative connotation. Consequently, among the audience this creates a very sad and depressing mood, because of his specific diction and central message of man progressively becoming weak and losing their innocence.
Additionally, in this poem, this idea of innocence seems to be a central theme. Frost begins with “Nature’s first green is gold” (1). Through this paradox, he illuminates this idea that nature at first “green”, or sign of vegetation is golden, a metaphor for life and the nature of mankind, because when a child is first born, it is innocent and has no control over its actions. This theme of innocence is further recognized when Frost states, “So Eden sank to grief” (6). Through this allusion to the bible, Frost establishes the imagery of the downfall of man. He uses the story of Adam and Eve eating the fruit in the perfect Garden of Eden, which consequently destroys it and brings it to grief, to show the loss of innocence, due to the curiosity of man and his actions. As a result, this allusion further, develops that mankind is the most innocent and at their “golden” era, when they are young and not exposed to the evil of the world; yet when they get older their own curiosities and actions will lead to their downfall, because this is “her hardest hue to hold”, displaying this is the most difficult time in her life to hold and carry what is really important.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”, explicitly describes the cycles of life. It uses spring, autumn, and summer as the ideal peaks of life, and winter as the future never shown. It utilizes the comparison between night and day, “So dawn goes down to day” (7), to show how man and nature slowly slip away and fall into their desires, fading away from the day and becoming part of the night. This description, displays Frost’s amazing capability to display any period of time within eight short lines about not a complaint, but an observance of the loss of innocence of man to the beautiful life they once had.
Sources
www.danagioia.net/essays/efrost2.htmShare
The dramatic situation of the poem “The Mirror” by Silvia Plath is about a mirror and a lake that reflects the true looks of someone. In this poem the speaker is not who in this poem, but more of a what, the what being the mirror and then the lake. They speak to no one in particular, more to anyone who will listen to them tell their stories of what they have done in this world. The setting shifts as we progress through the poem. At first we are in a room, possibly a room belonging to a woman and then we find ourselves along the banks of a lake. The scene progresses as the woman who is mentioned in the poem progresses from being a young girl looking into the mirror/lake into the woman who grows old still peering in.
ReplyDeleteIn reference to the mirror saying “she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon” (12) it can be referenced that it is the time before the light bulb was created. Light bulbs can distort the light and it would have been easier to use a bulb instead of a candle. Since it was not used we can assume it was before the time of the light bulb, possibly the early 1800’s.
Something that I found interesting about this poem was the mention of the fish. The mirror says that “in me an old woman rises toward her day after day like a terrible fish” (17-18). What I think it means is that with each day that she grows older, as old age continues to catch up with her, the fish is reaching out of the depths of the lake and trying to get a hold of her. The fish is unattractive and slimy, representing how the lake still shows the truth about her reflection, but now she is growing ugly with age.
This leads to one of the possible themes of the poem, being the trouble of someone or something being truthful. You have things that show you the distorted image (i.e. the moon and the candle) there are things like the mirror that will place what is really there right in front of you whether you enjoy what you see or not. Such is a line in the poem which reads “whatever it is I swallow immediately. Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike,” (2-3). The mirror does not have a bias toward anyone; it just reflects the image you place in front of it.
In, Emily Dickinson’s, “Much madness is divinest sense,” there is a prevalent conflict between madness and sanity. In a poem with no apparent setting and speaker, the only thing one can infer is that the intended audience is all of society. Through the use of paradoxes in the first few lines of the poem, “Much madness is divinest sense/To a discerning eye/Much sense, the starkest madness,” (1-3), Dickinson establishes the theme of the poem; “that what is often declared madness is actually the most profound kind of sanity,” (GS). In order to understand this poem the reader has to have some background information on Dickinson’s life. Dickinson is often referred to as mad because she chose to isolate herself from society. Her seclusion from the rest of society was Dickinson’s way of rebelling, as she left because she did not want to live the way society told her to live. Away from society, Dickinson was able to thoroughly judge its controlling and hypocritical ways. The result was “Much madness in divinest sense,” in which Dickinson states that by simply following the guidelines set by society, one was truly mad and that sanity came from following their ambitions and staying true to themselves.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, Dickinson uses “extreme” diction in the poem in order to convey the extremities in society. With words like “Demur” and “Straightway,” two oppositely defined words, Dickinson emphasizes that society will take those who hesitate (demur) to change with society, and instinctively brand them as mad, “And handled with a chain.” Dickinson considered that one with well-grounded judgment skills would see, with a “Discerning eye,” that what was classified as madness was truly sanity because only an insane person would follow the majority without question. This poem is not only concerned with “Madness” and “Sanity,” but the importance of judgments passed in society “and who has the power to make these judgments,”(GS). Because all societies are the “Majority,” they assume power and the right to cast judgment. And although most judgments are just snide comments or misinterpretations, they are amplified by the megaphone that is society.
The overall theme that the poem “One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop dramatizes is that basically loss is inevitable and it occurs so many times that it can often be considered insignificant. The conflict suggested within the poem is that the speaker has struggled with losing many things, the most important being a loved one. The speaker appears to recognize the management of a situation involving loss as a skill, as the poet continuously writes, “The art of losing isn’t hard to master.” (1, 6, 9, 12). The probable audience is not addressed directly, however it is likely aimed toward a general audience as the topic is applicable to basically any mature reader. The speaker advances the idea of the poem by relating items that are increasing important. The first example is lost door keys and continues on to mention houses, cities, and even a person. This is intended to demonstrate that the loss of anything should not be difficult. Basically, displayed by the poem is that loss is easy to handle and should not be taken as a great issue.
ReplyDeleteThe poet utilizes many literary devices in order to further the reader’s understanding of the theme of the poem, which is very straightforwardly expressed. For instance, there is an apparent rhyme scheme occurring with the ending word of each line. The rhyme scheme is somewhat uniform, as the first and last lines of every other stanza all rhyme. The stanzas in between display near rhyme, as shown by “fluster” and “master” which are not words that rhyme exactly, but are very close. Additionally, the second line in every stanza rhymes, which is shown by the words “intent,” “spent,” “meant,” “went,” “continent,” and “evident”. This rhyme scheme is used to emphasize the relationship between these rhyming lines. Additionally there is seemingly a tone of serenity and acceptance by the way that the speaker addresses each topic. The speaker doesn’t seem overly concerned with the events which have taken place, which to someone else may have come across as very dramatic and emotional. The rhetoric seems like a pretty conversational voice towards the audience which displays that it’s fairly casual.
There is break in the visual pattern of the poem shown in the final stanza. It begins with two dashes before the word “Each.” This likely is for the purpose of making it clear that something is unusual about the final stanza in comparison to the others. Another interesting element incorporated into the poem is the rhyming couplet at the end which makes that stanza have four lines rather than three which all the others had. This shift in the form of the poem emphasizes a change and the poet introduces a new idea that dealing loss still is easy, however it may feel devastating and difficult to handle.
Khadijah Hassan
ReplyDeleteThis poem dramatizes the conflict between love and people. What Dickinson is trying to say is that
love can be childish at times, and people tend to outgrow relationships. In We Outgrow Love, it
seems like the speaker is sending out a warning to people to let them know that in life, love can
be fake and not always what it seems. But after reading this poem more than once, the message is
not easily forgotten. The speaker notes that, "We outgrow love like other things, and put it in the drawer,
once and clear. So this foreshadows that the speaker is trying to get across that one person gets tired of
love, and stores it away. Just like a person would do if they had clothes that were too small, old and weary,
but didnt have the heart to throw them out. The poem continues with the line "Till it an antique fashion shows".
This means that a person would still go express love again from time to time, just like you would do to clothes
with fashion, to try them on and on again.
The setting of this poem probably takes place in a room with Emily Dickinson by herself'
where she was all alone, in deep sorrow thinking about a hurtful heartbreak that she must have had
experienced. The tone of this poem is very lacking. The audience would also be able to tell this from
the first line because "outgrowing love" is not someting that sounds so uplifitng. And the speaker does feel
compelled to speak out about this because he/she wants to give a notice to the audience that sometimes things
that you find so charming i the beginning, slowly start to fade away at a point in our life. We outgrow love is the main
theme of this poem because it automatically gives us the motif of people throwing a deep affection they feel for someone
after awhile because it gets old. The fact that the Emily chooses to write a poem about outgrowing love, suggest that what
she says may relate to what other people go through in their love lives. "Like costumes grandsires wore" is sort of a complicated expression to
pull apart. I think what Emily is trying to say here is love is either real or fake. Costumes are foreshadowing to be fake, or when people dress up
and pretend to be something there not. Emily is also saying that love can also come from past. Grandsire is a synonmym for an old aged woman, so
then if you put the whole phrase together, you can see the speaker is trying to say that true love only happens in fairy tails, or in the past. Honestly,
I think that the most important line of this poem is "Put it in the drawer". This is it because it just reveals that love is not meant to last forever in some relationships
between the two partners. Sometimes, its just time to move on, because love gets old, and becomes old news and history. Just lost in the past.
The poem ends with a hard statement. "Like costumes grandsires wore." In this line, costumes can stand as a symbol
for love, while gransire stands for an old ages male. In this way, the poet reinforces the conflict between love happening
in the past, and what the scene of her words are really revealing.
Denisha Kuhlor
ReplyDeleteThe poem Sound and Sense by Alexander Pope incorporates alliteration,heroic couplet,allusion, and imagery to convey his opinion that great writing comes from art. Alliteration begins right in the title Sound and Sense Pope then continues to use alliteration frequently as the poem continues. His frequent use of alliteration illuminates the poets desire for the poem to sound a certain way. To control the sound of the poem a technique such as frequent alliteration proves to be a great way to do this.
Pope used heroic couplets throughout the poem to easily incorporate end rhyme and iambic pentameter. Pope used allusions that were specifically classical to really illustrate what the message that he was trying to convey.Popes 3 classical allusions also symbolized to the reader the importance they presented to the poet through his frequent use of them. Pope refers to Homers Iliad through Ajax,a Greek Poet named Timotheus, and Virgil's Aenid through Camilla. His allusions are able to give the reader a better understanding of what type of poetry and writing that Pope is trying to convey to the reader is an art form. His allusions further develop his notion of his ability to pick,asses, and determine who and how the skill set for good poetry is possessed.
After reading the poem and trying to gain a deeper understanding of it a sense of irony arises to the reader. The poem proves to be somewhat ironic as Pope is using a poem to describe what exactly the perfect poem would be. By stating examples for this perfect poetry piece and then imitating them he is almost inferring that he has written a great artistic piece of poetry. Through poetry pope is able to list all the things that a great poem needs as well as then do them. A tone of arrogance permeates all throughout the poem but is extremely evident when Pope states “true ease in writing comes from art, not chance”.Pope is stating just what you must do to create a piece of poetry that is good art and no matter how many times you will try it is simply something that you will or will not have.
With the inclusion of sound being almost imperative to Pope as an essential for a good poem he demonstrates it himself. The poem has sound incorporated all throughout it to show Popes inclusion of it for it to be a good poem. Overall Popes use of many literary devices in a poem to describe how to write a poem ultimately conveys his arrogance as well as confidence when it comes to poetry.
Unlike many poems, Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” does not describe a specific scene, but instead uses several low-detail “snapshots” to communicate an underlying message – one should not despair and resign oneself to one’s death, no matter how inevitable it might be. This is most clearly seen in the Thomas’ continual use of the phrases “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”, the former even being the title. Traditionally, the night often symbolizes death, and such is the case here, where Thomas connects the two concepts further by using the phrase “dying of the light” in the second phrase above. As such, Thomas’ continual repetition of the two phrases highlights how important they are, and thus how central their message is to the message of the poem.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the only way Thomas conveys this message, however - one can also see it in the sharp contrast between the language of the poem and its structure. The former of the two is strong and rebellious, including such words as “rage”, “wild”, and “blaze”. The latter, however, is strict and controlled, every stanza ending with either “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”, or “Do not go gentle into that good night”, and the first four of the five stanzas being three lines apiece, the first and third lines containing end rhymes. This stark contrast between the poem’s language and structure serves to highlight that, although one’s actions hold little significance in the grand scheme of things, they are nonetheless of importance, just as the poem’s structure, which still exists regardless of the specific words used, would be unable to exist if there were no words at all.
The specific content of the “snapshots” Thomas uses to convey his message also reflect it, despite their lack of detail. Throughout the poem, Thomas describes how “wise men”, “good men”, “wild men”, and “grave men” all, faced with their deaths, remained strong and refused to resign themselves to their fate. That their responses was the same, despite how different they were, shows how, no matter who you are or how you lived your life, you should always fight to continue living.
The poem “Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost the narrator is showing that he is lonely. In addition, it also shows that he is in a state of depression. Night is a sign of depression because at night it is dark and there is no light therefore, there isn’t any joy so night brings you emptiness. Rain is also a sign of depression because when you walk outside while it is raining everything looks sad and looks like there is not a meaning to life or anything that you are surrounded by. It is almost as if nothing makes sense. The narrator only comes out at night and walks through the isolated city because he does not want to interact with anybody due to the fact that his depression made him antisocial. He walks out beyond the city limits and even then he does not find anything that seems to comfort his depression. When he walked by the watchman, he was unable to make eye contact with him because of his depression. Furthermore, we can also see that the narrator is dealing with depression because he points out that he hears an interrupted cry that came over the houses but, then sadly says that the call was not for him because there was no one at home waiting for him. This signifies that he is a loner which is something that occurs when you are in a state of depression.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is written in an iambic pentameter with fourteen lines of a traditional sonnet. In every other stanza we can see Frost uses end rhyme, for example “night” and “light”, “feet” and “street”, and “right” and “night”. The tone of this poem is pessimistic which creates a depressing mood for the reader. There are several factors in this poem that makes you feel depressed and makes you feel as if the narrator was depressed. It seems that depression was something that Frost had experienced in the past. Frost states, “I have been acquainted with night”. In other words, he is stating that this was something that happened in the past and not in the present. However, it also suggests that depression might come back to him since it has not fully left. Sometimes people tend to come out of their deep depression, but still get haunted by their own thoughts a little which drive them back to their state of depression. We cannot infer that will happen with Frost, but it might because he has not fully recovered a well state of mind. Also, we can tell that Frost had experienced depression in the past because he uses “I” throughout the whole poem.
Shakira Thompson
ReplyDeleteMs. O’Donnell
AP Literature
January 9, 2013
The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
In the poem the speaker made it clear to the reader that it is based on a wheel barrow that most things depend on. In the second stanza states “a red wheel barrow” red could be a symbol of danger or it could be that the wheel barrow is worn out. This indicates that at some point the wheel barrow will come to an end.
The third stanza says “glazed with rain water” the water could signify purity and that the wheel barrow is covered with the purity of the rain water. The speaker uses metaphor to describe how the rain water looks on the wheel barrow and also how something lifeless can be important to us and technology is not the only thing useful, sometimes a wheel barrow can be helpful.
The forth stanza described the chicken as “white” which could be a symbol of something pure and truthful. The chickens could be the only thing that is pure in the poem. Overall the poem making it clear to the reader that one’s life does not depends only on technology there were useful tools before technology came along.The speaker uses metapor and colors throughout the entire poem.
Jossieanette Nieves
ReplyDeleteMrs. O’Donnell
AP Lit
1/7/12
In the poem “Poison Tree” by William Blake, he uses a very distinct tone such as, perniciousness and bitterness. Blake uses the rhyme scheme of a, a, b, b in this poem. Over the course of this poem you can infer that anger is being developed using the imagery of trees. As Blake goes from stanza to stanza he explains the development of anger like a seed growing to become a tree. In the first stanza, Blake is trying to show the reader how he can tell his “wrath” but has a harder time saying his “foe”. In the second stanza, Blake uses consonance to control the mood and the tone of what is occurring in the poem. For instance, in lines seven and eight the “s” is being repeated which gives the lines a more indirect, softer tone. Looking at this furthermore, in this poem there also seems to an allusion to the Garden of Eden when Blake states, “Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine. And he knew it was mine, And into my garden stole.” This brings the poem into a more biblical extent.
In the first stanza we can see that the anger is building up. As we keep on reading the poem we can see that continued anger towards your enemy not only hurts your enemy, but it hurts you as well. In this poem when it talks about the apple is referring to the “poisoned apple”. Because the tree has been nourished with anger and hate, the fruits that it sprouts are poisoned. Once the enemy is lead on into eating from the bad tree, like Eve did in the Garden of Eden, the enemy will be destroyed. This kills his foe as he is outstretched beneath the tree. The last sentence of this poem, “My foe outstretched beneath the tree” explain the theme of this poem, which is that anger leads to self-destruction.
Throughout the poem we see that the anger the speaker hard grows from being something simple to becoming more powerful. Powerful enough that he wants to see his enemy dead. This relates to everyday life because a lot of people tend to let their anger take the best out of them and do things that in the end hurts oneself. For instance, children that grow around negative energy and are taught to hold grudges or are in a hateful home, they will adapt to what they see and what they are taught. This will cause them to grow up with hate and anger towards everyone around them which can only result in self destruction. In this poem Blake compares his developing anger to a tree that grows. Blake had a planted seed of anger that grew out to be something bigger because of his personal burden with his enemy. However, because he did not let his anger go it lead him to self-destruct emotionally. This is why it is never good to bottle in your emotions because you will be growing with all that anger in you. In result, someday you will explode and do something crazy that will hurt you in the long run.