AP Language and CompositionPoetry Unit

Unit ObjectivesStudents will know . . .• The literary devices that are present in all poems• Steps to take in order to analyze poems

efficiently• There are many different types of poems that

spark different experiencesStudents will be able to . . . • Reflect daily on the poems that we read• Analyze and explicate poem • Identify literary devices in poems and types of

poems that they see

Unit ObjectivesPerformance Tasks:•Write reflections on the poems in class•Compete Poetry Data Sheets•Complete a TPCASTT Other Evidence:•Regular discussions about the poems•Poetry analysis•Handouts that focus on certain literary

devices•Readings of poems •Listening to poems

Quick Write:

Choose one of the following questions to answer:

•What is Poetry?

•What is the role of the poet?

Billie Collins

•Poetry can and should be an important part of our daily lives. Poems can inspire and make us think about what it means to be a member of the human race. By just spending a few minutes reading a poem each day, new worlds can be revealed.

Introduction to PoetryBilly CollinsI ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the lightlike a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterskiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.

 

from The Apple that Astonished Paris, 1996University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, Ark.Permissions information.

Copyright 1988 by Billy Collins. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission.

Unit Objectives

•This Unit is going to be about poetry and we are going to begin to explore what poetry is and how we can read it in order to appreciate it fully.

•Look over the poems in the packet, you will be able to identify what the poem is saying about poetry AND what the role of the poet is in these poems.

Define Poetry

•The definition of poetry is seemingly not concrete but we are going to look at a scholars way of being introduced to poetry.

•What do you define poetry as?

po·et·rynoun

•1 a : metrical writing : verse b : the productions of a poet : poems

•2 : writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm

•3 : something likened to poetry especially in beauty of expression

•First Known Use of POETRY•14th century

What is poetry?• "I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of

powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till, by a species of reaction, the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is gradually produced, and does itself actually exist in the mind. In this mood successful composition generally begins, and in a mood similar to this it is carried on; but the emotion, of whatever kind, and in whatever degree, from various causes, is qualified by various pleasures, so that in describing any passions whatsoever, which are voluntarily described, the mind will, upon the whole, be in a state of enjoyment."

--William Wordsworth, 1798

Poetry Data Sheet

•how to analytically break a poem down•this is a logical instruction based way of

knowing what to look for and what to comment on for poetry.

•We will go through each bracket and explain it accordingly

TPCASTT•T-title: The meaning of the title without

reference to the poem.

•P-paraphrase: Put the poem, line by line, in your own words. DO NOT READ INTO THE POEM. Only read on surface level.

TPCASTT

• C- Diction and symbolism - Imagery - Metaphors and similes - Rhyme scheme - End rhymes and internal

rhymes - End stop - Enjambment - Alliteration -.

Assonance - Consonance - Mood - Allusions -Punctuation -Personification -connotation: looking for

deeper meaning

TPCASTT•A-attitude: Looking for the author’s tone.

How is the writer speaking?•S-shifts: Looking for shifts in tone, action,

and rhythm. Don’t just write the number. Discuss

• how the shift(s) affects the poem. •T-title: reevaluate the title as it pertains

to the poem •T-theme: What does the poem mean?

What is it saying? How does it relate to life?

Categories of the Poetic Method:I.DictionII.Imagery: Sensuous, Figurative, SymbolicIII.Sound DevicesIV.Formal Devices: Formal Structure, Meter, Rhythm, Other Factors, Rhyme

*These 4 categories make up what is known as the Physical Structure of a poem.*The other aspect of a poem is the Developmental Structure.

The Poetic Method:The terminology and

concepts required for the study of poetry

I. Diction: Word Choice

Why is diction important?

Determines the emotion the poet wishes to convey. Words create a tone of sadness, melancholy, fear, happiness, concern, excitement, suspense, etc.

Connotation: Refers to the feeling or emotion a word conveys.

Denotation: Refers to the dictionary definition of a word.

Diction works in conjunction with Tone Tone = DIDLS

Diction: The author’s word choice.

Images: Word pictures created by groups of words.

Details: Facts

Language: Formal, Informal, Slang, Colloquial

Sentence Structure: Short sentences are usually more emotional or assertive.Longer ones move toward more logical or scholarly intent.

II. Imagery

A.Sensuous

1.Tactile – appeals to our sense of touch

2.Visual – appeals to our sense of sight

3.Auditory – appeals to our sense of sound

4.Gustatory – Appeals to our sense of taste

5.Olfactory – Appeals to our sense of smell

B. Figurative Imagery or Figures of Speech

1.Simile – A definitely stated comparison between 2 unlike objects that have one point in common using the words “like” or “as”.

Example: He is as proud as a peacock. She eats like a pig.

2. Metaphor: A comparison between 2 unlike objects that have one point in common.

Example: Love is fire.

The point in common is the intensity and warmth of love and fire.

Example: Her voice was silk amid our homespun talk. The point in common is the softness of her voice and the texture of silk.

3. Personification: This is a type of comparison in which a lifeless thing (an inanimate object) is described in human terms or given human, life-like qualities.

Example: The sun kissed the fields with warmth and brightness.

4. Apostrophe:

• Addressing or speaking to the dead as if living

• To an object as if it is alive

• To the absent as if they are present and able to understand the speaker

The speaker turns away from the reader and addresses someone or something in the poem.

Example:“Speak gently, Spring, and make no sudden sound.Walk softly, March, forbear the bitter blow.”

5. Metonymy:

A.The use of a word or an object to suggest something closely associated with it.

Example: Give me a hand with this. (helping hand)

B.The use of part of something to suggest the whole thing.

Example: All hands on deck. (hands represent people)

C.The use of a container to suggest the thing it contains.

Example: May I approach the bench? (Bench refers to judge)

6. Hyperbole: An extreme exaggeration that is designed to have an impact on the reader. It is not intended to deceive. Its purpose is humour and/or emphasis.Example: I’ve heard that story a thousand times.

7. Irony: The speaker’s meaning is far from the usual meaning of their words, and it is the reader’s task to differentiate between the two. There is a discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. It adds force and emphasis to the speaker’s meaning.

Example of Verbal Irony: “It was very kind of you to remind me of my humiliation.”

Example of Dramatic Irony: Lady Macbeth’s comments about cleansing the blood in Act 2 and its psychological effect in Act 5 as she sleepwalks and tries to wash the blood from her hands.

8. Antithesis: A contrast of words or ideas. A thought is balanced with a contrasting thought in parallel arrangements of words and phrases.

Examples: -His mind is active but his body is sluggish.-He promised wealth and provided poverty.-It was the best of times; it was the worst of

times.

9. Oxymoron: Technique used to produce an effect by a seeming self-contradiction. Examples: small crowd

cruel kindnessjumbo shrimp

Humourous Figures of SpeechHer face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a thigh master.

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

She grew on him like E. coli, and he was room temperature Canadian beef.

She had a deep throaty genuine laugh like that sound a dog makes just before he throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad, as, like, whatever.

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7 pm instead of 7:30.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.

The hailstones leapt up off the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the east river.

Even in his last years, grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

The plan was simple like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a landmine or something.

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids with power tools.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

C. Symbolism:

A symbol is an object that stands for something larger than itself. It means both what it is and something more.

Example: A dove is both a bird and a symbol of peace.

III. Sound Devices

Purpose: Used to convey tone or mood in a poem by determining the rhythm of the piece.

1.Alliteration: The repetition of the initial (first) consonant sound in a series of words in a

line of verse. It helps form the pattern of poetry.

Example:

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew.The day of his death was a dark cold day.

2. Assonance:

The repetition of the same vowel sounds in a line of verse, creating partial or internal rhyme.

Examples:Time out of mind

Free and easy

3. Consonance:

The repetition of a final consonant sound in a line of verse. The vowel sounds that precede them are usually different.

Examples:

“first and last”

“hill and dale”

4. Dissonance:

A series of harsh consonant sounds in a line of verse. This is also known as cacophony.

Example: “All day cars mooed and shriekedHollered and bellowed and wept”

5. Euphony:

A pleasant musical quality produced by a series of vowel sounds in a line of verse. Also known as vowel melody.

Example:

“And the words hung hushed in their long white dreamBy the ghostly, glimmering, ice-blue stream.”

6.Onomatopoeia:

The use of a word to represent or to imitate natural sounds.

Examples: clang, buzz, pop, fizz, sizzle, hiss

IV.Formal Devices

1.Stanza: A regular combination of 2 or more lines in a poem.

2.Couplet: A 2-line stanza forming a rhymed pair. The lines usually have the same number of feet or beats.

3. Tercet: A stanza of 3 lines; most common meter is iambic pentameter.

4. Quatrain: A stanza of 4 lines with a variety of rhyme schemes and metrical patterns. Rhyme scheme is typically abba

5. Ballad Stanza: A quatrain made up of 2nd and 4th lines that rhyme.

Rhyme scheme is abcb, iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter.

Example of a Ballad Stanza: “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

U / U / U / U /About, about in reel and rout (4)

U / U / U /The death-fires danced at night; (3)

U / U / U / U /The water, like a witch’s oils (4)

U / U / U /Burnt green and blue and white (3)

6. Sonnets

A.Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

B.Shakespearean/English Sonnet

*All sonnets have 14 lines

Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet:

•Consists of an octave (8 lines) and a sestet (6 lines)

•Rhyme scheme for the octave (also known as an octet) is abba abba

•Rhyme scheme for the sestet is cde cde or cdc dcd

•Octave presents an idea, story, doubt, picture or problem

•Sestet provides a reflection, answer or solution to the octave problem

Shakespearean/English:

•Consists of 3 quatrains and a concluding couplet

•Rhyme scheme is typically abab cdcd efef gg

•Couplet is a brief statement to clinch the thought and give a strong ending

7. Heroic Couplet:

Composed of iambic pentameter lines rhymed in pairs.

Used often by Geoffrey Chaucer in his poem The Canterbury Tales written in the Middle Ages.

Became best known during the Restoration Period when it was primarily used by John Dryden and Alexander Pope.

Examples of lines written by Alexander Pope:

U / U / U / U / U /But when to mischief mortals bend their will,

U / U / U / U / U /How soon they find fit instruments of ill!

8. Blank Verse:

Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameterShakespeare is the best known writer to have used this form.

9. Meter:

Determined by the regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of verse.

Determines the rhythm in a poem.

Each line of verse is made up of feet that are groups of regularly recurring stressed and unstressed syllables.

When we say a word out loud that has more than one syllable, we always stress one syllable more than others.

One-syllable words are sometimes stressed and sometimes not. It depends on whether or not meaning is emphasized.

In a 3-syllable word, the middle syllable is usually stressed.

In a line of verse, the stressed and unstressed syllables form a pattern. This is called meter.

Example: If a line of verse has 5 iambic feet; that is, it has 5 groups of unstressed and stressed syllables, then it is called iambic pentameter (pentameter meaning 5 feet).

Example of a line of verse with iambic pentameter:

U / U / U / U / U /They also serve who only stand and wait.

Trimeter: Refers to 3 feet in a line of verse

Tetrameter: 4 feet

Pentameter: 5 feet

Hexameter: 6 feet

Heptameter: 7 feet

Scansion: This is the term used to describe the process of determining the metrical pattern in a line of verse.

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater

Had a wife and couldn’t keep her

He put her in a pumpkin shell

And there he kept her very well.

/ U / U / U / UPeter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater Trochaic

tetrameter / U / U / U / UHad a wife and couldn’t keep her

U / U / U / U /He put her in a pumpkin shell Iambic

tetrameter U / U / U / U /And there he kept her very well.

10. Rhythm:

The pleasing or tuneful arrangement of the accented and unaccented syllables; therefore, the meter determines the rhythm of the poem.

Other factors that affect rhythm:

Vowels: Long vowels slow it down; short vowels speed it up.

Punctuation: Within and at the end of a line slow the rhythm.

Absence of punctuation at the end of a line produces a swifter rhythm. Known as enjambment or run-on lines.

Caesura: A natural pause that slows the rhythm.Example: Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

End-stopped line: A line with a grammatical pause at the end.

11. Rhyme: Similarity of sound, usually at the end of lines of verse. Rhyme is not determined by spelling but rather by pronunciation or sound.

2 Key Concepts:

What is the Physical Structure of a Poem?

It is the diction, sensuous imagery, figurative imagery, symbolism, sound devices and formal devices.

What is the Developmental Structure of a Poem?

It is the movement of thought an/or emotion through the stanzas in the poem. Considered to be the idea that is at the centre or at the heart of the poem.

Emotion & Idea:

Developmental Structure

I. Diction

II. Imagery:

SensuousFigurativeSymbolic

IV. Formal Devices

III. Sound Devices

“The Red Wheelbarrow”

So much depends upon

a red wheelbarrow

glazed with rainwater

beside the white chickens.

William Carlos Williams

The Canterbury Tales The Sonnets John Keats Thomas Hardy Wilfred Owen Sylvia Plath Bob Dylan

Pages 200 – 203 in Inside Poetry

BACKGROUND 1343—1400 Born into the middle class

in England. Fairly well-off Wrote The Canterbury Tales in the

period between 1385—1400. The Tales dominated his writing during this period. He primarily used the heroic couplet to write the Tales (rhymed iambic pentameter). He wrote in what is known as “The Middle English Period”, which is between 1066 and 1485.

Subject Matter of the Tales: As early as the 3rd century, Christians

travelled to the Holy Land, but in the Middle Ages, travel became difficult so people travelled to shrines, usually in their own country. The people described in the Tales were travelling to the shrine of Canterbury where the relics of Thomas A Becket were kept. He was killed because of his public opposition to Henry II. This pilgrimage takes place in the spring (April).

Subject Matter of the Tales: 30 people are travelling together and as

they travel, they each take a turn telling a tale or story to entertain the travelers and make time pass quickly. The Host will judge who tells the best tale and whoever tells the best one will be given a supper paid by all at the inn or tavern where they stop for the night.

Importance of the Tales: Very good description of each character so

the Tales are widely representative of both class and occupation in the Medieval Period.

Tales reveals the typical dress, speech, humour, morals, and ideas of that period.

Chaucer was skilled at describing people because of his lifelong involvement in pursuing many different occupations. This allowed him to travel extensively and meet a broad cross-section of people and see how they lived their everyday lives.

Importance of the Dialogue in the Tales: Chaucer was very skilled at capturing

the true tone of conversations between people. There is no other writer until Shakespeare came along that was as skilled as Chaucer at writing dialogue.

Each tale told reveals something about the storyteller. As the travelers argue back and forth with each other, they also reveal their personalities.

Effect of the Tales on Writing in England: Poets sought to strive for the diversity and

excellence displayed in Chaucer’s work. Brought in a new form – heroic couplet. His poems were popular and widely read.

Now, complete questions 1-4 on pages 201—202, and 1-6 page 203

Contrasting Paragraph for The Parson and The Pardoner

Both the Parson and the Pardoner are representatives of the Church, but the similarity between these two characters ends here. The Parson is a devout Christian who teaches through example. He feels that it is his responsibility to carry out the proper behaviour that he expects his parishioners to follow. The Pardoner, on the other hand, uses the Church to line his own pockets. He is similar to modern day evangelists who make false promises and promote the purchase of forgiveness for

one’s sins. The Parson has many positive character traits. He works hard and is gentle and kind. He would even given some of his own money to his poor parishioners who were unable to pay the tithe. He also visited the sick and never looked for praise as his reward. The Pardoner, however, would pay anything for a pardon or a religious relic. The Parson was also a humble man and forgave those who committed a sin. In contrast, the Pardoner was proud and vain and placed a great deal of importance on his appearance. Both of these characters are connected to the Church; however, it is obvious that their goals and motivations are different.

The SonnetsReview Sonnet FormsReview information on Shakespeare’s

sonnetsComplete questions on all sonnets.

“Death, Be Not Proud” (1633 by John Donne p 284)

Donne wrote poems for a coterie of friends, an elite society, and circulated them only in manuscripts. “Death” was not published until two years after his death. Some of his poems depict a love affair remarkable for the age, perhaps for any age, and their bawdy conceits are striking even today. To understand these “metaphysical” poems, as Donne’s style of startling, extended metaphors (or conceits) came to be called, you must patiently unravel the intricate comparisons. His Holy Sonnets, including “Death, be not proud” and “Batter my heart,” express a piety belied by the love poems, though they were possibly written around the same time.

“That Time of Year” #73 (1609 by William Shakespeare)

Readers have long argued the identities of the speaker and listener in WS’s sonnets, but with so little evidence of his life no one can prove or disprove that the poems are autobiographical. The 1609 edition is dedicated “To the onlie begetter of the insuing sonnets Mr. W.H.,” whose identity has eluded the most careful scholars. Many candidates have been suggested, but none have been proven. It is clear that in the first 126 sonnets an older man addresses a younger man and urges him to marry. The relationship between these two men in intimate—some readers think that are sexually intimate, others do not.

“That Time of Year” (1609 by William Shakespeare)

CONT. Sonnet 12 personifies death as a reaper, a common peotic motif (see, for example, Sonnet 116 and John Keats’s “To Autum”). Sonnet 18 gives us Shakespeare’s version of a conventional poetic boast: that the poet bestows immortality on his subject.in Sonnet 29 Shakespeare continues lauding the young man. Here, his friendship refreshes the poet. Sonnet 73 is a fine example of how a Shakespearean sonnet can develop an idea in successive, related images, each expressed in a quatrain. In Sonnets 127—152 the speaker addresses a female persona who has come to be called “the dark lady” on account of her complexion and bawdy habits. Sonnet 130 satirizes the conventions of love poetry that exaggerate the beloved’s beauty. The mistress is not necessarily ugly; these terms seem so negative merely because they are realistic.

“Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night” (1952 by Dylan Thomas, p 281-2)

1914—1953Thomas was as sensitive as any poet to aging. He

wrote “The Force The Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower” when he was just twenty. At the ripe old age of 39 he said that he was “old, small, dark, intelligent, and darting-dotting-eyed, balding and tooth-lessing.” much of his poetry came from his memories of childhood. Fern Hill was a country farm, a largish, peasant plot with a damp, dark, creaky house on the side of a hill, rented by an aunt and uncle. Thomas spent hours there in childhood, and remembered it as an Edenic farm in “Fern Hill.” Thomas wrote “Do Not Go…” while watching his father, the once proud and fiery schoolteacher “who had a violent and quite personal dislike for God,” wither, grow powerless, then die.

Sight Reading Exercise on John Keats “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1816)

Questions:Write a statement identifying the formal

structure of the poem.What figurative image is being used in line 8?What are “the realms of gold” spoken of in the

first line?What is the “wide expanse” spoken of in line 5?What causes the writer to compare his feelings

to those of an astronomer and Cortez?Write a brief (one paragraph) discussion of the

developmental structure of this poem.

“The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy

This poem was written by Thomas Hardy, a British poet who lived between 1840—1928. “The Darkling Thrush”, written in 1900, was published in 1902. He wrote the poem as a reflection of the sight he sees as he steps outside to look at the land. Each stanza of the poem is made up of 2 ballad stanzas with a rhyme scheme of ABAB. Hardy is also well known for his novels: Jude the Obscure, The Return of the Native, and Tess of the D’Ubervilles. Hardy’s poetry is often bleak, and he believed that materialism and scientific advances had a negative impact on man. The characters in his novels are often portrayed as being defeated in their struggle against their physical environment. His writing has a “tragic intensity”.

Paragraph Analysis on “Dulce et Decorum Est”

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen (1893–1918) was a British poet and soldier, and one of the leading poets of WWI. His shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was heavily influenced by his friend Siegfried Sassoon and sat in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and to the confidently patriotic verse written earlier by war poets such as Rupert Brooke. One of his best-known works—most of which were published posthumously—is "Dulce et Decorum Est". He was killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre a week before the war ended. The telegram from the War Office announcing his death was delivered to his mother's home as her town's church bells were ringing in celebration of the Armistice to end WWI.

Sylvia Plath: Group Essay Writing AssignmentRead the poems by Sylvia Plath and the information

about the author. In groups, you are to write a poetic analysis essay of a poem by Sylvia Plath. You will be given both a group mark and an individual mark on this assignment. Your mark will be based on the following: group involvement, written work, assessment by your peers, and daily observations.

Make sure that you don’t simply list the various devices, images, etc. used in the poem. You must discuss why they are effective in conveying Hardy’s purpose. This assignment is to be submitted in MLA and must be typed. Please submit one copy per group. You will have three periods to work on this, and it will not be accepted late.

Groups will be broken into three groups: “Lady Lazarus”, “Daddy”, or “Ariel”

Sylvia PlathYour essay must be organized according to the

following guidelines:Paragraph 1: Statement of Hardy’s purpose (thesis)Paragraph 2: Discussion of dictionParagraph 3: Discussion of sensuous imageryParagraph 4: Discussion of figurative imagery and

symbolismParagraph 5: Discussion of sound devicesParagraph 6: Discussion of formal devicesParagraph 7: Discussion of developmental structure 

Bob DylanRead about Bob, listen to the lyrics. Discuss in groups what devices he uses in

his songs.