Biographical and Historical Approach in

Poetry Analysis Poetry 1

-wayan swardhani-

2016

Poetry Structural Analysis

Biographical Approach

Historical Approach

Sociological Approach Psychological Approach

Biographical Approach • How will you define “biography”?

Biographical Approach

examining poem in relation to what is known about the poet’s life

Relate to the story of life of the poet

Relate to a certain moment within the life of the poet

Inspired by the biography of the poet

Inspired by the emotion and experience of the poet

Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee (1894)

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.

She was a child and I was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love— I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud by night, Chilling my Annabel Lee; So that her high-born kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me— Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud, chilling And killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we— Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in heaven above Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the side of the sea.

Historical Approach • How will you define “biography”?

Historical Approach

interpreting the poem within the story, or contemporary frame of

reference behind the poem

A poem’s meaning can only be understood within a

historical setting

Relating the poem with the zeitgeist

William Blake’s The Chimney Sweeper

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 & 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, & that very night,

As Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!

That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & 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 & 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 & 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 & never want joy.

And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark

And got with our bags & our brushes to work.

Though the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;

So if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.

William Blake’s London (1794)

I wander through each chartered street, Near where the chartered Thames does flow, A mark in every face I meet, Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man, In every infant's cry of fear, In every voice, in every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear:

How the chimney-sweeper's cry Every blackening church appalls, And the hapless soldier's sigh Runs in blood down palace-walls.

But most, through midnight streets I hear How the youthful harlot’s curse Blasts the new-born infant's tear, And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.

Poems for the Final Presentation

1. A Message (Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward)

2. Fairy Song (Louisa May Alcott)

3. I Watch a Rosebud (Christina Rossetti)

4. The Reaper and the Flowers (Henry W Longfellow)

5. They Shut Me Up in Prose (Emily Dickinson)

6. When I was a Lad (W.S. Gilbert)