How to Eat a Poem

Don’t be politeBite in.Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that may run down your chin.It is ready and ripe whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon or plate or napkin or tableclothFor there is no coreOr stemOr ringOr pitOr seedOr skinTo throw away

“Emotion recalled in tranquility”

“The right word in the right place”

POETRY APPRECIATION

TERMS TO KNOW:

Kinds of poems according to content:

• Ballad – an objective narrative, recounting a pathetic, tragic event.

• Dramatic Monologue- a speaker recounting in poetry a dramatic incident

• Epic-long, historic, dignified, tragic poem

• Idyll-short poem of rustic, pastoral serenity—often deals with chivalry.

5. Lyric—a poem, brief and discontinuous,emphasizing sound and pictoral imagery rather than narrative or dramatic movement. It is subjective and deals with a highly emotional state. A lyric may be descriptive, philosophic or reflective, dramatic; it emphasizes the musical and pictorial content of the words.

• Ode—long, stately lyric poem in stanzas – longer, slower, solemn, meditative

• A celebration or dedication to something

• Often start with “To ...”

• Elegy—a poem on death or other serious loss.

• Dirge—a lamenting funeral poem / song.

Terms to know:

Metre – “the measured pulse of poetry” - deals with the regular or irregular pattern of feet

Foot – a metrical unit in poetry; an accented syllable with accompanying syllable or syllables.

Rhythm – measured flow of repeated sound patterns

Eg.IAMBIC PENTAMETRE (light/heavy), trochaic (heavy/light)

“ But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?”

(5 feet, each consisting of two syllables, iambic rhythm)

Syntax – the order of the words.

STANDARD POETIC FORMS (based on structure, not content.)

• Ballad – narrative in 4 line rhyming stanzas (usually lines 2 and 4), repetition, refrain

• Sonnet – 14 lines of iambic pentametre; tend to be didactic or lyric rather than narrative.

Petrarchan sonnets contain an octave (ABBA,ABBA) and a sestet (CDE,CDE or CDCDCD)

Shakespearean sonnets contain 3 quatrains and a rhyming couplet.Rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG.

Blank verse – is written in iambic pentametre

Free verse – (vers libre) – form is as its name implies, but there is still rhythmic repetition to distinguish it from prose. Not used by most classical poets.

FIGURES OF SPEECH:

•Simile – a comparison of unlike things using “like” or “as” Eg. Her face turned as white as chalk. Her voice is like a finely tuned violin.

•Metaphor – a comparison of two unlike things without using “like” or “as” Her fears were revealed by her chalky cheeks Her violin voice soothed the children.

•Personification – giving human characteristics to inanimate objects or non living beings. Eg. The sun smiled on our picnic!

POETIC / LITERARY DEVICES:

•Allegory – a poem which may be read on two levels; the poet is suggesting “By this I mean that”. Allegories usually have a moral or didactic purpose, which is conveyed by symbols, symbolic characters, or symbolic incidents.

•Allusion – a reference to someone, something with which the author assumes the reader will be familiar. May be historical, literary, mythical, religious etc.

Antithesis – contrasting statements in parallel form Eg. The more haste, the less speed.

Apostrophe – addressing the absent as though present Eg. Oh Sun, shine your rays on me

Caesura - A caesura is a strong pause within a line, and is often found alongside enjambment.

End stop – A hard stop in poetry (generally a period). Opposite of enjambment

Enjambment - incomplete syntax at the end of a line; the meaning runs-over from one poetic line to the next

Epigram – a very short, polished, terse verse often with a witty ending Eg. Swans sing before they die—’twere no bad thing Should certain people die before they sing. ColeridgeEuphemism – a polite way of saying something harsh or distasteful

Eg. “Comfort station” instead of toilet.

Hyperbole – an exaggeration for effect Eg. I’ve told you that a million times.

Metonymy – Name of one object is substituted for another which it naturally suggests. Eg. The pen is mightier than the sword.

or The White House announced instead of The President announced.

Oxymoron – a contradiction in terms, usually an adjective followed with a contrasting noun Eg. Silent scream, freezing fire

Paradox – an apparently contradictory statement which, upon reflection, expresses a truth Eg. The child is father of the man.

Symbolism – a concrete object is used to suggest abstract ideas.

Synecdoche – a kind of metaphor where a part of something stands for the whole or the whole stands for a part. Eg. Hired hand for a laborer, or the law meaning a policeman.

Transferred Epithet – (an epithet is a term characterizing something. Eg. “brave Macbeth”) - a transferred epithet is an adjective modifying a noun not usually associated with it. Eg. Cold war, happy tree

ALLITERATION – the same sound is used to begin words in succession. Eg. Caroline kicked the Christmas cake!

ASSONANCE – the contained vowel sound of successive words is the same. Eg. Green leaf, hope floats, brain flamed, sand castle, high tide

ONOMATOPOEIA – the sound of the word imitates the sound of the action. Eg. Swoosh, murmur, hiss, burpEUPHONY – an agreeable combination of sounds. Eg. Numerous marigolds shone beside the babbling brook.CACOPHONY – a disagreeable combination of sounds. Eg. Coarse, cackling laughter characterized the snarling, sinister serviceman!

CONSONANCE – the repetition of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowel. Eg. Live – love, pitter – patter, horror – hearer

- repeating consonants in any position. Eg. Crawl with legs (L’s) Thunder without lightning (TH’s)

• Prose: – Literal, concrete– States– Clear and straightforward– Standard sentence structure,

proper punctuation– How the passage sounds is

secondary– Prose comes from the brain

• Poetry:– Figurative, abstract– Suggests– Can be ambiguous– No regular sentence structure,

little or no punctuation– Sound is key– Poetry comes from the heart

Neruda’s Style

• Neruda wrote in many styles focusing in on Surrealist poetry, Historical Epics, Sonnets, Odes and Political Manifestos

• Surrealism - Surrealism emerged as the direct result of the publication of Andre Breton's first Le Manifesto du Surrealism (Manifesto of Surrealism) (1924). In this manifesto, Breton presented two definitions of surrealism:

• SURREALISM, noun, masc., Pure psychic automatism by which it is intended to express, either verbally or in writing, the true function of thought. Thought dictated in the absence of all control exerted by reason, and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupations.ENCYCL. Philos. Surrealism is based on the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association heretofore neglected, in the omnipotence of the dream, and in the disinterested play of thought. It leads to the permanent destruction of all other psychic mechanisms and to its substitution for them in the solution of the principal problems of life. The first definition speaks to the surrealist methodology--the use of techniques, such as automatic writing, self-induced hallucinations, and word games like the exquisite corpse, to make manifest repressed mental activities. The second definition lays out the surrealist view of reality and expresses the surrealist desire to open the vistas of the arts through the close observation of the dream state and the free play of thought.

Surrealism Cont.

• The final stage of surrealism began after the end of World War II. By this point surrealism had disseminated around the world in various diluted forms. The far-flung practitioners were held together by their use of personal juxtapositions, placing distant realities together, so that the interconnections between them were only apparent to the creator.

• As a “surrealist”, although Neruda never openly called himself this, we see these strange juxtapositions and the Dali like images in certain poems (“Walking Around”, and “Gentleman Alone” to name two).

Epic

An epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the adventures and achievements of a hero...epics deal with the traditions, mythical or historical, of a nation and its peoples. Examples: Beowulf, The Iliad and the Odyssey, Aeneid and a related poem – “From the Heights of Maccho Picchu”.

The merit under discussion should be named, illustrated from the text of the poem and, if possible, commented on as to the effectiveness or result. This is where SCASI can be used as another way to analyze and appreciate the poem

• The quality or impressiveness or the importance of the thought expressed.

• The emotional effects of the passage and how they are created

• The effective use of imagery or colour or sound patterns.• The effects of particular figures of speech and/or poetic

devices. • The kind of diction and the effect of its use.• The merits of the verse form and rhyme scheme and the

rhythm and melody of the language