A concise unit on the ways of the Poetry World for people who
do not really care This is How We Do it: Poetry
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Unit Objectives
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Interpretation Most people have trouble interpreting a poem
because they dont understand the poem. Use these three questions to
begin your interpretation and understanding. 1. What feelings does
the poem evoke? What sensations, associations, and memories does it
give rise to? 2. What ideas does the poem express, either directly
or indirectly? 3. What view of the world does the poet present?
What do you think of the poets view? (p. 763)
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Discussing a Poem A discussion of poetry occurs in three parts:
1. Experience- what is your personal reaction? 2. Interpretation-
the intellectual process, use the three questions of interpretation
3. Evaluation- using your beliefs into the significance of the
poem.
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Types of Poetry: Major Classifications Geez, is this all? Two
classifications: Narrative and Lyric Narrative- stress story and
action- think Beowulf or the Odyssey Lyric- stress emotion and
song- think the ones you cant stand
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Types of Poetry: Narrative Narrative Subdivisions 1. Epic- long
narrative poem 2. Ballad- 3. Romance-
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Types of Poetry: Lyric Lyric Subdivisions 1. Epigram- 2. Elegy-
A poem mourning a death or another great loss. 3. Ode- A serious
lyric poem, dignified and sincere in tone and style. 4. Aubade- 5.
Sonnet- A lyric poem of 14 lines, following strict patterns of
stanza divisions. 6. Sestina- 7. Villanelle- 1 19 line poem divided
into five tercets (aba) and a final quatrain (abaa).
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The Sonnet If its a square, its a sonnet. Traditional sonnets
consists of 14 lines. Each is written in iambic pentameter: iambic
pentameter has five metric unit (feet) consisting of one unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
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The Sonnet Before you can truly understand the sonnet, you must
understand rhyme scheme.
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The Sonnet: The Petrarchian Petrarchian (Italian) Named after
Francesco Petrarch. The first 8 lines (octave) present a problem.
The last six (sestet) provide an answer. Rhyme Scheme:
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During the Life of Laura ye that hear in vagrant rhymes the
sighing On which the headlong heart of youth went feeding, When,
still unseasoned, still at folly's leading I turned from fears in
sudden tenor flying To hopes whose glitter proved no less a lying
As variously related for your reading If ever from Love's arrow ye
fled bleeding, Pity, and pardon me this anguished crying! But well
I know how, I must walk derided, A jest, a syllable in tavern
chatter; By self-reproach my self-deceit goes chided, And shame is
all the fruit my follies scatter Shame and a sense of pleasures
that have glided Like ghosts in a dream too trivial to matter.
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The Sonnet: Shakespearean The Shakespearean (English) Three-
four line stanzas (quatrains) One- two line stanza (couplet) Rhyme
Scheme:
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Sonnet 130 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is
far more red than her lips' red: If snow be white, why then her
breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I
have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in
her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the
breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak,--yet
well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I
never saw a goddess go, My mistress when she walks, treads on the
ground; And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she
belied with false compare.
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The Sonnet: Spenserian Had to upstage Shakespeare! Three
quatrains One couplet Rhyme Scheme:
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Sonnet 75 One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came
the waves and washed it away: Agayne I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray. Vayne man, sayd
she, that doest in vaine assay. A mortall thing so to immortalize,
For I my selve shall lyke to this decay, and eek my name bee wyped
out lykewize. Not so, quod I, let baser things devize, To dy in
dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse your vertues rare shall
eternize, And in the heavens wryte your glorious name. Where whenas
death shall all the world subdew, Our love shall live, and later
life renew.