Poetry Analysis Wind Jazz Song Key

POETRY ANALYSIS WIND_JAZZ_SONG KEY

#1 ANALYSIS OF DICTION, FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE, AND/OR IMAGERY

The Wind tapped . . . by Emily Dickinson http://www.bartleby.com/113/2030.html

Prompt: Analyze the author’s diction, figurative language, and/or imagery and explain how they contribute to the meaning of the poem.

Student Exemplar: In the poem “The Wind Tapped . . .” Dickinson personifies the wind using metaphors and similes. The speaker welcomes the wind saying “come in” when he “taps” at the door “like a tired man.” The capitalized “Wind” makes it a proper noun like a person’s name. It also speaks, and his voice is “like a push of hummingbirds” fleeing a bush all at once. The wind also has “fingers” which sing like “tunes blown tremulous in glass.” The wind’s “Countenance,” his face, is compared to cumulus cloud, creating an image of a fluffy, chubby human face. Finally, the wind is “like a timid man” and “taps” again to take his leave. Dickinson’s personification of the human-like wind is akin to a supernatural encounter with the spirit of a lost love one.

#2 ANALYSIS OF SOUND DEVICES

Jazz Fantasia by Carl Sandburg http://allpoetry.com/poem/8479261-Jazz_Fantasia-by-Carl_Sandburg

Prompt: Analyze how the sound devices contribute to the meaning of the poem.

Student Exemplar: In “Jazz Fantasia,” the alliteration and onomatopoeia mimic the sounds of jazz music itself. The alliteration of “drum,” “drums,” and “batter,” banjoes” in the first line actually sounds like the pounding of the instrument. The onomatopoeia “ooze” sounds like a trombone and the “husha-husha-husha” and “slippery sand-paper” echo the jazzman’s “knuckles on the “tin pans.” The solo parts of a jazz piece can be heard. When the jazzmen play their ensemble improvisations, “bang[ing] altogether drums, traps, banjoes, horns, tin pan,” it depicts the nature of jazz music, it is compared to a violent conflict with two people fighting and falling down stairs. This wildness contrasts with the subsequent “sob[s]” and “moans[s], and the sad cry, “hoo-hoo-hoo.” Is represents a desperate “calling to the high soft stars” and is a grateful prayer of thanks following the violent chaos of the music. The sound devices, like jazz music itself, rise to a joyful crescendo and then give way to a calm, sad solitude when the music ends. Sandburg depicts a moment of musical joy rising up in the midst of the surrounding sadness.

#3 ANALYSIS OF SPEAKER

Old Song by anonymous, West Africa traditional song http://jangle.net/poetry/quotes-advice.html

Portion: “Do not seek too much fame, . . . To be alive to hear this song is a victory.”

Prompt: Analyze the speaker’s voice and its connection to the meaning of the poem.

Student Exemplar: The speaker of “Old Song” is the voice of a sage, someone with sound judgment, knowledge, and life experience. The word “old” implies that the speaker is wise and has valuable advice to pass on, and ironically the “song”, the poem itself, only exists because the speaker followed his own advice. The lines “do not seek” and “do not remind” are commands, and the understood “you” contributes to the forceful power and credibility of the speaker’s voice. He advises moderation—do not be too aggressive or too regressive. If one tries to make a statement too forcefully and perishes in the process, the statement will die with him. The anonymous author through the voice of a reliable speaker seems to be warning the reader that hubris often ends in futile self-destruction. ©reated by Deborah Stefanides, 2013