AP Literature and Composition Poetry Packet

“It is difficult to get the news from poems/ yet men die miserably every day/ for lack of what is found there.” – William Carlos Williams

Objectives  To demonstrate an appreciation of poetry  To become comfortable with the analysis of poetry in preparation for answering AP Literature multiple choice and free-response questions pertaining to poetry  To compose an upper-half introduction that is a blueprint for the organization of your response to the poetry prompt  To gain greater control of the construction of compound and complex sentences

Procedures 1. Read poems on the list below. Some will affect you more than others, but spend time “communing” with the poems. Narrow your selections down to five about which you feel strongly. 2. Record your emotional reaction to the poem (typically after your first read) in a few sentences. This reaction is probably the effect on the reader that the poet intended—however, you may find that you feel differently upon further reading. 3. Go beyond your initial impression. In a few sentences, note what the poet does well. Consider elements we have discussed in class. 4. Record any other comments or questions about the poem. 5. Compose a poetry focus statement for each of the five poems.

Poetry Focus Statement

Definition: a two-sentence summary of the narrative situation, theme, and tone of a poem

Use: a potential thesis/introduction for a free-response poetry question on the AP Literature and Composition exam

Critical Attributes 1. includes the title of the poem and name of the poet 2. is written in “literary present tense” (the poet/speaker conveys rather than conveyed) 3. specifies the narrative situation of the poem (who, what, where, when, and why) 4. includes a thoughtful but concise indication of theme 5. identifies the tone(s) of the poem (these may be differing but complementary—shifts in tone may be identified as well)

Notes on Critical Attributes: check your poetry focus statements for completion by following these directions: use five colors of highlighter to identify the five critical elements. Create a key to the colors you used.

Directions 1. The syntax of poetry focus statements is compound or complex because you are addressing both the literal (the narrative situation) and the thematic. 2. Articulate yourself in a scholarly manner. Incorporate interpretive adjectives and adverbs wherever possible in order to enhance your analysis. These are based on inferences you make from the text (for example, a character’s feelings might be interpreted as optimistic, pessimistic, or even suicidal). At the same time, avoid qualitative or praise words (e.g. masterfully, great, excellent, etc.). Your job is to analyze rather than evaluate. 3. Avoid the speaker says or states. Instead, use verbs that characterize the nature and force of the speaker’s feelings. 4. Consider these ways to describe tone:  With a single adjective (used with a part of the text): ambivalent, ironic, hopeful, hysterical, or insistent (AP Literature multiple choice, 2009)  With an adjective-conjunction-adjective construction: callous and reckless, petulant and critical, resigned and reconciled, detached but hopeful, or civil but angry (AP Language multiple choice, 2007)  With an adjective-noun construction: guarded optimism, stoic determination, grim despair, bewildering chaos, or violent retribution (AP Literature multiple choice, 2009)  With an adverb-adjective construction: grudgingly appreciative, cleverly nonjudgmental, bitterly disillusioned, or viciously sarcastic (AP Language multiple choice, 2007) 5. AP prompts often ask students to discuss the author’s imagery. The most successful student writers are able to categorize the images in a prose passage or poem. Such categorization may be articulated with precise adjectives like those in the list below. bucolic pastoral gustatory olfactory tactile kinetic kinesthetic sensual sacred sexual auditory religious animal war/military chaotic

Imagery may also be classified with nouns (e.g. imagery of death, decay, decomposition). The following is an example of a multiple choice question on the 2007 AP Language exam: The primary imagery of the passage is that of (a) flight, (b) creation, (c) confinement, (d) darkness, (e) punishment.

Created by: Beth Priem, “Poetry Focus Statements” (Birmingham, AL Oct. 2012)

Poetry Selections from Perrine’s “The last Night that She lived,” Emily Dickinson (657) “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” Robert Herrick “Ballad of Birmingham,” Dudley Randall (659) (742) “Poetry: I,” Adrienne Rich (664) “Peace,” George Herbert (743) “Ars Poetica,” Archibald MacLeish (665) “Curiosity,” Alastair Reid (749) “The Man He Killed,” Thomas Hardy (670) “The Writer,” Richard Wilbur (750) “A Study of Reading Habits,” Philip Larkin (671) “Power,” Adrienne Rich (751) “Is my team plowing,” A.E. Housman (674) “The Sun Rising,” John Donne (758) “Break of Day,” John Donne (677) “Incident,” Countee Cullen (759) “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,” Emily “Sorting Laundry,” Elisavietta Ritchie (767) Dickinson (678) “The Unknown Citizen,” W.H. Auden (771) “When in Rome,” Mari Evans (679) “in the inner city,” Lucille Clifton (773) “Mirror,” Silvia Plath (680) “Mr. Z,” M. Carl Holman (774) “Facing It,” Yusef Komunyakaa (681) “Yet Do I Marvel,” Countee Cullen (783) “When my love swears that she is made of truth,” William “On His Blindness,” John Milton (783) Shakespeare (688) “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost “Pathedy of Manners,” Ellen Kay (689) (793) “The world is too much with us,” William Wordsworth (694) “On the Sonnet,” John Keats (798) “Desert Places,” Robert Frost (696) “My Number,” Billy Collins (801) “A Hymn to God the Father,” John Donne (697) “I head heard it’s a fight,” Edwin Denby (802) “One Art,” Elizabeth Bishop (698) “Ending,” Gavin Ewart (820) “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime,” William Carlos “Woman Work,” Maya Angelou (832) Williams (705) “Rites of Passage,” Sharon Olds (833) “After Apple-Picking,” Robert Frost (708) “Traveling through the dark,” William Stafford (835) “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hayden (709) “1973,” Marilyn Hacker (836) “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” George Gordon, Lord “Old Ladies’ Home,” Sylvia Plath (857) Byron (710) “Quinceañera,” Judith Ortiz Cofer (859) “Song of the Powers,” David Mason (719) “Constantly risking absurdity,” Lawrence Ferlinghetti (860) “Bright Star,” John Keats (721) “A Blessing,” James Wright (861) “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” John Donne (729) “Sound and Sense,” Alexander Pope (867) “To His Coy Mistress,” Andrew Marvell (730) “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died,” Emily Dickinson (871) “Introduction to Poetry,” Billy Collins (732) “Golden Retrievals,” Mark Doty (880) “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” Walt Whitman (736) “The Story We Know,” Martha Collins (894) “Digging,” Seamus Heaney (739) “Lonely Hearts,” Wendy Cope (895) “In Medias Res,” Michael McFee (901)