DOCSLIB.ORG

Modern Poetry Shakespeare, Dickinson, & Frost Wish They Had It This Good

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Modern Poetry Shakespeare, Dickinson, & Frost Wish They Had It This Good Modern Poetry Shakespeare, Dickinson, & Frost Wish They Had It This Good Imagine if the greatest poets had access to the music and technology that artists use in 2010 to express them- selves. It makes you wonder if William Shakespeare would have written fewer sonnets so he could devote his time to writing soundtracks for blockbuster movies. The talented Emily Dickinson may have collaborated with Lady Gaga to write the ultimate dance hit. Robert Frost may have stayed out of the snowy woods and instead travelled the same poetic road home as Chris Daughtry. Our greatest poets were creative innovators and seem to have possessed amazing lyrical aptitude. Why wouldn’t they have used today’s media to expand their creative horizons? Do we dare appall classical poetry purists and suggest that some of today’s musical artists are producing amazing poetry that shakes four hundred years of what has been regarding as the greatest poetry ever written? Yes, we dare and the elements of classic poetry support us. This is your opportunity to break down some of the barriers to understanding poetry that have been created by time and, perhaps, an overly eager urge to point to the past as producing better poetry than current poets who express themselves in creative, provocative ways that Frost and his poetic brothers and sisters would love. Will Beyonce, Rihanna, and the Black Eyed Peas be cited in poetry class in one hundred years? Yes, they may endure if held to the same lyrical standards as we attribute to the poetic heavyweights who preceded them. Assignment 1. During class, record notes that address specific poetic elements. Many are listed below. A. Meter B. Scansion C. Metrical Foot: monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, and octameter D. Types of Feet: iamb, trochee, dactyl, anapest, amphibrach, pyrrhic form, spondee, hypermeter E. Internal rhyme, end rhyme, perfect rhyme, slant rhyme (near rhyme), and rhyme scheme F. Assonance, consonance, and alliteration G. Enjambment, stanza, and refrain H. Personification, allusion, repetition, and symbol 2. Identify a song that has lyrics you believe are especially poetic. Do not choose a song with potentially objectionable material. Locate the lyrics and print them so you may have a copy on which you can conduct a close reading, called an explication. Annotate the song/poem, identifying each of its poetic elements. 3. Decide upon a graphic symbol that you will embed within your written analysis. The graphic should enrich the message of your song/poem. 4. Answer the questions that help you write about your song/ poem. 5. Compose a 1-2 page, MLA-format typed analysis of your song/poem. What to Consider When Writing About Poetry* Who is the speaker? 1. What is the speaker’s gender? Age? Class? 2. What it the speaker’s diction? 3. Is the speech fragmented, or grammatically complete? 4. Where is the speaker? Is the place specified? 5. Does the speaker observe, persuade, meditate, or fantasize? 6. What are the speaker main concerns? 7. What is the speaker’s emotional state, and how does it change throughout the poem? Who is the audience? 8. Is the speaker aware that he or she is speaking to anyone? If so, who? 9. If the speaker is aware of the audience, what is his/her attitude regarding that audience? 10. What is the reason for the speaker addressing his or her audience 11. Is the speaker persuading the audience of anything? 12. Is the speaker confiding in the audience? What is the main subject of the poem? 13. What is the speaker mainly talking or thinking about? 14. Is it a thing, feeling, situation, or problem? 15. Is it the speaker or another person? 16. Is the subject introduced appropriately, or thrust upon us haphazardly? 17. How does the speaker’s treatment of the subject change by the end of the poem? 18. Does the poem focus upon emotional states or events? 19. Is the subject covered in detail, or sketched in broad strokes? 20. What does the poem leave out? Does the poem belong to a genre? (epic, dramatic, lyric, ode, elegy, or prose poem) 21. How does the poem’s genre affect the poem’s subject? What are the form and meter of the poem? 22. Does the poem have a consistent meter, or does the meter change? 23. Does the meter make the poem flow quickly or slowly, bouncily or solemnly? 24. Are there any natural divisions in the poem? 25. How do the parts of the poem relate to each other? 26. Does the poem rhyme? What effects do the rhymes produce? 27. Are there refrains, or any form of repetition in the poem? 28. What organizational patterns does the poem use? 29. How does the structure express the subject of the poem? 30. Where does the poem’s climax occur? 31. How does the form relate to the poem’s subject? What figures of speech are used in the poem? 32.Are there similes or metaphors? 33.Are the figures wild and outlandish, or modest and familiar? 34.Do the figures illustrate ideas, or alienate us? 35.What particular moments in the poem are figurative? Why? 36.Is there a connection between the figures used and the subject? Theme: How do the answers to these questions help you under- stand theme? 37.How does the poem describe a truth about the human experience? What were the poet’s life and times like? 38.What is the poet’s national and social background? 39.Did the poet belong to a movement or school of poetry? 40.Did the poet have a strong religious faith? 41.Was the poet committed to any ideas or doctrines? 42.Did the poet lead an active, adventurous life, or a quiet, sedentary one? 43.Did the poet have any social ambitions? 44.Did the poet have a family life? *from SPARKCHARTS Poetry .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction to Meter
    Introduction to Meter A stress or accent is the greater amount of force given to one syllable than another. English is a language in which all syllables are stressed or unstressed, and traditional poetry in English has used stress patterns as a fundamental structuring device. Meter is simply the rhythmic pattern of stresses in verse. To scan a poem means to read it for meter, an operation whose noun form is scansion. This can be tricky, for although we register and reproduce stresses in our everyday language, we are usually not aware of what we’re going. Learning to scan means making a more or less unconscious operation conscious. There are four types of meter in English: iambic, trochaic, anapestic, and dactylic. Each is named for a basic foot (usually two or three syllables with one strong stress). Iambs are feet with an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable. Only in nursery rhymes to do we tend to find totally regular meter, which has a singsong effect, Chidiock Tichborne’s poem being a notable exception. Here is a single line from Emily Dickinson that is totally regular iambic: _ / │ _ / │ _ / │ _ / My life had stood – a loaded Gun – This line serves to notify readers that the basic form of the poem will be iambic tetrameter, or four feet of iambs. The lines that follow are not so regular. Trochees are feet with a stressed syllable, followed by an unstressed syllable. Trochaic meter is associated with chants and magic spells in English: / _ │ / _ │ / _ │ / _ Double, double, toil and trouble, / _ │ / _ │ / _ │ / _ Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
    [Show full text]
  • Your Feet's Too Big: Downsizing English Metrics
    Mad River Review Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 9 2016 Your Feet's Too Big: Downsizing English Metrics William Wilborn Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/mrr Part of the Fiction Commons Recommended Citation Wilborn, W. (2016). Your Feet's Too Big: Downsizing English Metrics, Mad River Review, 1 (1). This Criticism is brought to you for free and open access by CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mad River Review by an authorized editor of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact library- [email protected]. Wilborn: Your Feet's Too Big: Downsizing English Metrics WILLIAM WILBORN Your Feet’s Too Big: Downsizing English Metrics Classical English metrics, as in Shakespeare's iambic pentameter, is a method of grouping the local rhythms of language into two ascending levels of organization, the foot and the line or verse. Unfortunately our understanding of this method has long been clouded by theory. That is because verse is more like dancing than computation. A gardener at Rydal Mount remembered watching Wordsworth as he composed. In his innocence he reveals the physical basis of practical metrics. Essentially he tells us that for Wordsworth iambic meter was walking: I think I can see him at it now. He was ter'ble thrang [busy] with visitors and folks, you mun kna, at times, but if he could git awa fra them for a spell, he was out upon his gres [grass] walk; He would set his head a bit forrad, and put his hands behint his back. And then he would start bumming, and it was bum, bum, bum, stop; then bum, bum, bum, reet down til t'other end [of the walk], and then he'd set down and git a bit o' paper out and write a bit; and then he git up, and bum, bum, bum, and goa on bumming for long enough right down and back agean.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Problems in Prosody
    1903·] Some Problems in Prosody. 33 ARTICLE III. SOME PROBLEMS IN PROSODY. BY PI10PlCSSOI1 R.aBUT W. KAGOUN, PR.D. IT has been shown repeatedly, in the scientific world, that theory must be supplemented by practice. In some cases, indeed, practice has succeeded in obtaining satisfac­ tory results after theory has failed. Deposits of Urate of Soda in the joints, caused by an excess of Uric acid in the blood, were long held to be practically insoluble, although Carbonate of Lithia was supposed to have a solvent effect upon them. The use of Tetra·Ethyl-Ammonium Hydrox­ ide as a medicine, to dissolve these deposits and remove the gout and rheumatism which they cause, is said to be due to some experiments made by Edison because a friend of his had the gout. Mter scientific men had decided that electric lighting could never be made sufficiently cheap to be practicable, he discovered the incandescent lamp, by continuing his experiments in spite of their ridicule.1 Two young men who "would not accept the dictum of the authorities that phosphorus ... cannot be expelled from iron ores at a high temperature, ... set to work ... to see whether the scientific world had not blundered.'" To drive the phosphorus out of low-grade ores and convert them into Bessemer steel, required a "pot-lining" capable of enduring 25000 F. The quest seemed extraordinary, to say the least; nevertheless the task was accomplished. This appears to justify the remark that "Thomas is our modem Moses";8 but, striking as the figure is, the young ICf.
    [Show full text]
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins' Diacritics: a Corpus Based Study
    Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Diacritics: A Corpus Based Study by Claire Moore-Cantwell This is my difficulty, what marks to use and when to use them: they are so much needed, and yet so objectionable.1 ~Hopkins 1. Introduction In a letter to his friend Robert Bridges, Hopkins once wrote: “... my apparent licences are counterbalanced, and more, by my strictness. In fact all English verse, except Milton’s, almost, offends me as ‘licentious’. Remember this.”2 The typical view held by modern critics can be seen in James Wimsatt’s 2006 volume, as he begins his discussion of sprung rhythm by saying, “For Hopkins the chief advantage of sprung rhythm lies in its bringing verse rhythms closer to natural speech rhythms than traditional verse systems usually allow.”3 In a later chapter, he also states that “[Hopkins’] stress indicators mark ‘actual stress’ which is both metrical and sense stress, part of linguistic meaning broadly understood to include feeling.” In his 1989 article, Sprung Rhythm, Kiparsky asks the question “Wherein lies [sprung rhythm’s] unique strictness?” In answer to this question, he proposes a system of syllable quantity coupled with a set of metrical rules by which, he claims, all of Hopkins’ verse is metrical, but other conceivable lines are not. This paper is an outgrowth of a larger project (Hayes & Moore-Cantwell in progress) in which Kiparsky’s claims are being analyzed in greater detail. In particular, we believe that Kiparsky’s system overgenerates, allowing too many different possible scansions for each line for it to be entirely falsifiable. The goal of the project is to tighten Kiparsky’s system by taking into account the gradience that can be found in metrical well-formedness, so that while many different scansion of a line may be 1 Letter to Bridges dated 1 April 1885.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Hayden (1913-1980)
    ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980) “RUNAGATE RUNAGATE” (1962) √A highly moving—rhythmic—poetic evocation of the Underground Railroad: sights, sounds, fears, threats, the heroine Harriet Tubman, language from “WANTED” posters. Different VOICES. √ THE CONCISE OXFORD COMPANION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: “One of Robert Hayden’s most successful historical poems, ‘Runagate Runagate’ (first published in 1962), employs a montage of voices to portray the tumultuous world of escaped slaves, and ultimately the fundamental human impulse toward freedom. ‘Runagate,’ a term for a runaway slave, refers specifically to Harriet Tubman and by extension to a series of symbols suggesting freedom and emancipation.” [http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100433238] √ Cental Idea: Quest for Freedom, of slaves in the American South √ Poetic Meter: Utilizes a variety of meters: dactyl, iamb, amphibrach, cretic, anapest, spondee—yet is strongly grounded in the TROCHAIC. The poem’s opening line is in Trochaic Heptameter, with other major line-groupings of 6 trochees, 4 trochees, 3 trochees, pairs of trochees “bookending” another single meter; the “hoot-owl calling” quatrain near the poem’s conclusion has all 4 lines in Trochaic Tetrameter. The use of TROCHEE is, further, associated with moments of high drama. Three MOLOSSUS in highly emotionally charged moments. √ Historical, Evocative, Powerful, Personal √ Historical sources of some of the poetic language: spirituals, hymns, abolitionist songs, WANTED posters, voices of slaves, the voice of Harriet Tubman. √ Reiteration and Alliteration: “Catch them if you can….”; “she says”; “movering, movering”; “Mean (mean mean) to be free”; “brethren brethren”; “air”; “leaves”; “No more”; “Some go (some in)”; “for me”; “darkness”; “beckoning beckoning”; “and the hunters pursuing and the hounds pursuing”; “and the night cold and the night long”; “keep on going”; “when you try to catch them”; “Many thousands”; “If you see”; “woman of earth, whipscarred, a summoning, a shining”; “Tell me .
    [Show full text]
  • The Poetry Handbook I Read / That John Donne Must Be Taken at Speed : / Which Is All Very Well / Were It Not for the Smell / of His Feet Catechising His Creed.)
    Introduction his book is for anyone who wants to read poetry with a better understanding of its craft and technique ; it is also a textbook T and crib for school and undergraduate students facing exams in practical criticism. Teaching the practical criticism of poetry at several universities, and talking to students about their previous teaching, has made me sharply aware of how little consensus there is about the subject. Some teachers do not distinguish practical critic- ism from critical theory, or regard it as a critical theory, to be taught alongside psychoanalytical, feminist, Marxist, and structuralist theor- ies ; others seem to do very little except invite discussion of ‘how it feels’ to read poem x. And as practical criticism (though not always called that) remains compulsory in most English Literature course- work and exams, at school and university, this is an unwelcome state of affairs. For students there are many consequences. Teachers at school and university may contradict one another, and too rarely put the problem of differing viewpoints and frameworks for analysis in perspective ; important aspects of the subject are omitted in the confusion, leaving otherwise more than competent students with little or no idea of what they are being asked to do. How can this be remedied without losing the richness and diversity of thought which, at its best, practical criticism can foster ? What are the basics ? How may they best be taught ? My own answer is that the basics are an understanding of and ability to judge the elements of a poet’s craft. Profoundly different as they are, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Pope, Dickinson, Eliot, Walcott, and Plath could readily converse about the techniques of which they are common masters ; few undergraduates I have encountered know much about metre beyond the terms ‘blank verse’ and ‘iambic pentameter’, much about form beyond ‘couplet’ and ‘sonnet’, or anything about rhyme more complicated than an assertion that two words do or don’t.
    [Show full text]
  • Phonetics and Phonology
    TRNAVA UNIVERSITY IN TRNAVA FACULTY OF EDUCATION PHONETICS AND PHONOLOGY Selected Aspects of English Pronunciation Učebné texty Hana Vančová Trnava 2019 Phonetics and Phonology. Selected Aspects of English Pronunciation Učebné texty. © Mgr. Hana Vančová, PhD. Recenzenti: prof. PaedDr. Silvia Pokrivčáková, PhD. Mgr. Eva Lukáčová, PhD. Jazyková korektúra: M. A. Louise Kocianová Vydal: Pedagogická fakulta Trnavskej univerzity v Trnave Vydanie: prvé Náklad: elektronické vydanie Trnava 2019 ISBN 978-80-568-0178-9 2 OBSAH Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 1 THE ACOUSTIC ASPECT OF LANGUAGE ................................................................................... 6 1.1 The development of human speech ................................................................................. 6 1.2 Interfaces of phonetics and phonology with other linguistic disciplines ......................... 8 1.3 English orthography and pronunciation ......................................................................... 11 2 PHONEMES AND ALLOPHONES ............................................................................................. 16 2. 1 Vowel sounds ................................................................................................................. 16 2.1.1 Vowels (monophthongs) .......................................................................................... 16 2.1.2 Diphthongs ..............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • I. a Humanist John Merbecke
    Durham E-Theses Renaissance humanism and John Merbecke's - The booke of Common praier noted (1550) Kim, Hyun-Ah How to cite: Kim, Hyun-Ah (2005) Renaissance humanism and John Merbecke's - The booke of Common praier noted (1550), Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2767/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 Renaissance Humanism and John Merbecke's The booke of Common praier noted (1550) Hyun-Ah Kim A copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Durham University Department of Music Durham University .2005 m 2001 ABSTRACT Hyun-Ah Kim Renaissance Humanism and John Merbecke's The booke of Common praier noted (1550) Renaissance humanism was an intellectual technique which contributed most to the origin and development of the Reformation.
    [Show full text]
  • Poetry: Why? Even Though a Poem May Be Short, Most of the Time You Can’T Read It Fast
    2.1. Poetry: why? Even though a poem may be short, most of the time you can’t read it fast. It’s like molasses. Or ketchup. With poetry, there are so many things to take into consideration. There is the aspect of how it sounds, of what it means, and often of how it looks. In some circles, there is a certain aversion to poetry. Some consider it outdated, too difficult, or not worth the time. They ask: Why does it take so long to read something so short? Well, yes, it is if you are used to Twitter, or not used to poetry. Think about the connections poetry has to music. Couldn’t you consider some of your favorite lyrics poetry? 2Pac, for example, wrote a book of poetry called The Rose that Grew from Concrete. At many points in history across many cultures, poetry was considered the highest form of expression. Why do people write poetry? Because they want to and because they can… (taking the idea from Federico García Lorca en his poem “Lucía Martínez”: “porquequiero, y porquepuedo”) You ask yourself: Why do I need to read poetry? Because you are going to take the CLEP exam. Once you move beyond that, it will be easier. Some reasons why we write/read poetry: • To become aware • To see things in a different way • To put together a mental jigsaw puzzle • To move the senses • To provoke emotions • To find order 2.2. Poetry: how? If you are not familiar with poetry, you should definitely practice reading some before you take the exam.
    [Show full text]
  • Dactylic Hexameter Is Properly Scanned When Divided Into Six Feet, with Each Foot Labelled a Dactyl Or a Spondee
    Latin Meter: an introduction Dactyllic Hexameter English Poetry: Poe’s “The Raven”—Trochaic Octameter / x / x / x / x / x / x / x / x Once up- on a mid- night drear- y, while I pon- dered weak and wear- y / x / x x / x / x x / x / x / x / O- ver man- y a quaint and cur- i- ous vol- ume of for- got- ten lore, / x / x / x / x / x / x / x / x While I nod- ded, near- ly nap- ping, sud- den- ly there came a tap- ping, / x / x / x / x / x / x / x / As of some- one gent- ly rap- ping, rap- ping at my cham- ber door. / x / x / x / x / x / x / x / “’Tis some vis- i- tor,” I mut- tered, “tap- ping at my cham- ber door; / x / x / x / On- ly this, and noth- ing more.” Scansion n Scansion: from the Latin scandere, “to move upward by steps.” Scansion is the science of scanning, of dividing a line of poetry into its constituent parts. n To scan a line of poetry is to follow the rules of scansion by dividing the line into the appropriate number of feet, and indicating the quantity of the syllables within each foot. n A line of dactylic hexameter is properly scanned when divided into six feet, with each foot labelled a dactyl or a spondee. Metrical Symbols: long: – short: u syllaba anceps: u (may be long or short) Basic Feet: dactyl: – u u spondee: – – Dactylic Hexameter: Each line has six feet, of which the first five may be either dactyls or spondees, though the fifth is nearly always a dactyl (– u u), and the sixth must be either a spondee (– –) or a trochee (– u), but we will treat it as a spondee.
    [Show full text]
  • Definitions & Identify 1. Which of the Following Is A
    Check for Understanding: Definitions & Identify 1. Which of the following is a definition of an iamb? (Short = unstressed, long = stressed) a. 1 short syllable followed by another short syllable b. 1 short syllable followed by a long syllable c. 1 long syllable followed by another long syllable d. 1 long syllable followed by a short syllable 2. Which of these words is an iamb? a. Employ b. Coffee c. Drinking d. Eat 3. Which of these words is not an iamb? a. Unfit b. Unwell c. Behold d. Freedom 4. What is the definition of a metrical foot? a. A syllable b. A group of 5 or more syllables c. A rhyme scheme in a poem d. A group of 2-3 syllables that form a rhythmic unit 5. All of these are types of metrical feet except – a. Iamb b. Trochee c. Spondee d. Taradactyl e. Dactyl 6. True or False: A metrical foot can only be one word. a. True b. False 7. True or False: An iamb must be more than one word. a. True b. False 8. True or False: Poems that rhyme have meter. a. True b. False 9. True or False: Poems that do not rhyme have meter. a. True b. False 10. True or False: A poem’s meter cannot change throughout a poem. a. True b. False Answer KEY 1. Which of the following is a definition of an iamb? (Short = unstressed, long = stressed) a. 1 short syllable followed by another short syllable b. 1 short syllable followed by a long syllable c.
    [Show full text]
  • ED 105 498 CS 202 027 Introduction to Poetry. Language Arts
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 105 498 CS 202 027 TITLE Introduction to Poetry. Language Arts Mini-Course. INSTITUTION Lampeter-Strasburg School District, Pa. PUB DATE 73 NOTE 13p.; See related documents CS202024-35; Product of Lampeter-Strasburg High School EDRS PRICE MF-$0.76 HC-$1.58 PLUS POSTAGE DESCRIPTORS Class Activities; *Course Descriptions; Course Objectives; *Curriculum Guides; Instructional Materials; *Language Arts; Literature; *Poetry; Secondary Education; *Short Courses IDENTIFIERS Minicourses ABSTRACT This language arts minicourse guide for Lampeter-Strasburg (Pennsylvania) High School contains a topical outline of an introduction to a poetry course. The guide includes a list of twenty course objectives; an outline of the definitions, the stanza forms, and the figures of speech used in poetry; a description of the course content .nd concepts to be studied; a presentation of activities and procedures for the classroom; and suggestions for instructional materials, including movies, records, audiovisual aids, filmstrips, transparencies, and pamphlets and books. (RB) U S Oh PAR TmENT OF HEALTH C EOUCATKIN WELFARE NAT.ONA, INSTITUTE OF EOUCATION Ch DO. Ls. 1 N THA) BE E 4 REPRO ^,,)I qAt L'e AS RECEIVED FROM 1' HI PE 4 sON OR ulICHLNIZA T ION ORIGIN :.' 4L, , T PO,N' s OF .IIE K OR OP .NICINS LiN .." E D DO NOT riFcE SSARL + RE PRE ,E % , Lr lat_ 4.% 00NAL INS T TUT e OF CD c D , .'`N POs. T 1C14 OR POLICY uJ Language Arts Mini-Course INTRODUCTION TO POETRY Lampeter-Strasburg High School ERM.SSION TO RE POODuCETHIS COPY M. 'ED MATERIAL HA; BEEN GRANTED BY Lampeter, Pennsylvania Lampeter-Strasburg High School TD ERIC AV) ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING P.t,EP AGREEMENTS .SiTH THE NATIONAL IN STTuTE Or EDUCATION FURTHER 1973 REPRO PUCTION OU'SIDE THE EPIC SYSTEMRE QUIRES PERMISS'ON OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER N O INTRODUCTION TO POETRY OBJECTIVES: 1.
    [Show full text]