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Poetry (Theory)

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Poetry (Theory) POETRY (THEORY) Radio Broadcast 23 Sept 18:00 -19:00 STUDY NOTES Poetry analysis is often the basis for teaching literature in the classroom. If you've been to school, you've probably had to study some form of literature, and your teacher has almost certainly demonstrated the analysis of poetry or even asked you to do it. It can seem like a frightening task, but if you've looked at the way poets use language and you make an effort to understand some the things that might have been happening in history at the time the poet was writing, you've already got an edge. How to analyse poems Read the poem more than once. Use a dictionary when you find a word about whose meaning you are unsure. Read the poem slowly. Pay attention to what the poem is saying; do not be distracted by the rhyme and rhythm of the poem. Try reading the poem out loud to get a sense of the way the sounds of the poem affect its meaning. Six Easy Ways To Understand Poetry: Read the poem all the way through. It might be tempting to stop and puzzle over any tricky bits, but by reading the poem all the way through, you should be able to pick up the overall idea the poet is trying to convey. Consider the subject matter - what the poem is literally about - as well as any themes that emerge - these are the ideas that the poet wants you to think about after reading the poem. What is the mood of the poem? Think about how the writer wants you to feel at the end of the poem. Is the overall tone uplifting, or does the poem leave you feeling sad? Some poems have a deliberate change of mood within them, where an apparently downbeat poem ends with a joyful scene or vice versa. Consider how the poem is structured. The poet plans the structure of the poem carefully, so look at how many stanzas or verses the poem is divided into. Why do you think the poet has chosen to structure the poem in the way they have? Perhaps each new stanza deals with a new idea or mood, or maybe the poem consists of just one short stanza in order to suggest a brief, fast-moving event. Listen to the sounds of the words. Poetry is designed to be read aloud, so forget your embarrassment and recite the poem to yourself. Doing this should allow you to hear whether the poem has any regular rhyme or rhythm, as well as any words the poet has chosen because of the way they sound. For example, the writer may be using alliteration (where two or more words in close succession begin with the same consonant) in order to draw our attention to a certain line or image, or assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds within words). Figurative Language Figurative language involves a comparison between two things--a literal term, or the thing being compared, and a figurative term, or the thing to which the literal term is being compared. Language & Poetic Devices Important Poetry Techniques Technique Explanation Examples Alliteration Words that start with the same sound to Breathing-taking beauty of create emphasis and at times dramatic the belle impact Assonance A repetition of vowel sounds within Please bake me a date cake syllables with changing consonants Consonance Repetition of consonants anywhere Gloomy woman within words Hyperbole The use of exaggeration often to create She ate a mountain of food an impact on readers in just a few minutes Imagery Elements in poetry that can spark off our The dark (sight) pungent senses (sight, sound, smell, feeling, (smell) enclosure taste) as we read. It can often create a very vivid description Metaphor When a comparison is made between 2 His Herculean strength sent things. Although sometimes similar to a the spectators into awe simile, most times it is much more hidden and harder to detect on the surface The apple never falls far from the tree (how children are similar to their parents) Technique Explanation Examples Onomatopoeia A word imitating a sound The buzz of the bee... When the cat meowed... Personification Inanimate objects being given human The gloomy weather qualities. Personification has become very common in a daily language use The beautiful building Simile When 2 items are compared with one Her smile was as bright as another with the use of “like” “as” the sun He was strong like Hercules Tone Reflect the way in which the poet Tone example (non- expresses his ideas. Often this is exhaustive list): detected through his use of words / images, etc Anger Comic Condemning Depressed Detached Happiness Serious More Language and Poetic Devices Synecdoche Synecdoche is a way of naming a thing: the word for a part of a thing is substituted for the whole. For example, in the sentence "I bought a new set of wheels this morning," the word "wheels" is substituted for the word "car." Wheels are part of any car; here the part is substituted for the whole. Metonymy Metonymy is a way of naming a thing: a thing closely related to the thing actually meant is used to name it. For example, "He came from excellent blood" substitutes the term "blood" for "family", and expresses the idea that an individual comes from a "good" family, perhaps a noble one. "Blood" and "family" are related because families are made up of people who Questions 1. What is the key idea the poet wants to get across in this poem? 2. In line 1, the poet says “I salute you:” This phrase usually indicates respect and honour. Are these the poet’s true feelings about Johannesburg? 3. What figure of speech is used in line 6: “My hand like a starved snake rears my pockets” 4. Explain the comparison the poet is making in line 6 5. Give an example where the poet uses personification in this poem 6. What are “neon flowers” and “cement trees”? Who is Dr. Mongane Wally Serote? Dr Serote was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa, and went to school in Alexandra, Lesotho, and Soweto. He first became involved in the Black Consciousness Movement when he was finishing high school in Soweto. His presence in that town linked him to a group known as the "township" or "Soweto" poets, and his poems often expressed themes of political activism, the development of black identity, and violent images of revolt and resistance. He was arrested by the apartheid government under the Terrorism Act in June 1969 and spent nine months in solitary confinement, before being released without charge. He went to study in New York, obtaining a Fine Arts degree at Columbia University, before going to work in Gaborone, Botswana, and later London for the African National Congress in their Arts and Culture Department. After contributing poems to various journals, in 1972 he published his first collection, Yakhal'Inkomo. It won the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize in 1973. He was a Fulbright Scholar and received a fine arts degree from Columbia University in 1979.[1] He was not able to return to South Africa and he began a life in exile, living in Botswana and London, where he was involved in the Medu Art Ensemble. In 1993, he won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.[1] In 2004, he received the Pablo Neruda award from the Chilean government. CITY JOHANNESBURG Mongane Wally Serote This way I salute you: My hand pulses to my back trousers pocket Or into my inner jacket pocket For my pass, my life, Jo'burg City. My hand like a starved snake rears my pockets For my thin, ever lean wallet, While my stomach groans a friendly smile to hunger, Jo'burg City. My stomach also devours coppers and papers Don't you know? Jo'burg City, I salute you; When I run out, or roar in a bus to you, I leave behind me, my love, My comic houses and people, my dongas and my ever-whirling dust, My death, That's so related to me as a wink to the eye. Jo'burg City I travel on your black and white and roboted roads, Through your thick iron breath that you inhale At six in the morning and exhale from five noon. Jo'burg City That is the time when I come to you, When your neon flowers flaunt from your electrical wind, That is the time when I leave you, When your neon flowers flaunt their way through the falling darkness On your cement trees. And as I go back, to my love, My dongas, my dust, my people, my death, Where death lurks in the dark like a blade in the flesh, I can feel your roots, anchoring your might, my feebleness In my flesh, in my mind, in my blood, And everything about you says it, That, that is all you need of me. Jo'burg City, Johannesburg, Listen when I tell you, There is no fun, nothing, in it, When you leave the women and men with such frozen expressions, Expressions that have tears like furrows of soil erosion, Jo'burg City, you are dry like death, Jo'burg City, Johannesburg, Jo'burg City. Repetition Some poetry contains repetition. This may include repetition of sound, syllable, words, phrases, lines, stanzas. Poets often use repetition to draw our attention to certain aspects in the poem and to create a particular emphasis that adds meaning to the poem. Repetition is found extensively in free verse, which does not have a traditional, recognizable metrical pattern.
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