Poetry

Poetry: refers to the body of highly compressed, unified literary works which appeal to imagination, emotion, rhythm, the five senses, and theme for the purpose of expressing a significant or aesthetic truth or giving pleasure.

1. Didactic: conveying moral guidance, religious dogma, or instruction. 2. Satiric: exposing human frailty or evil by means of irony or wit. 3. __Lyric__: originally referring to lines sung to the accompaniment of the lyre, it features flowing melodic verse such as in hymns, psalms, songs, odes, and ballads, which focuses on an intense, emotional impression. 4. Pastoral: idealizing rustic or country life by means of overly simple characters and an artificial form or style. 5. Narrative: telling a long, involved story in chronological order. 6. Epic: recounting the __gre__at deeds performed by a hero who is involved in a struggle against national or cosmic forces. 7. Dramatic: revealing emotional involvement of characters so as to resemble a scene from drama. 8. Elegaic - meditating upon death or a serious theme.
 * Types of poetry: **

__Figurative__ Language: __Language__ that is not meant to be interpreted literally and used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. Figurative __language__ is especially prominent in peotry.
 * Key Components **

__Figure of speech__: A specific device or kind of figurative __language__ such as metaphor, personification, simile, and symbol
 * **Metaphor**. A figure of speech that makes a __comparison__ between two seemingly unlike things to __help__ readers perceive the first thing more vividly and to suggest an underlying similarity betwee the two.
 * **Personification**: A figure of speech in which an animal, object, force of nature, or __idea__ is given human qualities.
 * **Simile**: A figure of speech that uses the words like or as to __compare__ two seemingly unlike things.
 * **Symbol**: An person, animal, place, object, or event that exist on a literal level within a __work__ but also represents something on a figurative level. The term symbolism refers to sue the symbols.

__Imagery:__ The word pictures that writers create to __help__ evoke an emotional response in readers. In creating effective images, writers use sensory details or descriptions that appeal to one or more of the five senses; sight, __hearing__, touch, taste, and smell.

//Self Portrait Poem//: Review of simile and metaphor

//Like What//: Symbolism through Imagery

Use imagery to make an abstract concepts come alive:

LIKE WHAT **ANGER** __color__ like… The crimson tongue of a blazing fire licking the walls as it consumes

temperature like…. The burning, stinging slap of rejection

sounds like…. An argument that cannot be won getting louder and louder until it is deafening.

smells like .... Inhalation of cinnamon into the nostril of a newborn

tastes like… Salty tears cascading onto a bloody lip

__looks__ like (size, shape) A chaotic canvas of splattered, dripping paint

texture like… (rough, slimy) Porcupine quills piercing flesh

moves like…. A slithering venomous cobra poisoning thoughts and contaminating hope.

A Poison Tree By William Blake


 * A Poison Tree **

I was angry with my friend;

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe;

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,

Night and morning with my tears;

And I sunned it with smiles,

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright.

And my foe beheld it shine,

And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole

When the night had veiled the pole (sky or heavens);

In the morning glad I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree









Think of an emotion you are familiar with drawing upon your personal experiences. [|Emotion words] [|Feeling words]

Use the following template:

I found the seeds…, I planted them…, I watered them with…, Until the tree grew…, And in its highest branches there grew…, At night the wind in the tree was the sound of ... And I knew this poisonous tree was mine.

Example:

I found the seeds duct taped to the back of Snow White’s mirror, I planted them outside my bedroom window where I could watch them, I watered them with low-fat diet water, Until it grew graceful and thin, And in its highest branches grew the fruits of vanity, beautiful to look at, but rotten to taste, At night the wind stayed away from my dying tree. And I knew this poisonous tree was mine.



William Wordsworth  1770-1850
 * Suggested that poetry springs not from extraordinary wit or learning but from the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" that the poet "recollect in tranquility."
 * Poetry should "connect us with our fellow beings."

If you could express one concern about our society today, what would it be?


 * The World Is Too Much with Us **

1 The world is too much with us; late and soon, 2 Getting and spending, we lay waste to our powers; 3 Little we see in Nature that is ours; 4 We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon (selfish gift)! 5 This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; 6 The winds that will be howling at all hours, 7 And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; 8 For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 9 It moves us not. - Great God! I'd rather be 10 A Pagan suckled in a creed (religious belief) outworn; 11 So might I, standing on this pleasant lea (meadow), 12 Have glimpses that would make me less [|forlorn]; 13 Have sight of Proteus (Greek myth. old man/ prophet/ shape shifter) rising from the sea; 14 Or hear old Triton (Son of sea god Neptune) blow from his wreathed horn.

a. According to line 2, with what activities are people preoccupied? How does this preoccupation change people's lives? What does the speaker think of this change?

b. In lines 5-8, with what things are people "out of tune?" What larger ideas might these particular things symbolize, or stand for?

c. In lines 9-10, who does the speaker say Who he would rather be? What sights and sounds would he experience then? Why would these sights and sounds make him less forlorn?

d. Sum up the theme, or main idea, of the poem. In your opinion, is this theme still relevant to life today? Explain.

Write a poem about your "world." My "World" Sanity My _ Place My source of power is the park where I go to to breathe in the air of spirits My place is _ living in trees; Where I go to ___ I see the weakness that holds me back slip__ __ I see ____like__ _ __ off like yesterday’s laundry; I am the dusty dirt on which I trod, And the ocean’s curling current. *Must use one example of personification I am the golden leaves that have fallen, A blooming bud of the cherry blossom. Nature and I are intertwined in a dance rejuvenating my soul

[|My Heart Leaps Up] 1 My heart leaps up when I behold 2 A rainbow in the sky; 3 So was it when my life began; 4 So is now I am a man; 5 So be it when I shall grow old, 6 Or let me die! 7 The Child is father of the Man; ***Paradox 8 And I could wish my days to be 9 Bound each to each by natural piety (reverence;devotion).
 * My Heart Leaps Up **


 * Paradox: a statement which, at first, appears to be contradictory, but which on closer examination has a valid meaning.

a. What natural phenomenon does the speaker admire? What qualities are usually associated with this phenomenon? b. To what three stages of life does the speaker refer in the poem? What does the speaker hope these three stages will have in common? Why?

c. Restate the paradox in line 7 in your own words. In what sense is the statement contradictory? In what sense is it true?

d. What childlike quality would you like to retain? Why?

What are some qualities or experiences you have had that you want to experience again?

Samuel Coleridge (1772- 1834) "Not the poem which we have read, but that to which we return, with the greatest pleasure, possesses the genuine power, and claims the name of essential poetry."

[|Rime of the Ancient Mariner]

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834). It was first published in Lyrical Ballads, with a few other poems in 1798. The Lyrical Ballads were written and published jointly by Coleridge and his good friend William Wordsworth (1770-1850) by whom most of the poems were written. The first version of the poem was entitled The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere, and much of the spelling was very archaic (old-fashioned) even at that time. In 1800 the second edition of the Lyrical Ballads appeared, with another volume of poems to accompany the first. Coleridge, at Wordsworth's suggestion, had modernized much of the spelling and the title appeared in the form at the head of this page. **Folk ballads** such as "Sir Patrick Spens " and "Bonnie Barbara Allen" were passed down in the oral tradition from generation to generation as songs before being written down. The chief purpose is to tell a story. They usually contain a refrain, a passage repeated at regular intervals with variations, to help both the singer and the audience remember the story.

**Literary ballads**, such as Coleridge's //Rime of the Ancient Mariner//, grew out of the folk ballad tradition.

media type="youtube" key="4EpuaCaPML8" height="315" width="420"










 * Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953) **
 * " **// A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him." //

[|Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night (1951)]

Villanelle:
 * French verse form
 * nineteen-line poem
 * Five tercets (three-line stanzas) with the rhyme scheme of aba
 * Final quatrain (four-line stanza) with the rhyme scheme of abaa
 * The first line is repeated as a refrain at the end of the second and fourth stanzas
 * The last line is repeated at the end of the third and fith stanzas
 * Both lines reappear as the final two lines of the poem



COPY AND PASTE: ** Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night ** Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they //Do not go gentle into that good night.//

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, //Rage, rage against the dying of the light.//

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, //Do not go gentle into that good night.//

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, //Rage, rage against the dying of the light//.

And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. //Rage, rage against the dying of the light//.


 * Recall and Interpret**
 * 1) Why does Thomas use the images of illumination?
 * 2) Why might wise men use the believe dark is right?
 * 3) Why would good men rage against death?
 * 4) What type of people does the speaker mean by wild men?

•French verse form •nineteen-line poem •Five tercets (three-line stanzas) with the rhyme scheme of aba •Final quatrain (four-line stanza) with the rhyme scheme of abaa •The first line is repeated as a refrain at the end of the second and fourth stanzas •The last line is repeated at the end of the third and fith stanzas •Both lines reappear as the final two lines of the poem
 * Villanelle: **


 * Evaluate and Connect**
 * 1) Why might Thomas chosen to use so artificial a form for such a personal and moving subject? Consider the idea of repetition.
 * 2) What is the tone of the speaker’s final words to his father?
 * 3) In your own words, describe the attitude the speaker wants his father to take toward death. Why might the speaker feel this way?
 * 4) Do you share the speaker’s attitude toward death? Give reasons to explain your answer.

Seigfried Sassoon



[|Siegfried Loraine Sassoon]
 * (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967)
 * English poet, author and soldier
 * Decorated for bravery on the Western Front
 * Became one of the leading poets of the First World War

[|Suicide in the Trenches]