LAP 4: Poetry Day 3

 Poets, like other writers, bring their works alive through the interactions of fictional characters who experience love and hatred, pleasure and pain, and most of the other conditions and situations of life.  Just as in fiction, poetic characters are defined by what they say, what they do and how they react, and also by what other characters say about them.

 The speaker  The listener  The reader

 The most significant character in poetry is the speaker, also called the persona. In prose fiction, we also use speaker and persona but we often prefer the word narrator because of the obvious role of the storyteller.  This distinction emphasizes the personal and psychological importance of poetic speakers.

 Inside speakers use the first-person voice and are involved in the poem’s actions.  A poetic speaker may be inside or outside the poem, depending on the point of view used by the poet.  Outside speakers use the third-person voice and are objective about the poem’s actions.  The speaker is outside the poem, however, if the third person is used. In such poems, the speaker is not involved with the action; he or she describes what is happening to others.  Additional information about speakers may be gained from other details in poems.

 The person with whom or to whom the speaker is talking is the listener, the second type of character in poetry.  The listener is a person, not the reader, whom the speaker addresses directly and who is therefore “inside” the poem.  Note: the reader and the listener can be different.

 We examine the setting of a poem as one of the major means of measuring character.  Poetic protagonists, like those in stories, are influenced by their possessions, the places they inhabit, the conditions of their lives, and the times in which they live.

 In literature, imagery refers to words that trigger your imagination to recall and recombine images- memories or mental pictures of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, sensations of touch, and motions.

 Imagery is a literary device used in poetry and prose. Imagery uses the five senses.  Images do more than elicit impressions.  By the authenticating effects of the vision and perceptions underlying them, they give you new ways of seeing the world and of strengthening your old ways of seeing it.

 Visual imagery is the language of sight- therefore, the most frequently occurring literary imagery is to things we can visualize either exactly or approximately visual images.  Auditory imagery is the language of sound- auditory images trigger our experiences with sound.

 Olfactory, gustatory, and tactile imagery refers to smell, taste, and touch- in addition to sight and sound, you will find images from the other senses.  Kinetic and kinesthetic imagery refers to motion and activity- images of general motion are kinetic, whereas the term kinesthetic is applied to human or animal movement.

 Turn to page  Who is the speaker?  (answer: the listener and the reader)  What is the setting?  (answer: the listener and the reader’s consciousness)  How is imagery used?

 With your poetry circle, you will reread the assigned poem and identify the characters and setting. Write your answers on a piece of paper to share with the class.  Title of Poem  Character(s) ▪Speaker ▪Other characters (i.e.: listener?)  Setting ▪List of Adjectives that help identify the setting  Point of View ▪First ▪Second ▪Third  Imagery (Five Senses)