Poetry Unit English II Honors
How would you define poetry? What do you think? How would you define poetry?
It DOES contain figurative language that is intense and emotional (but so does powerful prose)
Let’s look at what poetry is NOT…
Not always writing with meter It’s not confined to writing that rhymes Not always short
Some definitions of poetry? Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) It consists largely of oral or literary works in which language is used in a manner that is felt by its user and audience to differ from ordinary prose.
Emily Dickinson: “If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know THAT is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know THAT is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”
Okay…so is THIS poetry???
Jackets are itchy and hot, So tattooin’ Ruth tattooed me a suit. Collars are choking, Pants are expensive, Jackets are itchy and hot, So tattooin’ Ruth tattooed me a suit. Now folks think I’m dressed-- When I’m not.
Tattooin’ Ruth by Shel Silverstein
Try this one: “Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath
I am a riddle in nine syllables.
An elephant,
a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.
What am I???
That’s right…I’m a pregnant woman!!!
Let’s look at the pictures again to see if it makes more sense now.
I am a riddle in nine syllables.
An elephant,
a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.
So, some riddles can be poetry. Are songs poetry?
They are often lyric poems. Sure they are! They are often lyric poems. Lyric poems focus on an event, experience, idea, reaction, or feeling that has deeply impressed the poet… The poet expresses these things in a way that readers/listeners can feel that the experience or song/poem is their own.
What song does that for you?
What else can be poetry, or at least POETIC? Jingles, slogans, advertisements Much of the Old Testament of the Bible is poetry, as are many other religious texts
MasterCard Commercials Going out to dinner $50 Ordering dessert $16 Staying for coffee $8 Giving your kitchen a night off priceless
Okay, so what IS poetry?
Definition: Poetry is a literary expression in which words are used in a concentrated blend of sound and imagery to create an emotional response
Why should I read poetry?
To recover what you have lost or to hold onto what you have To feel connected to things you need and cherish, but feel pulled away from To recover what you have lost or to hold onto what you have To open yourself to wider and new experiences To be challenged, shaken, or comforted
Why would people write poems? Everyone shares feelings of joy, pain, anger, love, fear, despair, hope, etc. Even though we can’t claim “I know just how you feel,” we can say that “I, too, have that feeling.”
Finally: Poetry gives VOICE. It offers us a chance to speak…and speak from the deepest part of ourselves, and to give a voice to those who do not have one
Poet Laureate Rita Dove says: “I want to help people see that poetry is not something above them or somehow distant; it’s part of their very lives. I would like to remind people that we have an interior life--even if we don’t talk about it because it’s not expedient, because it’s not cool, because it’s potentially embarassing--and without that interior life, we are shells, we are nothing.”
How do I read, much less understand, a poem???
How to read poems: Read it silently to yourself. Read it out loud. Identify the speaker. Identify the audience. Paraphrase—put it in your own words. Now you’re ready to analyze!
If you understand nothing else about a poem, look at how the poet chooses to use punctuation. You MAY stumble onto something significant.
Enjambment—there is no punctuation mark at the end of a line of poetry (continue reading onto the next line without pause) End stop—a punctuation mark ends the line Cesurae—a punctuation mark is in the middle of a line; it disrupts the flow of the poem
How to Analyze Poems If you can’t figure out what a poem means, look at what it does: Mood (atmosphere) and tone (author’s attitude) Sound effects (poetic devices used)
2. Look for changes in language -Speech act: going from statements to questions -Subject matter: death to love -Form: rhyme to free verse, or short lines to long lines -Diction: blunt to refined
3. Structure -Repetition and variation of words, images, ideas, now characters are named, etc. -Relationship between how each part of the poem relates to other parts
Introduction to Poetry by: Billy Collins I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.