Poetry Tone, Form, Techniques

Tone The implied attitude of a writer toward the subject and characters of a work Determined by diction and syntax

Identify Tone "I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.“ - Robert Frost Tone: reflective, regretful Proof: “with a sigh”, repetition of “I”, “somewhere ages and ages hence”

Identify Tone Turning and turning in the widening gyre     The falcon cannot hear the falconer;     Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;     Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,     The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere     The ceremony of innocence is drowned;     The best lack all conviction, while the worst     Are full of passionate intensity. William Butler Yeats Tone: anxious, chaotic Proof: “things fall apart”, “anarchy”, “innocence is drowned”

With a partner (in your RJ) Read “Siren Song” on page 143-144 in Sound and Sense Identify the tone Find examples within the poem that prove the tone Some answers: ironic; sad then devilish; desperate then conniving Tone shift happens in the last stanza “Alas it is a boring song…” Side note: poem is an allusion to The Odyssey

Maya Angelou Health Food Diner Read and annotate, looking specifically for tone.

Poetry Form

Form Elegy Ode Ballad Sonnet Sestina

Elegy The elegy began as an ancient Greek metrical form and is traditionally written in response to the death of a person or group. The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace.

O Captain! My Captain! – Walt Whitman O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths- for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead. My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. Expressing Grief and Sorrow Praise and Admiration Consolation and Solace

Ode elaborately structured poem praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally.

Ode to My Socks – Pablo Neruda Mara Mori brought me a pair of socks which she knitted herself with her sheepherder’s hands, two socks as soft as rabbits. I slipped my feet into them as if they were two cases knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin, Violent socks, my feet were two fish made of wool, two long sharks sea blue, shot through by one golden thread, two immense blackbirds, two cannons, my feet were honored in this way by these heavenly socks. They were so handsome for the first time my feet seemed to me unacceptable like two decrepit firemen, firemen unworthy of that woven fire, of those glowing socks. Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation to save them somewhere as schoolboys keep fireflies, as learned men collect sacred texts, I resisted the mad impulse to put them in a golden cage and each day give them birdseed and pieces of pink melon. Like explorers in the jungle who hand over the very rare green deer to the spit and eat it with remorse, I stretched out my feet and pulled on the magnificent socks and then my shoes. The moral of my ode is this: beauty is twice beauty and what is good is doubly good when it is a matter of two socks made of wool in winter.

Ballad A fairly short narrative poem written in a songlike stanza form.

“Ballad of Birmingham” – Dudley Randall “Mother dear, may I go downtown Instead of out to play, And march the streets of Birmingham In a Freedom March today?” “No, baby, no, you may not go, For the dogs are fierce and wild, And clubs and hoses, guns and jails Aren’t good for a little child.” “But, mother, I won’t be alone. Other children will go with me, To make our country free.” For I fear those guns will fire. But you may go to church instead And sing in the children’s choir.” She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair, And bathed rose petal sweet, And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands, And white shoes on her feet. The mother smiled to know her child Was in the sacred place, But that smile was the last smile To come upon her face. For when she heard the explosion, Her eyes grew wet and wild. She raced through the streets of Birmingham Calling for her child. She clawed through bits of glass and brick, Then lifted out a shoe. “O, here’s the shoe my baby wore, But, baby, where are you?”

Sonnet A fixed form of 14 lines, normally iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme conforming to or approximating one of two main types – the Italian (Petrarchan) or the English (Shakespearean)

Italian Sonnet 8 lines (octave) of abbaabba Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne; Yet did I never breathe its pure serene Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: Then felt I like some watcher of the skies When a new planet swims into his ken; Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes He star’d at the Pacific—and all his men Look’d at each other with a wild surmise— Silent, upon a peak in Darien. “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” – John Keats 8 lines (octave) of abbaabba 6 lines (sestet) of either two or three rhymes Division between the octave and sestet usually corresponds to a division in thought

Sestina structured 39 line poem consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, followed by an envoi of three lines

Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop September rain falls on the house. on its string. Birdlike, the almanac In the failing light, the old grandmother hovers half open above the child, sits in the kitchen with the child hovers above the old grandmother beside the Little Marvel Stove, and her teacup full of dark brown tears. reading the jokes from the almanac, She shivers and says she thinks the house laughing and talking to hide her tears. feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove. She thinks that her equinoctial tears It was to be, says the Marvel Stove. and the rain that beats on the roof of the house I know what I know, says the almanac. were both foretold by the almanac, With crayons the child draws a rigid house but only known to a grandmother. and a winding pathway. Then the child The iron kettle sings on the stove. puts in a man with buttons like tears She cuts some bread and says to the child, and shows it proudly to the grandmother. It's time for tea now; but the child But secretly, while the grandmother is watching the teakettle's small hard tears busies herself about the stove, dance like mad on the hot black stove, the little moons fall down like tears the way the rain must dance on the house. from between the pages of the almanac Tidying up, the old grandmother into the flower bed the child hangs up the clever almanac has carefully placed in the front of the house. Time to plant tears, says the almanac. The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove and the child draws another inscrutable house.

Line groups Couplet – two lines Tercet – three line stanza/pattern Quatrain – four line stanza/pattern Cinquain – five line stanza/pattern Sestet – six line stanza/pattern Septet – seven line stanza/pattern Octave – eight line stanza/pattern

Poetry Techniques

Terms to Know Assonance Consonance Cacophony Euphony Enjambment

Assonance/Consonance Assonance – the repetition at close intervals of the vowel sounds of accented syllables or important words Hat – ran – amber; vein-made Consonance – the repetition at close intervals of the final consonant sounds of accented syllables or important words Book – plaque - thicker

Euphony/Cacophony Euphony – a pleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds “Swift Camilla skims” Cacophony – a harsh, discordant, unpleasant-sounding choice and arrangement of sounds “Ajax strives some rock’s vast weight to throw”

Enjambment The running-over of a sentence or phrase from one poetic line to the next, without terminal punctuation; the opposite of end-stopped. the back wings        of the        hospital where        nothing        will grow lie        cinders        in which shine        the broken        pieces of a green        bottle “Between Walls” -William Carlos Williams