A concise unit on the ways of the Poetry World for people who do not really care This is How We Do it: Poetry

Unit Objectives

Interpretation Most people have trouble interpreting a poem because they “don’t understand” the poem. Use these three questions to begin your interpretation and understanding. 1. What feelings does the poem evoke? What sensations, associations, and memories does it give rise to? 2. What ideas does the poem express, either directly or indirectly? 3. What view of the world does the poet present? What do you think of the poet’s view? (p. 763)

Discussing a Poem A discussion of poetry occurs in three parts: 1. Experience- what is your personal reaction? 2. Interpretation- the intellectual process, use the three questions of interpretation 3. Evaluation- using your beliefs into the significance of the poem.

Types of Poetry: Major Classifications Geez, is this all? Two classifications: Narrative and Lyric Narrative- stress story and action- think Beowulf or the Odyssey Lyric- stress emotion and song- think the ones you can’t stand

Types of Poetry: Narrative Narrative Subdivisions 1. Epic- long narrative poem 2. Ballad- 3. Romance-

Types of Poetry: Lyric Lyric Subdivisions 1. Epigram- 2. Elegy- A poem mourning a death or another great loss. 3. Ode- A serious lyric poem, dignified and sincere in tone and style. 4. Aubade- 5. Sonnet- A lyric poem of 14 lines, following strict patterns of stanza divisions. 6. Sestina- 7. Villanelle line poem divided into five tercets (aba) and a final quatrain (abaa).

The Sonnet “If it’s a square, it’s a sonnet.” Traditional sonnets consists of 14 lines. Each is written in iambic pentameter: iambic pentameter has five metric unit (feet) consisting of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

The Sonnet Before you can truly understand the sonnet, you must understand rhyme scheme.

The Sonnet: The Petrarchian Petrarchian (Italian) Named after Francesco Petrarch. The first 8 lines (octave) present a problem. The last six (sestet) provide an answer. Rhyme Scheme:

“During the Life of Laura” ye that hear in vagrant rhymes the sighing On which the headlong heart of youth went feeding, When, still unseasoned, still at folly's leading I turned from fears in sudden tenor flying To hopes whose glitter proved no less a lying— As variously related for your reading— If ever from Love's arrow ye fled bleeding, Pity, and pardon me this anguished crying! But well I know how, I must walk derided, A jest, a syllable in tavern chatter; By self-reproach my self-deceit goes chided, And shame is all the fruit my follies scatter— Shame and a sense of pleasures that have glided Like ghosts in a dream too trivial to matter.

The Sonnet: Shakespearean The Shakespearean (English) Three- four line stanzas (quatrains) One- two line stanza (couplet) Rhyme Scheme:

Sonnet 130 My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips' red: If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damask'd, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak,--yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound; I grant I never saw a goddess go, My mistress when she walks, treads on the ground; And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare.

The Sonnet: Spenserian Had to upstage Shakespeare! Three quatrains One couplet Rhyme Scheme:

Sonnet 75 One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Agayne I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tyde, and made my paynes his pray. “Vayne man,” sayd she, “that doest in vaine assay. A mortall thing so to immortalize, For I my selve shall lyke to this decay, and eek my name bee wyped out lykewize.” “Not so,” quod I, “let baser things devize, To dy in dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse your vertues rare shall eternize, And in the heavens wryte your glorious name. Where whenas death shall all the world subdew, Our love shall live, and later life renew.”