Selection Focus Transparency 4-1

Literary Elements Transparency 4-1

Selection 4 Contents Click a hyperlink to go to the corresponding content area. Before You Read Reading the Selection Responding to Literature

Before 4-1 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. To read a poem about the purpose of poetry  To identify enjambment and to understand its effect on the meaning of a poem  To paraphrase a poem for a younger audience

Before 4-2 Marianne Moore was born in 1887 and died in Click the Speaker button to hear more about Marianne Moore.

Scientific Influences At Bryn Mawr College, Moore majored in biology and histology, the study of plant and animal tissue structure. She even considered pursuing a career in medicine. Moore’s interest in science never left her, as is apparent in both the subject matter and the precision of her verse. Moore wrote extensively of the natural world, and in a 1961 interview she discussed the importance of her scientific training to her poetry: “Precision, economy of statement, logic employed to ends that are disinterested, drawing and identifying, liberate–at least have some bearing on–the imagination.” Before 4-3 BACKGROUND

Before 4-4 FOCUS ACTIVITY Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information. Think-Pair-Share Spend three minutes jotting down a list of things you know about poetry. Then share your list with a partner.  Do you think you understand what poetry is?  Setting a Purpose Read to learn one writer’s ideas of what poetry is.

Reading 4-A Navigation Toolbar A B CA B C A Active Reading Connect Moore’s poem describes some of the difficulties of poetry. Before you read, write down three things that you find difficult about reading poetry. Think about how Moore’s poem addresses these difficulties as you read.

Clarify what Moore means in line 8 when she criticizes poetic descriptions that “become so derivative as to become unintelligible.” Active Reading Reading 4-B B Clarify Moore criticizes the tendency to borrow poetic descriptions from other poems. These derivative descriptions become so commonplace that they lose immediacy. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer.

Literary Elements Reading 4-C C Enjambment Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence of poetry across a line break without a punctuated pause between lines. Moore uses enjambment often in this selection. In this poem, enjambment occurs from one stanza to the next as well as from line to line.

Responding 4 Contents Personal Response Analyzing Literature Literary Elements Literature and Writing Click a hyperlink to go to the corresponding content area.

Personal Response 4 PERSONAL RESPONSE Were you convinced by the writer’s argument? Why or why not?

Analyzing 4-1 The speaker says that, like many readers, she dislikes poetry but acknowledges that it sometimes contains what is genuine. RECALL AND INTERPRET Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. What attitudes about poetry does the speaker express in lines 1–3?

What things does the speaker present in lines 4–5? Why are they important? What can you infer about the speaker’s attitude toward poetry? Analyzing 4-2 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. The speaker mentions grasping hands, dilating eyes, and rising hair. These are important because they are “useful.” The speaker values the concrete and the real, not “high-sounding interpretation.” RECALL AND INTERPRET

How does the speaker say people react to poems that “become so derivative as to become unintelligible”? According to the speaker, what kinds of “phenomena” make good subjects for poetry? What point do you think Moore is trying to make in lines 8–18? Analyzing 4-3 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. People don’t admire what they cannot understand. Good subjects can be anything from bats to schoolbooks, if they are imbued with the quality of genuineness. RECALL AND INTERPRET

According to lines 18–25, what accounts for the difference between the work of “half poets” and that of poets? How do you think presenting “'imaginary gardens with real toads in them'” results in poetry? Explain. Analyzing 4-4 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. True poets are “‘literalists of the imagination’” while “half poets” are mired in “insolence and triviality.” A real poet can describe an “imaginary garden” in so genuine a way that even a toad becomes real and therefore important. RECALL AND INTERPRET

According to lines 25–29, what two demands indicate that a person is interested in poetry? In your opinion, what characteristics does the speaker believe a good poem should have? Analyzing 4-5 Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. People who demand and respond to real subjects and genuineness, or honesty, are interested in poetry. The speaker believes a good poem should not be derivative but should deal honestly with subjects readers will understand. RECALL AND INTERPRET

Analyzing 4-6 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Moore begins the poem by stating a provocative opinion. Do you think this is an effective way to begin the poem? Explain. Possible answer: The beginning of the poem is effective; its provocativeness catches the reader’s attention.

Analyzing 4-7 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. How do the ideas presented in this poem help you understand what poetry is? Possible answer: Moore’s opinions affect the reader’s judgment of what poetry should be about.

Analyzing 4-8 EVALUATE AND CONNECT Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. What subjects might the speaker suggest for poems written today? Moore strongly suggests that any subject, if presented with honesty, can be a proper subject for a poem.

Literary Elements 4-1 Enjambment is a verse technique in which the sense and grammatical structure of one line carries over to the next line without a punctuated pause.  LITERARY ELEMENTS Enjambed lines contrast with end-stopped lines, in which both meaning and grammatical structure come to an end or a definitive pause at the end of lines.  In “Poetry,” enjambment serves to emphasize certain words or to expand their meanings by relating them to different contexts. This technique also serves to express the flow of the speaker’s thoughts. Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the information.

Literary Elements 4-2 LITERARY ELEMENTS Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. Identify three examples of enjambment in “Poetry.” Enjambment occurs in the majority of lines. It is especially effective in lines 6–8, 17–18, and 20–22.

Literary Elements 4-3 LITERARY ELEMENTS Click the mouse button or press the Space Bar to display the answer. In each example, what word or words might Moore be trying to emphasize or expand? Possible answer: After lines 6–7, Moore surprises the reader with the unexpected word useful; after line 17, another unexpected word, school-books, surprises the reader; after line 20, Moore emphasizes the phrase literalists of / the imagination.

Literature and Writing 4-1 In Support of Poetry Make poetry fans out of an audience of fourth or fifth graders. In your own words, rewrite Moore’s ideas about poetry as stated in the poem. Be sure to write for your younger audience. Then make your presentation to a fourth- or fifth-grade class.

Literary Elements Transparency 4-2 Lines 11, 15, 29 Lines 7, 12, 17, 20, 22 Lines 25–29 Lines 6–8, 17–18