Tekstanalyse og –historie F09 Session Five: Poetry II

Agenda Genre specific aspects of the study of poetry Genre specific aspects of the study of poetry Assignment Three Assignment Three

Genre specificity Poetry contains images (foot, shoe) Poetry contains images (foot, shoe) Images have to be interpreted to create meaning: entrapment / fetishism Images have to be interpreted to create meaning: entrapment / fetishism The nature of interpretation: part and whole – the hermeneutic circle (Abrams, ”Interpretation and Hermeneutics”) The nature of interpretation: part and whole – the hermeneutic circle (Abrams, ”Interpretation and Hermeneutics”)

Genre specificity Plath: meaning (?) and sound - the repetition of /u:/ (you, do, shoe, achoo, blue, through, &c): rhyme Plath: meaning (?) and sound - the repetition of /u:/ (you, do, shoe, achoo, blue, through, &c): rhyme Frank O’Hara: meaning (?) and sight – Frank O’Hara: meaning (?) and sight – ”[…] Then onto the avenue where skirts are flipping above heals and blow up over grates.” (”A Step Away from Them”, ll. 8-11)

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another's throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself. Philip Larkin – “This Be The Verse”

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had and add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn by fools in old-style hats and coats, who half the time were soppy-stern and half at one another's throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, and don't have any kids yourself. Philip Larkin – “This Be The Verse”

Poetry: genre specific aspects Larkin, ”This Be the Verse” Larkin, ”This Be the Verse” Syntactical organisation Syntactical organisation Stanzaic organisation – lines and stanzas Stanzaic organisation – lines and stanzas Imagery – metaphors, similes Imagery – metaphors, similes Tone – happy, sad, angry, pessimistic … Tone – happy, sad, angry, pessimistic … Meaning Meaning Prose chopped up to look like verse? Prose chopped up to look like verse?

Poetry: genre specific aspects Larkin, ”High Windows” Larkin, ”High Windows” Syntactical organisation Syntactical organisation Stanzaic organisation – lines and stanzas Stanzaic organisation – lines and stanzas Imagery – metaphors and similes Imagery – metaphors and similes Tone – happy, sad, angry, pessimistic … Tone – happy, sad, angry, pessimistic … Meaning Meaning

High Windows When I see a couple of kids and guess he's fucking her and she's taking pills or wearing a diaphragm, I know this is paradise everyone old has dreamed of all their lives--bonds and gestures pushed to one side like an outdated combine harvester, and everyone young going down the long slide to happiness, endlessly. I wonder if anyone looked at me, forty years back, and thought, that'll be the life; no God any more, or sweating in the dark about hell and that, or having to hide what you think of the priest. He and his lot will all go down the long slide like free bloody birds. And immediately rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, and beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless. When I see a couple of kids and guess he's fucking her and she's taking pills or wearing a diaphragm, I know this is paradise everyone old has dreamed of all their lives--bonds and gestures pushed to one side like an outdated combine harvester, and everyone young going down the long slide to happiness, endlessly. I wonder if anyone looked at me, forty years back, and thought, that'll be the life; no God any more, or sweating in the dark about hell and that, or having to hide what you think of the priest. He and his lot will all go down the long slide like free bloody birds. And immediately rather than words comes the thought of high windows: The sun-comprehending glass, and beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.

Poetry: genre specific aspects Philip Larkin, ”Aubade” Philip Larkin, ”Aubade” Why and how can Larkin’s poem be said to form an aubade? Why and how can Larkin’s poem be said to form an aubade? The tone of the poem? The tone of the poem?

Assignment Three The Quiz The Quiz