Poetry Exploration 2014 Understanding Poetry

“Introduction to Poetry”- by Billy Collins Read the poem by Billy Collins. Core Analysis Frame Poetry D36-D43 (handout) 2. Application of Concepts- demonstrate your understanding of the Core Analysis Frame: Poetry (put it to work). Now, let’s look at another way to break down and analyze poetry…

POETRY ANALYSIS- TP-CASTT

The Craft of Poetry- Imagery Not only do poets play with the meanings of words, they play with the sounds of words, taking advantage of the fact that hearing something expressed can be as pleasant as thinking about it. Two basic elements that begin to distinguish a poem’s craft: 1. The way it uses WORDS to create literal and figurative IMAGES 2. The way it produces SOUND, creatively arranging words in LINES & STANZAS.

WORDS & IMAGES “What I like to do is treat words as a craftsman does his wood or stone to carve, mold, polish, and plane them into patterns, sequences, sculptures…” – Dylan Thomas A poet is using words more CONSCIOUSLY than any other kind of writer. Poets exploit the power of words to evoke thoughts, feelings, and reflections in ways that are sometimes very direct, sometimes very indirect. Most finished poems are very deliberate products because each word was selected carefully for one of many reasons. Poetry works its magic by the way it uses words to evoke “images” that convey a lot of meaning once you look into them.

IMAGERY An image in poetry refers to the words or the language a writer uses to convey a concreate mental impression, which may be visual, creating a “picture” in the reader’s imagination, or sensory in other ways. A literal image is a mental impression created by direct description. Literal images= a writer’s use of concrete, specific, sensory words to directly describe something, someone, some feeling, some vision, or some experience.

IMAGERY Figurative images= a mental impression created by indirect description, or what is known as “figures of speech.” Figurative images= can be understood as those that describe something by comparing it to something else- metaphor, simile, and personification (examples).

IMAGERY When poets are direct, they employ: 1. repetition 2. a kind of shorthand, familiar to diction to draw us in 3. (forces involvement by using) extremely concrete & specific 4. vivid & direct use of language Extra Credit Opportunity- Locate and read (outside of class) “With No Immediate Cause” and identify the above techniques designed to force readers to pay attention to a controversial, but extremely relevant topic (Ntozake Shange).

IMAGERY When poets are direct, they employ: 1. repetition 2. a kind of shorthand, familiar to diction to draw us in 3. (forces involvement by using) extremely concrete & specific 4. vivid & direct use of language Now, let’s give it a try… “Those Winter Sundays” (Guided Practice)

“Those Winter Sundays” Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with his cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking, When the rooms were warm, he'd call and slowly I would rise and dress, fearing the chronic angers of that house, Speaking indifferently to him who had driven out the cold and polished my good shoes as well. What did I know, what did I know of love's austere and lonely offices?