1. What is poetry?

2. Poetry
Poetry by definition is language that is used to communicate experiences.
Poetry involves four dimensions of experience:
Intelligence
Sense
Emotions
Imagination

3. Poetry v. Prose
Poetry is different than other forms of writing in that it draws more heavily and more consistently than ordinary language or prose on the use of language resources or literary devices such as: connotation, imagery, metaphor, paradox, irony allusion, repetition and rhyme.

4. To understand and evaluate poetry you should be asking yourself the following:
Who is the speaker? Keep in mind the speaker is often NOT the author and in fact is often a voice or character made up by the author.
What kind of person is the speaker?
Is there an identifiable audience for this piece? What do we know about it?
What is the occasion?
What is the setting in time? (hour, season, century ect.)
What is the setting in place? (indoors, outdoors, city ,country, region)

5. What is the central purpose of the poem
What is the central purpose of the poem? Can I state this in no more than a sentence?
Can I perform an outline of the poem to show the structure and development.
Can I paraphrase the poem?
Can I discuss the diction of the poem? (Point out words that are particularly well chosen and explain why?
Can I discuss the imagery of the poem? What kinds of imagery is used?
Can I point out examples of literary devices e.g. Simile, metaphor, personification, metonomy.?

6. Can I point out and explain any symbols
Can I point out and explain any symbols? If the poem is allegorical, what is the allegory?
Can I point out and explain examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement and irony? What is the function of these devices?
Can I point out and explain any allusions? What is their function?
What is the tone of the poem?
Are there examples of repetition? What is the function?
What is the meter of the poem?
What is my critique or evaluation of the poem.

7. Introduction to Rhythm, Stress and Meter.
Rhythm : English poetry makes use of five important rhythms. These rhythms are of different patterns of stressed (/) and unstressed (x) syllables. Each unit of these types is called foot
1. Iambic (x /)
This is the most commonly used. It consists of two syllables. The first syllable is not stressed while the second syllable is stressed. Such as “compare” in
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

8. 2. Trochee (/ x)
A trochee is type of poetic foot which is usually used in English poetry. It has two syllables. The first syllable is strongly stressed while the second syllable is unstressed, as given below.
“Tell me not, in mournful numbers” (Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

9. 3. Spondee (/ /)
Spondee is a poetic foot which has two syllables that are consecutively stressed. For example:
“White founts falling in the Courts of the sun”

10. 4. Dactyl (/ x x)
Dactyl is made up of three syllables. The first syllable is stressed and the remaining two syllables are not stressed such as the word “marvelous”. For example:
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,” (Evangeline by Longfellow)

11. Anapest (x x /)
Anapests are totally opposites of the dactyls. They have three syllables; where the first two syllables are not stressed while the last syllable is stressed. For example:
“Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house,”

12. Poetic Form: Epitaph
Epitaph is an inscription placed on a tomb or monument to
honor the memory of the person buried there. The term Epitaph has also been used more loosely to describe a poem which commemorates someone who has died.

13. Rhyme
Rhyme occurs when the sounds of the accented vowels in words and all the succeeding sounds in the words are identical. Rhyme at the end of verse lines is called end rhyme
There are two basic types of rhymes.
• An exact rhyme occurs when two words sound exactly alike except for their consonant sounds, as in “joy” and “boy”
slant rhyme, or off rhyme, occurs when the rhyme is approximate, as in “come”and “doom”
Although rhymes normally fall on accented syllables, slant rhymes may pair an accented and an unaccented syllable, as in “although and “fellow”

14. Five preliminary strategies for understanding and appreciating poetry.
1. Read the poem more than once
A good poem will no more yield its full meaning on a single read than a Beethoven symphony on a single hearing. Two readings may be necessary to simply let you get your bearings. And if the poem is a work of art, it will repay repeated and prolonged examination.

15. Five preliminary strategies for understanding and appreciating poetry
2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it.
It is futile to try to understand poetry without knowing the meanings of the words of which it is composed

16. Five preliminary strategies for understanding and appreciating poetry
3. Read so as to hear the words in your mind.
Poetry is meant to be heard: its meaning conveyed through sound as well and print. Therefore every word is important. Make sure you hear them!

17. Five preliminary strategies for understanding and appreciating poetry
4. Pay careful attention to what the poem is really saying.
Do not get so caught up in the sounds and the language of the poem, that you pay no attention to what the poem really means. Again, because most poems hay such hidden meanings, multiple reads are required.

18. Five preliminary strategies for understanding and appreciating poetry
5. Practice reading poems aloud
Read each poem you encounter affectionately, but not affectedly. Try not to treat each line as a complete thought, but rather follow the flow of the poem.

19. Essential Questions of Poetic Analysis
Who is the speaker?
What is the occasion?
What is the central purpose?
By what means is the purpose achieved?

20. Who is the speaker?
A cardinal error of some readers is to assume that a speaker who uses first person pronouns (I, mine, me) is always the poet referring to themselves, when more often than not that is not the case. Poems like short stories belong to the world of fiction and reflect a factually real world, but not always that of the poet.

21. What is the occasion?
This questions begs the age old question WHY? Why did the poet write this? Why now? Why this very moment? What is the historical context?

22. What is the central purpose?
Sometimes the purpose is to tell a story, to reveal human character, to impart a vivid impression of a scene to express a mood or an emotion, or to convey vividly some idea or attitude. Whatever the motive, be sure you can identify the central purpose. After you have defined the reason the poet wanted to convey this topic in this way, analysis comes more organically.

23. By what means in the purpose achieved?
After identifying the central purpose you should explore the degree to which the poet achieved their desired end result.