1. INTRODUCTION TO poetry
prepared by Camille Quamina

2. What is poetry?
The Eagle He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watched from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. Alfred, Lord Tennyson ( )
Questions
What is peculiarly effective about the expressions “crooked hands,” “close to the sun” “ringed with the azure world,” “wrinkled,” “crawls,” and “like a thunderbolt”? Ans: makes the eagle more alive and visible/tells how high the eagle soars into the blue sky. Wrinkled appeals to the sense of sight and allows for a visual image to be formed as does crawl
Notice the formal pattern of the poem, particularly the contrast of “he stands” in the first stanza and “he falls” in the second. Is there any other contrast between the two stanzas? Ans: clasps depicts some level of immobility, while crawl depicts movement. land vs. sea

3. Analysis
We want to figure out and explain how different parts of the whole function together in order to create an effect or produce an observable outcome. Poetry comprises different elements which considered on their own and in combination, affect the way we experience the poem and the effect it will have on us. All literature is made up of structural elements that writers use to predetermine an effect. We want to pinpoint those that predominate, not simply to identify but to explain its effect on the work based on evidents found in the writing
Your judgments must be guided by and based on facts of what the poet has written and considered of the genre, period and tradition within which the work is produced. Your feelings and opinions on what is and should not be in the poem are not analysis and may properly be called editorialising

4. Elements of Poetry
The verse line: line break/turn, End-stopped, enjambment, pulls, a caesura
Writer’s intent, subject and theme i.e. treatment, literary motifs, inferred
Tone, mood and perspective: points of view, emotional impression
Poetic language and rhythm: poetic license, syntax, inversion, meter, sound patterns
Styles of poetic feet: iambic, dimetric line, pentameter

5. Elements of Poetry continued
Sounds of poetry - types of rhyme and rhyme schemes: classified by sound, position in the line, number of syllables which rhyme
Ryhme scheme & stanza form: couplet, triplet, quatrain, pentain, sestet, sonnet
Punctuation and its affect on meaning
Literary devices and their effect on meaning
Types of poetic form

6. The Verse Line I often feel my love Escapes
With every passing breath
I know the warmth
a heart knows best
Refuses to own
Its death
I often feel My love escapes With every passing breath. I know The warmth a heart knows best Refuses to own its death
Line break or line turn determined by grammar or syntax of what is being said e.g normal speech, creole speech etc
End-stopped is when a line ends with a punctuation device. it affects the degree of the pause
Run-on line or enjambment is when there is no acknowledged pause at the end of a line. Used to quicken the pace and/or suggest an unbroken thought or agitate states of mind for a speaker
Pulls is the force or speed the reader's eye and voice move across the line-break to complete idea or thought. Preposition at the end of a line creating anticipation in the reader to complete the idea
Caesura is a pronounced pause that occurs anywhere within a line, usually in the middle. eg Punctuation or an internal rhyme or leaving an unusually spacing bet. words in the line. emphasis, contrast or a close relationship bet ideas. contrast bet. emotive issues evoking pathos

7. The Poetry of Dennis Scott

8. 1973 "the 1st attempt at writing serious poetry in Jamaican "nation" language"
Embracing and validating the culture of Jamaica.
working against popular notion of "Father Time". Use of imagery, personification and myth (Anasi/Esu). Not cozy and paternal but a terror. contrasting image "long lazy...Lawd Uncle Time cruel"
visual and tactile imagery drawn from Jamaica/Caribbean landscape so it sounds like and grounded in Jamaican experience
"deceptively simple" "there is always the threat of violence and anarchy" and what emerges is a pattern, a dream not yet realised by actor or creator

9. literary use of nation language (vernacular)
Rastafarian language

10. Tone, Mood And Perspective
All create an emotional effect or meaning
Tone refers to the writer’s attitude towards the subject matter or reader
It is conveyed through the persona’s tone of voice
Mood is the emotional impression surrounding the work and has a definite impact. There is an expected outcome
Tools used are rhythm, rhyme, music, assonance, dissonance & figurative language (emotive words, graphic visual and aural imagery etc.)
Points of View refers to the speaking voice or persona: 1st person, 2nd person and 3rd person
voice tones: figurative - irony, structural device - argument
types of tones are casual, ironic, adulatory, critical, sarcastic. tones may shift (as there maybe combination of different tones) in one poem and you must be able to identify it & explain why
Persona is a mask the poet stands behind. there are 3 perspectives:
1st - personal pronouns (I, me, my, we, us) intimate, conversational, immediate and emotionally engaging
2nd - 2nd person pronoun "you and your" (stated or implied). it speaks to the listener as opposed to as or about. Used in Odes
3rd - most common, (he, she, him, her, they, them, it) It speaks about the subject. there maybe combos in one piece of writing

11. Memory and the slavery/colonial experience
language of composition to describe the physical and emotional effects of slavery.
who is "they"? Discuss the use of the word "clement" and its irony. (Justice and weather)
"black apostrophe" (difficult to talk about, image of dead slave) absence.
"breathing and hushing" is the emotional effect
of the hanging against the indifference of nature. slaves part of oral history "sweet and low" negro spiritual.
Emotional distance of the master "at least that's how they tell it" evoking doubt and indifference
tone changes with "we" emotional difficulty bec "they...swing like sighs" "brutal sentences" contradict "clemency"
who is the "they" at the end? its ambiguous...such is history

12. Poetic Language and Rhythm
Diction or choice of poetic language refers to the words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language, which combine to help create meaning in the poem.
Consider formal and informal use of language
Syntax or the way words are structured in a sentence
Violations of conventional language i.e. poetic liscense and inversions
Rhythm or Meter speaks to sound patterns created by syllables i.e. monosyllabic and polysyllabic words
Scaning/scansion

13. Work cited
McDermott, Harold. CAPE Literatures in English Poetry Module. Port of Spain: Caribbean Educational Publishers Print.