1. Chapter 9
The Language of Poetry

2. Introduction Analyzing poetry is, indeed, a dense activity
Poetry is the study of form and content
The interpreter can do a lot to give life to a poem
Logical content & emotive content (hard to find distinction)
Each word:
Carries denotative meaning
Carries connotative meaning
Harmonizes with sound pattern

3. Figurative Language
“A poet’s words do not define a concept so much as expand on it in the reader’s consciousness.”
Words in poetry mean many things at once.
Literary devices
Allusions
Simile
Metaphor
Analogy
Metonymy – substituting a word for another that it suggests (“table” in place of “meal”)
Synecdoche – Substituting a part for a whole (“sail” in place of “boat”

4. Figurative Language
Personification – attribution of human qualities to abstract or inanimate things
Apostrophe – An absent figure is addressed as though they are present

5. Poetic Syntax Stanzas = major units/divisions
Sentences = minor units/divisions
Poetry does not offer the same sort of “precision” as factual prose
Slower reading and suspension of judgement is often needed

6. Tone Color
Combination of vowels and consonants to help achieve a particular effect
Connotation is communicated/related by tone color
Onomatopoeia – words in succession that reinforce the same idea (“hiss, thud, crack, and bubble)
Alliteration - similar sounds at the beginning of two or more words in succession
Tone color reinforces the connection between the poem and the interpreter