August 27th, 2013

Chapter III: Denotation and Connotation

• Denotation-the dictionary meaning of the word– Example: snake is "any of numerous scaly, legless,

sometimes venomous reptiles; Having a long, tapering, cylindrical body and found in most tropical and temperate regions."

• Connotation- what a word suggests beyond what it expresses; its overtones of meaning– Example: snake could include evil or danger

Chapter III: Denotation and Connotation

• A words connotations is developed from its past history and associations• A Poet often takes advantage of the

fact that the word has more than one meaning by using it to mean more than one thing at the same time

Chapter IV: Imagery

• Types of Imagery:–Auditory- sound–Olfactory- smell–Gustatory- taste–Tactile- touch–Organic- internal sensations–Kinesthetic- movement or tension

The winter evening settles downWith smell of steaks in passageways.Six o'clock.The burnt-out ends of smoky days.And now a gusty shower wrapsThe grimy scrapsOf withered leaves about your feetAnd newspapers from vacant lots;The showers beatOn broken blinds and chimney-pots,And at the corner of the streetA lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.And then the lighting of the lamps.

– Preludesby T. S. Eliot.

SHAKESPEAREAN SONNETShall I compare thee to a summer’s day? a

Thou art more lovely and more temperate. b

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date. b

Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, c

And often is his gold complexion dimmed; d

And every fair from fair sometimes declines, c

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed. d

But thy eternal summer shall not fade e

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; f

Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, e

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st f

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, g

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g

• A fourteen line poem with a specific rhyme scheme.

• The poem is written in three quatrains and ends with a couplet.

• Each quatrain develops a specific idea, but one closely related to the ideas in the other quatrains.

• It is the most flexible in placement of the volta.

• Shakespeare often places the "turn," as in the Italian, at L9

Petrarchan (Italian) Sonnet• The Italian sonnet is divided into two sections by two different groups of rhyming sounds. • The first 8 lines is the octave and rhymes:

a b b a a b b a • The remaining 6 lines is called the sestet and can have either two or three rhyming

sounds, arranged in a variety of ways:

• the poem is divided into two sections by the two differing rhyme groups. • A change from one rhyme group to another often signifies a change in subject matter.• This change occurs at the beginning of L9 in the Italian sonnet and is called the volta, or

"turn”.

c d c d c d c d e c e dc d d c d c c d c e d cc d e c d e

JOHN KEATS

Keats

• John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of romantic poets along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his work only having been in publication for four years before his death.

• Keats lost his parents at an early age. He was eight years old when his father, a livery stable-keeper, was killed after being trampled by a horse.

• His father's death had a profound effect on the young boy's life. In a more abstract sense, it shaped Keats' understanding for the human condition, both its suffering and its loss.

• This tragedy and others helped ground Keats' later poetry—one that found its beauty and grandeur from the human experience.

• Although his poems were not generally well received by critics during his life, his reputation grew after his death, so that by the end of the 19th century he had become one of the most beloved of all English poets.

• The poetry of Keats is characterized by sensual imagery, most notably in the

series of odes. Today his poems and letters are some of the most popular and most analyzed in English literature.