POETRY

What makes a piece of written work, a poem?

POETRY

• Peculiar use of language! • One big metaphor! • It is not written or spoken like everyday language. •It has certain idiosyncrasies/quirks that enable it to deliver a message in an out-of-the-ordinary way.

What makes a piece of written work, a poem?

POETRY

“Poetry deals with people’s deepest feelings and emotions, but, instead of letting them run wild, it attempts to make them manageable through carefully controlled language.” (Osborn, 1995)

What makes a piece of written work, a poem?

POETRY

SOUND

Onomatopoeia A device in which the sound of a word imitates the sound of the object to which it refers

There Are So Many Tictoc (an excerpt) there are so many tictoc clocks everywhere telling people what toctic time it is for tictic instance five toc minutes toc past six tic -e.e. cummings

SOUND

The Loch Ness Monster's Song Sssnnnwhuffffll? Hnwhuffl hhnnwfl hnfl hfl? Gdroblboblhobngbl gbl gl g g g g glbgl. Drublhaflablhaflubhafgabhaflhafl fl fl - gm grawwwww grf grawf awfgm graw gm. Hovoplodok - doplodovok - plovodokot - doplodokosh? Splgraw fok fok splgrafhatchgabrlgabrl fok splfok! Zgra kra gka fok! Grof grawff gahf? Gombl mbl bl - blm plm, blm plm, blm plm, blp -Edwin Morgan

SOUND

Alliteration repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of two words

Summum Bonum (an excerpt) Robert Browning All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee: All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem: In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea: Breath and bloom, shade and shine, wonder, wealth, and--how far above them--

SOUND

Assonance repetition of the same vowel sounds

Vowel Movements (an excerpt) by Daryl Hine

Take a statement, the same as yesterday’s dictation: Lately pain has been there waiting when I awake. Creative despair and failure have made their patient. Anyway, I’m afraid I have nothing to say.

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Simile A figure of speech in which two things, alike in some way, are imaginatively compared

Like a Star Just like a star across my sky, Just like an angel off the page, You have appeared to my life, Feel like I'll never be the same, Just like a song in my heart, Just like oil on my hands,

-Corinne Bailey Rae

FIGURES OF SPEECH

The Black Angel (excerpt) Where are the people as beautiful as poems, As calm as mirrors, With their oceanic longings – The idler whom reflection loved, The woman with the iridescent brow? For I would bring them flowers… They are the past of what was always future. They speak in tongues, Silently, about nothing. They are like old streetcars buried at sea, In the wrong element, with no place to go… I will not meet her eye…

- Henri Coulette

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Metaphor A figure of speech that imaginatively identifies one thing with another

The Road Not Taken (excerpt)

I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Metaphor A figure of speech that imaginatively identifies one thing with another

Variation on the Word Sleep I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment only. I would like to be that unnoticed & that necessary. -Margaret Atwood

Permanently (an excerpt)

One day the Nouns were clustered in the street. An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty. The Nouns were struck, moved, changed. The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence. -Kenneth Koch

FIGURES OF SPEECH

Personification A figure of speech in which something is given human form, character or traits

January

The fox drags its wounded belly Over the snow, the crimson seeds Of blood burst with a mild explosion, Soft as excrement, bold as roses. Over the snow that feels no pity, Whose white hands can give no healing, The fox drags its wounded belly. - R.S. Thomas

IMAGERY

Imagery the mental impression or visualized likeness summoned up by a word, phrase or sentence

The Day Flies Off Without Me The planes bound for all points everywhere etch lines on my office window. From the top floor London recedes in all directions, and beyond: the world with its teeming hearts. I am still, you move, I am a point of reference on a map; I am at zero meridian as you consume the longitudes. The pact we made to read our farewells exactly at two in the afternoon with you in the air holds me like a heavy winter coat. Your unopened letter is in my pocket, beating.

IMAGERY

The Emperor’s New Sonnet -Jose Garcia Villa

IMAGERY

C

At night I dream sweet dreams of you, In daytime you’re my dream come true. -Ann O’Malley

Dreams

Here we all are, by day; by night we are hurled By dreams, each into a several world -Robert Herrick

DICTION

Diction The style of speaking and writing as reflected in the choice and use of words

MOOD

Mood the climate of feeling in a poem that is received by the reader

Funeral Blues (excerpts)

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-W.H. Auden

TONE

Tone An author’s attitude or point of view toward his or her subject

Funeral Blues (excerpts)

He was my North, my South, my East and West, My working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

-W.H. Auden

Forms of Love (an excerpt)

I love you more than I've ever loved anyone, except for this one guy. I love you when you're not getting drunk and stupid. I love how you get me. I love your pain, it's so competitive. I love how emotionally unavailable you are. I love you like I'm a strange backyard and you're running from the cops, looking for a place to stash your gun. I love your hair. I love you but I'm just not that into you. I love you secretly.

- Kim Addonizio

TONE

i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes

- e.e. cummings

SYNTAX

Syntax - The arrangement of words into phrases, clauses and sentences

If i had a nickel for

All the women who’ve loved

Me in my life i would be

The World Bank’s assistant

Janitor and wouldn’t need

To wear a derby

All i’d think about would

Be going home

-Ishmael Reed

.05

If i had a nickel

For all the women who’ve

Rejected me in my life

I would be the head of the

World Bank with a flunkie

To hold my derby as i

Prepared to fly chartered

Jet to sign a check

Giving India a new lease

On life

SYNTAX

FORM

Form -the physical structure of the poem, such as the length of the lines. It is normally reserved for the type of poem where these features have been shaped into a pattern, especially a familiar pattern.

FORM

l(a l(a le af fa ll s) one l iness -e.e.cummings

l(a leaf falls)oneliness

She Loves Me - Emmett Williams

FORM

S Speaker . Who is the speaker of the poem? (persona)

O Occasion. Consider the context, setting, circumstances that surround the poem. If it’s not explicitly stated, you may infer from what is written. What prompted the author to write this piece?

A Addressee. Who is the poem being addressed to?

P Purpose. What is the speaker’s purpose for writing the poem? What is the message of the poem?

S Subject and main idea of the poem What is being talked about? How do you know that this is the subject of the piece?

Tone What is the attitude of the author toward what he or she has written?

S

O

A

P

S

Tone