7.2: Read and Watch
- Page ID
- 386507
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)Poetry Makes People Nervous By Sarah Kay
Sarah Kay speaks to us about the nature of poetry and how it can impact lives, opening new doors. YouTube Poetry makes People Nervous [youtube.com]
PUBLIC DOMAIN CONTENT
- Poetry Makes People Nervous. Authored by: Sarah Kay. Provided by: TED Talk. Retrieved from: YouTube poetry makes people nervous [www.youtube.com].
- License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike. License Terms: Standard YouTube License
Understanding Levels in Poetry
Introduction to Poetry
Poetry may be a lost art because somewhere and somehow between middle school and high school, some students find poetry difficult to understand. They don’t want to read it. They don’t want to listen to it, and they certainly don’t want to write it.
However, understanding poetry doesn’t have to be difficult or feared. Like a toy model or lego set, poetry is put together piece by piece–word by word. Each level builds on the foundation before it–line by line and stanza by stanza.
Typographical Level of a Poem
The typographical level of a poem is how it is typed on the page. Generally, a poem is typed in lines and stanzas like song lyrics. However, a well-known writer, E. E. Cummings, was known for pushing the boundaries for how a poem should be typed. Read his poem “Buffalo Bill’s”:
Buffalo Bill’s
Author: E. E. Cummings
©1920
Notice the typography. Some words are run together. Some lines are indented. Most of the words are in lowercase letters; only the proper nouns are capitalized. Finally, there’s no punctuation. Readers need to ask the question, “How do all these decisions, made by Cummings, impact the meaning of the poem?”
Sound Level of a Poem
The sound level is the musicality of the language when the poem is read aloud. It may include rhyme, rhythm, repetition, alliteration, assonance, consonance, caesura, or other techniques. Read aloud this stanza (excerpt) from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells”:
The Bells
Author: Edgar Allan Poe
©1849
I.
Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells—
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
Notice the use of rhyme: bells, foretells, wells and tinkle, oversprinkle, twinkle. Notice the repetition of words in some lines. Tinkle, time, and bells have repeating words three times each. Notice the alliteration–words that sound the same at the beginning. Notice the assonance–words that have the same vowel sounds. Notice the consonance–words that have the same consonant sounds.
Imagery Level of a Poem
Poets create snapshots of life through word pictures. That imagery can be a description using the five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Like fiction, it will focus on specific nouns and action verbs. Imagery can also be achieved through figures of speech: similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, etc. In the early 20th Century, William Carlos Williams was part of the Imagism Movement. Read his poem “The Red Wheelbarrow”:
The Red Wheelbarrow
Author: William Carlos Williams
©1923
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Notice the isolation of a single image–the red wheelbarrow. Notice the use of specific nouns–wheelbarrow, rain, chickens. Notice the strong action verb–glazed. Notice how the poem is a snapshot of a particular moment in life.
Idea Level of a Poem
The idea level is the poem’s theme–the central idea that the poet is conveying in the poem. A theme can be overemphasized by writers. The poet has to allow the imagery and words to unfold the theme like a person opening a gift. If they directly state the theme, the poetic elements are lost.
Like fiction, a poem’s theme can be a universal theme such as childhood, nature, aging, death, etc. For example, here’s Emily Dickinson’s poem first published as “The Chariot,” also known as “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”:
The Chariot
Author: Emily Dickinson
©1890
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then ’tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.
Combining Levels
In poetry, the writer blends all the levels–typography, sound, imagery, and ideas–when writing a poem. Readers need to ask, “How do all the parts work together?” in order to understand the poem.
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL
- Lesson 9: Understanding Levels of Poetry. Authored by: Linda Frances Lein, M.F.A. License: CC BY: Attribution
PUBLIC DOMAIN CONTENT
- Buffalo Bill's. Authored by: E. E. Cummings. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource.org buffalo bill [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- The Bells. Authored by: Edgar Allan Poe. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource buffalo bill [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- The Red Wheelbarrow. Authored by: William Carlos Williams. Provided by: Wikipedia. Retrieved from: wikipedia the chariot [en.wikipedia.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- The Chariot. Authored by: Emily Dickinson. Provided by: Wikipedia. Retrieved from: wikipedia emily dickinson [en.wikipedia.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Figures of Speech in Poetry
Definition
The meaning of language can be literal or figurative. Literal language states exactly what something is. On the other hand, figurative language creates meaning by comparing one thing to another thing. Poets use figures of speech in their poems. Several types of figures of speech exist for them to choose from. Five common ones are simile, metaphor, personification, hypberbole, and understatement.
Simile
A simile compares one thing to another by using the words like or as. Read Shakespeare’s poem “Sonnet 130.”
Sonnet 130
Author: William Shakespeare
© 1598
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red, than her lips red:
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound:
I grant I never saw a goddess go,—
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet by heaven, I think my love as rare,
as any she belied with false compare.
In this sonnet, Shakespeare’s simile in the first line is a contrast where one thing is not like or as something else. He wrote, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.”
Metaphor
A metaphor compares one to another by saying one thing is another. Read Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope Is the Thing with Feathers.”
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
Author: Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all
And sweetest in the Gale is heard
And sore must be the storm —
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm —
I’ve heard it in the chillest land —
And on the strangest Sea —
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb — of Me.
Notice that Emily Dickinson compared hope to a bird–the thing with feathers. Because there are bird images throughout the poem, it is called an extended metaphor poem.
Personification
A personification involves giving a non-human, inanimate object the qualities of a person. Robert Frost did that in his poem “Storm Fear.”
Storm Fear
Author: Robert Frost
©1913
When the wind works against us in the dark,
And pelts with snow
The lower chamber window on the east,
And whispers with a sort of stifled bark,
The beast,
‘Come out! Come out!—
It costs no inward struggle not to go,
Ah, no!
I count our strength,
Two and a child,
Those of us not asleep subdued to mark
How the cold creeps as the fire dies at length,—
How drifts are piled,
Dooryard and road ungraded,
Till even the comforting barn grows far away
And my heart owns a doubt
Whether ’tis in us to arise with day
And save ourselves unaided.
Look specifically at the strong action verbs to find the human traits that are attributed to the wind and storm.
Hyperbole
A hyperbole is an exaggeration of the truth in order to create an effect. Sometimes that’s done in a single statement. Other times it can happen with repetition like in Robert Frost’s famous poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Read the poem aloud. Notice the effect of the last two lines. The reader feels the tiredness of the weary traveler.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Author: Robert Frost
©1923
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Understatement
Understatement is the exact opposite of a hyperbole. The writer deliberately chooses to downplay the significance or seriousness of a situation or an event. This is evident in Mary Howitt’s Poem ” The Spider and the Fly.”
The Spider and the Fly
Author: Mary Howitt
©1853
Will you walk into my parlour, said a Spider to a Fly;
‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to shew when you get there.
Oh, no, no! said the little Fly; to ask me is in vain:
For who goes up that winding stair shall ne’er come down again.
Said the cunning Spider to the Fly, Dear friend, what can I do
To prove the warm affection I have ever felt tor you?
I have within my parlour great store of all that’s nice:
I’m sure you’re very welcome; will you please to take a slice!
Oh, no, no! said the little Fly; kind sir, that cannot be;
For I know what’s in your pantry, and I do not wish to see.
Sweet creature, said the Spider, you’re witty and you’re wise;
How handsome are your gaudy wings, how brilliant are your eyes!
I have a little looking-glass upon my parlour-shelf;
If you’ll step in one moment, dear, you shall behold yourself.
Oh, thank you, gentle sir, she said, for what you’re pleased to say;
And wishing you good morning now, I’ll call another day.
The Spider turn’d him round again, and went into his den,
For well he knew that silly Fly would soon come back again.
And then he wore a tiny web, in a little corner sly,
And set his table ready for to dine upon the Fly;
And went out to his door again, and merrily did sing,
Come hither, pretty little Fly, with the gold and silver wing.
Alas, alas! how very soon this silly little Fly,
Hearing his wily flattering words, came slowly fluttering by.
With humming wings she hung aloft, then nearer and nearer drew.
Thinking only of her crested head and gold and purple hue:
Thinking only of her brilliant wings, poor silly thing! at last,
Up jump’d the cruel Spider, and firmly held her fast!
He dragg’d her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,
Within his little parlour; but she ne’er came down again.
And now, my pretty maidens, who may this story hear,
To silly, idle, flattering words, I pray you ne’er give ear;
Unto an evil counsellor close heart, and ear, and eye,
And learn a lesson from this tale of the Spider and the Fly.
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL
- Lesson 12: Figures of Speech in Poetry. Authored by: Linda Frances Lein, M.F.A. License: CC BY: Attribution
PUBLIC DOMAIN CONTENT
- Sonnet 130. Authored by: William Shakespeare. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource sonnet 130 [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Hope Is the Thing with Feathers. Authored by: Emily Dickinson. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource hope is the thing with feathers [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Storm Fear. Authored by: Robert Frost. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource storm fear [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Authored by: Robert Frost. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource stopping by the woods on a snowy evening [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
- The Spider and the Fly. Authored by: Mary Howitt. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource the spider and the fly [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Fog
Author: Carl Sandburg
© 1916
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
LICENSES AND ATTRIBUTIONS
PUBLIC DOMAIN CONTENT
- Fog. Authored by: Carl Sandburg. Provided by: Wikisource. Retrieved from: wikisource fog [en.wikisource.org]. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike