Writing about Poetry 2

4ch words reveal this tone? Is the poem perhaps ironic? What heavily connotative words are used? What words have unusual or special meanings? Are any words or phrases repeated? If so, why? Which words do you need to look up? What images does the poet use? How images relate to one another? Do these images form a unified pattern (a motif) throughout the poem? Is there a central, controlling image? What figures of speech are used? How do they contribute to the tone and meaning of the poem? Are there any symbols? What do they mean? Are they universal symbols, or do they arise from the particular context of this poem?
Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, (Walt Whitman: ―When the lilac last in the dooryard bloom‘d‖) the word ―blows‘‘ seems a strange choice. If you consult your dictionary, you will discover an unusual definition of ―blow‖: ―a mass of blossoms,‖ a meaning which fits exactly B. Make Associations for Meaning Once you understand the literal meaning of a poem, you can begin to expand that meaning into interpretation. As you do so, keep asking yourself questions: Who is the speaker? Who is being
Thus, learning to understand poetry –like learning to understand any imaginative literature—involves asking yourself questions, then speculating and researching until you come up with satisfying answers. C. Critical Questions for Reading Poetry 1. Can you paraphrase the poem if necessary? 2. Who is the speaker? How do you describe this person? 3. What is the speaker‘s tone?
Sometimes poems, like stories and plays, contain allusions (indirect references to famous persons, events, places, or to other works of literature) that add to the meaning. No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be, T.S. Eliot: ―The Love of Song of J. Alfred Prufrock‖)
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attitude—a willingness to understand. Poetry invites your creative participation. More than any other form of literature, poetry allows you as reader to inform its meaning as you bring your own knowledge and experience. Begin by reading aloud—or at least by sounding the words aloud in your mind. Rhyme and rhythm work in subtle ways to emphasize key words and clarify meaning. As you reread, go slowly, paying careful attention to every word, looking up in a good dictionary any words that are unclear, and examining again any difficult lines. A. Get the Literal Meaning First: Paraphrase
Writing about Poetry
The language of poetry is even more compressed than the language of the short story. You need to give yourself willingly to the understanding of poetry. The pleasure of reading it derives from the beauty of the language—the delight of the sounds and the images—as well as the power of the emotion and the depth of the insights conveyed. Poetry may seem difficulty, but it also be intensively rewarding How Do I Read Poetry In order to enjoy discovering the meaning of poetry, you must approach it with a positive
anyone lived in a pretty how town (with up so floating many bells down) spring summer autumn winter he sang his didn't he danced his did (e.e. cumming: ―anyone lived in a pretty how town‖) Always you must look up any words that you do not know—as well as any familiar words that fail to make complete sense in the context.
But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. (Walt Whitman: ―Oh Captain, My Captain‖) Pay close attention to punctuation: it can provide clues to meaning. But do not be distressed if you discover that poets sometimes use punctuation marks in strange ways (e.g. Emily Dickinson) or not all (e.g. e e. cummings). Along with the deliberate fracturing of syntax, this unusual use of punctuation or syntax comes under the heading of poetic license.
addressed? What is the message? What does the image contribute? What do the symbols suggest? How does it all fit together? Rowing in Eden— Ah, the Sea! Might I but more—Tonight— I Thee! (Emily Dickinson: ―Wild Nights‖) Can Dickinson literally mean that one is rowing in Eden? Not unless you picture a lake in the Garden, which is of course, a possibility. What do you associate with Eden? Complete bliss? Surely. Innocence, perhaps—the innocence of Adam and Eve before the Fall? Or their lustful sensuality after the Fall? Given the opening liens of the poem:
Thou has conquered, O pale Galilean; the world has grown grey from thy breath; We have drunken of things Lethean, and fed on the fullness of death. (Algernon Charles Swinburne: ―Hymn to Proserpine‖)