English Poetry Analysis

Analyzing the structure of a poem
Poetic Genres
Narrative Dramatic Lyric Epic Romance Ballad Poetic drama Sonnet Villanelle Limerick Ode Song Elegy
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening -- Robert Frost
Introduction to Poetry Analysis
How to analyze a poem?
Who is the author of the poem? Read the poem several times to get a “feel” How does the poem begin? What does it try to present or describe? Refer to questions Follow these questions for every stanza
a a b a
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.
b b c b
Quatrain 2 My reason, the physician to my love, Angry that his prescriptions are not kept, Hath left me, and I desp’rate now approve Desire is death, which physic did except. The relationship of his love-disease to its “physician,” his reason ” Shakespeare Sonnet 147
He gives his harness bells a shake personification To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep metaphor Of easy wind and downy flake. The woods are lovely, dark and deep. metaphor But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, understatement And miles to go before I sleep.
Fra Baidu bibliotek
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.
c c d c
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.
Shakespeare Sonnet 147 Quatrain 3 Past cure am I, now reason is past care, And frantic mad with evermore unrest, My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are, At random from the truth vainly expressed;
Analysis: Literal Level
Topic/theme Main Idea Speaker Setting Author’s purpose or message
Analyzing the poem
Elements of Poetry
– Diction – Figures of Speech – Sensory Images – Rhyme schemes and verse forms – Meter – Economy – Logical structure
Analysis: Elements of Poetry
Figurative Language: use of words to mean something other than the literal meaning
– Metaphor – Simile – Personification – Apostrophe – Allusion – Metonymy – Synecdoche – Symbol
21
rhyme scheme of Sonnet
Petrarchan (Italian) rhyme scheme: abba, abba, cd, cd, cd abba, abba, cde, cde Shakespearean (English, or Elizabethan) rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg
Analyzing the Structure of a Poem
Poetry Terms
Musical Language Meter Monometer Dimeter Trimeter Tetrameter Pentameter Hexameter Iambus, Iambic Trochee, Trochaic Anapest
d d d d
The Themes of the Poem
the individual caught between nature and civilization
Isolation Man and the Natural World Choices Society and Class
Sonnet 18 - William Shakespeare
AUDITORY THERMAL, TACTILE VISUAL KINESTHETIC
Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening verse Robert Frost
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.
Analysis: Elements of Poetry
Diction Sensory Imagery: words used to evoke sensations through our senses
– – – – – – – Visual Auditory Tactile Gustatory Olfactory Thermal Kinesthetic
What is a sonnet?
A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter.
Iambic what? Oh dear, this is going to be a weird lesson!
20
A sonnet is
a lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter with a definite rime scheme and a definite thought structure
Sensory images
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. VISUAL THERMAL VISUAL THERMAL
Experiencing a Poem
1. Who is speaking? 2. What kind of person is he/she? In what mood? Thinking what thoughts? Feeling what emotions? 3. Of whom or what is he or she speaking? 4. How is this person or object being described? 5. What attitudes are being projected? 6. Are we led to share the attitudes and emotions in sympathy, or to rebel against them with feeling of anger or irony?
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. Count the syllables in each verse for each stanza Identify the rhyme scheme
23
Images, metaphors or ideas,
Quatrain 1 My love is as a fever, longing still For that which longer nurseth the disease, Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, The uncertain sickly appetite to please. The speaker’s love is compared to a disease. Shakespeare Sonnet 147
22
Rhyming patterns
The Shakespearean sonnet has three quatrains(三个四行组 ) 三个四行组 followed by a couplet(一个对偶句 ), 一个对偶句 the scheme being: abab cdcd efef gg. .
Stanza
My little horse must think it queer personification To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake symbol The darkest evening of the year.