“An Introduction to Poetry”Billy Collins (b. 1941)

I ask them to take a poemand hold it up to the lightlike a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poemand watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's roomand feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterskiacross the surface of a poemwaving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to dois tie the poem to a chair with ropeand torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hoseto find out what it really means.

POETRY TERMSLiterary devices and terms associated with poetry.

The voice in the poem is not necessarily the poet’s.

Persona

Persona

Poet is not necessarily the narrator of the poem.

Poems are not necessarily autobiographical.

Persona: The speaker of the poem, most often NOT the author. Persona is the narrator or the character.

Like tone of voice, the tone of the poem communicates attitude and feeling.

Tone

Tone

Tone: The attitude of the poem.

The choice of words and the details that communicate the attitude.

What attitude does the poem take toward a theme or subject?

“For a Lady I Know”Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

She even thinks that up in heaven

Her class lies late and snores,

While poor black cherubs rise at seven

To do celestial chores.

“Dreams”Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

Hold fast to dreamsFor if dreams dieLife is a broken-winged birdThat cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreamsFor when dreams goLife is a barren fieldFrozen with snow.

The writer’s choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language all help to create meaning.

Diction

Denotation and Connotation

Dictionary definition of the word.

Overtones, suggestions, implications, additional meanings.

The emotions, thoughts and ideas associated with and evoked by the word.

What the word makes you think of or feel or what you associate with the word.

DENOTATION CONNOTATION

Concrete and Abstract Words

Tangible persons, places, or things; who or what we can immediately perceive with our senses.

Intangible ideas, concepts, emotions, or generalities.

CONCRETE ABSTRACT

Allusion

Indirect historical, cultural, or literary references that enrich the meaning of a poem.

The reader brings his/her knowledge and understanding of the reference to the poem.

“Grass”Carl Sandburg (1878-1967)

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.Shovel them under and let me work—

I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg.And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.Shovel them under and let me work.

Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:What place is this?Where are we now?

I am the grass.Let me work.

“Figures of speech” appeal to the imagination, create images, and describe through the use of interesting and unusual comparisons. Figurative language gives us new ways to look at the world.

Figurative Language

Imagery & Figurative Language Imagery: Vivid, descriptive language that

appeals to the senses.

Simile: An explicit comparison between two things by using the words “like,” “as,” “than,” “appears,” or “seems.”

Metaphor: A direct comparison between two unlike things, saying one thing is another, using the “to be” verb, not “like” or “as.”

Imagery & Figurative Language Personification: Giving animals, nature,

inanimate objects, or ideas human characteristics, abilities, reactions, or emotions. (Describing something using human characteristics.)

Anthropomorphism: Making animals, nature, inanimate objects, or ideas into human-like figures that speak, walk upright, wear clothes, and so on. (Making something into a person.)

Apostrophe: Addressing someone or something invisible, inanimate, or not ordinarily spoken to. (Talking directly to something as if it were a person.)

“Because I could not stop for Death” (712)Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

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 hasteAnd I had put awayMy labor and my leisure too,For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –We passed the Fields of Grazing Grain –We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed us –The Dews drew quivering and chill –For only Gossamer, my Gown –My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a house that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –The Roof was scarcely visible –The Cornice – in the Ground

Since then –’tis Centuries – and yetFeels shorter than the Day,I first surmised the Horses’ HeadsWere toward Eternity –

“Mirror”Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.Whatever I see, I swallow immediately.Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislikeI am not cruel, only truthful –The eye of a little god, four-cornered.Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so longI think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me.Searching my reaches for what she really is.Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.I see her back, and reflect it faithfullyShe rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.I am important to her. She comes and goes.Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old womanRises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

“O Captain! My Captain!”Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; But O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead. O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; Rise up- for you the flag is flung- for you the bugle trills, For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths- for you the shores a-crowding, For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; Here Captain! dear father! This arm beneath your head! It is some dream that on the deck, You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; Exult O shores, and ring O bells! But I with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

“Root Cellar”Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)

Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,Shoots dangled and drooped,Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates,Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes.And what a congress of stinks!—Roots ripe as old bait,Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.Nothing would give up life: Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.

“Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter”Robert Bly (b. 1926)

It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.

The only things moving are swirls of snow.

As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.

There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.

Driving around, I will waste more time.

By all means, read poetry out loud!

SOUND

Sound

Onomatopoeia: A word that imitates the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to; words that sound like what they describe or name; words that sound like their meaning.

Alliteration: Repetition of the same consonant sounds in a series of words, usually at the beginning of the words.

Assonance: The repetition of the same vowel sounds in nearby words that do not end the same. "asleep under a tree" or "each evening" The same internal vowel sound and the same

ending is rhyme! “asleep in the deep”

“Recital”John Updike (1932-2009)

ROGER BOBO GIVES RECITAL ON TUBA

--Headline in the Times

Eskimos in Manitoba,Barracuda off Aruba,

Cock an ear when Roger BoboStarts to solo on the tuba.

Men of every station—Pooh-bah,Nabob, bozo, toff, and hobo—

Cry in unison, “Indubi-Tably, there is simply nobo-

Dy who oompahs on the tubo,Solo, quite like Roger Bubo!”

“To see the world in a grain of sand”William Blake (1757-1827)

To see the world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.

“Jabberwocky”Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun

The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand;

Long time the manxome foe he sought—

So rested he by the Tumtum tree,

And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,

And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

He left it dead, and with its head

He went galumping back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?

Come to my arms, my beamish boy!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”

He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;

All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Not all poems rhyme! And that’s a good thing!

RHYME

Rhyme

Rhyme: Words or phrases with an identical or similar sound.

Exact: Identical sounds.

Near: Similar sounds. (Also called “slant rhyme.”)

End Rhyme: Words at the end of the lines rhyme.

Internal Rhyme: Words within the lines rhyme.

Rhyme Scheme

Rhyme Scheme: The pattern of end rhyme in a poem.

May mark the rhyme scheme of internal rhyme in a poem, but usually refers to the pattern of end rhyme.

Notated with lowercase letters of the alphabet, each different letter representing a different rhyme.

“To see the world in a grain of sand”William Blake (1757-1827)

To see the world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.

“Fire and Ice”Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.From what I’ve tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hateTo say that for destruction iceIs also greatAnd would suffice.

From “The Raven”Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

" 'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door

Only this, and nothing more."    

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had tried to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —

Nameless here for evermore.    

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me — filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

" 'Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door —

Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door; —

This it is, and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you" — here I opened wide the door; —

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;

But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore!“

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!“

Merely this, and nothing more.

Then into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon I heard again a tapping somewhat louder than before.

"Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;

Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore —

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;—

'Tis the wind, and nothing more!"  

“The Eagle”Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands,Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;He watches from his mountain walls,And like a thunderbolt he falls.

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Whose woods these are I think I know.His house is in the village though;He will not see me stopping hereTo watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queerTo stop without a farmhouse nearBetween the woods and frozen lakeThe darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shakeTo ask if there is some mistake.The only other sound's the sweepOf 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.