Exploring poetry

Universitas Singaperbangsa KarawangAnisa Risatyah,S.Pd

Outline

• Review :1. types of poetry

2. Voice3. Diction4. Imagery5. Figurative language6. Symbolism

1. Types of poetry

• Poetry can be grouped into narrative and lyric poetry

• Narrative poetry: tell stories and describe actionse.g. - Epics (long narrative poems that record the adventures of a hero whose exploits are important to the history of a nation- ballads- romance

1. Types of poetry (cont.)

• Lyric poetry focuses more on the emotion. • Lyrics an be defined as subjective poems, often

brief, expresses the feelings and thoughts of a single speaker (who may or may not represent the poet).

• E.g. - Epigram (a brief witty poem that is often satirical)- Ode (a long stately poem in stanzas of varied

length, meter, and form)- Aubade (a love lyric expressing complaint that

the speaker must part from his lover)- Sonnet (a lyric poem consists of fourteen lines)

2. Voice and tone• The speaker’s voice conveys tone • Tone is an abstraction we make from

the datails of a poem’s language: meter, diction, imagery, figures of speech.

• Listen to a poem’s language, hear the voice of its speaker -> we catch the tone and feeling and meaning

• What is the tone in Wordsworth’s I wandered lonely as a cloud?

3. Diction

• Words choice• To understand not only the words’

meaning but also understand what the words imply or suggest.

• Words have both denotation (dictionary meaning) and connotation (association meaning, implied meaning).

• William Wordsworth’s I wandered lonely as a cloud.

William Wordsworth’s I wandered lonely as

a cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

*Golden (adj) : made of gold, the colour of gold

connotation meaning: light (it shines and glitters), wealth (money and fortune)

4. Imagery

• Images are words or phrases that appeal to our senses.

• Imagery refers to the combinations or clusters of images that are used to create a dominant impression.

• Imagery may be visual (something seen)aural (something heard)tactile (something felt)Olfactory (something smelled)Gustatory (something tasted)

Thomas Hardy’s Neutral Tones

We stood by a pond that winter day,

And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,

And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;

-- They had fallen from an ash, and were gray

5. Figurative Language

Any use of language which deviates from the obvious or common usage in order to achieve a special meaning or effect.

e.g. simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, hyperbole, euphemism, etc.

Simile • Figure of speech in which

a comparison between two distinctly different things is indicated by the words ‘like’ , ‘as’, or ‘than’

• 3 elements: tenor, vehicle, ground

Life is like a rollercoaster

Tenor (subject) : life

Vehicle (comparison): rollercoaster

Ground (tenor + vehicle have in common) : it has its ups and downs

Metaphor

• Implied comparison which creates a total identification between the two things being compared.

• 3 elements: tenor, vehicle, ground.

e.g. Life is a rollercoaster

Tenor?

Vehicle?

Ground?

Metonymy

• Greek: a change of name• Term for one thing is

applied to another which it has become closely associated.

e.g. crown refers to a king

the White House refers to official Washington home for the President/ the American government itself

Synecdoche

• Greek: taking together• A part of something is

used to signify the whole, or vice versa.

e.g. Many hands make light work (proverb)

I am reading Dickens

Personification

• A form of comparison in which human characteristics, such as emotion, personality, behaviour, and so on, are attributed to animal, object, or idea.

• Is intended to make ideas clearer to the readers by comparing the object to everyday human experience.

e.g.?

Hyperbole

• A figure of speech which employ exaggeration, extreme, or excessive.

• E.g. ?

6. SymbolismA symbol is any object or action that means more than itself, any object or action that represents something beyond itself.

e.g. rose : beauty, love tree : family’s root and branches

soaring bird : freedom light : hope, knowledge, life

Cultural or shared symbols

• are widely recognized and accepted

• are needed careful examination

e.g. Dawn = hope

white = innocence

dark = ignorance

light = knowledge

Literary or personal symbols

• Authors’ own original symbols

• Do not have pre-established associations : the meaning emerges from the context

First assignment• Format- Times New Roman, 12, double space, A4, normal

margin.- Tittle : First Assignment – Exploring Poetry

An analysis on (poem’s tittle) by: (names of group)

• Due date and time- Submit the assignment via e-mail before or on the

agreed due date and time- Late submission will not be accepted- Any plagiarism/ copy-pasted assignment results on zero

score. No revision.