Discovering the Hidden Meanings in Poetry Cynthia Smith Buist Academy Charleston, South Carolina
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Transcript of Discovering the Hidden Meanings in Poetry Cynthia Smith Buist Academy Charleston, South Carolina
Discovering the Hidden Meanings in Poetry
Cynthia Smith
Buist Academy
Charleston, South Carolina
http://hidden-meanings-of-poetry.wikispaces.com/
“Poetry, like all wonderful things,
can be more admired when it is fully recognized.”
Michael Clay Thompson
Introduction
• Read The Road not Taken by Robert Frost
• What main themes do you think the author was trying to communicate?
• Be careful! Robert Frost said this is a tricky poem.
• Look for hidden meanings.
Uncover the Hidden Meanings
The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
• Small group – list ideas / themes.• Listen to the author reading the
poem.• Discussion – Uncover hidden
meanings• Read scholarly discussions
Warning
“I should like to be so subtle at this game as to seem to the casual person altogether obvious. The casual person would assume I meant nothing or else I came near enough to meaning something he was familiar with to mean it for all practical purposes.”
“I’ll bet not half a dozen people can tell you who was hit and where he was hit in my Road Not Taken.”
DiscussionThe Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
• What is the obvious meaning to the “casual person”?
• What’s tricky about this poem?
• What are some of the themes?
Individualism
Discussion• What is the obvious meaning to
the “casual person”?• What’s tricky about this poem?• What are some of the themes?• Which phrases refer to which
road?
The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Discussion• What is the obvious meaning to
the “casual person”?• What’s tricky about this poem?• What are some of the themes?• Which phrases refer to which
road?• Are the two roads the same or
different?
The Road Not TakenTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Same Different
DiscussionThe Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
What is the significance of :“And that has made all the difference.”• If the two roads are equal, how can the
decision make “all the difference”? • What is he looking for as he is trying to
decide which road to take?• What is the significance of “the better
claim”?• Which road does he take? Why?• Which phrases describe the “road less
traveled”?
Discover the Hidden Meanings
IndecisionHe is placing undue importance
on this decision, which causes him to be indecisive.
DiscussionThe Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
• What is the significance of :• “Sorry I could not travel both”• “I shall be telling this with a sigh” • Why does he call the poem The
Road NOT Taken?
Discover the Hidden Meanings
Regret
DiscussionThe Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
• Why does he say they are the same at the beginning, and then at the end, say they were different?
Discover the Hidden Meanings
RationalizingWhen he is old, his remembrance will not be in line with reality. He
wanted to take the “road less traveled”,
so even though there was no road lesstraveled (they were the same) he will
lie about it.
From Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. Copyright © 1984 by William
Pritchard http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/road.htm
For the large moral meaning which "The Road Not Taken" seems to endorse - go, as I did, your own way, take the road less traveled by, and it will make "all the difference"- does not maintain itself when the poem is looked at more carefully. Then one notices how insistent is the speaker on admitting, at the time of his choice, that the two roads were in appearance "really about the same," that they "equally lay / In leaves no step had trodden black," and that choosing one rather than the other was a matter of impulse.
But in the final stanza, as the tense changes to future, we hear a different story, one that will be told "with a sigh" and "ages and ages hence." At that imagined time and unspecified place, the voice will have nobly simplified and exalted the whole impulsive matter into a deliberate one of taking the "less traveled" road.
Scholarly Discussions
Scholarly DiscussionsA close look at the poem reveals that Frost's walker encounters two nearly identical paths: so he insists, repeatedly. The walker
looks down one, first, then the other, "as just as fair." Indeed, "the passing there / Had worn them really about the same." As if the
reader hasn't gotten the message, Frost says for a third time. "And both that morning equally lay/ In leaves no step had trodden
black." What, then, can we make of the final stanza? My guess is that Frost, the wily ironist, is saying something like this: "When I
am old, like all old men, I shall make a myth of my life. I shall pretend, as we all do, that I took the less traveled road. But I shall be lying." Frost signals the mockingly self-inflated tone of the last stanza by repeating the word "I," which rhymes - several times - with the inflated word "sigh." Frost wants the reader to know that what he will be saying, that he took the road less traveled, is a
fraudulent position, hence the sigh.
Jay PariniFrom "Frost" in Columbia Literary History of the United States. Ed. Emory Elliott.
Copyright © 1988 by the Columbia University Press
Scholarly Discussions
The sigh can be interpreted as a sigh of regret or as a sigh of self-satisfaction; in either case, the irony lies in the distance between what the speaker has just told us about the roads' similarity and what his or her later claims will be.
Frost might also have intended a personal irony: in a 1925 letter to Cristine Yates of Dickson, Tennessee, asking about the sigh, Frost replied: "It was my rather private jest at the expense of those who might think I would yet live to be sorry for the way I had taken in life."
Finger, Larry L. (November 1978). "Frost's "The Road Not Taken": A 1925 Letter Come to Light". American Literature 50 (3): 478–479.
Just kidding
According to Frost, the poem was intended as a joke, a gentle jab at his great friend and fellow poet, Edward Thomas, with whom he used to take walks through the forest. Thomas always complained at the end that they should have taken a different path.
When the poem was published, Frost sent a copy to Thomas. Unfortunately, Edward Thomas did not recognize it as a poem about himself, and Frost had to explain it.
Inquiry: I wonder…
• How can I learn to figure out hidden meanings?
• Why do poets hide meanings?
• How can I write poetry with hidden meanings?
Establish a Purpose for Learning
Learning experiences should lead up to a final purpose that is significant and
worthy of effort.
“Real products for real audiences.”
- Joseph Renzuli
such as a class poetry book or individual student autobiographies with original photos or artwork.
Lulu 6 x 9 B&W softcover w/40 pages 5.33, color $10.53 + SH http://
www.lulu.com/en/products/paperback/?gclid=CKvH6s3J2pECFQEjFQodHTU2fQ
Blurb 7 x 7 color softcover w/40 pages $12.95 + SH http://www.blurb.com/home/1/
ReadWriteThink Printing Presshttp://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title
My Publisherhttp://www.mypublisher.com/freeSoftware
Publish a book
A poet uses hidden meanings to make a poem more complex and
more enjoyable.
Anniversary by Vicky Brago-Mitchell
Haikua type of Japanese poem
A haiku evokes a feeling of tranquility.
It is light and delicate.
It often illustrates some aspect of nature.
Haiku was once part of ancient Japanese courtship rituals.
A man would send a Haiku to the woman he loved. If she liked the poem (and the man), she would
write a tanka in response.
What are the elements of Haiku?• Form: 5 – 7 – 5, no rhyme scheme• Topic: Nature• Feeling: evokes tranquility, compassion• Contrast• Kigo: a word that indicates the season• Engo: associated words rising from the same
concept, similar to our similes and metaphors• Kake kotoba: a pivot word with multiple
meanings or connotations. "The pivot word shades into the pun, and some Japanese poems have so many puns that they may have two or more quite dissimilar meanings.” - Rexroth
Matsuo Basho
• One of the most famous, prolific haiku poets
• Japanese
• When his poems were translated, some of the words had to be changed.
• The English words have the correct number of syllables, but other aspects of the Haiku might be missing.
Hidden meanings can be discovered through an analysis of the poetics of a piece of literature.
• Sounds of Voice– Hard vs. soft– Onomatopoeia
• Patterns of Sound– Meter– Rhyme– Alliteration
Hidden meanings can be discovered through an analysis of the poetics of a piece of literature.
The point is to use sounds artistically, secretly,to bring the character to life.
An author blends in touches of softness, or hardness, throughout a passage,
in a way that will have an effect on the readerwithout calling attention to the sounds,
without being showy.Michael Clay Thompson
Sounds of VoiceSome sounds are hard.
They convey a harsh negative meaning. They are
scratchy,
spiky, harsh.
Sounds of Voice
Some sounds are soft. They convey a positive meaning.
They are
fluty,
soothing,
humming.
“Tis but thy name that is my enemy.Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.What’s Montague? It is not hand nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man.
O be some other name!
letters
murmuring bees
... the moan of doves in immemorial elms,And murmuring of innumerable bees.
Come Down, O Maid
Sir Alfred Tennyson
Meter
Foot
syllables 1st stressed last stressed
2
3
iambiambic
trochee/trochaic
dactyldactylic
anapestanapestic
How can you tell if a syllable is stressed?
• chick : en
• fa : ther
• a : lone
• re : fridg : er : a : tor
• tor : men : ted
• a : sist : ing
• pre : vail
Limerick
There was a Young Lady whose eyes,
Were unique as to color and size;
When she opened them wide,
People all turned aside,
And started away in surprise.
Rhyme
• Internal rhyme– Rhyming words in the middle of the lines
I’m sorry for letting the dog eat the broom
I’m sorry for freeing a frog in your room
Half-double Rhyme
the last syllable of one word rhymes with the next to the last syllable of the other.
The fearsome beast gazed upon the manWho was standing on the savanna.
Elided Rhyme
two syllable words that would be a perfect rhyme except for the vowel in the second syllable
He could see by her face that she was lividWhen he asked her where she lived.
Amphisbaenic Rhyme
two identical syllables in reverse
All the children ran to get their magic kitshoping to get the one with the special stick.
Reverse Rhyme
the entire first syllable is the same
He was a nativeFrom the Cherokee NationWho understood the importance of nature.
Apophany
beginning and ending consonants are the same, but not the vowel in between
They fed the fat cattleto make them ready for the kettle.
5 3 1
Ideas All parts of the poem work together to support one, easy to identify, main idea. The main idea is fully developed.
There is one, easy to identify, main idea, but some parts of the poem do not support it.
The main idea is well developed, but something seems to be missing.
It is not easy to recognize the main idea. The main idea needs to be developed.
Meter Student has made a strong attempt to maintain a pattern of meter. Student can identify the meter and the places that still need to be worked on.
There is a pattern of meter, but there are many places where the stress of syllables does not fit the pattern.
It is difficult to identify the pattern of meter. Sounds “off”.
Rhyme The student has included at least one type of rhyme and / or has a plan to incorporate more.
• end rhyme, internal rhyme• advanced rhyme: sight rhyme,
near rhyme, amphisbaenic, apophany, half-double, elided, reverse
There is one type of rhyme, but student is unsure about how to incorporate other forms.
There is no rhyme.
Rhyme Scheme The rhyme scheme has a consistent pattern, which works together with the pattern of meter.
There is a rhyme scheme, but is not consistent OR it is inconsistent with the meter.
There are parts of the poem that have no rhyme scheme.
Sounds of Voice The student has used a preponderance of sounds of voice to effectively convey meaning.
The student has a plan to include:• a preponderance of hard
sounds to convey a negative meaning.
• or a preponderance of soft sounds to convey a positive meaning.
• Onomatopoeia
Student is unsure about how to incorporate sounds of voice.
Patterns of Sound The student has included one or more patterns of sound:
• alliteration• assonance• consonance
The student has a plan to include patterns of sound.
Student is unsure about how to incorporate patterns of sounds.
Scoring Rubric for Rough Draft of Poem