Homework

Read Mother Love

First Assignment Due Monday

Quick Write

Identify a specific detail—an image, word, object, or figurative device—that recurs in several of the poems or songs that we read

for class today. Why does this detail appear so often in

connection with leaving home?

Close Reading

--carefully analyzing the details of the text in order to draw conclusions about its effect and/or message

--think magnifying glass, dissection, extreme closeup

--don’t focus on cultural/author background, just language, poetics

--New Criticism/formalism

Steps for Close Reading

1. Read the passage or poem carefully, perhaps aloud.

2. Then, pencil in hand, annotate striking features, such as repetition, startling diction, unusual meter, central tropes.

Steps for Close Reading

3. List some observations.•What is the poetic situation?

•What is the rhyme scheme/form/genre?

•How would you characterize the style, tone, mood, and diction?

•Are there any figurative devices?

•How is the poem arranged? What is at the beginning, middle, end?

•Are there any tensions or shifts in the poem?

•Is there anything unusual or interesting in the sounds of words?

•Are there any allusions or cultural references?

•Are there any metacritical references (i.e. discussion of the act of writing within the poem)?

Steps for Close Reading

4. Interpret your observations—ask why or how.

How does the form relate to the content? Why did the poet select this genre or rhyme scheme?

How does the diction and sentence structure relate to the poetic situation?

Why did the author select these figurative devices or repeated images or words?

Why is the poem organized as it is?

How do tensions or shifts in the poem generate its poetic effect or support its content?

Steps for Close Reading

5. Formulate hypotheses.

Can you make a statement about the work as a whole based on your observations?

In general, for example, how does the form follow the content?

What is the overall poetic effect?