Picturing Poetry

Poems are a wordy way of getting across images and ideas to the reader.

The poet uses particular words and poetic structures to help the reader visualise what the poet is writing about.

What’s with all

the fancy words?

As the reader, we often connect the visual and written imagery without even realising it.

But it’s a lot harder to express that unconscious response in, for example, an essay or poetry analysis.

This resource will show you how to express the effects of figurative language by connecting the visual and written imagery found in two poems

Municipal Gum

Gumtree in the city street, Hard bitumen around your feet, Rather you should be In the cool world of leafy forest halls And wild bird calls Here you seem to me Like that poor cart-horse Castrated, broken, a thing wronged, Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged, Whose hung head and listless mien express

Its hopelessness. Municipal gum, it is dolorous To see you thus Set in your black grass of bitumen-- O fellow citizen, What have they done to us?

Oodgeroo Noonuccal

Gumtree in the city street, Hard bitumen around your feet, Rather you should be In the cool world of leafy forest halls And wild bird calls Here you seem to me Like that poor cart-horse Castrated, broken, a thing wronged, Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged, Whose hung head and listless mien express Its hopelessness. Municipal gum, it is dolorous To see you thus Set in your black grass of bitumen-- O fellow citizen, What have they done to us?

Bitumen: term used to describe tar or asphalt roads

Cart-horse: horse strapped to a cart as a type of transport vehicle

Castrated: to remove reproductive organs

Listless: to have no spirit or energy

Mien: bearing or manner, often revealing an inner stare of mind

Municipal: pertaining to a city government

Dolorous: sorrowful; very sad

So what’s with

the gum?

Oodgeroo Noonuccal has written a moving poem about a gum tree that exists in the middle of the city, surrounded by concrete, out of its natural surroundings.

In the poem, she directly addresses the gum tree, and compares its current environment to the environment which it should naturally be inhabiting.

What makes her poem so moving is the imagery she uses to really get her readers to understand the tragedy of the gum tree…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxiXL6_EWbo

Click on the you tube link

to have a look at one

student’s visual

understanding of

Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s

imagery

Think about the music and images the student has selected to represent the words in the poem. How do the visuals enhance the meaning of the poem? How do they help us to understand its message more clearly?

Oodgeroo Noonuccal has used a number of poetic techniques to convey her meaning to the reader in a visual way.

Below are a list of common language techniques that you should be aware of when studying poetry

• Alliteration• Assonance• Colloquial speech/ technical

vocabulary• Contrast and comparison• Direct or indirect speech• Emotive language• Enjambment• Hyperbole• Imagery• Irony• Metaphor• Mood• Oxymoron• Parody

• Particular parts of speech such as active/passive verb

• Person 1st, 2nd, or 3rd• Personification• Pun• Punctuation• Rhetorical questions • Satire• Sentence structure• Simile• Symbolism• Repetition• Tenses• Tone• Word choice

Our job is to understand how those

techniques convey

images and ideas, that

is, what their effect is.

Whilst reading the poem, you might have noticed that Oodgeroo Noonuccal likens the gum tree to a cart-horse:

“Like that poor cart-horse Castrated, broken, a thing wronged, Strapped and buckled, its hell prolonged”

This is an example of very strong imagery, created by the simile of the cart horse. Think about what a cart horse is and what it looks like. What is the effect of this strong image on the reader?

Noonuccal describes the gum tree using the striking imagery of the cart horse: ‘Like that poor cart-horse/Castrated, broken, a thing wronged/Strapped and buckled.’ The use of this simile conveys the pain and suffering of the gum tree, which has been robbed of its natural surroundings, just like the cart horse. It is trapped by its city environment.

technique

Effect of technique

example

What particular words convey the image that the tree is trapped?

Below are three examples of figurative language used to convey meaning. Using the model on the previous page, identify and describe the effect of these techniques.

Metaphor hell prolonged Emphasises the pain experienced by the tree in its terrible surroundings.

Metaphor black grass of bitumen

Contrasting imagery

cool world of leafy forest halls

Keep in mind the use of figurative language to create vivid images in the mind of the reader, as we move on to our second poem.

Sonnet: On Being Cautioned Against Walking on an Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because It Was Frequented by a Lunatic

Is there a solitary wretch who hies    To the tall cliff, with starting pace or slow, And, measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes    Its distance from the waves that chide below; Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs    Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf, With hoarse, half-uttered lamentation, lies    Murmuring responses to the dashing surf? In moody sadness, on the giddy brink,    I see him more with envy than with fear; He has no nice felicities that shrink    From giant horrors; wildly wandering here, He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know The depth or the duration of his woe.

Charlotte Smith

Is there a solitary wretch who hies    To the tall cliff, with starting pace or slow, And, measuring, views with wild and hollow eyes    Its distance from the waves that chide below; Who, as the sea-born gale with frequent sighs    Chills his cold bed upon the mountain turf, With hoarse, half-uttered lamentation, lies    Murmuring responses to the dashing surf? In moody sadness, on the giddy brink,    I see him more with envy than with fear; He has no nice felicities that shrink    From giant horrors; wildly wandering here, He seems (uncursed with reason) not to know The depth or the duration of his woe.

Hies: wanders / walks to a destinationStarting pace: sudden, jerking movements, irregular speedMeasuring: i.e. The man measures the distance of the sea from the cliffChide: to express disapproval or angerSea-born gale: a strong wind rising from the seaHoarse lamentation: shouting out in a harsh, low voice Dashing surf: i.e. The rough waves breaking on the shoreNice felicities: i.e. The man does not have the polite manners expected by society Uncursed with reason: does not have logic or commonsenseWoe: sadness

The poem is written from the viewpoint of the speaker, contemplating a lunatic who frequently wanders on the headland, which is an area of land jutting out onto the sea.

She describes the speaker as insane, and unaware of socially acceptable behaviour. He is wild and animal like, and because of this, the poet suggests that he is more connected with nature.

The speaker is envious of the freedom of the insane man to experience nature in this way. She is in a state of ‘moody sadness’, while he appears to have no concept of such ‘woe’.

Charlotte Smith uses vivid imagery to convey these ideas to us, the reader…

So what’s

it about?

For example, take the line ‘views with wild and hollow eyes’…

What images come to mind when you read these words?

So we might visualise:

darkness…

skull face…

crazy…

animalistic…

untamed…

In an essay or analysis of the poem we could say:

Smith uses the imagery, ‘wild and hollow eyes’, to convey the animalistic and ‘uncivilized’ nature of the lunatic.

The Key is to identify the poetic technique, provide an example, and then explain its effect

Or for another example, take the personification of the ocean:

‘the waves that chide below’

To ‘chide’ is to reproach, or get angry at someone.

What is the effect of this use of figurative language? How does it add to our visual experience of the poem?

The personification of the ocean, as ‘waves that chide below’ creates a vivid image of the ocean as a fierce and vigorous force. It adds to the wild mood of the poem, and suggests that nature is a living being.

Have another look at the poem and choose one other example of figurative language (some have been underlined). Find an image which conveys its meaning.

Explain the effect of this technique (how does it add to your understanding of the meaning of the poem?)

Remember to identify the technique, provide the example and then explain the effect.

Consider:

What is the poem saying about the lunatic?

What is it saying about the speaker and her feelings?

What is it saying about nature?

Images Used:Frame pic http://webpub.allegheny.edu/group/psych440group3/weblog/2010/04/a_clarifying_frame_of_mind.htmlTree frame http://www.staidenshomeschool.com/activities/halloween/stationery/frames.htmlSwirly frame http://www.vectorious.net/blog/25-free-and-beautiful-vector-frames/leaf borderhttp://www.vectorious.net/blog/25-free-and-beautiful-vector-frames/film striphttp://filmstripmemories.blogspot.com/rough wavehttp://www.ecofriend.com/entry/ireland-to-harness-wave-energy-from-its-rough-seas/black swirlhttp://bikikiz.deviantart.com/art/STOCK-oui-oui-frame-43464502hollow eyeshttp://www.wattpad.com/1875236-hollow-eyeshttp://villes666.deviantart.com/art/Ville-Valo-Wide-Eyes-29529943http://midoripunk.deviantart.com/art/Hollow-Ichigo-Eye-82841256http://srsk.deviantart.com/art/Bleach-Hollow-Eye-167061738skullhttp://www.uberpiglet.com/blog/10-amazing-skull-vector-designs/

crazy manhttp://www.nodjzone.com/2010/09/11/bishop-lamont-hollow-eyes/ocean cliffhttp://www.aromanticspot.com/location/oceania/sydney/the-gap/aboriginal symbol http://www.ausemade.com.au/aboriginal/resources/symbols/symbols.htmgum treehttp://geelong-visual-diary.blogspot.com/2008/10/ordinary-gum-tree.htmltree and circle framehttp://dryicons.com/free-graphics/preview/tree-frame/tree framinghttp://media.photobucket.com/image/frame%2013/arleneball/owl_13.png?o=6cart horsehttp://www.travelblog.org/Photos/496975wooden framehttp://www.fordesigner.com/maps/9356-0.htmcity gumhttp://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/tag/co2-sequestration/hellhttp://vickybeeching.com/blog/confused-about-hell/foresthttp://www.mongabay.com/australia_index.htmblack grasshttp://www.clipartof.com/gallery/clipart/silhouetted_grass.html