English 3201

Poetry Unit

Name: _______________________

Sonnet – a lyric poem of fourteen lines, usually written in a specific rhythm (iambic pentameter), using any of a number of formal rhyme schemes, and usually having a single theme.

Italian Sonnet – consists of an eight-line octave followed by a six-line sestet. The shift from the octave to the sestet marks a turn in the argument of the poem.

Stanza – the basic unit of metre in a poem or verse, consisting of a group of lines (often four and usually not more than twelve) which may or may not rhyme. A stanza may be followed by a refrain in some types of poetry.

Octave – a group or stanza of eight lines

Sestet – a stanza of six lines, especially the last six lines of a sonnet

Sonnet 64 William Shakespeare

When I have seen by Time's fell hand defacedThe rich proud cost of outworn buried age;When sometime lofty towers I see down-razedAnd brass eternal slave to mortal rage;When I have seen the hungry ocean gainAdvantage on the kingdom of the shore,And the firm soil win of the watery main,Increasing store with loss and loss with store;

When I have seen such interchange of state,Or state itself confounded to decay;Ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate,That Time will come and take my love away.This thought is as a death, which cannot chooseBut weep to have that which it fears to lose

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English or Elizabethan Sonnet – consists of three quatrains and a final couplet. The couplet marks the turn or twist in the argument.

Quatrain – a stanza of four lines, usually with alternate lines rhyming

Couplet – a pair of successive lines of poetry with the same metre, especially ones that rhyme.

Rhyme scheme – the ordered pattern of rhymes at the ends of the lines of a poem or verse

Rhythm – a measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose determined by the pattern of long and short, or accented and unaccented syllables

SONNET 147William Shakespeare

My love is as a fever, longing stillFor that which longer nurseth the disease,Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,The uncertain sickly appetite to please.

My reason, the physician to my love,Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,Hath left me, and I desperate now approveDesire is death, which physic did except.

Past cure I am, now reason is past care,And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,At random from the truth vainly express'd;

For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.

1. In a Shakespearean sonnet, the final couplet contains the key theme of the sonnet. What message is contained in the last two lines?

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Apostrophe – a passage in which a writer addresses directly a dead or absent person or an abstract or inanimate object

Eulogy – a speech or piece of writing in praise of a person who has just died

Elegy – a type of lyric poem that expresses sadness for someone who has died; traditionally a solemn meditation on a serious subject (e.g., Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” mourns all those who lived and died quietly and never had a chance to be great.)

“Candle in the Wind”Elton John

Goodbye Norma JeanThough I never knew you at allYou had the grace to hold yourselfWhile those around you crawledThey crawled out of the woodworkAnd they whispered into your brainThey set you on the treadmillAnd they made you change your name

Refrain:And it seems to me you lived your lifeLike a candle in the windNever knowing who to cling toWhen the rain set inAnd I would have liked to have known youBut I was just a kidYour candle burned out long beforeYour legend ever did

Loneliness was toughThe toughest role you ever playedHollywood created a superstarAnd pain was the price you paidEven when you diedOh the press still hounded youAll the papers had to sayWas that Marilyn was found in the nude

[Refrain]

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Goodbye Norma JeanThough I never knew you at allYou had the grace to hold yourselfWhile those around you crawledGoodbye Norma JeanFrom the young man in the 22nd rowWho sees you as something more than sexualMore than just our Marilyn Monroe

[Refrain]

1. Eulogies praise a deceased person. Use two specific references to illustrate why this song is considered a eulogy for Marilyn Monroe.

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Narrative poem – a poem that tells a story (e.g., a ballad or epic)

Ballad – a narrative poem or song that tells a popular story, often of physical courage or love. Ballads in Western literature usually have four line stanzas and a refrain. Many early ballads were passed along orally and their original authors are not known.

Refrain – a recurring phrase or number of lines, especially at the ends of stanzas

Lyrics – the words of a song

“The Death of Emmett Till”

Bob Dylan

'Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago,When a young boy from Chicago walked through a Southern door.This boy's fateful tragedy you should all remember well,The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up.They said they had a reason, but I disremember what.They tortured him and did some things too evil to repeat.There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a blood-red rainAnd they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain.The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it was no lie,Was just for the fun of killin' him and to watch him slowly die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial,Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to seeThe smiling brothers walkin' down the courthouse stairs.For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free,While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust,Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust.Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow,

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For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow manThat this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan.But if all us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give,We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.

- Emmett Till (1941-1955) was an African American boy from Chicago who was murdered at the age of 14 in a small town in Mississippi after reportedly whistling at a white woman. The boy’s murder was one of the leading events that motivated the American Civil Rights Movement.

1. Stanza five of the poem contains a strong example of

A) Characterization B) Contrast C) Metaphor D) Repetition

2. “They tortured him and did some evil things too evil to repeat. There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street”. This quote contains examples of:

A) Alliteration and allusionB) Contrast and repetitionC) Humour and imageryD) Metaphor and simile

3. The poem uses this poetic form:

A) Ballad B) Lyric C) Limerick D) Sonnet

4. The theme of the poem might be that

A) Although America is a great country, there are still great injustice thereB) Bad things happen even to the most innocentC) Life is unjust and those responsible must realize itD) We can end injustice in the world if we wish

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Blank verse – unrhymed verse or poetry written in iambic pentameters. Many of Shakespeare’s plays were written in blank verse.

Soliloquy – the act of talking when alone or regardless of any hearers, especially in drama

Monologue – a long speech in a play or film spoken by one actor, especially when alone.

Excerpt from Macbeth

Messenger: So please you, it is true: our thane is coming: One of my fellows had the speed of him, Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more Than would make up his message.

Lady Macbeth: Give him tending; He brings great news.

Exit Messenger

The raven himself is hoarseThat croaks the fatal entrance of DuncanUnder my battlements. Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty! make thick my blood;Stop up the access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious visitings of natureShake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betweenThe effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,Wherever in your sightless substancesYou wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,To cry 'Hold, hold!'

Macbeth – Act I, Scene V

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Aside – a part of an actor's lines supposedly not heard by others on the stage and intended only for the audience.

BANQUO: Look, how our partner's rapt.

MACBETH: Aside. If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir.

BANQUO: New honors come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould But with the aid of use.

MACBETH: Aside. Come what come may, Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.

BANQUO: Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.

MACBETH: Give me your favour: my dull brain was wrought With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains Are register'd where every day I turn The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. 160

1. What is the purpose of this aside?

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Imagery – the collection of images in a text; sometimes works include patterns of imagery or related images occurring at various points, which together create a profound mood and infuse the text with a rich complexity of meaning. These images are things which appeal to your five senses of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste.

Figurative language – language used in a way that is different from the usual, literal meaning in order to create a particular mental image. Some examples include metaphors, similes and personification

Assonance – the effect created when two syllables in words close together, especially in poetry, have the same vowel sound but different consonants (e.g., face, mailed)

Consonance – the repetition of the same or similar consonants in neighbouring words (e.g., coming home); in some cases the words are identical except for the stressed vowel sound (e.g., middle/muddle, wonder/wander)

Lyric poetry – a brief subjective poem that expresses thoughts, feelings, and personal imaginings, often in a reflective mode. A lyric poem may be rhymed or unrhymed and may use any of several rhythm patterns.

Personification – a figure of speech in which animals, objects, or abstract ideas are given human form, actions, or qualities (e.g., “Death lays his icy hands on kings.”)

Pathetic Fallacy – a literary device in which phenomena in nature are given human qualities and feelings in sympathy with the mood of the narrator or speaker (e.g., “weeping rainclouds” or “joyful flowers”)

DaffodilsWilliam Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloudThat 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.

Continuous as the stars that shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.The waves beside them danced; but they

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Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,In such a jocund company:I gazed--and gazed--but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.

1. Quote an example of:

Simile: ________________________________________________________________________

Personification: _________________________________________________________________

Pathetic Fallacy: ________________________________________________________________

Imagery: ______________________________________________________________________

Alliteration: ____________________________________________________________________

Assonance: ____________________________________________________________________

2. Identify the rhyme scheme

3. What is the tone of the poem?

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Tercet – a three line stanza. E.g., A haiku is a complete poem that consists of one tercet.

Parallelism – similarity or correspondence, in either construction or meaning, of successive clauses or passages in writing. Parallel grammatical constructions allow the reader to focus just on the words that change and therefore provide emphasis. This is particularly effective in speeches. (e.g., “Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water, and salt for all.” – Nelson Mandela)

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHTDylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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1. Quote a simile in this poem.

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2. What is “that good night” a metaphor for?

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3. Write a theme for this poem.

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4. How does Dylan Thomas use parallelism to develop theme?

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5. Who is the audience to whom the speaker is talking? Why do you think this?

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6. Find 2 examples of oxymorons in this poem. Explain how the contradictions are true given the context.

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Tone – in literature, a writer’s or creator’s attitude to his or her subject or audience revealed by aspects of the text such as diction, style, use of figurative language, etc. (e.g., tone may be light, serious, ironic, formal, etc.) A visual may also convey a certain tone through the creator’s choice of colour, perspective, medium, etc.

Extended metaphor – is where the same metaphor is continued over several lines or through the entire piece.

Paradox – a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement, which, when investigated or explained, may prove to be well-founded or true (e.g. “more haste, less speed”)

Free verse – poetry without a regular metre or rhyme scheme. Much of the poetry of the twentieth century was written in free verse.

The Road Not Taken Robert Frost

 TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stoodAnd looked down one as far as I couldTo where it bent in the undergrowth;         5

 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 thereHad worn them really about the same,         10

 And both that morning equally layIn 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.         15

 I shall be telling this with a sighSomewhere 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.         20

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1. What is the form of the poem?A) ballad B) lyric C) free verse D) sonnet

2. What is the function of the dash in the final stanza of the poem?A) coherenceB) emphasisC) repetitionD) unity

3. What literary device is evident in the title “The Road Not Taken”?A) allusionB) ironyC) hyperboleD) conflict

4. What is the tone of the poem?A) delightB) resentmentC) regretD) amazement

5. What literary device is used in the following phrase, “And having perhaps the better claim,/Because it was grassy and wanted wear;”?A) analogyB) paradoxC) symbolD) personification

6. What is the theme of the poem?A) a person can pursue different paths at onceB) a person makes tough choices when traveling the road of lifeC) a person can return to paths they had once rejectedD) a person must live in a world of regret

Explain the extended metaphor contained in the poem.

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“Students”

Tom Wayman

The freshman class-list printoutsshowed birthdates so recentWayman was sure the computer was in error.One young man, however, was curiousabout Wayman's mention near the start of termof his old college newspaper:"You were an editor when? Wow,that's the year I was born."The wisdom of the studentshadn't altered, though.Wayman observed many clung toThe Vaccination Theory of Educationhe remembered: once you have had a subjectyou are immuneand never have to consider it again.Other students continue to endorseThe Dipstick Theory of Education:as with a car engine, where as long as the oil levelis above the add linethere is no need to put in more oil,so if you receive a pass or higherwhy put any more into learning?

At the front of the room, Wayman sweatedto reveal his alternative."Adopt The Kung Fu Theory of Education,"he begged."Learning as self-defence. The more you understandabout what's occurring around youthe better prepared you are to deal with difficulties."

The students remained skeptical.A young woman was a pioneerof The Easy Listening Theory of Learning:spending her hours in classwith her tape recorder earphones on,

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silently enjoying a pleasanter world."Don't worry, I can hear you,"she reassured Waymanwhen after some days he was move to inquire.

Finally, at terms' endWayman inscribed after each now-familiar name on the listthe traditional single letter.And whatever pedagogical approachhe or the students espouse,Wayman knew this notation would be pored overwith more intensitythan anything else Wayman taught.

1. Wayman describes two old theories of education and two new theories. What connotations might these labels have beyond those in his own description?

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2. The poet refers to himself in third person throughout the poem. What effect does this point of view create?_______________________________________________________________________________________

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3. Analyze the irony of the last stanza. How does the irony include both Wayman and the students.

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from On the Pulse of MorningBy Maya Angelou

A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Marked the mastodon, The dinosaur, who left dried tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face your distant destiny, But seek no haven in my shadow, I will give you no hiding place down here.

You, created only a little lower than The angels, have crouched too long in The bruising darkness Have lain too long Facedown in ignorance, Your mouths spilling words Armed for slaughter.

The Rock cries out to us today, You may stand upon me, But do not hide your face.

1. What form is this poem?A) Ballad B) Sonnet C) Free Verse D) Villanelle

2. What is the tone of this poem?A) Threatening B) Cheerful C) Matter-of-fact D) Sardonic

3. The line “Back and face your distant destiny” contains an example of:A) Consonance B) Onomatopoeia C) Allusion D) Paradox

4. How does the author use diction to develop theme?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Allusion – a reference in a work to a person, place, event, object, or other work that is meant to extend the reader’s understanding; also an expression designed to call something to mind without mentioning it explicitly. Allusions, therefore, may be direct or indirect. (e.g., In his poem, “And If You Should Leave Me,” Ben Okri makes a direct allusion to the princess Cassandra from Greek Mythology who rejected love and died a lonely death.)

And If You Should Leave MeBen Okri

And if you should leave meI would say that the ghostOf CassandraHas passed throughMy eyesI would say that the starsIn their maliceMerely light up the skyTo stretch my tormentAnd that the waves crashOn the shoresTo bring salt-stings onMy face:For you re-connect me withAll the lights of the skyAnd the salt of the wavesAnd the myths in the air.And with your passingThe evening would become too dark

To dream inAnd the morning

Too bright.

1. The form of this poem is:A) Lyric B) Narrative C) Sonnet D) Blank Verse

2. This poem uses the following:A) Monologue B) Apostrophe C) Elegy D) Aside

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3. How does Ben Okri use diction in the first thirteen lines of the poem to bring out mood?

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4. Identify and explain the “double paradox” in this poem.

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5. How does the use of the allusion of Cassandra add to the theme of the poem?

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Cliché – a phrase or idea that is or has been used so often it is no longer interesting, effective, or relevant (e.g., “last but not least”)

How do I love thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of being and ideal grace.I love thee to the level of every day'sMost quiet need, by sun and candle-light.I love thee freely, as men strive for right.I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.I love thee with the passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death.

1. What is clichéd about this poem? Explain.

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2. What is the form of this poem? Explain how you know.

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3. What is the parallelism in this poem? What is its purpose?

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Allegory – a story, play, poem, or visual in which each character or event is a symbol representing an idea or a quality, such as truth, evil, death, etc. The work therefore has a surface, literal meaning as well as a second sometimes parallel meaning. (e.g., Animal Farm by George Orwell, where each character represents a historical figure from the Russian Revolution)

The Second ComingBy William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre1 The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi 2

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

1 gyre – spiral2 Spiritus Mundi - collective spirit of mankind

Written in 1919, the poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and second coming as allegory to describe the atmosphere in post-WWI Europe.

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Cacophony – a harsh or discordant mixture of sounds; the opposite of euphony (e.g., the fire alarm bells that ring in your school, or the members of a band warming up at the same time, could be described as a cacophony) An example is “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.

Euphony – a pleasing smoothness of sound, especially of words spoken in combination; opposite of cacophony

Onomatopoeia – a device in which the sound of a word reflects its meaning (e.g. “sizzle”)

Analogy – a comparison between two things sharing some similar qualities, usually for the purpose of explanation or clarification (e.g., comparing a computer to the human brain)

Epic – a long narrative poem dealing with the actions of legendary men and women or the history of nations, often presented in a grand ceremonious style (e.g., Beowulf and Homer’s Iliad are epic poems.)

Ode – a lyric poem, usually rhymed and with a varied or irregular metre, and written in the form of an address to a person or object. One of the best known odes is Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn (page 64 in Echoes).

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