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Poetry Bible
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1. Basic Terms
syntax: sentence structure: simple, compound, complex, fragments; in poetry, this includes rhythm, meter and rhyme
diction: the word choice and phrasing- can be formal, colloquial, uneducated, concrete or abstract
denotation: the dictionary meaning of a word
connotation: the implied or suggested meaning connected with a word
literal meaning: limited to the simplest, ordinary, most obvious meaning
figurative meaning: associative or connotative meaning; representational
meter: measured pattern of rhythmic accents in a line of verse
rhyme: correspondence of terminal sounds of words or of lines of verse
tone: attitude that a literary speaker expresses toward his or her subject matter and audience; described in adjectives
mood: similar to tone, but more of the atmosphere that is set (it is possible to have a dark mood, but a cheerful tone – think
of The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland)
2. Figurative Language
apostrophe: a direct address of an inanimate object, abstract qualities, or a person not living or present.
Example: "Beware, O Asparagus, you've stalked my last meal."
hyperbole: exaggeration for emphasis (the opposite of understatement)
Example: "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse."
understatement: a lesser expression is used than what would be expected (the opposite of hyperbole)
Example: When Mercutio is fatally stabbed, he describes it as “a scratch”
metaphor: comparison between essentially unlike things without using words OR application of a name or description to
something to which it is not literally applicable
Example: "[Love] is an ever fixed mark, / that looks on tempests and is never shaken."
synecdoche: a part substituted for the whole
Example: "Friends, Romans, countrymen: lend me your ears”; “daily bread” for food needed for sustenance
metonymy: a closely related term substituted for an object or idea
Example: "We have always remained loyal to the crown.";
oxymoron: a combination of two words that appear to contradict each other
Example: bittersweet
paradox: a situation or phrase that appears to be contradictory but which contains a truth worth considering
Example: "In order to preserve peace, we must prepare for war."
personification: the endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts with animate or living qualities
Example: "Time let me play / and be golden in the mercy of his means"
pun: play on words OR a humorous use of a single word or sound with two or more implied meanings; quibble
Example: "They're called lessons . . . because they lessen from day to day."
simile: comparison between two essentially unlike things using words such as "like," as," or "as though"
Example: "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"
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3. Poetic Devices
Irony:
dramatic irony: when the audience is privy to knowledge that one or more of the characters lack
verbal irony: implying a meaning different from, and often the complete opposite of, the one that is explicitly stated
often associated with sarcasm
situational irony: irony of a situation is a discrepancy between the expected result and actual results when enlivened by
'perverse appropriateness'
Example: A situation immortalized in O. Henry's story The Gift of the Magi, in which a young couple is too poor to buy each other Christmas
gifts. The man finally pawns his heirloom pocket watch to buy his wife a set of combs for her long, beautiful, prized hair. She, meanwhile, cuts off her
treasured hair to sell it to a wig-maker for money to buy her husband a watch-chain. The irony is twofold: the couple, having parted with their
tangible valuables, is caused by the act to discover the richness of the intangible.
imagery: word or sequence of words representing a sensory experience (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory)
Example: "bells knelling classes to a close" (auditory)
synesthesia: an attempt to fuse different senses by describing one in terms of another
Example: the sound of her voice was sweet
symbol: an object or action that stands for something beyond itself
Example: white = innocence, purity, hope
allegory: a sustained and circumscribed analogy between a subject and an image to which it is compared
Example: The Crucible is an allegory for the HUAC hearings
consonance: repeated consonants
alliteration: the repetition of consonant sounds, particularly at the beginning of words
Example: ". . . like a wanderer white"
assonance: the repetition of similar vowel sounds
Example: "I rose and told him of my woe"
elision: the omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve the meter of a line of poetry
"Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame"
onomatopoeia: the use of words to imitate the sounds they describe
Example: "crack" or "whir"
allusion: a reference to the person, event, or work outside the poem or literary piece
Example: "Shining, it was Adam and maiden"
4. Poetic Forms
narrative poetry: contains a plot
lyric poetry: individual speaker expresses what he or she feels, perceives, and thinks; although usual point of view is first
person, it is important to distinguish the “I” of the speaker from that of the actual poet; however close the speaker may seem
to be to the poet’s point of view, he or she is always in some part an invented character.
open: poetic form free from regularity and consistency in elements such as rhyme, line length, and metrical form
closed: poetic form subject to a fixed structure and pattern
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stanza: unit of a poem often repeated in the same form throughout a poem; a unit of poetic lines ("verse paragraph")
blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter
free verse (open form): lines with no prescribed pattern or structure
internal rhyme: occur within a line of poetry rather than at the end
Example: “And binding with briars my joys & desires.”
end rhyme: occur at the end of a line
end stopped lines: contain a complete sentence of independent clause and so have a distinct pause at the end, usually
indicated by a mark of punctuation:
Example: “The sea is calm tonight.”
enjambment: also called run-on lines, are those in which the sentence of clause continues for two or more lines of verse; no
punctuation appears at the end of the enjambed lines
couplet: a pair of lines, usually rhymed
heroic couplet: a pair of rhymed lines in iambic pentameter (tradition of the heroic epic form)
quatrain: four-line stanza or grouping of four lines of verse
sonnet: fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme; its subject is traditionally that of love
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet: A sonnet probably made popular by Shakespeare with the following rhyme scheme: abab
cdcd efef gg
Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet: A form of sonnet made popular by Petrarch with the following rhyme scheme: abbaabba
cdecde OR cdcdcd
Its first octave generally presents a thought, picture, or emotion, while its final sestet presents an explanation, comment, or
summary.
5. Meter
stress: greater amount of force used to pronounce one syllable over another
pause: (caesura) a pause for a beat in the rhythm of the verse (often indicated by a line break or a mark of punctuation)
iambic (iamb): a metrical foot containing two syllables--the first is unstressed, while the second is stressed
iambic pentameter: a traditional form of rising meter consisting of lines containing five iambic feet (and, thus, ten syllables)
rising meter: meter containing metrical feet that move from unstressed to stressed syllables
anapestic (anapest): a metrical foot containing three syllables--the first two are unstressed, while the last is stressed
falling meter: meter containing metrical feet that move from stressed to unstressed syllables
trochaic (trochee): a metrical foot containing two syllables--the first is stressed, while the second is unstressed
dactylic (dactyl): a metrical foot containing three syllables--the first is stressed, while the last two are unstressed
spondee: an untraditional metrical foot in which two consecutive syllables are stressed
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Poetic Form: Epigram
An epigram is a short, pithy saying, usually in verse, often with a quick, satirical twist at the end. The subject is usually a single
thought or event.
Defining the epigram by example, Coleridge offered the following:
What is an Epigram? A dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.
Another Coleridge epigram demonstrates the wittiness and bravado usually associated with the form:
Sir, I admit your general rule,
That every poet is a fool,
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.
More recent practitioners include William Butler Yeats, Ezra Pound, and Ogden Nash, whose poem, "Ice Breaking," is a very
well-known epigram:
Candy
Is dandy,
But liquor
Is quicker
One of the sharpest, wittiest, and oft-quoted epigrammatists is Oscar Wilde. His works are studded with examples of the
epigram, such as, "I can resist everything except temptation. "
Poetic Form: Epic
An epic is a long, often book-length, narrative in verse form that retells the heroic journey of a single person, or group of
persons. Elements that typically distinguish epics include superhuman deeds, fabulous adventures, highly stylized language, and
a blending of lyrical and dramatic traditions.
Many of the world's oldest written narratives are in epic form, including the Babylonian Gilgamesh, the Sanskrit Mahâbhârata,
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Virgil’s Aeneid.
Poetic Form: Elegy
The elegy began as an ancient Greek metrical form and is traditionally written in response to the death of a person or group.
Though similar in function, the elegy is distinct from the epitaph, ode, and eulogy: the epitaph is very brief; the ode solely
exalts; and the eulogy is most often written in formal prose.
The elements of a traditional elegy mirror three stages of loss. First, there is a lament, where the speaker expresses grief and
sorrow, then praise and admiration of the idealized dead, and finally consolation and solace. These three stages can be seen in
W. H. Auden’s classic "In Memory of W. B. Yeats," written for the Irish master, which includes these stanzas:
With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,
Sing of human unsuccess
In a rapture of distress;
In the deserts of the heart
Let the healing fountain start,
In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise.
Other well-known elegies include "Fugue of Death" by Paul Celan, written for victims of the Holocaust, and "O Captain! My
Captain!" by Walt Whitman, written for President Abraham Lincoln.
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Poetic Form: Ballad
A typical ballad is a plot-driven song, with one or more characters hurriedly unfurling events leading to a dramatic conclusion.
At best, a ballad does not tell the reader what’s happening, but rather shows the reader what’s happening, describing each
crucial moment in the trail of events. To convey that sense of emotional urgency, the ballad is often constructed in quatrain
stanzas, each line containing as few as three or four stresses and rhyming either the second and fourth lines, or all alternating
lines.
Coleridge’s "Rime of the Ancient Mariner," the tale of a cursed sailor aboard a storm-tossed ship, is one of the English
language’s most revered ballads. It begins:
It is an ancient mariner
And he stoppeth one of three.
--"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stoppest thou me?
The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
Mayst hear the merry din."
He holds him with his skinny hand,
"There was a ship," quoth he.
"Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropped he.
He holds him with his glittering eye-The wedding-guest stood still,
And listens like a three-years' child:
The mariner hath his will.
Poetic Form: Ode
"Ode" comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric
poetry…the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.
The William Wordsworth poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" is a very good
example of an English language Pindaric ode. It begins:
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;-Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
The Horatian ode, named for the Roman poet Horace, is generally more tranquil and contemplative than the Pindaric ode.
Less formal, less ceremonious, and better suited to quiet reading than theatrical production, the Horatian ode typically uses a
regular, recurrent stanza pattern. An example is the Allen Tate poem "Ode to the Confederate Dead," excerpted here:
Row after row with strict impunity
The headstones yield their names to the element,
The wind whirrs without recollection;
In the riven troughs the splayed leaves
Pile up, of nature the casual sacrament
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To the seasonal eternity of death;
Then driven by the fierce scrutiny
Of heaven to their election in the vast breath,
They sough the rumour of mortality.
Poetic Form: Villanelle
The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of
five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the
succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines. Using capitals for the
refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a
b A1 A2.
An excellent example of the form is Dylan Thomas’s "Do not go gentle into that good night":
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave 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.
Poetic Form: Haiku
A traditional Japanese haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Often focusing on
images from nature, haiku emphasizes simplicity, intensity, and directness of expression.
Matsuo Basho, wrote this classic haiku:
An old pond!
A frog jumps in-the sound of water.
Anselm Hollo, whose poem "5 & 7 & 5" includes the following stanza:
round lumps of cells grow
up to love porridge later
become The Supremes
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As the form has evolved, many of these rules--including the 5/7/5 practice--have been routinely broken. However, the
philosophy of haiku has been preserved: the focus on a brief moment in time; a use of provocative, colorful images; an ability
to be read in one breath; and a sense of sudden enlightenment and illumination.
This philosophy influenced poet Ezra Pound, who noted the power of haiku's brevity and juxtaposed images. He wrote, "The
image itself is speech. The image is the word beyond formulated language." The influence of haiku on Pound is most evident
in his poem "In a Station of the Metro," which began as a thirty-line poem, but was eventually pared down to two:
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Poetic Form: Sestina
The sestina follows a strict pattern of the repetition of the initial six end-words of the first stanza through the remaining five
six-line stanzas, culminating in a three-line envoi. The lines may be of any length, though in its initial incarnation, the sestina
followed a syllabic restriction. The form is as follows, where each numeral indicates the stanza position and the letters
represent end-words:
1. ABCDEF
2. FAEBDC
3. CFDABE
4. ECBFAD
5. DEACFB
6. BDFECA
7. (envoi) ECA or ACE
The envoi, sometimes known as the tornada, must also include the remaining three end-words, BDF, in the course of the
three lines so that all six recurring words appear in the final three lines. In place of a rhyme scheme, the sestina relies on endword repetition to effect a sort of rhyme.
In the dramatic monologue "Sestina: Altaforte," Pound, in one of his many responses to his great influence, the Victorian poet
Robert Browning, adopts the voice of troubadour-warlord Bertrans de Born….This poem is a good example of the
possibilities of end-word repetition, where, in expert hands, each recurrence changes in meaning, often very subtly. Note, too,
the end-words Pound chose: "peace," "music," "clash," "opposing," "crimson," and "rejoicing." The words, while general
enough to lend themselves to multiple meanings, are common enough that they also present Pound with the difficult task of
making every instance fresh. Here are the first two stanzas (after a prefatory stanza which sets the scene):
I
Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.
II
In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace,
And the lightnings from black heav'n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,
And through all the riven skies God's swords clash.
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Suggestions for How to Read a Poem
Poems can be read many ways. The following steps describe one approach. Of course not all poems require close study and all
should be read first for pleasure.
• Look at the poem’s title: What might this poem be about?
• Look at the poet: What previous knowledge do you have about the poet? His or her life? Writing style? Subject matter?
• Read the poem silently straight through without stopping to analyze it. This will help you get a sense of how it sounds, how
it works, what it might be about.
• Read the poem aloud.
• Check for understanding and paraphrase: Write a quick “first-impression” of the poem by answering the questions, “What
do you notice about this poem so far?” and “What is this poem about?” If permissible, underline the parts you do not
immediately understand.
• Identify the narrator. Ask: Who is speaking in the poem? What do you know about them?
• Look for patterns. Watch for repeated, interesting, or even unfamiliar use of language, imagery, sound, color, or arrangement.
Ask, “What is the poet trying to show through this pattern?”
• Look for changes & crucial moments in tone, focus, narrator, structure, voice, patterns. The pivotal moment might be as
small as the word but or yet. Such words often act like hinges within a poem to swing the poem in a whole new direction. Also
pay attention to breaks between stanzas or between lines. Ask: “What has changed and what does the change mean?”
• Consider form and function. Now is a good time to look at some of the poet’s more critical choices. Did the poet use a
specific form, such as the sonnet? How did this particular form---e.g., a sonnet---allow them to express their
ideas? Did the poet use other specific poetic devices which you should learn so you can better understand the poem?
Examples might include: enjambment, assonance, alliteration, symbols, metaphors, or allusions. Other examples
might include unusual use of capitalization, punctuation (or lack of any), or typography. Ask. “How is the poet using
punctuation in the poem?”
• Check for improved understanding and TAKE-OFF! Read the poem through again, aloud if possible and take-off in
developing your theory on the poem!
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My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)
by William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
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Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins
I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.
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My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.
We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.
The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.
You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
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Those Winter Sundays (FINAL DRAFT) by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
And put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love's austere and lonely offices?
Those Winter Sundays (EARLY DRAFT) by Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the stiffening cold,
and then with hands cracked and aching
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering
and breaking and smell the trellised blooming of
the velvet heat. When the rooms were warm,
he'd call me. Sighing I would rise and dress,
dreading the chronic angers of that house,
Dreading my father's kindness most of all;
and had but monosyllables for him
who'd driven out the cold -- who had as well
polished my best shoes. What did I know
of love's austere and rich and lonely offices?
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Dreams by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
The Weakness by Toi Derricotte
That time my grandmother dragged me
through the perfume aisles at Saks, she held me up
by my arm, hissing, "Stand up,"
through clenched teeth, her eyes
bright as a dog's
cornered in the light.
She said it over and over,
as if she were Jesus,
and I were dead. She had been
solid as a tree,
a fur around her neck, a
light-skinned matron whose car was parked, who walked
on swirling
marble and passed through
brass openings--in 1945.
There was not even a black
elevator operator at Saks.
The saleswoman had brought velvet
leggings to lace me in, and cooed,
as if in service of all grandmothers.
My grandmother had smiled, but not
hungrily, not like my mother
who hated them, but wanted to please,
and they had smiled back, as if
they were wearing wooden collars.
When my legs gave out, my grandmother
dragged me up and held me like God
holds saints by the
roots of the hair. I begged her
to believe I couldn't help it. Stumbling,
her face white
with sweat, she pushed me through the crowd, rushing
away from those eyes
that saw through
her clothes, under
her skin, all the way down
to the transparent
genes confessing.
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We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
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listen by e.e. cummings
lis
-ten
you know what i mean when
the first guy drops you know
everybody feels sick or
when they throw in a few gas
and the oh baby shrapnel
or my feet getting dim freezing or
up to your you know what in water or
with the bugs crawling right all up
all everywhere over you all me everyone
that's been there knows what
i mean a god damned lot of
people don't and never
will know,
they don't want
to
no
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
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Behind Grandma’s House by Gary Soto
At ten I wanted fame. I had a comb
And two Coke bottles, a tube of Bryl-creem.
I borrowed a dog, one with
Mismatched eyes and a happy tongue,
And wanted to prove I was tough
In the alley, kicking over trash cans,
A dull chime of tuna cans falling.
I hurled lightbulbs like grenades
And men teachers held their heads,
Fingers of blood lengthening
On the ground. I flicked rocks at cats,
Their goofy faces spurred with foxtails.
I kicked fences. I shooed pigeons.
I broke a branch from a flowering peach
And frightened ants with a stream of spit.
I said, “Chale,” “In your face,” and “No way
Daddy-O” to an imaginary priest
Until grandma came into the alley,
Her apron flapping in a breeze,
Her hair mussed, and said, “Let me help you,”
And punched me between the eyes.
since feeling is first by e.e. cummings
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis
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Gretel in Darkness by Louise Glück
This is the world we wanted. All who would have seen us dead
Are dead. I hear the witch's cry
Break in the moonlight through a sheet of sugar: God rewards.
Her tongue shrivels into gas....
Now, far from women's arms
And memory of women, in our father's hut
We sleep, are never hungry.
Why do I not forget?
My father bars the door, bars harm
From this house, and it is years.
No one remembers. Even you, my brother.
Summer afternoons you look at me as though you meant
To leave, as though it never happened. But I killed for you.
I see armed firs, the spires of that gleaming kiln come back, come back-Nights I turn to you to hold me but you are not there.
Am I alone? Spies
Hiss in the stillness, Hansel we are there still, and it is real, real,
That black forest, and the fire in earnest.
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Young by Anne Sexton
A thousand doors ago
when I was a lonely kid
in a big house with four
garages and it was summer
as long as I could remember,
I lay on the lawn at night,
clover wrinkling over me,
the wise stars bedding over me,
my mother's window a funnel
of yellow heat running out,
my father's window, half shut,
an eye where sleepers pass,
and the boards of the house
were smooth and white as wax
and probably a million leaves
sailed on their strange stalks
as the crickets ticked together
and I, in my brand new body,
which was not a woman's yet,
told the stars my questions
and thought God could really see
the heat and the painted light,
elbows, knees, dreams, goodnight.
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The Writer by Richard Wilbur
In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.
I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.
Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.
But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which
The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.
I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash
And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark
And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,
And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,
It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.
It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.
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Did I miss anything? by Tom Wayman
Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours
Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 percent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 percent
Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose
Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring the good news to all people
on earth
Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?
Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human experience
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been
gathered
but it was one place
And you weren't here.
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The Ballad of the Landlord by Langston Hughes
Landlord, landlord,
My roof has sprung a leak.
Don't you 'member I told you about it
Way last week?
Landlord, landlord,
These steps is broken down.
When you come up yourself
It's a wonder you don't fall down.
Ten Bucks you say I owe you?
Ten Bucks you say is due?
Well, that's Ten Bucks more'n I'l pay you
Till you fix this house up new.
What? You gonna get eviction orders?
You gonna cut off my heat?
You gonna take my furniture and
Throw it in the street?
Um-huh! You talking high and mighty.
Talk on-till you get through.
You ain't gonna be able to say a word
If I land my fist on you.
Police! Police!
Come and get this man!
He's trying to ruin the government
And overturn the land!
Copper's whistle!
Patrol bell!
Arrest.
Precinct Station.
Iron cell.
Headlines in press:
MAN THREATENS LANDLORD
TENANT HELD NO BAIL
JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL!
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Writing About Poetry – from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/615/01/
Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class.
Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature
do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers
answers to some common questions about writing about poetry.
What's the Point?
In order to write effectively about poetry, one needs a clear idea of what the point of writing about poetry is.
When you are assigned an analytical essay about a poem in an English class, the goal of the assignment is
usually to argue a specific thesis about the poem, using your analysis of specific elements in the poem and how
those elements relate to each other to support your thesis.
So why would your teacher give you such an assignment? What are the benefits of learning to write analytic
essays about poetry? Several important reasons suggest themselves:
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To help you learn to make a text-based argument. That is, to help you to defend ideas based on a text that
is available to you and other readers. This sharpens your reasoning skills by forcing you to formulate an
interpretation of something someone else has written and to support that interpretation by providing
logically valid reasons why someone else who has read the poem should agree with your argument. This
isn't a skill that is just important in academics, by the way. Lawyers, politicians, and journalists often find
that they need to make use of similar skills.
To help you to understand what you are reading more fully. Nothing causes a person to make an extra
effort to understand difficult material like the task of writing about it. Also, writing has a way of helping
you to see things that you may have otherwise missed simply by causing you to think about how to frame
your own analysis.
To help you enjoy poetry more! This may sound unlikely, but one of the real pleasures of poetry is the
opportunity to wrestle with the text and co-create meaning with the author. When you put together a wellconstructed analysis of the poem, you are not only showing that you understand what is there, you are
also contributing to an ongoing conversation about the poem. If your reading is convincing enough,
everyone who has read your essay will get a little more out of the poem because of your analysis.
What Should I Know about Writing about Poetry?
Most importantly, you should realize that a paper that you write about a poem or poems is an argument. Make
sure that you have something specific that you want to say about the poem that you are discussing. This specific
argument that you want to make about the poem will be your thesis. You will support this thesis by drawing
examples and evidence from the poem itself. In order to make a credible argument about the poem, you will
want to analyze how the poem works—what genre the poem fits into, what its themes are, and what poetic
techniques and figures of speech are used.
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What Can I Write About?
Theme: One place to start when writing about poetry is to look at any significant themes that emerge in the
poetry. Does the poetry deal with themes related to love, death, war, or peace? What other themes show up in
the poem? Are there particular historical events that are mentioned in the poem? What are the most important
concepts that are addressed in the poem?
Genre: What kind of poem are you looking at? Is it an epic (a long poem on a heroic subject)? Is it a sonnet (a
brief poem, usually consisting of fourteen lines)? Is it an ode? A satire? An elegy? A lyric? Does it fit into a
specific literary movement such as Modernism, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, or Renaissance poetry? This is
another place where you may need to do some research in an introductory poetry text or encyclopedia to find
out what distinguishes specific genres and movements.
Versification: Look closely at the poem's rhyme and meter. Is there an identifiable rhyme scheme? Is there a
set number of syllables in each line? The most common meter for poetry in English is iambic pentameter, which
has five feet of two syllables each (thus the name "pentameter") in each of which the strongly stressed syllable
follows the unstressed syllable. You can learn more about rhyme and meter by consulting our handout on sound
and meter in poetry or the introduction to a standard textbook for poetry such as the Norton Anthology of
Poetry. Also relevant to this category of concerns are techniques such as caesura (a pause in the middle of a
line)and enjambment (continuing a grammatical sentence or clause from one line to the next). Is there anything
that you can tell about the poem from the choices that the author has made in this area? For more information
about important literary terms, see our handout on the subject.
Figures of speech: Are there literary devices being used that affect how you read the poem? Here are some
examples of commonly discussed figures of speech:
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metaphor: comparison between two unlike things
simile: comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"
metonymy: one thing stands for something else that is closely related to it (For example, using the phrase
"the crown" to refer to the king would be an example of metonymy.)
synecdoche: a part stands in for a whole (For example, in the phrase "all hands on deck," "hands" stands
in for the people in the ship's crew.)
personification: a non-human thing is endowed with human characteristics
litotes: a double negative is used for poetic effect (example: not unlike, not displeased)
irony: a difference between the surface meaning of the words and the implications that may be drawn
from them
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Cultural Context: How does the poem you are looking at relate to the historical context in which it was
written? For example, what's the cultural significance of Walt Whitman's famous elegy for Lincoln "When
Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" in light of post-Civil War cultural trends in the U.S.A? How does John
Donne's devotional poetry relate to the contentious religious climate in seventeenth-century England? These
questions may take you out of the literature section of your library altogether and involve finding out about
philosophy, history, religion, economics, music, or the visual arts.
What style should I use?
It is useful to follow some standard conventions when writing about poetry. First, when you analyze a poem, it
is best to use present tense rather than past tense for your verbs. Second, you will want to make use of numerous
quotations from the poem and explain their meaning and their significance to your argument. After all, if you do
not quote the poem itself when you are making an argument about it, you damage your credibility. If your
teacher asks for outside criticism of the poem as well, you should also cite points made by other critics that are
relevant to your argument. A third point to remember is that there are various citation formats for citing both the
material you get from the poems themselves and the information you get from other critical sources. The most
common citation format for writing about poetry is the Modern Language Association (MLA) format.
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