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Week Two Overview
ENG/125 Version 4
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Week Two Overview
Poetry can be challenging for many readers because of how compact it is. Each word in a poem is
packed with meaning; poems often require multiple readings before any meaning is discerned. Poetry
relies heavily on connotation rather than denotation. The denotative meaning is definition: a house, for
example, would be a dwelling with four sides and a roof that provides protection from outdoor elements. If
you see the word “house” in a poem, though, you also want to think about the connotations of a house—
what a house brings to mind: family, stability, a hearth, and so on. Poets rely on your understanding of the
greater meaning and significance of words.
To begin your journey with poetry, you should have a good dictionary at your side. This will help you
consider the various meanings of words. Robert Frost’s poem “Storm Fear” speaks about snow and wind
outside while the person thinking about the storm is warm inside a house. The poem can be read in
different ways, depending on how you interpret the word “storm.” If it is read as an adjective, the meaning
of the poem is literal: a person stays inside to avoid inclement weather. If you read “storm” as a verb,
though (as in “storming a castle”), the poem could mean how one might overcome fear, represented in
the poem by the harsh weather outdoors. In other words, the reader is asked to storm or overcome the
fear and venture out.
Other tips to make reading poetry more enjoyable include reading the poem slowly and out loud. You
might even consider having someone else read it aloud so you can listen closely. Recordings of various
poets reading their works are available at libraries, bookstores, and on the Internet. The ability to listen, to
look at how the words are arranged on a page, and to read closely, thinking about each word, not only
makes a poem more enjoyable but enhances the process of explicating (analyzing and explaining) its
meaning.
Poetry is an imaginative arrangement of words that differs from everyday speech. It can be rhymed and
measured, or written in free verse with little rhyme or measurement; it can be structured or unstructured.
Because there are so many variations of what is considered poetry, it is a difficult genre to explain in one
or two sentences. Think about rap music—it is a form of loosely structured poetry. Think about sonnets—
these are rhymed verses that are highly structured. Both styles, however, fit under the umbrella of poetry.
Several types of poetry exist, including narrative and lyric. Narrative poetry tells a story. T. S. Eliot’s
book-length Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats is the story of a group of cats whose lives mimic those
of humans. This long poem became the script for the long-running Broadway musical Cats. Samuel
Coleridge’s long, dramatic poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” provides an account of a seaman
who experiences an adventure from the North to Antarctica. Along the way, a large albatross lands on the
mast of the boat and becomes the bane of the mariner’s existence, creating dramatic tension for the
duration of the poem.
Lyric poetry emphasizes emotion and often has rhyme and an almost sweet tone to it. Romantic poets of
the 19th century are often considered lyric poets because of their use of rhyme, beautifully constructed
wording, assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds, such as the short e in “Hear the mellow wedding
bells” from Edgar Allan Poe), and alliteration (the repetition of consonant sounds, such as the thick,
thunderous thumping of race horses running through rough, rugged range). Names such as William
Wordsworth and Robert Barrett Browning often come to mind with lyric poetry. Earlier poets such as John
Milton and William Blake are also considered lyric poets.
Understanding the type of poetry you read is important, as are the structure and the use of imagery and
figurative language. As previously mentioned, poetry can be either structured or unstructured. Sonnets,
for example, are structured. The best known sonnets are the Petrarchan (or Italian) and Shakespearean
(or English) sonnets. Each type has 14 lines. The Petrarchan sonnets have two parts: eight lines followed
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Week Two Overview
ENG/125 Version 4
by six lines that rhyme in the order of ABBAABBA, then CDECDE. Often you will find that the poem presents
a problem in the first eight lines, and the resolution occurs in the last six. The Shakespearean sonnet has
three sections of four-line groupings (also called quatrains) and concludes with two lines (a couplet). The
pattern looks like this: ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. Like the Petrarchan sonnet, the Shakespearean sonnet
mulls over a problem in the first three quatrains then offers resolution in the couplet.
Free verse—unrhyming, unmetered lines, famously used by Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass—became
widespread in the 20th century. For example, in the 1960s, the Beat poets such as Allen Ginsberg and
Lawrence Ferlinghetti used free verse as an expression of freedom against set rules, expressing thoughts
and emotions freely without regard for standard conventions of rhyme, stanzas, and so forth. Other poets
famous for working in this form were Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams, and Marianne
Moore, among others.
Good poetry of any kind evokes emotions and creates images based on concise language. In describing
the city of Chicago, poet Carl Sandburg writes:
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation’s Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders
The language creates an image of the city in the reader’s mind.
Poets rely on compact, figurative language (figures of speech) to convey their thoughts and emotions.
They use simile, which compares one thing to another using the word like (“My love is like a red, red
rose”), and metaphor, which states a comparison with something else using is (“Life’s but a walking
shadow”). They also raise questions and use the technique of paradox, in which something unlikely
seems somehow true. Think of Julius Caesar’s line from Shakespeare that says “Cowards die many times
before their deaths.” This is an example of paradox. Hyperbole, or great exaggeration, is another
technique employed by poets. In Carl Sandburg’s poem “The People, Yes,” he writes, “It’s a slow burg—I
spent a couple of weeks there one day.” This is an obvious exaggeration of fact.
Good poets who use language well can connect with readers. Readers who actively engage in a work
also help create new meanings for works through interpretations that include their own perceptions and
experiences. The poet’s techniques of using imagery, meter, rhyme and rhythm, and figurative language
help stimulate a reader’s imagination, opening new doors of understanding the world in his or her mind.
Tips for Reading Poems
As you begin reading poetry, think about these questions:
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3.
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6.
What is your initial reaction to the poem and why?
What imagery is the poet using?
What meaning does the poem create for you?
Is there any tension in the poem?
Who is speaking in the poem, and what is the person saying?
Does the poem use conventional structures or poetic devices—for example, sonnet structure, rhyme,
and figurative language? How are they used?
7. How are connotation and denotation used in the poem?
8. If you read the poem aloud, can you hear a rhythm?
9. Does the meaning change the more you read the poem? Are there several interpretations that are
possible?
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