Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Yemenite Jewish poetry wikipedia , lookup
Pastoral elegy wikipedia , lookup
Alliterative verse wikipedia , lookup
Vietnamese poetry wikipedia , lookup
The Hunting of the Snark wikipedia , lookup
The Knight in the Panther's Skin wikipedia , lookup
Topographical poetry wikipedia , lookup
Literary Analysis Guiding Questions – Romantic Poetry Use the following questions to help you understand the poetry we’ll be reading the next few weeks. You will have the opportunity in an in-class essay to show off your skill of literary analysis; these questions will greatly help in this endeavor. 1. Examine the poem’s content by considering these questions: ~ What is the poem about? ~ Who is the speaker? Are there other characters? ~ What is the setting? 2. Examine the poem’s meaning by considering these questions: ~ What are the major ideas of this poem? ~ Are any important statements about life or people made in the selection—either by the narrator or characters in the selection? ~ Do any of the characters realize something important they had not known before? 3. Examine the poem’s language and style by considering these questions: ~ What figurative language stands out in this poem (e.g., metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, symbolism, etc.)? ~ What images does the poet create in this poem? How does the poet use word choice (diction) to create or enhance these images? ~ How does the poet use the structure of the poem (couplets, stanzas, other organizing devices) to support the content or meaning of the poem? 4. Examine the poem’s Romantic characteristics by considering these questions: ~ The characteristics of Romanticism are a profound love of nature, a focus on the individual, a stress on emotion, not reason, the use of supernatural and mysterious elements, a focus on personal or political freedom, an idealization of children and common people, and the use of imagination. ~ Can you recognize any of these in the poem? (Keep in mind that the poem will not have ALL of these characteristics in it. In other words, don’t try to find something that may not be there.) Glossary of Poetic Terms Alliteration: The reiterated initial consonants of the proximate words in a poem. Meter: The recurrence of a similar stress pattern in some or all lines of a poem. Allusion: A reference to an idea, place, person or text (or part of a text) existing outside the literary work. Onomatopoeia: A word or expression which resembles the sound which it represents, like the meow of a cat or the quack of a duck. Antithesis: A contrast or polarity in meaning. Apostrophe: (Gk `to turn away') An address to a dead or absent person—or personification—as if he or she were present. Connotation: The associated meanings of a word or expression (for the opposite term, see denotation). Denotation: The actual meaning of a word or expression (for the opposite term, see connotation). Diction: The selection of words in a particular literary work, or the language appropriate for a particular (usually poetic) work. The term poetic diction refers to the appropriate selection of words in a poem. Elegy: A poem which mourns the death of someone. Figurative language: Language which goes beyond what is denoted (see denotation), and has a suggestive effect on the reader. Metaphor, simile, personification, and imagery are all instances of figurative language. Free verse: Poetry which lacks a regular stress pattern and regular line lengths (and which may also be lacking in rhyme). Free verse should not be confused with blank verse. Hyperbole: An overstatement or exaggeration. Imagery: The 'mental pictures' which the reader experiences in his/her response to a literary work. Lyric: A short non-narrative poem that has a solitary speaker, and that usually expresses a particular feeling, mood, or thought. Metaphor: A word which does not precisely or literally refer to the entity to which it is supposed to refer. It is a direct comparison between 2 objects or abstract ideas (e.g. life is a dance; the mountain of homework overwhelmed me). Pathos: The sense of pity or sorrow aroused by a particular element or scene in a literary work. Persona: The unidentified personage who 'speaks' (see speaker) in a poem or prose work. The persona should not be identified with the author of the work. Personification: Giving inanimate/non-human things the qualities, abilities, or emotions of humans. Personification heightens a reader’s emotional response to what is being described by giving it human qualities and therefore human significance. Repetition: Repetition of a sound, syllable, word, phrase, line, stanza, or metrical pattern is a basic unifying device in all poetry. It may reinforce, supplement, or even substitute for meter, the other chief controlling factor in the arrangement of words into poetry. Rhyme: The identity of the sounds of the final syllables (usually stressed) of certain proximate lines of a poem. Simile: A comparison (using “like” or “as”) between 2 similar objects or things. Speaker: The personage or persona responsible for the voice in a poem; like the persona, the speaker should not be confused with the poet. Stress (or accent): The loud 'beats' in a poem; a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem often gives the poem its distinctive quality. Symbol: A word or expression which signifies something other than the physical object to which it directly refers. A rose, for example, may symbolize love, the cross, or Christianity. Tone: The attitude, as it is revealed in the language of a literary work, of a persona, narrator or author, towards the other personages in the work or towards the reader.