Lesson 10

How to Read a Poem:The Imagery of a Poem

Connie Liao

Main Menu•Figure of Speech– Simile & Metaphor

•A Visit to the Lake District •About Wordsworth•The Poem-The Daffodils•Becoming a Poet of Haiku

Brainstorming1. What are some ways authors use to make their details more vivid? 2. What are some good describing words to describe (a mother, a friend ,a teenage girl, the sea…) ?

3. How can we write things to show comparisons?

比喻「生命好比一只箱子，這箱子很小，裝不下太多東西。」 -- 王鼎鈞《旅行箱》「生命是那麼瞬息而不留痕跡，像是躺下來玻璃窗的 一滴水。」 -- 鍾玲《竹夏—雪湖書簡之一》「如今我仍堅持：生命應該像鞭炮劈哩叭啦一陣就完了， 有聲勢、有繽紛、有壯烈、也有淒美。」 -- 張拓蕪《老！吾老矣》

Figurative language is a tool that an author employs (or uses) to help the reader visualize (or see) what is happening in a story or poem. Some common types of figurative language are: simile ( 明諭 ),metaphor ( 暗諭 ), personification( 擬人化 ),alliteration( 押頭 韻 ), onomatopoeia( 擬聲 ),and sensory language.

Figure of Speech

Simile & MetaphorSimile - a comparison of unlike things that uses like or as Example: She is (as) pretty as a picture. The toaster is like a dragon.

Metaphor - a comparison of unlike things that does not use like or as Example: All the world is a stage. rosebud lips; iron grip

Simile or Metaphor?

Her cheeks are like polished apples. Her cheeks are polished apples.

His feet were as big as boats.His feet were big boats.

More Practice on Figure of Speech– Simile & Metaphor

Where is the Lake District?

The Lake District is right here!

London

Sheep grazing on the meadow

Grasmere

Grasmere in Winter

Ullswater(the second largest lake in the Lake District)

I’ve got a camera of my own.

The photo that you

just saw is a

masterpiece of mine.

Ullswater

Ullswater in the Morning

Daffodils at Ullswater-1

Daffodils at Ullswater-2

Daffodils at Ullswater-3

Sea of Daffodils

Windermere(The largest lake in the Lake District)

Windermere

Windermere in Autumn

Windermere in Winter

Windermere in the Morning

Windermere in the Morning

A Lake Cruise on Windermere

A Lake Cruise on WindermereYumm

y!Yumm

y!

Overlooking Windermere

A Panorama ViewOver Windermere

I am so tired!

Elim HouseA 150-year old building,now serving as a B & B.

What a magnificent garden!

Elim House

Judith, the hostess of Elim House

Judith is an ardent tennis fan.

Peter Rabbit

Mr. Jeremy Fisher(Inside the Museum of Beatrice Potter)

Look! Jemima Puddle-duck is

flying right above us.

I have got a pair of

long ears.

Who is standing on my finger?You got it! It’s Peter Rabbit.

The Lake Poet

Many of his poems paint beautifulpictures of life in the Lake District.

William Wordsworth

• His Life

• The Romantic Era

•His Work

Portraits of Wordsworth

William Wordsworth 1770-1850

Cockermouth

Main Street

The Birthplace of Wordsworth(Now called “Wordsworth House”)

The Grave at Grasmere Church

William WordsworthMary Wordsworth (The poet’s wife)

Wordsworth House

Wordsworth Memorial (Opposite Wordsworth House)

Wordsworth’s inspirational home-- Dove Cottage

Dove CottageWordsworth and his sister Dorothymoved in Dove Cottage in 1799.

Enter.

The ‘Houseplace’ inside Dove Cottage

Dove Cottage

“How tiring it is to visit 詩人的家 . The only thing that looks interesting to me is the ‘dog’ beside that fireplace.”

Oh, I forgot to tell you eating is interesting too.

Wordsworth Museum

Portraits of Wordsworth at the Wordsworth Museum

Wordsworth was the pioneer and central figure of the English poetry in the Romantic Era.

The Romantic Era•The Romantic Movement: --a group of poets and writers who rejected common social values; --some fled to the countryside, others turned to mind-altering drugs; --they were highly creative: believed in the importance of Nature, on a quest for beauty, searching for truth, spirituality; --individualism was important

(Modern day parallel( 相似的人 / 物 ): Hippies of the 1960s-- anti-war, rejected the dehumanizing of people, searching for truth, beauty and peace)

His Work--◆ Poetry is 'spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings‘.

◆ Poetry is ‘moments recollected in tranquility’

His style:●Very little symbolism● Imitated natural speech rhythms of ordinary people

Major themes:● Life experiences ● Insight ● Nature and its innate beauty ● The solitary, rustic individual

Listen to the poem.

The DaffodilsI wander'd lonely as a cloud That 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 shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretch'd in never-ending line Along 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 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 thought What wealth the show to me had brought.

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

William Wordsworth

The Images in the Poem

What does the poet compare himself to? (1st stanza)

A cloud.

What does the poet compare the daffodils to ? (2nd stanza)

The stars.

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. (2nd stanza)

Personification.

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. (1st stanza)

The DaffodilsI wander'd lonely as a cloud That 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 shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretch'd in never-ending line Along 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 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 thought What wealth the show to me had brought.

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

William Wordsworth

Is this poem rhymed?

Please find out therhymes( 韻腳 ) in each of the four stanzas.

Now read the poem aloud and feel it.

The DaffodilsI wander'd lonely as a cloud That 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 shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretch'd in never-ending line Along 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 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 thought What wealth the show to me had brought.

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

William Wordsworth

水仙獨自漫遊似浮雲， 青山翠谷上飄蕩；一剎那瞥見一叢叢， 一簇簇水仙金黃；樹蔭下明湖邊， 和風吹拂舞翩遷。

彷彿群星璀璨， 沿銀河閃霎晶瑩；一灣碧波邊緣， 綿延，望不盡；只見萬千無窮， 隨風偃仰舞興濃。

花邊波光瀲灩， 怎比得繁花似錦；面對如此良伴， 詩人怎不歡欣！凝視，凝視，流連不止； 殊不知引起悠悠情思；

兀自倚榻憩息， 岑寂，幽然冥想；驀地花影閃心扉， 獨處方能神往；衷心喜悅洋溢， 伴水仙，舞不息。 孫梁 譯

The Inspiration On 15th April 1802, William and Dorothy Wordsworth passed the strip of land at Glencoyne Bay, Ullswater, on their way back to Grasmere after staying the previous night atEusmere in Pooley Bridge.

It is this visit that gave Wordsworth the inspirationto write his most famous poem, ‘Daffodils'.

Dorothy’s JournalDorothy wrote in her journal : 'When we were in the woods beyondGowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodilsclose to the water side. We fancied thatthe lake had floated the seed ashore and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more and more and at last under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a longbelt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road.

I never saw daffodils so beautiful they grew among the mossy stones about and about them,some rested their heads upon these stones as on a pillow for weariness and the rest tossed and reeled and danced and seemed as if theyverily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake, they looked so gay ever dancing ever changing.

This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot and a fewstragglers a few yards higher up but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity and unityand life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The Bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances and in the middle of the water like the sea'.

Dorothy Wordsworth, The Grasmere Journal - Thursday 15 April 1802.

Sharing Your Ideas

Is it a good poem? Do you like it?

Which lines/parts do you like best/dislike most? Why?

Does the poem remind you of any past experience?

What’s your own personal response to this poem?

Write it down on a sheet of paper. Pay attention to the elements of a paragraph. (100 words)

Becoming A Poet of Haiku

Japanese Haiku日本俳句

The poetry form of haiku was developed

in Japan and later became popular in the

United States. Haiku is the shortest form

of poetry in Japan. It tells a story or

makes a picture in your mind of something

that happens in nature.

Many descriptive words are used in this seventeen-syllable poem. Usually haiku is written in three lines. There are five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. It does not rhyme. Here are examples of Haiku written by students in a class in the U.S.

Examples of Haiku-- 1

Examples of Haiku-- 2

Examples of Haiku-- 3

Examples of Haiku-- 4

Examples of Haiku-- 5

Examples of Haiku-- 6

Examples of Haiku-- 7

Examples of Haiku-- 8

Becoming A Poet--

Now, it’s your turn!

My First Haiku

swimming in the rainraindrops patting on my facecool breeze fills the air

By Connie