7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

1/26

BBL 3101

A Survey of Prose Forms and Poetry

POETRY

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

2/26

Poetry Selections The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Piano

Sir Patrick Spence

Out, Out

My Last Duchess

My Papas Waltz

For a Lady I know I wondered Lonely as a Cloud

Oh No

The Ruined Maid

London

The Eagle

Flower in the Crannied Wall

The Wind

The Silken Tent

Oh, My Love is Like a Red, Red

Rose

Richard Cory

Gods Grandeur

Desert Places

In Memoriam John Coltrane

We Real Cool

Easter Wings

The Boston Evening Transcript The Lightning is a Yellow Fork

The Road Not Taken

Sailing to Byzantium

Ozymandias

O Captain, My Captain

Dover Beach

The Sick Rose

The Tyger

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

3/26

Read & Listen

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

4/26

What is Poetry?

Poetry is the kind of thing poets write ~ RobertFrost

Comes in a great many shapes and forms

(To the question What is jazz?,Louis Armstrongonce replied Man, if you gotta ask, youll neverknow)

To know poetry is to study poems and to let themgrow in your mind

Encountering poetry vs studying poetry

A good poem has something to say that is well worthlistening to

People writing poems about what poetry is

*Kennedy & Gioia pps1112-1116

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

5/26

The History of Poetry

In the ancient times, the hearing and making of poemcan be a religious act (ie Psalms, Songs of Songs,Proverbs)

Poetry was part of classic Greek drama, a holy-dayceremony for playwright, actor and spectator

The Greeks believe that poems are supernaturallyinspired as exemplified from the Iliad, the Odysseyand Socrates works

Celtic poets were regarded as magicians and priests

In modern days, poetry is involved with the primitivewhite-magic of children

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

6/26

Why read poetry?

It is rewarding when you understand it better

It can be more difficult than prose initially

Some poems can be understood on firstencounter

Good poems yield more if read twice

The best poems continues to yield even aftercountless readings

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

7/26

Obstacles in reading Poetry Identifying the specific focus

Its easy to tell the themes of the poem such as love anddeath, but its hard to pin down precisely what it is poetsare saying about love or death.

Behind the largeror generalmeanings in a poem, thereare particular examples

Eg. A poem about the death of a childwill not have ahidden meaning about nuclear war, but it will have a largermeaninga consideration of issues such as death,innocence, the love of a parent, and loss

Language of Poem Archaic

Anything before seventeenth-century

Deep and puzzling poems Eg. Coleridges Kubla Khan.

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

8/26

Elements in a poem

Voices

Sounds

Images Rhythms

Figures of speech

Symbols * Read up about what they mean

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

9/26

How to read a poem?

Slowly, carefully, attentively

Let it appeal to our mind and arouse your

feelings

Let it touch us, stir us, make us glad and

possibly even tell us something

Read it silently (in mind), read it aloud, hearsomeone else read it

Try to paraphrase it line by line

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

10/26

First reading

Read it straight through with no expectations

Be open-minded

Enjoy the experience without worrying the ideas Dont dwell on difficult words

Second reading

Read for the exact sense of all the words Look up new vocabularies in the dictionary

Take time to reflect on the meanings

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

11/26

Understanding a poem

Search for a central tension, conflict oropposition in the poem in the opening lines

Look for something positive and something

negative in the opening lines

This will determine the issue of the poem and

helps form your argument

Choice of words and combination of words

that elevates the tension

Complications / Escalation of tension

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

12/26

Writing about Poetry

First paragraph Central tension of the poem

story of the poem

Body of paragraphs

Number of paragraphs depend on number of stanzas Focus on how the poet links the poem to life

Combine (not separate) formal choices (words, structures,etc) with the direction / ideas of the poem

Each paragraph makes the case / argument stronger Concluding paragraph

Pulling the threads together

Secure your stand

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

13/26

Piano by DH LawrenceSoftly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;

Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see

A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling stringsAnd pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song

Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong

To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside

And hymns in the cozy parlor, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor

With the great piano appassionato. The glamor

Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast

Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

14/26

Questions to ask

What is the tone?

Pick out a metaphor. What is being compared?

What does the piano symbolize? What imagery can we find?

Do you sense tension or conflict?

Who is the speaker?

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

15/26

Analysing the Poem Introduction

Lyrical poem based on an incident, or an experience in the poets life, or something

that the poet has observed

Lawrences own experience

Happy memories of childhood which also brings sad nostalgia

Stanza 1 The voice of a woman singing reminds the poet of his childhood with

his mother

The word boom and the description of the feet and pedals suggeststhat he was that child, as he has drawn the sketch so accurately

We can almost feel the vibrations in our arms and legs when readingthe poem

We feel that we are there with him

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

16/26

Stanza 2

The rhythm of the poem has a slow, reflective quality,

accentuated by the punctuation

Insidious vs Mastery

Insidious means the gradual, unnoticed change that

eventually causes harm

Mastery of the song represents the growing power / skillof the music

Dangerously emotive words such as heart and weeps

Negative word such as betrays against positive images of

cozy Sunday evenings Readers who have happy memories of childhood also feels

the nostalgia of it

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

17/26

Stanza 3

Clamour vs Glamour

The poet has achieved much of what he wanted to achieve

as a man

He has already broken away from his parents bindings

But he also lost something ephemeral, priceless and dear:

his innocence

Maturity sometimes hurts

Glamour is something which wears off and does not last

The poet tries to be realistic

At some low point of depression or failure or guilt in hislife, he wept like a child for the past (line 12)

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

18/26

Concluding paragraph

Many people have things they wish they had done

differently with their parents when growing up It is only when we are adults ourselves that we

realise how hard things may have been for them

Lawrence looks back at the happy childhoodwhich also brings nostalgic sorrow

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

19/26

Dos and Donts

DO look for a tension, conflict or opposition

DO look for positive images and impressions that canbe set against negative images and impressions

DOconcentrate on the opening lines. You dont need

to sort out the poem as a whole at this stage. You aresimply concerned with getting an initial confidenthold on the poem

DO try to see the larger issue that lies behind the

particular details of the poem; the tension you havespotted should help you identify a larger issue

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

20/26

DONT try to analyse the whole poem in advance. Ifyou try to do this you are likely to tie yourself up inknots.

DONT, at the outset, worry about details you dontunderstand in the poem. Such details can be dealtwith later.

DONT get side-tracked. You are analysing a poem.Concentrate on the effects that are actually takingplace in the poem rather than talking about yourown life and experiences.

DONT become over-ingenious. You arent searchingfor hidden meanings in the poem. Stick to the plainsense of the poem and any larger issues that theplain sense suggests.

li

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

21/26

Formalism

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

22/26

Critical Theories Marxism history records an evolving class struggle that will

eventually overthrow the established order, evidence of this

struggle is recognized and interpreted in literary works New historicism - the context in which a work of literature

was produced (the social structure of the age, the authorspersonal history, issues of class, race, gender, the variousartistic movements of the time, etc) affects the interpretation

Feminism literary works portray the societal treatmenttowards degradation and discrimination of women

Psychoanalysis literary works implies the unconsciousdesires expressed through the language and analyzed bycritics

Deconstruction the possibility of flawed and inaccurate useof language leads to failed communication and scholars relyheavily on the text itself for interpretation

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

23/26

Piano through Critical Theories

Marxist:

From Lawrences background, we learn that hes poor. But how did his mother obtain such an expensive item as a piano?

Is the piano a symbol of his familys social status?

Was it a contrast to the quiet, wholesome life of leisure with his own?

Psychoanalysis:

Wheres the father?

A typical family during the 20th century includes both parents

Does the omission of the father figure show Lawrences closerelationship with his mother and contempt for his father?

Does Lawrence desire his mother? Oedipal complex?

A figurative murder and his association between his mothers songand sex indicating his desire to return to his mothers womb?

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

24/26

Deconstruction:

Through its hymn-like structure, pulsing rhythm,

sensuous repetition of s sounds, and the closeassociation it constructs between the piano and

the female body, Piano seems to confuse sex

with song, reading more like a description of a

carnal act than a trip down memory lane.

New Historicism:

The poem was written in 1918.

What happened in Lawrences life during thattime?

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

25/26

Questions for Self-Revision Jot down a brief paraphrase of this poem. In your

paraphrase, clearly show what the speaker says ishappening at present and also what he finds himselfremembering. Make clear which seems the morepowerful in its effect on him.

What are the speakers various feelings? What doyou understand from the words insidious andbetrays?

With what specific details does the poem make thepast seem real?

What is the subject of Lawrences poem? How wouldyou state its theme?

Homework: Readhttp://www.answers.com/topic/piano-poem-8

7/28/2019 Poetry 8.1.10

26/26

References

http://www.csudh.edu/class/services/studyskills/workshops/LITERATURE.pps

Helium. http://www.helium.com/items/292732-

memoirs-empathy?page=2

Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia. Literature: An

Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. 8th ed.

New York: Longman, 2002.

Peck, John & Martin Coyle. Practical Criticism: Howto Write a Critical Appreciation. New York: Palgrave,

1995.