English 30 AP
Poetry Journal
Semester II
In a Station of the Metro (1916)
by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crows;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Quotes About Poetry
A poet without love were a physical and metaphysical impossibility.
-- Thomas Carlyle
Look, then, into thine heart, and write!
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
For a good poet’s made as well as born.
-- Ben Jonson
We hold that the most wonderful and splendid proof of genius is a great poem produced in a civilized age.
-- On Milton, Thomas B. Macauley
Well, write poetry, for God’s sake, it’s the only thing that matters.
-- Edward Estlin Cummings
While pensive poets painful vigils keep,
Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep.
-- Alexander Pope
The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne,
Th’ assay so hard, so sharpe the conquering.
-- Geoffrey Chaucer
If I can read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that it is poetry.
-- Emily Dickinson
I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry. That is: prose – words in their best order; poetry – the best words in their best order.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
How does a poet speak to men with power, but by being still more a man than they?
-- Thomas Carlyle
There is pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.
-- William Cowper
Poetry is a means to a certain kind of knowledge, and there is a certain kind of knowledge to which it is the only means.
-- Archibald MacLeish
Blessings be with them, and eternal praise,
Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares!--
The Poets, who on earth have made us heirs
Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays.
-- William Wordsworth
Poetry begins in delight and ends in wisdom.
-- Robert Frost
I’m always saying something that’s just the edge of something more.
-- Robert Frost
Poetry is language that tells us, through a more or less emotional reaction, something that cannot be said.
-- Edwin Arlington Robinson
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
-- Mark Twain
Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and happiest minds.
-- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Poetry is rhythmical, imaginative language expressing the invention, taste, thought, passion, and insight of the human soul.
-- Edmund Clarence Stedman
I write half the poem; the reader writes the other half.
-- Paul Valery
Poetry is the shape and shade and size of words as they hum, strum, jig and gallop along.
-- Dylan Thomas
The TP-CASTT Method for Poetry Analysis
Title
· Examine the title before reading the poem. Consider any connotations in the words.
Paraphrase
· Read the poem through twice.
· Briefly (one or two sentences) translate what happens in the poem into your own words, resisting the urge to interpret meaning. A failure to understand what is happening in a poem can lead to an interpretive misunderstanding.
· In determining what is happening in a poem, it is helpful to look for syntactical units (complete sentences rather than line-by-line). Look to see if the poem is end-stopped or uses enjambment.
Connotation
· Examine the poem for meaning beyond the literal meaning.
· Look for: - diction
- examples of imagery, especially metaphor, simile, and personification, which are the most common
- symbolism
- irony, paradox, understatement, oxymoron
- allusions
- sound devices – alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, etc.
Attitude
· Determine the tone of the poem. Examine the speaker’s and the poet’s attitudes. Do not confuse author and persona.
· Look for the speaker’s attitude toward self, other characters, and the subject.
· Look for attitudes of characters other than the speaker.
· Look for the poet’s attitude toward the speaker, other characters, the subject, and the reader.
Shifts
· Note any shifts in speaker or attitudes.
· Look for - the occasion of the poem (time and place)
- key shift words (but, yet)
- punctuation that might indicate a shift (dash, period, colon, ellipsis)
- stanza divisions
- changes in line or stanza length
- irony
- the effect of structure on meaning. Is the poem a recognizable poetic form (sonnet, ballad) which might give a clue to meaning? (a sonnet is often about love)
Title
· Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level
Theme
· List what the poem is about (subjects), then determine what the poet is saying about each of the subjects. What the poet is saying will be the theme.
· Express the theme in a complete sentence. Avoid clichés.
· Now that the poem has been analyzed, read it one more time to appreciate its effectiveness.
AP English
Terms for Poetry Analysis
Persona (Voice) – the speaker or narrator of a poem who is doing the talking – often not the poet
Poetic License – while most often used to describe the poet’s liberty to depart from formal writing conventions to achieve a desired effect, poetic license also includes the freedom for creative deviations from historical fact in the subject matter, such as the use of anachronisms
Poetic Devices (Figurative Language) – the use of words, phrases, symbols, and ideas in such a way as to evoke mental images and sense impressions; often characterized by the use of figures of speech, elaborate expressions, sound devices, or changes in syntax
Denotation – the precise dictionary definition of a word
Connotation – the emotional implication, suggestion, or association of a word (e.g., the word home denotes the place where one lives, but by connotation suggests security, family, love and comfort)
Neologism – the use of new words or new meanings for old words not yet included in standard definitions, as in the recent application of the word phat to denote good, excellent or fashionable, where cool was used in the fifties and groovy in the sixties; some neologisms disappear from usage; others remain in the language
Diction – the choice of words, phrases, sentence structures, and figurative language in a poem; the diction of a poem can range from colloquial to formal, from literal to figurative, or from concrete to abstract
Theme – the central idea, topic, or didactic quality of a work
Mood – the emotional environment or atmosphere created by the poet
Tone – the poet’s or persona’s attitude in style or expression toward the subject or towards the audience (e.g., loving, ironic, bitter, pitying, fanciful, solemn, etc); not the same as mood – a poem may have a Gothic mood but a satiric tone
Shift – a change in the movement or tone of a poem resulting from an epiphany, realization, or insight gained by the speaker, a character, or the reader
Crux – the most crucial line(s) in a poem, the part that best shows the main point
Closure – a sense of finality, balance, and completeness which leaves the reader with a sense of fulfilled expectations; though the term is sometimes employed to describe the effects of individual repetitive elements, such as rhyme, metrical patterns, parallelism, refrains, and stanzas, its most significant application is in reference to the concluding portion of the entire poem
Nick – a particular word, phrase, line, or stanza that grabs the reader’s eye and/or imagination, and charges the rest of the poem with meaning
Volta – the place at which a distinct turn of thought occurs, most commonly to refer to the transition point in a sonnet, as between the octave and sestet of an Italian sonnet
Epiphany – a moment of sudden insight or revelation
Pathos – a scene or passage in a work evoking pity, sorrow, or compassion in the audience or reader
in medea res – a Latin expression meaning in the middle of things, a technique of beginning or ending a story at a crucial point in the middle of a series of events, rather than beginning at the beginning and ending at the end
Convention – a time honoured way of doing something (by convention, a limerick has five lines, a sonnet has fourteen)
Motif – a recurring theme, pattern or idea throughout a long poem or a series of poems
Ubi Sunt – a literary motif dealing with the transitory nature of things, like life, beauty, and youth
Archetype – a basic pattern or concept common to people of different times and cultures, such as a creation story, or characters such as The Hero, The Wise Old Man, and The Evil King
Canon – in a literary sense, the authoritative works of a particular writer; also, an accepted list of works perceived to represent a cultural, ideological, historical, or Biblical grouping
Muse – a source of inspiration, a guiding genius; in Greek mythology, the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne were called the Muses, each of whom was identified with an individual art or science (Calliope, Muse of epic poetry; Erato, Muse of lyric and love poetry; Polymnia, Muse of sacred poetry); many classical poems begin with an invocation of the muse, where the poet calls on his muse for inspiration
AP English
Poetic Devices
Imagery - the use of unusual word combinations to create in the reader’s mind a mental image of what is being described, or to produce an emotional reaction in the reader
Compression - trying to produce the maximum description or feeling from a minimum of words; excepting visual appearance, compression is the major difference between poetry and prose
Poetic devices are a combination of imagery and compression. Poetic devices are often called figures of speech or figurative language. The following terms are poetic devices:
Simile - a comparison of two different things through the use of the words like or as (e.g., He was as strong as an ox. He fought like a lion.)
Metaphor – a direct comparison; a comparison of two unlike things not using like or as (e.g., the fog comes on little cat feet.)
Conceit – a form of metaphor that likens one thing to something else that is seemingly very different; the metaphor is usually extended throughout the entire poem (e.g., Shakespeare’s, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? or Emily Dickinson’s, There is no frigate like a book)
Mixed Metaphor – a metaphor whose elements are either incongruent or contradictory, usually for fantastical or absurd effect (the dog pulled in its horns or to take arms against a sea of troubles)
Synecdoche – a form of metaphor in which: a) a part of something is used to signify the whole (e.g., all hands on deck) b) the reverse, in which the whole can represent a part (e.g., Canada played the United States in the Olympic final) c) the container represents the thing being contained (e.g., the pot is boiling) d) the material from which an object is made represents the object itself (e.g., the quarterback tossed the pigskin)
Metonymy – the name of one thing is applied to another thing with which it is closely associated (e.g., the pen is mightier than the sword)
Trope – The use of a word or expression in a different sense from its proper use (metaphor, synecdoche, and metonymy are all examples of trope)
Personification – a kind of metaphor that gives inanimate objects or abstract ideas human characteristics (e.g., the lonely wind cried in the dark)
Apostrophe – a form of personification in which an absent or dead person is spoken to as if present, or an abstract or inanimate object is spoken to as if living (e.g., Death, take me now)
Anthropomorphism – a form of personification in which human characteristics are given to animals
Paradox – a seemingly contradictory statement that may prove true upon close examination (e.g., standing is more tiring than walking or damned with faint praise)
Oxymoron – a form of paradox that combines a pair of opposite terms into a single unusual expression (e.g., sweet sorrow or cold fire)
Juxtaposition – two or more things usually not associated with one another put side to side
(e.g., What do you want? An autograph? A bone?)
Antithesis – a direct juxtaposition of structurally parallel words, phrases, or clauses for the purpose of contrast (e.g., sink or swim or to be or not to be)
Chiasmus – a balancing pattern where the main elements are reversed (e.g., fair is foul and foul is fair)
Allusion - a reference to mythological, literary, Biblical, historical, or popular characters, places, or events, that the author expects the reader to recognize (e.g., he met his Waterloo)
Symbol - an object, person, place, or action that has both a meaning in itself and that represents something larger than itself, such as a quality, attitude, belief, or value (e.g., a heart is symbolic of love)
Hyperbole – a deliberate, extravagant, and often outrageous exaggeration (e.g., the shot heard ’round the world)
Litotes (Meiosis) – understatement, or the opposite of hyperbole; a kind of irony that deliberately represents something as being much less than it actually is (e.g., I could probably manage to survive on three million dollars a year)
Sarcasm – a type of irony in which a person is appears to be praising something while he is actually insulting the thing, with the intention to injure or hurt (e.g., in Julius Caesar, Marc Antony says of Brutus, who has helped assassinate Caesar, Brutus is an honourable man)
Pun – a play on words which are identical or have similar sounds, but which have sharply diverse meanings (e.g., as Mercutio is dying in Romeo and Juliet, he says, Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man)
Asyndeton – omitting conjunctions, articles, or pronouns for the sake of speed or economy (e.g., the conjunction and is removed in I came, I saw, I conquered)
Polysyndeton – the opposite of asyndeton; the repetition of conjunctions (e.g., running and falling and running and leaping)
Synesthesia – the description of one kind of sense impression in words normally used to describe a different sense (e.g., sweet voice, velvety smile; or when Emily Dickinson describes a bee’s buzz as blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz)
Epithet – nickname or appellation (e.g., Richard the Lion-Hearted, or in Christopher Marlowe, Helen of Troy is the face that launched a thousand ships)
Homeric Epithet – named after the Greek poet, Homer, a one word adjective to describe a character; the one word attempts to encapsulate the essence of the character (e.g., in the course of Shakespeare’s play, brave Macbeth becomes black Macbeth)