Portfolio

I will be collecting your portfolio on Dec. 2.

In it, you should have the following:

Choose 5-7 of your finely crafted poems. If you have more than 5-7 poems, you will have to select a few to NOT include in your portfolio. Each poem should include evidence of previous drafts.

Remember, your crafted poems should show growth and understanding of poetic techniques taught in class. Review the blog for help.

We covered:
Diction, tone, word choice, meter, rhythm, line length, white space, stanza form, sound imagery, euphony, cacophony, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, personification, figurative language, metaphor, simile, imagery, extended metaphor, allusion, symbol, etc.

Please complete the 101 Great American Poems book.

Allusion

So what's all this learnin' for?

Why does a poet or writer need to read the work of so damn many old, dead writers?

The answer: Allusion.

Allusion is a type of figurative language, similar to a symbol. Like a symbol it allows the writer to infuse a word or phrase with additional meaning to avoid TELLING, rather than showing.

An allusion is "a reference to something that belongs properly to a world beyond the sphere of the poem. Often the reference comes from an historical or a cultural context, but not necessarily. Its use is to deepen the definition or to extend the quality of something in the poem." (Mary Oliver)

Look for ALLUSION in William Carlos Williams' poems: "January Morning", "The Sparrow", and FROM: "Paterson, Book II: Sunday in the Park". Find and explain at least 10 allusions in these three poems. Textual render these 3 poems and turn in your 10 definitions of the allusions for next class.

In Lab:

After reading pages 60-62 in 101 Great American Poems and reading the William Carlos Williams poems from class, write a poem in the style of William Carlos Williams. Use any of these prompts to get you started:

1. Describe a private act your speaker of the poem might perform in detail.
2. Similar to 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, choose a time or setting and divide that moment or time into parts. Write about all the fragmentary images that you see (or perhaps their meaning).
3. Compare a loved one (or someone you know well) with an ordinary object. Extend your metaphor.
4. Write a poem for your father.
5. Use white space creatively, but with significance in one of your poems that you write now, or as a different draft of a poem you have already written.
6. Combine prose with poetry.

Throughout all these prompts, remember to use the following poetic tools:
Sound imagery (cacophony, euphony: alliteration, consonance, assonance, onamatopoeia, internal ryhme)
Imagery: allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, symbol
Line: create a pattern or break a pattern to create an effect; use long or short or combination of line breaks; use enjambment; use stanzas and white space to create an effect
Meter: choose a metrical rhythm for your poem; pay attention to beats and syllables

Stuck? Remember the following:
1. All poems should have a character or speaker
2. The speaker should BE somewhere: give your poem a definite setting (even if you don't refer to it)
3. The speaker should have a reason to speak
4. The speaker should speak to someone or something
5. Give your speaker a distinct voice or attitude (tone)

Without these answers clearly formed in your mind, your poem may fail. Use your journal to sketch ideas before you begin.

Wallace Stevens - 13 Way of Looking at a...

Please write a poem in the style of Wallace Stevens' poem 13 Ways of Looking at a Black Bird.

Choose an object to be used symbolically.
Choose a significant #.
Write a poem draft.
Label the draft as draft #1.
Turn in when you complete the draft.

Homework: please read Carl Sandburg, Vachel Lindsey, Wallace Stevens in 101 Great American Poems. (Pages 53-60) That's all. Just read. As you read THINK about imagery, meter, diction, tone, sound, structure, line. (I.E. everything we've discussed so far about poetry).

Complete the journal exercise started on 11/19.

Imagery Reimagined - Symbol

Symbol:

Symbols are nouns. These nouns have a connotation attached to them, another meaning beyond their dictionary definition (denotation).

Poets use symbols then to infer or give a noun additional meaning.
Usually this connotative meaning is attached to a theme.
So, in a way, a writer uses a symbol to SHOW the connection between a noun and a theme instead of whacking the reader on the head with a TELLING statement.

Symbols are often culturally or nationally significant. Certain cultures attach meaning to objects in different ways. Thus, understanding a symbol can be difficult if you are from a different culture. Communicating a cultural symbol to someone who is outside of that particular culture is often difficult.

Other symbols are considered universal. These nouns carry additional weight that remain relatively consistent over time. Birds, for example, often symbolize spirituality. An eagle, would, perhaps symbolize spirituality AND freedom, if viewed by U.S. citizens (a particular cultural group).

Some common universal symbols include:

The compass points (north, south, east, west) can refer to intellectualism (north), physicality (south), paradise or beginning (east), end or death (west)

Day & night suggest birth and death

The seasons (Spring suggests birth, summer = youth/life, autumn = middle age, winter = death, or old age)

Some symbols are religious in nature: the cross, for example, represents Christ in Christianity. The Swastika originally symbolized spiritual power before it was “corrupted” by the Nazis during WWII. Thus, you can see, symbols can change their meaning over time, depending on the meaning a culture attaches to it.

Writers often use personal symbols. Certain poets (like Frost) use natural settings or items to suggest human life. A path in the woods may become a symbol for the decisions a human must make in his/her life. A stone wall might symbolize the demarcation of borders between humans or the lack of communication between people. Picking apples might symbolize opportunities and human effort.

When a writer uses a character or person to create a symbol instead of an object, this is called allegory. An allegory is an extended metaphor that attaches connotative meaning to characters, suggesting meaning beyond the normal use of characterization.

Robert Frost Homework

Please read the poems by Robert Frost in 101 Great American Poems. Choose one of the poems on pages 46-52. Analyze the poem, search for imagery, and explain the meaning of the poem: 1. on its surface, denotative meaning and 2. on its connotative, deeper, metaphysical meaning. Explain how the poet uses imagery to help him achieve his goal.

Metaphor/Simile exercises

Simile
A simile is a comparison between two nouns using like or as to make the connection.
Similes are very similar to metaphors but function a little differently.
A poet can use a simile rather than a metaphor for rhythm, sound, and meaning.
Adjectives often are included in a simile to make the comparison more imaginative.
Example: The night was dark and damp like an old trout buried in a moldy sock.
Similes are also a little less forceful and not as bold as metaphors.
Example: The woman is like a tornado. Opposed to: The woman is a tornado.
In the first example the woman is only compared to a tornado. The comparison is only suggested. The woman may also be like something else. In the second example the woman is a tornado. The comparison is stated directly. She is not similar to anything else--she is just a tornado.

Activity: Complete the following phrases by making them into similes. After completing these, complete the exercise on Metaphors and then create a series of short poems heavy on the imagery.

As empty as…
Stumbling like a…
Gathered together like a…
As rough as…
Singing like a…
Trembling like a…
Praying like a …
Stinking like a…
Grinning like a…

The trick, of course, is to avoid cliche.

Metaphor
A metaphor is a comparison between two unrelated nouns.
Metaphors are the backbone of poetry. They communicate in images and ideas which general language cannot convey. As a poetic tool, they are very effective communicators and provide pictures or images.

Activity: Write metaphors for each of the words or phrases below and then for some of the metaphors answer the question who, what, where, when, how and/or why about your comparisons. Use this brainstorming to create a series of short poems.

Heart of...
Mountains of...
War (love) is...
The ocean is...
The moon is...
This house of...

Of course continue these lists using your own subjects. Try to come up with a few originals.

Figurative language poem #1

1. Write a poem draft using extended metaphor.

2. Take one of your poems and revise. Add imagery in the form of simile, metaphor, personification, allusion, symbol, etc. Remember to label the draft.

Figurative Language

Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Symbol

Metaphors and similes are the backbone of many poems.
• A simile is a comparison between two objects (nouns) connected by like, as, or than or a verb like resembles.
• A simile expresses a similarity, a connection between two things.
• The art working here is that the two things are not normally thought of connecting or going together logically.
• The more dissimilar the objects being compared the more interesting and challenging the reading/listening process.

A simile equation looks like an analogy:
X:Y (x is to y)

By leaving out the connective (like, as, than, etc.), the result is a metaphor. Metaphors are more direct, making the connection deeper and more significant.

• One goal for a poet is to extend the metaphor, thereby prolonging the effect of the comparison.
• By selecting words which recall or connect to the metaphor being made, we can extend the comparison.

A metaphor equation might look like this:

X = Y (x is equal to y)

To extend a metaphor, choose the Y and list words which come to mind when thinking about Y.

Example:
Love is a bird.
X = Y

Bird associated words: peck, fly, feathers, worm, beak, hawk, egg, etc.

Love is a flightless bird
An ostrich with its head in the sand.
What sharp beak pecks my heart
In search of the green worm?
What comes first to this lonesome nest—
The egg or the chicken?

11/10 Class

For homework: Please read Mary Oliver's article on "Imagery". Note important concepts in the article and learn them. Then, apply what you learned about Imagery from Mary Oliver and select one of the poems in 101 Great American Poems (pages 29-44). Comment in a paragraph or two about the poet's use of imagery in one of these poems.

In class:
A. write poetry. Use what you learned about lines, metrics, sound, and image to create poems that use these devices.
B. Type up your journal exercise
C. Read your homework (see above)

The Poetic Line

A quick and easy guide to line breaks

The longer the line, the slower the action or the movement of the poem.

Use longer lines when you want the reader to slow down or the speaker in the poem is taking time to breathe.
Longer lines can also indicate ranting

The shorter the line, the faster the action or movement of the poem.

Use shorter lines when you want the reader to speed up or the speaker in the poem is in a hurry or excited.
Shorter lines can also indicate a simple mindset or persona.

Combine line lengths to speed up or slow down. When combined, the shorter lines become heavier and weighty with meaning. You are putting emphasis on the shorter lines because they stand out on the page from the longer ones.

This works the same way in reverse. A longer line will have emphasis in the midst of a lot of shorter lines.

LINE BREAKS and SPACE

The ends of your lines will emphasize the last word in the line of poetry.
Usually, the last word in a line is a noun. (Most lines end with nouns.)
Poetry without punctuation usually has nouns as end words in their lines so as not to confuse readers. (Most readers stop at the end of a line.)

In poetry that HAS punctuation, make sure you read to the period--do not pause at the end of a line or you will be confused.

Lines can also often end in a verb.
(lines ending in verbs stress the action happening in the poem)
Or an important word that the poet wants to stress

Space, in general, is used to show ‘emptiness’, scattered thoughts, parenthesis, and pausing.

Activity: Choose 1 or more poems that you have written the first draft of, rearrange the lines in a drastic way.
(If they were all together in one stanza, break them apart. If they were long lines, keep them short. If they were short--long....etc. Use spacing to show disjointedness or separation, etc.

Overall, play.

Poetry - Sound draft

Choose one of the poems you have written in the past few weeks. You will be asked to create a second draft of this poem.

For the second draft (please label it as a second draft), you will focus on SOUND and sound imagery.

You may wish to do any of the following to change or revise your poem:

1. Put your poem into a metrical pattern or create a syllabic pattern
2. Use alliteration, assonance, consonance, or rhyme to create a euphonic or cacophonic poem.
3. Change the line length of your poem to include a caesura or enjambment
4. Focus on your cadence groups

Turn your poem in, label it 2nd draft (sound).

Sound Segments, Families of Sound, Sound Imagery

Words are divided into segments (like cadence groups, but of individual sounds)

Ex. Top (has 3 segments)
Graph (has 4 segments)
Sometimes it takes more than one letter to make a segment.

Segments are divided into vowel sounds and consonant sounds (including semivowels).

Vowel sounds: a, e, I, o, u, and sometimes y and w.
All other are consonant sounds.

Consonants come in 3 types:
1. Stop sounds (p, b, t, d, k, g)

2. Continuant sounds (produced by the steady release of the breath and position of the tongue) (n, ng, l, r, th, s, z, sh, zh)

3. Semivowels (f, h, j, l, m, n, r, s, v, w, x, y, z)

There is often a difference between the spelling or graphic of the word and the phonetics (or sound) the word makes.

Sound Imagery and Technique

Euphony & Cacophony

Euphony (good sound) refers to words containing consonants that permit an easy and pleasant flow of spoken sound.
“Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind” is euphonious.

Cacophony (bad sound) the words do not flow smoothly but rather bump or clash against each other harshly and jarringly.
“Selfish shellfish” “Toy boat” “Red leather”, “the bare black cliff clang’d round him.”

The following are all techniques of creating euphony or cacophony. These can be used to create sound imagery.

Alliteration: the repetition of the first consonant of a word, through the cadence group or line

Assonance: the repetition of a vowel sound in a cadence group or line

Consonance: the repetition of a consonant sound in a cadence group or line found within words, as opposed to the beginning of a word (see Alliteration)

Onomatopoeia: Words that look the way they sound; a word that through sound represents what it defines

Rhyme: The agreement (euphony) of two metrically accented syllables and their terminal (end) consonants

Meter in Poetry

Two classifications of poetry: open forms; closed forms.

A closed form (traditional poetry), cadence groups form a pattern.
An open form (free verse, mainly), cadence groups do not form a set pattern.
Poetry in open forms tends to stress meaning over versification.

Syllables: individual units of rhythm in a word or line.

Stress: this class. Also, the emphasis placed on a syllable in a word.

Unstressed: lighter stress, not so heavy as the stress above.

Metrical feet:
1-foot = monometer
2-foot = dimeter
3-foot = trimeter
4-foot = tetrameter
5-foot = pentameter (the meter used in sonnets and blank verse lines; very common)
6-foot = hexameter
7-foot = heptameter
8-foot = octameter
9-foot = nonameter
10-foot = decameter

2 Syllable Feet:

Iambic: stress is on the second of two syllable words: ex. reTURN, beCAUSE, atTACK, etc.
Trochee: reverse of the Iambic, stress is on the first of two syllables: MOTHer, SISter, BORing.
Spondee: Both syllables are stressed.

3 Syllable Feet:

Anapest: stress is on the last syllable of a three syllabled word. Ex. Chevro-LET, rockandROLL

Dactyl: stress on first syllable followed by two non stressed. Ex. BU-da-pest, FOR-tu-nate

Caesura: (plural: caesurae) a pause separating cadence groups (however brief) within a line. If the pause is a result of the end of a line pause, then this is end-stopping.

Enjambement (enjambment): If a line has no punctuation at the end and runs over to the next line, it is called run-on or better yet, enjambement (enjambment).

Sound & Rhythm Elements in Poetry

Prosody is the study of sound and word choice in poetry.

Poems originally emerged from songs and music. Lyric poetry, for example, started as a "poem" spoken with the beautiful plucking of a 3-stringed harp called a lyre.
We hear poetry sung or spoken daily when we listen to the radio or to our favorite band.
Poems often have a distinct rhythm or pattern to their rhythm.
The rhythm of poetry includes: beat, meter, scansion

Rhythm (also called beat, metrics, versification, etc.) is the comparative speed and loudness in the flow of words spoken in poetic lines.

Words in poetry are selected, not just for content, but also sound or “musicality” of a line.
Placement in a line is also important.

Large units of words make up sentences and paragraph in prose; smaller units make up phrases or cadence groups. In poetry this is metrical feet.

Words are not read in isolation, but in small groups (cadence groups).
Ex. When lilacs last// in the dooryard bloom’d
And the great star// early droop’d
In the western sky// in the night.