Monday, October 7, 2013

ELearning; Diction, Tone, Voice

Today, please select a new poet's work to read and work with. In the lab, please complete the following tasks:
1. Continue working on the eLearning module 1. If you haven't started this module yet, you are falling far behind. Please use the time in the lab to get caught up.
2. Read your poet's collection of poems.
3. Type up poems you have written in your journal. As you type up poems, consider the FORM and STRUCTURE of your lines (consider meter, rhythm, length of line, use of patterns or type of poem like lyric, narrative poems, or prose poem) as well as the diction, tone, and voice of your work. Avoid inversion and informational language. Check your own grammar and syntax.
Poetry Vocabulary: PLEASE STUDY THESE TERMS!

Diction: word choice. Select words in your poem carefully to carry the most meaning. All words have a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning. Understatementeuphemism, and other rhetorical strategies may be used to affect a poem's diction. Speaking to your elderly grandparents uses a different diction than speaking to your "homies".

Voice: The agent or "speaker" speaking through the poem. Also called the "persona".

Tone: Often the attitude of your speaker or the voice. Identified in a poem by diction.
  • Tone can be formal or informal depending on the diction a poet uses.
  • Tone can be ironicsarcasticseriouspedantic, or hyperbolic depending on the voice a poet selects.
  • Tone can be positive or negative or neutral. Selecting one of these tones can or should affect your diction.
Metrical Feet: Two classifications of poetry: open forms; closed forms.

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).

HOMEWORK: Read your chosen poet's chapbook. Bring your book to next class to work with it. 

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About this course!

This course stresses understanding the characteristics & techniques in the literary genres of fiction, poetry, and dramatic writing. This course will continue to build on students’ reading and writing skills begun in previous creative writing classes. Readings and discussions of works by major writers in the field will be examined as inspiration and models of fine writing. This educational blog is designed for the use of the students at the School of the Arts in Rochester, NY.