Reading Poetry

Poetry Analysis III

Readings

Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 12.” Poetry Foundation.

Herbert, George. “The Collar.” Poetry Foundation.

Stevens, Wallace. “Poetry is a Destructive Force.” In The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens. Vintage, 2015.

Marvell, Andrew. “The Mower to the Glow-worms.” Poetry Foundation.

Plath, Sylvia. “Daddy” and “Morning Song.” In Collected Poems. Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2018.

Things to mark up/questions to ask when you read a poem (a running list):

This is a continuation of the previous two poetry analysis pages.

1. Mise-en-scene: what does the writer make visibly present in the scene(s) of the poem? If you were to draw the poem, what would or could be shown in that drawing?
2. Imagery: what is present in the language of the poem that would not be shown? (Things in the second category, present as concept, are “imagery”, or more exactly, “figurative language”). E.g.  “Between my finger and my thumb, the squat pen rests, snug as a gun”: “finger,” “thumb,” and “pen” would be present in a visual representation of the poem, “gun” would not—it’s a simile.
3. Literal language: love is a powerful emotion. Trimming rose bushes will produce more roses to pick.
4. Figurative language: love is a rose and you better not pick it. Those thorns will hurt you.
   1. Similes are figures of comparison: a is like b, a is as x as b, etc.
   2. Metaphors are figures of identity: a is b. Or, I say “b,” meaning “a.”

Vocabulary

1. Assonance: same vowel sounds repeated. Breeze/wheel
2. Consonance: same consonant sounds repeated (including inside words) bright/zebra
3. Alliteration: repeated sounds at the beginning of words. bright/breeze, eel/easy
4. Chiasmus: repetition and reversal (can be applied to syllables, words and clauses as well as sounds). Breeze/zebra
5. Rhyme: same sounds repeated at the end of words.
   1. Masculine rhyme: 1 vowel, or vowel + consonant. E.g.: be/me, breeze/freeze
   2. Feminine rhyme: 2 syllables, - initial consonant). E.g.: breezy/easy
   3. End-rhyme: words at the end of the line rhyme with the end of another nearby line.
   4. Internal rhyme: words anywhere in the line rhyme with words anywhere in another nearby line.