Poetry 1: Identity

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Poetry 1 Identity Family

• Tone, Sound and Free Verse

Image source
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Outline

• General Questions
• Understanding the Poems Poetic Language
• 3 Gwendolyn Brooks   "We Real Cool" (1960  p.
  534)  
• 6 Emily Dickinson "I'm Nobody! Who are you?"
  (1861 p. 683)
• 4 Walt Whitman A Noiseless Patient Spider
  (1891 p. 659)
• 5/2 Adrienne Rich Aunt Jennifers Tiger
• 1 Robert Hayden Those Winter Sundays
• Lynn Lifshin My Mother and the Bed
• Quiz 1 Tone, Sound, Free Verse and Lyric
• Essay Questions and Review

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General Questions

• What is identity?
• What determines our identities?

Text Identity Factors
Story of an Hour Gender Creole society in New Orleans marriage
Rose for Emily Gender The American South industrialism
Old Man with Enormous Wings Alien/Age Religion seaside village
Araby Age/Gender Religion vs. Commercialism Dublins social problem
A P Class/Gender Small town America commercial society
Pygmalion Class/Gender Late Victorian society English
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General Questions

• What is identity?
• What determines our identities?

Text Identity Factors
We Real Cool Collective Cool Actions Black
Im Nobody. Who Are you? Private and Associative Social visibility
A Noiseless Patient Spider Soul -- Associative Vast surrounding
Aunt Jennifers Tigers Gender Family labor and death
Those Winter Sundays Familial Family poverty and paternal care Black
My Mother and the Bed Familial Daily order and maternal care
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General Questions

• Are parents always loving?  What makes their love
  difficult to express, or 'difficult' for their
  children to understand? 

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Understanding Poetry

• From Paraphrasing, Analysis to Application

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"We Real Cool" (1960  p. 685)  

•   The Pool Players.Seven at the Golden Shovel.
•  
• We real cool. We
• Left school. We
•  
• Lurk late. We
• Strike straight. We
•  
• Sing sin. We
• Thin gin. We
•  
• Jazz June. We
• Die soon.

alliteration internal rhymes
repetitions
Strike straight 1) attacking others 2) play
billiard balls Jazz 1) empty talk to or sex
with a woman named June 2) going here and there
in June
?
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"We Real Cool"  

1. Paraphrasing
2. Analysis (1) Connotation Speakers identity?
   Why cool?
3. Analysis (2) Poetic Language Their tone? How do
   the stress and sound Pattern help convey the
   meaning? Symbol-- Golden Shovel?
4. Analysis (3) What is cool for you? Does
   developing a group identity matter for you?

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I'm Nobody! Who are you?

• I'm Nobody! Who are you?
• Are you--Nobody--too?
• Then there's a pair of us!
• Don't tell! they'd banish usyou know!
•  
• How dreary--to be--Somebody!
• How public--like a Frog--
• To tell your name--the livelong June--
• To an admiring Bog!

repetitions
alliteration Iambic meter
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I'm Nobody! Who are you?

• Paraphrasing
• Analysis (1) Connotation Speakers identity?
  That of you? The differences between nobody
  and somebody?
• Analysis (2) Poetic Language The speakers tone
  in the 1st and 2nd stanzas? The use of dashes?
  The metaphor of bog and frog.
• Analysis (3) Do you like to be a somebody, or
  nobody? Or neither? What do you feel about the
  speakers criticism of somebody like a frog?
  

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Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

• A reclusive poet with mental energies.
• produced 1,775 known poems as well as the
  hundreds of letters. Only 7 (or 11) of the poems
  were published anonymously in her lifetime.
• a traumatic experience (between 1858 and 1862)
• Stayed in her own house for the last seventeen
  years of her life.

Film Emily Dickinson The Poet In Her Bedroom
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vPU8XijqmnT0
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A noiseless patient spider

• Walt Whitman "A Noiseless Patient Spider
• Poem animation http//www.youtube.com/watch?v0ML
  YFC1nBWU
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vB7ui3PDC5tofeature
  related

• A noiseless patient spider,
• I mark'd where on a little promontory (??) it
  stood isolated,
• Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast(1)
  surrounding,
• It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament,
  out of it self,
• Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding
  them. (2)
•  
• And you O my soul where you stand,
• Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of
  space,
• Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking
  (3) the spheres to connect them,
• Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the
  ductile (???) anchor hold,
• Till the gossamer thread you fling catch
  somewhere, O my soul. (4)  
• (1. consonance, 2, assonance, 3. internal rhyme,
  4. alteration between troche and dactyl.
  reference)

repetitions
Feminine rhyme Sounds l, s, open vowels
e.g. o
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A Noiseless Patient Spider

• Paraphrasing
• Analysis (1) Connotation What are the
  implications in comparing the soul to a spider?
  How are the activities of the spider similar to
  and different from those of the soul? The effects
  of the speakers apostrophizing (??) the soul ("O
  my soul")?
• Analysis (2) Poetic Language The sound and line
  patterns? The form of free verse.
• Analysis (3) If you want to compare yourself, or
  your mind, to an animal, which would you choose
  and why?

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Walt Whitman

• A printer, teacher, journalist? poet ? hospital
  worker, government clerk, later fired because of
  his poetry.
• Publishes Leaves of Grass in 1855, later revised
  8 times.
• A free thinker, sometimes without regular jobs.
  (source)
• portrait from an 1854 engraving by Samuel
  Hollyer

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Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
rhymes

• Aunt Jennifers tigers prance across a
  screen,Bright topaz (???) denizens of a world of
  green.They do not fear the men beneath the
  treeThey pace in sleek chivalric
  certainty.Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering
  through her woolFind even the ivory needle hard
  to pull.The massive weight of Uncle's wedding
  bandSits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's
  hand.When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands
  will lieStill ringed with ordeals she was
  mastered by.The tigers in the panel that she
  madeWill go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

Alliteration, p sound
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Aunt Jennifer's Tigers

• Paraphrasing
• Analysis (1) Connotation The relations between
  Aunt Jennifer, her fingers, wedding ring and her
  tigers with pace "in sleek chivalric
  certainty. 
• Analysis (2) Poetic Language the use of tiger
  and wedding ring as symbols.
• Analysis (3) How much can the embroidered tigers
  represent aunt Jennifer? Do you have relatives
  like her?

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"Those Winter Sundays" (1962)
alliteration, explosive sounds

• Sundays too my father got up early
• and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
• then with cracked hands that ached
• from labor in the weekday weather
• made banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked
  him. 
• I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
  
• When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
• and slowly I would rise and dress,
• fearing the chronic angers of that house. 
• Speaking indifferently to him,
• who had driven out the cold
• and polished my good shoes as well,
• What did I know, what did I know
• of love's austere and lonely offices? rituals,
  ceremonious

Open vowels Long and short lines
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"Those Winter Sundays" --

1. Paraphrasing
2. Analysis (1) Connotation the contrast between
   the past view and the present one about the
   speakers father and his work.
3. Analysis (2) Poetic Language descriptions of
   the cold and the house. Sound pattern.
4. Analysis (3) Does it matter to you whether you
   know of the poets background? Is the poem
   relevant to you?

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My Mother and the Bed

• http//www.lynlifshin.com/bil-mompoems.htm
• No, not that way she'd
• say when I was 7, pulling
• the bottom sheet smooth.
• You've got to,   saying
• hospital corners 
• I wet the bed much later
• than I should, until
• just writing this I
• hadn't thought of
• the connection 

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My Mother and the Bed (2)

• Smelled of smoke but
• she says the rooms here
• smell funny 
• We drove at 3 am
• slowly into Boston and
• strip what looked like
• two clean beds as the
• sky got light.  I
•  
• Smoothed on the form
• fitted flower bottom,
• she redid it. 
• She thinks of my life
• as a bed only she
• can make right

• My mother would never
• sleep on sheets someone
• else had.    I never
• saw any stains on hers
• tho her bedroom was 
• a maze of powder, hair
• Pins,  black dresses
• She used to bring her
• own sheets to my house,
• carried toilet seat covers. 
• Lyn, did anybody sleep
• in my,   she always asked
• Her sheets,   her hair

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My Mother and the Bed

• Paraphrasing
• Analysis (1) Connotation Whats the mothers
  long-term influence on the daughter and her
  responses to it?
• Analysis (2) Poetic Language How do the poetic
  form and the images convey the meanings?
• Analysis (3) How do you feel about your parents
  ways of disciplining or educating you?

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Understanding Poetic Language

• Quiz 1 Sound and Sense

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1. Which of the following is NOT a free verse?

• 1. Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her
  woolFind even the ivory needle hard to pull.
• 2. It launch'd forth filament, filament,
  filament, out of it self,
• Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding
  them
• 3. No, not that way she'd
• say when I was 7, pulling
• the bottom sheet smooth.
• You've got to,   saying
• hospital corners 
• 4. I'm Nobody! Who are you?
• Are you--Nobody--too?
• Then there's a pair of us!
• Don't tell! they'd banish usyou know!

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Free Verse

• A poetic form that does not rhyme, nor use the
  metrical patterns of traditional poetry. Rather,
  it establishes its own patterns.
• It is unrhymed, with no regular line length.
• It has rhythmical lines varying in length.
• Its patterns produced through repetition of
  words, sounds and/or parallel grammatical
  structure.
•  

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2. Which of the following is an adequate
description of the poems sound effects?

1. The explosive sounds in Aunt Jennifers Tigers
   create a sense of hardship. (Aunt Jennifer's
   tigers prance across a screen, Aunt Jennifer's
   tigers prance across a screen)
2. The long and open vowels in A Noiseless Patient
   Spider (Till the bridge you will need be
   formed, till the ductile anchor hold,/Till the
   gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere )
   produces a sense of continuity.
3. The dashes in Im Nobody. Who are you? (e.g.
   Are you  Nobody  too? ) create a sense of
   continuity and calmness.

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Sound Sense

• Different sounds create different effects in
  different contexts. In general
• easily pronounced consonants (e.g. l, r, m,
  n) and open and long vowels can be create a
  sense of ease or fluidity
• Explosive sounds (t, d, g, k,p b),
  sometimes combined with short vowels,  can create
  a sense of vitality or difficulty.
• nasal sounds (m n) can create a sense of
  melancholy

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3. Which of the following is NOT part of the
functions of an apostrophe (?? O my soul)?

1. To compare the object to another object
2. To personify the object addressed
3. To bring it (the absent object) to presence
4. To show respect to the object.

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Apostrophe

• -- figure of speech in which an absent person, a
  personified inanimate being, or an abstraction is
  addressed as though present
• -- the poet talks to (and personifies) the one
  addressed.
•  

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4. Which of the following is not part of the
poetic sound pattern to consider?

1. Repetition of consonants (consonance) or
   assonants (assonants)
2. Rhyme alliteration, end rhyme and internal rhyme
3. Stresses put on different syllables (e.g. iambic)
4. The pauses in the poetic lines.
5. All of the above.

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Rhyme Rhythm

• Rhyme is a sound device that usually entails the
  repetition of the final vowel and consonant
  sounds in two words.
• internal rhyme Some poems have rhymes within the
  lines. This is called.
• Assonance is the repetition of vowels sounds,
  either at the beginning of words or within words.
  
• Head rhyme Alliteration is related to assonance
  in that alliteration also involves the repetition
  of sounds, this time the repetition of consonants
  at the beginning or middle of words.
• Meter (??) a regularly repeating rhythm, divided
  for convenience into feet (??). Meter describes
  an underlying framework actual poems rarely
  sustain the perfect regularity that the meter
  would imply.
• (e.g. iambic pentameter ????? reference)

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5. Which of the following descriptions of the
speakers in the poems we have read is INCORRECT?

1. The speaker of Those Winter Sundays describes
   his childhood in retrospect.
2. The speakers of We Real Cool boast about their
   identity.
3. The speaker of Im Nobody. Who are you? is
   snobbish.
4. The speaker of A Noiseless Patient Spider
   cherishes his/her own mental actions.

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Lyric

• The most personal of poetic forms, lyric is
  usually a short but intense expression of
  personal feelings. 
• Although it is originally sung to the music of a
  lyre, not all lyrics are to be sung.  Still,
  musical quality can be found in some of the poems
  we have read (e.g. A Noiseless Patient Spider).
• Although it involves personal expressions, the
  speaker of a lyric is not necessarily the poet. 

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Conclusion

• Understanding the parents
• Aunt Jennifers Tigers hardship and survival
• "Musical Key" by Cowboy Junkies -- care
• Those Winter Sundays hardship and stern care
• My Mother and the Bed care and over-control
• Aging and Death
• My Mother and the Bed ? turned into past tense.
  
• Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night later

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Essay Question 1

• 1. Family Influences
• So far we have read several texts where
  parent-children relationships or family
  background is a major factor in a childs growth
  (i.e. Araby, Pygmalion, Those Winter Sundays,
  My Mother and the Bed and Musical Key).
• How do the children in the short story, play,
  poems and song relate to their parents ways of
  educating or NOT educating them? (What do the
  parents do? How do the children take it and how
  do they express their understanding of their
  parents? Is there communication between/among
  them? Is their communication or lack of it
  related to their social background?) Do the
  children grow in the texts?
• Compare Pygmalion with at least one of the other
  texts (either a story, a poem or the song).

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Essay Question 2

• 2. Children or Young Peoples Views of their
  Society and Identity
• In the texts narrated or spoken by a child or a
  teenager, how does their point of view influence
  their views of their society/world and their
  sense of identity? In what ways are they biased?
  Do they learn to change or correct their views
  in the text? Please choose one story and one
  poem/song from the following AP, Fast
  Cars, We Real Cool.

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Essay Question

• Suggested order of your answer--
• Specify your topic if you are given a choice.
  Give a thesis statement as a direct answer to the
  question/topic.
• Support your thesis statement by giving specific
  examples from the text and analyzing them.

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• In analyzing a short story, you don't need to
  summarize the plot, but you need to discuss how
  the theme (characters) you deal with develop in
  the different parts of the novel. In analyzing a
  poem, you dont need to paraphrase it.
• Conclude by summarizing your main points and
  discussing your thesis a bit more.

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Review

• QuestionsPersonal Views, Sound and Line Pattern,
  connections between the poem and the poet.
• Close Reading Sound Effect, Sound Pattern,
  (consonance, assonance and alliteration) Line
  Length, Line End and Sentence End
• Lyric

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See you next time!!!