Poetry%202:%20Nature%20

1
Poetry 2 Nature Love Relations

• Imagery and Metaphor
• Rhyme and Rhythm

2
Outline

• Responses, Review Your Questions
• Unit 2 General Questions
• Poems -- Wordsworth I Wandered Lonely as a
  Cloud (p 677)19th C-- Whitman A Noiseless
  Patient Spider (p. 1106)  19th C-- Mary Oliver
  Wild Geese 20th C
• --Robert Burns A Red, Red Rose (p 808) late
  18th C
• -- Aphra Behn On Her Loving Two Equally (p.
  684) 17th C
• For Pleasure
• Sting Shape of My Heart (Ref. Linda Pastan
  Marks p 806)
• Conclusion Next Week
• Reference Understanding Poetic Language
  Figures of Speech, Rhyme and Rhythm

3
Mini Play Contest Responses

• A great learning experience for us all about
• theatrical performance, both front and back
  stage,
• the stage and overcoming stage fright,
• team work and professionalism,
• communication (including solving problems and
  expressing appreciation).

4
Identity, Lyric and Tone
5
Identity and Tone Your Interpretation

• 1) We Real Cool The We makes me put emphasis
  on the certain group, these individual words form
  to be collective, and I noticed that there are
  seven We at the bottom of the lines.
• 2) The Afro-Americans would die if they want
  freedom.
• 2) Im Nobody This poem consists of a few
  words, but they convey an impressive theme how a
  nobody can enjoy a private space of dignity. The
  speaker conveys an idea that being famous is a
  terrible thing. For her, nobody is incompatible
  with somebody, so the speaker stops another
  nobody to stay quiet for fear of their exile.

6
Identity and Tone Your Interpretation

• 2) The author was lonely and sick of her life.
• 2) The poem talks about the pursuit of soul
  inside our mind.
• 2) Im Nobody In this poem, the author
  elucidates a strong dislike of being somebody.
  In terms of denotation?Apparently, it seems that
  the author?When the speaker asks, Im nobody!
  Who are you? Are younobodytoo? she is both
  careful and happy about finding another person,
  seemingly due due to her loneliness. But if we
  look at it in terms of connotation, ? However,
  from the way she opposes nobody and somebody, it
  turns out that she is thrilled and happy because
  she has discovered another individual who is as
  smart as her and chooses to be a nobody. .

7
Identity and Tone Your Interpretation

• 3) Stopping By Woods This poem gives us a sense
  of loneliness and desolation. The picture in
  front of us is crystal white and the sound is
  deep quite as well. The narrator is on the way
  back to his hometown. It seems like he has been
  doing his own business (or other things) outside
  for a long period. . At last, even the forest
  and the surrounding atmosphere is attractive and
  enchanted, the narrator had already made up his
  mind to reach his missing lovely place, home.

8
Identity and Tone Your Interpretation

• 3) Those Winter Sundays Second, here comes the
  personification. The chronic angers of that
  house literally means the house is angry, but
  figuratively it means that it is like a person in
  a bad shape, and thus is angry about itself.
  Also, it can be explained as the angers of family
  members, which suggests that the atmosphere of
  the family is quite unhappy. Next, the explosive
  consonant sounds (k,p b) in phrases like
  blueblack cold, banked fired blaze, and the
  cold splintering, breaking, create a sense of
  harshness and difficulty, make the coldness much
  more severe and vivid.

9
Identity and Tone Your Interpretation

• 3) Those Winter Sundays In this poem , writer
  put much emphasis on fathers old and sick image
  in the beginning. ?
• 4) the darkest evening of the year the
  brightest day?
• 5) we sing sin ? repent and improve themselves?
• 6)

10
General Questions Love and Nature

• 1. How is nature treated in the 3 or 4 poems we
  read?
• 2. Here we have two views of love? How are they
  each conveyed? And which do you agree with more?

11
You be the poets

• 1) putting the poems together
• 2) reading the poem out loud
• 3) answering another groups questions

12

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

• William wordsworth (1770 1850) 

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I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

1. How are the speaker and the daffodils set in
   contrast, each with different similes and/or
   metaphors?
2. Tense What is the function of the use of present
   and past tenses?
3. What does inward eye refer to?
4. Rhyme and Rhythm what do they convey?

14
I wandered lonely as a cloud

• I wandered lonely as a cloudThat floats on high
  o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a
  crowd,A host, of golden daffodilsBeside the
  lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing
  in the breeze.Continuous as the stars that
  shineAnd twinkle on the milky way,They
  stretched in never-ending lineAlong the margin
  of a bayTen thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing
  their heads in sprightly dance.

15
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

• The waves beside them danced but theyOut-did
  the sparkling waves in gleeA poet could not but
  be gay,In such a jocund companyI gazed---and
  gazed---but little thoughtWhat wealth the show
  to me had broughtFor oft, when on my couch I
  lieIn vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon
  that inward eyeWhich is the bliss of
  solitudeAnd then my heart with pleasure
  fills,And dances with the daffodils.

16

A Noiseless Patient Spider

• Walt Whitman (1819 - 1892) 

17
A noiseless patient spider

• 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
  (4) 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.  
• (1. consonance, 2, assonance, 3. alliteration, 4.
  internal rhyme)

18
Spider web construction
1. the spider bridges the open space between the
two sticks
2. establishes the so-called proto-hub
video

• http//pages.unibas.ch/dib/nlu/staff/sz/webconstru
  ct.html

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Spider web construction
3. the construction of the frame and the radii
4. The circling of the hub ? the construction of
the auxiliary (or temporary) spiral.? the
sticky spiral

• http//pages.unibas.ch/dib/nlu/staff/sz/webconstru
  ct.html

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A Noiseless Patient Spider Discussion Questions

• Symbol What are the implications in comparing
  the soul to a spider?
• Compare Contrast How are the activities of the
  spider similar to and different from those of the
  soul?
• Figurative language What are the effects of the
  repetition of his apostrophizing (??) the soul
  ("O my soul")?
• Sound effects?
• Form the pattern of free verse depends a lot on
  repetition (with variation) of different poetic
  elements.   Why are there not as many repetitions
  in the second stanza?  From stanza one to two, we
  see similar kind of variation of line length
  (which gets longer and longer).  What effects are
  achieved here?

21
Free Verse

• Unrhymed no regular length
• Rhythmical lines varying in length
• Patterns produced through repetition and parallel
  grammatical structure.
• 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. 

22
Rhyme

• 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.

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

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A noiseless patient spider as a symbol

• Figurative language the soul, something active
  (like spider working) and cherished (via
  apostrophe).
• Symbol a spider ? the soul
• difficult, quiet and laborious work in setting
  up structures out in empty space.
• The souls action musing, venturing, throwing,
  seeking intellectual and various.
• Sound effects? signifying their actions (slow,
  soft, quiet, continuous and non-violent).
• Form rhythm regular increasing line lengths
  -- the extension of their threads and
  connections.
• (for your reference http//www.cc.nctu.edu.tw/sh
  een/al/notes.html2 )

24
Extension Questions A Noiseless Patient Spider

• 1.  If you were going to compare yourself to an
  animal, what animal would you choose? Why?
• 2. Can you relate to the action of making
  connections in the world or universe? Is it
  difficult for you?
• 3. The song "Sound of Silence" can be seen as
  another search for inner soul--by talking to
  darkness as an old friend.  Please pay attention
  to the contrasts in imagery between darkness and
  light, silence and sound.  The phrase "sound of
  silence" is an oxymoron can you explain why?

25
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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Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass

• -- challenged an American literary establishment
  that he believed was too influenced by Old World
  literary tradition.
• He characterized his poetry as experimental,
  termed his poetic mission "a war," and fought the
  battle to establish a body of truly American
  poetry--one that featured American language,
  American life, an American vision, and musical
  free verse--to his dying breath.

27
"Song of Myself democracy and individualism

• I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
• And what I assume, you shall assume,
• For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to
  you.
• (ll. 1-3, part 1)
• I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the
  runaway sun,
• I effuse (???)my flesh in eddies (??), and drift
  it in lacy jags (??).
• I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the
  grass I
• love,
• If you want me again look for me under your
  boot-soles.
• (ll. 7-10, part 52)

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"Wild Geese (1990)

• 1. Speaker and Tone
• Who is the "you" the speaker of this poem
  addresses in the first and the third parts of the
  poem?
• 2. Goodness vs. Soft Body How are they opposed?
  
• 3. Despair vs. the Living World Describe how
  nature is presented and what it suggests (with
  two kinds of movement the sun and rain moving
  across different places, and the wild geese
  heading home).
• 4. lonely you vs. the world What does the
  speaker say the world can do for "you" (or us)?
  Why is the world's call "harsh and clear" like
  wild geese?

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"Wild Geese (1990)

• You do not have to be good.
• You do not have to walk on your knees
• for a hundred miles through the desert,
  repenting.
• You only have to let the soft animal of your body
  
• love what it loves.
• Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you
  mine.

30
"Wild Geese (1990)

• Meanwhile the world goes on.
• Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the
  rain
• are moving across the landscapes,
• over the prairies and the deep trees,
• the mountains and the rivers.
• Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue
  air,
• are heading home again.
• Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
• the world offers itself to your imagination,
• calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and
  exciting--
• over and over announcing your place
• in the family of things.  

31
"Wild Geese (1990)

• 1. Speaker and Tone
• You can be the reader or the wild geese (at the
  end) any being.
• 2. Theme the poem celebrates the naturalness of
  our being (Soft Body), and communication among
  natural beings despite their loneliness.
• 3. Pattern long lines and the repetition of
  meanwhile suggest the worlds connectedness and
  continuity. Two basic moments regular and
  natural home
• 4. lonely you vs. the world The world is not
  just beautiful we are lonely. But the worlds
  various beings and happenings are there for us to
  comprehend and imagine, so the worlds call is
  "harsh and clear" like wild geese.

32
"Wild Geese (1990)

• 1. Speaker and Tone
• Who is the "you" the speaker of this poem
  addresses?
• 2. Goodness vs. Soft Body How are they opposed?
  
• 3. Despair vs. the Living World Describe how
  nature is presented and what it suggests
• 4. lonely you vs. the world What does the
  speaker say the world can do for "you" (or us)?
  Why is the world's call "harsh and exciting" like
  wild geese?
• 5. Is this a free verse? Why?
• 6. How is Wild Geese different in its approach
  to nature from that of I Wandered Lonely as a
  Cloud?

33
"Wild Geese (1990)

• You do not have to be good.
• You do not have to walk on your knees
• for a hundred miles through the desert,
  repenting.
• You only have to let the soft animal of your body
  
• love what it loves.
• Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you
  mine.

34
"Wild Geese (1990)

• Meanwhile the world goes on.
• Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the
  rain
• are moving across the landscapes,
• over the prairies and the deep trees,
• the mountains and the rivers.
• Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue
  air,
• are heading home again.
• Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
• the world offers itself to your imagination,
• calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and
  exciting--
• over and over announcing your place
• in the family of things.  

35
"Wild Geese (1990)

• 1. Speaker and Tone
• You can be the reader or the wild geese (at the
  end) any being.
• 2. Theme the poem celebrates the naturalness of
  our being (Soft Body), and communication among
  natural beings despite their loneliness.
• 3. Pattern long lines and the repetition of
  meanwhile suggest the worlds connectedness and
  continuity. Two basic moments regular and
  natural home
• 4. lonely you vs. the world The world is not
  always beautiful, and we are lonely. But the
  worlds various beings and happenings are there
  for us to comprehend and imagine, so the worlds
  call is "harsh and exciting" like wild geese.

36
An Anecdote!

• Swan falls in love with a swan-like pedal boat!
  (2006 Muenster, Germany) http//news.bbc.co.uk/cbb
  cnews/hi/newsid_6130000/newsid_6137400/6137406.stm
  

37
A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

• Song versions 1, 2
• Also the song writer of Auld Lang Syne (????)

38
My love is like a red, red rose
   Thats newly sprung in June
My love is like the melody
   Thats sweetly played in tune. 
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
   So deep in love am I
And I will love thee still, my dear,
   Till a the seas gang dry. 
Till a the seas gang dry, my dear,
   And the rocks melt wi the sun
And I will love thee still, my dear,
   While the sands o life shall run. 
And fare thee weel, my only love,
   And fare thee weel a while !
And I will come again, my love,
   Thou it were ten thousand mile.
39

• 1. Why does the speaker compare his love to red
  rose sprung in June and sweet melody that play
  in tune?
• 2. Besides the two similes above, he also uses
  some hyperbolic expressions (till the sea goes
  dry, the sun melts the rock and while sand of
  life runs). What could they possibly mean?
• 3. At the end the speaker says that hell be back
  though it were ten thousand mile. Is it real
  or hyperbolic?

• Discussion Questions

40
Behn, Aphra On Her Loving Two Equally

• (p. 684 ref. 684-)

41

• 1. The poem starts with a very interesting
  question when one loves two persons at the same
  time, will his/her love be diminished in
  strength? What does the speaker think? And you?
• 2. How are rhymes and the poetic syntax used to
  convey the speakers sense of struggle between
  the two? (Pay attention to repetition, parallel
  syntax and the rhymes.)

• Discussion Questions

42
ON HER LOVING TWO EQUALLY

• I.
• HOW strongly does my passion flow,
• Divided equally 'twixt two?
• Damon had ne'er subdued my heart,
• Had not Alexis took his part
• Nor could Alexis powerful prove,
• Without my Damon's aid, to gain my love.
• II. When my Alexis present is,
• Then I for Damon sigh and mourn
• But when Alexis I do miss,
• Damon gains nothing but my scorn.
• But if it chance they both are by,
• For both alike I languish, sigh, and die.

Double negative
Double negative inserted phrase
Alternating rhymes
Repetition of two-ness and die
43
ON HER LOVING TWO EQUALLY

• III.
• Cure then, thou mighty winged god,
• This restless fever in my blood
• One golden-pointed dart take back
• But which, O Cupid, wilt thou take?
• If Damon's, all my hopes are crossed
• Or that of my Alexis, I am lost.

Cupid, love personified
Shot by his arrow falling in love
Request made and regretted
44
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)

1. The first female writer that earned her living
   with the pen.
2. An introduction video
3. A paper sample and its analysis (also on your
   textbook p. 684)

45
Linda Pastan Marks

• My husband gives me an Afor last night's
  supper, an incomplete for my ironing, a B plus
  in bed.My son says I am average, an average
  mother, but ifI put my mind to itI could
  improve.My daughter believes in Pass/Fail and
  tells meI pass. Wait 'til they learnI'm
  dropping out. 

46
Discussion Questions

• 1. The poem uses an extended metaphor for us to
  see how the female speaker gets evaluated by her
  family. What are the connotations when family
  relations get compared to teacher-student
  relations? What does each grade say about the
  graders, or the graded?
• 2. What do you think the ending mean?
• 3. Is your mother treated this way?
• 4. What do you think about receiving grades at
  school? To what degree do they matter?

47
Shape Of My HeartSting

• He deals the cards as a meditationAnd those he
  plays never suspectHe doesn't play for the money
  he winsHe doesn't play for respect
• He deals the cards to find the answerThe sacred
  geometry of chanceThe hidden law of a probable
  outcomeThe numbers lead a dance

• I know that the spades are swords of a soldierI
  know that the clubs are weapons of warI know
  that diamonds mean money for this artBut that's
  not the shape of my heart
• He may play the jack of diamondsHe may lay the
  queen of spadesHe may conceal a king in his
  handWhile the memory of it fades

48
Shape Of My HeartSting

• I know that the spades are swords of a soldierI
  know that the clubs are weapons of warI know
  that diamonds mean money for this artBut that's
  not the shape of my heart
• And if I told you that I loved youYou'd maybe
  think there's something wrongI'm not a man of
  too many facesThe mask I wear is one

• Those who speak know nothingAnd find out to
  their costLike those who curse their luck in too
  many placesAnd those who fear are lost
• refrain

49
Review Conclusion
Form Content
Free verse Long and short lines A Noiseless Patient Spider Wild Geese
Tetrameter Metaphor Simile I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud A Red, Red Rose
Image Symbol Images of Nature in Wild Geese Spider
A separate existence Wild geese

50
Understanding Poetic Language

51
Literary Techniques (1) Tone and Voice
Voice that of the speakers in lyrics, its
usually the first-person. The tone of a poem,
like the tone of our speech, implies the
speaker's attitude(s) towards the poem's
subject.   The speaker's attitude can sometimes
be subtly expressed, and we need to carefully
study the poem's wording, rhythm and images to
understand the tone.  The tones can range from
being ironic, neutral, ambiguous, to being
emotional and angry.

52
Literary Techniques (2) Figures of Speech (????)

• Poets often deviate from the denotative meanings
  of words to create fresher ideas and images. Such
  deviations from the literal meanings are called
  figures of speech or figurative language.
• Example If you giddily whisper to your
  classmate that the introduction to literature
  class is so wonderful and exciting that the class
  sessions seem to only last a minute, you are
  using a figure of speech.
• Example If you say that our textbook is your
  best friend, you are using a figure of speech.
• Kinds metaphors, similes, personification,
  hyperbole, understatement, paradox, and pun.

Used by you in writing, speaking and joking.
53
Literary Techniques (2-1) image (??)
Image means "a concrete picture" (Harper Handbook
235).  In daily language image is usually a
composite of visual details, but literary images
can be those of sights, sounds, tastes, touch and
smells.   When your composition teacher asks you
to give concrete, sensory details in your
narrative, you are asked to recall/re-create
images of your experience so that your readers
can experience and feel them, too.  If you give
your images figurative meanings or other meanings
beyond the literal level, you are creating
figurative images (metaphors or similes) or
symbols.     ".

54
Literary Techniques (2-2) Imagery
(Please refer to my lecture on Araby) An
image is -- a word or sequence of words that
refers to any sensory experience (Kennedy and
Gioia 741). An image cluster (group) --
evokes a mental image, an atmosphere, or creates
symbolic meanings.

55
Literary Techniques (2-2) Metaphor
A Metaphor is a type of speech that compares or
equates two or more things that have something in
common. A metaphor does NOT use like or
as. Example Life is a box of chocolate.
You'll never know what you're going to get. A
bowl of cherries. Eat it up! More life
metaphor /similes here! http//crinago1172.blogs
pot.com/2007/12/life-metaphors.html (reference)

56
Literary Techniques (2-3) Simile, etc.
Simile -- e.g. Her voice was like nails on a
chalkboard. Personification Describing an
object or animal as though it had human
characteristics. -- e.g. Emilys coquettish
house in A Rose for Emily Apostrophe a direct
address to an imaginary object or absent person.
-- e.g. A Noiseless Patient Spider

(reference)
57
Literary Techniques (2-4) Symbol
When an image is made to stand for two things, as
when a rose represents itself and also the color
in a young woman's cheeks, the image turns into a
METAPHOR, SIMILE, or other form of FIGURATIVE
LANGUAGE.  e.g. "A Simile for her Smile" When
an image or an object has its own
meaning/existence, but then is also used
to suggest complex or multiple meanings. For
instance, when a rose represents itself, young
women generally, and also beauty and fagility, it
becomes a SYMBOL." (Harper Handbook 236)

(reference)
58
Literary Techniques (3) Rhyme

• usually End Rhyme the repetition of the final
  syllable (vowel and consonant sounds) in the last
  words of poetic lines.
• Different positions 
• 2. internal rhyme rhymes within the lines.
• Sound Patterns
• Consonance repetition of consonants
• Assonance -- repetition of vowel sounds
• Alliteration -- repetition of the first
  consonant (or syllables)
• Different Kinds of Rhyme Exact rhyme vs. slant
  (false) rhyme (room Storm), feminine rhyme
  (of unstressed syllables)

59
Literary Techniques (4) Rhythm scanning a poem

• Rhythm (??) refers to the stressed and unstressed
  syllables in a poem. (Like ?? in Chinese poems.)
• Meter (??)-- the pattern found among stressed
  and unstressed syllables in a poem. E.g. iambic
  (??) trochaic (??)
• scansion --the analysis of stressed and
  unstressed syllables in a poem.
• Steps
• 1) Mark the syllables ??
• 2) Mark the feet. ?? (2 to 3 syllables e.g.
  iambic ??)
• 3) Mark the caesuras (noticeable pause in a line
  of poetry)

60
Next Two Weeks

• Analysis Comparison
• Creative Adaptation Translation, Singing,
  Turning it into an Ad, Comparison, Writing a
  Story, Relevance to our world

61
See you next time!!!

62
Works Cited

• Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature An
  Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 7th
  ed. New York Longman, 1999.
• Literary Terms PowerPoint Presentation
  lthttp//www.clintweb.net/ctw/littermsppt.pptgt