POETRY

1. POETRY Exploring the Genre

2. Poetry: Exploring the Genre Whether telling a story, capturing a single moment, or describing nature in a whole new way, poetry is the most musical of all literary forms.

3. Poetry: Exploring the Genre Definition: • Main Entry: po·et·ry • Pronunciation: \ˈpō-ə-trē, -i-trē also ˈpȯ(-)i-trē\ • Function: noun • Date: 14th century • 1 a : metrical writing : verse b : the productions of a poet : poems • 2 : writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm • 3 a : something likened to poetry especially in beauty of expression b : poetic quality or aspect <the poetry of dance Source: Merriam-Webster VIEW BRAIN POP ON POETRY

4. Poetry: Strategies for Reading • Reading poetry is like solving a mystery. The poet provides you with clues in the form of words and phrases. Studying the clues carefully helps you put pieces together to form a complete picture. Use these strategies to help you in your poetic detective work (Prentice Hall 705).

5. Poetry: Strategies for Reading 1. Interpret Figurative Language • Figurative language is language not meant to be taken literally. • Helps to create vivid, clear mental pictures. • Think: What is the writer trying to SHOW you… 2. Read lines according to punctuation • Keep reading when a line has no punctuation at the end. • Pause at commas, dashes, and semicolons. • Stop at end marks, like periods, question marks, or exclamation points.

6. Poetry: Strategies for Reading 3. Paraphrase • Look up any words that you do not know and replace them with familiar synonyms. • Use the language you use in everyday speech in place of formal language. • REREAD the passage to see if your new interpretation makes sense when read with surrounding text. • Use your senses • Poets LOVE to use sensory details!!

7. Poetry: Narrative and Lyric “The Cremation of Sam McGee” “Washed in Silver” “Winter”

8. Poetry: Narrative and Lyric • Narrative Poetry: • Poetry that tells a story. Like a story, narrative poetry has a plot, characters, and a setting. • Unlike a story, a narrative poem makes use of sound devices, such as rhythm and repetition. • Lyric Poetry: • Verse that expresses a poet’s thoughts and feelings about a single image or idea. • Lyric poetry is written in vivid, musical language.

9. SIMILE A comparison between two unlike things using like or as Example: The old man walked as slowly as a turtle creeping uphill. Example: “She sang like an angel.” METAPHOR A comparison between two unlike things without using like or as Example: The horse’s coat was a sheet of velvet. Example: “Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” HYPERBOLE Exaggeration meant to produce a particular effect. Example: I tried a thousand times. Example: “The guard was twelve feet tall with muscles of steel.” PERSONIFICATION Giving human characteristics to a nonhuman subject Example: The tree waved happily at us as we walked along the road. Example: “The washing machine danced across the floor.” Poetry: Common Figures of Speech

10. “The Cremation of Sam McGee” “The only society I like is that which is rough and tough—and the tougher the better. That’s where you get down to bedrock and meet human people.” Robert Service (1874-1958)

11. “The Cremation of Sam McGee” • Robert Service was born in England and raised in Scotland. • He was sent to the Yukon Territory by the bank he worked for. • There, he came face to face with the rough world of fur trappers and gold prospectors. • Soon, he began to write poems about these lively rough and tumble characters. • Eventually, Service left the bank for a full time life of writing. He traveled to the Yukon and other Artic areas for eight years recording his adventures.

12. “The Cremation of Sam McGee” Historical Background In 1896, George Carmack, Tagish Charlie, and Skookum Jim discovered gold on the Bonanza Creek. This discovery marked to beginning of the Klondike Gold Rush. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFflJCrZtGE

13. “The Cremation of Sam McGee” • This is a narrative poem. • Like a narrative written in prose, “The Cremation of Sam McGee” will follow the events of the plot diagram. • This poem will use exaggeration, humor, and fantasy to tell the tale of two gold prospectors and the promises made, promises kept. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cmmuQ8wYV0

14. Comparing Literary Works

15. Comparing Literary Works

16. Literary Analysis

17. Literary Analysis Questions 2. The central conflict is Cap’s promise to cremate Sam even when he is tired from carrying the body and doesn’t have any fuel to start a fire with. 3. The poem is different from a story in that it is structured like a poem and it rhymes.

18. “Washed in Silver” • James Stephens grew up in a poor neighborhood in Dublin, Ireland. • He was a veracious reader and read everything he got his hands on. • His writing and poetry often includes his love of Ireland’s powerful legends and fairy tales. • “Washed in Silver” captures the magical quality of Irish legends.

19. “Winter” • Nikki Giovanni (b. 1943) is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. • Over the past thirty years, her outspokenness, in her writing and in lectures, has brought the eyes of the world upon her. • One of the most widely-read American poets, she prides herself on being "a Black American, a daughter, a mother, a professor of English." • Giovanni remains as determined and committed as ever to the fight for civil rights and equality. • The author of some 30 books for both adults and children, Nikki Giovanni is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

20. Literary Analysis: “Washed in Silver”

21. Literary Analysis: Questions 4. “Winter and “Washed in Silver” both focus on nature. The feelings that are expressed in each poem are also similar in that they both communicate a feeling of awe about their surroundings. 5. Answers will vary--be sure you provide an explanation

22. Form refers to the physical structure of the poem. It also refers to the rules the poet follows to achieve a particular structure. There are many different forms of poetry including stanza, concrete poem, and haiku. Stanza: A group of lines that might be thought of as corresponding to a paragraph in prose. Most traditional English poems are divided into stanzas. Concrete Poem: A poem in which the shape of the words suggests its subject. The poet arranges the letters and lines to create a visual image. Haiku: A traditional form of Japanese poetry. A haiku always has three lines and seventeen syllables. There are 5 syllables in the first and third lines and 7 syllables in the second. Literary Analysis: Form in Poetry

23. Poetry: Concrete and Haiku • “Seal” • “The Pasture” • “Three Haiku”

24. “Seal” • Born in Louisiana, William Jay Smith (b. 1918) has had a very busy life--teaching college students, writing poetry and essays, translating Russian and French, and even serving in the Vermont State Legislature. • Many of Smith’s poems are made for young people and can be described as being pure, simple, and fun.

25. Concrete Poetry • A poem in which the shape of the words suggests its subject. • The poet arranges the letters and lines to create a visual image. • In “Seal”, the poet uses a seal’s shape to describe the animal as he dives and swims through water.

26. “The Pasture” • Born in 1874, Frost spent most of his life in New England. • At different times in his life, he worked as a framer and as a part time teacher. • Frost had a long and distinguished career as a poet, winning the Pulitzer Prize four time--more than any other poet. • In “The Pasture”, the speaker describes spring cleaning on a farm. Instead of avoiding his duties, the speaker looks forward to the signs of the new season.

27. “Three Haiku” • Matsuo Basho is known as the first great poet in the history of haiku. • Basho's haikus are dramatic, and they exaggerate humor or depression, ecstasy or confusion. These dramatic expressions have a paradoxical nature. The humor and the despair which he expressed are not implements to believe in the possibility of the human being and to glorify it. • If anything, the literature of Basho has a character that the more he described men's deeds, the more human existence's smallness stood out in relief, and it makes us conscious of the greatness of nature's power.

28. Haikus • A traditional form of Japanese poetry. A haiku always has three lines and seventeen syllables. There are 5 syllables in the first and third lines and 7 syllables in the second. • The three haiku by Matsuo Basho express different images and feelings: a view of a mountain path, mist on a mountain, the smell of flower blossoms. In addition to describing these images, the haiku evoke surprise and wonder.

29. Comparing Literary Works:‘Seal”, “The Pasture”, “Three Haiku”

30. Comparing Literary Works:‘Seal”, “The Pasture”, “Three Haiku” • Who do you think is being addressed as “you” in “Seal” and “The Pasture”? Name at least two details from each poem to support your answer. • “Seal”-the reader=“you” • ”you” and “your” in lines 18 and 27 could be addressed to anyone • “The Pasture”-someone the speaker lives with = “you” • “going out” and “shan’t be gone long” 2. What do you think Basho’s favorite season was? Support your answer. • Spring because he talks about flowers and asks if spring has come