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1. UNIT 3 Poetry Click the mouse button or press the space bar to continue

2. UNIT MENU Unit Menu Introducing the Unit Genre Focus: Poetry Literary Analysis Model: O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman Wrap-Up

3. INTRODUCTION Like other forms of literature, poetry concerns real life, but it distills that life to its essence. Poetry is the most concentrated form of literature: It makes every word and even every syllable count. All good poems allow the reader to experience the power and magic of words in a way that no other form of literature can.

4. INTRODUCTION The Energy of the Everyday We sometimes hear people say, “If I had it to do over again, I would take time to stop and smell the roses.” We are constantly surrounded with opportunities to take in the wonder of life. The poems in Part 1 find wonder in everyday experiences. As you read these poems, as yourself: What are some of my favorite memories of everyday experiences? What made those times special?

5. INTRODUCTION Loves and Losses The poems in Part 2 express the joys and insights love can bring as well as the emptiness and ache of its loss. As you read the following poems, ask yourself: what elements of poetry work to express love and loss? What is the author’s purpose in using these elements?

6. INTRODUCTION Issues of Identity Your identity is more than the clothes you wear, your interests, or thoughts and emotions. Through all the changes of life, part of you does not change—that something by which you recognize yourself, no matter what. The poems in Part 3 deal with changing identity. As you read them, as yourself: How have I changed in the last several years? What about me has not changed?

8. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY What distinguishes poetry from prose? Mexican poet Octavio Paz believes that “to create among people the possibility of wonder, admiration, enthusiasm, mystery, the sense that life is marvelous… to make life a marvel—that is the role of poetry.”

9. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY What distinguishes poetry from prose? How does poetry give a sense of the mystery and marvel of life? It uses what African American poet Quincy Troupe calls “the music of language.” Says Troupe, “I want the words to sing.” The elements of poetry, while they may be found in other genres, are essential to the art of poetry.

10. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Form and Structure of Poetry Lines and Stanzas Poetry does not look like prose. Poetry is arranged in lines and stanzas. A line is a horizontal row of words, which may or may not form a complete sentence. A stanza is a group of lines forming a unit and separated from the next stanza by a line of space.

11. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Form and Structure of Poetry Speaker The speaker is the voice that communicates with the reader of a poem. A speaker can be the voice of a person, an animal, or even a thing.

12. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Language of Poetry Figurative Language A figure of speech is a word or expression that is not meant to be taken literally. • A simile uses the word like or as to compare two seemingly unlike things. • A metaphor compares two or more different things by stating or implying that one thing is another. • Personification involves giving human characteristics to an animal, object, or idea.

13. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Language of Poetry Imagery Imagery is descriptive language used to represent objects, feelings, and thoughts. It often appeals to one or more of the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

14. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Language of Poetry Other Sound Devices • Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. • Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds within words or at the ends of words.

15. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Language of Poetry Other Sound Devices • Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within non-rhyming words. • Onomatopoeia is the use of a word or phrase, such as swoosh or clank, that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes.

16. GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Sound of Poetry Rhyme Rhyme is the repetition of a final stressed vowel and succeeding sounds in two or more words. Internal rhyme occurs within lines of poetry. End rhyme occurs at the ends of lines. Rhyme scheme, the pattern formed by end rhymes, is shown by a row of letters (a b a b) in which a different letter of the alphabet signals each new rhyme.

17. A poet chooses words and arranges them to create rhythm, the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. Rhythm can be regular or irregular. Meter is a regular rhythm. The basic unit in measuring rhythm is the foot, which usually contains one stressed syllable marked with ( ) and one or more unstressed syllables marked with ( ). GENRE FOCUS: POETRY The Sound of Poetry Rhythm and Meter

19. O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Strategy Analyzing Contrasts What contrasting images stand out in this poem? Answer:Images of a cheering and adoring crowd contrast with the Captain’s dead body.

20. O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Strategy Analyzing Contrasts What impression do the images create? Answer: They emphasize the sadness of the Captain’s death.

21. O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Literary Element Rhythm and Rhyme Identify the stanza form in “O Captain! My Captain!”. Answer: four long lines followed by four shorter lines

22. O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Literary Element Rhythm and Rhyme Identify the rhyme scheme in “O Captain! My Captain!”. Answer: aabbcded

23. O Captain! My Captain! by Walt Whitman LITERARY ANALYSIS MODEL Reading Check Evaluating In your opinion, which of the literary elements did Whitman use most successfully in “O Captain! My Captain!”? Explain your choice. Answer: You may appreciate the extended metaphor, imagery, or sound techniques.

25. WRAP–UP Elements of Poetry • Imagery • Imagery is descriptive language that appeals to the five senses. • Figurative language • Figurative language compares unlike things in imaginative ways. • Rhythm • The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry creates rhythm.

26. WRAP–UP Elements of Poetry • Rhyme • Rhyme and other sound devices repeat certain sounds to create musical effects. • Speaker • The speaker is the voice in the poem that talks to the reader. • Line • A line is a row of words. • Stanza • A stanza is a group of lines that form a unit.

27. WRAP–UP Guide to Reading Poetry • Poets use words differently than do writers of prose. • Reading poetry well involves using your emotions, experiences, and imagination as well as your intelligence. • Read a poem from beginning to end several times.

28. WRAP–UP Guide to Reading Poetry • Focus on what the words of the poem are actually saying. • Respond to the poem as a whole before analyzing it.

30. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Form A lineof poetry is a word or row of words that may or may not form a complete sentence. A stanzais a group of lines followed by a line of space. You can think of lines as roughly equivalent to sentences in prose and stanzas as paragraphs. Some poetic forms have rules about how many stanzas, how many lines, and even how many end rhymes are included. Haiku, tanka, and sonnet are examples of poetic forms.

31. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Form Types of StanzasA stanza of two lines that rhyme is a couplet. The rhyme scheme is aa. Stanzas of four, six, and eight lines are respectively called quatrains,sestets,and octaves.In English poetry, quatrains with abab rhyme scheme are common.

32. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Form Rhyme SchemeThe term rhyme schemerefers to the rhyming pattern of a poem. Lowercase letters are used to show rhyme schemes. Each end sound is assigned its own letter. Study the abab rhyme scheme in the stanza on page 528 of your textbook.

33. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Form RhythmStressed and unstressed syllables create a pattern in poetry, called rhythm.When the pattern is predictable it is called meter,but it does not have to be predictable. Rhythm can create a musical quality, but it can also draw attention to certain words or ideas. Langston Hughes uses rhythm in this way in “A Dream Deferred,” when in the last line he asks, “Or does it explode?”

34. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Form MeterPredictable rhythms are called meter.Different meters are named for how many feet are in each line. Trimeterhas three feet, tetrameterhas four feet, pentameterhas five feet, and hexameterhas six feet. Iambic pentameter appears in many English poems. An iambis a foot that has an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, and pentameter means there are five of them in a line.

35. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Form FootThe footis the basic unit of stressed and unstressed syllables used to describe rhythm in poetry. A foot usually has two or three syllables.

36. ScansionIn addition to paying close attention to the sounds of letters and words in poems, poets pay attention to each syllable and whether it is stressed or unstressed. Stressed and unstressed syllables create rhythms.Each rhythmical unit is called a foot,and a regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is called meter.Stressed syllables are marked with ( ) and unstressed syllables are marked with ( ). LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Form

37. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Structure Poets build structure into their poems in several ways. They may use rhythm and rhyme to connect ideas. They may use repetition to emphasize main ideas or images. And they may use stanzas to separate the poem into distinct parts, in much the same way that paragraphs separate ideas in an essay. Each stanza within a poem may serve a different purpose. For example, one stanza could describe a problem, one stanza could explore solutions, and one stanza could re-create a time before the problem existed.

38. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Structure Lyric PoemLyric poems are short poems by one speaker who expresses thoughts and feelings to create a single, unified impression. Jimmy Santiago Baca’s poem “I Am Offering This Poem” is an example of a lyric poem.

39. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Form and Structure Structure Free VersePoetry without a fixed pattern of meter and rhyme is called free verse. Some free verse uses sound devices and a rhythm similar to speaking patterns.

40. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus The Language of Poetry Imagery Imageryrefers to the “word pictures” that writers create to represent a feeling, trigger a memory or idea, or evoke a sensory experience. To create effective images, writers use sensory details.

41. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus The Language of Poetry Figurative Language Figurative language conveys meaning beyond the literal meanings of words. Poets often make use of figurative language to convey fresh and original comparisons. Figures of speech are types of figurative language. Among the most common are simile, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole.

42. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus The Language of Poetry Figurative Language SimilePoets often make imaginative comparisons to convey ideas, feelings, and insights. One kind of comparison is called a simile. In this figure of speech, the writer uses such words as like or as or the phrase “as if” to make the comparison. For example, in the line “her eyes sparkled like diamonds,” the comparison suggests the subject’s eyes are radiant and glitter.

43. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus The Language of Poetry Figurative Language MetaphorIn contrast to a simile, a metaphorimplies a comparison instead of stating it directly; hence, there is no use of connectives such as like or as. An extended metaphorcontinues the comparison throughout a paragraph, a stanza, or an entire work.

44. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus The Language of Poetry Figurative Language PersonificationThis figure of speech gives human qualities to nonhuman things. William Shakespeare personifies death in this line from “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?”: “Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade” Shakespeare compares death to a human who boasts that he has won a sought-after prize.

45. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus The Language of Poetry Figurative Language HyperboleThis figure of speech uses an obvious overstatement or exaggeration for either serious or comic effect. For example, when the speaker in “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven” says, “I have spread my dreams under your feet,” the exaggeration conveys the passion and desire with which he loves.

46. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Sound Devices Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeiais the use of a word or phrase that imitates or suggests the sound of what it describes, like the words “moan” and “thump” in Langston Hughes’s “The Weary Blues.”

47. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Sound Devices Rhyme Rhymeis the repetition of stressed vowel sounds and all the sounds that follow in two or more words. For example, cat and hat rhyme, as do willowier and billowier. Rhymes at the ends of lines of poetry are called end rhymes. Rhyming words within one line are called internal rhyme. Both end and internal rhymes can be slant rhymes, or rhymes that are close, but not exact.

48. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Sound Devices Alliteration Poets pay special attention to all the sounds in their lines. The term alliterationrefers to sounds, usually consonants, that repeat, usually at the beginnings of words.

49. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Sound Devices Assonance When the repeated sound is a vowel sound rather than a consonant sound, the sound device is called assonance.

50. LITERARY FOCUS Literary Focus Sound Devices Consonance Alliteration, described above, is actually a special kind of consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds before and after different vowel sounds.