Lesson 4.01 Poetry 101

Poetic License

According to Merriam-Webster, a poem is a piece of writing that usually incorporates figurative language and that is written in separate lines that often have a repeated rhythm and sometimes rhyme.There are many types of poetry: canzone, doggerel, eclogue, gnomic verse, landays, ottava rima, panegyric, rondeau, sijo, villanelle, et al. Have you heard of any of those?

Have you ever heard the term poetic license? The term means that the writer has the liberty to write however he or she wants to, deviating from rule, conventional form, logic, or fact, in order to produce a desired result.

Do you think Dr. Seuss books are poems? Read Favorite Dr. Seuss Quotes and judge for yourself.

Now, read the poem "Too Many Daves" by Dr. Suess.

Did I ever tell you that Mrs. McCave - a
Had twenty-three sons and she named them all Dave? - a
Well, she did. And that wasn't a smart thing to do. - b
You see, when she wants one and calls out, "Yoo-Hoo!" - b
Come into the house, Dave!" she doesn't get one. - c
All twenty-three Daves of hers come on the run! - c
This makes things quite difficult at the McCaves' - e
As you can imagine, with so many Daves. - e
And often she wishes that, when they were born, - f
She had named one of them Bodkin Van Horn - f
And one of them Hoos-Foos. And one of them Snimm. - g
And one of them Hot-Shot. And one Sunny Jim. - g
And one of them Shadrack. And one of them Blinkey. - h
And one of them Stuffy. And one of them Stinkey. - h
Another one Putt-Putt. Another one Moon Face. - i
Another one Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face. - i
And one of them Ziggy. And one Soggy Muff. - j
One Buffalo Bill. And one Biffalo Buff. - j
And one of them Sneepy. And one Weepy Weed. - k
And one Paris Garters. And one Harris Tweed. - k
And one of them Sir Michael Carmichael Zutt - l
And one of them Oliver Boliver Butt - l
And one of them Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate... - m
But she didn't do it. And now it's too late. - m

What is the pattern of rhyme The end words in every line rhyme. in the poem?

Is there rhythm Dr. Seuss writes in meter, and the meter he chose for this poem is anapestic tetrameter, meaning each line of poetry has four anapests. An anapest has three syllables: two unstressed, or weak beats, followed by one stressed, or strong beat. da da DUM / da da DUM / da da DUM / da da DUM" in the poem?

There are a few elements that poets try to incorporate when writing poetry: imagery, diction, sound, figurative language, and theme. All poems usually combine a few of these elements no matter if the poem is silly or serious. You will encounter both silly and serious poems in this unit.

The most important part of studying poetry is to hear and read the poem aloud several times. Read the poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke. You may also listen to the poem.

The whiskey on your breath - a
Could make a small boy dizzy; - b
But I hung on like death: - a
Such waltzing was not easy. - b

We romped until the pans - c
Slid from the kitchen shelf; - d
My mother's countenance - c
Could not unfrown itself. - d

The hand that held my wrist - e
Was battered on one knuckle; - f
At every step you missed - e
My right ear scraped a buckle. - f

You beat time on my head - g
With a palm caked hard by dirt, - h
Then waltzed me off to bed - g
Still clinging to your shirt. - h

What is the pattern of rhyme The end words in every line rhyme. in this poem?

Is there rhythm Most lines have six syllables making the poem rather sing-song; however, lines 2, 4, 10, 12, and 14 have seven syllables. This extra syllable may emphasize that the father missteps like the line suggests: 'Such waltzing was not easy.' in the poem?

 

→ »

Analyzing Poetry

Sometimes reading poetry is downright hard. But there is an easy way to help you get through your readings, and hopefully, it will help you write better as well. The method is called TP-CASTT, which stands for title, paraphrase, connotation, attitude, shift, title, and theme. TP-CASTT is a very useful strategy to help you understand poetry.

A Poem's Title

Before you even think about reading the poem or trying to analyze it, speculate on what you think the poem may be about based on the title. Often times authors conceal meaning and / or give clues in the title.

Before you begin thinking about meaning or trying to analyze the poem, don't overlook the literal meaning of the poem. One of the biggest problems that students often make in poetry analysis is jumping to conclusions before understanding what is taking place in the poem. When you paraphrase a poem, you are writing in your own words exactly what happens in the poem. Look at the number of sentences in the poem-your paraphrase should have exactly the same number. This technique is especially helpful for poems written in the 17th and 19th centuries.

Although the term connotation usually refers to the emotional overtones of word choice, for this approach the term refers to any and all poetic devices, focusing on how such devices contribute to the meaning, the effect, or both of a poem. You may consider imagery, figures of speech (simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, etc.), diction, point of view, and sound devices (alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhythm, and rhyme). It is not necessary that you identify all the poetic devices within the poem. The ones you do identify should be seen as a way of supporting the conclusions you are going to draw about the poem.

Having examined the poem's devices and clues closely, you are now ready to explore the multiple attitudes that may be present in the poem. Examination of diction, images, and details suggests the speaker's attitude and contributes to understanding. You may refer to the Tone Vocabulary List for help.

Rarely does a poem begin and end the poetic experience in the same place. The poet's understanding of an experience is a gradual realization, and the poem is a reflection of that understanding or insight. Watch for the following keys to shifts:

• key words, (but, yet, however, although),

• punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis),

• stanza divisions

• changes in line or stanza length or both,

• irony,

• changes in sound that may indicate changes in meaning, and / or

• changes in diction.

Now look at the title again, but this time on an interpretive level. What new insight does the title provide in understanding the poem? What is the poem saying about the human experience, motivation, or condition? What subject or subjects does the poem address? What do you learn about those subjects? What idea does the poet want you to take away concerning these subjects?

Remember that the theme of any work of literature is stated in a complete sentence. The theme is the message the poem is conveying to its audience.

You have just gone through the TP-CASTT method for analyzing poetry.

 

« ← → »

Writing Review

Now, that you know how to analyze poetry, let's put that into action by crafting a well-written paragraph about two poems you have read. Before you put pen to paper, let's review paragraph writing.

The Topic Sentence

A paragraph is a group of related sentences about a single topic. The first sentence in your paragraph is called a topic sentence. The topic sentence introduces the main idea of the paragraph. You are summarizing what you are writing in one sentence. For example, if you are writing about gaining your identity from your parents and background, a sample topic sentence may be...

Children observe their parents and the people around them to create their own identity.

The reader knows that the paragraph will be about children observing their family and friends to gain perspective of their own identity.

Supporting Evidence

Just like tables need legs in order to stand, paragraphs need details to support them. The next sentences in your paragraph will be the supporting details. Supporting details come right after the topic, and they make up the body of the paragraph. These sentences provide specific details to help develop the main idea of your paragraph. The details can be facts, examples, and information to support the writing.

Children observe their parents and the people around them to create their own identity. From the time children begin talking, they question their parents about their surroundings. Children also question adults who they think are different from them and their family members.

The details above are geared toward the topic sentence and provide additional information about what children do to form their own identity.

Since a requirement in your writing is to include textual evidence, you need to be reminded of what that really means. When you provide textual evidence, that means that you are inserting a passage directly from the text that you read into your own writing to support the topic in your paragraph. Even though you are adding in information directly from the text, you don't want to begin with the quote without providing some kind of information to let the readers know what you are doing. Look at some of the sentence starters to help you begin.

Children observe their parents and the people around them to create their own identity. From the time children begin talking, they question their parents about their surroundings. Children also question adults who they think are different from them and their family members. In Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story, "The Cat Who Thought She Was a Dog and the Dog Who Thought He Was a Cat," the author illustrates how the daughters didn't care about their outward identity until the mother purchased the mirror and found fault in herself: "Now they could see themselves clearly and they began to find defects in their faces, defects they had never noticed before. Marianna was pretty but she had a tooth missing in front and she felt that this made her ugly. One daughter discovered that her nose was too snub and too broad; a second that her chin was too narrow and too long; a third that her face was sprinkled with freckles."

Usually the titles of stories aren't as long as this one, but if you haven't introduced the title and author of the work you are providing as evidence, you must do so in the sentence starter. The evidence will provide an example of what your topic is addressing.

Commentary

After you provide the textual evidence, you will want to give your own commentary, or interpretation, to explain what the quote means. It will help to answer the question, "Why is this quote important?" or "How does this evidence support my topic?" You are explaining how the textual evidence you used supports the idea of your topic. Don't forget to use a sentence starter for this part as well.

Children observe their parents and the people around them to create their own identity. From the time children begin talking, they question their parents about their surroundings. Children also question adults who they think are different from them and their family members. In Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story, "The Cat Who Thought She Was a Dog and the Dog Who Thought He Was a Cat," the author illustrates how the daughters didn't care about their outward identity until the mother purchased the mirror and found fault in herself, "Now they could see themselves clearly and they began to find defects in their faces, defects they had never noticed before. Marianna was pretty but she had a tooth missing in front and she felt that this made her ugly. One daughter discovered that her nose was too snub and too broad; a second that her chin was too narrow and too long; a third that her face was sprinkled with freckles." This passage reveals that appearances matter to the mother, and the daughters are watching this behavior. Therefore, they are finding shortcomings within their own selves.

The commentary provides clarification of the quote and connects it with the topic.

The Conclusion

Your last sentence is your conclusion. The conclusion should refocus the reader on the topic by tying the evidence and commentary back to the topic sentence. The conclusion wraps up and closes the paragraph.

Children observe their parents and the people around them to create their own identity. From the time children begin talking, they question their parents about their surroundings. Children also question adults who they think are different from them and their family members. In Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story, "The Cat Who Thought She Was a Dog and the Dog Who Thought He Was a Cat," the author illustrates how the daughters didn't care about their outward identity until the mother purchased the mirror and found fault in herself, "Now they could see themselves clearly and they began to find defects in their faces, defects they had never noticed before. Marianna was pretty but she had a tooth missing in front and she felt that this made her ugly. One daughter discovered that her nose was too snub and too broad; a second that her chin was too narrow and too long; a third that her face was sprinkled with freckles." This passage reveals that appearances matter to the mother, and the daughters are witnessing this behavior. Therefore, they are finding shortcomings within their own selves. If identity matters in a home, parents should remember that it's what is on the inside that counts, not the outside.

The concluding sentence reinforces what the topic of the paragraph contains. It needs to show the reader that the paragraph is finished and nothing new is being addressed.

 

« ←