Poetry Journal: We will usually work in this journal during class time; if you are absent, you will have to do it on your own. Occasionally, some of the work will have to be completed as homework.

A. Chapter One: What is Poetry?1. Throughout this quarter, refer to the questions on page 641, which will apply to poems read.2. Differentiate between ordinary language and poetic language.

3. What are the 4 dimensions of experience poetry involves?

4. Answer the following questions about your assigned group poem in our class jigsaw activity: a. What is the title of your group’s poem?b. Language can be used to inform the reader, to expand the reader’s experience, to

persuade the reader, or to fulfill several of these purposes simultaneously. Which of these purposes applies to this poem? Explain.

c. Poetic language is more intense and layered than ordinary language. Find examples of poetic language in this poem, and explain how it achieves deeper meaning and greater intensity than conventional language does.

Examples of poetic language How it achieves greater meaning/greater intensity than conventional language

d. Poetry enables us to process our own experiences and the experiences of others more deeply and more fully. Does this poem reach deeper levels of the human experience? If so, in what way? If not, why not?

e. Poetry has at least four dimensions: intellectual, sensory, emotional, imaginative. How are these dimensions represented in this poem? Identify a specific verse or phrase which serves each dimension. What effect does each have on you?

Dimension Verse or Phrase Representing This Dimension

Effect it has on you

Intellectual

Sensory

Emotional

Imaginative

f. Poetry should be like a tree: “an organism whose every part serves a useful purpose and cooperates with every other part to preserve and express the life that is within it.” Apply this wisdom to the poem.

i. Pick out a verse which doesn’t seem to cooperate with the whole.

ii. Closely examine your chosen verse, exploring how it might enhance your understanding of the poem (Note: the most difficult verses are often the most fruitful. Try to make sense of difficult verses without simplifying them).

g. (This question is to be answered after listening to the other poems in your 2nd group). Which of the poems in your 2nd group resonated best with you? Why?

5. “Dulce et Decorum Est” (637)a. Choose three words or phrases in the poem which have great impact. Explain your

reason for their power/resonance in the poem.

Words or Phrase with impact Reason they have power/resonance

6. “Shall compare thee to a summer’s day?” (642)a. What is Shakespeare’s answer to the question he asks in line 1?

b. How do the comparisons he draws between his beloved and a summer’s day support this answer?

c. By what reasoning does Shakespeare justify his assertion that the “eternal summer” of the poem’s recipient “shall not fade”?

d. How has Shakespeare’s confident prediction been borne out?

7. “Ballad of Birmingham” (645)

a. Write a personal response to the poem; free write about whatever this poem makes you think or feel.

B. Chapter Two: Reading the Poem1. What are the 5 steps to reading poems?

2. How does identifying the speaker and the occasion of a poem show the dramatic quality of poetry?

3. What is a “central purpose” of a poem?

4. Answer the questions to your group poem assignment (Paraphrase, clarify thematic issues, identify the speaker and occasion, explore the central purpose, how does the poem develop this central purpose)

a. Paraphrase:

b. Thematic issues:

c. Speaker and Occasion:

d. Central Purpose and how the poem supports the central purpose:

5. “A Study of Reading Habits” (658)a. Choose three lines from the poem containing slang or unpoetic diction and write them

in the left hand side. In the right hand side examine how unconventional or informal diction contributes to the meaning of the poem.

Lines with slang/unpoetic diction How this informal dicton contributes to the poem’s meaning

6. “Mirror” (669)a. After reading the poem, write 8-10 questions you have about the poem, starring the

three you find most interesting.

C. Chapter Three: Connotation and Denotation1. Generate a list of 10 words that have multiple denotations and/or connotations (ie: foil =

opposing character and sandwich wrap; cloud = physical, atmospheric condition; to confuse, as in clouding one’s memory)

2. Choose one poem from Chapter Three. Take 3 words from the poem and substitute words using a different level of diction. Try using grandiose words for simple ones, and note how they weaken the poem’s effect.

Title of Poem ___________________________________________________

Words from the poem Words you are substituting

3. “When my love swears that she is made of truth” (676)a. Paraphrase the poem, line by line, into your own words.

4. “The world is too much with us” (682)a. Choose two passages from the poem and discuss their tones, connotations, and/or

allusions.

Passages Tone/Connotation/Allusion

5. “One Art” (686)a. Speculate about the nature of the speaker’s loss in “One Art”. Connect it to losses you

fear or have experienced. How do life’s serious losses help us to keep the “lost door keys, the hour badly spent” in perspective?

b. Note the progression of the losses Bishop catalogs and choose a line that reminds you of something you’ve experienced (ie. Have you “lost” houses you’ve lived in via moving?)

D. Chapter Four: Imagery1. “Those Winter Sundays” (699)

a. Find personal connections to the poem, possibly feelings for your parents. Be sensitive to word choices evoking these emotions.

2. “An August Night” (700)a. Give an example of each term:

i. Imagery

ii. Metaphor

iii. Personification

iv. Symbol

b. Closely examine the hands in this poem. What does the description of these hands tell us about the person to whom they belong? Why are hands particularly effective as opposed to speaking directly about the person, or speaking about his eyes, mouth or mind?

c. Examine the ferret reference in the poem. What are ferrets like? What does this ferret reference suggest about the hands and its owner?

d. How does the brevity of this poem befit its meaning?

3. “To Autumn” (701)a. Respond to the meaning and mood of one of these passages: “Season of mist and

mellow fruitfulness,” “Or by a cider press…/Thou watchest the last oozing hours by hours,” “Whare are the songs of spring?” or “gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”

E. Chapter Five: Figurative Language One1. Find one example of each of these poetic terms (from pages 704-715):

a. Metaphor

b. Simile

c. Personification

d. Apostrophe

e. Metonymy

f. Synecdoche

2. “Harlem” (705)a. Write a short poem modeled on “Harlem”. Your poem should be about an abstract

concept of your choice (love, freedom, friendship, honor etc.). For example: “What happens to love unrequited?” or “What happens to honor disavowed?” Use a series of similes (which appeal to the senses) to answer the question posed. Conclude with a metaphor.

3. “Mind” (716)a. Reflect upon the way your minds work and play, using comparisons to the natural

world. Think about the lines in “mind” that suggest unexpected directions for both the bat and the mind. Connect these lines to the unexpected directions your own thoughts have taken.

b. List all active verbs in the poem. How does each verb apply to the mind?

Verbs How they apply to the mind

F. Chapter Six: Figurative Language II1. “Digging” (730)

a. React to Heaney’s views of physical labor, family tradition, love of the land, and the search for identity. In particular, analyze these lines: “By God, the old man could handle a spade./Just like his old man” and “But I’ve no spade to follow men like them.” How does the poem’s similar beginning and ending (the “squat pen”) relate to these concerns?

b. What multiple meanings are implicit in Heaney’s closing line, “I’ll dig with it”?

2. “Fire and Ice” (739)a. Associate your thoughts for fire and ice.

Fire Ice

b. Carefully examine “Fire and Ice” for metaphorical levels of meaning. Identify what concepts in the poem are likely to work beyond the literal level of meaning. In other words, try to determine several different interpretations of what the speaker is referring to when he or she speaks of fire and ice.

3. “Because I could not stop for Death” (742)a. Read the poem several times until you’re familiar with it. What happens, according

to this poem, when we die? Account for all of the experiences recounted in the poem.

G. Chapter Seven: Figurative Language Three1. Find the contradictions and wisdom in each quote:

a. “The thing that really unites men and makes them like each other is hatred.” – G.K. Chesterton

b. “Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.” – George Santayana

c. “To believe with certainty, we must begin with doubting.” – King Stanislaw II

2. “Ozymandias” (758)a. Situational irony occurs when something happens which is the opposite of what the

reader or audience expects. Finish each description in a way which shows situational irony:

i. Determined to stay healthy, Mary makes an appointment for her annual physical…..

ii. Due to his morbid fear of flying, David decides to make the 16-hour drive to New York….

iii. After winning the million dollar lottery, Juan….

b. Paraphrase “Ozymandias”

c. Write a sentence which captures the central irony of “Ozymandias” while suggesting the poem’s theme.

3. “The Unknown Citizen” (767)a. This poem is composed of eight grammatical sentences. Complete the following

chart for each sentence.

What the speaker says about the Unknown Citizen

What is suggested about society Your gut reaction about what is being said (Inspiring? Credible? Noble? Unimpressive? Disingenuous?)

4. “My Last Duchess” (769)a. Assume the persona of the emissary and write a letter reporting your

recommendations to the Count. Should the Count’s daughter become the Duke’s “next” duchess? Why or why not?

b. What arguments might the Duke himself offer in favor of the marriage?

c. Complete the following graph:

Details of the impression the Duke tries to give the emissary (that shows him as an ideal marriage prospect for the Count’s daughter)

Details, Images, Phrases that show a much different (negative) portrait of the Duke.

d. How does Browning use understatement and irony to create these contrasting images (from the above chart)?

H. Chapter Eight: Allusion1. Find the allusions for these film and book titles:

Of Mice and Men

For whom the bell tolls

The Sound and the Fury

Something Wicked This Way Comes

2. “Out, Out-“ (From Macbeth, by Shakespeare) (773)a. Read this part of Macbeth and summarize what the playwright is alluding to:

Macbeth:To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,To the last syllable of recorded time;And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,And then is heard no more. It is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.Macbeth Act 5, scene 5, 19–28

Summarize what is meant:

b. The pathos of Frost’s poem and the despair of Macbeth’s meditation on life’s brevity offer you an opportunity to think deeply about the meaning of life. Respond to the emotions inherent in these pieces and relate them to your own life.

c. Identify personification and onomatopoeia in the poem by Frost.

Personification Onomatopoeia

d. How do these devices in the opening lines signal the poem’s tone and foreshadow its horrifying outcome?

3. With a partner, choose one more poem from this chapter. Read it and answer the questions that follow the poem. Write the title of the poem and page number where it appears.

I. Chapter Ten: Tone1. After reading pages 800-806, answer the following question:

a. The second paragraph of the chapter lists many of the elements of poetry that contribute to tone (connotation, imagery, metaphor; irony and understatement; rhythm, sentence construction, formal pattern); Examine the first two poems presented in the chapter and examine which of the elements are significant in each of them. (State the specific element with the example from the poems)

“For a lamb” “Apparently with no surprise”

2. “My mistress’ eyes” (807)a. Draw the mistress as described in the poem and justify your drawing with evidence from

the text.

Your Drawing of the Mistress Textual Evidence that justifies your drawing

3. “Dover Beach” (1867)a. The closing lines of this poem are famous. Respond to these lines: “the world, which

seems/To lie before us like a land of dreams,/Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,/Nor certitude, nor peace, nor peace.”

b. Do they agree with Arnold’s view of the world?

c. What is “the eternal note of sadness”?

d. Describe the poem’s tone with one word and list words and phrases which reflect this tone.

The poem’s tone (One word only) Words/Phrases (Several) which reflect this tone word you chose

J. Chapter Eleven: Musical Devices1. Find examples, in the introduction to Chapter 11, to:

a. Assonance:

b. Consonance:

c. Alliteration:

d. Rhyme:

e. Slant rhyme:

2. “That night when joy began” (821)a. This poem is about a couple’s meeting, their initial physical attraction, and the

transformation of that attraction into love.” Write a personal response to this poem’s subject matter. You can either respond to a similar situation or about attraction in general. Cite at least one or two specific lines or phrases in the poem as you respond to its overall topic and theme.

3. “We Real Cool” (827)a. Define ‘enjambment’.

b. Identify its use in the poem. Describe its effect in the poem and speculate about its purpose as a literary device.

c. Find 5 adjectives to describe the tone of the poem. For each adjective, cite at least two words or phrases in the poem which convey that tone.

Adjectives describing the tone of the poem Two words or phrases conveying the tonal adjective

1. 1.

2.2. 1.

2.3. 1.

2.4. 1.

2.5. 1.

2.

4. “Music Lessons” (831)a. Consider all the lessons the poem teaches.

b. What can we all learn from the portrayal of the teacher?

c. What lessons does the young piano student learn – in addition to how to play?

d. Why is it significant that she reflects on these lessons later in life?

e. How might her own life direction have been influenced by this powerful moment and the shared experience of music?

K. Chapter Twelve: Rhythm and Meter1. Give an example of the following basic meters and spondees.

a. Spondee:b. Trochaic:c. Iambic:d. Dactylic:e. Amphibrach:f. Anapestic:

Which is your first name?

2. “ ‘Introduction’ to Songs of Innocence” (851)a. View the title page of Blake’s “Songs of Innocence” Look closely to see the piping figure

in the “I”. Look at the illustration and read the poem. Try to “hear” the music the poem describes. Then, write about the blending of music, art, and literature as depicted in Blake’s poetry and his art. You may also write from the point of view of the poem’s child on the cloud.

3. “Porphyria’s Lover” (857)a. After listening to the poem, what is your response to the speaker?

b. What do you think of him? Explain.

c. Do you revile or sympathize with him?

d. What could have been his motivation to do what he did?

e. When do you first distrust the speaker?

f. How does this poem’s last line add to its impact?