WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN!?A group analysis of famous poems

SONNETSA sonnet is a poem written in 14 lines. Sonnets have 3 quatrains (sets of 4 lines) and a couplet (a set of 2 lines).

They are written in iambic pentameter, which creates a lively, lyrical sound when read aloud.

Each part should progress the poem as follows: First quatrain: This should establish the subject of the sonnet.Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: ABAB 

Second quatrain: This should develop the sonnet’s theme.Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: CDCD

Third quatrain: This should round off the sonnet’s theme.Number of lines: 4. Rhyme Scheme: EFEF

Couplet: This should act as the conclusion. Number of lines: 2. Rhyme Scheme: GG

SONNET 130 BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREMy mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;Coral is far more red than her lips' red;If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,But no such roses see I in her cheeks; And in some perfumes is there more delightThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks.I love to hear her speak, yet well I knowThat music hath a far more pleasing sound;I grant I never saw a goddess go;My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:   And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare   As any she belied with false compare. *belie: verb-to disguise or contradict

Questions:

1.What is the purpose of the first quatrain in this poem?

2.What does the couplet reveal?

SIMILES AND METAPHORS- LANGSTON HUGHES

Similes and metaphors are some of the most widely used elements of figurative language.

They both compare two objects, whether living or non-living.Extended metaphors are developed throughout a text; they are not just one or two sentences.

Langston Hughes was a famous writer during the Harlem Renaissance era. This was a time of many hardships AND triumphs for African Americans because it was the turn of the century- just a couple decades after the end of slavery in the United States.

Let’s see how he uses extended metaphor to create a central idea.

MOTHER TO SON BY LANGSTON HUGHES

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Questions:

1. What two things is the narrator comparing?2. Why does the author use words like

“climbin” and “I’se”?3. What is the central idea of the poem? Give 2

pieces of textual evidence to support your answer.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN BY ROBERT FROSTTwo roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Questions:1. What is the conflict in this poem?

How does the narrator resolve the conflict?

2. Self Reflecton: How can you “take the road less traveled by”?

BLACKOUT POETRY!A fun activity to create your own poem (even if you’re not the “poet” type)!