RVP, Week 2Blake: Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Close-reading techniques: polyvalence and the OED, basic scansion/rhythm

Close-reading exercise: the poetry of Anna Barbauld

Part OneWrapping up “Heaven and Hell”

Marriage of H&H: Questions

• Why is some of the poem in verse, and some in prose? (takeaway: notice and read alternations in form and verse)• Thematic changes?• Changes in content?• Does it give the poem a progression, or even a

plot?

• Who is Rintrah?

Close Reading Rintrah

• Why do the Rintrah lines repeat?

• Who is Rintrah, and what does this suggest about him?

• Why doesn’t the poem (not your annotations) give you more information about who he is—why withhold this information?• What does an absence do, more generally,

within literature?

The Proverbs

• What is the rhythm of the proverbs?

The Memorable Fancies

• Why are these sections in prose?

• Is there a rhythm to this section, nevertheless?

• If Swedenborg is such an idiot, why is he in here, and repeatedly? Why borrow the form of his fancies?

The Memorable Fancies

Four Memorable Fancies end the poem.

1. Divide into groups of n/4, where n is the number of students in the class

2. Explain, or try to explain, a system in the poem

3. Identify at least two things that do not seem to cohere with this system

Part TwoPoetry Reading Technique:

An Extremely Brief Guide to Scansion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5diMImYIIA

Scansion, very briefly

• Every poem has a base meter; every interesting poem exceeds it for emphasis

• Base meter: a line of a set number of feet

• English feet have two or (rarely) more syllables; English lines have 3-5 (rarely more) feet

• So, iambic (feet ,/) pentameter (penta-five) feet

• The takeaway: a poem has a rhythm; notice when that rhythm changes

Scansion very briefly, two

• Almost always stress when sounds repeat (alliterative syllables (“thoughts against thoughts in groans grind”)

• Stress marks add stress (wingèd)

• Look for “wobbles” (not scientific name)• thoughts against thoughts in groans grind

/ , / / , / /• That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not

me. , / , / , / , / / /

Scansion very briefly, three

• “Caesura” is the word “pause” gone to posh schools

• In print, dashes, semicolons, colons, exclamation marks in mid-line indicate pauses• Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things

To low ambition, and the pride of kings.

Scansion very briefly, four

• Lines are units of information, and also imply excitement or containment

• Set, fixed, rigid, or well-understood ideas stick to their lines• Laugh where we must, be candid where we can;

But vindicate the ways of God to man.

• Excited, passionate, etc. ideas overflow their lines:• A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—

Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may

Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.

Part ThreePoetry Reading Technique: Polyvalence and the OED

Anna Barbauld - .pdf Poems

Purple: polyvalence, yellow: ambiguity

The Baurbauld .pdf.

• “A Summer’s Evening Meditation,” “Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq.,” “To Mr. S.T. Coleridge,” “The Caterpillar”• In groups (n/3), survey these poems• Bring back to us: one stanza with an unusual

stress/meter/sound effect; one moment of polyvalence, with the multiple meanings explained conceptually