The Cod Head

Thesis:

William Carlos Williams uses imagist techniques to depict the cod head and its surroundings by manipulating the poem structure and musicality of the words.

Opening Activity! Whoo!

After reading the poem The Cod Head complete a drawing for 4-7 of the stanzas in the poem on a piece of paper that help represent that stanza.

You have 5-5 min! GO!

Sense: Meaning & LanguageDiction:Miscellaneous: Of various types. Firmament: The heavens or the sky.Oars: A pole with a flat blade, used to row or steer a boat in water.Phosporescent: Emission of light without burning.Flaccid: (Part of the body) Soft hanging loosely. Midges: Flies often seen in swarms near water of marshy areas, (Transmit

disease).Fathom: A unit of length equal to 6 ft., used to reference depth of water. Mottle: Mark with spots or smears of color.Amorphous: Without a clearly defined shape or form. Vitreous: Like grass in appearance or physical properties.Scudding: More fast in a straight line.Lulling: Calm or send to sleep typically with soothing sounds or movements.

Sense: Meaning & Language

Mood: Peaceful, then disrupted by the depiction of the dead fish.

Tone: Focused, carefully chosen words to describe the scenery.

Motif: The three lined stanzas, each creating a separate image of what the poet observes.

Point of View: First Person.Repetition: Repetition of the word fathom. Theme: To describe what he sees to the audience in

many ways at once using a poem.

Sense: Meaning & Language-William uses some intricate vocabulary throughout

this poem, this causes the reader confusion because of minimal understanding.

-He was attempting to recreate the feelings and the observations he had when observing the scenery to give the reader an experience similar to his.

-The snapshots each stanza creates further the readers comprehension of what the poet was seeing, that makes this a first person point of view.

-The importance of the repeated word fathom is linked to the description of scenery.

Senses: Imagery & Symbols Stanzas:1 3 7 9

Purpose: Gives the reader visual details to help imagine the setting were the poem takes place.

More description of scenery, exemplifies how disease can spread uncontrollably by midges. Can appeal to the tactile sense.

Compares the eyes to discs with moons.

Senses: Imagery & Symbols Stanzas:1 3 7 9

Uses “red stars” to help the reader understand how painful the constant falling could've been. It adds visual details and partly a sense of comic relief (think of cartoons).

Visual detail described through the entire poem to complete the setting. This is where the author is observing the fish. “body through which-…head between two green stones”.

Senses: Imagery & Symbols

Style: Poetry TechniquesMetaphor: “moons in whose

discs sometimes a red crosslives–”

This part is the only metaphor in the whole poem which increases its importance.

Simile: Our interpretation for the poets lack of similes is to keep the depiction of each scene as ______(can’t think of the word that fits here) as possible.

Stream of Consciousness: Williams is sitting at the lake and writing about everything he is seeing

Irony: “Now a lulling lift” (Line 25) Normally, the verb “lulling” is peaceful, but in this case it is used to describe a wave that is carrying a dead fish

Personification: Verbs are used to make the waves seem like their actions are well thought out and intentional.

Eyes of flies

Disease in them.

Structure: Form, Organization & Pattern

• Dashes create rhythm similar to waves• Each stanza has one longer line,

creating a wave pattern• Repetition of the color red and the

word “fathom”• Each stanza has three lines• Imagery of the lake is repeated and

built upon, to create a detailed image of the lake for the audience

Structure

• Structural elements affect the way the poem is read, because the dashes manipulate the reader’s voice so that the rhythm of the sound of the lake’s waves is mimicked. The structure adds more depth to the imagery of the lake that Williams is describing.

• The form effectively communicates the content of the poem because Williams shows that he is actually talking about a lake in his poem, by structurally writing his poem so that it depicts waves of the lake. If the lake was a metaphor for something else, Williams most likely would not have made the poem structurally mimic a lake.

Sound: Musicality & Auditory Techniques

• General structure: 10 stanzas, 3 lines each, wave-like pattern, slant rythm

» Uses ---to pause and show emphasis in all stanzas

• Alliteration: “strands…stems” “fishes...feet” “but…by” “small scudding” “lulling lift”

• Assonance : “whip...ships” “moons in whose”

• Rhyme: “lifting falling”• Repetition: “four fathom…three

fathom” “fishes…fish…cod”• Tone: detailed, serious, concentrated

Connection to another Poem

• Similar to The Eyeglasses and Spring and All

• The eyeglasses is also objective; focuses on one thing.

• The Cod Head vs. The Eyeglasses • Spring and All talks about nature as

well. A hospital is mentioned similar to how a red cross is referenced.

Conclusion

• Overall, Williams does use imagist patterns to depict The Cod Head by manipulating poem structure and musicality of the words. Again, the images are used to represent different symbols that pertain to the setting. This manipulation can also be identified through the mimicking of the lake’s waves and the dashes that noticeably change the poem’s rhythm.