Transcript Slide 1

Poetry Unit
Guided Notes
William Wordsworth (also known as
the father of modern poetry) defined
poetry as…
“the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings: it takes its origins
from emotion recollected in
tranquility.”
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??
Let’s break it down…
Spontaneous – Unplanned
Overflow – Spilling over
Powerful feelings – Strong & dominant
Takes it’s origins from – Comes from
Recollected – Remembered
Tranquility – Moment of calmness
So, Wordsworth basically says that…
Poetry is unplanned & happens when strong
feelings, which cannot be ignored, suddenly are
remembered in a moment of calmness.
So… What are some of the
things that make poetry
LOOK
different
from other types of
writing???
Part 1: FORM
o
What you’ll most likely notice first
about a poem is its form.
o
Form = the distinctive way the words
are arranged on the page
o
Form refers to the length and
placement of the lines and the way
they are grouped into stanzas
STANZAS!
o
Just like a paragraph, each stanza in a
poem expresses a unified idea and
contributes to the poem’s overall
meaning
o
Define stanza! (YES, right now, look it
up!)
Two types of form…
o Traditional
o Organic
Traditional
o
Follows fixed rules, such as a specific
number of lines
o
Has a regular pattern of rhythm and
rhyme
o
Examples: sonnet, ode, haiku,
limerick, ballad, epic
Example:
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
--Haiku written
by Basho Matsuo
Organic
o
Does NOT have a regular patter of
rhythm and may not rhyme
o
May use unconventional spelling,
punctuation, and grammar (on
purpose!)
o
Examples: free verse, concrete poetry
Example:
wear your colors
like a present person
today is
here & now
--from “Look Not to Memories”
by Angela de Hoyos
Part 2:
SOUND DEVICES!
o Look up the following terms:
o
o
o
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Repetition
Assonance
Alliteration
Consonance
Get with 3 other people
and
you each only have
to look up one word.
Duh!
o Rhyme Scheme=a regular pattern of rhyme
(words with ends that sound alike)
o i.e.:
I went for a hike,
while he rode his bike.
o Repetition
Examples:
--Break, break, break
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
o Assonance
--Poetry is old, ancient, goes back far. It is among
the oldest of living things. So old it is that no
man knows how and why the first poems came.
o Alliteration
--The scraggy rock spit shielding the tow’s blue bay.
o Consonance
--(1) First and last, (2) Odds and ends, (3) Short and
sweet, (4) A stroke of luck
.
Rhyme Scheme
“Talking Heads”
The talking heads make noise and hurt my brain.
And no one can be certain what they’ve said.
I turn the TV volume down, in pain,
And reach to plump the pillow on my bed.
Commercial time, I click, what do I see?
But other networks’ chatty pundits poised
To talk atop each other in a spree.
I feel assaulted, bothered, over “noised.”
I click around each channel and I find
Only tiresome reruns I find boring.
I think perhaps that I might lose my mind.
Better yet, I must just start ignoring.
Tonight, perhaps, at bed time, I will look,
Instead, between the covers of a book.
Imagery!
o
Words or phrases that re-create
sensory experiences for readers
o
Words that create pictures in your
mind—they make you see it, feel it,
taste it, smell it, hear it…
o
Poets usually create imagery through
their use of figurative language
Figurative Language!
o Not the actual, or literal meaning of
the words
o For example:
--“My heart sank when I saw him kissing
that ugly girl!”
Her heart didn’t actually (literally) sink, did
it?
Types of
figurative Language
o SimileA comparison using “like” or “as”
A comparison that DOES
o Metaphor
NOT use “like” or “as”
Gives human
o Personification
characteristics or abilities
to NONhuman things
o Hyperbole
An extreme exaggeration
Poetry Reading
Strategies
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Underline words you don’t know
o
Write questions/comments on the side of
the poem (In PENCIL if it’s not yours!)
o
Circle it! When you see literary
devices/elements being used; then
identify it!
DON’T ASK ME
“What Does it mean?”
Figure it out!
o
Remember to look for symbols,
metaphors, etc.
o
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover Just
like you try to use code words so that
adults don’t know what you are talking
about, poets do the same thing!
TP-CASTT
T= TITLE
P= PARAPHRASE
C= CONNOTATION
A= ATTITUDE
S= SHIFT
T= TITLE
T= THEME
TITLE
BEFORE YOU READ A POEM,
LOOK AT THE TITLE…
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What does it make you think of?
What might the topic may be?
Possible theme?
Who’s “speaking”?
What’s the mood?
PARAPHRASE
o
The easiest way to understand something is
to put it in your own words.
o
o
Summarize each stanza as if you
were telling a friend about it.
You must make sure you know the what the
poem’s saying on the surface before you can
dig for it’s deeper meaning.
CONNOTATION
THIS IS ALL ABOUT YOU!
 THINK ABOUT WHAT THESE
THINGS AFFECT YOU:

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Imagery
Figures of speech (simile, metaphor,
personification, symbolism, hyperbole,
etc.)
Diction
Point of view
Sound devices (alliteration,
onomatopoeia, rhythm, and rhyme)
ATTITUDE
THIS IS ALL ABOUT THE
POET / SPEAKER!
o What is the poet’s / speaker’s
attitude towards the poem’s
topic?
o Look back at the literary devices
used. What do they show you
about how he/she feels?
o
SHIFT
(NO - not the stuff you stepped in!)
o
Where do you see a CHANGE? Does the
attitude/tone shift? The time? The speaker?
The location?
o
Look for transition words (like “but,”
“however,” “although,” etc.).
o
Look for punctuation that might signal a
change (like periods, colons, dashes, etc.).
o
How is the poem physically divided? Does it
have stanzas? Does the length of the stanza
change?
TITLE
(AGAIN????)
o
“But, Mrs. Dollar, you already said
title!!!!”
o
Look back at the title, now that you have
read the poem. Ask yourself if the meaning
of the title has changed from your first
impression.
o
Why do you think the poet gave it that
particular title?
THEME!!!!!!!
o What
is THE POINT?
o What message is the poet trying
to get across?
o What did you learn?
o Remember that the theme of
any work of literature usually
has to do with HUMAN
NATURE or LIFE.