Transcript Document
3460 Session 2: Ways of Reading
Session Aims
Introduce close reading of poems
Introduce formal analysis of poems
Form
Metrics
Rhyme
Fields of meaning
Poetic devices
Ruben Darío, “Yo persigo una forma”
3460: What to look for in a poem?
Form
What is on the page?
How is it organised or divided up?
Verses
Lines
Line length
Note: you do not even need to
understand the words yet.
3460: What to look for in a poem?
Metre
How long are the lines?
Read the poem out loud:
Count the syllables
Does it move quickly or slowly?
Does it have a regular beat or not?
Remember: elision of final/initial vowels
Final stressed syllable + one = syllable count
Count the stresses:
Accented words, nouns, pronouns and verbs
How are they distributed?
3460: What to look for in a poem?
Rhyme
Compare last two syllables of lines
Spanish assonance counts as rhyme
What patterns can you detect?
3460: What to look for in a poem?
Syntax
How are sentences organised?
How do they relate to the lines of verse or
verses?
Is the syntax straightforward, or more
complex than everyday speech?
3460: What to look for in a poem?
Lexical
Describe the register (implicit social and
intellectual level) of the language
What groups or fields of related words
can you detect? Can these be divided up
at all?
3460: What to look for in a poem?
Poetic devices
Use of e.g.
metaphor
metonym
synecdoche
allusion
symbol
imagery,
synaesthesia
hyperbaton
Etc…
3460: Darío, “Yo persigo”
What more can you say about the poem
now?
For next week:
In groups, choose one of the essays (Barthes,
Calvino or Todorov)
Read it carefully, discuss it and be prepared to
answer the following questions:
What is the piece’s basic argument?
What examples does the piece give?
Do you agree with the author? Why?