Transcript Internal Structure and External Form

INTERNAL STRUCTURE
AND
EXTERNAL FORM
“PUNISHMENT” BY SEAMUS HEANEY
What do the footnotes tell us that help us to
understand this poem?
 Describe the structure of the poem. What
“moves” do you see the poet making (i.e. what
does he speak about where and why).
 How does the structure of “Punishment” reflect
the thought of the poem?
 What do we learn about the speaker? What
does he say about himself?
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“THE VICTIMS”
What is the speaker’s tone? How does the poet
accomplish this tone?
 What literary devices do you see in this poem?
Where, for example, does Olds use alliteration and
what is the effect of that repeated sound?
 Where does the focus change? What is the effect
of that change in focus?
 What does last sentence mean?
 How does Olds use the phrase “took it” differently
at the beginning of the poem than she does at the
end?
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DEFINITIONS RELATED TO EXTERNAL FORM
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Stanzas: groups of lines divided from other groups by white space on the page
Quatrain: a four-line unit of verse, whether an entire poem, a stanza, or group of four
lines linked by a pattern of rhyme (as in an English or Shakespearean sonnet).
Couplet: two consecutive lines of verse linked by rhyme and meter; the meter of a
heroic couplet is iambic pentameter.
Sonnet: a fixed verse form consisting of fourteen lines usually in iambic pentameter.
An Italian sonnet consists of eight rhyme-linked lines (an octave) plus six rhymelinked lines (a sestet), often with either an abbaabba cdecde or abbacddc defdef
rhyme scheme. This type of sonnet is also called the Petrarchan sonnet in honor of
the Italian poet Petrarch (1304– 74). An English or Shakespearean sonnet instead
consists of three quatrains (four- line units) and a couplet and often rhymes abab
cdcd efef gg.
Sestina: an elaborate verse structure written in blank verse that consists of six
stanzas of six lines each followed by a three- line stanza. The final words of each line
in the first stanza appear in variable order in the next five stanzas and are repeated
in the middle and at the end of the three lines in the final stanza.
Villanelle: a verse form consisting of nineteen lines divided into six stanzas—five
tercets (three-line stanzas) and one quatrain (four- line stanza). The first and third
lines of the first tercet rhyme with each other, and this rhyme is repeated through
each of the next four tercets and in the last two lines of the concluding quatrain. The
villanelle is also known for its repetition of select lines. An example is Dylan
Thomas’s "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night."
“SESTINA” BY ELIZABETH BISHOP
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Elizabeth Bishop is generally not seen as a poet who was interested
in producing autobiographical work or in exposing her private life in
her poetry. Indeed, she is famous for the objective, even distant,
quality of the speakers in her poetry. Nonetheless, critics sometimes
read “Sestina” as an autobiographical work, reflecting the pain and
sorrow that surrounded Bishop during much of her childhood. Bishop
never knew her father, who died when she was an infant, and was
separated from her mother at an early age because of her
institutionalization for mental illness. In her mother’s absence,
Bishop was raised by family members, including her maternal
grandmother—who is perhaps the model for the grandmother in
“Sestina.” Bishop originally titled this poem “Early Sorrow” but later
changed it to the more impersonal “Sestina.”
Does this biographical information change your understanding of the
poem in any way?
QUESTIONS ABOUT “SESTINA”
What six words are repeated as the end words of
the sestina? What is the effect of the
repetitiousness of this form?
 What is the grandmother trying to hide from the
child? Do we know the source of her sadness?
 How would you describe the speaker of this poem?
Is the speaker aligned with the child? With the
grandmother? Or is the speaker a more distant
third-person voice? Some amalgam of these?
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SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET
William Shakespeare [“Shall compare thee to a summer’s day?”] Sonnet 18
 There are 154 Shakespearean sonnets. The first 17 sonnets are called the
procreation sonnets and are written to a young man, urging him to marry
and have children, thereby passing down his beauty to the next generation.
 18-126, are addressed to a young man expressing the poet's love for him.
 Sonnets 127-152 are written to the poet's mistress expressing his strong
love for her.
 The final two sonnets, 153-154, are allegorical.
 Sonnet form
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14 line lyric poem in iambic pentameter: a metrical pattern of poetry
that consists of five iambic feet per line (an iamb or an iambic foot consists
of one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllabus)
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SHAKESPEAREAN SONNET FORM
Shall Í compáre thee tó a súmmer’s dáy? (shall I comPARE thee TO a SUMmer’s DAY?)
English or Shakespearean Sonnet Form: (14 lines)
Quatrain 1
A
(4 lines)
B
A
B
Quatrain 2
C
D
C
D
Quatrain 3
E
F
E
F
Couplet
(2 lines)
Let’s look at the
Sonnet Cheat Sheet
together!
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