Ryder's Translations from Sanscrit:
http://web.mit.edu/vatsa/www/sanskrit/ryder/verses.html
http://web.mit.edu/vatsa/www/sanskrit/ryder/verses.html
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Hear my Prayer: A Prayer of a Taxpayer
http://nourjahad.livejournal.com/
A Prayer of a
Taxpayer
Judges, who rule the world by laws,
Will ye despise the righteous cause,
When
th’ injured poor before ye stands?
Dare you condemn the righteous poor,
And let rich sinners ‘scape secure,
While gold and greatness bribe your hands?
Isaac Watts, Psalm 58,
Warning to Magistrates
My soul is dark. My brain is drained,
deranged, as if I were mad.
Amazed, I wonder in a maze:
my servants misbehave. It’s sad.
It’s actually more than weird:
I pay them, but they disobey:
the other day they put on riot gear
and clubbed some people who just talked,
arrested an old woman in the park,
and I was thinking as I walked:
am I a masochist? It’s crazy!
Did I pay taxes to support democracy
in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, or Yemen?
Therefore
the names of Heaven, Ghost, and Daemon,
Remain the records of their vain
endeavor,
Frail spells — whose uttered
charm might not avail to sever…
My soul is dark. My heart is just a piece of bark
eaten by some hungry elk or deer,
and I exclaimed: OMG, oh LOL, oh dear,
save that blessed one percent, take my advice,
and put them on some kind of Noah’s ark
or take them in your paradise,
please don’t forget to take the Murdochs,
they will establish free hacked press up there,
a heavenly tabloid, enterprise,
a new endeavor, a whole new epoch,
and if You want a nice and tasty supper,
take Martha Stewart, a chef, to that upper-
class world of stars and constellations
and save us from a mental constipation,
and maybe our hell down here
won’t be so dark.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Translation of Wordsworth's ode Intimation of Immortality into Russian:
http://nourjahad.livejournal.com/?skip=30
http://nourjahad.livejournal.com/?skip=30
Friday, October 28, 2011
www.siue.edu
I want to talk about commas. Specifically, I want to talk about a thing known as the serial comma, or, as it's commonly called in academic circles, the Oxford Comma--okay, okay--if you're from Harvard, it's known as the Harvard Comma (Quinion). I've heard it called by both names, but the important t...
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
KATE CHOPIN
Imbued with multiple levels of irony, not to mention several
unexpected plot twists, “The Story of an Hour” remains a model of economic
narrative power. In the space of only a few short pages, Chopin captures the
history, needs, and personalities of her characters. The story of Mrs. Mallard
is touching as well as engaging. Note, as you read, how the carefully chosen
details of the story function to build an entire fictional world, not to
mention a satisfying story.
“The Story of an Hour” (1894)
¶ 1
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble,
great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her
husband’s death.
2
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences;
veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband’s friend Richards
was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when
intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard’s name
leading the list of “killed.” He had only taken the time to assure himself of
its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful,
less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
3
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with
a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with
sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister’s arms. When the storm of grief had
spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
4
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair.
Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body
and seemed to reach into her soul.
5
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of
trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of
rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The
notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and
countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
6
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the
clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her
window.
7
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair,
quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a
child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.
8
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke
repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her
eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky.
It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of
intelligent thought.
9
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it,
fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to
name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the
sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air. Now her bosom rose and fell
tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to
possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will–as powerless as
her two white slender hands would have been.
10
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her
slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: “Free, free,
free!” The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from
her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulse beat fast, and the coursing
blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
11
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy
that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the
suggestion as trivial.
12
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender
hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her,
fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long
procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened
and spread her arms out to them in welcome. There would be no one to live for
during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no
powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women
believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A
kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she
looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
13
And yet she had loved him–sometimes. Often she had not. What did
it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this
possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest
impulse of her being!
14
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
15
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the
keyhole, imploring for admission. “Louise, open the door! I beg, open the door–you
will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven’s sake open the
door.”
16
“Go away. I am not making myself ill.” No; she was drinking in a
very elixir of life through that open window.
17
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring
days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She
breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had
thought with a shudder that life might be long. She arose at length and opened
the door to her sister’s importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her
eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She
clasped her sister’s waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards
stood waiting for them at the bottom.
18
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was
Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his
grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of accident, and did not
even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine’s piercing cry; at
Richards’ quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.
19
But Richards was too late.
20
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease–of
joy that kills.
Discussion
questions:
1. Summarize Chopin’s plot. Tell each
other in class. Work in pairs.
2. What is ironic about the plot?
3. What other ironies can you find in
the story?
4. Plot here creates irony, which in
turn affects the mood thus creating it. How can you describe the overall mood
of the story?
5. What is the difference between the
mood and the tone?
6. Does Louise hate her husband? Has he
been dreadful to her? Has her life with him been terrible?
7. Does she feel grief at his supposed
death? Choosing freely, would Louise choose this man again?
8. How can you describe Louise’s
feelings? Can you say that she feels joy? Why does she experience these feelings?
What do her feelings tell us about the author’s view of the social codes
governing women at the time? What is historic and cultural setting of the
story?
9. Compare the 5th and the 6th
paragraphs (beginning with “She could see in the open square…” with the third
paragraph from the end (beginning with “Someone was opening the front door…”)
as to the style. How do they differ and how are their differing affects
achieved? Consider diction, sound, imagery, and rhythm. What is implied and
what is achieved by the deliberately calculated stylistic difference between
the passages?
10. What is Chopin’s theme? How do the
mood and situational irony help to establish it?
Writing.
Choose one
topic out of three and write a coherent essay with introduction, body (there may
be more than one body paragraph) and conclusion (3-5 paragraphs 6-7 sentences
each).
1) Write an essay discussing how irony,
mood and style help to reveal the conflict and the theme of the story. Please
include your responses to discussion questions 3, 4, 5 and 9. In a separate
paragraph describe your impression of the story and detail (prove supporting
your points using the text) what makes you think so. Write a conclusion
summarizing and paraphrasing your main points. Note that conclusion reinforces
your main points and ideas; it does not bring in a new idea; however, do not
repeat exact words and phrases that you used in you introduction, body and
conclusion.
2) Write about the theme (the main idea) of the story. In a separate paragraph (s) address the
following issues: to what extent
does this story relevant today? You may argue that it is still important or it
is no longer relevant to the contemporary situation of women in the society; in
any case, do not forget to prove your points by using the text of the story and
some of the other sources that you might use for your argument.
3) Write about illusion and reality in “The Story of an Hour”.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
On the Grasshopper and Cricket
On the Grasshopper and Cricket
THE poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper’s - he takes the lead
In summer luxury,- he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
Discussion “On the Grasshopper and Cricket”
Please note that in most cases you are expected to say “how” and “why”, not just “yes” or “no” (frankly, that’s up to you).
Do you recognize whose poem is that?
What can you say about the form of the poem?
Do you encounter any difficulties as far as language (diction),
form (meter, rhythm, rhymes), and syntax are concerned?
Do you feel like changing anything (for instance, in diction, word order)?
Are there any striking images in the poem?
What is (are) the central image(s) of the poem?
What can you say about the mood and the tone of the poem?
Who is the speaker of the poem?
What can you say about the underlying ideas?
What is the subject of the poem?
Can you relate to it?
Please also use
1) Charles Bernstein’s “Poem profiler”
2) Read and then use “Basic definition”
3) Later we will try also Helen Vendler’s “Step-by-Step method to thoroughly explicating the poem
(All attached).
Charles Bernstein's Poem Profiler
This is a list of rhetorical features of individual poems. Pick one poem and rate it for each of these characteristics. Rate the levels of these features on a one to ten scale with one the lowest level and ten the highest level. Be specific: give examples to support assessment. Compare two poems based on these features. Also: compare any group of poems based on their likeness/difference from one another. (NOTE: please provide additional parameters for the Profiler, which is in development.)
For definitions of many key poetics terms, go to here (Wheeler's Liteary Vocabulary) or here (classical rhetorical terms) or here (Representative Poetry Online glossary)
| Stylistic Textures and Poetic Diction Coefficient of weirdness (wackiness quotient) Ambiguity Ambivolence Irreverence Sobriety Humor Eloquence Plainness Sincerity Smoothness (vs roughness, bumpiness, striation) Neat (vs messy) Pretentiousness Subtlety (vs bluntness) Indirect (vs straightforward) Intelligence Visual imagery Dreaminess Particularity (vs generality) of details Stylistic consistency Innovation Originality Ornamental/decorative Relevance Tastefulness Speech-like Dialect Sampling (use of found or quoted material) Comprehensibility Coherence Spontaneity Exploratory Density Predictability Abstractness Sensuousness Wearyness Timidity Bravado Courage Unusual vocabulary Complexity Repetitiveness Self-consciousness Artifice (vs “natural”) Difficulty Modern/contemporary (vs old fashioned) Referential Opacity / Transparency Ratio (outward/inward pointing) Point of View Direct POV of author as speaker (monologic / lyric) Persona Narrator (epic) Multiple POVs (dialogic or polyvocal) Textual Subjectivity n/a | Content Political Liberal/conservative/radical Urban Pastoral Moral Sexual Religious Spiritual Mystical Philosophical Love Family Ethnic/racial Nationalistic/patriotic Gender Mortality (death) Illness Conflict (war) Discontent Developmental / Temporal / Compositional Structures (What holds the poem together?) Fragmentary / disjunctive / nonlinear / discontinuity [parataxis] Logical/expository continuity (linear 1/ hypotaxis) Narrative continuity (beginning, middle, and end) (linear 2 / hypotaxis) Journey Journal/diary Stream of consciousness/thought process Dream-like/surreal Closure Symmetrical Fast paced Jerky Kinetic (moves from one thing to another) vs. static (continuous present) Programmatic or procedural Received form (sonnet, ballad, etc.) Devices Irony Paradox Exaggeration Understatement Simile Metaphor Personification Symbolism Allegory Enjambment Metonymy Literary or historical allusion Persona Programmatic or procedural structure | Mood/Tone [rate the first term only] Scary/reassuring Dark/light Impersonal/emotional Engaged /disaffected (alienated) Affirmative/skeptical/ hostile Elegiac (mournful) / celebratory (panegyric) Hot/cold Angry/friendly Cool/uncool Turbulent/calm Disturbed/content Reckless/cautious Happy/sad Depressed/elated Bright/dull Meditative/unreflective Bubbly/sober Elusive/explicit Erotic/dispassionate Mysterious/apparent Counting: Syllables per line Lines per stanza or for poem Stanzas Words per line Visual Shape/Form: Flush left, justified/ragged prose, overall “field” design, etc. Sound Dissonance/cacophony (noisy, harsh) Melodious/harmonious/ mellifluous (“pleasing”) Assonance Alliteration Rhyme Off-rhyme Metrical patterns Obtrusive (vs not noticeable) for performances: accent tempo voice timbre tone intonation rhythm amplitude/dynamic range Contexts Author’s date of birth/death Date of poem’s composition Place of composition Relevant socio-historical facts Relevant biographical facts Relevant ethnic, gender, national, sexual orientation Place/context of original publication and significant subsequent publication Variant versions, including performances Title: yes/no; if yes: use/connection to poem |
Introduction and Discussion
- Poetry is the most compressed form of literature.
- Poetry is composed of carefully chosen words expressing great depth of meaning.
- Poetry uses specific devices such as connotation, sound, and rhythm to express the appropriate combination of meaning and emotion.
| There are two basic types of poetry: |
Regardless of whether it is traditional or modern poetry, the subject of a poem can be anything. It could be about something as intense as child birth, or as mundane as waiting at a bus stop. Since there are so many poems written about the important parts of life that affect all humans (marriage, death, love, and the natural world), there are names for poems with these subjects. Clearly, not all poems fit into these categories.
- epithalamium - a poem that celebrates a wedding
- elegy - a poem that remembers the dead
- pastoral - a poem describing the joys or sorrows of living close to nature and away from the city
- love - a poem filled with expressions of joy, despair, passion, romance, spirituality, religion or unrequited love.
Analyzing Poetry:
You analyze a poem to arrive at an intelligent interpretation and understand what you read.
A Rule!
A poem should be read several times in order to "hear" it and feel its emotions. The more times you read the poem, the more you can analyze and understand subtle shades of meaning in a poem. These shades of meaning are often conveyed through specific poetic devices, or "parts" of the poem.
| ||||
- speaker - the created narrative voice of the poem (i.e. the person the reader is supposed to imagine is talking).
The speaker is NOT necessarily the poet. The poet often invents a speaker for the poem in order to give him/herself more freedom to compose the poem.
When the poet creates another character to be the speaker, that character is called the persona.
When the poet uses one persona to narrate the entire poem, the poem is called a dramatic monologue.
- audience - the person or people to whom the speaker is speaking. Identifying the audience within a poem helps you to understand the poem better. There are different people the speaker can address in the poem:
- The speaker can address another character in the poem.
- The speaker can address a character who is not present or is dead, which is called apostrophe.
- The speaker can address you, the reader.
- theme - The statement the poem/poet makes about its subject. (Theme for poetry has a slightly different meaning than theme for a work of fiction).
Some words are neutral, but can have negative or positive connotations. For example, the word island is neutral. When it refers to a vacation on a Greek island, the word has positive connotations. When it describes being shipwrecked on an island, the word has negative connotations. Also, words associated with smell can be either positive or negative. For example, "scent" is positive, while "odor" is negative.
Here is an example of some neutral words and their positive and negative connotations:
| Neutral | Positive | Negative |
| island | vacation | shipwrecked |
| smell | scent | odor |
| teenager | young citizen | delinquent |
| house | home | dump |
- syntax - the organization of words, phrases and clauses, i.e. the word order. Finding the right syntax for a poem is like finding the right light before you take a photograph. If the order of the words is "wrong," the emotional, psychological, and/or spiritual impact of the words will be lost. After reading the example below you will "feel" the impact of the "right order."
Syntax examples:
| "wrong" order | "right" order |
| "At fourteen I married My Lord, you." | "I married you, My Lord, at fourteen." |
| "Thirty-five years I lived with my husband." | "I lived with my husband for thirty-five years" (William Carlos Williams). |
Each of these types of imagery has a specific name:
- olfactory imagery stimulates the sense of smell.
- tactile imagery stimulates the sense of touch.
- visual imagery stimulates the sense of sight.
- auditory imagery stimulates the sense of hearing.
- gustatory imagery stimulates the sense of taste.
- kinesthesia is imagery that recreates a feeling of physical action or natural bodily function (like a pulse, a heartbeat, or breathing).
- synaesthesia is imagery that involves the use of one sense to evoke another (Ex: loud color; warm gesture).
Examples of two types of imagery:
- visual imagery - From "The Widow's Lament in Springtime"
"masses of flowers
load the cherry branches
and color some bushes
yellow and some red..."
(William Carlos Williams)
(William Carlos Williams)
- auditory imagery - From "
"Listen! You hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in."
(Matthew Arnold)
| ||||
Example 1: Your eyes are as blue as the sky.
You eat like a bird.
Example 2: "Harlem "
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
(Langston Hughes)
(Langston Hughes)
Hughes uses five different similes in this poem. He compares unfulfilled dreams to a raisin, a sore, rotten meat, a syrupy sweet, and a heavy load. Through these similes, Hughes paints a picture of a dream that is cast aside, and lies rotting and decaying.
Here, the author does not mean that your cheeks are actually red cherries. Instead, the metaphor simply conveys that your cheeks are the color of cherries: flushes, bright and red.
Example 2: "Fame is a Fickle Food"
Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set.
Whose crumbs the crows inspect
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the Famer's Corn--
Men eat of it and die.
(Emily Dickinson)
And with ironic caw
Flap past it to the Famer's Corn--
Men eat of it and die.
(Emily Dickinson)
In this example, Dickinson
personification - a type of metaphor that gives living qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas; or human qualities (feelings, thoughts) to animals. It gives non-living things and animals the ability to think, feel emotions, or have human relationships.
Example 1: The moon smiles. Fires rage.
The wind vexes the lake and the waves crash angrily.
The wind vexes the lake and the waves crash angrily.
Example 2: "The Wind" (by James Stephens)
The wind stood up, and gave a shout;
He whistled on his fingers, and
He whistled on his fingers, and
Kicked the withered leaves about,
And thumped the branches with his hand,
And thumped the branches with his hand,
And said he'd kill, and kill, and kill;
And so he will! And so he will!
And so he will! And so he will!
Stephens' poem personifies the wind as a cruel, abusive man. Though he never says directly that the wind is a man, it is apparent through his word choice, and the actions that he attributes to the wind (standing, shouting, whistling, speaking, etc).
Example 2: From "Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
"Because I could not stop for Death--
He kindly stopped for me--
The Carriage held but just Ourselves--
And Immortality." (Emily Dickinson)
He kindly stopped for me--
The Carriage held but just Ourselves--
And Immortality." (Emily Dickinson)
By using anthropomorphism, Dickinson Dickinson
Examples: "Robby got wheels this summer."
wheels = car
wheels = car
"All hands were on deck."
hands = sailors
hands = sailors
". . . the hand that wrote the letter . . ."
hand = person
hand = person
- metonymy - a play on words based on association. With metonymy, an object is referred to in terms of something closely related to it, yet not actually a part of it (i.e. not synecdoche). In other words, we comment on something by naming a separate object, but one that is closely associated with the original subject.
Examples: Queen Elizabeth controlled the crown for years.
the crown = the monarchy
the crown = the monarchy
He has always loved the stage.
the stage = the theater
the stage = the theater
He will follow the cross.
the cross = Christianity
the cross = Christianity
- allusion - a reference made to another literary work, historical event, work of art, or a famous person's quote that adds more depth to the poet's/author's meaning. In fact, all poems retelling old stories are allusive. For example, a modern version of Casey and the Bat would allude to the old ballad.
Example: "To An Artist, To Take Heart"
"Slipping in blood, by his own hand, through pride,
Hamlet, Othello, Coriolanus fall.
Upon his bed, however, Shakespeare died,
Having outlived them all." (Louise Bogan)
These three, Hamlet, Othello, and Coriolanus, are tragic Shakespearean heroes. The first sentence alludes to how the three each died: Hamlet in a duel, Othello by suicide, and Coriolanus' by pride. Shakespeare died a less violent death in his bed.
- symbolism - when an author uses an object or idea to suggest more than its literal meaning. A person, place, or event stands for something other than it is, usually something broader or deeper than it is.
The author intentionally uses symbolism in his/her writing. The author selects specific objects, places or things to function as symbols in his/her work in order to expand and deepen the meaning of the piece. The author trusts that the reader will be skilled enough to notice the symbolism.
Example: "The Sick Rose"
O rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy. (William Blake)
Of crimson joy,
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy. (William Blake)
Blake uses the rose as a symbol for all that is beautiful, natural and desirable. He uses the worm to symbolize the evil that destroys natural beauty and love. The poem is more than a description of an infested flower bed. Because of the symbolism, it suggests that all that is beautiful, natural, and good in the world is being secretly destroyed by something we cannot see. The worm "flies in the night," and then hides beneath the dirt of the flower bed. This means that we cannot see the evil that attacks the purity in the world, nor do we understand its reasoning (Clayes 42).
However, be aware that the same objects (rose, worm) can be used in many different pieces of literature and can symbolize something different in each one. For example, the word "rose" can be a symbol for sensual love, spiritual love, youth, natural beauty, vulnerability, etc., depending on the author's intention.
- verbal irony - one meaning is stated, but another, antithetical (opposite and opposed) meaning is intended. This subtle irony is dependent on the author's word choice.
Example: From "Of Alphus"
No egg on Friday Alph will eat,
But drunken will he be
On Friday still. Oh, what a pure
Religious man is he!
(Anonymous, 16th Century)
The author does not really mean that Alph is "pure" and "religious," in fact, he means the opposite (Simpson 431). The reader can discern by studying the word choice that the author does not really mean what he appears to be suggesting. Alph will not eat eggs on Friday, presumably because of the religious rules of the time. He will, however, get drunk. One can assume that getting drunk was not in accordance with the religious rules, and therefore, the author is actually pointing out Alph's impurity and sacrilege.
- overstatement (hyperbole)- An exaggeration; giving something more or less of a quality than it really has. This term is usually used as a put down, or to discredit what someone is saying.
Example: After so many years, he can still feel the sting of his mother's slap.
He cannot literally feel the sting, but the hyperbole conveys that his mother's slap was a deeply damaging experience.
- understatement (litotes, meiosis) - saying something with an overly light tone; the speaker's words convey less emotion than he actually feels.
Example: "I'm really glad that you have come to visit," said the spider to the fly.
The spider is not simply pleased to have a visitor, but is excited to have his next meal trapped in his web.
- paradox - a statement that appears to be absurd, untrue, or contradictory, but may actually be true.
Example: From "Death, Be Not Proud, Though Some Have Called Thee"
"One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die."
(John Donne)
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die."
(John Donne)
It seems impossible that man could live beyond death, and that death itself could die. However, if one believes in the Christian doctine, it is possible. The Christian faith teaches that after the body dies, the soul wakes again and lives for eternity. Therefore, if the passage is examined from a Christian perspective, the "impossible" statement becomes true.
- oxymoron - a form of paradox where two contradictory terms are combined in one phrase.
Examples: cold fire honest thief
darkly lit
fearful joy
· sound - the use of specific vowels, consonants, accents and the combination of these three make up the sound of the poem. Most poetry is composed to be read aloud. Sound devices can influence the reader/listener's perception of the poem both intellectually and emotionally. A couple of sound devices are as follows:
- alliteration - the repetition of the same consonant sounds at the beginnings of words that are near each other in a poem.
Example: From "A Bird came down the Walk"
"Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam--
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon
Leap, plashless as they swim."
(Emily Dickinson)
Too silver for a seam--
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon
Leap, plashless as they swim."
(Emily Dickinson)
- rhyme - the effect caused by matching vowel and consonant sounds at the end of words such as song and long, hope and cope, sat and cat, and love and dove.
- rhyme scheme - a structural device that uses a pattern of end rhyme (where the last words in two or more lines rhyme) in a stanza.
Example: Look at the underlined words and match the letters to see the rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.
"Sonnet XVIII: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? a
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. b
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines. c
And often is his gold complexion dimmed. d
And every fair from fair sometimes declines. c
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed. d
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, e
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, f
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade e
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. f
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, g
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g
(William Shakespeare 1609)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? a
Thou art more lovely and more temperate. b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a
And summer's lease hath all too short a date. b
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines. c
And often is his gold complexion dimmed. d
And every fair from fair sometimes declines. c
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed. d
But thy eternal summer shall not fade, e
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest, f
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade e
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. f
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, g
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g
(William Shakespeare 1609)
The repeated pattern of unstressed to stressed syllables in the above line tends to move the reader forward, pushing him through the line in a rhythmic, methodic way. This adds to the meaning of the line, implying that the speaker came, saw and conquered quickly and methodically without much thought or emotion.
- organization - The structure of the poem; the way the verses (lines) are organized on the page.
The organization can impact the poem's rhythm by affecting the flow of the verses. Different organizations of verses within a poem make up different length stanzas, or poetic units. Stanzas operate like paragraphs in a story. A few types of stanzaic organization are as follows:
- couplets - stanzas of only two lines. Usually, the two lines rhyme.
Example: From "An Essay on Criticism"
"Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well."
(Alexander Pope) - tercets - stanzas of three lines. The three lines may or may not have the same end rhyme. If all three lines rhyme, the tercet is a triplet (as below).
Example: From "Upon Julia's Clothes"
"Whenas in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then, methinks how sweetly flows
The liquefaction of her clothes."
(George Herbert)
Example: From "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me."
(Thomas Gray)
Example: "To one who has been long in city pent
Example 1: "Musee des Beaux Arts"
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
(W. H. Auden)
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
(W. H. Auden)
Example 2: "The Red Wheelbarrow"
so much depends
upon
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
barrow
glazed with rain
water
water
beside the white
chickens.
(William Carlos Williams)
chickens.
(William Carlos Williams)
Clayes, Stanley A. and John Gerrietts. Ways to Poetry. New York
Simpson, Louis. An Introduction to Poetry. 2nd ed. New York : St. Martin 's Press, 1972.
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