Before Reading
Piano
Poem by D. H. Lawrence
Fifteen
Poem by William Stafford
Tonight I Can Write . . . /
Puedo Escribir Los Versos . . .
Poem by Pablo Neruda
Which MEMORIES last?
RL 4 Analyze the cumulative
impact of specific word choices
on meaning. RL 5 Analyze an
author’s choices concerning how
to structure a text. RL 10 Read
and comprehend poems.
Think back to a moment from your past that evokes powerful
feelings in you. Why has this memory made such a lasting
impression? Was it the person you shared the experience with, or
the activity itself? In the poems that follow, three speakers recall
moments that have had a lasting impact.
QUICKWRITE In a short paragraph, describe a particular memory.
Why is this recollection special? What feelings do you remember?
Include sensory details that help present a clear picture.
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Meet the Authors
D. H. Lawrence
text analysis: sound devices
In the poems that follow, the poets use rhyme and other sound
devices to convey rhythm and meaning:
• Assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds in words that
don’t rhyme
We could find the end of a road, meet
the sky on out Seventeenth. . . .
• Consonance—the repetition of consonant sounds within and
at the ends of words
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
• Repetition—a sound, word, phrase, or line that is repeated
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
Consonance
Writer of Experience
Although impoverished during
his childhood, D. H. Lawrence
nce
found great pleasure in
learning and culture, a love
ve
of which was instilled by his
mother. Lawrence’s confessional,
essional,
earnest style is illustrated
d in the
poem “Piano.” He wrote itt in
memory of his mother.
William Stafford
1914–1993
Record examples of the various sound devices that establish in
a chart like the one below.
Assonance
1885–1930
Repetition
“Piano”
“Fifteen”
“Tonight I Can
Write . . .”
reading skill: understand line breaks
End-stopped lines of poetry end at a normal speech pause, as in
these lines from “Tonight I Can Write . . .”:
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.
This emphasizes the line endings and makes a reader view
each line as a complete unit of meaning.
Enjambed lines run on without a natural pause, as in “Fifteen”:
South of the bridge on Seventeenth
I found back of the willows one summer
day a motorcycle with engine running
Enjambment can create a tension and momentum until the
thought is complete. As you read each poem, think about how
line breaks affect rhythm and meaning.
Review: Make Inferences
Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
Remembering the Past
William Stafford remembered,
red, growing up
in Kansas, being “surrounded
ed by
songs and stories and poems,
ms,
and lyrical splurges of excited
ed
talk. . . .” These memories
eventually became the stuff
ff of
his poetry. “Fifteen” is part of a
collection of poems that recall
call
his past.
Pablo Neruda
1904–1973
Boy Wonder
Pablo Neruda was drawn to poetry at an early
age, even though
gh his working-class family
scoffed at his literary
terary ambitions. By
age 20 he had achieved literary
stardom with the
he publication of
Twenty Love Poems
ems and a Song
of Despair. The book chronicles
a passionate love
ve story, from the
couple’s first meeting
eeting to eventual
breakup. “Tonight
ght I Can Write”
is the 20th poem.
m.
Authors Online
Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML10-803
803
The Spinet (1902), Thomas Wilmer Dewing. Oil on wood, 151/2˝ × 20˝. Smithsonian American Art
Museum, Washington, D.C. Photo © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C./Art
Resource, New York.
P iano
D. H. Lawrence
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the
tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who
smiles as she sings.
5
10
804
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano
our guide. a
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child
for the past.
unit 7: the language of poetry
a
SOUND DEVICES
Reread lines 5–9
aloud. Where can you
find assonance and
consonance in this
stanza?
Fifteen
William Stafford
5
South of the bridge on Seventeenth
I found back of the willows one summer
day a motorcycle with engine running
as it lay on its side, ticking over
slowly in the high grass. I was fifteen.
b
10
I admired all that pulsing gleam, the
shiny flanks, the demure headlights
fringed where it lay; I led it gently
to the road and stood with that
companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen.
15
We could find the end of a road, meet
the sky on out Seventeenth. I thought about
hills, and patting the handle got back a
confident opinion. On the bridge we indulged
a forward feeling, a tremble. I was fifteen.
20
Thinking, back farther in the grass I found
the owner, just coming to, where he had flipped
over the rail. He had blood on his hand, was pale—
I helped him walk to his machine. He ran his hand
over it, called me good man, roared away.
b
LINE BREAKS
Notice how Stafford
continues a thought
or sentence from one
line to the next. How
does this enjambment
affect the way you
read the lines?
I stood there, fifteen.
piano / fifteen
805
Tonight I Can Write . . .
Pablo Neruda
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, ‘The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
5
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
c
What impact is created
by the repetition of
“Tonight I can write the
saddest lines”?
Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
10
SOUND DEVICES
She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines. c
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.
To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.
15
What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.
This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
20
RL 5
d
d
The line is the core unit
of a poem. Line length
is an essential element
of a poem’s meaning
and rhythm. Some endstopped lines express
complete thoughts, while
other enjambed lines
run on, their thoughts
completed in one or more
lines. Find examples
of end-stopped and
enjambed lines in the
poem. What effects
do these different line
lengths create?
My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.
The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.
25
Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.
Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes.
I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.
30
Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.
Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her. e
Translated by W. S. Merwin
806
unit 7: the language of poetry
LINE LENGTH
e
MAKE INFERENCES
Reread lines 27–32. Do
you think the speaker still
loves the woman? Why or
why not?
Puedo Escribir Los Versos . . .
Pablo Neruda
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Escribir, por ejemplo: ‘La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos.’
El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.
5
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.
En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.
10
Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.
Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.
15
Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo.
Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
20
Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.
Waiting (2001), Ben McLaughlin. Oil on board, 30.5 cm × 30.5 cm. Private
collection. Photo © Bridgeman Art Library.
La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.
25
De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.
30
Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Aunque éste sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.
tonight i can write . . . / puedo escribir . . .
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Reading for Information
JOURNAL ARTICLE In 1971, nearly 50 years after writing “Tonight I Can Write . . .” Pablo Neruda
was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. For Neruda, this meant a prize of $450,000 and
worldwide fame, although he was already quite famous in and around Chile, his native country.
The following selection gives background on this prestigious award.
e
z
i
r
P
l
e
NLoibterature
The
in
In
1888, the well-known scientist and
inventor Alfred Nobel experienced the shock of
reading his own obituary. A French journalist
had mistakenly reported his passing and
described him as a “merchant of Death.” The
name was a reference to Nobel’s most famous
invention: dynamite.
This description troubled Nobel. He had
often spoken out against violence and considered himself a pacifist. Many believe that
he was moved to create a more positive legacy;
for when he did die, his will specified that his
fortune be used to honor people whose
achievements enrich human life.
Since 1900, the Nobel Prize has rewarded
some of the world’s most dazzling achievements
in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine,
economics, peace, and literature. Given out
each year by the Swedish Academy, the prize
consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and money
(in 2000, it reached one million dollars),
but its actual worth is much higher. Nobel
winners, or laureates, are considered among
the most important and influential people in
the world. The Nobel Prize has both launched
new careers and brought closure to long and
successful ones.
Nobel’s will required that a prize winner’s
work provide “the greatest benefit to mankind.”
For achievements in literature, however, Nobel
had a second requirement: this work must
808
unit 7: the language of poetry
also be “in an ideal direction.” Over the past
century, there has been debate over what “ideal
direction” means, and why any particular writer
should be chosen. As a result, the prize has
been used at different times to honor different
things: talented but unknown writers, for
example, or writers who pioneer new styles.
Pablo Neruda falls into the “pioneers” category,
while recent winning poets Seamus Heaney
(1995) and Wislawa Szymborska (1996), were
honored as “unknown masters.”
When Neruda won his Nobel Prize in 1971,
the Swedish Academy’s presentation speech
stated that “his work benefits mankind precisely
because of its direction.” Neruda’s early poems
describing “isolation and dissonance” gave way
to later ones declaring “harmony with Man and
the Earth.” The academy saw this as an “ideal
direction” for all of mankind to take. Neruda’s
work was also praised for its political content,
particularly as it criticized the oppression of
writers and artists.
In recent years, the Academy has moved
away from determining “ideal direction” in
favor of simply honoring writers for work which
“furthers knowledge of man and his condition.”
This tendency might have pleased Neruda, who
once stated, “The books that help you most
are those which make you think the most . . . a
great book that comes from a great thinker is a
ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and
beauty.”
After Reading
Comprehension
1. Recall How does the speaker in Stafford’s poem react to finding the motorcycle?
2. Recall What are some nature images in Neruda’s poem?
3. Summarize In Lawrence’s poem, what is the speaker remembering?
Text Analysis
RL 4 Analyze the cumulative
impact of specific word choices
on meaning. RL 5 Analyze an
author’s choices concerning how
to structure a text. W 2b Develop
the topic with quotations
appropriate to the audience’s
knowledge of the topic.
4. Visualize Cite specific lines from both Lawrence’s and Stafford’s poems that
helped you to visualize what the speakers remember. For example, what
mental pictures did you form when reading lines 3 and 4 of Lawrence’s poem?
5. Analyze Sound Devices What examples of sound devices did you list as
you read? Explain what ideas are emphasized through repetition of words
and phrases.
6. Examine Line Breaks Compare and contrast the poets’ use of end-stopped
and enjambed lines. How do their choices affect the rhythm of the poems?
7. Compare and Contrast Themes Compare and contrast the memories of the
speakers in these poems. In your opinion, why have these memories endured?
8. Evaluate Read “The Nobel Prize in Literature” on page 808, and consider
“Tonight I Can Write . . .” in light of the Swedish Academy’s comments
on Neruda’s work. Does the poem have more to do with isolation and
dissonance, or harmony?
reading-writing connection
YOUR
Explore the imagery in “Tonight I Can Write . . .” by responding to the
prompt below. Then use the revising tip to improve your writing.
TURN
writing prompt
revising tip
Extended Constructed Response: Analysis
Review your response.
Have you used
quotation marks
correctly when quoting
text from the poem?
What do the images from nature in Neruda’s poem
reveal about the speaker’s relationship with the
woman? What do they tell the reader about the
speaker’s emotions? Use details from the poem to
write a response in three to five paragraphs.
Which MEMORIES last?
What will you most remember about this period in your life?
piano / fifteen / tonight i can write . . .
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