Poetry
for The Catcher in the Rye
Connotation:
What a word suggests or evokes beyond its
“dictionary” definition.
Example: cheap
Diction
The writer’s choice of words, including their
connotations and effect.
Tone
The speaker’s attitude toward the subject or the
reader.
Alliteration
A device in which several words in close
proximity share the same consonant sound at
the beginning of the word.
Example: She sold sea shells down by the sea
shore.
(The “s” and “sh” sounds emphasize the sound
of ocean waves.)
Assonance
A device in which several words in the same
line or stanza share the same vowel sound.
Example:
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.
--Dylan Thomas
Consonance
The repetition of internal or ending consonant
sounds in a short sequence of words.
Example:
The rock fell out of my pocket into the thick
mud.
Elegy
A sad and thoughtful poem about the death of
an individual.
Robert Burns (1759-1796)
He is called the National Bard of
Scotland.
Most of Burns' poems were written
in Scots. They document and
celebrate traditional Scottish
culture, expressions of farm life, and
class and religious distinctions.
Fig. 1
Comin’ Thro’ the Rye
(modern English translation by Michael R. Burch)
Oh, Jenny's all wet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry;
She's draggin' all her petticoats
Comin' through the rye.
Comin' through the rye, poor body,
Comin' through the rye.
She's draggin' all her petticoats
Comin' through the rye.
Comin' through the rye, poor body,
Comin' through the rye.
She's draggin' all her petticoats
Comin' through the rye.
Should a body meet a body
Comin' through the glen,
Should a body kiss a body,
Need all the world know, then?
Should a body meet a body
Comin' through the rye,
Should a body kiss a body,
Need anybody cry?
Comin' through the rye, poor body,
Comin' through the rye.
She's draggin' all her petticoats
Comin' through the rye.
Wendell Berry (1934-)
Sometimes described as a
modern-day Thoreau, his
writing reflects his belief in
environmentalism and strong
community ties. He writes
about the wonder of life and the
beauty of nature.
Fig. 2
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
J.D. Salinger (1919-2010)
Salinger said his own prose had “precisely
the informality of underwear.”
He is known for his ability to capture realistic
dialogue and his unusual voice, which has
been described as having an “uncanny,
hypnotic readability.”
Fig. 3
Found Elegy from The Catcher in the Rye (p. 171)
I know he’s dead! Don’t
you think I know that?
I can still like him, though,
can’t I?
Just because somebody’s dead,
you don’t stop liking them,
for God’s sake--especially
if they were about a thousand times
nicer than the people you know
that’re alive
and
all.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Although Dickinson wasn’t
recognized as a poet in her
lifetime, when her poems were
discovered and published, readers
immediately discovered a writer of
immense depth and wit.
The speakers in Dickinson’s poetry
are sharp-sighted observers,
musing on nature, religion, and
identity.
Fig. 4
After great pain, a formal feeling comes
After great pain, a formal feeling comes –
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –
The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’
And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?
The Feet, mechanical, go round –
A Wooden way
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought –
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone –
This is the Hour of Lead –
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –
First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –
E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)
• Cummings decided to become a poet
when he was still a child. Between the
ages of eight and twenty-two, he wrote
a poem a day.
• He experimented with poetic form
and language to create a distinct
personal style.
• A Cummings poem is spare and
precise.
Fig. 5
Spring is like a perhaps hand
Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and
changing everything carefully
spring is like a perhaps
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and fro moving New
and Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and
without breaking anything.
Lesley Choyce (1951-)
A Canadian writer, he surfs the
North Atlantic year-round.
He writes in a lively, down-toearth style that lends itself to
spoken-word poetry.
Fig. 6
I’m Alive, I Believe in Everything
Self. Brotherhood. God. Zeus. Communism.
Capitalism. Buddha. Vinyl records.
Baseball. Ink. Trees. Cures for disease.
Saltwater. Literature. Walking. Waking.
Arguments. Decisions. Ambiguity. Absolutes.
Presence. Absence. Positive and Negative.
Empathy. Apathy. Sympathy and entropy.
Verbs are necessary. So are nouns.
Empty skies. Dark vacuums of night.
Visions. Revisions. Innocence.
I've seen All the empty spaces yet to be filled.
I've heard All of the sounds that will collect
at the end of the world.
And the silence that follows.
I'm alive, I believe in everything
I'm alive, I believe in it all.
Waves lapping on the shore.
Skies on fire at sunset.
Old men dancing on the streets.
Paradox and possibility.
Sense and sensibility.
Cold logic and half truth.
Final steps and first impressions.
Fools and fine intelligence.
Chaos and clean horizons.
Vague notions and concrete certainty.
Optimism in the face of adversity.
I'm alive, I believe in everything
I'm alive, I believe in it all.
Sources for Images
Fig. 1http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Robert_burns.jpg
Fig. 2 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/A_New_Harvest%2C_with_Wendell_Berry%2C_Henry_County%
2C_KY%2C_2011_-_photograph_by_Guy_Mendes.jpg
Fig. 3 http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/kindle/merch/rh/A/See-Caption-4_320.jpg
Fig. 4 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/uploads/authors/emily-dickinson/448x/xemily-dickinson.jpg.pagespeed.ic.v4X_p3Ilkf.jpg
Fig. 5 http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/NPG_98_91-cummings.jpg
Fig. 6 http://www.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/images/dalnews/2006/lesley-300.jpg