Literary Analysis
Yeats created a unique philosophical system, or set of ideas about fundamental truths, woven from his own insights
and the ideas of many thinkers. To express his philosophy, Yeats used symbols. A symbol is an image, character,
object, or action with these functions:
•It stands for something beyond itself, such as an abstract idea.
•It gives rise to a number of associations.
•It intensifies feelings and adds complexity to meaning by concentrating these associations together.
The swans in “The Wild Swans at Coole,” for example, combine associations of beauty (they are attractive), purity
(they are white), freedom (they are wild), and the eternal (they return every year). Over time, Yeats consistently used
certain symbols to express his philosophical system, which is described in more detail in the graphic Literature in
Context feature on page 1144. As you read, consider how this philosophy shapes the meaning of his poems,
particularly “The Second Coming” and “Sailing to Byzantium.”
Reading Strategy
As a poet, Yeats uses vivid language and rich symbols to make his philosophical arguments, relying on the emotional
impact of the images to “convince” his readers. As you read, analyze Yeats’s philosophical assumptions by analyzing
the emotional impact of his symbolic images. Use a chart like the one shown.
"[T]he end of an age, which always receives the revelation of the character of the next age, is represented by the
coming of one gyre to its place of greatest expansion and of the other to that of its greatest contraction"
Literary Analysis
Modernism was an early twentieth-century movement in the arts. The movement responded to the fragmented
modern world created by industrialization, rapid transportation and communication, and a feeling of alienation
caused by mass society and the growth of cities. Eliot led the movement for Modernism in poetry, which had several
features:
•A new objectivity or impersonality in poetry, in which a work is built from images and allusions rather than from
direct statements of thoughts and feelings
•A rejection of realistic depictions of life in favor of the use of images for artistic effect
•Critical attention to social conditions and the spiritual troubles of modern life
As you read, look for details that reflect Modernism in Eliot’s poems.
Reading Strategy
Modernist writers found their society bleak and lifeless. They noted that life in crowded cities left people isolated.
Emphasis on material goods and technology left people adrift spiritually, while factory work dehumanized them.
Using a chart like the one shown, relate Eliot’s literary works to the historical period by finding images that suggest
these problems.
Literary Analysis
Searching for forms suited to modern experience, writers tested different points of view, the perspective from which
a story is told.
•A first-person narrator tells his or her own story. With this technique, authors can probe the thoughts of the
narrator.
•A third-person narrator tells what happened to others. An omniscient third person has the ability to reveal the
thoughts of several characters. A narrator with limited omniscience sees only into the mind of one or few characters.
•Stream-of-consciousness narration follows the flowing, branching currents of thought in a character’s mind.
Writers began using the stream-of-consciousness technique under the influence of the emerging science of
psychology. As in psychology, the free association of ideas in stream-of-consciousness narration reveals the complex
and dynamic nature of people’s minds.
Literary Analysis
Both Conrad and Joyce use plot devices to achieve innovative effects as they relate the events of a story.
•In “The Lagoon,” Conrad tells a story within a story—a tale told by a character within a framing fictional narrative.
•In “Araby,” Joyce builds toward an epiphany—a character’s sudden insight—which forms the climax of the story.
Reading Strategy
Experimental works offer great rewards but also place demands on readers. If you lose your way in a stream-ofconsciousness story, you can repair your comprehension by asking questions to restore your focus. Use a chart such
as the one shown
Literary Analysis
Allegory and the pastoral are two subgenres of literature with a long tradition. They are called subgenres because
these approaches to writing can be found in each major genre—poetry, prose, fiction, and drama.
•In an allegory, a writer uses symbolic characters to stand for abstract qualities or traits. In “In Memory of W. B.
Yeats,” for instance, Auden embodies poetry in a brief allegory. Allegories often teach a moral or lesson.
•In the pastoral, writers celebrate nature and those who live in the natural world. In this subgenre, farmers and
shepherds are often seen as being wiser or more virtuous than city dwellers.
Reading Strategy
Both Auden poems address the role of art in the world. The speakers in the MacNeice and Spender poems react in
different ways to the traditional pastoral world and the more modern human-made one. You can enrich your
understanding by comparing and contrasting elements that appear in the same poem or different poems.
Comparing and contrasting MacNeice’s and Spender’s presentations of the natural world, for instance, highlights the
different themes of their poems. As you read, use a chart like the one shown to record similarities and differences in
the poems.
Literary Analysis
Searching for forms suited to modern experience, writers tested different points of view, the perspective from which
a story is told.
•A first-person narrator tells his or her own story. With this technique, authors can probe the thoughts of the
narrator.
•A third-person narrator tells what happened to others. An omniscient third person has the ability to reveal the
thoughts of several characters. A narrator with limited omniscience sees only into the mind of one or few characters.
•Stream-of-consciousness narration follows the flowing, branching currents of thought in a character’s mind.
Writers began using the stream-of-consciousness technique under the influence of the emerging science of
psychology. As in psychology, the free association of ideas in stream-of-consciousness narration reveals the complex
and dynamic nature of people’s minds.
Literary Analysis
The tone of a literary work is the writer’s attitude toward the readers and the subject. A writer’s choice of words and
details conveys the tone of the work. For example, in these lines from Rupert Brooke’s “The Soldier,” the underlined
words and phrases communicate a tone of patriotic devotion and wistful memory:
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Reading Strategy
Because writers often suggest rather than state elements like theme and speaker, readers must infer the essential
message, or make educated guesses based on clues in the text. Use a chart like the one shown
to make inferences about the essential message of these poems.
Literary Analysis
The tone of a literary work is the writer’s attitude toward the readers and the subject. A writer’s choice of words and
details conveys the tone of the work.
Literary Analysis
Both Conrad and Joyce use plot devices to achieve innovative effects as they relate the events of a story.
•In “The Lagoon,” Conrad tells a story within a story—a tale told by a character within a framing fictional narrative.
•In “Araby,” Joyce builds toward an epiphany—a character’s sudden insight—which forms the climax of the story.
Literary Analysis
pg 1296
During World War II, life in England was severely disrupted. Routines were changed, and anxiety replaced trust. The
usual sights and sounds of daily life became doubtful, dangerous, even deadly.
In this historical context, a ghost story is right at home. A ghost story is a tale in which part of the past—typically, a
dead person—seems to appear in the present. Ghost stories include:
•an eerie or mysterious atmosphere
•the suggestion that supernatural forces are at work
•eerie events that may have a natural explanation
A ghost story may include a flashback, a scene that interrupts a narrative to relate events that occurred in the past.
Ghost stories may create uncertainty or an unresolved tension through ambiguity—the effect of two or more
different possible interpretations. As you read, note how Bowen uses ambiguity to keep you on the edge of your
seat.
Reading Strategy
“The Demon Lover” enables you to relate a literary work to a primary source document. Bowen’s fiction takes place
in the real world described by Winston Churchill in his speech beginning on page 1287. As you read Bowen’s story,
use a graphic organizer like the one shown to relate Mrs. Drover’s private battle to the public battle in Churchill’s
primary source document.
Literary Analysis
A theme is the central idea, message, or insight that a literary work reveals. A universal theme is a message about
life that is expressed regularly in many different cultures and time periods. For example, the power of love amid the
horror of war is a universal theme because every culture and age has experienced it. In every war, the fierce fighter
who kills and dies on a battlefield is also someone’s beloved, someone’s parent, someone’s friend. As Keith Douglas
expresses it,
For here the lover and killer are mingled
who had one body and one heart.
Reading Strategy
Each poet has a purpose in juxtaposing contrasting images of love and war. The author’s purpose may be to reveal
an insight into love, war, or life in general. The poet may want to celebrate the power of an undying love or lament
the power of a death-dealing war. Use a graphic organizer like this one to help clarify each author’s purpose.
Literary Analysis
It is important to analyze the clarity and consistency of political assumptions in a work of literature. You may, for
example, apply a political critique to Derek Walcott’s exploration of literary tradition. A political critique examines
political influences and implications in a work of art, raising questions such as these:
•What political events influenced a work of art?
•What political beliefs affect the writer’s attitudes?
•Who “owns” a work of art?
•Who has the right to judge a work of art?
•What political or cultural experience must people have in order to appreciate a work of art?
Walcott’s poems include allusions—references to persons, places, events, and artworks—that may help readers
apply a political critique. Allusions use the past to gain perspective on the present. An allusion often implies that the
writer and the reader “own” a common culture by jointly participating in it.
Reading Strategy
Sometimes you can repair comprehension by understanding allusions. To understand Walcott’s responses in
Midsummer, it is useful to know that the Brixton riots erupted in London among Caribbean immi-grants. You might
find such information in footnotes, side glosses, back-ground features, reference books, or on the Internet. Use a
chart like the one shown.
Literary Analysis
To create a literary work, a writer makes choices about diction and style.
•Diction is a writer’s typical choice of words—formal or informal, abstract or concrete, scholarly or folksy.
•Style encompasses a writer’s whole manner of expression. It includes word choice, forms, rhythms, themes, and
imagery.
A poem is a work in words, and style and diction—both formed from patterns of words—are as crucial to what a
poem is and how it affects readers’ emotions as its message is. As you read, identify the characteristics of Heaney’s
and Boland’s styles.
One element of Heaney’s style is his frequent use of traditional forms. “Two Lorries,” for example, is a sestina, an
old French form which recycles the same six words to end each line, and then brings all six words together in the last
three lines. As you read, think about how the use of an old form contributes to the overall effect and theme of
Heaney’s poem.
Reading Strategy
To determine the main idea of a poem, it can be helpful to summarize it. Summarizing is restating key points in brief.
Use a chart like the one shown to summarize the poems or individual stanzas in them.
Literary Analysis
Beckett and Pinter are major figures in the literary movement called Theater of the Absurd. The attitude of Absurdist
writers is that human life has no inherent meaning and that human actions have essentially no purpose.
The techniques and characteristics of Theater of the Absurd grew directly out of these major themes and issues of
the post-World War II era:
•After the horrors of World War II, the only possible way of living seemed to be a mixture of despair and humor.
•After decades of dealing with huge social issues—poverty, war, fascism, the Holocaust—writers turned inward to
private, personal, familial, and everyday situations.
•After Modernism, many writers believed that the old structures of dramatic expression were no longer useful forms
for a play.
•After centuries of manipulating language and style, writers began to mistrust language itself and its ability to
communicate.
Look for moments in the plays that mix despair and humor or indications that language has lost its power.
Reading Strategy
To recognize the absurdities in Theater of the Absurd, compare and contrast literary elements. Traditionally,
characters, situations, and dialogue make logical sense, but in Theater of the Absurd, these elements defy logic and
expectations. Use a chart like the one shown to compare and contrast characters, situations, and dialogue in an
Absurdist play.
Literary Analysis
1388 (AP: 2705)
Style refers to the characteristic way in which a writer writes. A poet’s style is based on elements such as word
choice, tone or attitude, line length, stanza form, pace, and sound devices or patterns of sound. Thomas and Hughes
have very different styles, Thomas tumbling his words out in a rush, Hughes creating separate little pulses of images:
•Thomas: “All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, . . .”
•Hughes: “Not a leaf, not a bird”
Thomas’s tumbled words fit into strict patterns, however. In “Fern Hill” he uses nine-line stanzas in which the line
lengths form a pattern. “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” is a villanelle, a nineteen-line poem in which the
rhymed first and third lines repeat regularly to help form the rhyme scheme aba aba aba aba aba abaa. In contrast,
“The Horses” by Ted Hughes is free verse, poetry with no fixed pattern.
As you read, consider all the elements of each poet’s style. Also consider how the style of each poem suits its
theme—its central message or concern.
Reading Strategy
Different poems often express similar themes in different ways. To evaluate the poet’s expression of the theme,
follow these three steps:
1.Identify the theme, or central message, of the poem.
2.Consider the details that work together to convey the theme.
3.Consider how effectively those details communicate the theme. Use a chart like this to help you organize your
ideas.