ENGB04
February 14, 2012
EKPHRASIS (poems about art) AND ELEGY (poems of mourning, loss of a loved one)
- Stanley Kunitz’s “The Portrait” (514)
- How does Kunitz work with form to depict the violence of this father’s
suicide and its effects endurance?
o In each fragment, its sending us a different emotional state
o Sentence #2 metaphor; “in her deepest cabinet” (figurative)
mentally/emotionally we have deep cabinets within ourselves
where we don’t want to forget about (literally)
o Layers of pain; Mother’s pain, slapping her son, the cheek still
burning-> evidence from the past
 One little act can mean so much
The Narrative Poem (organization, development of a poem; plot)
The Lyric Poem (usually in the present tense; feelings)
The Interaction
SHERMAN ALEXIE’S “EVOLUTION” (152)
AS NARRATIVE POEM
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-
What story does he tell?
o Colonialization; figure for history of colonialism
o Story of buffalo bill running his pawn shop
Why does he tell this story?
o Preservation, showing injustice toward the Indians
o Evolution = show how this cultural domination is presented as a
“natural” of the American culture (“it’s just a story of evolution”
but its not)
o How extreme the acts of corporations are
o There is a turn at the end.. they are in control of everything even
charges the Indian to enter to see their own stuff
How does he tell this story and to what end?
o Lists various of things being pawned
o The “selling” of the bodies
THEODORE REOTHKE’S “ELEGY FOR JANE” (571)
AS LYRIC POEM
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-
On what subject does he reflect/ meditate?
o Wrote for Jane his student
Why does he reflect/ meditate on this subject?
o A tribute for Jane; something to remember
o Reflecting on relationship
o Important, strong bond = teacher + student (not love wise)
What are his “successive takes” on the subject being considered?
o Rhetorical devices: Similes, metaphors,
ENGB04
February 14, 2012
CLASSIFYING POEMS:
“SPEECH ACTS”
- Manner of Expression over Content
- List of Speech Acts
SPEECH ACTS AND “TICHBORNE’S ELEGY” (68)
- Acknowledging and questioning and lamenting all at once
- The power of this poem, in terms of
ELIZABETH BISHOP’S “ONE ART” AND VENDLER
- Meaning and antecedent scenario?
o A relationship has ended
o The poem is thinking about a loss and it not being a big deal
o It is almost nurturing; just become better at losing things
- Outer form? (meter, feet, rhyme, rhyme scheme, sonnet)
o Repetition:
o Rhyme scheme ABA: Every other line is rhyming
 Last stanza is a loose ABAA
o Pentameter ABA
o Pentameter ABAA
- Climax and Parts?
o “even loosing you”
o although loosing things isn’t a disaster, “write it” like disaster
VENDLER AND THE PLAY OF LANGUAGE
To our other areas of focus, Vendler adds “the play of language.” She observes that
“by the single word ‘language’
WORDSS
Sound units:
Word Roots:
Words:
E. E. CUMMINGS
“R-P-O-P-H-E-S-S-A-G-R” (174)
- How does Cummings play with words?
o Cummings spell grass hopper in many different ways by
rearranging letters
o Who as we look up now gathering into the leaps arriving to
rearrangingly become grasshopper
- Cummings lets the sounds and movement of the living being shape and
disturb the language that seeks to define and name it.
- Hence, for example, the onomatopoeia of the first word and “s” added to
“leap” to break grammatically with the already uncertain article “aThe”
(7).
ENGB04
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February 14, 2012
Within any word, not only the concluding “grasshopper” (15), is
contained this potentially disturbing and playful life.
SENTENCES AND THE REST
Sentences: The subject (noun) and predicate (verb) are crucial to an
understanding of a poem because “everything in a poem that has subjectposition is ‘alive’ and can ‘do things’” (155)
The Ordering of Language:The progression of the moment or meditation may be
undertakien in a linear, radial , or recursive fashion, or develop according to a kind
of logical clrification
LORNA DEE CERVANTES
“Poema para los Californios Muertos” (176)
SENTENCES AND THE REST IN “POEMA PARA LOS CALIFORNIOS MUERTOS”
- Many subjects: From the “older towns” (1) and “this city” (5) to the “I”
and the dead Californios
- Bilingual: English and Spanish
- Order: Moves from the most impersonal – the city, the freeway – to the
personal. There is also this move from the sense of sight to the sense of
touch, to “bloody memory” and, finally, smell.
LOVE (PAIN) POEMS
- Danielle Devereaux’s “Cardiogram” (BCP 35) and Personification (“giving
the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object, or a concept” (35)
o Personification of the heart as a child
- Ron Smith’s “The Teachers Pass the Popcorn” (584) and Narrative Thrust
o What is happening in this poeme?
 The students are watching a movie version of Romeo &
Juliet
o Where is the climax of this poem and why?
 The moment when Romeo and Juliet just missed each other
 All enjambment + word choice
 Everyone experiencing that feeling of regret
 Climax; “the jostling, whispering, giggling darkness around
them, stilled.”
- Denise Levertov’s “The Ache of Marriage” (517) and Allusion (“A
reference, explicit or implicit, to something in literature or history”
(423).)
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figure of Speech:
Simile:
Metaphor:
Quiz#2: weeks 4,5,6
ENGB04
TUTORIAL
enjoyed the most
enjoyed the least
understood the most
understood the least
February 14, 2012