Poetry Unit: Mining the Meaning in Poetry: Poetry Unit: Mining the Meaning in Poetry Jenna Sanyour, B.A., M.A., D.Cand.
Department of English,
International School
of Choueifat-Cairo
How does one appreciate poetry?: How does one appreciate poetry? (See SABIS L Literature Book, pp.35-6):
Personal response
Understanding the topic
Appreciating the power of poetic techniques (metaphors, similes, alliteration, and so forth).
A huge frog and I, Staring at each other, neither of us moves. –K. Issa: A huge frog and I, Staring at each other, neither of us moves. –K. Issa This is a poem
called a haiku.
You must write
one poem for
homework by
Thursday, of any
kind.
Fire and Ice by R. Frost: Fire and Ice by R. Frost Some say the world
will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted
of desire,
I hold with those who
favor fire.
Slide5: But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To know that for destruction ice Is also great, and would suffice.
1 (a… by e.e. cummings : 1 (a… by e.e. cummings 1 (a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
lone
l
iness
Tonight I Can Write by Pablo Neruda : Tonight I Can Write by Pablo Neruda Tonight I can write
the saddest lines.
Write, for example,
‘The night is starry
And the stars are blue
and shiver in the
distance.’
The night wind revolves
in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.: Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.
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. To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.: Tonight I can write the saddest lines. 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.
What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is starry 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…: This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance. My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her…
So begins Pablo Neruda’s famous poem about breaking up with someone he has been in love with.
Do our feelings matter? Does it matter to give voice to the human heart and soul? Of course it matters. And that is why poetry is so important to us, and always will be.
The SABIS books feature several poems by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, so let us examine his work next.
What does a poem mean? It means different things to different people.: What does a poem mean? It means different things to different people. This is especially the case with Formalist Criticism, which is the practice of mining meaning out of a poem without any recourse to outside research. The poem says something to you alone uniquely because of who you are and where you are in life, and that is enough. In one paragraph, at home tonight, describe what Yeats’ poem “The Wild Swans at Coole” means, uniquely, to you. This is the next poem we shall discuss.
A poem’s meaning must be anchored in the poet’s own life.: A poem’s meaning must be anchored in the poet’s own life. This begins with Biographical Criticism, wherein one must learn about the poet’s life and apply it to the poem to find what the poem meant to him. What did this poem mean to Yeats?
Who is Yeats? What do you
know about him? How old was
he when he wrote “Swans”?
Does his age matter?
“The Wild Swans at Coole” by W. B. Yeats: “The Wild Swans at Coole” by W. B. Yeats This is a poem written by Yeats set at a lake he liked to visit in Ireland, written late in his life, when he was around 50 years old and very much feeling his age and sensing his mortality. He begins-
The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones Are nine-and-fifty swans. : The trees are in their autumn beauty, The woodland paths are dry, Under the October twilight the water Mirrors a still sky; Upon the brimming water among the stones Are nine-and-fifty swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me Since I first made my count; I saw, before I had well finished, All suddenly mount And scatter wheeling in great broken rings Upon their clamorous wings. : The nineteenth autumn has come upon me Since I first made my count; I saw, before I had well finished, All suddenly mount And scatter wheeling in great broken rings Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon these brilliant creatures, And now my heart is sore. All’s changed since I, hearing at twilight, The first time on this shore, The bell-beat of their wings above my head, Trod with a lighter tread.: I have looked upon these brilliant creatures, And now my heart is sore. All’s changed since I, hearing at twilight, The first time on this shore, The bell-beat of their wings above my head, Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover, They paddle in the cold Companionable streams or climb the air; Theair hearts have not grown old; Passion or conquest, wander where they will, Attend upon them still.: Unwearied still, lover by lover, They paddle in the cold Companionable streams or climb the air; Theair hearts have not grown old; Passion or conquest, wander where they will, Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water, Mysterious, beautiful; Among what rushes will they build, By what lake’s edge or pool Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day To find they have flown away?: But now they drift on the still water, Mysterious, beautiful; Among what rushes will they build, By what lake’s edge or pool Delight men’s eyes when I awake some day To find they have flown away?
What is this poem about?: What is this poem about? What does the swan symbolize to the Irish mystic William Butler Yeats?
Does it matter that Yeats is writing this at the age of around fifty?
What is the rhyme scheme of the poem, and the meter, and how do these contribute?
Do you think the poem has as much meaning if we know nothing about the author?
Do you think a poem has just one meaning, or many? How is meaning established?
Can you define what poetry is? How?
Thus begins our Unit on Poetry.: Thus begins our Unit on Poetry. Let’s flap
our wings
and explore
what it’s
all about!