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Poetry Out Loud Prep Work

Siddhartha D&C Sheets

Tips on RecitingMenu

Teachers, coaches, and students may also find it useful to view the judge’s scoring rubric. Many of the following categories also have links to videos of student performances which illustrate mastery of that specific category.

Learning Recitation Videos

Created to illustrate the art of poetry recitation.

watch the series

Evaluation Criteria:

Physical Presence Voice and Articulation Dramatic Appropriateness Level of Complexity Evidence of Understanding Overall Performance Accuracy

PHYSICAL PRESENCE

Eye contact, body language, and poise.

Tips:

Present yourself well and be attentive. Use good posture. Look confident. Use eye contact with the entire audience. Don’t focus solely on the judges. Nervous gestures, poor eye contact with the audience, and lack of poise or confidence will detract from your score. Relax and be natural. Enjoy your poem—the judges will notice.

Qualities of a strong recitation:

Ease and comfort with the audience. Engagement with the audience through physical presence, including appropriate body language, confidence, and eye contact—without appearing artificial.

Video Examples:

Sophia Elena Soberon “Bilingual/Bilingue” by Rhina P. Espaillat Shawntay A. Henry “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden William Farley “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams

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VOICE AND ARTICULATION

Volume, pace, rhythm, intonation, and proper pronunciation. Keep in Mind: Contestants will use a microphone at the National Finals.

Tips:

Project to the audience. Capture the attention of everyone, including the people in the back row. However, don’t mistake yelling for good projection.

Proceed at a fitting and natural pace. Avoid nervously rushing through the poem. Do not speak so slowly that the language sounds unnatural or awkward.

With rhymed poems, be careful not to recite in a sing-song manner. Make sure you know how to pronounce every word in your poem. Articulate. Line breaks are a defining feature of poetry. Decide whether a break requires a pause and, if so, how long to pause.

Qualities of a strong recitation:

All words pronounced correctly, and the volume, rhythm, and intonation greatly enhance the recitation. Pacing appropriate to the poem.

Video Examples:

Jackson Hille “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins Sophia Elena Soberon “Bilingual/Bilingue” by Rhina P. Espaillat Shawntay A. Henry “Frederick Douglass” by Robert Hayden Madison Niermeyer “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti Kareem Sayegh “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop

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DRAMATIC APPROPRIATENESS

Recitation is about conveying a poem’s sense with its language. It is closer to the art of oral interpretation than theatrical performance. (Think storyteller or narrator rather than actor.) A strong performance will rely on a powerful internalization of the poem rather than distracting dramatic gestures. You represent the poem’s voice, not a character’s. You must subtly enhance the understanding and enjoyment of the poem without overshadowing the language.

Tips:

Do not act out the poem. Too much dramatization distracts from the language of the poem. Movement or accents must not detract from the poem’s voice.

You are the vessel of your poem. Have confidence that your poem is strong enough to communicate without a physical illustration. Let the words of the poem do the work.

Depending on the poem, occasional gestures may be appropriate, but the line between appropriate and overdone is a thin one. When uncertain, leave them out.

Avoid monotone delivery. However, too much enthusiasm can make your performance seem insincere.

Qualities of a strong recitation:

The dramatization subtly underscores the meaning of the poem without becoming the focal point. The style of delivery is more about oral interpretation than dramatic enactment. A low score in this category will result from recitations that have affected character voices and accents, inappropriate tone and inflection, singing, distracting and excessive gestures, or unnecessary emoting.

Video Examples:

Stanley Andrew Jackson “Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem” by Gregory Corso Madison Niermeyer “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti Kareem Sayegh “The Man-Moth” by Elizabeth Bishop

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LEVEL OF COMPLEXITY

A poem with complex content conveys difficult, sophisticated ideas, that are challenging to comprehend and express. A poem with complex language will have intricate diction and syntax, meter and rhyme scheme, and shifts in tone or mood. Poem length is also considered in complexity. Please keep in mind that longer poems are not necessarily more difficult. Poems with significantly challenging content and language may not need length to score well.

Tips:

For competitions beyond the classroom level, select poems of various styles, time periods, themes, and tones. Diversity of poem selection will allow judges to see your mastery of various elements of complexity.

Make sure each poem you choose is one that speaks to you. If you are able to connect with a poem, that internalization will ripple positively throughout all of your scores.

Video Examples:

Stanley Andrew Jackson “Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem” by Gregory Corso Allison Strong “Sonnet CXXX: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare Carolyn Rose Garcia “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

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EVIDENCE OF UNDERSTANDING

This category is to evaluate whether you exhibit a true understanding of the poem in your recitation.

Tips:

You must understand the poem fully. Be attentive to the messages, meanings, allusions, irony, tones of voice, and other nuances in your poem.

Be sure you know the meaning of every word and line in your poem. Listen to track 4 on the audio CD (or in the audio section) in which poet David Mason introduces Yeats’s “The Lake

Isle of Innisfree.” He advises you to think about how you should interpret the tone, volume, and voice of your poem. Is it a quiet poem? Is it a boisterous poem? Should it be read more quickly or slowly, with a happy or mournful tone? Your interpretation will be different for each poem, and it is a crucial element of your performance.

Qualities of a strong recitation:

The meaning of the poem is powerfully and clearly conveyed to the audience. The interpretation deepens and enlivens the poem. Meaning, themes, allusions, irony, tones of voice, and other nuances are captured by the performance. A low score will be awarded if the interpretation obscures the meaning of the poem.

Video Examples:

Jackson Hille “Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins Allison Strong “Sonnet CXXX: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” by William Shakespeare Carolyn Rose Garcia “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins William Farley “Danse Russe” by William Carlos Williams

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OVERALL PERFORMANCE

This category is to evaluate the degree to which the recitation has become more than the sum of its parts.

Did you captivate the audience with the language of the poem? Did you bring the audience to a better understanding of the poem? Did your physical presence, voice and articulation, and dramatic appropriateness all seem on target and unified to

breathe life into the poem? Did you understand and show mastery of the art of recitation?

Judges may also consider the diversity of your recitations with this score; you are less likely to score well in overall performance when judges note that your style of interpretation remains the same regardless of poem choice. A low score will be awarded for recitations that are poorly presented, ineffective in conveying the meaning of the poem, or conveyed in a manner inappropriate to the poem.

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ACCURACY

A separate judge will mark missed or incorrect words during the recitation, with small deductions for each. If you rely on the prompter during your recitation, points will also be subtracted from your accuracy score. Eight points will be added to your score for a perfectly accurate recitation. Refer to the accuracy score sheet for details.

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Weak Below Average

Average Good Excellent Outstanding

Physical Presence

Stiff or agitated; lacks eye contact with audience; appears uncomfortable

Timid; unsure; eye contact and body language reflects nervousness

Body language and eye contact are at times unsure, at times confident

Comfortable; steady eye contact and confident body language

Poised; body language and eye contact reveal strong stage presence

Authoritative; body language and eye contact show compelling stage presence

Voice and Articulation

Inaudible; slow; distracting rhythm; singsong; hurried;mispronunciations

Audible, butquiet; too loud; monotone; paced unevenly; affected tone

Clear, adequate intonation, even pacing

Clear, appropriate intonation and pacing

Very clear, crisp, effective use of volume, intonation, rhythm, and pacing

Very clear, crisp,mastery of rhythm and pace, skillful use of volume and intonation

Dramatic Appropriate-ness

Poem is overshadowed by significant distracting gestures, facial expressions, inflections or accents; acting out of poem; singing; over-emoting; inappropriate tone

Poem is secondary to style of delivery; includes instances of distracting gestures, facial expressions, and vocal inflections; inappropriate tone

Poem is neither overwhelmed nor enhanced by style of delivery

Poem is enhanced by style of delivery; any gestures, facial expressions, and movement are appropriate to poem

Style of delivery reflects precedence of poem; poem’s voice is well conveyed

Style of delivery reflects internalization of poem; all gestures and movements feel essential to poem’s success

Level of Complexity

Simple content, easy language, short length

Straight-forward language and content; moderate length

One element of challenging content,language, or length

Contains two elements of challenging content, language, or length

Contains very challenging content and language; length is appropriate to complexity of poem

Contains extremely challenging content and language; length is challenging for a poem of this complexity

Evidence of Understand-ing

Obscures meaning of poem

Doesn’t sufficiently communicate meaning of poem

Satisfactorily communicates meaning of poem

Conveys meaning of poem well

Interprets poem very well for audience; nuanced

Masterfully interprets poem for audience, deftly revealing poem’s meaning

Overall Performance

Ineffective or inappropriate recitation; does disservice to poem

Inadequate recitation; lackluster; does disservice to poem

Sufficient recitation; lacks meaningful impact on audience

Enjoyable recitation; successfully delivers poem

Inspired performance shows grasp of recitation skills and enhances audience’s experience of the poem

Captivating performance—whole equals “more than the sum of the parts”; shows mastery of recitation skills

Partnered Poetry1. Select a (one) Partner from your house.2. Place All selected poems and readers in the following pages.3. Using Tonal List and Marking the Text Activities to work on all

three poems.4. Use Partner to Offer Rubric-Oriented Criticism on the

Performance of the Poetry.5. Be sure to continue to practice and show the improvement of the

delivery.Cover Sheet:House: Hav. Mansion

Cole Aydar Block 2A

Poem 1: “Battlefield” by: Mark TurcotteScores :1st recitation: P.P: Good--- V&A: Excell.—Drama A.: Excell. ---Complex.: Excell.----Understand.: Outstanding----overall: excellent

2nd recitation: P&P: good V&A: excell. Drama A.:excel. Complex: Excell Understanding: Outstanding overall: Good

3rd recitation: P&P: excel. V&A: excel Drama A.: excel. Complex: out. Understanding: excell overall:Excell.

4th recitation : P&P: V&A: Drama A.: Complex: Understanding: Overall:

5th recitation: P&P: V&A: Drama A.: Complex: Understanding: overall:

Poem 2:Scores :1st recitation 2nd recitation 3rd recitation 4th recitation 5th recitation

Poem 3Scores

1st recitation 2nd recitation 3rd recitation 4th recitation 5th recitationThere’s been a Death,in the Opposite House

By Emily DickinsonThere’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,

As lately as Today —I know it, by the numb look

Such Houses have — alway —

The Neighbors rustle in and out —The Doctor — drives away —A Window opens like a Pod —

Abrupt — mechanically —

Somebody flings a Mattress out —The Children hurry by —

They wonder if it died — on that —I used to — when a Boy —

The Minister — goes stiffly in —As if the House were His —

And He owned all the Mourners — now —And little Boys — besides —

And then the Milliner — and the ManOf the Appalling Trade —

To take the measure of the House —

There’ll be that Dark Parade —Of Tassels — and of Coaches — soon —

It’s easy as a Sign —The Intuition of the News —

In just a Country Town —

Austin Beavers Block

Poem 4Scores (1st recitation / 2nd recitation / 3rd recitation / 4th recitation / 5th recitation)

Poem 5Scores (1st recitation / 2nd recitation / 3rd recitation / 4th recitation / 5th recitation)

Poem 6Scores

(1st recitation / 2nd recitation / 3rd recitation / 4th recitation / 5th recitation)

POL Selection 2

POL Selection 3

POL Selection 4

POL Selection 5

POL Selection 6

THE TONE LISTHere is a list of tones that students may find in poems. It is not comprehensive, and students should be

encouraged to add to it as needed; as the teacher, you should also feel free to trim it to suit your students andclass level. Keep in mind that the longer the list is, the more nuanced and powerful your students’ emotionalvocabulary will be.

abashed bristling disrespectful horrified provocative solemn

abrasive brusque distracted humorous questioning somberabusive calm doubtful hypercritical rallying sternacquiescent candid dramatic indifferent ref lective straightforward

accepting caressing dreamy indignant reminiscing stentorianacerbic caustic dry indulgent reproachful strident

admiring cavalier ecstatic ironic resigned stunned

adoring childish entranced irreverent respectful subduedaffectionate child-like enthusiastic joking restrained swaggering

aghast clipped eulogistic joyful reticent sweetallusive cold exhilarated languorous reverent sympathetic

amused complimentary exultant languid rueful taunting

angry condescending facetious laudatory sad tenseanxious confident fanciful light-hearted sarcastic thoughtful

apologetic confused fearful lingering sardonic threatening

apprehensive coy flippant loving satirical tired

approving contemptuous fond marveling satisfied touchy

arch conversational forceful melancholy seductive trenchant

ardent critical frightened mistrustful self-critical uncertainargumentative curt frivolous mocking self-dramatizing understated

audacious cutting ghoulish mysterious self-justifying upsetawe-struck cynical giddy naïve self-mocking urgentbantering defamatory gleeful neutral self-pitying vexed

begrudging denunciatory glum nostalgic self-satisfied vibrantbemused despairing grim objective sentimental warybenevolent detached guarded peaceful serious whimsical

biting devil-may-care guilty pessimistic severe witheringbitter didactic happy pitiful sharp wryblithe disbelieving harsh playful shocked zealous

boastful discouraged haughty poignant silly

bored disdainful heavy-hearted pragmatic slybrisk disparaging hollow proud smug

Abandoned Farmhouse By Ted Kooser

He was a big man, says the size of his shoeson a pile of broken dishes by the house;a tall man too, says the length of the bedin an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,says the Bible with a broken backon the floor below the window, dusty with sun;but not a man for farming, say the fieldscluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.

A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wallpapered with lilacs and the kitchen shelvescovered with oilcloth, and they had a child,says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preservesand canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.

Something went wrong, says the empty housein the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fieldssay he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jarsin the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yardlike branches after a storm--a rubber cow,a rusty tractor with a broken plow,a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Personification: “say the rags”

Ambiguity: “Something went…”

On this and the following pages, fill out the empty boxes, using the Analysis of Literary Techniques vertical box (to comment on USAGE of technique by the poet) and the Poetry Terms (to define the techniques being used).

Place the comments next to the line…as in the examples above.

Ambiguity: Definition

Ted Kooser, "Abandoned Farmhouse" from Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1980 by Ted Kooser. Reprinted by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.Source: Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems (Zoland Books, 1980)

Poetry Terms

Anthem for Doomed Youth By Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—

The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes

Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.

The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;

Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,

Analysis of Literary Techniques

And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Source: The Complete Poems and Fragments of Wilfred Owen (1984)

Poetry Terms

“Alone” By Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood’s hour I have not beenAs others were—I have not seenAs others saw—I could not bringMy passions from a common spring—From the same source I have not takenMy sorrow—I could not awakenMy heart to joy at the same tone—And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—Then—in my childhood—in the dawnOf a most stormy life—was drawnFrom ev’ry depth of good and illThe mystery which binds me still—From the torrent, or the fountain—From the red cliff of the mountain—From the sun that ’round me roll’dIn its autumn tint of gold—From the lightning in the skyAs it pass’d me flying by—From the thunder, and the storm—And the cloud that took the form(When the rest of Heaven was blue)Of a demon in my view—

Source: American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (1993)

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be By John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be

Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain,

Before high-pilèd books, in charactery,

Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain;

When I behold, upon the night’s starred face,

Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,

And think that I may never live to trace

Their shadows with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,

That I shall never look upon thee more,

Never have relish in the faery power

Of unreflecting love—then on the shore

Of the wide world I stand alone, and think

Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

Writing By Howard Nemerov

The cursive crawl, the squared-off charactersthese by themselves delight, even withouta meaning, in a foreign language, inChinese, for instance, or when skaters curveall day across the lake, scoring their whiterecords in ice. Being intelligible,these winding ways with their audacitiesand delicate hesitations, they becomemiraculous, so intimately, out thereat the pen’s point or brush’s tip, do worldand spirit wed. The small bones of the wristbalance against great skeletons of starsexactly; the blind bat surveys his wayby echo alone. Still, the point of styleis character. The universe inducesa different tremor in every hand, from thecheck-forger’s to that of the EmperorHui Tsung, who called his own calligraphythe ‘Slender Gold.’ A nervous manwrites nervously of a nervous world, and so on.Miraculous. It is as though the worldwere a great writing. Having said so much,let us allow there is more to the worldthan writing: continental faults are notbare convoluted fissures in the brain.Not only must the skaters soon go home;also the hard inscription of their skatesis scored across the open water, which longremembers nothing, neither wind nor wake.

Howard Nemerov, “Writing” from The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov. Copyright © 1977 by Howard Nemerov. Reprinted with the permission of Margaret Nemerov.

Source: The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov (The University of Chicago Press, 1977)

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

Elegy on Toy Piano By Dean Young Analysis of Literary

For Kenneth Koch

You don't need a ponyto connect you to the unseeableor an airplane to connect you to the sky.

Necessary it is to love to liveand there are many manualsbut in all important waysone is on one's own.

You need not cut off your hand.No need to eat a bouquet.Your head becomes a peach pit.Your tongue a honeycomb.

Necessary it is to live to love,to charge into the burning towerthen charge back outand necessary it is to die.

Even for the trees, even for the ponyconnecting you to what can't be grasped.The injured gazelle falls behind theherd. One last wild enjambment.

Because of the sores in his mouth,the great poet struggles with a dumpling.His work has enlarged the worldbut the world is about to stop including him.He is the tower the world runs out of.

When something becomes ash,there's nothing you can do to turn it back.About this, even diamonds do not lie.

Source: Poetry (October 2003).

Techniques

Poetry Terms

The Widow’s Lament in Springtime By William Carlos Williams

Sorrow is my own yardwhere the new grassflames as it has flamedoften before, but notwith the cold firethat closes round me this year.Thirty-five yearsI lived with my husband.The plum tree is white todaywith masses of flowers.Masses of flowersload the cherry branchesand color some bushesyellow and some red,but the grief in my heartis stronger than they,for though they were my joyformerly, today I notice themand turn away forgetting.Today my son told methat in the meadows,at the edge of the heavy woodsin the distance, he sawtrees of white flowers.I feel that I would liketo go thereand fall into those flowersand sink into the marsh near them.

William Carlos Williams, “The Widow’s Lament in Springtime” from The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume I, 1909-1939, edited by Christopher MacGowan. Copyright 1938, 1944, 1945 by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

Source: Poetry (January 1922).

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

Two Guitars By Victor Hernández Cruz Analysis of Literary

Two guitars were left in a room all aloneThey sat on different corners of the parlorIn this solitude they started talking to each otherMy strings are tight and full of tearsThe man who plays me has no heartI have seen it leave out of his mouthI have seen it melt out of his eyesIt dives into the pores of the earthWhen they squeeze me tight I bringDown the angels who live off the chorusThe trios singing loosen organsWith melodious screwdriversSentiment comes off the hingesBecause a song is a mountain put intoWords and landscape is the feeling thatEnters something so big in the harmonyWe are always in danger of blowing upWith passionThe other guitar:In 1944 New YorkWhen the Trio Los Panchos startedWith Mexican & Puerto Rican birdsI am the one that one of them heldTight like a womanTheir throats gardenia gardensAn airport for dreamsI've been in theaters and cabaretsI played in an apartment on 102nd streetAfter a baptism pregnant with womenThe men flirted and were offeredChicken soupEchoes came out of hallways as if from cavesSomeone is opening the door nowThe two guitars hushed and there was aResonance in the air like what is left byThe last chord of a bolero.

Victor Hernández Cruz, "Two Guitars" from Maraca: New and Selected Poems, 1965-2000. Copyright © 2001 by Victor Hernández Cruz. Reprinted with the permission of Coffee House Press. www.coffeehousepress.org.

Source: Maraca: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000 (Coffee House Press, 2001)

Techniques

Poetry Terms

Medusa By Louise Bogan

I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,Facing a sheer sky.Everything moved,—a bell hung ready to strike,Sun and reflection wheeled by.

When the bare eyes were before meAnd the hissing hair,Held up at a window, seen through a door.The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the foreheadFormed in the air.

This is a dead scene forever now.Nothing will ever stir.The end will never brighten it more than this,Nor the rain blur.

The water will always fall, and will not fall,And the tipped bell make no sound.The grass will always be growing for hayDeep on the ground.

And I shall stand here like a shadowUnder the great balanced day,My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,And does not drift away.

Source: Body of this Death: Poems (1923)

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

Mending Wall By Robert FrostSomething there is that doesn't love a wall,That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,And spills the upper boulders in the sun;And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.The work of hunters is another thing:I have come after them and made repairWhere they have left not one stone on a stone,But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,No one has seen them made or heard them made,But at spring mending-time we find them there.I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;And on a day we meet to walk the lineAnd set the wall between us once again.We keep the wall between us as we go.To each the boulders that have fallen to each.And some are loaves and some so nearly ballsWe have to use a spell to make them balance:"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"We wear our fingers rough with handling them.Oh, just another kind of out-door game,One on a side. It comes to little more:There where it is we do not need the wall:He is all pine and I am apple orchard.My apple trees will never get acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonderIf I could put a notion in his head:"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't itWhere there are cows? But here there are no cows.Before I built a wall I'd ask to knowWhat I was walling in or walling out,And to whom I was like to give offence.Something there is that doesn't love a wall,That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,But it's not elves exactly, and I'd ratherHe said it for himself. I see him thereBringing a stone grasped firmly by the topIn each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.He moves in darkness as it seems to me,Not of woods only and the shade of trees.He will not go behind his father's saying,And he likes having thought of it so wellHe says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

Slant By Suji Kwock Kim

If the angle of an eye is all,the slant of hope, the slant of dreaming, according to each life,what is the light of this city,light of Lady Liberty, possessor of the most famous armpit in the world,light of the lovers on Chinese soap operas, throwing BBQ’d ducks at each other with that live-it-up-while-you’re-young, Woo Me kind of love,light of the old men sitting on crates outside geegaw shops selling dried seahorses & plastic Temples of Heaven,light of the Ying ‘n’ Yang Junk Palace,light of the Golden Phoenix Hair Salon, light of Wig-o-ramas,light of the suntanners in Central Park turning over like rotisserie chickens sizzling on a spit,light of the Pluck U & Gone with the Wings fried-chicken shops,the parking-meter-leaners, the Glamazons,the oglers wearing fern-wilting quantities of cologne, strutting, trash-talking, glorious:the immigrants, the refugees, the peddlars, stockbrokers and janitors, stenographers and cooks,all of us making and unmaking ourselves,hurrying forwards, toward who we’ll become, one way only, one life only:free in time but not from it,here in the city the living make together, and make and unmake over and overQuick, quick, ask heaven of it, of every mortal relation,feeling that is fleeing,for what would the heart be without a heaven to set it on?I can’t help thinking no word will ever be as full of life as this world,I can’t help thinking of thanks.

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

Romance By Claude McKay

To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,Scented and warm against my beating breast;

To whisper soft and quivering your name,And drink the passion burning in your frame;

To lie at full length, taut, with cheek to cheek,And tease your mouth with kisses till you speak

Love words, mad words, dream words, sweet senseless words,Melodious like notes of mating birds;

To hear you ask if I shall love always,And myself answer: Till the end of days;

To feel your easeful sigh of happinessWhen on your trembling lips I murmur: Yes;

It is so sweet. We know it is not true.What matters it? The night must shed her dew.

We know it is not true, but it is sweet—The poem with this music is complete.

Claude McKay, "Romance" from Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay (New York: Harcourt, 1922). Courtesy of the Literary Representative for the Works of Claude McKay, Schombourg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tildeen Foundations.

Source: Harlem Shadows: The Poems of Claude McKay (Harcourt Inc., 1922)

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

A Thank-You Note By Michael Ryan

For John Skoyles

My daughter made drawings with the pens you sent,line drawings that suggest the things they represent,different from any drawings she — at ten — had done,closer to real art, implying what the mind fills in.For her mother she made a flower fragile on its stem;for me, a lion, calm, contained, but not a handsome one.She drew a lion for me once before, on a get-well card,and wrote I must be brave even when it’s hard.

Such love is healing — as you know, my friend,especially when it comes unbidden from our childrendespite the flaws they see so vividly in us.Who can love you as your child does?Your son so ill, the brutal chemo, his looming lossowning you now — yet you would be this generousto think of my child. With the pens you sentshe has made I hope a healing instrument.

Analysis of Literary Techniques

Poetry Terms

Reverie in Open Air By Rita Dove

I acknowledge my status as a stranger:Inappropriate clothes, odd habitsOut of sync with wasp and wren.I admit I don’t know howTo sit still or move without purpose.I prefer books to moonlight, statuary to trees.

But this lawn has been leveled for looking,So I kick off my sandals and walk its cool green.Who claims we’re mere muscle and fluids?My feet are the primitives here.As for the rest—ah, the air nowIs a tonic of absence, bearing nothingBut news of a breeze.

Source: Poetry (March 2003).

Analysis of Literary Techniques

POETRY Analysis:

Snappy Guide

SIDDHARTHA D & C Notes

D & C Chart

The Snappy Guide to Scanning a Poem Adapted by Dr. K from materials at http://www.english.bham.ac.uk/staff/tom/teaching/firstyear06/howtoscan.htm and http://www.amittai.com/prose/meter.php Note: This Guide is heavily based on, and deeply indebted to, Stephen Fry's excellent book, The Ode Less Travelled, which anyone interested in poetry should read. It also draws from John Hollander’s Rhyme’s Reason, an equally informative and entertaining book. If you’ve grown up on a steady diet of free verse, it probably comes as a nasty surprise to you that not all poetry in English is written that way. Robert Frost told the students at Milton Academy in 1935 that “Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down,” and many poets before and since have chosen to meet the challenge of meter and rhyme when creating their works. Part of being an English major (and taking the GRE subject exam, etc., etc.) is learning how to “scan” a poem—that is, to determine its meter and its rhyme scheme. In doing so, you’ll gain insight not only into what the poet wanted to emphasize in the poem but also be able to connect it to other works (by the poet and others) in the same metrical and prosodic forms, helping you to place a poem in its historical period and circumstances. So learning to play poetic “tennis” by mastering meter and rhyme is a big part of your development as critical readers of literature. Let’s look at the two main areas separately, starting with meter. Name that foot The basic meter of English poetry is iambic: two syllables to a foot. That’s part of our Indo-European language heritage, since Indo-European featured short syllables as building blocks for words. Note that the names follow a consistent pattern: an adjective describing the shape of the foot or basic stress pattern, and a noun telling you how many feet are in a line. Thus, iambic pentameter tells you that you have five iambs in your line. Pretty simple, once you know what the feet are. And since there only a handful of stress patterns, once you get them down, you just have to count the syllables in the line and you’re in business. OK, so what do these funny words mean? The basic six sound patterns in English have names of Greek etymology and look like this:

iamb (_ /)_ / _ / _ / _ / _ /

_/ _ /

The falling

out of faithful

friends,

renewing

is of love

trochee (/ _)/ _ / _ / _ / _

Double, double toil and troubleanapest (_ _ /)_ _ / _ _ / _ _ /I am mona

rchof all I surve

ydactyl (/_ _)

/ _ _ / _ _Take her up tenderly

spondee (/ /)pyrrhic (_ _)- - / / - - / /and the whit

ebreast

of the

dim sea

Siddhartha Notes:

Using the Depth and Complexity Icons above, select 2 icons per section to take notes with. Each reading should have different icons focused upon, and therefore there should be a total of 8 different notes.

Log your choices below: / You may create notes in the following pages of the Housework, and add pages as needed.

Reading 1: Icon 1 details Icon 2 big idea

Reading 2: Icon 1 __patterns __ Icon 2 ___________rules

Reading 3: Icon 1 _______main problem__________ Icon 2 _____________changes____________

Reading 4: Icon 1 ________feelings_________ Icon 2 ___________theme_____________

After reading each section, produce three discussion level questions to use during the Socratic Seminar towards the end of the month.

Reading 1: 1-36

1. Why did Siddhartha just stand there to persuade his father instead of just talking?

2. Why did Siddhartha show/feel no remorse when he parted with Govinda?

3. Why did Siddhartha want to become ‘empty’?

Reading 2: 37-73

1. What did it symbolize when Siddhartha drank from the woman’s breast?

2. Why would Siddhartha want to be taught love instead of experiencing it for himself?

3.Why does Siddhartha consider ‘thinking, waiting, and fasting’ to be the only things he needs?

Reading 3: 75-115

1. Why does Siddhartha trust the Ferryman?

2. Why is there still restlessness in Govinda’s heart after seeing Siddhartha?

3. Is it bad that Siddhartha and the Ferryman are becoming alike?

Reading 4: 117-152

1. Why didn't Siddhartha pursue his son any farther?

2. Did Siddhartha gain anything after his son ran away?

3. How can enlightenment be transferred just by 2 people touching?

D & C Notes 1 (Siddhartha)

ICON 1 Details ICON 2 Big Idea

Details:

Siddhartha is leaving to become a Samanas with his friend Govinda He wants to become empty of all temptations His father says no at first then tells him to go with them Siddhartha sees all the temptations and troubles of the world while walking

through a town

Big idea:

Siddhartha wants to leave his village and live out a simple life with the Samanas

Spiritual enlightenment

D & C Notes 2 (Siddhartha)

ICON 1 __Patterns ICON 2 ___

Patterns: He is spiritually dissatisfied and believes the elders in his

community have nothing to teach him

Siddhartha keeps on trying to achieve enlightenment and he will do anything to achieve it

He is always a follower of somebody

Rules: there are a lot of details in the book that help the reader visualize a

picture of what the story looks like

the purpose of the story is to show people what it is like to guide yourself throughout the world

D & C Notes 3 (Siddhartha)

ICON 1 _____main problem_________ ICON 2 __________changes______________

Main Problem: escaping temptations and achieveing enlightenment

taking control of the Self

teaching enlightenment once he has achieved it

Changes: his attitude changes and becomes more calm and collected

his friend Govinda leaves him ( for a while)

his personality; he leaves his son and his life as a rich man

D & C Notes 4 (Siddhartha)

ICON 1 _______Feelings_________ICON 2 _____Theme ______

Feelings: changed from feeling jealous of him because he had a perfect life

(realistically) and then changed to happiness because he had achieved his goal for enlightenment in the end

sorrowful when Kamala dies and his only son runs away

Theme: sacrificing

achievment

persisitence

friendship

wisdom and teaching

Marking and Tonal:

Poem 1:

Battlefield By: Mark Turcotte

Back when I used to be Indian (pause)

I am standing outside the

pool hall with my sister.(read slowly)

She strawberry blonde. Stale sweat

and beer through the

open door. (Speed up a little) A warrior leans on his stick,

fingers blue with chalk.

Another bends to shoot.

His braids brush the green

felt, swinging to the beat

of the jukebox. (get louder) We move away.(softly)

Hank Williams falls again

in the backseat of a Cadillac. (long pause)

I look back. (finish off quietly)

A wind off the distant hills lifts my shirt,

brings the scent

of wounded horses.

Poem 2:

The Day By: Geoffrey Brock

It hangs on its

stem like a plum

at the edge of a

darkening thicket. ( slow start)

(Speed up) It’s swelling and

blushing and ripe

and I reach out a

hand ( pause) to pick it

but flesh moves

slow ( emphasis on slow) through time

and evening

comes on fast

and just when I

think my fingers

might seize that

sweetness at last

the gentlest of

breezes rises

and the plum lets

go of   the stem. (long pause)

And now it’s my

fingers ripening (pause)

and evening that’s

reaching for them

Poem 3:

Waking from Sleep By Robert Bly

Inside the veins there are navies setting forth,

Tiny explosions at the waterlines, (softly)

And seagulls weaving in the wind of the salty blood.

It is the morning.(pause) The country has slept the whole winter.

Window seats were covered with fur skins, ( speed up) the yard was full

Of stiff dogs, and hands that clumsily held heavy books.

Now we wake, and rise from bed, and eat breakfast!

Shouts rise from the harbor of the blood, (short pause)

Mist, and masts rising, the knock of wooden tackle in the sunlight.

Now we sing, and do tiny dances on the kitchen floor.

Our whole body is like a harbor at dawn; (pause again)

We know that our master has left us for the day.