Keesha’s House & Poetry Figurative Language, Characterization, and Elements of Poetry

Onomatopoeia Cynthia in the Snow Gwendolyn Brooks It SHUSHES It hushes The loudness in the road. It flitter-twitters, And laughs away from me. It laughs a lovely whiteness, And whitely whirs away, To be Some otherwhere, Still white as milk or shirts, So beautiful it hurts.

Personification Chrysalis Diary by Paul Fleischmam Cold told me to fasten my feet to this branch to dangle upside down from my perch and I have obeyed.

Hyperbole A Pizza the Size of the Sun I'm making a pizza the size of the sun, a pizza that's sure to weigh more than a ton, a pizza too massive to pick up and toss, a pizza resplendent with oceans of sauce. Can you think of other examples of hyperbole?

Simile Flint ~Christina Rossetti An emerald is as green as grass, A ruby red as blood; A sapphire shines as blue as heaven; A flint lies in the mud. A diamond is a brilliant stone, To catch the world's desire; An opal holds a fiery spark; But a flint holds fire.

Metaphor Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day? by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Imagery Pink petals passing Lining streams in lace Cherry Blossoms Adrift Pink petals passing Lining streams in lace Scents above so high Painted porcelain perfection Blossoms caress the sky Smoothest transit by Soft essence floating Swaying silent shroud In most subtle lullaby Suitors strolling by Inducing springtime slumber Lover's gentle sigh Upon a satin shore Sailing with the current Pastel hues falling Pink petals pass before Slow fluttering grace

Alliteration THE TYGER (from Songs Of Experience) By William Blake Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire? And what shoulder, & what art. Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand? & what dread feet? Dare its deadly terrors clasp? When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee? Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Allusion Excerpt from Keesha's House: Sometimes I stay alive by thinkin' of those stories. Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty (The tangles branched in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle - remember those? Asleep between her sheets, almost dead, but then the girl comes back alive.)

Tips for Reading Poetry Look for punctuation in the poem telling you where sentences begin and end. Do not make a full stop at the end of a line if there is no period, comma, colon, semicolon, or dash there. If a passage of a poem is difficult to understand, look for the subject and verb and try to figure out what words the phrases and clauses modify. Be alert for comparisons – figurative language Read the poem aloud Talk about the poem and read it again Read the poem a third time.

Keesha’s House – Poetic Form Helen Frost uses two traditional poetic forms in Keesha’s House: Sestina Sonnet

Sestina French form in which six words are repeated in a particular order as the end words of each line in six 6-line stanzas. Then the same six words are used one more time in a 3-line stanza, or envoi, which concludes the poem. Traditionally, all the lines have the same number of syllables, but Frost made the stylistic choice to vary the lines in these poems. She follows the traditional order of the words in the six stanzas, but in the envoi, she uses the words in any order. The order of the end words is (abcdef, faebdc, cfdabe, ecbfad, deacfb, bdfeca (each letter stands for a word) The traditional order for the envoi is be (line 1), dc (2), fa (3) – first word within the line and the second word is at the end

Sonnet 14 line poem Written in iambic pentameter Specific rhyme scheme English sonnet – abab cdcd efef gg Italian sonnet – abbaabba cdcdcd or abbaabba cdecde Frost uses some half rhymes and near rhymes Crown of sonnets – set of seven Italian sonnets, linked through repeated lines (the last line of one is the first line of the next) – Part VIII is written in a crown of sonnets Hybrid sonnet – half English, half Italian – Part III

Characterization Direct – what we are directly told about a character from the narrator Indirect – what we learn indirectly through: - characters inner thoughts & feelings - character’s actions - things the character says - what other character’s say or think about the character - character’s appearance (including dress)

Round vs Flat Characters Round – like a real person; the reader knows many things about the character and they can be described by more than 1 or 2 traits ex: any of the main characters in Keesha’s House Flat – only 1 or 2 things are known about the character ex: Dontey’s caseworker, Katie’s teacher, Jason’s coach

Static vs Dynamic Characters Static Characters – do not change from the beginning of the text to the end Dynamic Characters – go through a change due to the events in the text

Argument Writing When we work on writing arguments, we will need to find evidence to support both sides of an issue – even if you completely disagree with the opposing side. Let’s practice…. Should Jason go to college or stay with Stephie and raise their baby?

Argument Paper Turn in the following in this order: Final Draft Peer Edit Rough Drafts Prewriting Rubric

Wind Cries Mary Underline examples of personification Look at the imagery of each stanza –what does the imagery suggest? What is the mood? How do you know? What is the reason for the personification? What could be a theme for the song?

Paraphrasing a Poem A paraphrase is a restatement of an author’s original ideas into your own words.   It is essentially a translation of the author’s published ideas into the reader’s interpretation of them.  

Paraphrasing “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost Nature’s first green is gold,  Her hardest hue to hold.  Her early leaf’s a flower;  But only so an hour.  Then leaf subsides to leaf.  So Eden sank to grief,  So dawn goes down to day.  Nothing gold can stay.   

Robert Frost Example “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. A paraphrase of Frost’s poem, line by line: (1) The first growths in Spring are more golden in color than green, (2) but this golden shade doesn’t last very long.  (3) The first sprouts on the branches are actually flower blossoms, (4) but they remain only for a very short time.  (5) Soon, the buds and blossoms give way to green leaves.  (6) The beauty of Eden (the Sumerian place of “delight”) eventually fades away, (7) and the golden rays of dawn are replaced by harsher tones of daylight (reality?).  (8) Nothing in Nature, even things that are most beautiful, lasts forever.

Robert Frost Example Fire and Ice Robert 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. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. Paraphrase Some people believe that the end of the world will come in the form of fire; others believe that it will come in the form of ice. The speaker, based on his experience with desire, agrees with those who vote for fire. If, however, the world must end twice, the speaker’s experience with hate tells him that ice would also be enough to end the world.

Tips on Paraphrasing Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning. Notice that a paraphrase can be (and should be, in this case) longer than the original, especially when you are paraphrasing highly edited or highly crafted language.  Paraphrases will nearly always be longer when interpreting poems and other symbolic writing.

Additional Paraphrasing Tips Think carefully as you read. Look up important words that you do not understand. Notice the main ideas and important details. Retell the content of the reading in your own words. Check to be sure you have included all the important details.