The Poetry Question Where to begin?

Background Expect an essay question on poetry. In the past it has been the first or the second question. It will probably be a poem that is unfamiliar to you but you may be familiar with the poet’s writing or the time period or poem’s structure. Like the prose analysis, you are answering the questions how and why?

Read the prompt! Really!  Read the prompt CAREFULLY!  Rewrite the PROMPT IN YOUR OWN WORDS- What are you being asked to do?  Refer back to the prompt and your rewrite in order to make sure that you are completing the task.  ANSWER THE IMPLIED QUESTION!.

Poet and Speaker The Poet is not the Speaker; the Speaker is not the Poet. The Poet uses literary devices and the speaker, well- he or she speaks.

Read and Reread! Remember to read the poem more than once. Look for the shift in tone. Common poetic devices include:  Figurative language (metaphors, similes, personification, hyperbole, etc.)  Imagery  Devices of sound (rhyme, rhyme scheme meter, assonance, consonance, alliteration, onomatoepia)  Structure and form  Varieties of syntax and diction

AVOID! Making simplistic statements: “The rhyme scheme is AAB, AAB and then CCD, CCD. This is a structure used to keep the rhythm of the poem.” “The simile comparing life to a tree is very interesting and moves the poem along.” “The poet uses iambic pentameter making the poem flow rhythmically” SO WHAT? WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT.

Do not just list the devices! ANALYZE the device- DON’T JUST LIST Why does the writer intersperse formal and informal diction? Why does the poem shift in tone at line______ Why are there allusions to historical events? AND Don’t just state the theme, but how the devices directly work to convey meaning….

Remember to use your tools! All the framed statements! TPCASTT- Title, Paraphrase, Connotation ( how words work), Attitude (tone), Shifts (in structure, tone), Title, Theme Framework for understanding poetry Textual Rendering for poetry CUP- Collaborate Understanding of Poetry Description, Analysis, Arriving at Theme, Judgment

1976 Question One What are the two ways of living? How does the poet’s diction reveal his attitude towards the two ways of living?

Larkin’s “Poetry of Departures” conveys the speaker’s belief that spontaneous movement outside of one’s comfort zone is appealing in theory, but ultimately, wrong and against human nature.

A: Throughout the poem Larkin uses varied pronouns. E: For example, Larkin asserts that, “we all hate home and having to be there.” C: His usage of the pronoun “we” referring to all humans creates an abstract atmosphere….The speaker suggests that impulsive natural behavior is out of place in an ordered world. A: The way of living which is first brought out is free, open and direct; accordingly, the words with which the poet chooses to describe it are unpretentious and at times bawdy. E: “He chucked up everything/And just cleared off” …we can visualize the rowdy, earthy manner in which the “epitaph” is quoted. In the third stanza, phrases like “Take that you bastard” once again exemplify the unembellished flavor of such a life. AEC:…because by taking a “deliberate step backwards,” he would be creating even more artificiality in a life unnatural to him. Should he leave everything merely “to create an object”? AEC CONT: No, he states, to do so would be self- defeating. He must resign himself to the inescapability of his lifestyle with all its trappings; “books’ and “china” recall the image of cleanliness and goodness This irony-the fact that to move towards a life apparently more natural would in fact lead to one more artificial than his own- is summarized by the two words of the last line. His life is “reprehensibly perfect”: “perfect” because it conforms to the conventional mold, and seemingly, paradoxically, “reprehensibly,” because from that mold there is no escape.