1. Jane Nitschke
Poetry is a gift
Poetry Lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ), English poet. A Defense of Poetry (written 1821; published 1840)
A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet.  So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose.  ~Samuel McChord Crothers, "Every Man's Natural Desire to Be Somebody Else" The Dame School of Experience, 1920
Poetry is life distilled.  ~Gwendolyn Brooks,
Harlem Renaissance poet
In our first lesson of the unit I introduced the analogy that a poem was like a present. Here are some meanings that poets have written as they develop ways to understand or explain poetry.

2. How do you unwrap a poem? Look at a poem
Jane Nitschke
How do you unwrap a poem?
Look at a poem
Shape
Punctuation
Grammar
Read the poem. What can you find:
Metaphors? Similes? Imagery?
Symbolism? Rhythm? Meter?
Listen to a poem. Do you hear or feel:
Rhythm? Rhyme?
Fear? Sadness? Happiness? Anger?
When we compared a present to a poem we talked about unwrapping the present to find the gift inside. We compared the outer wrapping, bows, and tags to the poetry form (shape poems) as well as mechanics like punctuation and grammar. We learned about reading poems and looking for literary devices that put a whole lot of meaning into a teeny tiny package. Then we compared the emotional force of a poem when it is read outloud. We heard different emotional emphasis in different readings of the same poem. Your own interpretation and how you read it outloud can change poetic meaning.

3. UnderstandiNG COMPARISONS
Jane Nitschke
Jane Nitschke
UnderstandiNG COMPARISONS
SIMILE
compares two things using the words
“like” or “as”
compares two things that are not similar.
Example: She was as cool as a cucumber!
METAPHOR
compares two things but does NOT
use “like” or “as
Can use the words “is” or “are.”
Example: LOVE STINKS!
When we discussed simile and metaphor we identified their similarities and differences. Comparing two things that are not alike can be done in many ways (like, as, is, are, or just by being next to each other. Similes and metaphors can be humorous or add emotional layers to the meaning of the poem.

4. Symbolism & Imagery Images are descriptive
Jane Nitschke & Loretta Hunt
Symbolism & Imagery
Poets use images & symbols” to describe feelings and impressions.
Symbols stand for more than the words:
The United States,
Democracy
Freedom
Prosperity
Old Glory
Images are descriptive
“My daughter’s hugs warm my heart”
Symbolism and Imagery are also literary devices. Like metaphor and simile, that are the tissue paper and glitter inside the box that we need to open in order to reach the gift inside. In our analogy, the gift was the meaning of the poem.

5. Loretta Hunt
A boom of African American Art, Music, and Literature in the 20’s and 30’s in Harlem, New York

6. Harlem Renaissance & Poetry
What is the Harlem Renaissance and why is it important?
Some amazing poets: Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn B. Bennett and Georgia Douglas Johnson, Claude McKay, Arna Bontemps, James Weldon Johnson
Jane Nitschke
The Harlem Renaissance was an era of cultural explosion especially in the African American community. Here I have listed only a few of the poets who made their mark during that time. These are only the tip of the iceberg and I hope you will go out and discover other poets as well as artists, musicians, and novelists from this era. (Mention two non-poets they may have heard of: Louis Armstrong & Cab Calloway (Blues Brothers))

7. Harlem Wine By Countée Cullen
This is not water running here,
These thick rebellious streams
That hurtle flesh and bone past fear
Down alleyways of dreams
This is a wine that must flow on
Not caring how or where
So it has ways to flow upon
Where song is in the air.
So it can woo an artful flute
With loose elastic lips
Its measurements of joy compute
With blithe, ecstatic hips.
Loretta Hunt
"imagery" = mental pictures using your 5 senses
"symbolism" = the meanings those images have beyond their literal elements.
Both are used to express emotions.
The wine symbolizes the blood of African Americans.
Images of flowing water, flesh, music…

8. Scanning “Harlem Wine”
The Pattern:
Each line alternates iambic tetrameter with iambic trimeter.
The Exception:
“This is a wine that must flow on” (line 5)
“flow on” is a spondee
The Question:
Why did Cullen choose to emphasize the words in line 5?
Janice Teel

9. The Rhyme Scheme
This is not water running here, (A)
These thick rebellious streams (B)
That hurtle flesh and bone past fear (A)
Down alleyways of dreams (B)
This is a wine that must flow on (C)
Not caring how or where (D)
So it has ways to flow upon (C)
Where song is in the air. (D)
So it can woo an artful flute (E)
With loose elastic lips (F)
Its measurements of joy compute (E)
With blithe, ecstatic hips. (F)
Question: If the poem were to continue, can you predict the rhyme scheme of the next stanza?
Janice Teel

10. Types of Rhyme Perfect Rhymes Sight Rhymes here/fear flute/compute
streams/dreams
where/air Internal Rhymes
lips/hips flow/how (also sight)
woo/loose (also slant)
This/is
Janice Teel

11. Enjambment
Enjambment occurs when a sentence continues from one line to the next.
Example:
That hurtle flesh and bone past fear
Down alleyways of dreams...(lines 3 -4)
Questions: How does enjambment emphasize words and ideas? How many sentences do you see? Janice Teel

12. DREAM BOOGIE By Langston Hughes
Good morning, daddy!
Ain't you heard
The boogie-woogie rumble
Of a dream deferred?
Listen closely:
You'll hear their feet
Beating out and Beating out a --
You think
It's a happy beat?
Listen to it closely:
something underneath
like a --
What did I say?
Sure,
I'm happy!
Take it away!
Hey, pop!
Re-bop!
Mop!
Y-e-a-h!
Daddy could symbolize the white patron that African Americans relied on to pursue their art.
An example of musical Imagery used to express emotion of the characters
Loretta Hunt

13. Harlem By Langston Hughes
Loretta Hunt
Harlem By Langston Hughes
(sometimes referred to as “Dream Deferred”)
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? 

Or fester like a sore— And then run? 

Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Simile - likens the original dream
to a round, juicy, green, fresh grape
–once neglected it dries up
Imagery of touch; a wound that is not healing symbolizes growing resentment
Imagery of taste, sight, decay and waste
Metaphor: compares the dream to something that blows up.

14. Poetry is a gift Share the gift of your poetry
Jane Nitschke
Examine the bright wrapping paper,
Carefully unwrap the tissue paper inside
Share the gift of
your poetry
In our first lesson of the unit I introduced the analogy that a poem was like a present. Here are some meanings that poets have written as they develop ways to understand or explain poetry.