1. + Introduction to Formalism (again) and Poetics (new)

2. + Unit Goals You will become a master of annotation! You will become a more active reader! You will be able to figure out a poem's meaning without freaking out, getting frustrated, or giving up! You will be able to communicate your ideas about a poem effectively! You will train your ears and eyes to pay attention to language!

3. + Piece One:

4. + Piece Two

5. + Piece Three

6. + Piece 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZuBFz6WYfs

7. + Formalism Formalism is a literary theory which argues that how a text is written is a just as important as what is written. A formalist will argue that the form of a text communicates the meaning.

8. If Steinbeck had written East of Eden as a musical instead of a novel, what would that do to its meaning?

9. + Poetics Poetics is a field of study in which we look specifically at how poems are crafted as a way to figure out what they might mean. When we discuss poetics, we do a formalist analysis and add in topics specific to poetry: rhyme, meter, sound, and so on. A formalist will read a poem and look at how the words are physically put together and why.

10. + The Five Formalist Categories for Analysis Structure: What does the text physically look like on the page? Diction: What words are used? Literal or Figurative Language? Sound: What does the text sound like? Rhythm: What patterns in sound or movement are present? Rhyme (poetry only): What type of rhyme is present?

11. + Questions a Formalist Asks How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols? (i.e. making a certain road stand for death by constant association) What is the quality of the work's organic unity "...the working together of all the parts to make an inseparable whole..." (Tyson 121)? In other words, does how the work is put together reflect what it is? How are the various parts of the work interconnected? How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text? How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the work? What does the form of the work say about its content? Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the entirety of the work? How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute to the meaning or effect of the piece?

12. + Fomalism and Poetics Tyger, tyger burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry. (from "The Tyger" by William Blake) Think of the five categories. How is the story being communicated (for now this is more important than what is communicated)? In other words, do not tell me the meaning, rather what patterns do you notice that could be used later to determine meaning? What a formalist asks: Why did Blake choose a tyger as his central image? And why does he repeat that word? Why is the tyger "burning?" Is it literally on fire? Is it a symbol? To whom does the "immortal hand" belong? Why all the repeated consonant sounds: "t" and "b" in the first line, "f" in the final line? Why did Blake write the poem in a nursery rhyme rhythm if the subject is so "fearful?" Aren't "eye" and "symmetry" supposed to rhyme if "bright" and "night" do ? So why don't they?

13. + Type of Poems We will study four types of poems that are categorically organized based on STRUCTURE. Sonnets (most structured) Lyrical Poetry (less structured) Blank Verse (Even less structured) Free Verse (Absence of any definitive structure)

14. + Some Brief Examples A superficial glance at the Sonnet and Free Verse

15. + Sonnets Highly structured Invented for a specific purpose ~ expression of love or loss of love Later, form utilized to express civil rights and social justice issues (i.e. Claude McKay’s, If We Must Die) The question a formalist immediately asks: Why would a poet use the format of a love poem known for its rigid structure to talk about Civil Rights? Strictest of forms symbolizes the literal, cultural and social imprisonment of African Americans. A love poem to the spirit of revolution.

16. + Free Verse “A Station at the Metro” (Ezra Pound 1913) The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. No apparent rhyme scheme or regular meter. How can a poem with no apparent form be subjected to a formalist analysis? Right away a formalist will notice at least eight issues: It’s only two lines long. There is not a single verb. The two lines are separated by a semi-colon (not a period, or colon or comma). The poem ends with an alliteration. The first line is strict iambic hexameter (also known as “alexandrine”). The poem starts on a weak syllable and ends on a strong one. There are at least eight unique vowel sounds in a poem of only fourteen words. Each line ends on the same dipthong (“ow”/”ough”)