1. Your Electronic Poetry Portfolio…
…or Poetry and You

2. Important Questions: we all should ask when looking at poetry.
What can poetry tell us about history, society, and ourselves?
Why do we read, write, and need poetry?
(do all these words have a purpose)
How can we apply poetry to our lives?

3. What can poetry tell us about history, society, and ourselves?
ROBERT FROST
"A poem begins with a lump in the throat, a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where the emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words.”
DYLAN THOMAS
"Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing.”
ROBERT PINSKY
"Poetry...is an ancient art or technology: older than the computer, older than print, older than writing and indeed, though some may find this surprising, much older than prose. I presume that the technology of poetry, using the human body as its medium, evolved for specific uses; to hold things in memory, both within and beyond the individual life span; to achieve intensity and sensuous appeal; to express feelings and ideas rapidly and memorably. To share those feelings and ideas with companions, and also with the dead and with those to come after us."

4. 40 Reasons in 40 Seconds Cracks the whip
Snaps you into a different state of mind
Binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society
Instructs by pleasing
Hits you with a brick
Forces an epiphany
Just sounds good
Achieves a certain level of song that exceeds the limits of human language
Contains the music of plain speech
Creates a sort of religious feeling
Is news that stays news
Burns for the joy of it
Has an indefinable "woo woo" quality
Proposes pleasure, not truth, as the immediate object of attention
Imitates nature
Sets off your indicator lights
Ritualistically recalls horrible memories in loving detail
Purges pity and terror
Shimmers
Brings the whole soul of man into activity
Is the exact opposite of a gazebungle
Is nothing else, so is poetic by default
Remembers things silently gone out of mind
Rings your bell
Transforms contemplated emotion into actual, felt emotion
Offers the most accurate possible symbolic image of objects which when they are actually seen cause distress (worms, etc.)
Feels as if it was always intended to be written as a poem and does not feel like prose in drag
Marries sound and meaning
Lives beautifully for a moment and then dies
Connects the reader with an interior "otherness," sort of like music
Moves
Lifts you off
Sees relationships and love everywhere
Recreates the early childhood pleasures of moon, Mom, and mud
Breathes the finer spirit of all knowledge
Looks before and after
Shatters self-important, secluded views of the world
Causes a crackling blue spark to arc from the page to the reader's mind
Induces movement by precise expression
Sings

5. Why do we read, write, and need poetry?
(do all these words have a purpose)
I DON’T KNOW!
I DON’T KNOW!
I DON’T KNOW!
I DON’T KNOW!
But that is what we are going to try and figure out.

7. Table of Contents Metaphysical, Cavalier, and Puritan Poetry
(Renaissance)
“To His Coy Mistress”—Marvell
“The Flea”—Donne
Romanticism and Romantic Poetry
“She Walks in Beauty”—Byron
Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite Poetry
“The Lady of Shalott”—Tennyson
“Porphyria’s Lover”—Browning
Modern Poetry
“Truth Kills Everybody”—Hughes

8. She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Lord Byron was born in 1788 and died in 1824
HISTORY VIDEO
“[Poetry] is the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake”

9. Imagery: light/dark images: shows a contrast/balance between dark (beauty) and light (tacky). Images include - LIGHT: gaudy day denies; DARK: which waves in every raven tresses, or softly lightens o’er her face; Light/Dark: One shade the more, one ray the less
Simile: “She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies” (lines 1-2). The poet compares two dissimilar things: the beauty of a woman to the peaceful perfection of the night.
Attitude: The poet’s solemn explanation of beauty leaves the reader in a state of awe. “Where thoughts serenely sweet express/How pure, how dear their dwelling-place” (Bryon, lines 11-12). By choosing words such as serenely and pure, the poet creates a feeling of reverence. This tone of reverence lifts the object of beauty above that of mediocrity.
Theme: In She walks in Beauty, Byron explains how beauty goes beyond the physical. “A mind at peace with all below/A heart whose love is innocent” (lines 17-18). One should not judge beauty by the tackiness and distortions of light but by the soft, calm, and eloquent shades of gray created by darkness. The true definition of beauty lies within.

10. Ted Hughes was born in 1930 and died in 1998
So Crow found Proteus—steaming in the sun.
Stinking with sea-bottom growths
Like the plug of the earth's sump-outlet.
There he lay—belching quakily.
Crow pounced and buried his talons—
And it was the famous bulging Achilles—but he held him
The oesophagus of a staring shark—but he held it
A wreath of lashing mambas—but he held it
It was a naked powerline, 2000 volts—
He stood aside, watching his body go blue
As he held it and held it
It was a screeching woman and he had her by the throat—
He held it
A gone steering wheel pouncing towards a cliff-edge—
A trunk of jewels dragging into a· black depth—he held it
The ankle of a rising, fiery angel—he held it
Christ's hot pounding heart—he held it
The earth, shrunk to the size of a hand grenade
And he held it he held it and held it and
BANG!
He was blasted to nothing.
Ted Hughes was born in 1930 and died in 1998
Named British Poet Laureate in Married to American Poet Sylvia Plath.
“Maybe all poetry… is revealing of something that the writer doesn’t actually want to say, but desperately needs to communicate”

11. Allusion: “So Crow found Proteus—steaming in the sun” (line 1)
Allusion: “So Crow found Proteus—steaming in the sun” (line 1). Hughes alludes to Proteus from Greek mythology. A son of Poseidon who knew everything about the past, present and future, but did not like to tell the future to anyone. He could change himself into any shape he pleased, but if he were nevertheless seized and held, he would foretell the future..
Onomatopoeia: “BANG!” (line 21). The word bang imitates the sound of a large explosion.
Attitude: The attitude of The Truth Kills Everybody is one of desperation. The poet repeats the words “he held it” through out the poem (Hughes, lines 7,8,11,13,15-18,20). With every repetition, Hughes captures the anxiety and suspense that one feels as they try to hold onto that which is important. This apprehension continues until one word, “BANG!”, captures the final feeling that all is lost (line 21).
Theme: Holding onto the elusive can be devastating as Ted Hughes points out in his poem The Truth Kills Everybody. “The earth, shrunk to the size of a hand grenade/And he held it he held it and held it and/BANG!/He was blasted to nothing” (Hughes, lines 19-21). There comes a time when one needs to evaluate that which he/she is holding onto whether it is a memory, a dream, etc and determine if the outcome is worth the struggle. Although it maybe painful, sometimes the truth dictates one to let go.