INTRODUCING POETRY (I)DR.

KELLY TSE

APPROACHING ENGLISH LITERATURE

LIT1040 (2024-25)
 WHAT ARE OUR AIMS TODAY?

To introduce you to poetry as a literary form

To recognize the distinctiveness of poetry

To appreciate the diversity of poetic forms

To identify the basic elements of poetry

To analyze poems critically through their poetic devices

Focus of today:
William Shakespeare’s sonnet, “Sonnet 130”
William Wordsworth’s lyric poem, “I wandered lonely as a
cloud”
WHO’S AFRAID OF POETRY?

Edvard Munch’s The Scream

(1893)
 WHO’S AFRAID OF POETRY?

Metrophobia: the fear of poetry

Common complaints:
Difficult? Look up words in the dictionary! Each word counts.
Complicated? Life is complicated. Poetry is about life.
Not realistic? Just a different way of defamiliarizing reality.
Illogical? Poetry is about the playful use of language.
Too personal? Yes and no. Poetry is about the self and the other.

Remember:
Poets have their poetic licence.
Be a RECEPTIVE and CREATIVE reader.
There is no wrong interpretation, BUT you must support your arguments or
claims with textual evidence.
 WHAT IS POETRY?

William Wordsworth: “Poetry is the spontaneous

overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin
from emotion recollected in tranquillity.”

Allen Ginsburg: “Poetry is not an expression of

the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed,
thinking what you really think, making the
private world public, that's what the poet does.”

Adrienne Rich: “Poems are like dreams: in them

you put what you don't know you know.”
 POETRY TRIVIA

Poetry is the oldest of literary forms.

Poetry predates written language and has been

recited and sung.

The English word, “poetry,” originated from the

Greek word, “poiesis,” meaning “making.”

The Epic of Gilgamesh, dating from the 3rd

millennium BC, is the oldest surviving epic
poem.

William Shakespeare, the Bard, is the best-

selling poet.
 POETRY AS PERFORMANCE

Bob Dylan Warsan Shire

BASIC ELEMENTS OF POETRY

The title

The text

The poet or poetess

The persona, speaker, or addressor

The reader, audience, or addressee

Others?
 KEY TERMS

Line: a basic unit in a poem (verse)

Stanza: a group of lines that form a main unit in a
poem
Signals a shift in time, mood, thoughts, etc.
A specific type is called quatrain: 4 lines
Rhyme: correspondence of sounds in words
E.g. “day” and “may;” “fade” and “shade”
Rhyme scheme: the pattern of rhymes at the end
of the lines in a poem
e.g. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
 KEY TERMS

End-stop: use of terminal punctuation e.g.

period, colon, or semicolon at the end of a line
Enjambment: continuation of a phrase or a
sentence from one line to another
Syntax: word order and sentence structure
Diction: word choice indicating the level of
formality
E.g. formal, informal, or neutral
 HOW TO READ A POEM?

Read the poem slowly.

Look up difficult words.
Read the poem aloud.
Ask yourself:
What is the subject matter of the poem?
What is the theme of the poem?
What is the tone of the poem?
What form does the poem take? How does
form relate to content?
How does the poem sound like?
Etc.
 TYPES OF POETRY

tongu
acrostic e
twiste
r shap
e
sonne
t
epi
c Etc.
lyric

limeri eleg
ck y
 SHAPE POEM

Ideas are presented in

recognizable shapes

The shapes reflect the

topics under discussion
 LIMERICK

Witty and nonsensical

Usually have five lines

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

Born in Stratford-upon-Avon,
England
English Renaissance playwright,
poet, and actor
Known as the Bard
Never attended any university(!)
Celebrated for his plays and
sonnets
“SONNET 130” (1609)MY MISTRESS’ EYES
ARE NOTHING LIKE THE SUN

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the
ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
 SONNET

14-line poem
3 quatrains + 1 couplet
Iambic pentameter
An iamb: combination of an
unstressed syllable followed
by a stressed syllable
Pentameter: five feet
e.g. My mistress’ eyes are
nothing like the sun;
Regular rhyme scheme
e.g. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
 SONNET

First quatrain
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; A Second quatrain
Coral is far more red than her lips' red; B Third quatrain
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; Rhyming couplet
A
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
B
I have seen roses damasked, red and white, C
But no such roses see I in her cheeks; D
And in some perfumes is there more delight C
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
D
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know E
That music hath a far more pleasing sound; F
I grant I never saw a goddess go; E
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the
ground. F
 WHAT IS THIS POEM ABOUT?

Subject Matter:
The persona’s lover
Theme:
True love exceeds physical flaws
Textual evidence:
“And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.”
 POETIC DEVICES
Simile
Comparison between two objects using “like,” “as,” etc.
e.g. My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
Metaphor
Comparison between two objects using “is,” “was,” “are,”
“were,” etc.
e.g. If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
Hyperbole
Exaggeration
e.g. the mistress' breasts are grayish brown, her breath
reeks,
etc.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)

Born in Cockermouth, England

English Romantic poet
Attended Cambridge University
Celebrated for his co-authored
publication with Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads (1798)
 “I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD”
I wandered lonely as a cloud The waves beside them danced,
That floats on high o’er vales and but theyOutdid the sparkling
hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,Beside waves in glee: – A poet could not
the lake, beneath the trees, but be gayIn such a jocund
Fluttering and dancing in the
breeze. company:I gazed – and gazed –
Continuous as the stars that
shineAnd twinkle on the Milky Way, but little thoughtWhat wealth the
They stretched in never-ending line show to me had brought:For oft,
Along the margin of a bay:Ten
thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing when on my couch I lieIn vacant
their heads in sprightly dance. or in pensive mood,They flash
upon that inward eyeWhich is the
bliss of solitude;And then my
heart with pleasure fills,And
dances with the daffodils.
 LYRIC POEM

Non-narrative

Conveys personal emotions and feelings

Often deploys a first-person voice, “I”
Has a song-like quality
 WHAT IS THIS POEM ABOUT?

Subject Matter:
humankind and the natural world
Theme:
Nature’s beauty uplifts the human spirit
Textual evidence:
“For oft, when on my couch I lieIn vacant or in
pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eyeWhich
is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with
pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.”
 POETIC DEVICES

Personification
Attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects
e.g. When all at once I saw a crowd,A host, of
golden daffodils,
Repetition
Repeating words, phrases, structures, etc.
e.g. I gazed – and gazed – but little thoughtWhat
wealth the show to me had brought:
Alliteration
Repetition of initial consonant sounds
e.g. And dances with the daffodils.
FUN POETRY LEARNING!

MOTIVATION
ATTENTION
RETENTION
APPLICATION
EXCELLENCE
 NEXT MEETING

More on ways of reading poetry.

Reminders:
Check out the document on poetry terms on Moodle
Check out the poetry assignment guidelines on Moodle
Check out the glossary of literary terms on Moodle
Blog post 1 due on 30 Sept (5pm)