Class Notes 9/13-9/17

Material Discussed in Class:
Poetry: language that is condensed to create an artistic effect
time to read aloud v. speak aloud
A text is not poetry if it takes longer to read than to explain.
A simple formula for poetry:
Condensed language + Artistic Effect = POETRY

• Connotation (cultural meaning) and Denotation (dictionary meaning):

<---------------------------------------------0----------------------------------------------->
   gaunt                 skinny                 "thin"                 slender              svelte
Pejorative: critical                                              Honorific: valued

• Concreteness v. Abstraction

A poem's language can give validation or be absurd to the reader. It also has the power to bring in or alienate the reading audience.
<---------------------------------------More Abstract
Transportation, Vehicle, Car, Toyota, Camry
-------------------------------------> More Concrete

• Precision

Content Words  v. Empty Words (Nice! Good!)
Empty words such as 'nice' and 'good' can have layers of multiple meanings.

• Elevation v. Colloquialism

Language fades and reappears
<---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Slang                             Colloquial                      Elevated                    Epic       (Outsiders)                   Language                      Language             Diction

• Dialect, Jargon, Regionalism 

Jargon: language of a trade/profession
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/photo.php?pid=5440465&fbid=437691330818&id=643845818&ref=nf
http://www.altiusdirectory.com/Travel/images/us-outline-map.jpg  and some of my own magic...

• Tone

The way a writer employs language to display emotions.
Texts Discussed in Class and for Homework:                                     Kitchenette Building:                                                                               

• Themes: dreams, traditional ideas about women, importance of family, power of society
• Powerful Diction and imagery in second stanza (Onion fumes, garbage ripening...etc)
• Gwendolyn Brooks Bio: http://www.poemhunter.com/gwendolyn-brooks/biography/

Hidden Meanings:

• Themes of impotence, castration, autoeroticism, (a.k.a. masterbation!) molestation, pedophilia
• women dominate; they dish out the actions
• men are passive and frustrated recipients
• more female than male leads in classic fairy tales
• In this poem, however, the few named males dominate the poem
• women are vampires (as Foster pointed out); influenced by society
• "Two boys got rich like Cinderella" - not true at all! The boys went through lots of challenges, and didn't even achieve anything. Cinderella married a Prince (easy!) and go everything she wanted
• T.S. Eliot Bio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._S._Eliot

Chapter One

• poetry is universal and ancient
• Poems help illustrate experience rather than information
• Readers can participate in poetry and gain awareness to new issues
• "The Eagle"- blends literary and analytical perspectives of eagle into a condensed text
• poetry broadens and deepens our experiences
• Two limiting approaches to poetry: Always look for a moral lesson; Always find poetry beautiful
• "Winter" - Poem has no moral and is not meant to be beautiful
• "Dulce et Decorum Est"- focuses on philosophical truth and real life experiences
• "Poetry is the most condensed and concentrated form of literature" (723).
• One must communicate with poetry
• Poetry draws "more fully and more consistently" on language

Chapter Two

• Read a poem more than once
• Keep and use a dictionary
• Read so you can hear the words in your mind
• Pay attention to what the poem is trying to say
• Read poems aloud sometimes
• Paraphrase: to restate a poem in different, simpler language
• Questions to ask: Who is the speaker? What is the occasion? What is the central purpose of the poem? By what means is that purpose achieved?
• Keep an open mind when reading a poem

Chapter Three

• Denotation v. Connotation (see definitions earlier)
• poets seek most meaningful words
• poets love when words have multiple meanings
• "Naming of Parts" - plays on the meanings of "Spring"

Chapter Four

• Imagery: representation through language of sense experience
• Mental picture (visual imagery)
• A Sound (auditory imagery)
• A Smell (olfactory imagery)
• A Taste (gustatory imagery)
• A Touch (tactile imagery)
• An internal feeling (organic imagery)
• Movement or tension in muscles/joints (kinesthetic imagery)
• "The Widow's Lament" - uses visual imagery throughout the poem (flames, cherry branches...)