Poetry

Poetry, Exploration of Themes, and Literary Theories

Unit 2: Introduction to Poetry (4 weeks)

All pages refer to Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense

Week 1: Literary Terms Specific to Poetry
Imagery: Pages 771-774, “After Apple-Picking” – Questions & Journal
Symbol/Allegory: 807-817, “The Road Not Taken” – Questions, Journal
Paradox, Irony, Satire: 829-839, “My Last Duchess” – Journal
Tone: 880-885, “The Man He Killed” – Questions and Journal
Alliteration, Assonance, Consonance: 899-907, various poems

Week 2: Forms of Poetry

Sonnet, Stanza, Ballad, Haiku, Villanelle, Pantoum, Blues, Blank Verse, Quatrain, Couplet, Ode, Blank Verse, Dramatic Monologue, Prose Poem, Epic Poem

In Journals – students will need to explain how each form works and how form = idea



Week 3: Great Poets (focus on Modernism)
Theme: The Individual’s Place in Society

Frost – “Death of the Hired-Man”, “Home Burial”
Eliot – “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, “Wastelands”
Brooke- “The Dead”
Wilfred Owen – “Dulce et Decorum Est”
Hughes – “Theme for English B”
Bishop – “The Fish”
Jarrell – “Death of Ball-Turret Gunner”
Forche – “The Colonel”
Clifton – “Good Times”
Plath – “Mad Girl’s Love Song”

And perhaps Berryman and Dylan Thomas.

Week 4: In-Class essay, student’s poetry, poetry projects

Students will practice their hand at writing their own poems and exploring literary devices and poetic form. These will be read out loud.

Students will also choose one poem from “Poems for Further Reading” and teach what the poem means and how it creates meaning by discussing form, literary devices and perhaps social context

1st In-class essay.
Personal or Exploratory Essay 2-3 pages.



POETRY TEST: THINGS TO KNOW

Elements: Know both definitions and examples
Imagery, denotation, connotation, irony – verbal, situational, dramatic, sarcasm, metaphor, personification, metonymy, apostrophe, synecdoche, symbol, allegory, paradox, overstatement, understatement, allusion, tone, alliteration, assonance, consonance, internal rime, slant rime, end rime, approximate rime, refrain, meter, iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee, monosyllabic foot, line, stanza, cacophony, caesura, enjambment, onomatopoeia

Forms:
Structure, line breaks, how the poem looks, rhyme and rhythm and how it is created
Blues, Sestina, Villanelle, Pantoum, Sonnet (English, Italian, Spenserian, and hybrid), haiku, quatrain, tercets, couplets, litany, ballad.

Poems:
“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” “Home Burial” “Heights of Machu Picchu” “The Flea” “My Last Duchess” “The Wastelands” “To His Coy Mistress”, “The Waste Lands” “Nani” “The Colonel” “One Art” “Fern Hill” “The Waking” “My Mistress’ Eyes” “The Second Coming”


Wednesday 10/12/11

In class:

We will read "What is Poetry" from your textbooks: Structure, Sound, and Sense (pages 717 - 736).
Notes on Imagery.

Homework:

Imagery - 771-774. Look at the poem "After Apple-Picking". Answer the questions 1-6 at the end of the poem, and then in your blog briefly discuss what you believe the poem is about and use images from the poem to back up your ideas.


Thursday 10/13/11

FInish: "What is Poetry"- particularly looking at "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "In a Station at the Metro"
Notes; Imagery

HW: Read chapter on "Symbolism and Allegory" page 807-817. Answer questions on the poem "The Road Not Taken" and write a response to the poem as to what you believe it means.


Friday 10/14/11


Discuss Frost.
Mr. Fielding will read poetry and dreams.
Discuss and review symbols and Allegory.
Cover the chapter on "Reading a Poem" (if you are gone you need to read this on your own)

Homework: Find a poem that uses allegory and bring it to class to read and present.

Read: "Paradox, Irony, Satire" 829- 839 and read "My Last Duchess"
Answer questions on “My Last Duchess” and write a poetry explication.