What do you remember from last lesson on the form of poetry?
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Tools for content
Situation
Theme
Symbolism
Metaphors
Imagery
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Situation
A poem always describes a situation: what is going on?
Ask the ‘wh-questions’!
Once a reader knows the situation, he tries to discover the deeper meaning.
You need to read between the lines.
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What is the situation in Funeral Blues?
Slide 5 - Mind map
Theme
Like short stories, poems have themes.
It is important to find evidence for the theme.
This evidence must come from the poem itself.
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Turn/Volta (twist)
Sometimes the poet gives his poem a twist, where the first stanza is about the shining sun and the second stanza is about the darkness. We call this a turn or a volta. Not all poem have this twist.
Dusk - Rae Armentrout
Spider on the cold expanse
of glass, three stories high
rests intently
and so purely alone.
I’m not like that!
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Symbolism
Poems can have a symbolic meaning: a deeper, bigger, universal meaning.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,
and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
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Metaphors
A metaphor is a different name for something, often in nice poetic language. Example: the golden eye => the sun Example: eternal sleep => death
Poets may use the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ in a metaphor, to compare. Example: He was so pale, he looked like a dead man.
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Personification
A figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes.
For example, when we say, “The sky weeps” we are giving the sky the ability to cry, which is a human quality. Thus, we can say that the sky has been personified in the given sentence.