Introduction to poetry

SPEAKER
• WHO IS SPEAKING?
• It is always important in reading a poem to consider who is talking. Even though
the word “I” is used in the poem, the poet may not be the speaker. The voice,
whatever its origin—whether real or imagined, personal or impersonal—has an
important function in a poem, for it is the owner of that voice to whom things
happen, who feels an emotion or has a reflection to share; it is that speaker
through whose eyes or from whose point of view a sequence of events or a series
of details is presented.
• How to Identify the Speaker of a Poem
• In order to analyze and understand a poem, readers should attempt to identify the
speaker in the poem. Since the speaker may not be the author, understanding the
persona the author chose for the poem can make the poem more meaningful. The
following steps can help to identify the speaker of a poem:
• Read the poem and its title carefully and note first impressions. Who might be speaking?
• Examine the language of the poem. Does the language suggest a certain age bracket,
social situation, or geographical point of origin?
• Consider the details of the poem's setting. What individual would be in a position to
know and experience this setting?
• Look for repeated lines, phrases, and images. What do these repetitions say about the
speaker?
• What is the speaker's attitude toward the poem's subject?
TONE
• Tone is conveyed through every aspect of a poem:
imagery, connotation, even rhythm.
• Consider two poems about death. One poem might
use an image of a sunset while another uses dried
flowers. The image of a sunset is warm, restful, even
relaxing. But the dried flowers are brittle and lifeless.
The image that the poet chooses will determine
whether the poem’s tone is comforting or despairing.
How poets use words
Consider the opening of Blake’s ,
‘The Sick Rose’
‘ O Rose, thou art sick!’
Why does Blake use ‘sick’ rather than a similar word such as
‘ill’?
 You can look at the repeated words

I wander through each chartered street

Near where the chartered Thames does flow
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe
• why doe she repeat ‘ chartered’ and ‘mark’? It looks as if he is angry
at the way in which everywhere in London-even the river!- is given to
a trade ( a charter being a license to sell).
• When a poet uses a words. When a poet uses more than
once it is often because it is vital in the building up of the
poem’s meaning.
Simile
• Simile is a comparison of two things using ‘like’ or ‘as
‘
Life is like a chocolate of boxes
Simile and Metaphor
• Simile and metaphors can be dealt together,
because they both speak of one thing in terms of
another.
• In a simile the relation is made clear by the use of the words ‘like’ or
‘as’
• —Hungry
like a wolf
—Cute as a button
—Tough as leather
—Work like a dream
—Drawn like a moth to a flame  
• In other words, a metaphor is a more direct comparison “in which a
word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in
place of another.” 
--- Life is a highway
— Blanket of snow
—Heart of gold
—All the world’s a stage
—Hope is the thing with feathers
• Love is a battlefield. 
Personification
Personification is giving non-human things human
qualities.
Example
• The sun smiled on us
• The light danced on the surface of the water
• Justice is blind, and at times deaf
Busy old fool, unruly sun,
Why dost thou thus.
Through windows, and through curtains call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?

Hope is thing with feathers-

That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the word-
And never stops-at all
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company
Recapitulation

Extended Metaphor in Poetry

• Example: Hope is the Thing with Feathers (By Emily Dickenson)
In the poem given above, Emily Dickinson has remarkably made use of the tool of
extended metaphor by comparing “hope” with the “little bird.”

• Example As you Like it by William Shakespeare

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays
many parts.”
• Shakespeare has remarkably compared “earth” to a “stage” in the excerpt
mentioned above.
Extended Metaphor

• Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
    So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
 “The Silken Tent”
• She is as in a field a silken tent
At midday when the sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that in guys it gently sways at ease,
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To every thing on earth the compass round,
And only by one's going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightlest bondage made aware.
Lyric Poetry
• Lyric poetry refers to a short poem, often with songlike qualities, that expresses
the speaker’s personal emotions and feelings. Historically intended to be sung
and accompany musical instrumentation, lyric now describes a broad category
of non-narrative poetry, including elegies, odes, and sonnets.
• short verse that speaks on poignant and powerful emotions.
What is a Sonnet?

• A sonnet (pronounced son-it) is a fourteen line poem with a fixed 

rhyme scheme. Often, sonnets use iambic pentameter: five sets of
unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables for a ten-syllable
line. Sonnets were invented by the Italian poet Giacomo da Lentini
during the 1200s. The word sonnet is derived from the Old Occitan
phrase sonet meaning “little song.”
Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet

• The Italian sonnet is based on the original sonnet invented

by da Lentini. The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an octave
(group of eight lines) followed by a sestet (group of six
lines). The typical rhyme scheme is as follows: a b b a a b b
a for the octave and c d d c d d, c d d e c e, or c d d c c d
for the sestet. The octave introduces a problem or
conflict, and then the sestet addresses or solves the
problem.
English (Shakespearean) Sonnet

•  The Shakespearean sonnet is named after

Shakespeare not because he invented it but
because he is the most famous writer of this type
of sonnet. Typically, the English sonnet explores
romantic love. Its rhyme scheme is as follows: a b a
b c d c d followed by e f e f g g.
When I am dead, my dearest
BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

•When I am dead, my dearest,

Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
With showers and dewdrops wet;
And if thou wilt, remember,
And if thou wilt, forget.

•I shall not see the shadows,

I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
Sing on, as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
Song: Go and catch a falling star
BY JOHN DONNE
Go and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,

Tell me where all past years are,

    Or who cleft the devil's foot,

Teach me to hear mermaids singing,

Or to keep off envy's stinging

 And find
 What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.
If thou be'st born to strange sights,
  Things invisible to see,
•
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
  Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
  And swear,

•            No where
Lives a woman true, and fair.
If thou find'st one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet;
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
 Yet she
  Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.
What is an elegy?

•   An elegy is a form of poetry that typically reflects on

death or loss. Traditionally, an elegiacal poem addresses
themes of mourning, sorrow, and lamentation; however,
such poems can also address redemption and solace.
• a song or poem expressing sorrow or lamentation especially for
one who is dead
•  something (such as a speech) resembling such a song or poem
• a pensive or reflective poem that is usually nostalgic or
melancholy
•  a short pensive musical composition
However, elegiacal poetry can address many themes other than loss of
life and grief. Here are some common examples of theme in elegy:
• death and its inevitability and/or universality
• personal loss
• humankind and nature
• memory and/or the past
• Nostalgia for youth
• isolation
• devotion
• society
• loss of love
• death of influential leader, writer, or other public figures/heroes
 Example
• “Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats” by 
Percy Bysshe Shelley–memorial poem for poet John Keats