Poetry   Search                 Short Library Assignment / Poem Exploration

 Questions 1 –3 inside the box are primarily library research.  The rest of the assignment may require a good dictionary (or your list of terms) and your own reading skills.

Using searching skills you were exposed to in English 101 and help from Library Staff, find the following information for each of the attached five poems.

Poems 1-5 --answer the 6 questions for each poem

CONTEXT     

1. Who wrote it?
2. When was it written? (Approximate date or publication date)
3. What is its title?
4. What is the poem about? (Don't ust say “love” or “war”—say what kind of love, what attitude toward war, etc. Be specific rather than general.)
5. What is its tone? Look this word up and make sure you are really answering the question.
6. From whose point of view is the poem written? (first person, third person omnisicient, third person limited omniscient, third person, etc.?)

 In class be prepared to discuss the following:

Choose two of the five poems - Poem choice #1 & #2 Structure

1.  How many lines does it have?
2. Is there an external rhyme scheme? (ends of lines rhyme abab, or aabb, aaabbb, etc.)

If so, what is it? (Write the pattern using abcde, etc. for each different sound)

Does the rhyme scheme repeat from stanza to stanza? (Is every stanza abcabc or is one abc and another defdef?)

3.      Is there an internal rhyme scheme?  (words within a line that rhyme in sound).  If so, describe it.  Is the pattern the same from verse to verse/ stanza to stanza?

4.      Does the poem display alliteration?  (repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words).  If so, describe it. Is the pattern the same from verse to verse/ stanza to stanza?

5.      Overall, does the pattern seem suited to the poem’s subject and tone? Why?

For One Poem – your choice:  Answer the CONTENT, LEVELS OF MEANING, and PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER questions.

CONTENT

1.      Literal:  Who wrote it and what is it about?  Can you summarize this in 50 words? In 25?  (Choose one and do it).  Are there any passages that puzzle you? (Write them down).

 2.      Figurative:  What figures of speech can you identify? (consider metaphor, synecdoche, allegory, etc.) List the type and line number(s) of every instance you can find.  Choose one of these figures of speech and explain why you think the author chose to use it. 

3.      Symbolic:  What symbols can you identify?  Quote and list each one along with the line number(s) on which it appears.  What seems to you to be the central or most important symbol?

What type of symbol is it? (of love, youth, death, salvation, purity, etc.)

Choose one place where you can see how the symbol works to enrich the meaning or texture of the poem.  Try to explain what the passage means without using the symbol itself.

 LEVELS OF MEANING

On how many levels does the poem seem to have meaning?

1.      Literal—what it says about the thing (subject) itself.

2.      Personal/psychological (these may or may not be the same in any one poem)—about understanding the self

3.      Interpersonal—about human relationships

4.      Social—about communal life

5.      Political—about the nature of duty vs rank; about glory on the battlefield, etc.

6.      Natural—about the way nature works or about the effect of nature on the person or of the person on nature

7.      Moral, Spiritual, and/or Religious—about sin, guilt, recognition of the rightness or wrongness of choices, atonement, redemption, salvation, purgation

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Choose one passage from the poem and explain why you think it best captures the essence of the author’s message.