English II Honors Final - Poetry

"Island" by Langston Hughes Wave of sorrow, Do not drown me now: I see the island Still ahead somehow. Wave of sorrow, Take me there.

"wave of sorrow" - is a symbol of sadness and sorrow beyond its literal meaning, what might the island in the poem suggest? - beacon of hope, happiness, the future

"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale (War Time) There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum trees in tremulous white, Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; (6) And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done. Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone

- The world doesn't stop for us, it will keep going The poem starts off as serene, and happy. The second stanza has a shift in tone -Nature's indifference towards us

"Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War is Kind" by Stephen Crane Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind. Because your lover threw wild hands toward the sky And the affrighted steed ran on alone, Do not weep. War is kind. (5) Hoarse, booming drums of the regiment, Little souls who thirst for fight, These men were born to drill and die. The unexplained glory flies above them, Great is the battle-god, great, and his kingdom— (10) A field where a thousand corpses lie. Do not weep, babe, for war is kind. Because your father tumbled in the yellow trenches, Raged at his breast, gulped and died, Do not weep. (15) War is kind. Swift, blazing flag of the regiment, Eagle with crest of red and gold, These men were born to drill and die. Point for them the virtue of slaughter, (20) Make plain to them the excellence of killing And a field where a thousand corpses lie. Mother whose heart hung humble as a button On the bright splendid shroud of your son, Do not weep. (25) War is kind.

- addresses 3 different people: wife, child, and mom - oxymorons in poem: War is Kind, Excellence in Killing - tone: sarcastic, ironic, passionate, angry, bitter -he says that "war is kind" but what he describes is actually the complete opposite message - war is not kind, the injustice of war - constantly repeats throughout the poem: do not weep, war is kind

"Pentatina for Five Vowels" by Campbell McGarth Today is a trumpet to set the hounds baying. The past is a fox the hunters are flaying. Nothing unspoken goes without saying. Love's a casino where lovers risk playing. The future's a marker our hearts are prepaying. The future's a promise there's no guaranteeing. Today is a fire the field mice are fleeing. Love is a marriage of feeling and being. The past is a mirror for wishful sightseeing. Nothing goes missing without absenteeing. Nothing gets cloven except by dividing. The future is chosen by atoms colliding. The past's an elision forever eliding. Today is a fog bank in which I am hiding. Love is a burn forever debriding. Love's an ascent forever plateauing. Nothing is granted except by bestowing. Today is an anthem the cuckoos are crowing. The future's a convolute river onflowing. The past is a lawn the neighbor is mowing. The past is an answer not worth pursuing, Nothing gets done except by the doing. The future's a climax forever ensuing. Love is only won by wooing. Today is a truce between reaping and rueing.

- aying -eing -i~ing -owing -uing message - carpe diem, seize the day

"Ex-Basketball Players" by John Updike Pearl Avenue runs past the high-school lot, (1) Bends with the trolley tracks, and stops, cut off Before it has a chance to go two blocks, At Colonel McComsky Plaza. Berth's Garage Is on the corner facing west, and there, Most days, you'll find Flick Webb, who helps Berth out. Flick stands tall among the idiot pumps— (7) Five on a side, the old bubble-head style, Their rubber elbows hanging loose and low. One's nostrils are two S's, and his eyes An E and O. And one is squat, without A head at all—more of a football type. Once Flick played for the high-school team, the Wizards. (13) He was good: in fact, the best. In '46 He bucketed three hundred ninety points, A county record still. The ball loved Flick. I saw him rack up thirty-eight or forty In one home game. His hands were like wild birds. He never learned a trade, he just sells gas, (19) Checks oil, and changes flats. Once in a while, As a gag, he dribbles an inner tube, But most of us remember anyway. His hands are fine and nervous on the lug wrench. It makes no difference to the lug wrench, though. Off work, he hangs around Mae's Luncheonette. (26) Grease-gray and kind of coiled, he plays pinball, Smokes those thin cigars, nurses lemon phosphates. Flick seldom says a word to Mae, just nods Beyond her face toward bright applauding tiers Of Necco Wafers, Nibs, and Juju Beads.

- he was the best basketball player - who flick WAS vs who he IS - fame is fleeting -nothing lasts forever -don't let your talents go to waste

"Mending Wall" by Robert Frost Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The work of hunters is another thing: (5) I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, (10) But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. (15) To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' We wear our fingers rough with handling them. (20) Oh, just another kind of outdoor game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across (25) And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.' Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it (30) Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, (35) That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. (40) He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.' (45)

- neighbor seems secluded/shot out -speaker seems more inviting -Every spring they come to mend the wall -there is no need for a wall because they have totally different things! Very distinct. Some traditions have purpose, but over time they don't suffice. -age gaps neighbor = older generation, not wanting to change speaker = younger generation, open to change BE OPEN TO CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spondee

// (Stressed Stressed)

Trochee

/U (stressed unstressed)

How would you annotate trochaic tetrameter?

/U /U /U /U

Dactyl

/UU (stressed unstressed unstressed)

How many feet would be included in a Monometer?

1

How many feet would be included in a Dimeter?

2

How many feet would be included in a Trimeter?

3

How many feet would be included in a Tetrameter?

4

How many feet would be included in a Pentameter?

5

How many feet would be included in a Hexameter?

6

"To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman The time you won your town the race (1) We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high. Today, the road all runners come, (5) Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town. Smart lad, to slip betimes away (9) From fields where glory does not stay, And early though the laurel grows It withers quicker than the rose. Eyes the shady night has shut (13) Cannot see the record cut, And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears. Now you will not swell the rout (17) Of lads that wore their honours out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man. So set, before its echoes fade, (21) The fleet foot on the sill of shade, And hold to the low lintel up The still-defended challenge-cup. And round that early-laurelled head (25) Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead, And find unwithered on its curls The garland briefer than a girl's.

Iambic tetrameter -distinct rhyme schemes, stanzas, and beats -since it is pretty formal it sounds reverent and respectful -serious poem message- fame is not eternal, fame doesn't last forever, better to die with everything than to live with nothing

True or False? Even if the poem is biographical, you should treat the speaker as a fictional creation because the writer is choosing what to say about himself.

True

True or False? It's important to note that the speaker is NOT the poet.

True

Iamb

U/ (unstressed stressed)

Anapest

UU/ (unstressed unstressed stressed)

How would you annotate anapest dimeter?

UU/ UU/

"Night Crow" by Theodore Roethke When I saw the clumsy crow Flap from a wasted tree, A shape in the mind rose up: Over the gulfs of dream Flew a tremendous bird Further and further away Into a moonless black, Deep in the brain, far back

What he sees vs what he imagines how we perceive ourselves vs how others see us fantasy vs reality (optimism)

"Birches" by Robert Frost When I see birches bend to left and right Across the lines of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy's been swinging them. But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells (10) Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust— Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen. They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load, And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed So low for long, they never right themselves: You may see their trunks arching in the woods Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair Before them over their heads to dry in the sun. (20) But I was going to say when Truth broke in With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm I should prefer to have some boy bend them As he went out and in to fetch the cows— Some boy too far from town to learn baseball, Whose only play was what he found himself, Summer or winter, and could play alone. One by one he subdued his father's trees By riding them down over and over again Until he took the stiffness out of them, And not one but hung limp, not one was left (30) For him to conquer. He learned all there was To learn about not launching out too soon And so not carrying the tree away Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise To the top branches, climbing carefully With the same pains you use to fill a cup Up to the brim, and even above the brim. Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish, Kicking his way down through the air to the ground. So was I once myself a swinger of birches. (40) And so I dream of going back to be. It's when I'm weary of considerations, And life is too much like a pathless wood Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs Broken across it, and one eye is weeping From a twig's having lashed across it open. I'd like to get away from earth awhile And then come back to it and begin over. May no fate willfully misunderstand me And half grant what I wish and snatch me away (50) Not to return. Earth's the right place for love: I don't know where it's likely to go better. I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But dipped its top and set me down again. That would be good both going and coming back. One could do worse than be a swinger of birches

When the speaker sees bent birch trees, he likes to think that they are bent because boys have been "swinging" on them, but he knows that it is because ice storms. He remembers swinging on the trees when he was younger - he was once carefree and young and now he doesn't know what to do. -His life is hard now, not like the life he lived as a child. -He'd like to get away, but he knows that he'd have to come back message: it's okay to take a break for a while, but you eventually have to come up; there are ups and downs of life. -Imagination vs. reality -Find balance -Work vs. Play What does birch swinging symbolize in the poem: Having no responsibility because he always refers to the swinging on birches with children

repetition of repeated sounds

alliteration

a brief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, or movement

allusion

repetition of vowel sounds (usually in the interior of a word)

assonance

repetition of consonance sound (We put the young buck in our truck)

consonance

the poet deliberately puts in displeasing sounds

dissonance

"Miss Rosie" by Lucille Clifton when I watch you (1) wrapped up like garbage sitting, surrounded by the smell of too old potato peels or when I watch you (6) in your old man's shoes with the little toe cut out sitting, waiting for your mind like next week's grocery I say when I watch you (12) you wet brown bag of a woman who used to be the best looking gal in Georgia used to be called the Georgia Rose I stand up through your destruction I stand up (18)

examples of sensory language: 1) wrapped up like garbage 2) smell of too old potato peels 3) wet brown bag of a woman subject? - homeless person who was once thriving speaker sounds what towards the subject? - unsympathetic, harsh message - we need to recognize the homeless and help them

a metrical or rhythmical pattern

foot

refers to the atmosphere that is prevalent in the poem; evokes certain feelings and emotions in the reader

mood

"Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor— (6) Bare. But all the time I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners, And sometimes goin' in the dark (12) Where there ain't been no light. So, boy, don't you turn back. Don't you set down on the steps. 'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now— For I'se still goin', honey, (18) I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

mother went through a rough time. Older woman, dialect in this poem: southern, maybe uneducated because of the dialect. she is someone who has worked with her hands theme of the poem - just keep swimming tone - wise, inspiring, motivational, determined

a form of poetry that tells a story, often making use of the voices of a narrator and characters as well; the entire story is usually written in metered verse.

narrative voice

intense, descriptive language in a poem that helps to trigger our senses and our memories when we read it

sensory language

"Desert Places" by Robert Frost Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast (1) In a field I looked into going past, And the ground almost covered smooth in snow, But a few weeds and stubble showing last. The woods around it have it--it is theirs. (5) All animals are smothered in their lairs. I am too absent-spirited to count; The loneliness includes me unawares. And lonely as it is that loneliness (9) Will be more lonely ere it will be less-- A blanker whiteness of benighted snow With no expression, nothing to express. They cannot scare me with their empty spaces (13) Between stars--on stars where no human race is. I have it in me so much nearer home To scare myself with my own desert places.

snow falling, nighttime, the snow has blanketed the ground, the speaker is looking out across a field, winter time, animals are hibernating tone - desolate, lonely, content - the speaker constantly says various variations of "lonely" throughout the poem mood - pure, cold, empty, content, serene message - how tiny people are in the whole scheme of things, sadness doesn't necessarily come from being alone - it comes from an inside feeling

pertains to sounds, noises, music, or the sense of hearing

sound imagery (auditory imagery)

"Negro" by Langston Hughes I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa. I've been a slave: Caesar told me to keep his door-steps clean. I brushed the boots of Washington. I've been a worker: Under my hand the pyramids arose. I made mortar for the Woolworth Building. I've been a singer: All the way from Africa to Georgia I carried my sorrow songs. I made ragtime. I've been a victim: The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo. They lynch me still in Mississippi. I am a Negro: Black as the night is black, Black like the depths of my Africa.

speaker = representative of all the African culture imply- africa culture's contribution to society, they suffered for a long time (that's why they have all those different places mentioned) How is allusion used in this poem? Why might allusion be useful in portraying the speaker's feelings? - employing pathos to make us FEEL sympathy, and ethos to provide example.

"Lady Freedom Among Us" by Rita Dove don't lower your eyes or stare straight ahead to where you think you ought to be going don't mutter oh no not another one (5) get a job fly a kite go bury a bone with her oldfashioned sandals with her leaden skirts with her stained cheeks and whiskers and heaped up trinkets (10) she has risen among us in blunt reproach she has fitted her hair under a hand-me-down cap and spruced it up with feathers and stars slung over one shoulder she bears the rainbowed layers of charity and murmurs (15) all of you even the least of you don't cross to the other side of the square don't think another item to fit on a tourist's agenda consider her drenched gaze her shining brow she who has brought mercy back into the streets (20) and will not retire politely to the potter's field having assumed the thick skin of this town its gritted exhaust its sunscorch and blear she rests in her weathered plumage bigboned resolute (25) don't think you can ever forget her don't even try she's not going to budge no choice but to grant her space crown her with sky (30) for she is one of the many and she is each of us

subject - it is the statue, what the statue itself representative speaker addresses the audience by directly using "you" and "us" How does this allusion to the Statue of Freedom become a symbol of something large? (theme/moral)? - there are certain inalienable rights that all Americans are entitled to, freedom is for everyone. Americans are hard workers; America has worked hard for what it has today; ferocity of America itself and our principles; patriotism; pursuit of happiness.

shorthand, subtle way of introducing a significant idea or attitude; an idea or image that suggests something else - but not in the simple way a dollar sign stands for money or a flag represents a country; and image that transcends its literal meaning in a complex way

symbol

the voice behind the poem; the person we imagine to be speaking the poem

the speaker

"For Once, Then, Something" by Robert Frost Others taunt me with having knelt at well-curbs Always wrong to the light, so never seeing Deeper down in the well that where the water Gives me back in a shining surface picture 5 Me myself in the summer heaven, godlike, Looking out of a wreath of fern and cloud puffs. Once, when trying with chin against a well-curb, I discerned, as I thought, beyond the picture, Through the picture, a something white, uncertain, 10 Something more of the depths—and then I lost it. Water came to rebuke the too clear water. One drop fell from a fern, and lo, a ripple Shook whatever it was lay there at bottom, Blurred it, blotted it out. What was that whiteness? 15 Truth? A pebble of quartz? For once, then, something.

the speaker is looking into a well over the side. the speaker usually sees himself having god-like beauty. But, he saw a white light mess up his reflection. He sees the truth about himself and his soul. Last line: For once - I was Godlike Something - the white light

"Piano" by D.H. Lawrence (1) Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. (5) In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide. (9) So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

the subject of the poem is his mother - an older man looking back on his younger years -the child sitting under the piano is the speaker tone - longing, nostalgia, forlorn, yearning, homesick, heartbreaking message - life passes you by so quickly, so cherish your childhood and innocence

"The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens.

theme - appreciating the small things

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, (1) And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, (6) And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay (11) In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh (16) Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.

theme - noncomformity

the style, or manner of expression, of its writing; it is generally either through the attitude of the speaker or writer towards his/her/its subject matter; comes from the syntax and vocabulary and helps evoke the mood or establish the atmosphere of the poem

tone