Lit Elements

Understatement- saying less than one means.
Example: pile a lot of food on your plate and say "this looks like a nice snack"

Allusion- a reference to something in history or previous literature.
Example: the Waste Land-Burial of the Dead= allusion to the Book of Common Prayer & the burial rights of the Anglican Church

Tone-the writer/speaker's attitude toward the subject, reader, or him/herself.
Example: "For a Lamb" (line 1) putrid lamb- lambs are usually thought of as innocent, this doesn't make it seem like it.

Alliteration- repetition of initial consonant sounds
Example: tried and true/ rhyme or reason

Assonance- repetition of vowel sounds
Example: mad as a hatter/ free and easy

Consonance- repetition of final consonant sounds
Example: odds and ends/ short and sweet

Internal Rhyme- one or more rhyming words are within the line
Example: there's strange things done in the midnight sun

Slant Rhyme- rhyme that's not perfect (usually in vowel sounds)
Example: body/bloody : horse/hearse

The Waste Land

The Waste Land- Burial of the Dead: first speaker

This section starts out speaking of spring being cruel, when usually it is a happy month. Everything is given life in the spring, but in this poem, winter is considered less harsh because it is a time when you can hide from things that have happened. The speaker talks about the lilacs mixing memory with desire (lines 2&3). This could be suggesting that the speaker at one time was growing and flourishing at one time, but now isn't anymore. The speaker wants to be like that flower and have something to live for. This section gives us a memory of when the speaker was happy, and something as little as holding on tight could give her a sense of comfort and freedom (lines 16&17). Now the speaker has grown old and doesn't have the same sense of fun and freedom in her life. She feels that there is no hope and she has nothing left to live for (line 18). She has no friends and no hope- no reason left to live.

My Blues Poem

Blues Poem


Woke up this mornin' with the rain pourin' on my head,
Yeah I woke up this mornin' with the rain poundin' on my head,
'Cause when it poured on me this mornin' I wasn't in my bed.
You kicked me out last night and I landed on my head.

Painful, so painful this gravel on my feet,
I said painful, so painful this gravel on my feet.
'Cause I had no shoes when I was booted to the street.
Now I'm just walkin' down the hurtful, rocky street.

Ya'll think ya got rid of me,
I said ya'll really think ya got rid of me,
But I'll be back like a pesky stinging bee,
Ya'll can't truely get rid of me.

Now I'm headed to get on the train,
I'm just gonna go get on the train,
But don't worry 'cause I'll be back again.
For my leaving I won't be the one in pain.


Fielding...I need way more time to think about a poem. Please tell me we don't have to write one for the AP test!!!

My poem

Shoes

So many choices, so many shoes,
Stillettos, boots, flip-flops, wedges,
How is a girl supposed to choose?

Should I wear heels or flats today,
My mind between the questions edges,
So many choices, so many shoes.

This selection my shoulders weigh,
I really want to wear the wedges,
How is a girl supposed to choose?

To pick the wrong ones, I'll surely pay.
It's like a catalog with pages and pages,
So many choices, so many shoes.

Beautiful shoes would make my day,
But in my mind one question dredges.
How is a girl supposed to choose.

How will I for these shoes pay,
Without making any wages?
So many choices, so many shoes,
How is a girl supposed to choose?

The Heights of Macchu Picchu

This poem is about the difficulties that the people on Macchu Picchu faced. The speaker feels that there is no purpose for their life. He feels that "The human souls was threshed out like maize in the endless granary of defeated actions,". He thinks that their souls have no purpose because all they are doing is adding to the things that can't be done. The city that he speaks of has become a place of starvation and murder "the man was besieged by the bread or by the knife". He talks about how the people felt like they couldn't keep going on with life, but did "to the very edge of endurance, and beyond". He tells of how the people suffered everyday and didn't want to keep on living ("everybody lost heart, anxiously waiting for death..."). Many of the deaths in the city came through the insects ("a tiny death with coarse wings"). There was no discrimination in the deaths, no way to know who would live and who would be lucky enough to die ("the cattle dealer: the child of sea-harbors, or the dark captain of the plough,"). The people started to accept the bad luck that became a part of their lives ("like a black cup that they drank, with their hands shaking"), but they were still scared. This poem makes you feel very oppressed, like there is no hope. You had a way of life and then, all of a sudden, something changed to start killing off your people and there's nothing you can do about it. No nice thing you do or help you give can save your people. There is a feeling of loneliness that goes with the death in this poem, like when the people died, they died alone, dirty, and helpless ("a light flicked off in the mud at the city's edge"). The fact that the speaker mentions "endurance" suggests that the people put up a fight with this oppression while they could, but soon lost their strength to keep going. The light flicking off in this poem could symbolize either a life turning into a death, or all the hope going out of the city.

English/Italian Sonnets

The English Sonnet- also called the Shakespearean sonnet, composed of three quatrains and a couplet, rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.

Example:
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O how shall summer's honey breath hold out,
Against the wrackful siege of batt'ring days,
When rocks impregnable are not so stout,
Nor gates of steel so strong but time decays?
O fearful meditation, where alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back,
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O none, unless this miracle have might,
That in black ink my love may still shine bright.

The Italian Sonnet- also called the Petrarchan sonnet, composed of an octave and a sestet, octave rhyme scheme of abbaabba, sestet rhyme scheme of either cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce.

Example:
I find no peace, and have no arms for war,
and fear and hope, and burn and yet I freeze,
and fly to heaven, lying on earth's floor,
and nothing hold, and all the world I seize.
My jailer opens not, nor locks the door,
nor binds me to hear, nor will loose my ties;
Love kills me not, nor breaks the chains I wear,
nor wants me living, nor will grant me ease.
I have no tongue, and shout;
eyeless, I see;I long to perish, and I beg for aid;
I love another, and myself I hate.
Weeping I laugh, I feed on misery,
by death and life so equally dismayed:
for you, my lady, am I in this state.

Literary Term

Connotation: the connotation is what a word suggests beyond what the actual definition of the word is. It is the overtone of the word.

Example: "Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy. My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy." (On My First Son lines 1-2)

Function: Connotation of sin in this poem perhaps makes more meaning in this poem than the real definition (to offend against a principle or standard). It is not actually a sin to hope for good things to happen to a person, but in this case, the speaker feels that because of his having too much hope, that he was only let down even more when he lost his son. "thou child of my right hand..." suggests that his first son was the one who he had planned to follow in his footsteps. To do all the things that his father had done, and even more. The speaker had hoped for him to have a better opportunity to do all the things that he himself hasn't done, and profit from them. The father feels that by hoping too much that he violated what was truely planned for this son. He feels that he has sinned by expecting too much from his child, and possibly even blames himself for his son's death.

Still-Birth Pantoum

The speaker in this poem is a mother who lost a child while giving birth. Later, down the road of life, the mother is speaking to the dead child in a way that isn't that uncommon. Many have been known to talk to lost loved ones in a way that could be helping them to get over their grief (how can you be dead, why did you have to leave me, etc). The speaker feels that she has to speak to her dead daughter because, while she is at the train station, she hears someone calling "No, Laetitia, no." (probably a mother calling to a young child to be careful around the train tracks). Laetitia is the name of the daughter that the speaker lost many years ago. And, in her grief at losing her daughter, she feels she has to talk to her. The speaker knows it wasn't her time to have a child ("It wasn't my train- the doors were closing."), but whether she accepts that is a different story. The speaker's grief has slowly eased up over time ("Some griefs bless us that way, not asking much space."), but it will never completely go away.
If you look at the words at the end of each line (name, no, closing, face, you, thirty-two, chosen, attached, space), they can probably tell us more than we would catch by just reading the poem. The name that was called out on the platform at the train station is what triggered the mother's memory of her dead baby and makes her want to seek out her child. "No" could be read to suggest the mother's denial at first that her child is dead, and possibly her denial even now. "closing" could be the speaker's grasp on reality. She is slowly losing her mind over the grief of losing something that she lost so long ago. The face of her still-born child is what is haunting her every waking moment and it is what she is looking for now on the train. The speaker looks for the face of her child in a woman on the train, but she doesn't find what she is looking for. The use of "you" in this poem suggests that the speaker could have been one of those mothers who lost their first baby, and even though she had others after that, she could never quite give them the love that she had for that first dead baby. "Thirty-two" tells us the age that the speaker's child would be now and it also tells us for how long this mother has been grieving for her lost daughter. The speaker had already "chosen" the name for her daughter, but what she didn't choose was a life without the daughter that she had prepared so long for. The use of "attached" in this poem tells us that the speaker didn't follow the advice to not get attached, and because of that, she feels a "space" in her life that has never been filled by anything else. It has just stayed empty.

Lying in a Hammock...

Lying In A Hammock At William Duffy's Farm In Pine Island, Minnesota

1. The speaker is relaxing in a hammock and observing all the different sights and sounds of a farm.

2. The person in the hammock is a guest on the farm. He is very observant, and knows a little bit about how the farm works and what is going on. This person didn't grow up on a farm, but never the less has learned a few things from just being there.

3. I arrived at the conclusion that the speaker is a guest on the farm from both the title ("...William Duffy's farm...") and the fact that this person is relaxing in a hammock. Having a farm involves a lot of work, and the people who own/run the farm get as much work done as they can throughout the day. As for my conclusion about the speaker being observant, he notices things like the color of a butterfly (bronze) and the color of the trunk that it lands on (black). He hears cowbells and recognizes that they are going into the distance, and he notices even something seemingly insignificant like horse droppings. The person knows how the farm works because he knows the house is empty, and everyone is out working. He also knows that the cows are being put out to pasture for the night ("The cowbells follow one another; Into the distances of the afternoon."), and that the horse droppings are from last year, which is something a lot of people might not notice.

4. The title tells us what the speaker is doing (lying in a hammock), where he is (Pine Island, Minnesota), who he is visiting (William Duffy), and what kind of setting he is in (on a farm).

5. The speaker is very tuned in with the nature around him. He notices the colors of things, and what they remind him of. Instead of saying the butterfly is fluttering its wings, he says it is "blowing like a leaf in green shadow", and he says the horse droppings "blaze up into golden stones."

6. In this poem, the speaker is not only describing what he sees and hears, but he is also conveying what he feels through these sights and sounds. When he talks about "blowing like a leaf" it could be a reference to how his own life is unsteady. He speaks of the ravine and the empty house which could also be connected the way he feels about himself. By definition, a ravine is a gully that has been hollowed out by passing water. It is possible that something that the speaker had and has since passed him by has left him feeling hollow and empty like the house. When the speaker ends the poem with "A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.", it could be telling us how the speaker is feeling about himself, like he doesn't feel that he fits in, and that is where the connection is. The speaker is looking for a place that is right for him.

Sestina: Altaforte

In this poem, the speaker is telling about how he loves to fight. He thinks it is more honorable to be fighting than to be wanting peace (which he calls "womanish"). It makes him happy when the ones who want peace are killed in battle. He feels that the battles should have all the power of a storm for killing peace ("when the tempest kills the earth's foul peace"). "The lightning from black heav'n flash crimson" is a refference to the swords that are covered in blood. The speaker feels that not even wine is better than a good kill in a battle ("there's no wine like the blood's crimson!"). He feels that those who call out for peace in the middle of a battle are just trying to save their own lives and don't deserve to live anyways ("May God damn forever all who cry 'Peace!' ").

Villanelle-"Do not go gentle..."

Do not go gentle into that good night-
How the villanelle in this poem reinforces the meaning depends on how you interpret it. The repetition of the lines "do not go gentle into that good night" and "rage, rage against the dying of the light" reminds me of when someone is sitting on the edge of the bed while someone is dying and trying to get them to fight death off and go on living. "do not go gentle..." sounds like the speaker is telling this loved one to not let death to get the best of them, but to keep fighting it: don't give in. "rage, rage against..." usually rage is something that makes you keep going. Either it gives you adrenaline, or you are so angry about something that no matter what you won't let it get the best of you. By one definition, rage means to proceed, continue, or prevail with great violence. In this poem I believe that the speaker is repeatedly telling the person who he/she is speaking to to prevail over death.

Questions

Traveling through the dark-
1. The speaker in this poem has a dilemma about whether to push the dead pregnant doe into the river and kill the still living baby inside or leave it on the road and hope someone else who comes along can do something to help it. I think the speaker did the right thing to push the deer over the edge rather than risk the deaths of many more people who are driving down the road and swerve to avoid the body laying on the shoulder. the fact that the speaker calls his hesitation his only swerving suggests that he didn't have to swerve to get out of the way of the deer, but stopped and got out to see what he could do to help. He calls his hesitation swerving because because he is going back and forth in his head trying to decide what to do about the deer.

2. Tactile imagery- "she had stiffened already, almost cold...her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting". The contrast between the stiff and cooling body of the doe and the warmth that is coming from the unborn fawn inside of her is something that would have made me hesitate too. Auditory imagery- "under the hood purred the steady engine." I could almost hear the car engine and feel the exhaust. The fact that the speaker left the car running shows us that he wasn't planning to stand there for a long time debating what to do about the deer. He was just planning to push her over the edge.

3. It could be argued that there is similarities between the 2nd and 4th lines in every 4 line stanza. It could also be argued that the 1st and 3rd lines of stanzas 2 and 3 work together to give you a better picture as you are reading the poem. The end of the concluding couplet gives me a kind of depressing outlook on the poem. The end of the second stanza doesn't really fit in with the rest. The ends of the other stanzas talk about death, and the hesitation of the speaker. In one line it says "...i could hear the wilderness listen." meaning that the speaker felt the pressure of nature even wondering what he would decide. And the last line speaks of him pushing the doe into the river, choosing for the unborn fawn to die.

Counting Out Rhyme-
Fielding, I looked in the whole poetry section and this poem isn't in there.