English 300: Introduction to Literature

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English 300 Introduction to Literature

• Dr. Mercedes Torres
• Presentation 7 Poetry Analysis

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Robert Frost

• 1874-1963
• First American Poet to be honored
• Wrote poetry since adolescent
• Difficult early life
• Depressive
• Went to England to write poetry
• Wrote
• Mountain Interval (1916)
• In the clearing (1962)
• New Hampshire (1923)
• Favorite theme Loneliness

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Example

• Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy
  Evening Robert Frost
• Whose woods these are I think I know.
• His house is in the village though
• He will not see me stopping here
• To watch his woods fill up with snow.

verse
Stanza
4
Example

• My little horse must think it queer
• To stop without a farmhouse near
• Between the woods and frozen lake
• The darkest evening of the year.

5
Example

• He gives his harness bells a shake
• To ask if there is some mistake.
• The only other sounds the sweep
• Of easy wind and downy flake.

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Example

• The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
• But I have promises to keep,
• And miles to go before I sleep,
• And miles to go before I sleep.

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Analyzing a poem

• Who is the author of the poem?
• Read the poem several times to get a feel
• How does the poem begin? What does it try to
  present or describe?
• Refer to questions
• Follow these questions for every stanza

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Experiencing a Poem

• Who is speaking?
• What kind of person is he/she? In what mood?
  Thinking what thoughts? Feeling what emotions?
• Of whom or what is he or she speaking?
• How is this person or object being described?
• What attitudes are being projected?
• Are we led to share the attitudes and emotions in
  sympathy, or to rebel against them with feeling
  of anger or irony?

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Analysis Literal Level

• Topic/theme
• Main Idea
• Speaker
• Setting
• Authors purpose or message

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Analyzing the poem

• Elements of Poetry
• Diction p. 343
• Figures of Speech
• Sensory Images
• Rhyme schemes and verse forms p. 469
• Meter p. 455
• Economy
• Logical structure

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Analysis Elements of Poetry

• Diction
• Sensory Imagery words used to evoke sensations
  through our senses
• Visual
• Auditory
• Tactile
• Gustatory
• Olfactory
• Thermal
• Kinesthetic

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Analysis Elements of Poetry

• Figurative Language use of words to mean
  something other than the literal meaning
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Personification
• Apostrophe
• Allusion
• Metonymy
• Synecdoche
• Symbol

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Analysis Elements of Poetry

• Synaesthesia
• Oxymoron
• Paradox
• Hyperbole
• Understatement
• Allegory

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Analyzing the Structure of a Poem

• Poetry Terms
• Musical Language
• Meter
• Monometer
• Dimeter
• Trimeter
• Tetrameter
• Pentameter
• Hexameter
• Iambus, Iambic
• Trochee, Trochaic
• Anapest

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Analyzing the Structure of a Poem

• Dactyl
• Spondee
• Pyrrhus
• Rhyme Scheme
• Consonance
• Assonance
• Alliteration
• Stanza
• Free Verse
• Quatrain
• Octave
• Sestet
• Terza Rima

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Analyzing the structure of a poem

• Poetic Genres
• Narrative
• Dramatic
• Lyric
• Epic
• Romance
• Ballad
• Poetic drama
• Sonnet
• Villanelle
• Limerick
• Ode
• Song
• Elegy

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Sensory images

• Whose woods these are I think I know.
• His house is in the village though
• He will not see me stopping here
• To watch his woods fill up with snow.
• My little horse must think it queer
• To stop without a farmhouse near
• Between the woods and frozen lake
• The darkest evening of the year.
• He gives his harness bells a shake
• To ask if there is some mistake.
• The only other sounds the sweep
• Of easy wind and downy flake.
• The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
• But I have promises to keep,
• And miles to go before I sleep,
• And miles to go before I sleep.

VISUAL
THERMAL
THERMAL
VISUAL
AUDITORY
THERMAL, TACTILE
VISUAL
KINESTHETIC
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• Whose woods these are I think I know.
• His house is in the village though
• He will not see me stopping here
• To watch his woods fill up with snow.
• My little horse must think it queer
• To stop without a farmhouse near
• Between the woods and frozen lake
• The darkest evening of the year.
• He gives his harness bells a shake
• To ask if there is some mistake.
• The only other sounds the sweep
• Of easy wind and downy flake.
• The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
• But I have promises to keep,
• And miles to go before I sleep,
• And miles to go before I sleep.

personification
symbol
personification
metaphor
metaphor
understatement
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• Whose woods these are I think I know.
• His house is in the village though
• He will not see me stopping here
• To watch his woods fill up with snow.
• Count the syllables in each verse for each
  stanza
• Identify the rhyme scheme

a
8
a
8
8
b
8
8
a
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Example

• My little horse must think it queer b
• To stop without a farmhouse near b
• Between the woods and frozen lake c
• The darkest evening of the year. b

8
8
8
8
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Example

• He gives his harness bells a shake c
• To ask if there is some mistake. c
• The only other sounds the sweep d
• Of easy wind and downy flake. c

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Example

• The woods are lovely, dark and deep. d
• But I have promises to keep, d
• And miles to go before I sleep, d
• And miles to go before I sleep. d

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References

• Abrahams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New
  York Rinehart Company
• Ciardi, J. (1959). How Does A Poem Mean.
  Cambridge Mass Houghton Mifflin
• Landy, A. Allen W.R. (2000). Introduction To
  Literature. Cambridge Mass Houghton Mifflin
• http//rpo.library.utoronto.ca/display_rpo/termino
  logy.cfm