Poetry 2: Life, Birth and Death

1
Poetry 2 Life, Birth and Death

• Imagery and Metaphor
• Rhyme and Rhythm

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Outline

• Introduction Theme and Literary Techniques
  Figures of Speech, Rhyme and Rhythm
• Poems
• "Days
• Sestina
• "Metaphors
• Because I could not stop for Death--"
• Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night
• For Pleasure
• Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
• "Ironic
• Annotation 2 and Journal 3

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General Questions

• Life Sunrise, sunset, what are days for?
• How do you divide life into different stages?
  Are we always losing or gaining?
• Pregnancy Birth What changes does it bring to
  the pregnant woman?
• Death What will we feel when we die? Why do
  poets write about death?

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Literary Techniques ? Lifes Multiple Meanings
and Rhythms

Sound Sense
Form Content
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Quiz 1 Which of the following interpretations
is WRONG?
1. The following lines have regular iambic (??)
feet in the first line Im a mean, a stage, a
cow in calf. Ive eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train theres no getting off. 2.
There are internal rhymes in the following
lines Though wise men at their end know dark is
right, Because their words had forked no
lightning they Do not go gentle into that good
night. 3. Free verse like the one below has its
own regularity or pattern A noiseless
patient spider,I marked where on a little
promontory it stood isolated,Marked how to
explore the vacant vast surrounding,

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Review Literary Techniques (1) Rhyme

• usually End Rhyme the repetition of the final
  syllable (vowel and consonant sounds) in the last
  words of poetic lines.
• Different positions 
• 2. internal rhyme rhymes within the lines.
• Sound Patterns
• Consonance repetition of consonants
• Assonance -- repetition of vowel sounds
• Alliteration -- repetition of the first
  consonant (or syllables)
• Different Kinds of Rhyme Exact rhyme vs. slant
  (false) rhyme (room Storm), feminine rhyme
  (of unstressed syllables)

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Literary Techniques (2) Rhythm scanning a poem

• Rhythm (??) refers to the stressed and unstressed
  syllables in a poem. (Like ?? in Chinese poems.)
• Meter (??)-- the pattern found among stressed
  and unstressed syllables in a poem. E.g. iambic
  (??) trochaic (??)
• scansion --the analysis of stressed and
  unstressed syllables in a poem.
• Steps
• 1) Mark the syllables ??
• 2) Mark the feet. ?? (2 to 3 syllables e.g.
  iambic ??)
• 3) Mark the caesuras (noticeable pause in a line
  of poetry)

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Scanning -- Do not go gentle into that good night
spondee

• Do not go gentle into that good night,
• Old age should burn and rave at close of day
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
• Because their words had forked no lightning they
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
• Their frail deeds might have danced in a green
  bay,
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

command
action
9
Scanning
He was my North, my South, my East and West, My
working week and my Sunday rest, My noon, my
midnight, my talk, my song I thought that love
would last for ever I was wrong.
10

Days

• Philip Larkin

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"Days"

• What are days for?Days are where we live.They
  come, they wake usTime and time over.They are
  to be happy inWhere can we live but days?
• Ah, solving that questionBrings the priest and
  the doctorIn their long coatsRunning over the
  fields.

1. Q 2s meaning? 2. The contrast between stanzas
1 and 2?
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Your Interpretation

• After the first question being answered, here
  comes another question from the curious asker. I
  think the answer of the second question makes a
  contrast between that of the first one because
  he/she depicts a scene which is full of priests
  and doctors running across and that might
  suggest "death." Therefore, I think the aswerer
  is trying to say that, apart from days, where we
  can live in is death. The tone here turns passive
  but realistic.

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Ref. Days (for Philip Larkin, who didn't
answer the question fully.) by Felix Cheong
Examples?

• What are days?They are dumb routines of work and
  playquietly trapping us between dawn and dust.
• What are days for?They are for nights to
  restbefore unleashing the darkfrom unknown
  places in the heart.Where do days go?They go
  the wayof spent happiness and unwanted
  grieftrailing the wake of a silent breeze.

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Days (for Philip Larkin)
Why not doctor and priest?

• What do days mean?Answering this questionsends
  the poet to his penand raises the prophet to his
  feet--
• both scurrying to their graves across the
  field,armed with words and gods.

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Quiz 2 What are the missing words (from
Days (for Philip Larkin, who didn't answer the
question fully.) )?

• What do days mean?Answering this questionsends
  the __(1)__ to his penand raises the _(2)___ to
  his feet--
• both scurrying to their graves across the
  field,armed with words and gods.
• (1) Doctor and (2) priest
• (1) lawyer and (2) doctor
• (1) poet and (2) prophet

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Sestina

• Elizabeth Bishop

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Literary Techniques (4) Poetic Form--Sestina
1. a highly structured poem consisting of six
six-line stanzas followed by a tercet. (6 x 6
3) 2. The same set of six words(house,
grandmother, child, stove, almanac, tears) ends
the lines of each of the six-line stanzas, but in
a different order each time. 3 These six words
then appear in the tercet as well.

reference
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Sestina

• September rain falls on the house.
• In the failing light, the old grandmother
• sits in the kitchen with the child
• beside the Little Marvel Stove,
• reading the jokes from the almanac,
• laughing and talking to hide her tears.
•  
• She thinks that her equinoctial (?(?)???) tears
• and the rain that beats on the roof of the house
• were both foretold by the almanac,
• but only known to a grandmother.
• The iron kettle sings on the stove.
• She cuts some bread and says to the child,
•  

Redsadness Blue--acceptance
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Sestina

• It's time for tea now but the child
• is watching the teakettle's small hard tears
• dance like mad on the hot black stove,
• the way the rain must dance on the house.
• Tidying up, the old grandmother
• hangs up the clever almanac
• on its string. Birdlike, the almanac
• hovers half open above the child,
• hovers above the old grandmother
• and her teacup full of dark brown tears.
• She shivers and says she thinks the house
• feels chilly, and puts more wood in the stove.
•  
•  
•  

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Sestina

• It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
• I know what I know, says the almanac.
• With crayons the child draws a rigid house
• and a winding pathway. Then the child
• puts in a man with buttons like tears
• and shows it proudly to the grandmother.
•  
• But secretly, while the grandmother
• busies herself about the stove,
• the little moons fall down like tears
• from between the pages of the almanac
• into the flower bed the child
• has carefully placed in the front of the house.
•  
• Time to plant tears, says the almanac.
• The grandmother sings to the marvelous stove
• and the child draws another inscrutable house.
•  
•  

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Quiz 3 What are the missing words (from
Sestina)?

• It was to be, says the Marvel Stove.
• I know what I know, says the almanac.
• With crayons the child draws a ___ house
• and a winding pathway. Then the child
• puts in a man with buttons like tears
• and shows it proudly to the grandmother.
• 1. broken
• 2. inscrutable
• 3. fallen
• 4.  rigid
•  

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Tell the story. What happened? Is it a sad
story or a story of survival?
Sestina
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Sestina
Grandmother Housekeeping, hide her tears ? Takes care of the child ? sings to the marvelous stove
Marvel Stove and Almanac Reality daily routines and temporal (daily and seasonal) changes The kettle sings and the rain dances ? produce tears 3. plant tears ?
Child Rigid house winding path ? Flower bed ? Inscrutable house
Home? Where are the parents?
Sestina
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Metaphors

• Sylvia Plath

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Metaphors Sylvia Plath (1960)

• I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
• An elephant, a ponderous house,
• A melon strolling on two tendrils.
• O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
• This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.
• Money's new-minted in this fat purse.
• Im a means, a stage, a cow in calf. (?????)
• I've eaten a bag of green apples,
• Boarded the train there's no getting off.

Different kinds of metaphors? Anything in common?
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Metaphors Sylvia Plath (1960)

• A Pregnant woman riddle Metaphors
• Physical Large and eating An elephant, a
  ponderous house, a melon strolling on two
  tendrils. (a loaf , fat purse, a cow, eaten a bag
  of green apples)
• Serving as a house red fruit(biblical allusion
  to "fruit of thy womb), ivory, fine timbers
• Productive (child, money) money new-minted, a
  cow in calf, fat purse
• Serving as a means to an end a means, a stage, a
  cow in calf
• Metaphysical -- The unknown a riddle, boarded
  the train there's no getting off
• But then is the riddle really solved or fully
  understood?

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Because I could not stop for Death
Because I could not stop for Death

• Emily Dickinson

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Scanning Because I could not stop for Death

• Because I could not stop for Death--
• He kindly stopped for me--
• The carriage held but just ourselves--
• And Immortality.
• We slowly drove--he knew no haste,
• And I had put away
• My labor, and my leisure too,
• For His Civility
• We passed the school, where children strove  
• At Recess--in the Ring--
• We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain--
• We passed the Setting Sun--
•  

Tetrameter Trimeter The others pentameter,
bimeter
Iambic (?/) -- suggest Trochaic (/ ?) --
double Dactylic (/ ??) -- credible Anapaestic
(??/) at recess
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Because I could not stop for Death

• Or rather--he passed Us--
• The Dews grew quivering and chill--
• For only Gossamer my Gown--
• My Tippet--only Tulle (??)--
•  
• We paused before a House that seemed
• A Swelling of the Ground--
• The Roof was scarcely visible--
• The Cornice--in the Ground--
•  
• Since then-- 'tis Centuries--and yet each
• Feels shorter than the day
• I first surmised the Horses' Heads
• Were toward Eternity--

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Because I could not stop for Death

• Because I could not stop for Death--
• He kindly stopped for me--
• The carriage held but just ourselves--
• And Immortality.
• We slowly drove--he knew no haste,
• And I had put away
• My labor, and my leisure too,
• For His Civility
• We passed the school, where children strove  
• At Recess--in the Ring--
• We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain--
• We passed the Setting Sun--
•  

Personified as a gentleman

• Symbolic of
• Learning
• Harvesting
• 3. aging

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Because I could not stop for Death
personified

• Or rather--he passed Us--
• The Dews grew quivering and chill--
• For only Gossamer my Gown--
• My Tippet--only Tulle (??)--
•  
• We paused before a House that seemed
• A Swelling of the Ground--
• The Roof was scarcely visible
• The Cornice(??)--in the Ground--
•  
• Since then-- 'tis Centuries--and yet each
• Feels shorter than the day
• I first surmised the Horses' Heads
• Were toward Eternity--

Extended metaphor
Extended metaphor life after death as a journey
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Quiz 4 Which of the following underlined words
suggest death as a journey?

• Or rather--he passed Us--
• The Dews grew quivering and chill--
• For only -
• My Tippet--only Tulle (??)(1) Gossamer my Gown-
•  
• We paused before a (2) House that seemed
• A Swelling of the Ground--
• The Roof was scarcely visible
• The Cornice(??)--in the Ground--
•  
• Since then-- 'tis Centuries--and yet each
• Feels shorter than the day
• I first surmised (3) the Horses' Heads
• Were toward Eternity--

From Because I could not stop for Death
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Quiz 5 Which of the following is NOT a major
turning point in Because I could not stop for
Death?

1. from passing different objects in life to being
   passed over by the Sun,
2. When the speaker put away her labor and leisure
   for Death
3. from her use of the past tense, to the present
   tense (Since then 'tis centuries, and yet
   each/Feels shorter than the day).
4. When Death stops for the speaker.

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Do not go gentle into that good night
Do not go gentle into that good night

• Dylan Thomas

http//www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377
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Do not go gentle into that good night

• Do not go gentle into that good night,
• Old age should burn and rave at close of day
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
• Because their words had forked no lightning they
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
• Their frail deeds might have danced in a green
  bay,
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

sleep/restful death metaphor
Accepting death
Creates no impact
regret
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Do not go gentle into that good night (2)
Rush thru life wildly

• Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
• And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Grave men, near death, who see with blinding
  sight
• Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• And you, my father, there on the sad height,
• Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I
  pray.
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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Quiz 6 Choose the right set of answers
From Do not go gentle into that good night

• __(1)__ who caught and sang the sun in flight,
• And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• __(2)__, near death, who see with blinding sight
• Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• 1. (1) Wise men (2) Good men
• 2. (1) Wild men (2) Grave men
• 3. (1) Grave men(2) Good men
• 4. (1) Wild men (2) Good men

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Do not go gentle into that good nightQuestions

• Pattern and Overall Meaning
• -- How is the speakers idea developed?
  What is view of life presented?
• -- Do you find the poem passionate or hiding
  a great sense of futility?

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Response Patterns

wise men know dark is right Because their words had forked no lightning
good men crying how bright /Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay
wild men learn too late, they grieved itthe sun on its way caught and sang the sun in flight
grave men see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay
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Wise Men, Good Men, Wild Man and Grave Man

• Stanzas 2 and 3 deal with men who have failed to
  achieve the ends they "have aimed at.
• -- "Because their words had forked no lightning"
  (5)
• -- because their "frail deeds" never "danced"
  (8).
• Stanzas 4 and 5 deal with men who have achieved
  their aims, but either regret their success or is
  losing it.
• -- "Wild men," in their hedonist actions, regret
  "they grieved it on its way" (10-11).
• --"Grave men," who may have spent their lives in
  the gloomy contemplation of life's sorrows, see
  the possibility of gaiety (blaze like meteors
  and be gay) with blinding sight (about to lose
  it).

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Father and Son use of oxymoron

• And you, my father, there on the sad height,
• Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I
  pray.
• Do not go gentle into that good night. ? power
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light. ?
  futility

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Literary Techniques (4) Poetic FormVillanelle
A chiefly French verse form running on two rhymes
and consisting typically of five tercets and a
quatrain in which the first and third lines of
the opening tercet recur alternately at the end
of the other tercets and together as the last two
lines of the quatrain. line 1 6, 12, 18 line
3 line 9, 15, 19. ??????????(??????(tercet)???
???(quatrain)????????????????????????????????????
???????)? two rhyming sounds aba aba aba aba
aba abaa.

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Literary Techniques (4) Poetic FormVillanelle
The beauty of villanelle ". . . the form of
villanelle has remarkable unity of structure. 
The echoing and reechoing of the refrains give
the villanelle a plaintive, delicate beauty that
some poets find irresistible." Difficulties of
villanelle "Since it has only two rhymed
endings, the poem can easily become monotonous. 
The risks of monotony is increased by the
incessant appearance of the refrains that
constitute eight of the poems' nineteen lines --
nearly half of the poem.  This skilled author of
the villanelle, thus, is careful to achieve the
maximum tonal range and to fit the refrains lines
as naturally as possible into the logic of the
poem" (The Heath Guide to Literature 637)  How do
the two poems we read use the form of villanelle
to enrich their meanings and avoid monotony?

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Sound Sense -- Do not go gentle into that good
night
spondee

• Do not go gentle into that good night,
• Old age should burn and rave at close of day
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
• Because their words had forked no lightning they
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
• Their frail deeds might have danced in a green
  bay,
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

command
action
45
Scanning -- Do not go gentle into that good
night (2)

• Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
• And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Grave men, near death, who see with blinding
  sight
• Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
• And you, my father, there on the sad height,
• Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I
  pray.
• Do not go gentle into that good night.
• Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

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Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
W. H. Auden

• Stop all the clocks, cut off the
  telephone,Prevent the dog from barking with a
  juicy bone,Silence the pianos and with muffled
  drumBring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
  Let aeroplanes circle moaning
  overheadScribbling on the sky the message He Is
  Dead,Put crepe bows round the white necks of the
  public doves,Let the traffic policemen wear
  black cotton gloves.

For respect?
Four Weddings and a Funeral - "Funeral Blues"
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Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone
(contd)

• He was my North, my South, my East and
  West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My
  noon, my midnight, my talk, my songI thought
  that love would last for ever I was wrong.The
  stars are not wanted now put out every onePack
  up the moon and dismantle the sunPour away the
  ocean and sweep up the wood.For nothing now can
  ever come to any good.

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Moment of Sadness

• Engrossing. One can be totally immersed in
  sadness, so that s/he commands all (ranging from
  small daily matters to the sun, sea, land and
  wood) to stop and to mourn for his/her dead
  lover.
• On the other hand, there are ways to put death in
  its context of life, and for us to survive this
  overwhelming moment of sadness. (? the poem,
  11th of Audens "Twelve Songs Audens Les
  musee des beaux arts)

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Journal 3

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Possible Journal Topics

• 1. Identity and Family Relations
• So far we have read a few poems where ones
  family (background) influences ones identity
  (Those Winter Sundays, My Mother and the Bed
  and Aunt Jennifers Tigers).
• How do the speaker or aunt Jennifer respond to
  their family or family members?
• How are the ideas conveyed through the poetic
  language and form?

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Possible Journal Topics (2)

• 2. Children or Young Peoples Views of their
  Society and Identity
• In the texts narrated or spoken by a child or a
  teenager, how does their point of view influence
  their views of their society/world and their
  sense of identity? In what ways are they biased?
  Do they learn to change or correct their views
  in the text? Please choose one story and one
  poem/song from the following Araby, AP,
  Fast Cars, We Real Cool.

52
Possible Journal Topics (3)

• 2. on Life, Death and Birth
• -- Different Views on life, daily routine, death,
  pregnancy and the other turning points in life
  (e.g. trauma).

53
Journal Essay Question

• Suggested order of your answer--
• Specify a title/your choice, and then give a
  thesis statement as a direct answer to the
  topic/question.
• Support your thesis statement by giving specific
  examples from the text and analyzing them.

54

• In analyzing a text, you don't need to summarize
  the plot. Likewise, do not just paraphrase the
  poem stanza by stanza.
• you need to discuss how the theme you deal with
  develop in the different parts of the novel/poem,
  both in form and content.
• Conclude by summarizing your main points and
  discussing your thesis a bit more.

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Reminder Logic

• Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night-- most
  people reject the coming of the death, even wise
  men. Rage against the dying of the light the
  sentence expresses a genuine thought in ordinary
  people s mind. Yes! Most people dont want to
  surrender to death. In other words, they desire
  to be immortal to some degree.

56
Your Comparison (1) Days Because I could not
stop for death
By Melody

• 1. Because I could not stop for death describes
  death as a more optimistic way. She thinks that
  we cant avoid the process of death, so we should
  accept it. Maybe it is because of her bad memory
  in her childhood (her cousins death), so she
  take death for granted. (?) Therefore, she can
  bravely face it.
• 2. Philip Larkins Days, it talks about the
  daily life. He seems to be tired of life
  however, it couldnt be changed, too. Where do
  we live but days? We can also attribute his
  fatigue to his background. He was a librarian for
  many years,
• 3. The first poem has a more lively atmosphere
  and the second one is more helpless.(?)

57
Your Comparison (1) Days Because I could not
stop for death
Suggestions

• 0. Thesis The differences between the two poems
  are only apparent both show an awareness of
  mortality.
• 1. Because I could not stop for death-- shows
  the readiness to accept death, but still reveals
  its emptiness.
• 2. Philip Larkins Daysshows merry
  procession of days in the first stanza, but then
  a sense of resignation about being held in it, as
  well as an awareness of death.
• 3. Both poems reveal their deeper meanings
  through a change of tones.

58
Your Comparison (2)
By Susan

• Because I Could Not Stop For Death -- the
  phases one goes through and then eventually
  reaching death and then even further beyond into
  eternity.
• Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone the
  speaker is unwilling to face the death of a loved
  one and wants the whole world to go into mourning
  with him.
• The former sees death as something that goes on
  forever, almost as if it is simply a new chapter
  in life, a new beginning, whereas the latter
  thinks death to be an end. One is acknowledging
  and accepting death and the other, denial.
• Thesis The two poems are very different in
  their views of death, which reflect the speakers
  different positions in relation to death. Death
  of ones self (the speaker passive), of a lover
  (the speaker active in mourning)

59
Your Comparison (3) Sestina and Do not Go
Gentle
By Joan

• 1. the atmosphere of the two. In Sestina, the
  whole surrounding is gloomy and slow in pace,
  whereas there is still energy and hope of the
  future, mostly because of the child in this poem.
  If use color to describe the poem, it would turns
  out to be grey, however, there is still some pure
  white within.
• On the other hand, in Do Not Go Gentle into That
  Good Night, the atmosphere is much more active
  and tried to confront with the reality,
  throughout the words that the speaker used on the
  poem. To describe this poem by color, it would be
  light red and combined with a little bit dark.
• The grandmother in Sestina and the image of the
  father in Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
  can serve as a contrast to the child and the
  speaker. This is like passive vs, active, and
  also negative vs. positive. ...

60
Sestina and Do Not Go Gentle
suggestions

• 0. Thesis both use strict poet form to convey
  some life patterns childrens survival trauma
  thru in daily life or the elderly striving for
  life on the stage of life
• 1. parent-child relation
• -- The grandmother takes care of the child
  while hiding her sadness, while the child is
  quietly adapting to the loss.
• -- The father quiet, being urged on by the
  child.
• 2. Main purpose
• -- Sestina the childs adapting to the loss
  thru art under grandmothers care healing
• -- Do Not Go Gentle-- a dying fathers being
  urged to stay active or energetic energizing
• 3. the atmosphere of the two and their poetic
  form
• a domestic setting vs. the setting of life
• variation of the same elements

61
Works Cites

• Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature An
  Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 7th
  ed. New York Longman, 1999.
• Literary Terms PowerPoint Presentation
  lthttp//www.clintweb.net/ctw/littermsppt.pptgt