Doctor Doctor

Review: Formal Elements of Writing Group Activity “My Papa’s Waltz” and “My Papa’s Waltz: A New Critical Approach.

Group Work: Identify and discuss qualities of New Criticism as they are (or are not) applied in this essay. Provide specific examples from the essay, the poem, or the definition/description of New Criticism.

Scanning Poetry: An Individual Endeavor

Take five minutes to discuss the formal elements of writing that we covered last week.

In Groups

1. a situation or statement which seems impossible or is difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics;

2. a statement or idea that contradicts itself;

3. a person who has qualities that are contradictory;

4. something that conflicts with common opinion or belief

Irony, in its simple form, means a statement or event undermined by the context in which it occurs. Irony involves a difference or contrast between appearance and reality.Irony exposes and underscores a contrast between • A. what is and what seems to be • B. what is and what ought to be • C. what is and what one wishes to

be • D. what is and what one expects

to be

Ambiguity occurs when a word, image, or event generates two or more different meanings.

Finally, the complexity of a literary text is created by

its tension, which, broadly defined, means the linking

together of opposites. In its simplest form, tension is

created by the integration of the abstract and the

concrete, of general ideas embodied in specific

images.

An image consists of a word or words that refer to an object perceived by the

senses or to sense perceptions themselves: colors, shapes, lighting, sounds, tastes, smells, textures, temperatures, and so on. Clouds can suggest both weather and a depressed mood.

A symbol is an image that has both literal and figurative meaning, a concrete

universal, such as the swamp in Ernest Hemingway’s “Big, Two-Hearted River.” The swamp is a literal swamp, but it also “stands for,” or “figures,” something else: the emotional problems of the protagonist.

A metaphor is a comparison of two dissimilar objects in which the properties of

one are ascribed to the other. For example, the phrase “my brother is a gem” is a metaphor. Obviously, it has no literal meaning. To get from metaphor to simile requires one small step: add like or as: “my brother is like a gem.”

Alliteration

The repetition of initial stressed, consonant sounds in a series of words within a phrase or verse line. Alliteration need not reuse all initial consonants; “pizza” and “place” alliterate. Example: “We saw the sea sound sing, we heard the salt sheet tell,” from Dylan Thomas’s “Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed.” Browse poems with alliteration.

Hyperbole

A figure of speech composed of a striking exaggeration. For example, see James Tate’s lines “She scorched you with her radiance” or “He was more wronged than Job.” Hyperbole usually carries the force of strong emotion, as in Andrew Marvell’s description of a forlorn lover:

Personification

A figure of speech in which the poet describes an abstraction, a thing, or a nonhuman form as if it were a person. William Blake’s “O Rose, thou art sick!” is one example; Donne’s “Death, be not proud” is another.

Discuss the poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” and the essay, “My Papa’s Waltz: A New Critical Approach.”

Identify and discuss qualities of New Criticism as it is applied in this essay. Provide specific examples from the essay, the poem, or the definition/description of New Criticism.

rhyme: a repetition of similar sounds in two or more words, most often at the end of lines in poems and songs.

rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line.

meter: the number of feet in a line.

scansion: Describing the rhythms of poetry by dividing the lines into feet, marking the locations of stressed and unstressed syllables.

1. Read the poem aloud. As you read, listen for a natural emphasis in the rhythm of the line. Count the number of syllables in each line, and write that number at the end of the line. Let’s do the first stanza together.

The whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death:Such waltzing was not easy.

Do you see a pattern in the number of syllables? Do you hear the rhythm of the poem?

2. As you read the poem aloud, try tapping your foot or pounding your hand on a desk when you hear the accented syllables. This will help you to hear the rhythm. The syllables you emphasize will be those that you'll mark with a / (indicating a stressed syllable). If you can't hear the rhythm try reading the lines to someone and asking that person to mark the stressed syllables, or, conversely, ask someone to read the poem and mark the lines as you listen to them.

3. Read more than one line. Sometimes the first line of a poem may have spondees or other types of feet that will throw off your reading. Remember, you are looking for the predominant metrical pattern of the piece.

4. Mark the stressed syllables first, and then go back and mark the unstressed syllables. The mark for these is a breve, which looks like a sideways parenthesis mark or shallow "u."

5. If you are not sure which syllables should be stressed, look for two- and three-syllable words in a line and pronounce them as you would normally pronounce them. These will help you to determine the stressed syllables in a line. For example, you'd say aBOVE, not Above, MURmuring, not murMURing or murmurING.

6. Try breaking the words into syllables so that you can see them individually instead of as part of a word.

The whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death:Such waltzing was not easy.

u / u u / / The whiskey on your breath 6 syllables

u / u / / / u Could make a small boy dizzy; 7 syllables

u / / u / / But I hung on like death: 6 syllables

u / u u / / u Such waltzing was not easy. 7 syllables

The whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death:Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen shelf; My mother’s countenance Could not unfrown itself.

.

The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missedMy right ear scraped a buckle

You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt.

7. Once you have marked the lines for stressed and unstressed syllables, divide the lines according to the kinds of feet. (Use a larger / slash mark or circle the feet.): unstressed STRESSED = iambic (sounds like da-DUM: de-TROIT)

8. Once you're finished with that, determine the meter of the poem:

iamb (unstressed-stressed u/) trochee (stressed-unstressed /u) anapest (unstressed-unstressed-stressed uu/) dactyl (stressed-unstressed-unstressed /uu) spondee (stressed-stressed //) pyrrhic (unstressed-unstressed uu).

9. Count the number of feet: Monometer (one foot)

Dimeter (two feet)

Trimeter (three feet)

Tetrameter (four feet)

Pentameter (five feet)

Hexameter (six feet).

10. Put the type of foot together with the number of feet, and you've identified the meter.

Dominant foot: iamb (unstressed-stressed u/), trochee (stressed-unstressed /u), anapest (unstressed-unstressed-stressed uu/), dactyl (stressed-unstressed-unstressed /uu), spondee (stressed-stressed //) or pyrrhic (unstressed-unstressed uu).

Number of feet per line: Monometer (one foot), Dimeter (two feet), Trimeter (three feet), Tetrameter (four feet), Pentameter (five feet), or Hexameter (six feet).

Prevailing meter (dominant foot + number of feet per line):

Structure: (kind of stanza): couplets, triplets, quatrain, sestet

Rhyme scheme: aa bb cc or abab or none?

u / u u / /The whiskey on your breath 6u / u / / /uCould make a small boy dizzy; 7u / / u / /But I hung on like death: 6u / u u / /uSuch waltzing was not easy. 7

u / u / u /We romped until the pans 6/ u u / u / Slid from the kitchen shelf; 6u / u / u u My mother’s countenance 6u / u / u /Could not unfrown itself. 6

u / u / u /The hand that held my wrist 3u / u u / / u Was battered on one knuckle; 3.5u / u / u /At every step you missed 3u / / / u / uMy right ear scraped a buckle 3.5

u / / u u /You beat time on my head u u / / / u /With a palm caked hard by dirt,u / u / u / Then waltzed me off to bed / / u / u /Still clinging to your shirt.

a

b

a

b

c

d

c

d

e

f

e

f

g

h

g

h

Four line stanzas are called quatrains

Feet per lineSyllables per line

Dominant foot: iamb

Number of feet per line: three

Prevailing meter (dominant foot + number of feet per line): iambic trimeter

Structure: quatrain

Rhyme scheme: abab (imperfect, partial, near or slant rhyme)

// cdc (imperfect) d // efef // ghgh

READ• “There Is a Girl Inside” • “The Fish”• “A Black Rook in Rainy Weather”• “Memories of West Street and

Lepke”• “To His Coy Mistress”

Choose one poem to scan (meter and rhyme) like we did in class today,

POST # 3: summarize the form (see the slideshow for help).

Choose two you might want to write about. Print them both and bring them to class.