Character and Setting: Who, What, Where, and When in Poetry

Characters in Poetry

• Speaker or persona-most significant character in the poem

• Point of view– A poetic speaker may be inside or outside the

poem• Outside speakers use third person and are objective

about the poem’s actions• Inside speakers use first or second person and are

involved with the actions in the poem

Characters in Poetry

• The Listener– The second type of character in poetry– A person not the reader whom the speaker is

addressing directly and is therefore inside the poem• Could be in the form of dialogue• Dramatic Monologue involves a listener in which the

speaker talks directly to an on the spot listener who reactions may directly affect the course of the poem

• Or the listener may be passive, merely hearing the speaker’s words – Like a letter the speaker is the writer and the listener is the

addressee

Third Type of Character

• Major or Minor participants– Not all are human

• Song to Celia [“Drink to me only with thine eyes”]

• BY BEN JONSON• Drink to me only with thine eyes,• And I will pledge with mine;• Or leave a kiss but in the cup,• And I’ll not look for wine.• The thirst that from the soul doth rise• Doth ask a drink divine;• But might I of Jove’s nectar sup,• I would not change for thine.•

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,• Not so much honouring thee• As giving it a hope, that there• It could not withered be.• But thou thereon didst only breathe,• And sent’st it back to me;• Since when it grows, and smells, I

swear,• Not of itself, but thee.

• 1. Who is the speaker? What do you learn about him, his knowledge, his wit, and his concern for the listener?

• 2. What has the speaker sent to the listener? What did she do, and why is he still writing to her?

• 3. Who is the speaker? Is the speaker inside or outside? Who is the listener?

• The setting of a poem is a major mean of measuring character. Poetic protagonists, like those in stories, are necessarily influenced by their possessions, the places they inhabit, the conditions of their lives, and the times in which they live.

• Poems abound with references to events and situations and also to objects such as beaches, forests, battlefields, graveyards . . .

Setting

• London• BY WILLIAM BLAKEI•  wander thro' each charter'd street,• Near where the charter'd Thames 

does flow. • And mark in every face I meet• Marks of weakness, marks of woe.•

In every cry of every Man,• In every Infants cry of fear,• In every voice: in every ban,• The mind-forg'd manacles I hear •

How the Chimney-sweepers cry• Every blackning Church appalls, • And the hapless Soldiers sigh• Runs in blood down Palace walls •

But most thro' midnight streets I hear• How the youthful Harlots curse• Blasts the new-born Infants tear • And blights with plagues the 

Marriage hearse 

• 1. What does London represent to the speaker? How do the persons who live there contribute to the poem’s ideas about the state of humanity?

• 2. What sounds does the speaker mention as a part of the London setting? Characterize these sounds in relation to the poem’s main idea?

• Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” 

• 1. What is the time of day of the speaker’s meditation? What is happening in nature as the poem opens? Who is the speaker addressing?

• 2. Who are the people buried in the church graveyard? What point does Gray make about the contributions they might have made if they had not died?

• 3. How does Gray’s use of sights and sounds used to describe the setting complement the poem’s mood?

• 4. Who is thee? What happens to him? Why is he included in the poem? 

• Shel Silverstein’s “Rosalie’s Good Eats Café” 

• Analyze the characters and how they are unified through the setting.

• Compare to “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

• Shel Silverstein’s “Rosalie’s Good Eats Café”

• Analyze the characters and how they are unified through the setting.

• Compare to “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”