COURSE :Introduction To Literature

DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH

PROFESSOR : OLMSTED

Lecture5 : Poetry_Lines

View the Power Point Presentation of the Lecture

Today we’re looking at three things how to read poems out loud by looking considering the lines, how to identify the person or persona in a poem, and how to interpret irony. When you read aloud when you read a poem out loud your voice can influence meaning just as line breaks and punctuation do. Poems should be read more slowly than you’d read a newspaper article for instance with attention to pauses and emphasis. Some poets change their voice when they read maybe chanting if that’s appropriate the way William Butler Yeats does in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” or rhythmically the way Gwendolyn Brooks does in “We Real Cool.” First I want to show you an example of an Emily Dickinson poem the way she intended it to look and the way an early editor quote on quote fixed her poem to make it correct. You’ll need to go to course documents to see a copy of this as well as fact simile of her original manuscript for another poem which is sometimes called “Sacred Closet.” Dickinson didn’t title her poems when they were collected each was given a number over 1700. She used dashes to indicate a pause though in her handwritten manuscripts some dashes were longer, some shorter, some were even vertical so even if we’re very careful to approximate what she intended we still may not have it right. Things get really interesting when you look at “Sacred Closet” as I said it’s under course documents. The manuscript of the poem shows the closing words running along the side of the page and upside down at the top which means you have to turn the page to read it. Even E.E. Cummings didn’t do that. So let’s look at this Emily Dickinson poem. On the left is Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s edited version. He was a famous editor of the Atlantic Monthly. On the right is the poem as Emily Dickinson wrote it or as close as we can get to it. At a glance, you can see some obvious differences. First of all, Emily Dickinson’s poem has no stanzas whereas Higginson decided that it needed four stanza. Higginson also decided that it needed standard punctuation. You’ll see that there are no dashes on the poem on the left while Dickinson’s poem has several. You’ll also question marks, semicolons, commas, and periods. He even changed the words. In stanza two if you look at the fifth line he’s the changed the word sated has sated flame’s conditions whereas if you look at the corresponding line in Dickinson’s poem she had has vanquished flame’s conditions. In the third stanza, the second line of the third stanza on the left you’ll see whose anvil’s even din corresponds over here to Dickinson’s who anvil’s even ring. Hold on folks I’m learning how to do this okay so there’s whose anvil’s even ring corresponds with who anvil’s even din. So he changed a number of words and in your activity for today you can tell me what you think of this. Finally all capitalization has been removed so you see here soul let’s see hold on soul it’s a little off it’s capitalized whereas it’s a little off there where he has taken all of the capitalization out. I’m going to read just the first half of each to suggest how this punctuation can change how you read a poem and therefore its meaning. So let’s read first the one on the left. Dare you see a soul at the white heat? Then crouch within the door red is the fire’s common tint but when the vivid ore has sated flame’s conditions its quivering substance plays without a color, but the light of unannointed blaze. Now here with have Emily Dickinson’s on the right. Dare you see a soul at the white heat. Then crouch within the door red is the fire’s common tint but when the vivid ore has vanquished flame’s conditions its quivers from the forge without a color, but he light of unannointed blaze. Well the main difference there is the emphasis on red she’s got dashes before and after it so but even the flow from one stanza to the other changes the meaning and the way you read it out loud. Okay now I’d like to introduce two terms enjambement and end-stop. These are listed in the handout on terms under course documents. Okay enjambment sounds like sounds like something harder than it is. Enjambement is the breaking of a phrase, clause or sentence by the end of a line or between two verses. When the units of sense in a passage of poetry don’t coincide with the verses, such as in these lines from Langston Hughes’s poem you have enjambement. So here you’ll see here’s the poem of in an excerpt from Langston Hughes’ poem. It goes it’s not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. Now if you were to pause at that because it’s the end of the line you might read it this way it goes it’s not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what I feel and see and hear and see really the sense of the poem would suggest that you do not stop at the end that in both this case me and with what you would go on but I guess I’m what I feel and see and hear Harlem I hear you and then because of the colon then you would really pause and say hear you, hear me we two you, me, talk on this page. Okay the second terms is end-stop which is pretty self-explanatory. This occurs when a phrase, clause, or sentence is marked by the end of the line of poetry and is followed by a punctuation. So in the Adrienne Rich poem that you’ve already read Aunt Jemima’s tigers prance across a screen, that’s actually that’s actually a completed sentenced. Bright topaz denizens of a world of green is a fragment and marked by a comma I think. They do not fear the men beneath the tree semicolon they pace in sleek chivalric certainty. So meaning flows from line to line and the reader’s eye is pulled forward in this case. Enjambement creates a feeling of acceleration as the reader is forced to continue reading after the line has ended. Now let’s look at two poems and think that the ways that enjambement and end-stops work. They are Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “Luke Havergal” and Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B.” While I read pay a special attention to the punctuation especially dashes and whether the sense of the line ends at the end of the line or if it continues into the next line. “Luke Havergal” Go the western gate, Luke Havergal there where the vines cling crimson the wall and in the twilight wait for what will come. The wind will moan, the leaves will whisper some, whisper of her and strike you as they fall. But go and if you trust her she will call. Go the western gate Luke Havergal—Luke Havergal. No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies to rift the fiery night that’s in your eyes but there, where western glooms are gathering the dark will end the dark, if anything. God slays Himself with every leaf that flies and hell is more than half of paradise. No, there is not a dawn in eastern skies—in eastern skies. Out of a grave as I come to tell you this, out of a grave I come to quench the kiss that flames upon your forehead with a glow that blinds you to the way that you must go. Yes, there is yet one way to where she is bitter but one that faith can never miss. Out of a grave I come to tell you this—to tell you this. There is the western gate, Luke Havergal. There are the crimson leaves upon the wall. Go, for the winds are tearing them away or think to riddle the dead words they say nor any more to feel them as they fall but go and if you trust her she will call. There is the western gate, Luke Havergal-- Luke Havergal. Whereas Dickinson uses dashes to indicate oh that’s okay whereas Dickinson uses dashes to indicate pauses in emphasis why does Robinson use them? Notice they appear only four times and in each time they’re at the end you can’t see that one but there’s one at the end of that line. At the end of each stanza just before the last line of that stanza as I read the function of dash here it seems to set up an echo. Notice that Luke Havergal dash is followed by the same words Luke Havergal same here so it sets up a kind of an echo. You might think about that when you answer the question about this poem in the activity for today. This poem employs end-stop lines. Each line ends with a conclusion of a phrase or sentence and it’s punctuated conventionally. It looks like there’s one exception to that is that right? No there’s a couple of exceptions that you notice here skies that’s enjambement right there and kiss more enjambement and glow because there’s no punctuation and the sense of the line doesn’t stop here with skies but goes into the next line so you read that all together. You wouldn’t say down here out a grave I come to quench the kiss that flames upon your forehead that would make it sound very artificial and would mess up the sense of the poem but everything else all the other lines are punctuated correctly so those are end-stop lines. The next poem is “Theme For English B.” Three points I’d like to make about my reading of this poem. First, the instructor’s assignment should probably be read right here. The instructor’s assignment should probably be read in a slightly more formal voice than the rest of the poem which is in the poet’s more personal voice. Second while most of the lines do conclude with punctuation several do not. These as before are an example of enjambement. When you read an enjambed line you read with the sense of the line there is no artificial pause. Finally Hughes also uses dashes and you might think about how the dashes that Hughes uses are different from those of Dickinson and Robinson. Here I think he uses them for emphasis and to interrupt the flow of the thought. When you use dashes when you’re writing prose like writing an essay the purpose of the dash is to indicate an interruption and it may be that in this poem Hughes is using it that way. “Theme For English B” the instructor said go home and write a page tonight and let that page come out of you. Then, it will be true. I wonder if it’s that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down, and write this page. It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you hear you, hear me we too you me talk on this page. I hear New York too. Me—who? Well, I like to sleep I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races. So will my page be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be white. But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white—yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That’s American. Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that’s true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me. Although you’re older and white and somewhat more free, this is my page for English B. I guess I don’t really have too much more to say about that but the notion of the person in the poem that you’ve read about really comes out when you think about Langston Hughes’ poem and Robinson’s poem the Luke Havergal very different. Luke Havergal’s poem is distant, removed this one sounds like someone is sitting next you talking directly to you. So the person changes significantly to me. I’m on now. Sorry you all there was me this is new. In the activities for today I asked you to respond to the idea of person or persona in these poems. Persona as you read in your textbook refers to the character or the voice that the poet adopts. Many of poems are written from the point of view of the poet but often the poet adopts another person’s voice. Think of Gwendolyn Brooks “We Real Cool” poem for instance it’s almost certain that she herself is not one of the we. In “Luke Havergal” the same is true for Robinson whereas in Hughes’ poem not just this one but all the ones you read for today it’s more likely that the I in the poem is actually Hughes or a version of Hughes maybe a younger one. All of us are made up of many different selves for instance my voice and my concerns for instance, my sense of humor or tone or even the words I use are different when I’m being a teacher or a mother or a wife or even a friend or if I’m talking to people who have power over me or to people who I may have a certain amount of power over. All these things factor in to what kind of voice and person that I employ. What’s self do you think appears in Hughes’ poem? Think about that in your response today. So far we’ve talked about how to read poems and I’ve elaborated on the text discussion of the person in the poem, now I’d like to say a few words about irony. This is a crucial element of language and communication. Jokes for instance often rely on irony. Here’s one a disgruntled postal worker sent a letter bomb to his boss but he didn’t pay enough postage for it to reach its destination. It came back with Return to Sender stamped on it. You’ve guessed it, he didn’t recognize his own handwriting, opened it and killed himself. The phrase poetic justice also refers to irony usually when someone gets what they deserve. Some of you may be Steven King fans. I know I was a number of years staying up all night reading things like Salem’s Lot and what’s that one with the I’m blanking what’s the poem with where he plays a creepy guy who goes nuts alright I’m going to think of it in a minute and then say it you can see I stepped script here and forgot immediately what I was gonna say. You may have read Survivor Type which I have not read but here’s how it goes a doctor with no morals or conscience is shipwrecked on a deserted island. Because of all elicit activities he has a valise of heroin with him when he breaks his ankle he uses the heroin for an anesthetic then cuts his own foot off and eats it because he’s starving. He continues to cut off body parts to fend off starvation finally cutting off his left hand. The diary he keeps ends there. It is poetic justice that the means and skills he used in a lifetime of harming others become the instrument of suffering that he inflicts upon himself and actually kills himself by The Shining that’s what I was trying to think of. Okay there are four types of irony that our book discusses in the second activity for today I asked you to identify what kind of irony is it that work in four different poems for I don’t want to spoil your fun so I’ll just summarize again what the four types are. Basically in irony there’s a contrast or a disjuncture between what’s said and what’s known. The first type of irony is called verbal irony. This occurs when what is said is not what’s intended. Sarcasm is an example of verbal irony and it implies a biting or hurtful kind of irony. If my son comes downstairs in his dirty jeans and says he’s ready to go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant I might say nice outfit. It’s ironic without being sarcastic unless I say it with a sneer on my face. The second type of irony is dramatic irony this also contains a contrast but this time the contrast is between what a character or a person in a poem knows and what you as a reader or viewer knows. If you know more than a character and this knowledge would help the character then it’s probably dramatic irony. There’s a contrast between levels of knowledge. Third, ironic point of view occurs when a poet has a very different attitude about a subject than the persona in the poem. If I hate lying and wrote a poem about a liar the persona might brag about her ability to get away with lying but I as a poet would probably use words that suggest I don’t approve or that the bragging is a sign of lack of character rather than something to be proud of. Finally cosmic irony occurs when fate or the world or that kind of ambiguous they out there acts against the hopes and dreams of a character. For instance, you have some poor schmo who just wants to get a cheeseburger and fries for dinner and every time he approaches McDonald’s something keeps him from it. A car almost runs over him, lightening strikes, and just as the skies clear an old friend begs him to watch his little boy while he runs a quick errand and when he returns it’s dark, he stumbles into a hole and breaks his leg. Finally just as he crawls to the McDonald’s door the managers lock it and say sorry we’re closed. That’s it for today. Good luck with your activities. Let me know if you have any questions.