COURSE :Introduction To Literature

DEPARTMENT : ENGLISH

PROFESSOR : OLMSTED

Lecture8 : Reading_Lines_Irony

View the Power Point Presentation of the Lecture

Hi today we’re looking at three things how to read poems out loud, how to identify the persona in a poem, and how to interpret irony. When you read a poem out loud your voice can influence meaning just as line breaks or 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 voices 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 a picture 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 for her 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 has been given the title “Sacred Closet.” Dickinson didn’t actually title her poems after they were collected they were number over 1000 I think it was 1700 in fact. So first let’s look at this poem by Emily Dickinson. On the left is Higginson’s version maybe I should get a pointer here this is the version that Higginson revised and on the right is Emily Dickinson’s original. What differences do you notice? Right off the bat you should notice that Higginson has given the poem stanzas. Dickinson did not. Higginson has also standardized the punctuation look here after door she had a dash at the end here Higginson standardized the punctuation putting in semicolon, a comma, or a period. He also changed some words if you’ll look here at stanza two which for him has sated he uses the sated instead of vanquished. He’s actually changed a word and in the third stanza he uses the word din whereas Dickinson uses the word ring and there more in your activity today you could tell me what you think of these changes. Finally another change is that all capitalization has been removed. Dickinson capitalized hammer Higginson did not. Why? What motivated Higginson to change it and furthermore what motivated Dickinson to want it capitalized? Okay alright it may seem like a minor point what’s the big deal of a word or two let alone a dash vs. a comma. In addition to the arrogance involved when a critic fixes a poet’s work without their permission, punctuation is like a sign post in the road it helps you understand how you should drive or in this case how you should read. I’d like to introduce two terms enjambement and end-stop. These are listed in the handout on terms under course documents. Let’s look at two poems and think about the ways that enjambement and end-stops work. They are Edward Arlington Robinson’s “Luke Havergal” and Langston Hughes’ “Theme For English B.” Pay attention to the punctuation especially the dashes and whether the sense of the line ends at the end of the line or if it continues into the next line. Okay hold on a sec alright okay let’s read a stanza or so of this poem. 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. “Luke Havergal” employs end-stop lines in all but two lines in the third stanza which are kind of cut off here but here they are kiss and glow those are examples of enjambement because the sense of the poem goes on. I’ve cut it off a little bit but it basically goes out of a grave I come to quench the kiss if you pause it messes up the sentence so you want to read through the end of the line and say out of a grave I come to quench the kiss that flames upon your forehead whereas Dickinson uses dashes to indicate pauses and emphasis. Why does Robinson use them? Notice they appear only four times before the last line of each stanza before the repeated words. As I read the function of the dash here it seems to set up a kind of echo but you should look at that and see what you think and how that adds to the meaning of the poem alright. Now let’s look at a poem by Langston Hughes. Three points I’d like to make about reading this poem. First, the instructor’s assignment at the very beginning go home and write a page tonight and let that page come out of you. Then, it will be true. That should probably be read in a slightly more formal voice than the rest of the poem which adopts a personal voice. Second while most of the lines do conclude with punctuation several do not. These are examples of enjambement. When you read an enjambed line just as I showed you with “Luke Havergal” you read with a sense of the lines. There is no artificial pause at the end of an enjambed line. Let’s look at an example. Here in the first stanza the steps from the hill lead down into Harlem now if you pause there you’re gonna have this artificial sense of the line. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem through a park, so as you enjambed lines you want to think about them flowing over the meaning flowing over into the next line. Finally Hughes’ use of dashes I think Hughes’ use of dashes indicate a pause perhaps as they do in Dickinson’s poetry as well as emphasis but they also do something more. They seem more to interrupt the flow of thought. This is how dashes work in prose if you use a dash in your own writing what that is supposed to signify is an interruption you’re interrupting yourself to give an aside. If you look at the second main stanza I think you can see that it’s more than a pause the use of dashes. These are interruptions of thought here especially. As if it is as if the persona is saying something that is difficult to comprehend or perhaps confusing and given the fact that this is a poem about written by a black man and this is a black teenager or young adult who has a white teacher then I think you can understand where there might pauses and hesitations and why there might be confusion or contradiction because we to me this is very interesting you have the me, the we, the you, the me, and the me again also an I and I think he’s really emphasizing in those dashes have helped him to emphasize what the relation is between the I and you and who is this we this black man and this white person and what is the relationship between them so I think that’s really important to take those cues as you read. Alright in the activities for today asked you to respond to the idea of person or persona in the poems. Persona as you read in your textbook refers to the character or the voice that the poet adopts. Many poems are written from the point of view of the poet but often the poet adopts another person’s voice, a mask. Think of Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” poem for instance. Do you think she’s one of the we that hang out at the pool hall? In Hughes’ poem not just this one but all the ones for the day, what do you think about the I and the relationship of the I in the poem to Hughes? Do you think it is Hughes or do you think that he’s adopted a mask and that it’s really someone other than Hughes? All of us are made up of many different selves for instance but my voice and my concerns, 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 a friend if I’m talking to people who have power over me or to people who I may have a certain power over our voices change and this happens in poetry too. I want you to think about that as you’re looking at Hughes’ poem. What is the self? Who is that self that’s speaking? 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 just a few words about irony. This is a crucial element of language and communication. Jokes for instance rely on irony. There are four types of irony that our book discusses and just briefly I’ll go over them again and our activities have you work with irony as well. Basically in irony there’s a contrast or a disjuncture between what’s said and what’s meant. For instance, in verbal irony this occurs when someone says something and it’s not what they really mean. Sarcasm is a specific kind of verbal irony. It’s not the same as irony, irony is an umbrella then sarcasm is under that umbrella. It’s an example of irony and it usually implies or it always implies something biting or hurtful. So for instance 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 and that changes it. In both instances it’s irony but in one it’s sarcasm and the other is not. The second kind of irony that our text mentions also contains a contrast but this time the contrast is between what character or person in a poem knows and what you as a reader know. 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. That’s dramatic irony. A third one ironic point of view occurs when a poet has a very different attitude about the subject than the persona in the poem. If I hate lying and wrote a poem about a liar the person might brag about her ability to get away with lying but I would probably use words that suggest that 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 maybe just that undefined they out there act 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, as this man stumbles towards McDonald’s he falls in a hole he breaks his leg. When he finally gets to McDonald’s door the managers have just locked it and say sorry we’re closed. That is an example of cosmic irony. Everything is against you. That’s it for today. Good luck with your activities let me know if you have any questions. Alright.