EWRT 1C Class 5

VA DERS

AGENDA• REVIEW SCANNING POETRY• NEW RHETORICAL STRATEGIES• SPEAKER,• INTRODUCTION TO ESSAY #1

– IN CLASS WRITING

u / u u / /The whiskey on your breath 6 u / u / / /uCould make a small boy dizzy; 7u / / u / / But I hung on like death: 6u / u u / /u Such 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.

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Four line stanzas are called quatrains

Feet per lineSyllables per line

The father’s waltz becomes a symbol here (the child is being waltzed, figuratively and literally, to bed). The poem indicates early on that the waltz is not easy, and yet it ends with the comfort and stability of bed.

The whiskey on your breath Could 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.

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My Papa’s Waltz

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.

Image

Image

Personification suggesting “countenance” might control itself? “Unfrown” is not a word.

Summarizing the form

Dominant foot: iambNumber of feet per line: threePrevailing meter (dominant foot + number of feet per line): iambic trimeterStructure: quatrainRhyme scheme:

The whiskey on your breath Could 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.

My Papa’s WaltzThe 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.

LET ME ASK YOUWho is the speaker?Who is the audience?

Speaker The person speaking in the poem may not be the poet. It

may be that the poet has created a persona, or a person in the poem.

In “My Papa’s Waltz,” the speaker is the little boy now grown up. We know this because he says in the last stanza “you beat time on my head,” my head telling us it is the speaker who is the boy. However, the language is not of a small boy but of an adult – so we can figure out the poem is of a memory.

Audience in the poem There’s often an audience that is in the poem. For example,

the poem may be written to someone specific [not us]. The audience in “My Papa’s Waltz” is the father because he

says “the whiskey on your breath” [your breath = father’s breath]. Also the title – My Papa’s Waltz.

Impressions• Imagery: sensory impressions

– The first stanza of “My Papa’s Waltz,” offers an olfactory image: “the whisky on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” There are also sound images: “we romped until the pans slipped from the kitchen shelf.”The reader can hear the clatter. Of course there are visual images as well.

• Symbolism: [red rose = love] – In “My Papa’s Waltz,” the waltz itself is kind of a

symbol. It is a formal dance that could symbolize two people moving together.

Summarize and interpret the poem via New Criticism. Paradox: “Such waltzing was not easy.” The waltz suggests ease.

Ambiguity: On the one hand , the poem might speak of child abuse by an alcoholic father; on the other hand , the poem could be a cherished childhood reflection of a boy waltzing with his dad who's slightly tipsy. The language we have discussed could potentially support either hypothesis.

Tension: Fun for the adult/ frightening for the child Love/abuse Comfort/pain excitement/ lullaby

Irony: The first stanza introduces a persistent, heavily ironic theme. A waltz sounds like a pleasant enough diversion, but the whiskey, the dizziness, and especially the word death collectively undercut this assumption and make us understand that the situation is not entirely lighthearted.

Irony in "My Papa’s Waltz • lines 1-2 - "The whiskey on your breath / Could make a small boy dizzy"

These lines are ironic because, while it is possible that the smell of “the whiskey” alone would make the child dizzy, being swung drunkenly about is probably to blame too.

• line 3 - "I hung on like death"This line emphasizes the irony of line 4. Because the speaker’s father presents a certain danger, he “hangs on” to him here not necessarily “like death” but rather for dear life. The word death is thus ironic, but it makes the danger of the situation clear and offsets the notion that this is just a lighthearted waltz.

• line 4 - "Such waltzing was not easy"The waltz should be easy, on a literal level, because the speaker is just being swung around by his father. It isn’t easy because, apparently, their lives together aren’t easy.

• lines 5-6 - "We romped until the pans / Slid from the kitchen shelf"Continuing the tone of the first stanza, the word romped here is ironic because it makes the waltz sound carefree, yet the effect of this romping is to cause a violent, crashing disruption in their domestic world.

MORE WAYS INTO THE POEM!

Words

• Diction: the choice and use of words and phrases in speech or writing.– Why does the author use specific words?

• Syntax: order of words– When words appear in a non-standard order, there is cause for further

investigation. • Denotation: the literal meaning; Connotation: the implied meaning

– For example, the word slimy by itself can accurately describe a slug or or the feeling on your face after your big dog greets you. However, when slimy is used to describe a person, the reader recognizes that this person is not someone you want to ask to housesit while you head to the Bahamas for a week.

– Poets often make use of both literal and implied meanings in poems – in fact, he or she may want us to see both meanings at the same time.

Figures of Speech

Allusion is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance. It does not describe in detail the person or thing to which it refers. It is just a passing comment and the writer expects the reader to possess enough knowledge to spot the allusion and grasp its importance in a text.This is a regular Garden of EdenRelax, RomeoThat is a Pandora’s box.

Oxymoron - impossibilities and contradictionsAn oxymoron combines two contradictory terms like jumbo

shrimp or business ethics. The oxymoron can be similar to the paradox

More Figures of Speech

• Metonymy – words based on association– Crown = monarchy, so when we say he took the crown, we don’t

mean he stole the crown We probably mean that he is ascending the throne.

• Synecdoche – a part = the whole – Hand = whole person, so when he takes her hand in marriage, he

does not just marry her hand, he marries all of her.• Hyperbole—exaggeration

– I told you a million times to turn down that stereo!• Litotes—understatement

– Litotes are figures of rhetoric speech that use an understated statement of an affirmative by using a negative description.

• “not the brightest bulb”• “not a beauty”

• “not bad”• “not unfamiliar”

Choices!

• “There Is a Girl Inside” • “The Fish”• “A Black Rook in Rainy Weather”• “Memories of West Street and Lepke”• “To His Coy Mistress”

What did you notice about any one of these poems?What makes them good candidates for a new critical reading?

Dominant foot:Number of feet per line:Prevailing meter (dominant foot + number of feet per line)Structure:Rhyme scheme:

  

Homework Review

CHOOSING A POEMEssay #1: Preparing to write your paper

Essay #1: Prompt Introduction• In a thesis driven essay of three to five pages, respond to one of the following poems:

• “There’s a girl inside”• “The Fish”

• Proceed on the assumptions of the New Criticism that (1) there is a difference between a good poem and a bad poem, and (2) good poems have a “spirit” or life of their own because they incorporate tensions that eventually are resolved into an “organic unity” or autonomous organic whole. Following the New Critics, you should focus on the work itself; you should, however, examine the literary allusions contained in the work as an important part of its total meaning. You need only the primary text for this essay, but you may incorporate other texts we have read thus far as additional support.

• An effective close reading will discuss HOW the poem communicates meaning (what poetic or rhetorical strategies are used) as well as address WHY these strategies are used in this particular way.

• One of the greatest challenges of a close reading is synthesis. Even as you divide the poem into its composite elements, you will want to discuss how those elements come together to form a whole. Your essay should reveal how the parts of the poem relate and form a totality.

• “A Black Rook in Rainy Weather”• “Memories of West Street and Lepke”• “To His Coy Mistress”

Step #1• Choose one of these poems to begin to

analyze. You may use the one you scanned, or you may choose a different one.

• “There Is a Girl Inside” • “The Fish”• “A Black Rook in Rainy Weather”• “Memories of West Street and Lepke”• “To His Coy Mistress”

Get into groups based on poem choice

• Discuss the poem you have chosen to analyze; consider the questions on the next slide.

Poetry Analysis• Who is the speaker? The

audience?• What do the words tell you

about the poem?– Diction– Syntax– Denotation/Connotation

• Which tools of the new critic are in the poem? paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension

• Name the figurative Language: images, symbols, metaphors, similes, alliteration, personification, and hyperbole, litotes, metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, oxymoron.

• Identify Structure:– Rhyme, Rhythm, Meter

What is the significance of the poem's structure? (New Critics do not use the term form because of its historical connotations.) Your answer will affect your interpretation of the poem. (Remember, do not separate the overall structure from the verbal meanings.)

Determine the Significance of the Structure

Now Think Again• Discuss the poem you

have chosen to analyze; consider the questions on the next slide to determine least three ways you might approach your poem.

• Think about how one of these approaches might offer you insight about a potential thesis.

Consider which of these questions help you understand the poem

1. How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols? 2. What is the quality of the work's organic unity In other words, does how

the work is put together reflect what it is?3. How are the various parts of the work interconnected?4. How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text?5. How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or not

contribute to the aesthetic quality of the work?6. How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the work?7. What does the structure of the work say about its content?8. Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the

entirety of the work?9. How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute to

the meaning or effect of the piece?

Homework

• Post #: Answer 7 of the 9 questions on slide 25

• Bring your notes to our next meeting