6 How to Analyze Poetry

Transcription

1 88 HOW TO ANALYZE DRAMA Bentley, Eri. The Plywright s Thinker: A Study of Drm in Modern Times. New York: Hrourt, Corrign, Roert W, ed. Trgedy: Vision nd Form. Sn Frniso: Chndler, Comedy: Mening nd Form. New York: Hrper, Esslin, Mrtin. An Antomy of Drm. New York: H ill nd Wng, The Thetre of the Asurd. Grden City: Douledy, Kernodle, Georg~, Porti Kernodle, nd Edwrd Pixley. Invittion to the Thetre. 3rd ed. Sn Diego: Hrourt, Styn, J. L. The Elements of Drm. Cmridge: Cmridge UP, Kernodle, Kernodle, nd Pixley's Invittion to the Thetre nd Esslin's An Antomy of Drm re oth generl introdutions to the elements of drm. Bekermn's Dynmis of Drm nd Styn's The Elements of Drm onentrte on the performne spets of drm. Bekermn ttempts to estlish ritil voulry nd system for nlyzing drm s performed rt. Aristotle's Poetis is perhps the most fmous ook ever written on literture. It ontins his nlysis of trgedy, with few glnes t omedy. Corrign's ooks on omedy nd trgedy nthologize essys nd exerpts out these two omplex sugenres. They del with elements like form, hrter types, lnguge, nd world view. Bentley's The Plywright s Thinker dels with the emergene of "modern" drm t the end of the nineteenth entury nd disusses the importne of plywrights like Shw, Isen, Strinderg, Breht, nd Srtre. Esslin's The Thetre of the Asurd defines nd exemplifies post-world Wr II thetre y overing plywrights like Smuel Bekett, Eugene Ioneso, Jen Genet, Hrold Pinter, Edwrd Alee, nd Arthur Kopit. 6 How to Anlyze Poetry P OETRY SHARES mny elements with its sister genres, drm nd fition. And indeed, mny works of drm nd fition re written in the form of poetry. Plys y Shkespere, Goethe, Moliere, Mrlowe, Mxwell Anderson, nd T. S. Eliot; nrrtive works y Homer, Chuer, Dnte, Longfellow, Whittier, Jeffers, Milton, Spenser, Tennyson, nd Browning re exmples. But poetry is usully different from prose drm nd fition in severl key wys. In generl, it is more onentrted-tht is, poetry sys more in fewer words. Poets hieve this onentrtion y seleting detils more refully, y relying more hevily on implition (through figurtive lnguge, onnottion, nd sensuous imgery), nd y more refully orgnizing the form of their poetry (through rhythmi speeh ptterns nd "musil" qulities, like rhyme). Beuse of the reltive shortness of poetry nd euse of its greter onentrtion, it demnds more omplete unity thn prose fition; every word, every sound, every imge must work towrd single effet. The result is tht poetry is more intense thn the other genres. Poetry is omplex sujet. The following is rief survey of its elements nd questions out them tht should led you to good topis for essys on poetry. 89

2 90 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY Chrteriztion. Point of View, Plot, Setting, nd Theme Some poems-"nrrtivc-poems-re very similr to prose fition nd drm in their hndling of hrteriztion, P.2!!1t of view, plot, nd setting. Thus mny of the sme questions tht one sks out short story, novel, or ply re relevnt to these poems. Most poems, however, do not offer "story" in the onventionl sense. They re usully rief nd pprently devoid of "tion." Even so, plot of sorts my e implied, ple nd time my e importnt, speifi point of view my e operting, nd hrters my e drmtizing the key issues of the poem. In ny poem there is lwys one "hrter" of the utmost importne, even ifhe or she is the only hrter. This hrter is the speker, the "I" of the poem. Often the speker is fitionl personge, not t ll equivlent to the poet, nd my not e speking to the reder ut to nother hrter, s is the se in Mrvell's "To His Coy Mistress" nd Browning's "My Lst Duhess." The poem might even e dilogue etween two or more people, s in llds like "Edwrd" nd "Lord Rndl" nd in Frost's "The Deth of the Hired Mn." Thus the poem n e little drm or story, in whih one or more fitionl hrters prtiiptes. But more typilly, one hrter, the "I," speks of something tht onerns him or her deeply nd personlly. Suh poems re lled "lyri" poems euse of their sujetive, musil, highly emotionl, nd imgintive qulities. They re songlike utternes y one person, the "I." Questions out hrteriztion, point of view, plot, setting, nd theme In nlyzing poetry, your first step should e to ( ome to grips with the "I" of the poem, the speker. You should nswer questions like these: '\Y_ho is sj;2$.king? (Rememer tht tl1e speker is often not the poet.) r~es the speker? To whom is he or she speking? Wht is the spe er s tone? t is the speker's emotionl stte? Why is he or she speking? Wht sitution is eing desried? Wht re the onflits or tensions in this sitution? How is settingsoil sitution, physil ple, nd time-importnt to the speker? Wht ides is the speker ommuniting? Try to nswer these questions for eh setion of the poem. A good exerise is to summrize the mening of eh prt of the poem in your own words. Mtthew Arnold's "Dover Beh" provides n exmple of how you ould use most of these questions to get t the entrl mening of poem. DOVER BEACH MATIHEW ARNOLD The se is lm to-night. The tide is full, the moon lies fir Upon the strits; on the Frenh ost the light Glems nd is gone; the liffs of Englnd stnd, Glimmering nd vst, out in the trnquil y. Come to the window, sweet is the night-ir! Only, from the long line of spry Where the se meets the moon-lnhed lnd,. Listen! you her the grting ror Of peles whih the wves drw k, nd fling, At their return, up the high strnd, Begin, nd ese, nd then gin egin, With tremulous dene slow, nd ring The eternl note of sdness in. Sopholes long go Herd it on the Aegen, nd it rought Into his mind the turid e nd flow Of humn misery; we Find lso in the sound thought, Hering it y this distnt northern se. The Se of Fith Ws one, too, t the full, nd round erth's shore Ly like the folds of right girdle furled. But now I only her Its melnholy, long, withdrwing ror, Retreting, to the reth Of the night-wind, down the vst edges drer And nked shingles 0 of the world. 0 ehes overed with peles 91

3 92 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY Ah, love, let us e true To one nother! for the world, whih seems To lie efore us like lnd of drems, So vrious, so eutiful, so new, Hth relly neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor ertitude, nor pee, nor help for pin ; And we re here s on drkling plin Swept with onfused lrms of struggle nd fl ight, Where ign~rnt rmies lsh y night. Sine Dover is n English port ity, one of severl points of deprture for the Europen ontinent, the speker hs pprently stopped for the night on his wy to Europe. As he looks out of his hotel window, he speks to nother person in the room, his "love" (lst stnz). Arnold tres the speker's trin of thought in four stnzs. In tl1e first stnz, the speker desries wht he sees, nd his tone is ontented, even joyous. He sees the lights on the Frenh ost, nd he sees the high white liffs of Dover "glimmering" in the moonlight. He invites his ompnion to shre the glorious view. But s he desries the sound of the surf to her, his tone lters slightly; the sound reminds him of "the eternl note of sdness." This melnholy tone deepens in the seond stnz. There the speker onnets the se sound witl1 pssge in Sopholes, proly tl1e third horus of Antigone) whih ompres the misery of living under fmily urse to the inessnt ror of stormy se eting ginst the lnd. In the third stnz, the rememrne of Sopholes's omprison leds the speker to mke more disturing omprison of his own. He likens the se to fith-pprently religious fith, otl1 his own nd tht of his ge. He sys tht t one time the "Se of Fitl1" ws full ut now hs withdrwn, leving "vst," "drer," nd orse world. By the fourth stnz, the speker hs fllen into despir. He sys tht wht merely looks eutiful-the pnorm seen from his window- is only flse imge of the world, whih in relity is surd nd hoti. H e hs only one hope, his ompnion, whom he now urges to e true to him s he is true to her. The speker, in short, is n erudite, ilioughtful, ut deeply trouled person. The poem tkes him from momentry ontentedness to ner hopelessness. The stinmlus for his trin of iliought is the ple of the poem-dover Beh- nd the ompnion to whom he ddresses his remrks. All iliese elements-ilioughts, ple, nd ompnion-re interrelted. Dition d n refers to ilie poet's hoie of w ds. Poets re sensitive to the sutle shdes o menmgs of words, to ilie possile doule menings of words, nd to the denottive nd onnottive men- ~ ings of words. As we sw in hpter 3, denottion is the ojet or idethe referent-tht word represents. The denottion of word is its ore mening, its ditionry mening. Connottion is the sujetive, emotionl ssoition tht word hs for one person or group of people. Poets often hoose words tht ontriute to the poem's mening on oth denottionl nd onnottionl level. You should e lert to suh hoies. Questions out dition You should exmine the words in poem for ll their possile shdes nd levels of mening. Then you should sk how these menings omine to rete n overll effet. Note the effet tht onnottion retes in Willim Wordsworth's "A Slumer Did My Spirit Sel": A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL WILLIAM WORDSWORTH A slumer did my spi rit sel; I hd no humn fers- She seemed thing tht ould not feel The touh of erthly yers. No motion hs she now, no fore; She neither hers nor sees; Rolled round in erth 's diurnl ourse, With roks, nd stones, nd trees. In order to rete the strk ontrst etween the tive, iry girl of the first stnz with the inert, ded girl of the seond, Wordsworth relies prtly on the onnottive effet of the lst line. We know the denottive mening of "roks nd stones nd trees," ut in this ontext the emotionl or CC2Ilottive mening is unplesnt nd grting. Roks nd stones re innimte, old, utting, impersonl. And lthough we usully think of trees s eutiful nd mjesti, here the ssoition of trees wiili roks nd stones mkes us think of tree roots, of dirt, nd thus of the girl's uril. The roks nd stones nd trees re not only 93

4 96 Brighter thn glss, nd yet, s glss is, rittle; Softer thn wx, nd yet, s iron, rusty; A lily ple, with dmsk dye to gre her; None firer, nor none flser to defe her. HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY A metphor lso ompres things tht re essentilly unlike, ut it elimintes the omprtive words nd thus equtes the ompred items. For exmple, "My hert ws torndo of pssion." The poem "Love Is Sikness" y Smuel Dniel ontins severl metphors (indited here y the itlis) : LOVE IS A SICKNESS SAMUEL DANIEL Love is sikness full of woes, All remedies refusing. A plnt tht with most utting grows, Most rren with est using. Why so? More we enjoy it, more it dies, If not enjoyed it sighing ries, Hey ho. Love is torment of the mind, A tempest everlsting, And Jove hth mde it of kind Not well, nor full, nor fsting. Why so? More we enjoy it, more it dies, If not enjoyed it sighing ries, Hey ho. Anlogies n e diretly stted or implied. The similes nd metphors in the ove poems y Shkespere nd Dniel re diretly stted nlogies; ut when Dniel in the lst lines of eh stnz sys tht love "sighs," he implies kind of nlogy lled personifition; tht is, he pretends tht love hs the ttriutes of person. When the poet develops just one nlogy throughout the whole poem, the nlogy is lled n extended metphor. Thoms Cmpion's "There Is Grden in Her Fe" ontins n extended metphor ompring the fetures of womn's fe to the fetures of grden: THERE IS A GARDEN IN HER FACE THOMAS CAMPION There is grden in her fe, Where roses nd white lilies grow, A hevenly prdise is tht ple, Wherein ll plesnt fruits do flow. There herries grow, whih none my uy Till "Cherry ripel" 0 themselves do ry. Those herries firly do enlose Of orient perl doule row; Whih when her lovely lughter shows, They look like roseuds filled with snow. Yet them nor peer nor prine n uy, Till "Cherry ripe' " themselves do ry. Her eyes like ngels wth them still; Her rows like ended ows do stnd, Thretening with piering frowns to kill All tht ttempt with eye or hnd Those sred herries to ome nigh, Till "Cherry ripe!" themselves do ry. 0 A fmi lir ry of Lon don street vendors ~ Questions out imgery Imgery is n importnt-some would rgue the most importnt-hrteristi of poetry. Y.o.~W.d- ~ys-ilentify thei; ilu~ poem. Ask, then, wht senses the poet ppels to nd wht nlogiesneor she implies or sttes diretly. But you should lso sk, Why does the poet use these prtiulr imges nd nlogies? In "Dover Beh," for exmple, Arnold meningfully uses oth desriptive nd metphoril imgery. He emphsizes two senses, the visul nd the url. He egins with the visul-the moon, the lights of Frne ross the wter, the liffs, the trnquil y-nd tl1roughout the poem he ssoites hope nd euty with wht the spek.er sees. But the poet soon introdues the url sense-the grting ror of the se-whih serves s n ntithesis to the visul sense. These two senses rete tension tht mirrors the onflit in the speker's mind. The first two stnzs show the spek.er merely drifting into pereption of this onflit, onneting sight with hope nd sound with sdness. But y the third stnz, he hs eome intelletully lert to 97

5 98 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY the full implitions of the onflit. He signls this lertness with refully worked out nlogy, his omprison of the se with fith. By the fourth stnz, he sums up his despiring onlusion with stunning nd fmous simile: And we re here s on drkling plin Swept with onfused lrms of struggle nd flight, Where ignornt rmies lsh y night. This finl ntogy hieves severl purposes. First, it rings the implition of the desriptive imgery to logil onlusion. No longer n the speker drw hope from visul euty; in this imge, he nnot see t ll-it is night, the plin is drk. He n only her, ut the sound now is more hoti nd diretly thretening thn the mere e nd flow of the se. Seond, the nlogy provides n rupt hnge of setting. Wheres efore the speker visulized n unpeopled plin, now he imgines humn eings s gents of destrution. He implies tht world without fith must seem nd e unvoidly ritrry nd violent. Finlly, the nlogy llows the speker to identify his own ple in this new world order. Only loylty is pure nd good, so he nd his ompnion must ling to eh other nd mneuver through the world's minefields s est they n. humn speeh hs rhythm, ut poetry regulrizes tht rhythm into reognizle ptterns. These ptterns re lled meters. Metril ptterns vry depending on the sequene in whih one rrnges the ented () nd unented () syllles of n utterne. The unit tht determines tht rrngement is the foot. A foot is one unit of rhythm in verse. Proly the most nturl foot in English is the imi, whih hs n unented syllle followed y n ented syllle (). Here re the most ommon metril feet: im (imi) trohee (trohi) npest (npesti) dtyl (dtyli) spondee(spond~) ove lovely overwhelm roylty drumet 99 Poets further determine the rrngement of metril ptterns y the numer of feet in eh line. The following nmes pply to the lengths of poeti lines: mnometer (one foot) dimeter (two feet) trimeter (three feet) tetrmeter (four feet) pentmeter (live feet) hexmeter (six feet) heptmeter (seven feet) otmeter (eight feet) A very ommon line in English poetry is imi pentmeter; it ontins five imi feet. Shkespere wrote his plys in imi pentmeter, nd the sonnet is trditionlly omposed in imi pentmeter (see pges for some exmples). Another feture of line length is tht eh line my hve fixed numer of syllles. When people spek of imi pentmeter, they usully think of line ontining five ented syllles nd ten syllles in ll. Even if the poet sustitutes other feet for ims, the numer of syllles in the line omes out the sme-ten for imi pentmeter, eight for imi tetrmeter, six for imi trimeter, nd so forth. When line of poetry is mesured y oth ents nd syllles, it is lled entul-sylli. Most English poetry is entul-sylli, like these imi tetrmeter lines from "To His Coy Mistress": Hd we ut world enough, nd time, This oyness, ldy, wefe no rime Eh line hs four imi feet-four ented syllles, eight syllles in ll. But not ll English poetry is entul-sylli. Sometimes it is just entul. Trditionl llds, for exmple, often ount the numer of ents per line ut not the numer of syllles: "O whefe he ye een, Lord Rndl, my son? 0 whefe he ye een, my hndsome young mn?" "I he een to the wi l wood; mother, mke my ed soon, For I'm wery wi hunting, nd fin wld lie down."

6 100 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY 101 The third line of this stnz (from the lld "Lord Rndl") ontins five ented syllles ut twelve (not five) syllles. The first two lines ontin four ents ut ten (not eight) syllles. And the lst line ontins four ents ut twelve (not eight) syllles. The importnt ftor in purely entul lines is where the ent flls; the poet n freely use the ents to emphsize meni'ng. One of the ents in line three of the ove stnz, for exmple, flls on wild, whih expresses the treherous ple from whih Lord Rndl hs returned. Beuse indiv:iduls her nd spek lnguge in different wys, "snning" poem (using symols to mrk ented nd unented syllles nd thus identify its metril pttern) is not n ext siene. Some poets estlish esily reognizle-often strongly rhythmilmetril ptterns, nd snning their poems is esy. Other poets use more sutle rhythms tht mke the poeti lines less rtifiil nd more like olloquil lnguge. The est poets often deliertely deprt from the metril pttern they estlish t the eginning. When you sn poem, therefore, do not fore phrses wmtqrlly into the estlished metril pttern. Alwys put the ents where you nd most spekers would normlly sy them. The poet proly intends for them to go there. When you sn poem, e lert for esurs. A esur is strong puse somewhere in the line. You mrk esur with two vertil lines: 11. Consider the esurs in this jump-rope rhyme: Ci nderell, dressed in yel low, Went upstirs II to kiss fellow. Mde mistke; II kissed snke. How mny dotors did it tke. One, two, three, four... A likely ple for esur is in the middle of the line, nd if the meter of the poem is tetrmeter, then esur in the middle netly divides the line in hlf. Suh is the se in lines 2 nd 3 of this poem. A esur my lso our ner the eginning of the line or ner the end. Or there my e no esurs in line, s is proly the se in lines 4, 5, nd possily 1 of this poem. Cesurs often serve to emphsize mening. Cesurs in the middle of lines, for exmple, n emphsize strong ontrsts or lose reltionships etween ides. In line 3, oth the esur nd the rhyme of "mistke" with "snke" link the strtion (the mistke) with the tion (kissing the snke). A profound exmple of the reltionship etween mening nd esur-indeed, etween mening nd ll the qulities of poeti soundis Shkespere's Sonnet 129: SONNET 129 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Th' expense of spirit II in wste of shme Is lust in tion; II nd, ti ll tion, lust Is perjured, murderous, loody, full of lme, Svge, extreme, rude, ruel, not to trust; Enjoyed no sooner II ut despised stright: 5 Pst reson hunted; II nd no sooner hd, Pst reson hted, II s swllowed it, On purpose lid II to mke the tker md: Md in pursu it, II nd in possession so; Hd, hving, nd in quest to hve, extreme; A l iss in proof; II nd proved, ve ry woe; Before, joy proposed; II ehind, drem. All th is the world well knows; II yet none knows wel l To shun the heven II tht leds men to thi s hell. Here Shkespere estlishes pttern of ontrsts nd similrities, nd he uses esur nd other sound devies to estlish them. One of these devies is the entul pttern. Like most sonnets, this one hs ten syllles per line nd is supposed to e imi pentmeter. But for mny of these lines, Shkespere hs only four ents per line, not five. This llows him to mke some of his omprisons equl in weight. Line 5, for exmple, hs strong esur nd four ented syllles: Enjoyed no sooner II ut despised stright The effet is to strongly ontrst the two emotionl sttes, plesure nd guilt; nd sine Shkespere puts guilt lst, he gives it more weight. Lines 11 nd 12, however, ontin esurs nd five ents eh, mking the two-prt divisions within the lines unequl. Note how this reltes to the mening of the lines: A liss in proof; II nd proved, very woe; Before, joy proposed; II ehind, drem. 1 O

7 102 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY The "weker" sides of the lines ontin the plesure prt of the eqution nd emphsize the revity nd insustntil qulity of plesure; the "strong" sides emphsize either n'ive expettion or guilt. Questions out rhythm M~tris hs mny uses in poetry. It provides method of ordering mteril. It retes hypnoti effet tht rivets ttention on the poem. Like the rhythmi qulities of musi, it is enjoyle in itself. Children, for exmple, tke to the strongly rhythmi qulities of nursery rhymes nd jump-rope rhymes nturlly; jump-rope rhymes, in ft, is tht rre form of literture tht hildren teh eh other. But proly the gretest importne of metris is tht it estlishes pttern from whih the poet n deprt. Good poets rrely stik to the metril pttern they estlish t the eginning of the poem or tht is inherent in fixed form, like the sonnet. Sonnet 129, ove, is striking exmple. Sometimes they deprt from the estlished pttern to mke the lnguge sound more olloquil. Suh is prtly the se in "Dover Beh" nd Browning's "My Lst Duhess,'' oth of whih re spoken y fitionl nrrtors. Sometimes poets deprt from the pttern to emphsize speifi prts of the poem's ontent. This is why you should e sensitive to the nturl rhythms of the lnguge when you sn poem. Tke, for exmple, these lines from Sonnet 129: Lust is like swllowed it, On purpose lid to mke the tker md: Md in pursuit, nd in possession s6: Hd, hving, nd in quest to hve, extreme: A liss in proof: nd proved, very woe: Before, joy proposed: ehind, drem. All of these lines fit the imi sheme exept lines 9 nd 10. Why? Beuse Shkespere wnts to emphsize ertin words in these two lines, prtiulrly the first words in eh. The ents in line 10 re espeilly emphti, for the ents emphsize the pst ("hd"), the present ("hving''), the future ("quest" nd "hve"), nd the psyhologil nd morl nture of ll three ("extreme"). Questions to sk out rhythm in poetry, then, re these: Wht metril pttern does the poem use? Wht is ppeling out the pttern? How losely does the poet stik to the estlished pttern? If losely, why nd wht effet is the poet striving for? For exmple, does the poem hve singsong qulity? If so, why does the poet do this? "To His Coy Mistress" is poem tht dheres with little vrition to its imi tetrmeter pttern. How is Mrvell's hoie to do this fitting for his drmti sitution (mn ddressing womn) nd his sujet? Wht vritions from the estlished pttern does the poet mke? Why? Wht words nd ides do these vritions emphsize? Does the poet estlish pttern of emphsis? How does the poet use puses within eh line? Wht re the strong puses (esurs) nd the weker puses? When the poet uses puses to rek line into smller units, wht reltionships do the units hve? Are there use-nd-effet reltionships or omprison-nd-ontrst reltionships etween them? Sound Poets delight in the sound of lnguge nd onsiously present sounds to e enjoyed for themselves. They lso use them to emphsize mening, tion, nd emotion, nd espeilly to ll the reder's ttention to the reltionship of ertin words. Rhyme, for exmple, hs the effet of linking words together. Among the most ommon sound devies re the following: 2!10mtopoei-the use of words tht sound like wht they men ("uzz," "oom~'rl i ss," "fizz"). ~Uitertion -=tl:ie-repetitfe r;;i..q.f_ggi:isgr.int sounds t the eginning of wmds or t the eginning of ented syllles ("the woeful womn went wding Wednesdy"). s~e-..ta e=r"6i;>@ti.t.io.n of vowel sounds followed y different onsonnt sounds (0, the grons tht opened to his ers"). ~ nsonne..(..i:.. lt-u:l:)"ffle)=the repetition of finl onsonnt sounds tht re preeded y different vowel sounds (the est limed fst to the rest"). rhyme-the repetition of ented vowels nd the sounds tht follow. There re sutegories of rhyme: msuline rhyme (the rhymed sounds hve only one syllle: "mn-rn," "detet-orret"). feminine rhyme (the rhymed sounds hve two or more syllles: "sutle-reuttl," "deeptively-pereptively").

8 104 devies: HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY internl rhyme (the rhymed sounds re within the line). end rhyme (the rhymed sounds pper t the ends of lines). pproximte rhyme (the words re lose to rhyming: "ookuk:' "wth-mth," "mn-in")., Edgr Alln Poe's "To Helen" illustrtes mny of these sound ll ite rti on onsonne TO HELEN EDGAR ALLAN POE Helen, thy euty is to~e msuline rhyme/ Like those Nien rks of yore, end rhyme,r Tht g~ntly, o'~r ~erfur;iede The wery, wy-worn wnd erer ore To his own ntive shore. ssonn:" Lo! \n yon rlllint w\ndow-nih How sttue-like [~i n te rn l rhyme The gte lmp within thy hnd, Ah! Psyhe, from the regions whih Are Holy Lnd! Questions out sound It's esy to lose yourself in n nlysis of the mehnil intriies of poem's sound struture nd forget why you re mking the nlysis in the first ple. You wnt to sk, Wht sound devies do~ s the poet use? But you lso should sk, Why does the poet use th.em? How do they help estlish the poem's tone, tmosphere, theme, setting, hrteriztion, nd emotionl qulities? In Poe's "To Helen," for exmple, the llitertion in the fourth line ("wery, wy-worn wnderer") undersores the ftigued stte of the wnderer. The onsonne of "ses" nd "irs" in lines 6 nd 8 emphsizes the ontrst etween them; one is "desperte" ut the other ssuges despir. And the ssonne in line 11 ("in yon rillint window-nih"), with its emphsis on high, tight, "i" sounds, helps to hrterize the luminousness of the ple where Helen, sttuelike, stnds. Be espeilly lert to the reltionships etween ides estlished oth y rhyme, nd most notly y internl rhyme nd end rhyme. Rhyme, of ourse, is musil devie tht mkes the sound of the poem ttrtive to the er, ut it n e used meningfully s well. Turn k to Sonnet 129, nd exmine the omplex sound ssoitions Shkespere retes there. The words sound rough nd lmost pinful, with their hrsh onsonnts, ll of whih illustrte the frustrted, freneti emotionl stte Shkespere sries to lust. Note the vrition on "s" sounds in the first line. Th ' expense of spirit in wste of shme Line 3 egins list of qulities, nd Shkespere divides nd ssoites them through ssonne nd llitertion: Lust ls perjured, murderous, loody, ful l of lme. The words perjured nd murderous re linked y ssonne (the "er" sounds), nd they fous on evil deeds (flsehood, murder), whih leds to the seond hlf of the line. The words loody nd lme re linked y llitertion, nd they fous on the results of evil deeds, espeilly murder: lood nd guilt. The linkges signled y the poems end rhyme re lso meningful: shme/lme, lust/not to trust, no sooner hd/ mke the tker md, extreme/drem, yet none knows well/leds men to this hell. In the poem you re reding, wht linkges of mening re there to ll the sound qulities of the words-espeilly to the ovious ones like llitertion, internl rhyme, nd end rhyme? Wht light do these linkges throw on the themes of the entire poem? Struture Poets give struture to their poems in two overlpping wys: y orgnizing ides ording to logil pln nd y reting pttern of sounds. Arnold rrnges "Dover Beh" in oth wys, s do most poets. He divides the poem into four units, eh of whih hs pttern of end rhyme, nd he rrnges the whole poem rhetorilly-tht is,

9 106 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY y ides. Eh unit elortes single point, nd eh point follows logilly from the preeding one. Perhps the most ommon sound devie y whih poets rete struture is end rhyme, nd ny pttern of end rhyme is lled rhyme sheme. Rhyme sheme helps to estlish ~other struturl devie, the stnz, whih is physilly seprted from other stnzs y extr spes nd usully represents one ide. Poets, of ourse, n rete ny rhyme sheme or stnz form they hoose, ut they often work insted within the onfines of lredy estlished poeti strutures. These re lled fixed forms. Stnzs tht onform to no trditionl limits, like those in "Dover Beh," re lled none forms. The most fmous fixed form in E~n.~~t Like other fixed forms, the sonnet prov1 es re - mdestruturrdivisions y whih poet n orgnize ides. But it lso hllenges poets to mold unwieldy mteril into n unyielding struture. The result is tension etween mteril nd form tht is plesing oth to poet nd reder. All sonnets hve fourteen lines of imi pentmeter. There re two kinds of sonnets, oth nmed for their most fmous prtitioners. A Shkesperen sonnet rhymes /dd/efef/gg nd hs struturl division of three qutrins (tht is, eh ontining four lines) nd ouplet. A Petrrhn sonnet rhymes in the otve (the first eight lines) nd dede in the sestet (the lst six lines). Poets often vry the pttern of end rhyme in these kinds of sonnets, nd this is espeilly true of the sestet in the Petrrhn sonnet. Note, for exmple, the sonnet y Wordsworth elow. Eh kind of sonnet hs "turn," point in the poem t whih the poet shifts from one mening or mood to nother. The turn in the Shkesperen sonnet ours etween lines 12 nd 13 (tht is, just efore the ouplet). The turn in the Petrrhn sonnet ours etween the otve nd the sestet. In oth forms, the prt of the poem efore the turn delinetes prolem or tension; the prt fter the turn offers some resolution to or omment on the prolem, nd it releses the tension. SONNET 116 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Let me not to the mrrige of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Whih lters when it ltertion finds, Or ends with the remover to remove: 4 three qutrins turn--> ouplet { Oh, no' it is n ever-fixed mrk, Tht looks on tempests nd is never shken; It is the str to every wndering rk, Whose worth 's unknown, lthough his height e tken, Love's not Time's fool, though rosey lips nd heeks Within his ending sikle's ompss ome; Love lters not with his rief hours nd weeks, But ers it out even to the edge of doom. If this e error nd upon me proved, I never writ, nor no mn ever loved. Shkespere molds the ides nd imges of this poem to fit its form perfetly. He sttes the theme-tht love remins onstnt no mtter wht-in the first qutrin. In the seond, he sys tht tlysmi events nnot destroy love. In the third, he sys tht time nnot destroy love. Finlly, in the ouplet, he ffirms the truth of his theme. THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Th e world is too muh with us; lte nd soon, Getting nd spending, we ly wste our powers; Little we see in nture tht is ours ; We hve given our herts wy, sordid oon' This Se tht res her osom to the moon, The winds tht will e howling t ll hours, And re up-gthered now like sleeping flowers, For this, for everything, we re out of tune; otve ~. -- turn. It moves us not. -Gret God! I'd rther e -- 8 A Pgn sukled in reed outworn; d sestet So might I, stnding on this plesnt le, ~. Hve glimpses tht would mke me less forlorn ; d Hve sight of Proteus rising from the se; Or her old Triton low his wrethed horn. d 14 Wordsworth uses the struture of the Petrrhn sonnet to shpe his ides. In the otve he sttes his generl theme-tht mterilisti vlues d d e f e f g g

10 108 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY nd tivities dull our sensitivity to nture. But he divides the otve into two qutrins. In the first he sttes his theme; in the seond he exemplifies it. He then uses the sestet to suggest n lternte ttitude, one tht might produe greter ppreition of nture's mystery nd mjesty. Questions out struture You n find definitions of mny fixed forms y looking them up in hndooks of literture (see the iliogrphy t the end of this hpter)-the lld, the ode, the heroi ouplet, the Alexndrine stnz, the rhyme royl stnz, the Spenserin stnz, nd so forth. But sine poets do not lwys use fixed forms, nd sine there re mny wys to give poetry struture, you should try to nswer this question: Wht devies does the poet use to give the poem struture? Does the poet use rhyme sheme, stnzs, doule spes, indenttions, repetition of words nd imges, line lengths, rhetoril orgniztion? But s with rhythm nd sound, follow-up question is of equl onsequene: How does the poem's struture emphsize or relte to its meningr An exmple of suh reltionship is the finl stnz of "Dover Beh," in whih Arnold uses end rhyme to emphsize opposing worldviews: Ah, love, let us e true To one nother! for the world, whih seems To lie efore us like lnd of drems, So vrious, so eutiful, so new, Hth relly neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor ertitude, nor pee, nor help for pin; And we re here s on drkling plin Swept with onfused lrms of struggle nd flight, Where ignornt rmies lsh y night. The rhyme sheme of the first four lines is lmost the sme s the next five lines; the only differene is the ddition of the fifth line. This similrity divides the stnz in hlf, nd the differene in rhymes orresponds to the differene of the ides in the two hlves. Free Verse One sometimes puzzling form of poetry is free verse. It is puzzling euse sometimes it is hrd to see struturl elements in it. The first prtitioner of free verse in modern times ws Wlt Whitmn (in the d d edition of Leves of Grss). Mny people, when they sw Whitmn's poetry for the first time, wondered if this ws relly poetry. They sked why ny "prose" writings ould not e rrnged into lines of vrying lengths nd e lled poetry. Sine Whitmn's time, mny poets hve written in free verse, nd there is one very well known nteedent to Whitmn's free verse: the Bile. Herew poetry hs its own omplited system of rhythms nd sound ssoitions, ut when it is trnslted into English it omes out s free verse. Here is well-known exmple (from the 1611 King Jmes trnsltion): The Lord is my shepherd; I shll not wnt. He mketh me to lie down in green pstures; he ledeth me eside the still wters. He restoreth my soul; he ledeth me in the pths of righteousness for his nme's ske. Ye, though I wlk through the vlley of the shdow of deth, I will fer no evil, for thou rt with me; thy rod nd thy stff they omfort me. Thou prepres! tle efore me in the presene of mine enemies; thou nointest my hed with oil; my up runneth over. Surely goodness nd mery shll follow me ll the dys of my life, nd I wi ll dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Free verse is "free" in ertin wys. It voids strit dherene to metril ptterns nd to fixed line lengths. But it is not entirely "free," for it uses other wys of reting rhythm nd sound ptterns. First, it often uses the sound qulities of words to rete ssoitions within words-ssonne, llitertion, internl rhyme, nd so forth. Seond, it retes rhythm y repeting phrses tht hve the sme synttil struture. See the Twenty-third Pslm, for exmple: "He mketh me," "he ledeth me," "he restoreth my soul," "he ledeth me." A more ltnt exmple is the "out of' phrses in the first setion of Whitmn's "Out of the Crdle Endlessly Roking'': Out of the rd le endlessly roking, Out of the moking-ird's throt, the musil shuttle, Out of the Ninth-month midnight. Third, free verse n rete rhythms within lines y reting phrses of out equl length. And finlly, free verse n vry lines meningfully.

11 110 HOW TO ANALYZE POETRY Whitmn, for exmple, will sometimes hve series of long lines nd then one very short line tht omments pertly on the preeding lines or resolves tension within them. Questions out free verse Questions out free-verse poetry, then, should e similr to questions out ny poetry. Wht struturl devies-divisions within the poem, line length, repeted synttil units-does the poet use nd how do they omplement the poet's mening? Wht ptterns of imgery-desriptive nd figurtive-does the poet use? Wht sound devies does the poet weve into the poem? Why does the poet hoose the words he or she does? Who is the speker, nd to wht sitution is the speker responding? SYMBOLISM Poets frequently use symolism euse, mong other resons, symols re highly suggestive yet n e estlished in just few words. As we sid in hpter 4, symol is n ojet-usully physil ojet- t re resents n strt ide or ides. The most powerful symols re those t 0 not extly speify e ides they represent. An exmple of symol in poetry ours in the Twenty-third Pslm, shown previously. The poem egins with metphor: God is like shepherd nd I (the speker) m like one of his sheep; just s shepherd tkes re of his sheep, so will God tke re of me. But the poem shifts from metphor to symol with phrses like "green pstures," "still wters," nd prtiulrly "the vlley of the shdow of deth." The menings of "green pstures" (nourishment, seurity, ese) nd "still wters" (pee, sustenne, lm) re firly esy to sertin. But the mening of "the vlley of the shdow of deth" is more diffiult. It does not seem to men just deth, ut life experiene-perhps psyhologil or spiritul-tht is somehow relted to deth (the "shdow'' of deth) nd tht we must journey through it (through the "vlley''). Perhps the indefiniteness of this phrse, omined with its ominous overtones, explins the grip it hs hd on people's imgintions for genertions. Another exmple of symol in poetry is Willim Blke's "The Sik Rose" ( 1794) : SYMBOLISM THE SICK ROSE WILLIAM BLAKE 0 Rose, thou rt sik The invisile worm Tht flies in the night In the howling storm Hs found out thy ed Of rimson joy, And his drk seret love Does thy life destroy. This poem n possily e red s literl tretment of rel rose eset y some rel inset tht preys on roses. But Blke proly mens for the rose, the worm, nd the tion of the worm to e tken symolilly. For one thing, the poem ours in Blke's olletion of poems Songs of Experiene, suggesting tht it represents the ominous spets of life, prtiulrly humn life. For nother, muh of the poem mkes little sense unless it n e tken symolilly: the "howling storm," the ed of "rimson joy," the worm's "drk seret love," for exmple. Wht, then, do these things represent? One interpretive pproh would e to onsider word menings tht Blke, who red widely in symoli Christin literture, my hve hd in mind. The rhi mening of "worm" is drgon, whih in Christin romne represented evil nd hrks k to the devil's pperne to Eve s snke. Also in Christin romne, the rose represented femle euty nd purity, nd sometimes it represented the Virgin Mry. Blke seems, then, to e symolizing the destrution of purity y evil. The poem lso proly hs sexul implitions, sine, for exmple, the worm ( phlli imge) omes t "night" to the rose's "ed." In generl, the poem my represent the destrution of ll erthly helth, innoene, nd euty y mysterious fores. The point is tht lthough we get the drift of Blke's mening, we do not know g-eisely wht the symoli equivlents re. Yet the symols re presented so sensuously nd the tion so drmtilly tht ~ poem grips us with mesmerizing power. ~ When you red poetry, e lert for symols, ut onvine yourself ertinly your reder tht the ojets you lim to e symols were mtended s suh y the uthor. Rememer tht not every ojet in poem is symol. Wht, then, re the symols in the poem you re 111