BEFORE THE BIG NIGHT When going out on a good old-fashioned date, you usually know a little bit about the person already name, approximate age, probably a mutual friend. Even if you haven t met, you have probably at least texted. Your real job on a date is to try to figure out if you like this person enough to go on yet another date. You have to chat, have an activity like a dinner or a movie or a walk or a drive, and soon you ll understand the other person much better than you did before you started. Or at least you ll know you have to get through this encounter and then move on with your life. Walking into your AP testing date with a poem for the AP English Literature and Composition test works the same way. You already know a lot about poetry, so when you encounter a new poem, your prior knowledge lets you figure out what you need to know to figure out this new date in front of you. Important: on a date, it s best to not talk about yourself all the time but instead to talk about the other person. To do so, you should use the terms appropriate to the other person sort of like asking that person questions based on what you know already. So learn the terms to use. Here are the terms my students will know well prior to the AP exam date: FIGURES OF SPEECH: simile, metaphor, personification, synecdoche, metonymy, symbol, allegory, overstatement, understatement, antithesis, apostrophe, dramatic irony, irony of situation, verbal irony, paradox, oxymoron STANZA FORMS: couplet, triplet, quatrain, sestet, septet, octave, heroic couplet, limerick, ballad stanza, sonnet (English and Italian), villanelle, elegy, ode, lyric, narrative VERSE FORMS: rhymed verse, blank verse, free verse SOUND: METER: OTHER: rhyme, slant rhyme, end rhyme, internal rhyme, masculine rhyme, feminine rhyme, triple rhyme, rhyme scheme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, consonance, refrain, repetition meter, foot, iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic, spondaic, pyrrhic, monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter, hexameter, heptameter, octometer, stressed, unstressed, scan, accent allusion, anachronism, anecdote, antecedent, aphorism, archetype, conceit, connotation, denotation, enjambment, imagery, parable, parody, pastoral, pun, satire Remember, the most IMPORTANT time is the time you spend together. Just showing off what you already knew is less impressive than live reactions to who s in front of you. This also applies to poetry essays. While it s impressive to cite poetic terminology, and you should do so, you should do so ONLY in service to your argument as a way to enhance and enliven what you are trying to convince the reader. Page 1
FIRST IMPRESSIONS So you meet in person for the first time. Before you even say anything, admit it. You re checking em out. You re giving that person a look over. Do the same with poetry. When you first face a poem, before you read the prompt or the poem, just look at what s in front of you. Is it in multiple stanzas or a single stanza? Is end rhyme apparent? If so, does it seem to be in a regular pattern? Are there repeated lines? What s the title make you think about when you first read it? I encourage you to jot down quick notes on the side once you ve given it a look over what are the first impressions you get based on looks alone? These impressions may change or deepen once you get to know the poem, but approaching a poem fresh and unbiased can only happen once, so you should try to get an idea of what the store looks like before you start shopping. FIRST DATE Now it s time to read the poem. I would do this before you read the prompt. Why? Because you ll read the poem again in a moment, but trying to comprehend the poem as a whole is easier before you start trying to dissect it as Billy Collins writes, to beat it with a rubber hose. Once you ve read the poem, try to figure out what it s arguing. Any piece of literature is in essence an author s argument. If you can find the intended thesis and put yourself in the author s mind, you can get the intended meaning (in fiction and drama, the theme) of the poem much faster what is the author trying to prove? Most AP Lit test questions ask you to explain how the author achieved an effect or made a commentary basically to explain how the poet used the tools of poetry to convey meaning. If you can jump on the big picture first get an idea what the argument is you ll be much better at breaking down the how-tos. Think of it like trying to see if your date is crazy or not. That s usually a good thing to do right away. Once you have that big picture decided, you can try to figure out if the match is a good one and what you think about this person by looking at the details you get to know over subsequent dates. *Note: many of you have been coached to read the prompt or test questions first before you read a passage over which you will be tested. There is nothing wrong with this approach, and I think it s wise for regular prose. But poetry is different. Due to the figurative nature of the genre, multiple readings make sense, and getting the big idea first makes those readings more valuable and time efficient. Think of it like the difference between a middle school date and dating in the adult world. They re not the same. Approaching different genres of literature the same way on tests doesn t make sense either. Page 2
SECOND DATE This is where you read the poem again. Before you do, read through the prompt and underline the tasks you face. You need to know what you re looking for, and since you already get the general idea, this will be much simpler. It s like the questions you have unanswered after that first date. You re walking in with an agenda, and you will try to find out that info as the time together progresses. If you re asked to comment on specific techniques a poet uses, keep those in mind and try to mark them as you go. And be on the lookout for... THE SHIFT. Most people have one. And most people, at some point when you re getting to know them, will relax enough (or mistakenly lower their guard) to let you see something surprising about themselves. If it s a healthy surprise, it can often be the intriguing bit that makes you fall in love. It can also be the creepy information that sends you running toward restraining orders and unlisted phone numbers. But the shift is probably there. It s your job to find it. Poetry is the same. Most poems have a major shift within them, and finding that shift will deepen your understanding of what the author s argument probably is. Shifts can be changes in style, in tone, in narrative plot, in mood just a big change that happens somewhere. The insights you gain from that shift should reinforce your argument or lead you to one that s even stronger than your first impression. Keep your eyes and ears open. The sooner you find the shift and see if you can live with it and what you thought you had created as your relationship with that poem, the better off you ll be. DECISION TIME Now that you ve read the poem a couple of times and have ideas about what makes it tick, it s time to go steady or go home. Obviously, on your date with the College Board or with an evaluated assignment, it s a prearranged marriage, and it s time to make it exclusive. If you re dating, at this point you ll probably make your connection a bit more serious now or move on after these first couple of dates. So you need to write the essay. How do you do that? Page 3
THE BIG DATE THE AP TESTING DATE! Over the years, my students and I have developed a go-to approach to AP Lit essays written under timed conditions. We use it for all three types of lit questions, and it is a good have in your pocket method of approaching timed literature analysis. While this outline is not required to get a good score nor is it the only way to approach the essays, it does work. If you don t have a better idea, use this. I. Introduction: General statement or truth about life (big idea) Narrower statement/more specific statement about that topic Tie in the literature you re writing about to that idea Work in the answer to the question with a thesis that previews points Say why it matters to the general statement you started with (optional) MAKE SURE IN YOUR TRANSITION THAT BEGINS EACH POINT YOU SOMEHOW REFER BACK TO YOUR THESIS. DO NOT RESTATE POINTS IN THE SAME LANGUAGE YOU USED IN YOUR POINT PREVIEW. II. Point 1 Two chunks (claim, data, warrant) III. Point 2 Two chunks (claim, data, warrant) IV. Point 3 Two chunks (claim, data, warrant) V. Conclusion Restate your points in an interesting way NO REPEATING OF LANGUAGE. Add in a new idea or thought or nugget of knowledge. Tie back to what you started with make it all relevant with the original idea to conclude. As time allows, review your essay for surface errors and to enhance vocabulary. I hope you have a great time on your date. Page 4
Prompt: How does Millay use diction and syntax to emphasize the poem s meaning? clxxi Edna St. Vincent Millay Read history: thus learn how small a space You may inhabit, nor inhabit long In crowding Cosmos--in that confined place Work boldly; build your flimsy barriers strong; Turn round and round and, make warm your nest; among The other hunting beasts, keep heart and face,-- Not to betray the doomed and splendid race You are so proud of, to which you belong. For trouble comes to all of us: the rat Has courage, in adversity, to fight; But what a shining animal is man, Who knows, when pain subsides, that is not that, For worse than that must follow--yet can write Music; can laugh; play tennis; even plan. Page 5
Prompt: How does Williams construct a poem that reinforces his message? The Book Miller Williams I held it in my hands while he told the story. He had found it in a fallen bunker, a book for notes with all the pages blank. He took it to keep for a sketchbook and diary. He learned years later, when he showed the book to an old bookbinder, who paled, and stepped back a long step and told him what he held, what he had laid the days of his life in. It s bound, the binder said, in human skin. I stood turning it over in my hands, turning it in my head. Human skin. What child did this skin fit? What man, what woman? Dragged still full of its flesh from what dream? Who took it off the meat? Some other one who stayed alive by knowing how to do this? I stared at the changing book and a horror grew, I stared and a horror grew, which was, which is, how beautiful it was until I knew. Page 6
Prompt: How does Keats construct a poem that reinforces his message? When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be John Keats When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain; When I behold, upon the night s starred face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And feel that I may never live to trace Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; And when I feel, fair creature of an hour! That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of reflecting love! then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. Page 7
Prompt: How does Cummings craft his poem to express emotion? somewhere i have never traveled e. e. cummings somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose or if you wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility :whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands Page 8