Review Poetry Analysis

Objectives: Students will be able to analyze how Walcott uses poetic devices to convey the significance of the experience.

Resources: AP Lit Term Flashcards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.4
    Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5
    Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1
    Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2
    Write explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

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Text: Poem “XIV by Derek Walcott
Materials: copies of the poem, AP Essay rubric, and TPCASTT poetry analysis tool; poster papers and markers
Differentiation: Students select details from the poem based on their individual reading experience and understanding of the text. They are also given various options to respond to the poem depending on their personal level of challenges or strengths. Students can raise their own questions to probe into the implied meaning of the poem. They are provided with TPCASTT and the Method as tools to help them analyze the poem.
Grouping Rationale: Students will be grouped based on personal choice with consideration of individual learning needs, styles, talents and personality to maximize their productivity.

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Do Now: How do we read closely? Name some strategies.

Mini Lesson: What’s the purpose of your reading this poem? Can you phrase it in a question?

The class is divided into 4 groups of 5. Within the small group, students will share their responses to each question and build their understanding on each other’s response.

  • For the 1st reading, we will use Notice & Focus close reading strategy to single out words or phrases that are most interesting, strange and revealing.
  • For the 2nd reading, students go over the details they have noticed and rank them. Rank the top 5 details. What pattern did you notice of the top five details?( The Method)
    • What repeats? Any particular imagery or diction? What motif does the repetition suggest?
    • What is opposed to what (binaries)? How do two lines indicate a shift?
    • What doesn’t fit (anomaly)?

Based on the “Notice and Focus” activity, what part of the poem stands out the most to you? What does it suggest about the meaning of the poem? Use evidence to support your claim.

Independent Practice and Assessment

Now each group will  pick a topic for their group discussion of a specific literary technique. Each group will analyze how the poet uses a specific device to convey the significance of the experience. Students will have 10 minutes complete the group task by writing down their responses on a poster paper.

The four groups are:

  1. Diction:  Does the poet use “street talk” or slang, formal English, foreign language phrases, or jargon? Does the poet make up words or use allusion? Does he use descriptive or sensory details( synersthesia)?
  2. Imagery
  3. Structure ( How do we analyze structure of a poem?)
  4. alliteration

Structure: How is the poem organized? How is it divided up? Are there individual stanzas or numbered sections? What does each section or stanza discuss? How are the sections or stanzas related to each other? (Poems don’t usually jump around randomly; the poet probably has some sort of organization in mind, like steps in an argument, movement in time, changes in location or viewpoint, or switches in mood.) If there are no formal divisions, try breaking down the poem sentence by sentence, or line by line. The poet’s thinking process may not be absolutely logical, but there is probably an emotional link between ideas. For example, you might ask a friend to pass mustard for a hotdog and suddenly be reminded of a summer romance and a special picnic. It doesn’t look rational from the outside, but it makes emotional sense. A very controlled structure may tell you a lot about the poet’s attitude toward the subject. Is it a very formal topic? Is the poet trying to get a grip on something chaotic? A freer poetic form is also worth examining. What is appropriate or revealing about the lack of structure?

Sprung rhythm (accentual verse,)is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech. It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables.[1] The British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins claimed to have discovered this previously unnamed poetic rhythm in the natural patterns of English in folk songs, spoken poetry, Shakespeare, Milton, et al. He used diacritical marks on syllables to indicate which should be drawn out (acute e.g. á ) and which uttered quickly (grave, e.g., è).-cited from wikipedia

SOUND AND RHYTHM Poetry is rooted in music. You may have learned to scan poetry-to break it into accented/unaccented syllables and feet per line. There are different types of meter, like 3 iambic pentameter, which is a 5-beat line with alternating unaccented and accented syllables. You can use a glossary of literary terms to find a list of the major types of meter. Not all poems, however, will have a strict meter. What is important is to listen to the rhythm and the way it affects the meaning of the poem. Just like with music, you can tell if a poem is sad or happy if you listen carefully to the rhythm. Also, heavily stressed or repeated words give you a clue to the overall meaning of the poem. Does the poem use “special effects” to get your attention? Some words take time to pronounce and slow the reader down (ex. “the ploughman homeward plods his weary way” echoes the slow plodding pace). Other words can hurry the reader along (ex. “run the rapids”). If you are unfamiliar with the terms alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia, you can look them up and see if they apply to your poem-but naming them is less important than experiencing their effect on the work you are examining. Does your poem rhyme? Is there a definite rhyme scheme (pattern of rhymes)? How does this scheme affect your response to the poem? Is it humorous? Monotonous? Childish like a nursery rhyme? Are there internal rhymes (rhymes within the lines instead of at the ends)? If you read the poem aloud, do you hear the rhymes? (They could be there without being emphasized.) How does the use of rhyme add to the meaning? Certain poetic forms or structures are supposed to follow specific “rules” of rhyme and meter (ex. sonnets or villanelles). If you are studying a poem of this type, ask yourself if the poet followed the rules or broke them-and why. Different parts of a poem may have different sounds; different voices may be speaking, for example. There are lots of possibilities. No matter what, though, the sound should enforce the meaning.

Imagery: Look for the concrete pictures, or images, the poet has drawn. Consider why these particular things have been chosen. If an owl is described, does that set up a mood, or a time of day? If a morning is called “misty”, what specific effects does that have? Are certain patterns built up, clusters of words that have similar connotations? For example, descriptions of buds on trees, lambs, and children are all pointing toward a theme involving spring, youth and new birth.

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( Five Analytical Steps) For each group, students will-

  • select a few examples of a specific device
  • point out a pattern or patterns of the cited evidence
  • explain what the text seems to ‘say”
  • analyze what deeper meaning the text suggests and why
  • make a claim about the significance of experience.

Afterwards, students will take additional 6 minutes to do a gallery walk and make comments on other groups’ work.

(5 minutes) Assessment

Select a specific device from the list and write a well-developed paragraph analyzing how the author uses the device to reveal the significance of experience. Be sure to use textual evidence to support your claim.

Homework: Write an analysis in which you discuss how Walcott the significance of the experience. You may consider author’s use of  diction, alliteration, structure  or  imagery for the  analysis.

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