Poetry Unit

| Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Resources |World of Expression Competition|Poetry.com|Read other Poems for Enjoyment |

Lesson 1 :Using Allusions in Poetry- Writing

Overview: Allusion in poetry can take many forms and surface in many guises. Some allusions are more explicit than others, which may be camouflaged or only hinted at. Moreover, some poets favor a richly allusion style in which the reader's knowledge of history, mythology, philosophy, religion, art, economics, and other subjects is heavily taxed. Two 20th-century American poets who consistently make such allusive demands are T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.

Aim: What specific meanings do the allusions suggest?

Materials: Poem

"Mock on, Mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau" by William Blake

Mock on, mock on, Voltaire, Rousseau:
Mock on, mock on: ‘tis all in vain!
You throw the sand against the wind,
And the wind blows it back again.

And every sand becomes a Gem,
Reflected in the beam divine;
Blown back they blind the mocking Eye,
But still in Israel’s paths they shine.

The Atoms of Democritus
And the Newton’s Particles of Light
Are sands upon the Red Sea shore,
Where Israel’s tents do shine so bright.

Motivational Activities:
In order for us to understand William Blake's poem, we need to find out what each historical figure stands for. Use google.com to find out the major accomplishment each individual achieved in history:

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Voltaire,

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 Rousseau

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Democritus

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Newton

What Israel stand for?

Do Now: In your journal, describe how you  feel about religious faith and spiritual vision, and the power and importance of human reason.

Procedure:

  1. Read the poem out loud.

  2. What's the rhyming scheme of the poem?

  3. How does William Blake use allusions to make his point?

  4. What point is he trying to make in this poem?

  5. How effective is the use of allusions in poetry.

Lesson 2

Overview: The first lesson is designed to help students understand how allusions contribute to the meaning of the poem as well as appreciate Poe as a great poet in the history of American Literature.

Objective: The student will

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Read and discuss the poem

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Recall and interpret facts and extend meanings

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Respond to critical opinion about the poem

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Analyze the poem and the use of allusions.

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Discuss the following themes: love and beauty.  

Materials: Poems " To Helen" by Edgar Allen Poe

                          To Helen

       Helen, thy beauty is to me
         Like those Nicean barks of yore,
       That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
         The weary, wayworn wanderer bore
         To his own native shore.

       On desperate seas long wont to roam,
         Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
       Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
         To the glory that was Greece
       And the grandeur that was Rome.

       Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
         How statue-like I see thee stand,
         The agate lamp within thy hand!
       Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
         Are Holy Land!

Procedures and Activities:

  1. Read aloud the poem and try to feel how the rhymes and rhythm affect its mood.

  2. Analyzing and interpreting the poem.

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The first stanza develops a simile for Helen's beauty: it is "like those Nicean barks of yore" that bore the weary wanderer home. What is the effect of this comparison of her beauty to something from the remote past?

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In the second stanza the wanderer comes "home" to two great ages of history and imagines the glory and grandeur of those periods. How does Helen help the speaker accomplish this feat of imagination?

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In stanza 3, Helen is directly present, standing in a window recess in brilliant light. But it is questionable whether this vision brings her closer as a real person. What is the effect of seeing her "statue-like" and holding an "agate lamp"? (In antiquity, lamps made of agate were associated with immortality.)

  1. Literary Concept: Allusion(references to the ancient beliefs or stories)

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What does the title of the poem mean to you? What ancient story could it refer to?

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What words or phrases are direct or indirect references to ancient beliefs and stories? Look up "Naiad"(line 8) and "Psyche"( line 14) in your dictionary. What do these allusions contribute to Helen's meaning in the poem?

Appendix:

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"To Helen" is often praised as a near-perfect statement of the Romantics' idealized love of pure beauty. Poe claimed that the mother of a school friend was the inspiration for Helen. However, the poem is not about any actual woman but about an ideal of beauty that can exist only in the imagination.

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Nicea: a town in Asia Minor near the Trojan War site. Poe may mean "victorious" or " traveling toward an Eden."

Nicean: Many interpretations. Most agree on its musical quality and classical associations.

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Naiads: in classical mythology, nymphs of quite fresh water. "Naiad airs" probably suggest restfulness.

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Psyche: a mortal loved by Cupid, she disobeyed his command not to try to find out who he was. He fled. Eventually reunited with him, she was changed into an immortal who personified " the breath of life, the human spirit or soul."

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Lines 9 & 10 are the most famous lines. Rome and Greece represent the greatest achievement of civilization.

Resourceful URLS:

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http://www.cybercomm.net/~grandpa/gdsindex.html - check out this site and go to "Mythological Chracters" to find the stories associated with the references in the poem" To Helen".

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Or check this site exclusively dedicated to the Greek Mythology http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/PF/greekmyth.html.

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http://www.kusd.edu/schools/bolt/links/ bookmarks_myth.html Greek Mythology Links.

Follow up activities:

bulletDo research on the references used in the poem. What does each mythological character look like in the myth? Synthesize the information you found about these characters and draw a picture or an illustration of the character, "Helen" in the poem.

Read our Tech-Prep poet, Ruby Parks's Poem "Sister Talk" published in America at the Millennium.

Resources: If you could just read a poem each day, imagine what changes could occur in your life, and your thoughts?

bulletTo find the sites of poetry, please go to: www.go2net.com, and type the keyword "poetry" for the search.
bulletTo participate in a poetry contest and become a star, please go to www.poetry.com to submit your poems.
bulletNeed a new  poetry.jpg (1783 bytes) to write a poem? Please go to the Poets Online Site.
bulletCheck out the online magazine Slate at www.slate.com to discover hundreds of references of poems, criticism, and essays.
bulletThe www.poems.com site contains news about poetry, current reviews, awards, and interviews. Each day there will a new poem posted.
bulletThe www.poets.org site  is the Academy of American Poets. Select your favorite American poet and try to get in touch with the poet himself.
bulletThe www.poets.com  site is the International Library of Poetry where you can read poems written by poets from all over the world.
bulletGo to the Poets and Writers  for information about getting in touch with writers and poets, and info of how to get your work published.
bulletOpen the Poetry Magazine to read each week's featured poet.
bulletFor a Creative Writing Web site and interests in the participation in the the 2000 literary arts contest, through which the winner's poem will be filmed by film makers and other organizations, go the Web Del Sol site.
bulletGreat Books online site by Columbia University provides anthologies of different poets' work.
bulletVisit NY State Writers Institute.
bulletRead the free online The Atlantic Monthly, the academic magazine for the studies of poetry and fiction as well as many other academic issues.

Read More Poems

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today,
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

The age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
             Robert Herrick, 1591-1674

Symphony in Yellow
An omnibus across the bridge
Crawls like a yellow butterfly,
And, here and there, a passer-by
Shows like a little restless midge.

Big barges full of yellow hay
Are moored against the shadowy wharf,
And like a yellow silken scarf,
The thick fog hangs along the quay.

The yellow leaves begin to fade
And flutter from the Temple elms,
And at my feet the pale green Thames
Lies like a rod of rippled jade.
               Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900

Identify the rhyme scheme in the following poem:
 
    If We Must Die
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Marking their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
                                    Claude McKay, 1889-1948(Sonnet)
 
On My First Son(Couplet)
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy:
Seven years thou wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O could I lose all father now! For why
Will man lament the state he should envy,
To have so soon ’scaped world’s and flesh’s rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, Here doth lie
Ben Jonhson his best piece of poetry.
For whose sake henceforth his vows be such
As what he loves may never like too much.
                               Ben Jonhson, 1572-1637
 

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
                                                      Walt Whitman, 1819-1892(Free Verse)