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Understanding Poetry: Step 4
So you’ve determined that you’re reading a sense poem in which the author is trying to convey some meaning in the traditional sense of communicating to you in sentences.
Now, why does the poet turn the line at that point, whether or not the sentence has ended?
STEP 4: Is it a verse or free verse poem?
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verse |vərs|
noun
writing arranged with a metrical rhythm, typically having a rhyme : a lament in verse | [as adj. ] verse drama.
• a group of lines that form a unit in a poem or song; a stanza : the second verse.
• each of the short numbered divisions of a chapter in the Bible or other scripture.
• a versicle.
• archaic: a line of poetry.
• a passage in an anthem for a soloist or a small group of voices.
verb [ intrans. ] archaic
speak in or compose verse; versify.
DERIVATIVES
verse•let |-lət| noun
ORIGIN Old English fers, from Latin versus ‘a turn of the plow, a furrow, a line of writing,’ from vertere ‘to turn’ ; reinforced in Middle English by Old French vers, from Latin versus.
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Verse comes from the literal turning of the plow or pen, and verse is guided largely by meter, which is measured language.
First we need to review some elements of speech, for poetry in ancient times was music without instruments, in which the voice provided the rhythm.
A syllable is a vowel sound usually conjoined with a consonant.
A vowel is an open vocal-tract sound,
a consonant is a closed vocal-tract sound.
(More on these later. The definitions are simplifications, I know, but bear in mind that I teach a clear review of what should be known – establishing foundation – and then I build upward in complexity to the student’s zone of proximal development.)
Most students get this: ask “How many syllables in ‘hippopotamus’?”
“Hi po pah tah mus – five!”
As an introduction to the “curve balls” of other languages – and to highlight why the word usually shows up so often in my definitions – I talk briefly about Hawaiian observations of the different nature of pyroclastic flow and introduce aa:
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aa |ˈäˌä|
noun Geology
basaltic lava forming very rough jagged masses with a light frothy texture. Often contrasted with pahoehoe .
ORIGIN mid 19th cent.: from Hawaiian ’a-‘a.
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Only a brief diversion: Welsh poetry comes much later.
So, how many syllables in “Johnny kicked the ball”?
Five. Good. And at this point you are speaking the lines, right? Because poetry is meant to be spoken.
(How many of you have read a poem over and over but have never spoken it? The act of forming the sound informs the meaning. Informs your being.)
How many syllables in “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”
Good.
And in “Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”
Now might be a good time to show how that excellent tool the dictionary can guide us:
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temperate |ˈtemp(ə)rət|
adjective
1 of, relating to, or denoting a region or climate characterized by mild temperatures.
2 showing moderation or self-restraint : Charles was temperate in his consumption of both food and drink.
DERIVATIVES
tem•per•ate•ly adverb
tem•per•ate•ness noun
ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [not affected by passion or emotion] ): from Latin temperatus ‘mingled, restrained,’ from the verb temperare.
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And in “Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May”?
Ten and ten and ten; a pattern. A measurement. Meter.
And in verse, the sentence is most often turned prematurely to fit the meter.
Why meter? Because rhythm is pleasing, and may help us to remember the history and lore and science of our people in the centuries of oral tradition that thrived before the letter and the stylus.
If it’s a free verse poem, well, that’s another story.
Ancora imparo
If you feel that I can further simplify my teaching, or you’d like further explanation, or you notice I’ve made a mistake, please comment.
Like Chaucer’s Clerk, I hope the same will be said of me:
And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.
Understanding Poetry: Steps 1 through 3
Step 1: Understand what a sentence is and the ways in which a sentence ends or is incomplete.
(You’d think this is obvious, but I can’t tell you how many readers get hung up on this step.)
Step 2: Realize that in poetry, the sentence may be part of a line, the whole line, more than a line, and perhaps several lines.
If the sentence stops within the line, this is called caesura.
End stop means the sentence ends at the line’s conclusion.
If the sentence goes on despite the line ending, this is called run on or enjambment.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Many poets practice the convention of capitalizing the first letter of each line regardless of whether this begins a new sentence. In my opinion, this worst of grammatical conventions confuses so many young readers. Be aware that in poetry capitalization does not necessarily indicate a new thought has begun.
Step 3: Apprehend whether the poem is a sense or a non-sense poem. (sic)
A sense poem is attempting to convey meaning to you in a more-or-less conventional form, such as a narrative or exposition. More on this later.
A non-sense poem may hint at sentences, but is not understandable in a conventional sense. A non-sense poem might play on shape or sound or an enigmatic hint at clear meaning.
Some examples of non-sense:
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r |
||
| E.E. Cummings | ||
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r who a)s w(e loo)k upnowgath PPEGORHRASS eringint(o- aThe):l eA !p: S a (r rIvInG .gRrEaPsPhOs) to rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly ,grasshopper; |
||
Cummings is using the placement of letters to convey the skittish, wild hopping of the insect, but there is no sentence to this. We don’t attempt to elicit a meaning from this in the usual way. There is no message or moral.
Some poems hint at sentence structure, but again, sense does not appear to be the poet’s goal. Here, Louis Zukofsky translates Catullus not to bring the meaning into English, but to capture the song-like quality of the original Latin:
Catullus
Poem 41
Ameana pulling, a foot touted high,
touched me for all of ten thousand, and popped scut
is the tour-pickled, low-puling long nosed, ah
decocted heiress of the milked Formiani.
Propinquity, quick buss this fuel, cure eye,
amigos, medicos, call convocations:
no nest, she is nuts, pulls her neck, rogue harried,
what lies sit solid ice imagine o some.
As a rule, AP students are not likely to see non-sense poems as any major part of the examination. This doesn’t mean unconventional poetry has no worth and is to be glossed over: it means you apply a different lens.
Remember, the essential question is “What diction/tone/figures of speech does the author use to convey meaning?” We will spend many hours on this.
You’re missing the point: Long-term potentiation
I get steamed when colleagues insist that “the information is all on the student’s smart phone: why do we teach just the information?” I get the point. But.
When you fall down and hurt yourself, I run up to you and I start the primary assessment. When that is complete, I start a secondary assessment. If there are more of you hurt, I start to triage.
What I am not doing is looking things up on my smartphone. You get me?
What are the basics that need to be in the long-term memory?
(I am dismayed by the amount of high school seniors who can neither write a sentence, nor define a sentence, nor understand a sentence: how the hell did they make it to my threshold?)
The Sentence: The thought completes and ends.
Sentence: A complete thought, usually sayable in one breath.
When you say a sentence, it is of four purposes:
Declarative asserts truth or falsehood.
Interrogative asks for truth or falsehood.
Imperative commands or requests.
Optative wishes for the non-existent.
(Some argue that the exclamatory is a purpose, but note that you can speak any of the sentences plainly or with force.)
The sentence ends in three ways:
Period. Question mark? Exclamation mark!
(In this age of slapping down punctuations with no regard for rules, do not think this is an unnecessary review.)
The sentence is left incomplete in two ways:
The long dash interrupts thought.
The ellipses leaves the thought purposefully.
If you would like, you can teach this with two fists raised, and make one hand the sentence purpose/type, and the other hand the ways to end the sentence. Five and five. See it?
Repetitio est mater studiorum
Repetition is the mother of learning.
Teaching philosophy: Simplify, memorize, apply.
I come from a background of training in organizations in which one is called upon to recall information and complete tasks during stressful conditions. The EMT uses acronyms and abbreviations such as AVPU and APAIL in order to run through a memorized checklist and efficiently classify the patient’s condition. The infantry soldier likewise uses training standards such as SPORTS to clear a weapons stoppage under fire.
In English, I try to simplify the processes and definitions into memorizable units, which I ask the students to master by rote. Then we apply.
Repetitio est mater studiorum: Repetition is the mother of learning.
(In the classroom, I demonstrate the techniques and standards as they are taught, adding the elements of the physical, the choreography of it: this is one reason why the teacher and the classroom are crucial, and simply reading my blog is an incomplete experience.)
An abundance of poetic forms
Here’s a list of poetry type by ethnicity/nationality.
These are described in excellent book Shapes of Our Singing by Robin Skelton. The purpose of this post is to support the fact that almost every culture has a rich tradition of poetics.
If you know of another form, please comment.
Anglo-Saxon
Alliterative verse a la Eduard Sievers
Hazaj
Mutaquarib
Qasidah in the Basit
Rajaz
Sari
Tawil
Urjuzah
Wafir
Payar
Tripadi
Octosyllabic couplets
Merriam-Webster online
Another solid choice.
The editor videos can be quite interesting.
The Oxford, online
My dictionary of choice is the Oxford English Dictionary, but the official dictionary fills a bookcase — but is now out of print. This online version is ad-heavy, but handy.
(Apple users have a version of the dictionary in their dock.)
Kingsley Andersen 