Aim: How do poetic elements create a thematic effect over the course of a poem?
Today’s Do Now was to brainstorm ideas for what comes to mind when we think of the word “identity”. I wrote the following: oneself, documents, fingerprints, the reason for your actions, culture, voice.
During the class discussion, my classmates brought up the following words
Vincent - fingerprint; Vallerie - culture; Fiona - individuality; Ayah - meaning; Jerry - traits; Eddie - personality; Will - voice; Asdaq - memories; Justin - occupation; Paula - cognition; Andy - experiences
We then learned about multiple poetic devices, mostly sound devices. These include:
Cacophony: Words producing a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds.
Euphony: The opposite of cacophony, producing soothing and pleasant tones.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53zWcf9zJVU
Rhythm:the pattern of stressed syllables and unstressed syllables in a poem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqhPp-ptoJA
Extended metaphors: Metaphors drawn out and developed among multiple sections of a poem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3nDkXKDp0Y
We then focused more into the last one, with two examples of extended metaphors provided being in two poems.
As You Like It by William Shakespeare:
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.”
and Habitation by Margaret Atwood:
“Marriage is not / a house or even a tent / it is before that, and colder: / the edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert / the unpainted stairs / at the back where we squat / outside, eating popcorn / the edge of the receding glacier / where painfully and with wonder / at having survived even
this far / we are learning to make fire”
As You Like It is an example of a shorter extended metaphor, where Shakespeare introduces the concept of the world being akin to a stage, and then elaborating on that in the next line.
Habitation is an example of a longer extended metaphor, stretching over several stanzas and across the entire poem. She explains using other metaphors, like “Marriage is not a house or even a tent” to get the point across that marriage is not stable at first, is tough, but helps the couple learn new things about themselves and each other.
Extended metaphors have several uses, with the main being to allow the writer to compare two things or entities or ideas in greater detail than a regular simile or metaphor. This also allows for the writer to project this comparison more intensely than a single metaphor could. Extended metaphors are usually employed in prose and poetry to make a more specific impression of an idea in the reader’s mind.
We then had a small review and dove deeper into the concept of theme. We are usually taught in earlier grades that a theme is the main idea of a text, which is true. However, a theme is rarely ever a single simple phrase or idea. Theme is the meaning of a work; a central idea, point, and underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly; critical belief about life that the author is trying to convey. It will usually take a sentence or two to properly state.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIuKNVny9cM
We then had to annotate the poem Identity by Julio Noboa Polanco and had to work out with our teams what extended metaphors were established for the flower and the weed in the poem. Our team came up with the following:
The flower: Easy, pompous life that ends always in the same way. They are cemented in one place and is sought after by greedy humans wanting the beauty in their hands.
The weed: Weeds may not look dazzling from the outside but they have liberty. They are exposed to the elements and experience the thrills of the outside world rather than being confined to a pot or fertile valley.
After this, we were tasked with completing a TWIST (Tone, Word choice, Imagery, Style, Theme) diagram with our groups for the poem, and thereafter complete an interpretive statement on the poem. Our group’s work can be found below:
This ended our lesson on poetic elements, and the poem Identity.
Reflection:
We learned about multiple poetic devices including euphony and cacophony, rhythm, and extended metaphor. We dove deeper into the concept of extended metaphor, as it is a more complex concept by nature. We learned these poetic devices in order to write more meaningful poetry, even with the relatively new concept of free verse poetry. Without reliance on rhyme or a set structure, we had to learn to play around and better understand and use the meanings and sounds behind words.
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