—Select ONE poem from Week 2 and perform each of the following brief exercises on it:
- Scansion: Gloss a 5-line section of the poem. Type out lines and paraphrase in your words next to each line, then indicate any relevant scansion marks or notes. (See handout on Scansion.)
- Diction: Identify the most important word in the poem (research etymology in OED), and discuss its significance to the poem as a whole.
- Imagery: Select 1 image, metaphor, analogy, figure, or scheme that you find prominent; quote the line in which it occurs, or which alludes to it. Explain why you find it resonant to the overall meaning of the poem.
- Syntax: Identify the most important line in the poem, and explain why it is so. Also: Is anything happening with the syntax of this line as it impacts your reading of the poem?
- Title: Address the significance of the title.
- Synesthesia: If the poem were a color, what would it be / why? If the poem were set to a musical score, for which instrument would it be written / why?
- Content/Form Relationship: What is the central idea of this poem, and how does the form/shape/structure of the poem convey this? (Try not to be redundant here; really think about the relationship of form and content, of form and meaning.)
- Context: Research the context in which this poem was published: time period, literary association or movement (ie. Romanticism), and any important info on the author. Take notes if anything seems integral to understanding the poem; though I urge you to know these details when writing about a text, you will not necessarily address them in a close-reading essay, unless they impact your particular reading in a specific way.
- Question: Write down 1 question that you think would make for a unique, compelling scholarly discussion of the poem. Make sure your question anticipates a discussion not only about what the poem means, but how the poem is creating meaning (what it’s doing), as well as the relationship of content & form, and why putting a lens on this matters. (Remember the construction of a scholarly discussion as: what/how/why (so what?).)
NOTE: All responses (unless specified) should be a couple sentences; brief but detailed. Avoid generalizing, summarizing, or obviousness. Resist the urge to read secondary material; I want to see how you’re making sense of this poem on your own terms. Feel free to select the poem you intend to write on for Essay 1, as this will help you really dig into it as you begin to formulate a viable thesis. However, you do not need to be decided about which poem you’ll write on for Essay 1, and you may even change your mind after doing these exercises, which is ok.
Post by Noon Tuesday 2/19.