Poetry Is Dead. Does Anybody Really Care? - Mr. Valentin's Web

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Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 1
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin
Poetry Is Dead. Does Anybody Really Care?
If you're like me, untangling symbol and allusion seems as irrelevant now as it did in high school
by Bruce Wexler, Newsweek, May 5, 2003

It is difficult to imagine a world without movies, speeches, and the relatively small number of name-
plays, novels and music, but a world without poems brand, living American poets died or faded from view.
doesn't have to be imagined. I find it disturbing that no By the '90s, it was all over. If you doubt this
one I know has cracked open a book of poetry in decades statement, consider that poetry is the only art form where
and that I, who once spent countless hours reading the number of people creating it is far greater than the
contemporary poets like Lowell and Berryman, can no number of people appreciating it. Anyone can write a
longer even name a living poet. All this started to bother bad poem. To appreciate a good one, though, takes
me when heiress Ruth Lilly made an unprecedented knowledge and commitment. As a society, we lack this
donation of $100 million to Poetry Magazine in knowledge and commitment. People don't possess the
November. An article published on the Poetry patience to read a poem 20 times before the sound and
International Web site said critics and poets agreed that sense of it takes hold. They aren't willing to let the words
the gift "could change the face of American poetry." wash over them like a wave, demanding instead for the
Don't these critics and poets realize that their art form meaning to flow clearly and quickly. They want
is dead? Perhaps not. They probably also don't realize narrative-driven forms, stand-alone art that doesn't
that people like me helped kill it. require an understanding of the larger context.
In high school, I, like most of my classmates, hated I, too, want these things. I am part of a world that
the poetry unit in English class that surfaced annually apotheosizes the trendy, and poetry is just about as
with the same grim regularity as the gymnastics unit in untrendy as it gets. I want to read books with buzz--in
physical education. Just as I was a good athlete who part because I make my living as a ghostwriter of and
detested the parallel bars, I was an avid reader who collaborator on books--and I can't remember the last
despised rhymed and rhythmic writing. Plowing through book of poetry that created even a dying mosquito's
tangled symbol and allusion, I wondered why the damn worth of hum. I am also lazy, and poetry takes work.
poets couldn't just say what they meant. In my worst moments, I blame the usual suspects for
Then I went to college and at some point, I got it. my own failings: the mainstream media, the Internet, the
Maybe it was when I was infatuated with some girl and fast-food mentality. If it weren't for the pernicious
read "I Knew a Woman" by Theodore Roethke: "I knew influence of blah, blah, blah... Ultimately, though, there's
a woman, lovely in her bones/When small birds sighed, no one to blame. Poetry is designed for an era when
she would sigh back at them." Or maybe it happened people valued the written word and had the time and
when I read Keats's odes or Eliot's "Prufrock" or that inclination to possess it in its highest form.
haunting line in Frost: "I have been one acquainted with I really do believe that poetry is the highest form of
the night." For the next 10 years or so, I was hooked. I writing. Read Yeats's "The Wild Swans at Coole,"
read poetry, wrote it and recited verse to impress dates. Whitman's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,"
And then my interest waned. On the surface, I Thomas's "Fern Hill," and you'll experience the true
suppose it was because I had other interests that power of art. They touch the heart and the head in ways
demanded my time and attention: I got married, had that movie-makers (our current artistic high priests) can
children, pursued my career, bought a house. With only dream of.
apologies to Frost, I began to find more relevance in April was National Poetry Month, a fact I know only
articles about interest rates than essays on the sprung because it was noted in my younger daughter's school
rhythm of Hopkins. newsletter. I celebrated by finding out the name of our
Society, too, was changing in a way that did not favor poet laureate (Billy Collins) and reading one of his
the reading of poetry. From the Me Generation of the poems. This may not seem like much, but I have
'70s to the get-rich-quick '80s, our culture became television shows to watch, best sellers to read and Web
intensely prosaic. Ambiguity, complexity and paradox sites to visit before I sleep.
fell out of favor. We embraced easily defined goals and
crystal-clear communication (Ronald Reagan was
president, presiding over the literalization of America). Bruce Wexler is a writer living in the Chicago area.
Fewer politicians seemed to quote contemporary poets in © 2003, Newsweek, Inc.
Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 2
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

PPPPooooeeeettttrrrryyyy AAAAnnnnttttiiiicccciiiippppaaaattttiiiioooonnnn GGGGuuuuiiiiddddeeee
Read the following statements. Circle the number on the scale that fits your opinion the
at least two sentences
best. Write explaining your thoughts about each statement.
There are no right or wrong answers!
1 2 3 4 5
always true sometimes true depends sometimes false always false
1. The true meaning of a poem can only be understood by the person who wrote it.
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2. Poems are always about emotions.
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3. A poem cannot be fun or funny.
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4. No poem can ever be completely understood.
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Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 3
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

5. The sound of words is important in poetry.
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6. A good poem makes you feel something.

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Answer the following questions:
What is poetry?
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Is it dead?
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Name three things you know about poetry.
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Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 4
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

Types of Poetry:
Narrative poem: the writer tells a story in verse. Narratives can take many forms.
Epic: A long narrative poem about gods or heroes.
Ballad: a songlike narrative about an adventure or a romance.
Dramatic poem: The writer tells a story using a character’s own thoughts or statements.
Lyric poem: a brief poem which the author expresses the feelings of a single speaker, creating a
single effect on the reader.

Poems usually have the following qualities, and you should be able to identify these qualities:

Figurative Language: Expressing ideas indirectly; language used in a special way to create a
special effect.

Metaphors:

Simile:

Personification:

Imagery: Descriptive language poets use to create word pictures or images.

Sound Devices: Used in poetry to achieve a musical quality.

Rhythm:

Rhyme:

Alliteration:

Assonance:

Consonance:

Onomatopoeia:

Euphemism:
Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 5
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

Stanzas:

Couplets:

Quatrains:

Meter: a controlled pattern of rhythm is called meter. There are several different types of meter,
which for a Regents freshman class would prove to be too challenging; however, at the very
least, as a reader of poetry, you should be able to identify the amount of syllables in a line of
poetry. This will begin your adventure into exploring poetry.

Counting syllables:
Syllable: a unit of pronunciation have one vowel sound.

Example
Wa-ter Ba-loo-ga Graph-ic Nom-i-na-tion De-in-sti-tu-tion-al-i-za-tion
2 3 2 4 9

Examine the following words and label how many syllables these words have:

Apple Iowa Fork Encounter

Wash Washed Hunt Hunted

Verisimilitude Anthropological Child Collateral

Write a word with

One syllable:

Three Syllables:

Five syllables:

Seven syllables:
Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 6
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

Now that you can count lines, you can learn to count meter. Meter is dividing syllables up in a
specific way to figure out the meter of a line of poetry. Sometimes you divide lines of poetry by
every two syllables, and other times by every three syllables. The most common is two syllables
(iambic or trochaic rhythm). When we divide them this way, we call the grouping feet. For our
purposes, we will divide everything by two syllables.

Example:
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny.

From an | cient grudge | break to | new mut | i - ny
1 2 3 4 5

Notice there is a line placed between each two syllables. This sentence is what is known as
pentameter because it has five groupings of two syllables. Let’s try a sentence together: Place a |
after every two syllables and then write the number between each grouping.

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean

Is this sentence pentameter? _______

Let’s try two more:

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

Is this sentence pentameter? _______

Because I could not stop for death.

Is this sentence pentameter? _______
Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 7
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

One Foot = Monometer Two Feet = Dimeter
Three Feet = Tetrameter Four Feet = Tetrameter
Five Feet = Pentameter Six Feet = Hexameter
Seven Feet = Heptameter Eight Feet = Octameter

Examine the following sentences and divide up the meter and identify how many feet there are.
Show all work!

Example:
Run in | the deep:
1 2
Dimeter

When here the spring we see

Sometimes the only way out is to examine who I can be.

Little Miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet.

He stole along, and nothing spoke

He ran, but he found nothing there

Run, Fast! Now!
Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 8
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

Identifying rhyme scheme

Rhyme scheme allows the reader to examine lines of poetry and find a common thread.
Sometimes no common thread exists, and other times it is masked within the poetry. When we
examine lines of poetry with rhyme, it is marked with letters from the alphabet.

Example:
Look at the cat A
It has a hat A
The cat looks sad B
And I am not glad B
And that is that. A

Cat ends the first line of the poem, so we mark it with the first letter of the alphabet (A). Hat
rhymes with cat, and because it rhymes, we use the same letter (A). Sad does not rhyme with cat
so it gets the next letter in the alphabet (B). Glad rhymes with sad so it also gets the letter B and
that rhymes with cat so it gets the letter A.

Try one on your own:

Hey, diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon.
The little dog laughed to see such sport.
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
Sometimes the rhymes are sight rhymes, while no rhyme actually occurs, and other times the
rhyme is an off rhyme. At these times, it is up the scanner of the poem to decide what to do;
however, more often than not, you mark the poem with the rhyme. i.e.: Afford ; Word

Mark the rhyme scheme for the beginning of this Shakespearean Sonnet.

Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend
Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy?
Nature's bequest gives nothing, but doth lend,
And being frank she lends to those are free:
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee to give?
Profitless usurer, why dost thou use
So great a sum of sums, yet canst not live?
Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 9
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

As mentioned earlier, poems can be split into quatrains and couplets. A sonnet is a 14 line poem
that adheres to a strict rhyme scheme. A Shakespearean sonnet will have three quatrains and a
couplet at the end. Figure out the rhyme scheme for a Shakespearean sonnet.

Sonnet 92
But do thy worst to steal thyself away,
For term of life is thou art assured mine;
And life no longer than thy love will stay,
For it depends upon that love of thine.

Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,
When in the least of them my life hath end.
I see a better state to me belongs
Than that which on thy humour doth depend:

Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind,
Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.
O what a happy title do I find,
Happy to have thy love, happy to die!

But what is so blessed-fair that fears no blot?
Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not.

Write down the Shakespearean Rhyme Scheme:

All Shakespearean Sonnets rhyme in this exact pattern.

Now I would like you to examine the meter of the poem. Count the syllables in the lines and
write down what meter is in each line.
Name: ________________________ Poetry Notes pg 10
English 9 Regents Mr. Valentin

Task: Write a six line poem. The first part is a quatrain with an ABAB rhyme scheme. The
couplet at the end should have a CC rhyme scheme. Each A line should be pentameter, each B
line should be tetrameter, and each C line should be trimeter. Good luck!