Writing Essays

about Literature

A Guide and Style Sheet

SIXTH EDITION

Kelley Griffith
University ofNorth Carolina at Greensboro

THOMSON

HEINLE

Australia Canada Mexico Singapore Spain United Kingdom United States

 Interpreting Poetry
Poetry shares many elements with its sister genres, drama and fie-
tion. And indeed, many works of drama and fiction are written in
the form of poetry. Plays by Shakespeare, Goethe, Moliere, Mar
lowe, Maxwell Anderson, and T. S. Eliot; narrative works by Homer,
Chaucer, Dante, Longfellow, Milton, Spenser, Tennyson, and Brown
ing are examples. But poetry usually differs from prose drama and
fiction in several key ways. In general, it is more concentrated—that is,
poetry says more in fewer words. Poets achieve this concentration by
selecting details more carefully, by relying more heavily on implication
(through figurative language, connotation, and sensuous imagery), and
by more carefully organizing the form of their poetry (through rhyth
mic speech patterns and "musical" qualities such as rhyme). Because of
the relative shortness of poetry and because of its greater concentration,
it demands a more complete unity than prose fiction; nearly every word,
sound, and image contributes to a single effect.
Poetry is a complex subject. The following is a brief survey of its
elements, with questions and exercises that should help you generate
interpretations of individual poems.
The Elements of Poetry
Characterization, Point of View, Plot, Setting,
and Theme
Some poems—"narrative" poems—are very similar to prose fiction and
drama in their handling of characterization, point of view, plot, and
87
88 Interpreting Poetry The Elements ofPoetry 89

setting. Thus many of the same questions one asks about a short story, Come to the window, sweet is the night-air I
novel, or play are relevant to these poems. Most poems, however, do Only, from the long line of spray
not offer a "story" in the conventional sense. They are usually brief and Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
apparently devoid of "action." Even so, a plot of sorts may be implied, a Listen! you hear the grating roar
place and time may be important, a specific point of view may be oper Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
ating, and characters may be dramatizing the key issues of the poem. In At their return, up the high strand,
any poem there is always one "character" of the utmost importance, Begin, and cease, and then again begin.
even if he or she is the only character. This character is the speaker, the With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
"I" of the poem. Often the speaker is a fictional personage, not at all The eternal note of sadness in.
equivalent to the poet, who may not be speaking to the reader but to an
Sophocles long ago
other character, as is the case in Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" and
Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought
Browning's "My Last Duchess." The poem might even be a dialogue
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
between two or more people, as in ballads such as "Edward" and "Lord
Of human misery; we
Randal" and in Frost's "The Death of the Hired Man." Thus the poem
Find also in the sound a thought,
can be a little drama or story, in which one or more fictional characters
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
participate. But more typically, one character, the "I," speaks of some
thing that concerns him or her deeply and personally. Such poems are The Sea of Faith
called "lyric" poems because of their subjective, musical, highly emo Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
tional, and imaginative qualities. They are songlike utterances by one Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
person, the "I." But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Questions about characterization, point of view, plot, Retreating, to the breath
setting, and theme In analyzing poetry, your first step should Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
be to come to grips with the "I" of the poem, the speaker. You should And naked shingles* of the world.
answer questions such as: Who is speaking? What characterizes the
Ah, love, let us be true
speaker? To whom is he or she speaking? What is the speaker's tone?
To one another! for the world, which seems
What is the speaker's emotional state? Why is he or she speaking?
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
What situation is being described? What are the conflicts or tensions in
So various, so beautiful, so new,
this situation? How is setting—social situation, physical place, and
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
time—important to the speaker? What ideas is the speaker communi
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
cating? Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" provides an example of how
And we are here as on a darkling plain
you can use most of these questions to get at the meanings of a poem.
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
DOVER BEACH
'beaches covered with pebble*
MATTHEW ARNOLD

The sea is calm to-night. Because Dover is an English port city, one of several points of de
The tide is full, the moon lies fair parture for the European continent, the speaker has apparently stopped
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light for the night on his way to Europe. As he looks out of his hotel window,
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, he speaks to another person in the room, his "love" (last stanza). Arnold
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. traces the speaker's train of thought in four stanzas. In the first stanza,
90 Interpreting Poetry The Elements of Poetry 91

the speaker describes what he sees, and his tone is contented, even joy clear prose. But sometimes it will not. Because poetry often con
ous. He sees the lights on the French coast and the high white cliffs of forms to structural requirements and because it is a condensed
Dover "glimmering" in the moonlight. He invites his companion to form of communication, sentence structures are sometimes dis
share the glorious view. As he describes the sound of the surf to her, his torted and words are left out. In such cases, you will have to put the
tone alters slightly; the sound reminds him of "the eternal note of sad sentence in normal order and insert missing words.
ness." This melancholy tone deepens in the second stanza. There the 2. Paraphrase the poem. This helps you understand every sentence or,
speaker connects the sea sound with a passage in Sophocles, probably at least, the major sections of the poem. The two paragraphs imme
the third chorus of Antigone, which compares the misery of living diately following "Dover Beach" (pp. 89-90), for example, are a
under a family curse to the incessant roar of a stormy sea beating paraphrase of the poem.
against the land. 3. Identify the speaker of the poem. Underline the words and phrases
In the third stanza, the remembrance of Sophocles's comparison that help characterize the speaker and bring out the speaker's con
leads the speaker to make a more disturbing comparison of his own. He cerns. Describe in detail the traits of the speaker and of any other
likens the sea to faith—apparently religious faith, both his own and that characters in the poem.
of his age. He says that at one time the "Sea of Faith" was full but now
4. Describe the situation of the poem: where the speaker is, what rime
has withdrawn, leaving a "vast," "drear," and coarse world. By the
of day it is, what season of the year, what historical occasion, to
fourth stanza, the speaker has fallen into near despair. He says that what
whom the speaker is speaking, why. List the external and internal
merely looks beautiful—the panorama seen from his window—is only a
conflicts of the poem.
false image of the world, which in reality is absurd and chaotic. He has
only one hope, his companion, whom he now urges to be true to him as 5. State the issues that concern the speaker (what the poem is about).
he is true to her. The speaker, in short, is an erudite, thoughtful, but Explain the speaker's ideas (the themes of the poem). Note any
deeply troubled person. The poem takes him from momentary content- changes in the speaker's mood or ideas as the poem moves from
edness to near hopelessness. The stimulus for his train of thought is the unit to unit. Explain what the speaker is trying to accomplish.
place of the poem—Dover Beach—and the companion to whom he ad 6. Describe the speaker's tone (angry, lyrical, hopeful, bitter, nostal
dresses his remarks. All these elements—thoughts, place, and compan gic, sarcastic, compassionate, admiring, sorrowful, amused, and so
ion—are interrelated. forth). Note any changes of tone.
7. If the speaker is not the poet, estimate the poet's attitude toward
the speaker and to the issues raised by the poem. Indicate any dif
■ Thinking on Paper about Characterization, Point ferences between the poet's attitude and the speaker's,
of View, Plot, Setting, and Theme
8. Describe important contrasts made in the poem. Explain their rela
tionships to characterization and theme.
Many of the exercises one does on poetry consist of marking the poem
itself. You might, then, photocopy the poem you want to interpret and 9. Relate the poem's title to its themes.
write on the photocopy rather than the book. Some photocopy ma 10. Explain any allusions in the poem. An allusion is a reference to his
chines will enlarge images. Since poems are often published in small torical events and people, to mythological and biblical figures, and
print, taking advantage of this feature would allow you to better see the to works of literature. Allusions invite comparison between the
poem and have more space to write. You might want to make more than work at hand and the items referred to. An example of an allusion is
one copy of the poem. Use different copies for marking different as Arnold's reference to Sophocles in "Dover Beach." Arnold invites
pects of the poem. us to bring the weight of Sophocles's tragedies to bear on the sub
ject matter of his poem. An allusion is a compact way of adding
1. Find the subject, verb, and object of every sentence in the poem. meaning to the work. Explain, then, the implications of the allu
Sometimes this will be easy; reading poetry will be like reading sions.
92 Interpreting Poetry The Elements ofPoetry 93

Diction the word diurnal, which means "daily." But the Latinate diurnal has a
slightly more formal connotation than the prosaic daily. The effect of
Basically, diction refers to the poet's choice of words. Poets are sensitive the word is to make the processes of nature—death, die revolving of
to the subtle shades of meanings of words, to the possible double mean Earth, the existence of rocks and stones and trees—seem remote, re
ings of words, and to the denotative and connotative meanings of morseless, and inevitable.
words. As we say in Chapter 2, denotation is the object or idea—the ref Be alert for wordplay—double meanings and puns. The speaker
erent—that a word represents. The denotation of a word is its core in Andrew MarvelPs "To His Coy Mistress," for example, tries to per
meaning, its dictionary meaning. Connotation is the subjective, emo suade a reluctant woman to make love with him. His argument is that
tional association that a word has for one person or a group of people. time is running out, and unless we take opportunities when they appear,
Poets often choose words that contribute to the poem's meaning on we will lose them. He concludes his speech with a pun:
both a denotarional and a connotational level
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Questions about diction Examine the words in a poem for all Stand still, yet we will make him run.
their possible shades and levels of meaning. Then ask how these mean
ings combine to create an overall effect. Note, for example, the effect
That is, we cannot stop time (make the sun stop), but we can bring
that connotation creates in William Wordsworth's "A Slumber Did My
about new life (a child: "son"), who will "run," and thus defeat decay
Spirit Seal."
and death. Some poets, such as e.e. cummings, make imaginative word
play a dominant trait of their poetry. In "anyone lived in a pretty how
A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL town," cummings uses pronouns on two levels of meaning. The words
anyone and noone mean, on the one hand, what we expect them to mean
WILWAM WORDSWORTH
("anybody" and "nobody"); but on the other hand they refer to two
A slumber did my spirit seal; people, male and female, who fall in love, marry, and die.
I had no human fears—
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
■ Thinking on Paper about Diction
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees; 1. Circle all die words you do not know. Look them up in the dictionary.
Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, 2. Underline words that seem especially meaningful or well chosen.
With rocks, and stones, and trees. For each word, explain denotations and connotations.
3. Underline any wordplay such as double meanings and puns. Explain
In order to create the stark contrast between the active, airy girl of what the wordplay adds to the sense of the poem.
the first stanza with the inert, dead girl of the second, Wordsworth re
4. Underline any uses of "unusual" words—slang, profanity, archaisms,
lies partly on the connotative effect of the last line. We know the deno
foreign language words, made-up words. Explain what qualities and
tative meaning of "rocks, and stones, and trees," but in this context the
meanings these words add to the poem. Discuss how the poem
emotional or connotative meaning is unpleasant and grating. Rocks and
would be different without them.
stones are inanimate, cold, cutting, impersonal. And although we usu
ally think of trees as beautiful and majestic, here the association of trees 5. Identify the level of diction in the poem (formal, informal, collo
with rocks and stones makes us think of tree roots, of dirt, and thus of quial, slangy, dialect). Explain what the poem gains from the use of
the girFs burial. The rocks and stones and trees are not only not human, this level. Explain what it would lose by changing to a different level.
they confine and smother the girl. Another example of connotation is 6. Explain how the choice of words contributes to the speaker's tone.
94 Interpreting Poetry Tbe Elements ofPoetry 95

Imagery: Descriptive Language this ring I thee wed.n Such unusual rearrangements are called "rhetori
cal" figures of speech. But much more common and important to po
When applied to poetry, the term imagery has two meanings. First, im etry is a second category of figurative language: tropes. Tropes (literally,
agery represents the descriptive passages of a poem. Although the word "turns") extend the meaning of words beyond their literal meaning, and
imagery calls to mind the visual sense, poetic imagery appeals to all the the most common form of trope is metaphor. Metaphor has both a gen
senses. Sensuous imagery is pleasurable for its own sake, but it also pro eral and a specific meaning. Generally, it means any analogy. An analog}
vides concreteness and immediacy. Imagery causes the reader to be is a similarity between things that are basically different. Specifically,
come personally and experientially involved in the subject matter of the metaphor means a particular kind of analogy and is contrasted with the
poem. Further, the poet often uses descriptive imagery to underscore simile. A simile uses like or as to claim similarities between things that
other elements in a poem. The selection of detail and the vividness im are essentially different; for example, "Her tears were like falling rain."
parted to images help create tone, meaning, and characterization. The following stanza from Shakespeare's "Fair Is My Love" contains
An example of descriptive imagery is the first stanza of John several similes (indicated by the added italics):
Keats's narrative poem "The Eve of St. Agnes":
Fair is my love, but not so fair as fickle;
St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! Mild as a dove, but neither true nor trusty;
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; Brighter than glass, and yet, as glass is, brittle;
The hare limped trembling through the frozen grass, Softer than wax, and yet, as iron, rusty;
And silent was the flock in woolly Fold; A lily pale, with damask dye to grace her;
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told None fairer, nor none falser to deface her.
His rosary, and while his frosted breath.
Like pious incense from a censer old. A metaphor also claims similarities between things that are essen
Seemed taking flight for heaven, without a death, tially unlike, but it eliminates the comparative words (such as like) and
Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer he saith. thus equates the compared items. For example, "My heart was a tornado
of passion" (not "My heart was like a tornado of passion"). The poem
This stanza appeals to the thermal sense (the chill of the evening, the "Love Is a Sickness" by Samuel Daniel contains three metaphors—love is
frozen grass), the sense of touch (the beadsman's numb fingers), the vi a sickness, love is a plant, love is a tempest—indicated here by the italics:
sual sense (the beadsman saying his rosary before the picture of the Vir
gin), the sense of motion (die hare trembling and limping through the
grass, the beadsman's frosted breath taking flight toward heaven), and LOVE 1$ A SICKNESS

the sense of sound (the silent flock, the sound of the beadsman's
SAMUEL DANIEL
monotonous prayer). The dominant sensuous appeal, however, is to the bill
thermal sense. Keats uses every sensuous image in the stanza to make us love is a sickness full of woes,
feel how cold the night is. All remedies refusing.
A plant that with most cutting grows,
Most barren with best using.
Imagery: Figurative Language Why so?

More we enjoy it, more it dies,

Critics today use imagery in a second sense. They use it to mean figura If not enjoyed it sighing cries,
tive language, especially metaphor. Figurative language is the conscious
Hey ho.
departure from normal or conventional ways of saying things. This
could mean merely a rearrangement of the normal word order of a sen love is a torment of the mind,
tence, such as the following: "Sir Gawain the dragon slew" or "With A tempest everlasting,
96 Interpreting Poetry Tbe Elements ofPoetry 97

And Jove hath made it of a kind Questions about imagery Imagery is an important—some
Not well, nor full, nor fasting. would argue the most important—characteristic of poetry. You should
Why so? try to identify the imagery of a poem. Ask, then, what senses the poet
appeals to and what analogies he or she implies or states direcdy. Ask,
More we enjoy it, more it dies,
Why does the poet use these particular images and analogies? In "Dover
If not enjoyed it sighing cries,
Beach," for example, Arnold uses both descriptive and metaphorical im
Hey ho.
agery meaningfully. He emphasizes two senses: the visual and the aural.
He begins with the visual—the moon, the lights of France across the
Analogies can be direcdy stated or implied. The similes and water, the cliffs, the tranquil bay—and throughout the poem he associ
metaphors in the above poems by Shakespeare and Daniel are directly ates hope and beauty with what the speaker sees. But the poet soon in
stated analogies; but when Daniel in the last lines of each stanza says troduces the aural sense—the grating roar of the sea—which serves as
that love "sighs," he implies a kind of analogy called personification; he an antithesis to the visual sense. These two senses create a tension that
pretends that love has the attributes of a person. When the poet devel mirrors the conflict in the speaker's mind. The first two stanzas show
ops just one analogy throughout the whole poem, the analogy is called the speaker merely drifting into a perception of this conflict, connect
an extended metaphor. Thomas Campion's "There Is a Garden in Her ing sight with hope and sound with sadness. By the third stanza, he has
Face" contains an extended metaphor comparing the features of a become intellectually alert to the full implications of the conflict. He
woman's face to the features of a garden: signals this alertness with a carefully worked out analogy, his compari
son of the sea with faith. In the fourth stanza, he sums up his despairing
conclusion with a stunning and famous simile:
THERE IS A GARDEN IN HER FACE
And we are here as on a darkling plain
THOMAS CAMPION
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
There is a garden in her face, Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Where roses and white lilies grow,
A heavenly paradise is that place, This final analogy achieves several purposes. First, it brings the im
Wherein all pleasant fruits do flow. plication of the descriptive imagery to a logical conclusion. No longer
There cherries grow, which none may buy can the speaker draw hope from visual beauty; in this image, he cannot
Till "Cherry ripe!"* themselves do cry. see at all—it is night, the plain is dark He can only hear, but the sound
now is more chaotic and directly threatening than the mere ebb and flow
Those cherries fairly do enclose
of the sea. Second, the analogy provides an abrupt change of setting.
Of orient pearl a double row;
Whereas before, the speaker visualized an unpeopled plain, now he imag
Which when her lovely laughter shows,
ines human beings as agents of destruction. He implies that a world with
They look like rosebuds filled with snow.
out faith must seem and be arbitrary and violent Finally, the analogy
Yet them nor peer nor prince can buy,
allows the speaker to identify his own place in this new world order. Only
Till "Cherry ripe I" themselves do cry.
loyalty is pure and good, so he and his companion must cling to each
Her eyes like angels watch them still;
other and maneuver throughout the world's battlefields as best they can.
Her brows like bended bows do stand,
Threatening with piercing frowns to kill
All that attempt with eye or hand ■ Thinking on Paper about Descriptive Language
Those sacred cherries to come nigh,
Till "Cherry ripel" themselves do cry.
1. Mark the descriptive images. For each image, name the sense ap
"A Familiar cry of London street vendors pealed to. Characterize the dominant impression these images make.
 The Elements ofPoetry 99
98 Interpreting Poetry
m

2. Explain the relationship of descriptive images to the speaker's state determines that arrangement is the foot. Afoot is one unit of rhythm in
of mind.
a verse. Probably the most natural foot in English is the iambic, which
has an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable (aa). Here
3. Describe how the descriptive images create a sense of the time of day
.,3 are the most common metrical feet:
and season of the year.
■;:3

1
4. Note any progression in the descriptive images; for example, from
day to night, hot to cold, soft to loud, color to color, slow to fast.
5. Explain how the descriptive images help create atmosphere and
mood. Slow movements, for example, are conducive to melancholy;
speed to exuberance and excitement.

■ Thinking on Paper about Figurative Language

Poets further determine the arrangement of metrical patterns by
the number of feet in each line. The following names apply to the
1. Mark the similes in the poem. Underline or circle the words that sig
lengths of poetic lines:
nal the comparisons (words such as Hkey as, similar to, resembles). Ex
plain the implications of the analogies (that is, what they contribute
to the meaning of the poem). monometer (one foot)

2. Mark the metaphors in the poem. Explain the implications of the dimeter (two feet)
analogies. trimeter (three feet) ■f
3. Mark any personification in the poem. Underline the words and tetrameter (four feet)
J
phrases that make the personification clear. pentameter (five feet)
i
4. Poets often use analogies to help make an abstract quality, such as hexameter (six feet)
"love" or "my love's beauty** or "my current predicament" or "the
heptameter (seven feet) it
destructive effect of time" or "God's grandeur," concrete and know-
able. They do so by comparing the abstract quality to something the octameter (eight feet)
reader knows well. Almost always this "something" is a physical ob
ject or reality. Name the abstract quality the poet wants to clarify A very common line in English poetry is iambic pentameter; it
and the object the poet is comparing it to. List the qualities of the contains five iambic feet. Shakespeare wrote his plays in iambic pen
object. Explain how the comparison has clarified the abstraction. tameter, and the sonnet is traditionally composed in iambic pentameter
5. List the senses appealed to in each analogy. Describe the dominant (see pages 107-108 for some examples).
sensuous impression created by the analogies. Another feature of line length is that each line may have a fixed
number of syllables. When people speak of iambic pentameter, they
usually think of a line containing five accented syllables and ten sylla
Rhythm bles in all. Even if the poet substitutes other feet for iambs, the number
of syllables in die line comes out the same—ten for iambic pentameter,
All human speech has rhythm, but poetry often regularizes that rhythm eight for iambic tetrameter, six for iambic trimeter, and so forth. When
into recognizable patterns. These patterns are called meters. Metrical a line of poetry is measured by both accents and syllables, it is called
patterns vary depending on the sequence in which one arranges the ac accentual-syllabic. Most English poetry is accentual-syllabic, as in these
cented (a) and unaccented (a) syllables of an utterance. The unit that iambic tetrameter lines from "To His Coy Mistress":
 The Elements ofPoetry 101
100 Interpreting Poetry

Had we but world enough, and time, A likely place for a caesura is in the middle of the line, and if the meter
ThTs coyness, lady, were no crime. of the poem is tetrameter, then a caesura in the middle neatly divides
the line in half. Such is the case in lines 2 and 3 of this poem. A caesura
Each line has four iambic feet—four accented syllables, eight syl may also occur near the beginning of a line or near the end. Or there
lables in all. But not all English poetry is accentual-syllabic. Sometimes may be no caesuras in a line, as is probably the case in lines 4, 5, and
it is just accentual. Traditional ballads, for example, often count the possibly 1 of this poem. Caesuras often emphasize meaning. Caesuras
number of accents per line but not the number of syllables: in the middle of lines, for example, can emphasize strong contrasts or
close relationships between ideas. In line 3, both the caesura and the
"O where hae ye been, Lord Randal, my son? rhyme of "mistake" with "snake" link the abstraction (the mistake) with
O where hae ye been, my handsome young man?" the action (kissing the snake).
"I hae been to the wild wood; mother, make my bed soon, A profound example of the relationship between meaning and
For I'm we6ry wi hunting, and Fain wald lie down." caesura—indeed, between meaning and all the qualities of poetic
sound—is Shakespeare's Sonnet 129:
I
The third line of this stanza contains six accented syllables but thirteen
(not twelve) syllables. The first two lines contain four accents but ten (not
SONNET 129
eight) syllables. And the last line contains four accents but twelve (not
eight) syllables. The important factor in purely accentual lines is where WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
the accent fells; the poet can freely use the accents to emphasize meaning.
One of the accents in line three, for example, fells on wild, which ex TV expense of spirit II in a waste of shame
presses the treacherous place from which Lord Randal has returned. Is lust in action; II and, till action, lust
Because individuals hear and speak a language in different ways, Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
scanning a poem (using symbols to mark accented and unaccented sylla Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
bles and thus to identify its metrical pattern) is not an exact science. Enjoyed no sooner II but despised straight; 5
Some poets establish easily recognizable—often strongly rhythmical— Past reason hunted; II and no sooner had,
metrical patterns, and scanning their poems is easy. Other poets use Past reason hated, II as a swallowed bait,
more subtle rhythms that make the poetic lines less artificial and more On purpose laid II to make the taker mad;
like colloquial language. The best poets often deliberately depart from Mad in pursuit, II and in possession so;
the metrical pattern they establish at the beginning of the poem. When Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; 10
you scan a poem, therefore, you need not force phrases unnaturally into A bliss in proof; II and proved, a very woe;
the established metrical pattern. Always put the accents where you and Before, a joy proposed; II behind, a dream.
most speakers would normally say them. The poet probably intends AH this the world well knows; II yet none knows well
them to go there. To shun the heaven II that leads men to this hell.
When you scan a poem, be alert for caesuras. A caesura is a strong
pause somewhere in the line. You mark a caesura with two vertical
lines: II Consider the caesuras in this jump-rope rhyme: Here Shakespeare establishes a pattern of contrasts and similarities, and
uses caesura and other sound devices to establish them. One of these
Cinderella, dressed in yellow, devices is the accentual pattern. Like most sonnets, this one has ten syl 1ft i

Went upstairs II to kiss a fellow. lables per line and is supposed to be iambic pentameter. But for many of
Made a mistake; II kissed a snake. these lines, Shakespeare has only four accents per line, not five. This al
How many doctors did it take? lows him to make some of his comparisons equal in weight. Line 5, for
One, two, three, four... example, has a strong caesura and four accented syllables:
102 Interpreting Poetry The Elements ofPoetry 103

Enjoyed no sooner II but despised straight. these two lines, particularly the first words in each. The accents in line
10 are especially emphatic, for the accents emphasize the past ("had"),
The effect is to contrast strongly the two emotional states, pleasure and the present ("having"), the future ("quest" and "have"), and the psycho
guilt; and since Shakespeare puts guilt last, he gives it more weight. logical and moral nature of all three ("extreme"). ;< I

Lines 11 and 12, however, contain caesuras and five accents each, mak Questions to ask about rhythm in poetry, then, are these: Which
ing the two-part divisions within the lines unequal. Note how this re metrical pattern does the poem use? What is appealing about the pat
lates to the meaning of the lines: tern? How closely does the poet stick to the established pattern? If m
closely, why and what effect is the poet striving for? For example, does
A bliss in proof; II and proved, a very woe; the poem have a singsong quality? If so, why does the poet do this?
Before, a joy proposed; II behind, a dream. Where does the poem vary from the established pattern? Why? How
does the poet use pauses, especially caesuras, within each line? Why?
The "weaker" sides of the lines contain the pleasure part of the equa
tion and emphasize the brevity and insubstantial quality of pleasure; the
"strong" sides emphasize either naive expectation or guilt. ■ Thinking on Paper about Rhythm

Questions about rhythm Metrics has many uses in poetry. It 1. Count the number of syllables for each line. Write the number at the
m
provides a method of ordering material. It creates a hypnotic effect that end of the line.
rivets attention on the poem. Like the rhythmic qualities of music, it is 2. Read the poem aloud, then mark the accented and unaccented sylla
enjoyable for itself. Children, for example, take naturally to the strongly bles of each line.
rhythmic qualities of nursery rhymes and jump-rope rhymes; jump-rope
3. Draw a vertical line between each foot in the line.
rhymes, in feet, are that rare form of literature that children teach each
other. But probably the greatest importance of metrics is that it estab 4. Identify the metrical pattern (iambic, trochaic, and so forth) and the
lishes a pattern from which the poet can depart. Good poets rarely adhere length of the lines {pentameter, hexameter, and so forth).
to the metrical pattern they establish at the beginning of the poem or that 5. Use two vertical lines to mark the caesuras in the poem. Explain how
is inherent in a fixed form like the sonnet. Sonnet 129, on page 101, is a the caesuras relate to the sense of each line.
striking example. Sometimes poets stray from the established pattern to 6. Underline the places where the poet departs from the. established
make the language sound more colloquial. Such is partly the case in metrical pattern of the poem. Explain how these departures relate to
"Dover Beach" and Browning's "My Last Duchess," both of which are the sense of each line. Show which words are emphasized by the de
spoken by fictional characters. Sometimes poets alter the pattern to em partures. n
phasize specific aspects of the poem's content. This is why you should be
7. Explain the appropriateness of the metrical pattern to the poem's
sensitive to the natural rhythms of the language when you scan a poem.
meaning.
Take, for example, these lines from Sonnet 129: Lust is like
8. Describe how easy or difficult it is to read the poem aloud. Does its
a swallowed bait, 7 metrical pattern slow you down? Or does it allow you to read
On purpose laid to make the taker mad: 8 smoothly? Explain how the difficulty or ease of reading the metrical iff
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so; 9 pattern relates to the poem's meaning and purpose.
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme; 10
A bliss in proof; and proved, a very woe; 11
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream. 12 Sound

All these lines fit the iambic scheme except lines 9 and 10. Why? A pos Poets delight in the sound of language and consciously present sounds to
sible reason is that Shakespeare wanted to emphasize certain words in be enjoyed for themselves. They also use them to emphasize meaning,
 I The Elements ofPoetry 105
104 Interpreting Poetry

action, and emotion, and especially to call the reader's attention to the On desperate l|ea$)long wont to^roam
(onsononie
relationship of certain words. Rhyme, for example, has the effect of Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic (
linking words together. Among the most common sound devices are Thy Naiad{ai ave brouc approximate rhyms 8
the following: To the glory that was^reecg
And the grandeur that was Rome.
onomatopoeia—The use of words that sound like what they mean 3
assonance
Lo! in yon brilliant window-nich 11
("buzz," "boom," "hiss," "fizz," "pop," "ghig"). |;
How statue-like l{geig)Cfhee)stand! internal rhyme
alliteration—the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of ;:
The agate lamp within thy hand,
words or at the beginning of accented syllables ("the woeful woman i
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
went wading Wednesday"). : Are Holy Land!
assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds followed by different con
sonant sounds ("0, the groans that opened to his ears").
consonance (or half-rhyme)—the repetition of final consonant sounds Questions about sound It's easy to lose yourself in an analysis
that are preceded by different vowel sounds ("the beast climbed fast to of the mechanical intricacies of a poem's sound structure and forget why
the crest")- Consonance is the opposite of alliteration, which features you are making the analysis in the first place. You start with the question:
initial consonant sounds. What sound devices does the poet use? But you move on to ask Why
rhyme—the repetition of accented vowels and the sounds that follow. does the poet use them? How do they help establish the poem's tone, at
There are subcategories of rhyme: mosphere, theme, setting, characterization, and emotional qualities?
masculine rhyme (the rhymed sounds have only one syllable: "maw-ran," What meanings do they suggest? In Poe's "To Helen," for example, the
"detecf-correcf"). alliteration in line 4 ("weary, way-worn wanderer") underscores the fa
feminine rhyme (the rhymed sounds have two or more syllables: tigued state of the wanderer. The consonance of "seas" and "airs" in lines
"subtle-rebuttal," "deceptively-perceptively"). J 6 and 8 emphasizes the contrast between them; one is "desperate" but
internal rhyme (the rhymed sounds are within the line). the other assuages despair. And the assonance in line 11 ("m yon brilliant
end rhyme (the rhymed sounds appear at the ends of lines). w/ndow-n/ch"), with its emphasis on high, tight, "i" sounds, helps to
approximate rhyme (the words are close to rhyming: "book-buck," characterize the luminosity of the place where Helen, statuelike, stands.
"watch-match," "man-in"). Be especially alert to relationships between ideas established by
rhyme, most notably by internal rhyme and end rhyme. Rhyme is, of
Edgar Allan Poe's "To Helen" illustrates many of these sound de course, a musical device that makes the sound of the poem attractive to
vices: the ear, but it can be used meaningfully as well. Turn back to Sonnet 129
and examine the complex sound associations Shakespeare creates there.
The words sound rough, almost painful, with their harsh consonants, all
of which illustrate the frustrated and frenetic emotional state Shake
TO HELEN speare ascribes to lust. Note the variation on "s" sounds in the first line:

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Helen, thy beauty is tnasculins thyme/
Like those Nicean bai endfliyms Line 3 begins a list of qualities, and Shakespeare divides and associates
That gently, ofer a perfumed them through assonance and alliteration: Lust
alliteration irbore
To his own native shore. Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame.
106 Interpreting Poetry The Elements of Poetry 107

The words perjured and murderous are linked by assonance (the "er" Perhaps the most common sound device by which poets create
sounds) and focus on evil deeds (falsehood, murder), leading to the sec structure is end rhyme, and any pattern of end rhyme is called a rhyme
ond half of the line. The words bloody and blame are linked by allitera scheme. Rhyme scheme helps to establish another structural device, the
tion and focus on the results of evil deeds, especially murder: blood and stanza* which is physically separated from other stanzas (by a space in
guilt. The linkages signaled by the poem's end rhyme are also meaning
ful: shame/blame, lust/not to trust, no sooner had/make the taker mad,
serted between each stanza) and usually represents one idea.
The stanzas in a poem typically resemble one another struc
II
extreme/dream, yet none knows well/leads men to this hell. turally. They have the same number of lines, length of lines, metrical
In the poem you are analyzing, what linkages of meaning are patterns, and rhyme schemes. Poets can, of course, create any rhyme
there to all the sound qualities of the words—especially to the obvious scheme or stanza form they choose, but they often work instead within 1!
ones, such as alliteration, internal rhyme, and end rhyme? What light the confines of already established poetic structures. These are called
do these linkages throw on the themes of the entire poem? fixed forms. Stanzas that conform to no traditional limits, such as those
in "Dover Beach," are called nonceforms. The most famous fixed form in
English is the sonnet. Like other fixed forms, the sonnet provides ready-
■ Thinking on Paper about Sound made structural divisions by which a poet can organize ideas. But it also
challenges poets to mold unwieldy material into an unyielding struc
1. Underline instances of alliteration, assonance, and consonance in the ture. The result is a tension between material and form that is pleasing
poem. Explain the relationship between these devices and the sense
of the lines where they occur.
to both poet and reader.
All sonnets consist of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. The two it
2. Circle rhymed words. Explain what similarities and contrasts the best known lands of sonnets are named for their most famous practition
rhymed words call attention to. ers. A Shakespearean sonnet rhymes abab/cdcd/efef/gg and has a structural
division of three quatrains (each containing four lines) and a couplet. A
3. Circle words that have meaningful or attractive sound qualities, such
Petrarchan sonnet rhymes abbaabba in the octave (the first eight lines) and
as onomatopoetic words. Explain how these words add to the poem's
cdecde in the sestet (the last six lines). Poets often vary the pattern of end
sense.
rhyme in these kinds of sonnets; this is especially true of the sestet in the
4. When the sounds of a poem are harsh and grating, the effect is called Petrarchan sonnet. Note, for example, the sonnet below by Wordsworth.
cacophony. When they are pleasing and harmonious, the effect is Each kind of sonnet has a turn, a point in the poem at which the poet
called euphony. Underline instances of cacophony or euphony. Ex shifts from one meaning or mood to another. The turn in the Shake
plain how they relate to the poem's sense. spearean sonnet occurs between lines 12 and 13 (just before the couplet).
5. Describe any sound devices in the poem that catch you by surprise. The turn in the Petrarchan sonnet occurs between the octave and the ses
Explain how and why the poet uses such surprises. tet. In both forms, the part of the poem before the turn delineates a prob
lem or tension; the part after the turn offers some resolution to or
comment on the problem, and it releases the tension.
Structure

SONNET 116
I
Poets give structure to their poems in two overlapping ways: by orga
nizing ideas according to a logical plan and by creating a pattern of
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
sounds. Arnold arranges "Dover Beach" in both ways, as do most poets.
He divides the poem into four units, each of which has a pattern of end Let me not to the marriage of true minds
rhyme, and he arranges the whole poem rhetorically—that is, by ideas. three Admit impediments. Love is not love
quatrains
Each unit elaborates a single point, and each point follows logically Which alters when it alteration finds,
from the preceding one. Or bends with the remover to remove:
 108 Interpreting Poetry The Elements of Poetry 109

Oh, no) it is an ever-fixed mark, two quatrains. Li the first he states his theme; in the second he exemplifies
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; it. He then uses the sestet to suggest an alternate attitude, one that might
It is the star to every wandering bark, produce a greater appreciation of nature's mystery and majesty.
Whose worth's unknown, although his height
be taken, Questions about structure You can find definitions of many
quatrains Love's not Time's fool, though rosey lips and fixed forms—ballad, ode, heroic couplet, Alexandrine stanza, rhyme
{(ont'd)
cheeks e royal stanza, Spenserian stanza, and so forth—by looking them up in
Within his bending sickle's compass come; f handbooks of literature (such as those by Abrams and Harmon and
Love alters nor with his brief hours and weeks, e Holman). However, since poets do not always use fixed forms, and since
_ But bears it out even to the edge of doom. f 12 there are many ways to give poetry structure, try to answer this ques
If this be error and upon me proved, i
tion: What devices does the poet use to give the poem structure? Does
I
torn-*
(ouplel _ I never writ, nor no man ever loved. g 14 the poet use rhyme scheme, stanzas, double spaces, indentations, repe
tition of words and images, line lengths, rhetorical organization? As
with rhythm and sound, a follow-up question is of equal consequence:
Shakespeare molds the ideas and images of this poem to fit its form per
How does the poem's structure emphasize or relate to its meaning? An
fectly. He states the theme—that love remains constant no matter
example of such a relationship is the final stanza of "Dover Beach," in
what—in the first quatrain. In the second, he says that cataclysmic
which Arnold uses end rhyme to emphasize opposing worldviews:
events cannot destroy love. In the third, he says that time cannot de
stroy love. Finally, in the couplet, he affirms the truth of his theme.
Ah, love, let us be true a
To one another! for the world, which seems b
THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US To lie before us like a land of dreams, b
So various, so beautiful, so new, a
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, c
The world is too much with us; late and soon, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; d
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; And we are here as on a darkling plain d
Little we see in nature that is ours; Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, c
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon) Where ignorant armies clash by night. c
oitnve
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours, The rhyme scheme of the first four hnes is almost the same as the next
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers, five lines; the only difference is the addition of the fifth line. This simi
For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 8 larity divides die stanza in half, and the difference in rhymes corresponds
tun)1
It moves us not.—Great God! I'd rather be c to the difference of the ideas in the two halves (the new, beautiful world
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; d versus the war-torn, chaotic, threatening world).
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, c
sestet
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; d
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; c
■ Thinking on Paper about Structure
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. d 14

1. Mark the rhyme scheme of the poem or stanza. (Use the three ex
Wordsworth uses the structure of the Petrarchan sonnet to shape his amples on pages 107,108, and above as models for doing this.)
ideas. In the octave he states his general theme: that materialistic values 2. Draw horizontal hnes between each division or unit of the poem. In
and activities dull our sensitivity to nature. But he divides the octave into a sonnet, for example, mark divisions between quatrains, couplets,
 110 Interpreting Poetry Tbe Elements ofPoetry 111

octaves, and sestets. (Use the same poems mentioned in the above ship between how it looks and other elements of the poem, includ
assignments.) ing rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, line length, word choice, and
3. Summarize the meaning of each division of the poem. In a Shake meaning.
spearean sonnet, for example, summarize the meaning of each
quatrain and the couplet. In a Petrarchan sonnet, summarize the
meaning of the octave (and the quatrains within the octave) and the Free Verse
sestet For both kinds of sonnet, indicate how the meaning changes
after the turn. One sometimes puzzling form of poetry is^ree verse. It is puzzling be
4. Within the poem or stanza, summarize the relationships between cause it seems to lack obvious structural elements. The first practitioner
ideas suggested by the end rhyme. A couplet, for example, wher of free verse in modern times was Walt Whitman (beginning with the
ever it may appear in the poem or stanza, almost always states one 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass). Many people, when they saw Whit
idea or indicates a close connection between the sense of the two man's poetry for the first time, wondered if it was really poetry. They
lines. asked why any aprosew writings could not be arranged into lines of vary
5. If one or more lines are shorter or longer than most of the others, ing lengths and be called poetry. Since Whitman's time, many poets
describe the effect of that differing length on the sense and impact have written in free verse, and there is one very well-known antecedent
of the poem or stanza. to Whitman's free verse: the Bible. Hebrew poetry has its own compli
cated system of rhythms and sound associations, but when it is trans
6. Account for variations from the established rhyme scheme. Explain
lated into English it comes out as free verse. Here is a well-known
how the variations relate to the sense of the poem or stanza.
example (from the 1611 King James translation):
7. Describe and explain the significance of subtle differences between
sections or stanzas in a poem. Ballads, for example, often rely on in
cremental repetition—the repeating of phrases and lines from stanza The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
to stanza but with slight changes. The changes enhance suspense by He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me be
altering the meaning of each stanza. side the still waters.
He restoreth my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteous
8. Outline the units of meaning in the poem. That is, indicate where
ness for his name's sake.
the poet moves from one idea to another. Show how the units of
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I
meaning relate to visual structural divisions (such as stanzas), if
will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they
they do.
comfort me.
9. Describe the imagery of each unit. Show what images dominate Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine ene
each unit. Show differences in imagery from unit to unit. Explain mies; thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
how the images help create the sense of the unit. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
10. Some poems, for instance ballads, the songs in Shakespeare's plays, life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
and popular songs, were meant to be sung. For one of these poems,
explain the effect of this intention on the poem (choice of words,
Free verse is "free" in certain ways. It avoids strict adherence to
metrical pattern, rhyme, other sound devices, stanzaic form). If you
metrical patterns and to fixed line lengths. But it is not entirely "free,"
can, listen to a recording of the song.
because it creates rhythm and sound patterns in other ways. First, it
11. Some poems, such as George Herbert's "Easter Wings" and many often relies on the sound qualities of words to establish associations
of the poems by e. e. cummings, create an effect by the way they within words—assonance, alliteration, internal rhyme, and so forth.
look on the page. Choose one such poem and explain the relation- Second, it creates rhythm by repeating phrases that have the same
112 Interpreting Poetry The Elements ofPoetry 113

syntactical structure. See the Twenty-third Psalm, for example: "He 8. Mark and account for all of the sound qualities of the poem: allitera
maketh me," "he leadeth me,** "he restoreth my soul," "he Ieadeth me." tion, assonance, cacophony, euphony, internal rhyme, and so forth.
A more blatant example appears in the "out of* phrases in the first sec
tion of Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking":
Symbolism
Out of the cradle endlessly rocking,
Out of the mockingbird's throat, the musical shuttle, Symbolism appeals to poets because symbols are highly suggestive yet
Out of the Ninth-month midnight... succinct. As we say in Chapter 4, a symbol is an object—usually a
physical object—that represents an abstract idea or ideas. The most
Third, free verse can establish rhythms within lines by means of phrases powerful symbols are those that do not exactly specify the ideas they
of about equal length. Finally, free verse can vary lines meaningfully. represent. An example of a symbol in poetry occurs in the Twenty-
Whitman, for example, will sometimes have a series of long lines and third Psalm, quoted on page 111. The poem begins with a metaphor:
then one very short line that comments pertly on the preceding lines or God is like a shepherd and I (the speaker) am like one of his sheep;
resolves a tension within them. just as a shepherd takes care of his sheep, so will God take care of me.
But the poem shifts from metaphor to symbol with phrases such as
Questions about free verse Questions about free-verse po "green pastures," "still waters," and particularly "the valley of the
etry should be similar to questions about any poetry. What structural shadow of death." The meanings of "green pastures" (nourishment,
devices—divisions within the poem, line length, repeated syntactical security, ease) and "still waters" (peace, sustenance, calm) are fairly
units—does the poet use, and how do they complement the poet's easy to ascertain. But the meaning of "the valley of the shadow of
meaning? What patterns of imagery—descriptive and figurative—does death" is more difficult. It does not seem to mean just death, but a life
the poet use? What sound devices does the poet weave into the poem? experience—perhaps psychological or spiritual—that is somehow re
Why does the poet choose the words he or she does? Who is the lated to death (the "shadow" of death) that we must journey through
speaker, and to what situation is the speaker responding? (through the "valley"). Perhaps the indefiniteness of this phrase, com
bined with its ominous overtones, explains the grip it has had on peo
ple's imaginations.
■ Thinking on Paper about Free Verse Another example of a symbol in poetry is William Blake's "The
Sick Rose" (1794):
1. Read the poem aloud. Note the phrases that create the rhythm of
the poem. THE SICK ROSE

2. Underline repeated phrases in the poem, as with the "out of the cra
WILLIAM BLAKE
dle" phrase in Whitman's poem.
O Rose, thou art sick.
3. Mark with double vertical lines the caesuras in each line of the poem.
The invisible worm
4. Mark the accents in each line of the poem. That flies in the night
5. Explain why the lines end where they do. In the howling storm
6. Note any variation between short phrases and long phrases. Explain
Has found out thy bed
how these variations relate to the sense of the poem. Of crimson joy,
7. Explain the relationship between the rhythms of the poem and its And his dark secret love
meaning and purpose. Does thy life destroy.
114 Interpreting Poetry The Elements of Poetry 115

This poem might be understandable as a literal treatment of hor Works Consulted

ticulture: a real rose beset by an insect that preys on roses. But Blake
probably means for us to see the rose, the worm, and the action of the Abrams, M. H. A Glossary ofLiterary Terms. Fort Worm: Harcourt, 1999.
worm as symbolic. For one thing, the poem occurs in Blake's collection Fussell, Paul, Jr. Poetic Meter and Poetic Form, New York: Random
of poems Songs of Experience, suggesting that it represents the ominous House, 1967.
aspects of life, particularly human life. For another, much of the poem
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature.
makes little sense unless it can be taken symbolically: the "howling
7th ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1995
storm," the bed of "crimson joy," the worm's "dark secret love," for ex
ample. What, then, do these things represent? One interpretive ap Preminger, Alex, and T. V. F. Brogan, eds. The New Princeton Encyclo
proach would be to consider word meanings that Blake, who read pedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton U P, 1993.
widely in symbolic Christian literature, may have had in mind. The ar
chaic meaning of "worm" is dragon, which in Christian romance repre
sented evil and harks back to the deviPs appearance to Eve as a snake.
Also in Christian romance, the rose represented female beauty and pu
rity and sometimes represented the Virgin Mary, Blake seems, then, to
be symbolizing the destruction of purity by evil. The poem probably
also has sexual implications, since, for example, the worm (a phallic
image) comes at "night" to the rose's "bed." In general, the poem may
represent the destruction of all earthly health, innocence, and beauty by
mysterious forces. The point is that although we get the drift of Blake's
meaning, we do not know precisely what the symbolic equivalents are.
Yet the symbols are presented so sensuously and the action so dramati
cally that the poem grips us with a mesmerizing power.
When you read poetry, be alert for symbols, but persuade your
self—and your reader—that the objects you claim to be symbols were
intended as such by the author. Remember that not every object in a
I., a

poem is a symbol. What, then, are the symbols in the poem you are
reading? Why do you think they are symbols? What do they mean? In
I
answer to this last question, offer reasonable and carefully thought out
explanations for your interpretations. Stay close to what the author
seems to have intended the symbols to represent.
m

■ Thinking on Paper about Symbolism

1. Circle the symbols in the poem.

2. List the possible meanings of each symbol. Explain what evidence
suggests these meanings.
3. Explain what each symbol contributes to the overall meaning of
the poem.