Poetry

1
Poetry
2
Poets on Poetry

• "What oft was thought, but neer so well
  expressed."
• (Alexander Pope, 1688-1744, from An Essay on
  Criticism, 1709/11)
• poetry should form a mirror of reality and
  represent general truth in a clear elevated style

3
Poets on Poetry

• "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful
  feelings it takes its origins from emotion
  recollected in tranquillity."
• (William Wordsworth, 1770-1850, from Preface to
  Lyrical Ballads, 1800)

4
Poets on Poetry

• "Poetry is language charged with meaning to the
  utmost possible degree."
• (Ezra Pound, 1885-1972)

5
Poets on Poetry

• "A poem is true if it hangs together. Information
  points to something else. A poem points to
  nothing but itself."
• (E.M. Forster, "Anonymity An Enquiry",
• Two Cheers for Democracy, 1951)

6
Poets on Poetry

• "A poem should not mean. But be."
• (Archibald MacLeish, "Ars Poetica", 1926)

7
What is Poetry?

• Poetry is one of the oldest forms of artistic
  expression and it seems to originate in a human
  impulse that reaches for expression in joy,
  grief, doubt, hope, loneliness, etc.

8
William Carlos Williams

• This Is Just to Say
• I have eaten
• the plums
• that were in
• the icebox
• and which you were probably
• saving
• for breakfast
• Forgive me
• they were delicious
• so sweet
• and so cold

9
What is Poetry?

• language cast in verse
• a subjective first-person persona or voice
• brevity, concentration, reduction
• an unusual use of words and phrases
• suggestive imagery
• rhythm, metre
• repetition of sounds
• lines grouped in stanzas
• specialized language
• aesthetic self-referentiality

10
Communication in Poetry

• external communication of the poem
• ?
• composition literary conventions
• ?
• real author ? real reader

internal communication of the
poem speaker / persona / voice
? you dramatic monologue implicit sender
? implicit addressee/ receiver
11
Michael Drayton (1563-1631) (NAEL 1967-68)

• Since theres no help, come, let us kiss and
  part
• Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
• And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart
• That thus so cleanly I myself can free
• Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
• And when we meet at any time again,
• Be it not seen in either of our brows
• That we one jot of former love retain.
• Now at the last gasp of loves latest breath,
• When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
• When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
• And innocence is closing up his eyes
• Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him
  over,
• From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.

12
Rhetoric

• The art of using language so as to persuade or
  influence others the body of rules to be
  observed by a speaker in order to achieve
  effective or eloquent expression.
• Orig., elegance or eloquence of language. Later,
  language calculated to persuade or to impress.

13
specialized language

• figurative language vs. literal language

14
Rhetorical Devices

• Schemes (Satzfiguren)

• Tropes
• (Wortfiguren)

15
Tropes (Wortfiguren)

• Rhetorical tropes are devices of figurative
  language.
• They represent a deviation from
• the common or main significance of a word or
  phrase (semantic figures)
• or include specific appeals to the audience
  (pragmatic figures).

16
Tropes (Wortfiguren)

• metonomy
• oxymoron
• paradox
• pun (paranomasia)
• periphrasis (circumlotion)
• personification
• simile ? conceit
• symbol
• synecdoche

• allegory
• antithesis
• apostrophe
• emphasis
• euphemism
• hyperbole
• irony
• litotes (understatement)
• metaphor

17
Example Simile

• primum secumdum
• comparandum comparandum
• tertium comparationis
• e.g. This tofu-steak is like paper-maché

18
Example Metaphor

• Comparison view indirect comparison without
  like or as
• e.g. Theres daggers in mens hearts ...
• (Shakespeare, Macbeth)
• Substitution view a word or phrase from one
  semantic field is replaced by an expression
  denoting an analogous circumstance in a different
  semantic field
• e.g. The chairman plowed through the
  discussion.

19
Example Metaphor

• Interaction view
• Tenor Vehicle (I.A. Richards)
• Frame Focus (Max Black)
• e.g. Max Black The chairman plowed through the
  discussion.
• e.g. Here comes eye-candy man.

20
Example Metaphor

• Tenor Vehicle
• (handsome man) (eye-candy man)
• tertium comparationis
• (well-built, good-looking, nice to look
• at)

21
Example Metonymy

• replaces one concept by another that is closely
  related to it
• it does not explore new meanings like metaphor
  but varies the fopcus within the same reference
• e.g. the crown as symbol of status replaces the
  Queen the crown decides to kill off half the
  swan population.
• e.g. name of a place stands for its inhabitants
  Manchester welcomes the champions.
• e.g. the container refers to the content have
  one more glass.

22
Example Synechdoche

• uses the part for the whole
• pars pro toto
• or the whole for the part
• totum pro parte
• e.g. a roof over ones head (part for the whole)
• e.g. Man is selfish and cruel. (singular instead
  of plural)
• e.g. the woolly kind (material stands for the
  object)
• e.g. this kinda language is unnecessary (whole
  for the part)

23
Sources/ Reference

• Chris Baldick. Oxford Concise Dictionary of
  Literary Terms. Oxford and New York Oxford UP,
  2004
• J. A. Cuddon. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary
  Terms and Literary Theory. London Penguin Books,
  1998.
• Michael Meyer. English and American Literatures.
  Tübingen and Basel A. Francke, 2004.