Analysis of Poetry
Coming up with a method is key
Some from the other day
- Context
- Pre-Reading Strategy (plot, setting, character, theme)
- Power words (imagery, poetic devices, evocative language)
- Your response - connection to self, outer world.
- References and Allusions
- Symbolic Elements
Allusions
- illusions are imaginary visions
- ALLUSIONS are references within a text that have meaning outside the text, in prior works of art, literature, history, etc
- a poem may refer to something Biblical, or from Greek mythology, or from ancient history
- Job - a Biblical character whom God punished severely, but he never lost faith
- strength of Hercules - the Greek hero of myth who had a number of incredible adventures
- Battle of the Somme - a very famously bloody and wasteful battle - a poem could refer to it
- an allusion gives the poem all the associations from the “thing” to which the poet is alluding
- one word or phrase can equal a whole bunch of other material, ideas, pictures in your head, or load of other meanings -
- REQUIRE research - you MUST research terms, words, phrases and Proper Nouns in order to understand the allusion
- this started because everyone used to learn the same things in school
- eg Bible stories, the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, for examples - these are foundational - you can automatically guess that one of these three or four subjects might be a way to start your research
- you might be wrong, but there is OFTEN a good chance to find something that might fit the poem upon which you’re working
- “what COULD X mean?”
- This is 4s and 4+s live
Archetypes
- there are symbols that are universal and have meaning across cultures and different religions - repeated and used again and again
- mother is an archetype - Mary in Catholic religion, Kali in Hindu, Isis in ancient Egypt, etc,
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