Poetry Analysis

Poetry analysis is the process of investigating a poem's form, content, and history in an informed way, with the aim of heightening one's own and others' understanding and appreciation of the work.

 

Like poetry itself, poetry analysis can take many forms, and be undertaken for many different reasons. A teacher might analyze a poem in order to gain a more conscious understanding of how the poem achieves its effects, in order to communicate this to his or her students. A writer learning the craft of poetry might use the tools of poetry analysis to expand and strengthen his or her own mastery. A reader might use the tools and techniques of poetry analysis in order to discern all that the work has to offer, and thereby gain a fuller, more rewarding appreciation of the poem.

Biography of Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost, b. San Francisco, Mar. 26, 1874, d. Boston, Jan. 29, 1963, was one of America's leading 20th-century poets and a four-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. An essentially pastoral poet often associated with rural New England, Frost wrote poems whose philosophical dimensions transcend any region. Although his verse forms are traditional - he often said, in a dig at arch riva  that he would as soon play tennis without a net as write free verse - he was a pioneer in the interplay of rhythm and meter and in the poetic use of the vocabulary and inflections of everyday speech. His poetry is thus both traditional and experimental, regional and universal.

After his father's death in 1885, when young Frost was 11, the family left California and settled in Massachusetts. Frost attended high school in that state, entered Dartmouth College, but remained less than one semester. Returning to Massachusetts, he taught school and worked in a mill and as a newspaper reporter. In 1894 he sold "My Butterfly: An Elegy" to The Independent, a New York literary journal. A year later he married Elinor White, with whom he had shared valedictorian honors at Lawrence (Mass.) High School. From 1897 to 1899 he attended Harvard College as a special student but left without a degree. Over the next ten years he wrote (but rarely published) poems, operated a farm in Derry, New Hampshire (purchased for him by his paternal grandfather), and supplemented his income by teaching at Derry's Pinkerton Academy.

In 1912, at the age of 38, he sold the farm and used the proceeds to take his family to England, where he could devote himself entirely to writing. His efforts to establish himself and his work were almost immediately successful. A Boy's Will was accepted by a London publisher and brought out in 1913, followed a year later by North of Boston. Favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic resulted in American publication of the books by Henry Holt and Company, Frost's primary American publisher, and in the establishing of Frost's transatlantic reputation.

American Poets

(1)  Robert frost                            Poems Written   180
      (1874 - 1963)

 (2) E E Cummings                        Poems Written   153                   
      (1874 - 1963)

 (2) E E Cummings                       Poems Written  20
      (1894 - 1962)

 (3) Shel silverstein                      poems Written  172
      (1932 - 1999)

 (4) Anne Sexton                           Poems Written  330
      (1928 - 1974)

 (5)Walt Whitman                         poems Written   95
      (1819 - 1892)

 (6) Stephen Crane                       Poems Written     29
      (1871 - 1900)

 (7) Langston Hughes                   Poems Written  73
      (1902 - 1967)

 (8) Ezra Pound                             Poems Written  121
      (1885 - 1972)

 (9) Sylvia Plath                            Poems Written 
      (1932 - 1963)






               
    

Devices in details

Alliteration The repetition of consonant sounds, especially at the beginning of words. Example: "Fetched fresh, as I suppose, off some sweet wood." Hopkins, "In the Valley of the Elwyn." Assonance The repetition of similar vowel sounds in a sentence or a line of poetry or prose, as in "I rose and told him of my woe." Whit man's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" contains assonant "I's" in the following lines: "How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and gliding out I wandered off by myself." Climax The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work. The climax of John Updike's "A&P," for example, occurs when Sammy quits his job as a cashier Characterization The means by which writers present and reveal character. Although techniques of characterization are complex, writers typically reveal characters through their speech, dress, manner, and actions. Readers come to understand the character Miss Emily in Faulkner's story "A Rose for Emily" through what she says, how she lives, and what she does.

Poetic Dvices

Alliteration - The repetition of initial consonant sounds.

Assonance - The repetition of vowel sounds.

Imagery - Words or phrases that appeal to any sense or any combination of senses.

Metaphor - A comparison between two objects with the intent of giving clearer meaning to one of them. Often forms of the "to be" verb are used, such as "is" or "was", to make the comparison.

Meter - The recurrence of a pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Onomatopoeia - The use of words which imitate sound.

Personification - A figure of speech which endows inanimate objects with human traits or abilities.

Point-of-view - The author's point-of-view concentrates on the vantage point of the speaker, or "teller", of the story or poem.

• 1st person: the speaker is a character in the story or poem and tells it from his/her perspective (uses "I")
• 3rd person limited: the speaker is not part of the story, but tells about the other characters but limits information about what one character sees and feels.
• 3rd person omnivorousness speaker is not part of the story, but is able to "know" and describe what all characters are thinking.

Repetition - the repeating of words, phrases, lines, or stanzas.

Rhyme - The similarity of ending sounds existing between two words.

Rhyme scheme - The sequence in which the rhyme occurs. The first end sound is represented as the letter "a", the second is "b", etc.

Simile - A comparison between two objects using a specific word or comparison such as "like", "as", or "than". 

Stanza - a grouping of two or more lines of a poem in terms of length, metrical form, or rhyme scheme. 

Jean Arasanayagam

Jean Arasanayagam was a Srilankan and reputed as one of the contemporary leading poets in Srilanka who writes in English. She is the author of several published volumes of poetry written by her. In 1984, she won the national awards for non-fiction literature.She is a Burgher by birth but married to a Tamil.Because of this marriage she had to suffer enormously during the racial violence.She tried to convey information about Tamil community in Srilanka. Therefore her poetry was extended with a widespread recognition.

                                                                    " Wedding Photographs" is an ideal reflection out of her poetry because it brings a wide description about the cultural patterns, rituals and traditions of the Tamil community in Srilanka.some of her poetry has been written while she was in a refugee camp.It appears that some of her poetry is biased.

Andrew Motion

Andrew Motion is an English poet,novelist and a biographer who was honoured with Poet Laurate. his poems are knowen for the insightful way in which they explore loss and desolation.He was born in 1952 in Essex.His mother died when he was 17 years.He studied in university college,oxford and studied the poetry of Edward Thomes for his M Litt degree.In 1975, he won the Newdigate Prize for Oxford undergraduate poetry.Later h worked as an English teacher in University of Hull.In 1989, he worked as a professior of creative writing.

Motion published a number of poetry which brought him much credit and reputation.Some of them are 

• The pleasure Streamers
• Independence
• Natural Causes
• Salt Water
• Spring wedding
• Regime Change 
• Anne Frank Hui's