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

Wilfed Owen

Wilfred Owen became popular as a poet because of his poetic creation " Anthem for Doomed Youth". He, in this poem, vehemently critisizes the war taking it as a "leading wat' for the youth to the grave. It is quite ironical and really a blunder of his fate that he too was killed in action in the battle field at a very early age. He was born in 1893 in Shropshire.In his childhood, his family moved to Birkenhead.He was the eldest of the family.He was an Angelican.During his school days , he was bright in his studies.He passed matriculation of the University of London.as the first career in his life, he worked as a teacher.In 1915 he was commissioned in the Manchester regiment.It was quite pathetic that Owen bade goodbye to his life at a very young age and was killed one week before the agreement for the ceasefire.

"My subject is war and the pity of war;The poetry is in the pity."

this is pathetic as well as ironic because the cruel war cost his life too.

William Butler Yeats

W.B.Yeats was a poet and a dramatist. He was born in Dublin in 1865, the son of a noted Irish painter. In 1887 They migrated to London.He wrote lyrical symbolic poems on Irish themes, for example, "The Wondering s of Osin" and " Lake Isle of Innis-free"He believed in characteristics of ancient Celts. He also wrote "Celtic Twilight" and the "Secret Rose". on his visit to Ireland, He met the beautiful Irish patriot  Maud Gonne and fell in love with her.For the rest of his life, she inspired him.Yeats returned to Ireland in 1896. There he joined the playwright, Lady gregory and they both started the famouse "Abbey Theater" in 1904. There he devoted to production of plays. Among the plays he produced with Maud Gonne were "Cathleen ni Houlihan" and "Deidre" a tragedy in verse. Later in his life Yeats wrote some more poems such as 

•  The Wing among the reeds
• The shadowy waters
• The Green Hamlet

In his poetry, he displays how much he loved realistic theory. His later poetry was free from self-consciousness.

Wilfred Owen

Wilfed Owen was born on March 1893 in Oswestry,Shropshire,in England. He was the son of Tom and Susan Owen In 1897, the family moved to Birkenhead. His education began at the Birkenhead Institute and continued at the technical school in Shrewsbury. Owen displayed a keen interest in the arts at the very young age and his earliest experiment in poetry began at the age of 17. he failed to enter the University of London and worked as lay assistant to the RevHerbert Wigan at Dunsden.During the latter part of 1914 and early 1915 he became increasingly aware of the magnitude of the war. and joined the British Rifles. There he was badly shell shocked and evacuated to England hospital. It was in this hospital his literary energies increased. He was awarded the Military Cross for bravery for Amiens. But he was killed on the 14th of November while attemptin to lead his men across the Sambre.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Alfred Lord Tennyson was born in 1809 and died in 1892. He is one of the most outstanding of the Victorian poets.His skill is particularly noted with regard to his use of rhythm and rhyme. A good deal of the poems which are enjoyed today, written in his early and early middle periods- among the volumes of 1830, 1832,and 1842. Looking through these poems one notices the influence of Keats. "Mariana" is one such poem. Tennyson also noted for his ability to create atmosphere and landscape. " The Dying Swan" invokes a unique world of the imagination. Tennyson is also remembered for his historical poems set in medieval England. E.g. " Morted' Arthur" recreates the legend of King Arthur.His poem " Charge of the Light Brigade " is based on a real incident during the Crimean war of 1853-1856, when Britain together with France and Turkey fought against Russia. It was fought on Russian territory and so the Russians were at an advantage. Tennyson has praise for the men who fought in this battle.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare, English playwright and poet is recognized in much of the world of the greatest of all dramatists.in his plays he communicates a profound knowledge of human behaviour through a wide variety of charactors.He was born in 1564.A sonnet is the art and style of his poetry.It describes a devotion of charactor ,often identifies as the poet himself.His modern reputation is mainly based on his plays he wrote.

(Shylock,Much a do about nothing,As you like it,Twelfth night,Romeo juliet,Julius Ceaser,Hamlet,othello and Macbeth)

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost followed one significant way confined to him. It is a way of uniting opposites. Then the theme and the materials he took in his poetry are always casual in tone but profound in effect. They are teasing and intense,playful yet deeply penetrating.He can be introduced as a philosophical poet.His famouse remarks on poetry proves it.

         " Poetry begins with delight;but,it ends with wisdom"

His poetry deals with the specific habits,manners and beliefs of the people of New England and scenic beauty of his landscape.He used a very direct and simple language. The strength of his poems is their simplicity.There is always a very human message for his readers.He concentrates on ordinary subject matter, he evokes a wide range of emotions.Most of his poetry is concerned with how people interact with their environment. He saw the beauty of the nature and also its potential dangers.

Jhon Donne (1572-1631)

John Donne was a leading poet and his poetry differs from others.During his time many changes took place in the fields of science,philosophy,religion and politics.As a result English social and intellectual life was passing from medieval to modern.People began todevelop an enquiring mind.On the other hand this new trend broke down the old social order.As a result a great mrlancholy came over the society.The plaque of 1953 that killed thousands of men,women and children worsend this mood.It convinced how helpless people were.The result was the type of poetry that Donne and some other poets wrote.They came to be known as metaphisical poets.Their poetry is logical and soul searching.Donne's poetry depends upon passionate argument.His rhythem shows the stresses and strains of his careful thinking.Sometimes his word order is complicated and uses an additional vowel in spelling.This makes it difficult to understand Donne until we get use to his language.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

With the advancement of science and importance given to reason, poetry based on emotions went out of fashion.So the latter part of the seventeenth century and in the early part of the eighteenth century it was replaced by a keen interest in science, philosophy...etc.Thus we see in the poetry of Dryden very little use is made of image and symbols.

                      William Wordsworth created a new trend by keeping out serious intellectual concern from poetry and concentrating on emotions.In the preface of his first publication William Wordsworth explains his idea of what poetry should be.He believed that it was the poet's sacred duty to communicate as wide an audience as possible.He says that  "poet is a man speaking to men in the language of men". So in his poetry he uses simple and clear language that could be understood by ordinary people.His topics were also drawn from common life.Another important remark by him was that poetry is a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings.It takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.So in poems we can't see direct experience of poets but what is created in the imagination of the poet, after careful selection and modification of the impressions gained through the experience.Because of this his poetry has a dream world quality and he came to be known as Romantic.