Poetry Study Notes
--1. Turn to Claude McKay’s “The Tropics in New York”:
What’s the story?
Who are the characters that we get?
What’s the scene, the physical scene?
What happens? Is there action? Interior or exterior action?
What’s the mood? How can you tell?
What questions do you have about this poem? Ask me.
There are three stanzas here: what should we notice about that?
How many sentences are there in this poem?
How do the number of sentences relate to the flow of the poem?
What would happen to the poem if we just had the last stanza?
Or, what if we had stanzas 1 & 2, but not 3?
Do you like this poem? Does it work for you? Why or why not?
--2. Turn to Sara Teasdale’s “Night Song at Amalfi”:
How does this poem feel different from McKay’s poem?
What or where is “Amalfi”? Do you know? Can you guess? Does it matter?
What’s the story?
Characters? Scene? Action?
What’s the mood? How can you tell?
What questions do you have about this poem? Ask me.
There are three stanzas in this poem: what should we notice about that?
Do the sentences end with each stanza or flow into the next stanza?
What would happen if we changed all the “night” and “dark” references to “day” and “light” references?
What would happen if we changed all the “I” references to “he” or “she” or even “they”? What about “we”? How would this be a different poem?
--3. Turn to Mary Wroth’s Sonnet # 1 from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus:
What’s the story?
Who are the characters that we get?
Who is the son of Venus? Who or what is Venus, by the way?
What seems to be motivating Venus?
Or, what's with all the burning ? What burns? What does this burning mean?
What’s the situation? The physical scene if we were making a video?
What questions do you have about the poem? Ask me.
A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines, but notice how the units of the poem work: 1-4; 5-8; 9-14.
How can I tell that these are the units here?
Does it help to read the poem in those units, pausing after each part to check what it seems to mean? (I hope so.)
What is a “martyr”? How is the speaker’s heart “martyred”?
What is the tone of the last three lines? How can we tell?
Is this love, this being a lover a good thing to the speaker?
We have a dream vision in the poem: why use a dream to express what’s going on?
