Notes 3:12:18 - emotion in poetry, unusual words PDF

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emotion in poetry, unusual words...

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Poetry 3/12/18 Notes Emotion Review: We have examined the work of poetic devices that deal with human awareness, or sense of perception:  How the mind deals with the images the senses provide  How it relates and compares them: simile & metaphor  How it handles conflicting evidence: paradox  How it presents or chooses not to represent images: synesthesia, withholding images Emotion:  Encompasses our reaction to the objects or situations that those images and their organizations make us aware of  So it is ultimately through the images that we have been studying that poetry conveys emotion  Either though the image of the object or the image of its physical effect  But conveying emotion often entails walking a fine line between subtlety and excess  Instead of directly revealing emotion, poets can provide values to it  Could seems insensitive or unfeeling to a hasty of unsympathetic reader  Other poets opt for excess, an effusive display of emotion  Could falsify the object of that emotion  If poetry lets us access some emotional experience, it is necessary that we believe a poem’s emotion  This is not the same thing as agreeing with the poet’s ideas  How do effective poems construct this believability  Possible use of archetypal images  Primal patterning’s that subconsciously stir us  Usually some mix of emotions explored  Even poems that have an identifiable primary emotion bleed into other associated feelings  Avoidance of sentimentality  Emotion in excess of its object, “fake passion”  Self-indulgent, emotion for its own sake  Precise about the object, reticent about the feeling 3/19/2018 Poetry Notes Machine for Magic: The Fresh, Unusual Words So far…  How the senses give us information of our world  How these images are related or complicated

Poetry  How these images then affect us (how they inspire emotion But the only way to share image and emotion in poetry is through the written word  To communicate image and emotion effectively form the mind of the poet to the mind of the reader, the words have to be right Poets care how they say what they say     

Their concreate of abstract qualities Their suggestions (connotation/denotation) Their complexity or simplicity The number of words used Their histories

Concrete: an images presented to our consciousness with physical detail Abstract: the related idea stripped of physical detail  Bread v. nutrition  Brunette v. coloration  Sunlight v. meteorology This basic idea holds true for emotion. Some words directly express emotion while others have come to be associated/charged with emotion  Fear – knife  Comfort – embrace  Danger – fire  Love – rose Denotation: a words literal or primary meaning – dictionary meaning  Noun: magic  1. The power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces Connotation: an idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning  Magic  Excitement, witch craft, tricks, In addition to a words denotation or connotation, poets also have to make choices about complexity or simplicity Issues of complexity and simplicity may also raise questions of quantity Nouns and Verbs are most important  Nouns: refer the forms that being can take  Verbs: describe their activity Adjectives add precision, luxuriance, or a needed “muchness” appropriate to a poet’s subject- when used for special effect,

Poetry

3/26 Meaning Words do not only have a mind (a meaning), they have a body (a sound).  Meaning also lives in the structure of sound Speech sounds: vowels and consonants  Vowels: air flow from the lungs is not impeded o A, e, I, o, u: formed by reshaping the instrument, the mouth and tongue, as air flows through it or around it o Vowels are like musical notes  Shorter waves, more per second, higher frequency (shrill)  Longer waves, fewer per second, lower frequency sound (deep) o The “upness” or “downness” of a vowel on the frequency scale affects us physically and then emotionally  High freq. “ee” quicker vibration  Low freq. “oo” slower vibration Consonants: are produced by an interference that cuts off or impedes the airflow  Distinctive characters o Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds o Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds  W and Y: most vowel like  R: dark and throaty  R and I: liquids, air flows around the tongue  M, N, and NG: nasals, airflow diverted into the nasal passages to vibrate there  H, F, C, TH, DH, S, Z, SH, ZH: fricatives, audible friction  P, B, T, D, K, G: slops of plosives, cut off air then release pressure  P and B: most forceful or explosive  T and D: neater and trimmer than explosive  K and hard G: guttural sound A word on alliteration: good alliteration creates a bond od identity between words  Sounds in common, something else in common too?  Link in order to contrast  Assonance can serve the same purpose, usual more subtly

4/9/18 Rhyme Our analysis od poetry so far has examined:

Poetry     

How How How How How

the senses give us images of our world these images are related or complicated these images then inspire emotion emotion is shared through word choice meaning/emotion also lives in the structure of sound

 But sound in poetry can also be classified according to its origin, structures, and/or uses.  Dictionaries commonly indicate that many of the “sound words” in English usage are of imaginative origin, but they may also have been part of ancient language processes.  Onomatopoeia: “name-making”, the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named. o Imitative sounds produced by:  Limited capabilities of our vocal cords  Attempting to produce a word that could later be written down. o Examples: giggle, gargle, sizzle, plop, beep, burp, smooch But in poetry, sound communicates little by itself.  Onomatopoeia = reinforces or dramatizes a meaning we already know is there.  Example poem: “Player Piano” o 1st stanza: click, snicker, chuckling, knuckle, flicker, pluck  stick fingers – sound of the mechanization of player playing the piano   But what if we want to imitate is not a sound associated with a thing (as in onomatopoeia), but some other category of experience?  Shape, movement, character, role, nature, etc.?  A short example:  “Must a name mean something?” Alice asked doubtfully.  “Of course it must,” Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh, “my name means the shape I am – and a good handsome shape it is, too.” o The sound of his name is reflective of the shape of his nature, his quality of being an egg.  A longer example: o In “Adam’s Task,” John Hollander plays with the ancient Hebrew idea that names were thought of as symbols or keys to the nature, character, or role of the bearer. o (handout of poem) o 4th stanza, last 2 lines: 

Poetry “Then work (referring to Adam’s Task), half-measuring  measuring the animalness, quality, attributes of the animals  half-humming,  Adams naming of animals is half-humming  Themselves are involved in the activity of making sound   We can also find words in which movement of the lips, tongue, and cheek (together with a suggestive sound) simulate the action described.  Examples: flare, whistle, sling, creep o Flare – your mouth does what the flame does when you say the word. o Whistle – when you say the word, your mouth imitates what a whistle does o Sling – mouth pulls back like a sling  And those in which sounds are not imitative, but suggestive musical equivalents  Examples: swoon, mood, horror, smudge  All of these examples:  Are basically a form of synesthesia  they try to provide an equivalent in sound for other sensory perceptions.  An attempt to physicalize poetry  to join the participation of mind and body.   So what about rhyme?  Like onomatopoeia, keeps poetry form being too rational  Sparks a current of thought or emotion between two ideas, images, etc.  when two words rhyme, their meaning interacts.  Good rhyming is a feat of skill with words.  Psychological tendency – better to return to a starting place (as in music).  Physical reality predisposes us to corresponding pairs or symmetry.  Structural possibilities – can act as scaffolding for poetic form (see next slide) end of class Rhyme  Onomatopoeia keeps poetry from being too rational o Sparks thought of emotion between two ideas  Off rhyme: or slant rhyme words sound similar but not perfectly Cacophony: harsh mixture of sounds ex: slant rhyme Euphony: pleasing to the ear 

Poetry

4/11/18 Group 5: Thinking about diction/creating new words Main Ideas: Creating new words creates new insights and awareness’s -new language -interesting -reworking words Ex: “droozed” When he falls And looks up from those droozed Ancient eyes Ex: Fo//rest Lots of trees in the fo Rest but this one’s an O A K that’s a plan>>>> a fine oak, an ok oak...