Literature

Objectives

• Identify the use of figures of speech, symbols, allegory, irony, and/or sound in a poem
• Describe how these elements affect interpretations of the poem

Instructions

Here is our discussion prompt for the poems. Some of you may note that these aren’t all from this weeks reading, but they are good poems with form and rhythm worth examining.

1.  Choose one of the following four poems:

o  William Shakespeare's “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”

o  Robert Herrick's “Delight in Disorder”

o  William Blake's “The Lamb"

o  Natasha Trethewey's “On Captivity”

2.  For your chosen poem, describe the rhythm, form and one other element of the poem, and discuss how you feel these things add to the poem. Feel free to look up information on the form’s history and any traditions surrounding it, but be sure to add a note about where you found any information from sources other than our textbook. You may paraphrase such information by saying something like “so and so says such and such in their book/web-page, and I think that this…” Don’t feel you need to find any information other than what’s in our textbook, —it’s better to ask a question than to fail an assignment because of plagiarism.