English

sam1992

examples_eng106.pdf

Home >English homework help >English

English 106 Poetry Worksheet—Instructions/model (the LAST page is the page you copy [twice] and use for the

Worksheets)

This page is only for information, to show what goes in which section; you’ll copy your two from the

last page, and there are examples of an “A,” a “C”, and an “F” worksheet in between using a poem we

did the first day in class.

NAME____________________ POET_______________________ TITLE_____________________ PAGE #____

Part 1> Your visceral/gut level/emotional response to the poem after one (or two) readings. {This may be the

shortest section, but unless you know how you feel about a poem, it’s hard to think well about it.}

Part 2> Everything you can tease out about the way the poem is made: include details of structure, form,

language (be sure you know the meaning of every word)—all the technical stuff. {This is the section that I

expect to see a lot of improvement in during the course of the term; at the outset, you may not have much of the

exact language, but I want you to notice/note down everything you can, even if you can’t explain it at the start.}

Part 3> (the important one!) Do a close reading/interpretation of the poem, including both your initial reaction

and how that has been modified/expanded by closer study. You should present the poem, both its literal

meaning and any other interpretations that have arisen from your meeting with it. {This is the core of the

assignment: if you can’t interpret the poem, knowing it’s an Italian sonnet, or that the speaker is using dialect

doesn’t matter. Put the majority of your effort into Part 3 (that’s why it’s the biggest section on the page!)}

English 106 Poetry Worksheet Worksheet # ___

(send as attachment, .doc, .docx, or .rtf from your @wou.edu account to mine)

NAME An “A+” Student POET Emily Dickinson TITLE “Much madness is divinest sense” PAGE # 168 (you

couldn’t use it anyway, because we are using it on the first day…)

Part 1> Your visceral/gut level/emotional response to the poem after one (or two) readings. {In this section, you write whatever your own, personal reaction is} I feel lots of contradiction in this poem—word pairs that contrast with each other—and under the contradictions is a

strong feeling of almost outrage, and it leaves my feelings challenged by the poet’s feelings, so I’m curious and a bit

uneasy and I want to understand what she feels (because I like Dickinson’s other poems, I begin with trust; I want to

understand this one because other things she has said have been really important to me).

Part 2> Everything you can tease out about the way the poem is made: include details of structure, form,

language (be sure you know the meaning of every word)—all the technical stuff. {Here, we see a solid discussion of the principal elements both of structure and language/imagery. That is what the

assignment calls for—an explanation of how the poem works, culminating in a brief paraphrase or summary of its ‘literal’

meaning.} Structure: There are alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with some sort of rhyme connecting

most of the alternating lines, thus: ababcdac. Sense/madness/dangerous are slant rhymes, as are eye/Majority, but

they create the effect of rhyme by linking the enjambed lines. Another main structural element—D uses dashes—

instead of punctuation. Some of these dashes seem to slow us down like commas or periods, but others act to

intensify the speed of the poem. In ll 1-3, the dashes act like parentheses; the one in the middle of l. 3 seems to have

almost no function, while the one at the end of that line seems to be a full stop. I know from other poems of

hersthat Dickinson relies heavily on dashes; here their effect is to make the poem breathless and open-ended.

She uses upper-case letters for some sort of emphasis; just like the dashes that replace punctuation, they kind of

knock the reader’s expectations for a loop because just about every noun is upper case.

Language: Paradox: that is the single strongest element unifying this poem: madness/sense; assent/demur; sane/dangerous; even discerning eye/majority, though that doesn’t spring out quite as fast. That last one seems to be

what really makes D’s point. Individual words are crucial: divinest sense separates Madness from what the Majority believes to be sense, which, to the poet, is really starkest madness. And ‘prevail’ doesn’t mean the winners are right!

Her tone seems fairly neutral, except for a few words that give positive value to those who can discern past

appearances; maybe there’s a kind of irony going on.

Literally she’s saying that what seems to be ‘madness’ is often, from another point of view, absolutely ‘sense’—

“divinest” sense, that is, something beyond normal bounds of logic, but that if you don’t agree with the majority

opinion, you are likely to be called crazy.

Part 3> (the important one!) Do a close reading/interpretation of the poem, including both your initial reaction

and how that has been modified/expanded by closer study. You should present the poem, both its literal

meaning and any other interpretations that have arisen from your meeting with it. {Here, you should pull it all together, your initial reaction as it might be amplified or changed by a greater understanding

of the technical make-up of the poem.}

Dickinson’s point seems to be that if we look below the surfaces and stereotypes, beneath commonly accepted views,

we might discover (by discernment—her “discerning eye”) that what most people accept as sense (and she calls it as

‘common sense’ not what you get through your senses) is really madness; while what they believe to be Madness is

sense—but more than common sense, divinest sense. She recognizes that it’s risky to disagree: you’ll be thought

dangerous and chained. This poem could make a person proud of an opinion s/he held that others disagreed with;

equally, it could make another person uneasy because s/he might recognize s/he was holding ideas s/he really didn’t

believe in, just because the majority said they were true, and s/he hadn’t bothered to think them through for

her/himself. This poem supports a minority position, and what makes it particularly interesting is that the poet hasn’t

defined an issue; it is a very abstract poem. Right now we have examples of people whose thinking (not majority

opinions by any means) has caused much misery and pain. The question of whether or not something makes ‘divinest’

sense is always a serious one and deserves a lot of attention. Dickinson makes it sound as if, more often than not, the

majority could be wrong. That’s debatable.

English 106 Poetry Worksheet Worksheet # ___

(send as attachment, .doc, .docx, or .rtf from your @wou.edu account to mine)

NAME__A “C” STUDENT__ POET__E DICKINSON__________ TITLE_MUCH MADNESS____ PAGE #_168

Part 1> Your visceral/gut level/emotional response to the poem after one (or two) readings.

I don’t get this poem much. There’s a lot of opposites inside it, and madness and chains—seems like someone’s in

trouble. Lots of words I don’t know. Ok…looked them up. Now it makes a bit more sense. There’s something about

God in here, like, what we think is crazy maybe isn’t from God’s point of view? but I don’t know about the chain, or

why that would make someone dangerous. I feel like I don’t want to be in the majority here, but I don’t think I want

to be on the other side, either. Madness is uncomfortable, and I don’t ge why she thinks it could be something

positive—because I know God/divine is a good thing.

Part 2> Everything you can tease out about the way the poem is made: include details of structure, form,

language (be sure you know the meaning of every word)—all the technical stuff. {This discussion is weaker than in the previous example, but the writer has made a good effort to figure out what makes this

poem work, even if s/he isn’t always sure what’s going on or why it matters.}

Structure: The first thing I noticed is that she used a lot of capital letters in strange places and every line, except

one, ends with a — instead of normal punctuation. There’s some rhyme: abab(kind of)cdad I think. And there’s a

beat: 4 accents in lines 1,3,7, and three beats in the others, only I’m not sure about line 5, could be 3 or 4, depends on

how you say it? It could be one or two sentences; the dashes make it harder to figure out…maybe that’s intentional?

Language: I don’t see any metaphors here, but maybe the last line is supposed to be metaphoric. Lots of adjectives—

and unsual words, like starkest, assent, demur, and discerning. There’s no real speaker here, and I can’t figure who is

being talked to, either. ‘Stark’ means either naked or strong, I think it’s strong here. Discerning means noticing, so a discerning eye is one that pays attention—so I guess that’s a kind of metaphor, since eyes don’t pay attention, they

just bring in information. Prevail means to win, so the majority wins (well, that’s normal, isn’t it?)

Dickinson seems to be saying that what the most people think is right may not be. There’s a lot of contradiction:

madness and sense, assent and demur (they mean agree and disagree) and sane and dangerous—only those are not

quite contradictions.

Part 3> (the important one!) Do a close reading/interpretation of the poem, including both your initial reaction

and how that has been modified/expanded by closer study. You should present the poem, both its literal

meaning and any other interpretations that have arisen from your meeting with it.

This poem makes more sense now (ha, ha!) I think Dickinson says people need to look past what they, like society,

think is right to see if there’s may be more going on. It’s really vague, because she isn’t giving us any details or

examples, but it seems to make an important statement anyway. A lot of madness makes sense if you see it from

God’s point of view. It’s a really black/white poem, without any room for anything in between.

The way she’s written the poem is like what she’s saying in the poem; the contradictions all tie together and the

lack of punctuation makes it all sound breathless.

English 106 Poetry Worksheet Worksheet # ___

(send as attachment, .doc, .docx, or .rtf from your @wou.edu account to mine)

NAME__AN “F” PAPER______ POET___EMILY DICKENSIN___ TITLE__MUCH MADNESS__ PAGE #__168__ {Notice that the poet’s name is misspelled; I take a lot of credit off for that b/c you can copy it from the book!}

Part 1> Your visceral/gut level/emotional response to the poem after one (or two) readings.

Ok, there’s a lot of stuff in this poem. Someone’s crazy, and going to be chained up, because everyone thinks he’s

wrong. Maybe there’s a sermon? There’s god, anyway. hard to read because it doesn’t stop anywhere.

Part 2> Everything you can tease out about the way the poem is made: include details of structure, form,

language (be sure you know the meaning of every word)—all the technical stuff.

It kind of rhymes. Maybe it’s free verse. There’s no punctuation, just a comma in the middle. Lots of capital letters

and dashes. Madness and sense keep contradicting. It’s obvious that someone’s going to be in big trouble because

they don’t agree with something.

Part 3> (the important one!) Do a close reading/interpretation of the poem, including both your initial reaction

and how that has been modified/expanded by closer study. You should present the poem, both its literal

meaning and any other interpretations that have arisen from your meeting with it.

Some people see crazy where others see normal, and if you aren’t in the right place, you’ll get locked up.

{There are many ways to fail! But the easiest is to do almost nothing. Remember, each of these is worth 20% of your

grade; pick poems that interest you and that you can figure out—no outside sources EXCEPT you can—and should—use a

dictionary!}

Your worksheet to copy is on the next page.