Connecticut Mastery Test Strands
A3 - Select and use relevant information from the text in order to summarize events and/or ideas in the text
B1 - Identify or infer the author's use of structure/organizational patterns.
C2 - Select, synthesize, and/or use relevant information within the text to write a personal response to the text.
D1 - Analyze and evaluate the author's craft including use of literary devices and textual elements
D2 - Select, synthesize, and/or use relevant information within the text to extend or evaluate the text.
How We Look at Poetry Questions
(Hand Holding Our Way to Understanding)
Content: What does the piece say to you? How do the
tone
of the speaker and the
content
of the work change your understanding of the poem? This is where you decide who and how the speaker speaks.
1)
Speaker
: How does the speaker, speak? Is the speaker the poet or a specific fictional character? Is the speaker an
omniscient narrator
(speaker who knows everything, may reveal the motivations, thoughts and feelings of the characters, and gives the reader information) or casual observer? Who does s/he sound like? How is the speaker involved in the poem? Does the speaker refer to himself/ herself in the first person ("I" did this or saw that)? Is there more than one speaker? How does this change the meaning? Is the speaker from a specific country/state/region or from an identifiable time period in history? How or does knowing the historical context of the poem or the area from which the speaker is from change your understanding of the speaker's attitude?
2)
Conflict or Tension
: What is the conflict (a problem) or point of tension in the poem? Is there an external (fighting with a person/people, with nature, with society) or internal conflict (the arguments a person might have with himself/herself – i.e. should I do this, why did I do that)? Is the conflict physical, spiritual (sacred or religious), moral (ethical), philosophical (truth seeking), or social? How are tension and poetic elements intertwined or connected? Is it resolved?
3)
Context
: When was the poem written? What were the historical, political, philosophical, and social issues of that time (what was happening in the world)? Did any of these events or issues appear in the poem or influence the poem? Do any of these ideas change your understanding of the poem's theme? Extra credit: Did poets during that time period follow a particular style? Is the poem consistent with the literary conventions of that era? How is it inconsistent? The answers to these questions would come from the intermingling of the background information you supply each student as you began the study of a particular poem, their independent research, and their interpretation and inference with regard to each poem. This critical thinking exercise will initially need great support from you as they come to understand how these connections are to be made.
4)
Tone
: How is the
tone
(the writer's attitude toward the topic and his way of communicating that attitude) of the poem, developed through language, used to create imagery (images, similes, metaphors, description)? How does
diction
(pronunciation) or
dialect
(the language peculiar to the members of a group or region which is distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary i.e.
a southern drawl
) influence the understanding of the tone? Does the tone change as the poem progresses? Is it consistent at the beginning and ending of the poem?
(These understandings would need to be grounded with a discussion of tone found in section
The Sounds That Are Poetry
)
Language
: How do the language and rhythm contribute to the meaning, purpose or emotional force?
1)
Word Choice
: Would you characterize the poet's word choice as formal or conversational? If the poet uses a specific dialect for the speaker, can you explain why? Does the time period when the poem is written affect the word choice? Today, poets use recognizably current, concrete, vivid, bold, or reserved word choices, but in past centuries poets explained and described situations or ideas using different writing styles, some being descriptive, some analytical, and some reflective based on the purpose and audience of the poem. Can you tell from the language, when a poem was written?
2)
Meaning
: What are a particular word's
connotations
(the emotions, values, or images associated with it) and a specific word's
denotations
(its literal meaning). Are certain words repeated? Are they abstract or concrete, literal or metaphorical (symbolic)?
3)
Rhythm
: How many
syllables
are in each line? Does it follow a pattern? What syllables are
stressed
and unstressed? How does
alliteration
(the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of a word),
assonance
the repetition of vowel sounds, or
consonance
(the repetition of consonants), enhance the rhythm, movement, and musicality of the poem? What words do these sounds emphasize? Does the poem have its identifiable
rhythm
? For example, does it have meter? Is the meter
iambic
? (a foot consisting of an unaccented and accented syllable). [The following information may be too much for middle school students but is provided for teacher background knowledge:
spondees
(a foot consisting of two accented syllables),
trochees
(a foot consisting of two syllables –a stressed followed by an unstressed as in velvet),
dactyls
(a foot consisting of an accented syllable and two unaccented syllables)]
Imagery
: How does the imagery (the visual pictures created by the poet) construct or add to the poem's theme, tone, and purpose?
1)Visuals and Sensory:
Are the images literal (actual pictures you can see in your head) or
figurative
(images that represent other thoughts or ideas), abstract (intangible), or concrete (physical)? What sensory experiences (sights, sounds, feelings, smells, and tastes) are evoked? Are certain images repeated? Are they repeated as a chorus or is the repetition in the form of beginning sounds called alliteration? Is there present the use of onomatopoeia where the formation or use of certain words imitate the sound associated with those words and thus elicit meaning? How are these images dependent on other elements? If so, how and which ones? Frost referred to this sound process as "the imagining ear." Do any of these images demand that we hear sound?
2)
Metaphor
: Does the poet use
metaphors,
(comparison without like or as) to make associations and express images or abstract ideas? Is there an
extended metaphor
(a comparison that is expressed throughout the poem)? What is the effect of the metaphors on the tone and theme of the poem? Are the word choices ones that can be heard?
3)
Symbolism
: Are certain objects or actions developed in the imagery symbolic of an abstract idea? Do these
symbols
reoccur? Do they help to create an
allegory
(a symbol or fable that provides a secondary meaning)?
Form
: How does the form of the poem correspond to theme, tone, and main idea of the work?
1)
Structure, Pattern, and Scheme
: Does the poem follow a formal poetic structure such as a
sonnet
(a lyric poem consisting of fourteen lines),
haiku
(The first line
usually
contains five (5) syllables, the second line seven (7) syllables, and the third line contains five, doesn't rhyme, "paints" a mental image ),
ode
(usually a lyric poem of moderate length, with a serious subject, an elevated or formal style, and an elaborate stanza pattern),
blues poem
(combination of African American oral tradition and the musical tradition of the blues music takes on themes such as struggle, despair, and sex),
diamante
(a seven line poem, shaped like a diamond, beginning with a single noun, adding two adjectives, three participles (-
ing
words), four nouns, three participles, two adjectives, and an opposite noun),
quatrain
(four-line stanza with a rhyming pattern where lines two and four must rhyme),
found poem
(poetry that takes existing texts and refashion and reorder them into a new poem), etc.? Does the poem follow the form? If not, how does it deviate from that form? Why was the specific structure chosen? How does the structure further the idea of sound?
2)
Stanza and Lines
: Are stanzas and lines consistently the same length? Do they follow a particular pattern? Are there any stanzas, lines, or words that diverge from the pattern?
3)
Rhyme Scheme
: Rhyme provides a different sound feature. It is often caught immediately because of its cadenced and sometimes musical nature. Does the poem follow an identifiable
rhyme scheme
(the repetition of similar sounds) corresponding to a specific poetic form? What kind of rhyme is used
internal
(rhyme within lines),
end
rhyme
(words rhyme at end of lines),
true rhyme
(two or more words begin with different consonant sounds, then have identical stressed vowel sounds), or
slant
rhyme (not all of its vowel or consonant sounds match those of the rhyming word)? Is it consistent or scattered throughout? If not, where does the rhyme change or appear and why? What is the overall purpose or effect of the rhyme scheme?
Syntax
: How do the poet's syntactical choices (the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences) change or expand the ideas in the poem?
1)
Enjambment
: How are lines broken? Are they broken before a grammatical or logical completion of a thought to create an
enjambment
? Or are they
end-stopped
, breaking after the completion of a sentence or other grammatical pauses? How does the use of enjambment create a duality of meaning in the lines?
2)
Verbs
: Are verbs active (the subject of the sentence performs the action expressed in the verb;
John threw the ball
) or passive (the subject is acted upon; he or she receives the action expressed by the verb;
the ball was thrown by John
)? What tense does the poet use? Is it consistent? How does tense consistency (inconsistency) affect the passage of time within the poem?
3)
Sentence Structure
: Does the poet use complete sentences, fragments, or a combination of both? Is there a pattern? How does the poet's sentence choice contribute to the understanding of the poem? Within the sentence, is the word order natural or grammatically irregular?
4)
Punctuation
: How is punctuation used or not used? Is it consistent with grammatical conventions? What effect does the punctuation create on how the poem is read? How does it affect the speed? Where are the pauses? Does the poet use italics, bold fonts, dashes, or any other uncommon fonts or punctuation devices? If so, why?
