GREATBOOKS

How do you define Great Books? ● Nature

● It is relating to, or centered in ● History and the past
certain classics of literature, ● Education
philosophy, history, and science that
are believed to contain the basic B. Noble language
ideas of western culture conveys ideas and emotions
● It is a source of information and powerfully and memorably.
knowledge; interesting and
captivating, value laden and C. Universality
aesthetically written A great book is “a possession for
● They are timeless with good ideas all time” (Thucydides). It speaks across the
that shapen our minds. ages, reaching the hearts and minds of men
and women far removed in time and space
Great Books versus Textbooks from the era and circumstances in which it
GREAT BOOKS was composed. Thus, a great book
● Primary source summarizes the enduring values and ideas
● Intrinsically better as they are of a great age and gives them as a legacy
written by renowned authors for generations to come.
● Not limited as reference
● Timeless pieces of reading What Makes a Book Great
materials ● Great theme
● Noble language
TEXTBOOKS ● Universality
● Secondary source ● Addresses concerns about the
● More accessible human condition
● Reference/instructional ● Game-changer
● shorter/condensed texts as ● Stimulated, informed, or influenced
reference many other important works
● Many generations have ranked it
Criteria for including a book in the list highly.
Elements of a good book : a strong ● Takes effort to understand it
opening, compelling characters, an
absorbing story, sharp dialogue and a Kinds and Examples
unique style Fiction
1. Action and Adventure
A. “Great theme"
Action and adventure books
A great book is concerned with
constantly have you on the edge of your
themes and issues of enduring importance.
seat with excitement, as your favorite main
● The meaning of life
character repeatedly finds themselves in
● Truth
high stakes situations. The protagonist has
● Duty and responsibility
an ultimate goal to achieve and is always
● Law, government, and social justice
put in risky, often dangerous situations. This
● Love, jealousy, and hate
genre typically crosses over with others like
● Courage, honor, and ambition
mystery, crime, sci-fi, and fantasy.
● Beauty
 GREATBOOKS
Examples: Life of Pi, The Three 6. Historical Fiction
Musketeers These books are based in a time
period set in the past decades, often
2. Classics against the backdrop of significant (real)
You may think of these books as historical events.
the throwback readings you were assigned Examples: Gabriel Garcia
in English class. (Looking at you, Charles Marquez One Hundred Years of Solitude
Dickens.) The classics have been around , Memoirs of Geisha
for decades, and were often
groundbreaking stories at their publish time, 7. Horror
but have continued to be impactful for Meant to cause discomfort and fear
generations, serving as the foundation for for both the character and readers, horror
many popular works we read today. writers often make use of supernatural and
Examples: Little Women, To Kill a paranormal elements in morbid stories that
Mockingbird are sometimes a little too realistic. The
master of horror fiction? None other than
3. Comic Book or Graphic Novel Stephen King.
The stories in comic books and Examples: Stephen King's Carrie,
graphic novels are presented to the reader Bird Box
through engaging, sequential narrative art
(illustrations and typography) that's either 8. Literary Fiction
presented in a specific design or the Though it can be seen as a broad
traditional panel layout you find in comics. genre that encompasses many others,
With both, you'll often find the dialogue literary fiction refers to the perceived artistic
presented in the tell-tale "word balloons" writing style of the author. Their prose is
next to the respective characters. meant to evoke deep thought through
Examples: The Walking Dead stories that offer personal or social
Compendium One commentary on a particular theme.
Examples: Where the Crawdads
4. Detective and Mystery Sing, The Dutch House
The plot always revolves around a
crime of sorts that must be solved—or 9. Romance
foiled— by the protagonists. Oh romance, how could we ever
Examples: The Adventures of Sherlock resist you? The genre that makes your
Holmes, The Night Fire heart all warm and fuzzy focuses on the
love story of the main protagonists. This
5. Fantasy world of fiction is extremely wide-reaching in
While usually set in a fictional and of itself, as it has a variety of sub-
imagined world—in opposition, Ta-Nehisi's genres including: contemporary romance,
Coates's The Water Dancer takes place in historical, paranormal, and the steamier
the very real world of American slavery— erotica. If you're in need of any suggestions,
fantasy books include prominent elements we've got a list of the best romances of all
of magic, mythology, or the supernatural. time and the top picks of the year.
Examples: Circle Examples: Brazen and the Beast
 GREATBOOKS
10. Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) Non-Fiction
Though they're often thought of in
1. Biographies and
the same vein as fantasy, what
Autobiographies
distinguishes science fiction stories is that
Serving as an official account of the
they lean heavily on themes of technology
details and events of a person's life span,
and future science. You'll find apocalyptic
autobiographies are written by the subject
and dystopian novels in the sci-fi genre as
themselves, while biographies are written
well
by an author who is not the focus of the
Examples: The Testaments, The
book.
Hunger Games Trilogy
Examples: I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings
11. Short Story
Though they encompass many of
2. Cookbooks
the genres we describe here, short stories
Traditionally penned by professional
are brief prose that are significantly, well,
chefs or even your favorite celebs,
shorter than novels. Writers strictly tell their
cookbooks offer an appetizing collection of
narratives through a specific theme and a
recipes, specific to a theme, cuisine, or
series of brief scenes, though many authors
experience chosen by the author
compile these stories in wide-ranging
Examples: The Jemima Code
collections, as featured below.
Examples: Florida Lauren Groof,
3. Essays
How Long 'Til Black Future Month?
Typically written in the first-person,
writers use their own personal experiences
12. Suspense and Thrillers
to reflect on a theme or topic for the reader.
While they often encompass the
Many acclaimed authors—like James
same elements as mystery books, the
Baldwin and Toni Morrison— combine these
suspense and thriller genre sees the hero
pieces into
attempt to stop and defeat the villain to save
Examples: Notes of a Native Son
their own life rather than uncover a specific
crime. Thrillers typically include cliffhangers
4. History
and deception to encourage suspense,
These books chronicle and layout a
while pulling the wool over the eyes of both
specific moment in time, with a goal to
the main character and reader
educate and inform the reader, looking at all
Examples: The Guardians, Gillian
parts of the world at any given moment.
Flynn Gone Girl
Examples: David Maccullough

13. Women's Fiction

5. Memoir
Another genre thatencompasses many
While a form of autobiography,
others, women's fiction is written specifically
memoirs are more flexible in that they
to target female readers, often reflecting on
typically don't feature an extensive
the shared experiences of being a woman
chronological account of the writer's life.
in society and the protagonist's personal
Instead, they focus on key moments and
growth
scenes that communicate a specific
Examples: The Queen of Hearts,
message or lesson to the reader about the
Jacqueline Woodson Red at the Bone
author.
 GREATBOOKS
Examples: Becoming Michelle
Obama ● getting transported to other realms
in a great story or well-written novel
6. Poetry may reduce stress in work, in
With poetry—a form of written personal relationship, and in other
art—authors choose a particular rhythm and issues faced in daily life.
style to evoke and portray various emotions
and ideas. Sometimes the message is clear ● an assortment of characters, their
(like a straight-forward love poem) while backgrounds, ambitions, history,
with others, the meaning is hidden behind a and nuances, as well as the various
play on words—it all depends on the writer's arcs and subplots that weave their
style, intent, and chosen theme. way through every story must be
Examples: There are more taken into consideration
Beautiful Things Than Beyonce
● analyze details also comes in
7. Self-Help handy when it comes to critiquing
Whether the focus is on emotional the plot; determining whether it was
well-being, finances, or spirituality, self-help a well-written piece, if the
books center on encouraging personal characters were properly
improvement and confidence in a variety of developed, if the storyline ran
facets of your life. smoothly,
Examples: Dare to Lead,
Everything is Fucked ● Capture one’s curiosity and
imagination
8. True Crime
Like its much- loved television NATURE OF LITERATURE
counterparts, true crime books chronicle ● the collected oral and written works
and examine actual crimes and events in of a society that depict the people’s
exacting detail, with many focusing on beliefs, values, morals, and
infamous murders, kidnappings, aspirations, as well as their
and the exploits of serial killers struggles in life.
Examples: Helter Skelter The ● transforms and intensifies ordinary
Mansion Murders, Catch and Kill language, deviates systematically
from everyday speech
MODULE 1
An Introduction to Literature Form and content:
Literature as a kind of writing in
which the way that something is said
LESSON 1: matters as much as what is said; or
The Nature of Literature where the way that something is said is part
of what is said
READING
● it helps in filling one’s head with Subjectivity:
information and improving Literature as writing in which
vocabulary things, persons and events are
 GREATBOOKS
described from a particular individualistic
viewpoint, in a way that is different from an Kinds of Fiction
‘objective’ understanding PROSE ALLEGORY
● a prose form which the characters,
Artistry: ideas, and actions stand for
Literature as deliberately artistic something else or for a system of
writing, intended to take its place in an ideas with meanings implied.
existing ‘literary’ tradition. ● concrete characters are
personification of abstract ideas.
Greatness:
Literature as a kind of writing that a. Fable
only a few especially talented people are ● the characters are usually animals
capable of, but which is relevant and talking like human being but
perhaps useful to other people and keeping their animal traits.
deserves their admiration ● moral is conveyed in the form of
proverb.
IMPORTANCE OF LITERATURE
1. Multicultural literature helps readers b. Myths
value people from different races, ethnic ● explaining the origin of the world
groups, and cultures. and humankind.

2. Literature helps people deal with their c. Legends

problems. ● a non-historical or unverifiable story
handed down by tradition from
3. Literature develops thinking skills. earlier times and popularly
accepted as historical.
4. Literature provides a language model for
those who hear and read it. d. Anecdotes
● These are merely products of the
5. Literature builds experience. writer’s imagination and the main
aim is to bring out lessons to the
reader.

PROSE ROMANCE
LESSON 2: ● stories of high culture, chivalric,
Genres of Literature magical and unrealistic.

PROSE a. Fairy Tales

● literary works in the form of ● commonplace expression and
sentences and paragraphs typical themes are those which
develop from stock characters such
as cruel kings, cruel stepmother,
KINDS OF PROSE
naughty sister, magic, supernatural
1. FICTION
changes and restorations.
● literary production of writer’s
creative imagination
 GREATBOOKS
● a daily record of news and events
PROSE NARRATIVES of a personal nature
a. Short Story
● a brief narrative that concentrates MEMOIR
on one situation and involves two or ● any nonfiction narrative writing
three characters. based on the author’s personal
memories
b. Novel
● an extended narrative that includes DIARIES
more characters and complicated ● a book in which one keeps a daily
plot record of events and experiences

c. Novelette DOCUMENTARIES
● intermediate between short story ● a film or video examining an event
and the novels. or persona based on facts
● more elaborate than a short story
but can be read in a single sitting SCIENTIFIC PAPERS
unlike novel ● intended to further the progress of
science, usually by reporting new
PROSE DRAMA research
● a literary work written in dialogue
and intended for presentation by BIOGRAPHIES
actors. ● an account of someone’s life written
by someone else
a. Comedy
● aims primarily to amuse by its AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
humorous speech and ends ● an account of a person’s life written
happily by that person

b. Tragedy NEWS
● morally significant struggle which ● a report of everyday events in
ends disastrously society, government, science, and
industry, and accidents, happening
2. NON-FICTION nationally or not.
● based on facts rather than
imagination ORATION
● a formal treatment of a subject and
Kinds of Non-fiction is intended to be spoken in public. It
ESSAYS appeals to the intellect, to the will or
● an analytic or interpretativeliterary to the emotions of the audience.
composition usually dealing with its
subject from a limited or personal
point of view POETRY
● literary works in the form of lines
JOURNALS and stanzas
 GREATBOOKS
● short poems intended to be sung
KINDS OF POETRY that have a common theme like
1. NARRATIVE POETRY love, despair, grief, doubt, joy, hope
● tells a story in richly imaginative and sorrow.
and rhythmical language
a. Epic f. Psalms
● a long narrative poem divided into ● a song praising God or the Virgin
distinct parts and episodes bound Mary and containing a philosophy
together by common relationship to of life
a group hero
g. Corridos
b. Ballad ● have measures of eight syllables
● a short narrative poem intended to and recited to a martial beat
be sung.
3. DRAMATIC POETRY
c. Metrical Tale ● portrays life and character through
● a narrative which is written in verse action in powerful, emotion-packed
and can be classified either as a lines
ballad or a metrical romance.

2. LYRIC POETRY
● expresses personal thoughts and LESSON 3:
feelings
The Language of Literature
a. Ode
● poem deals with a serious theme FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
such as immortality, expresses ● words are not used literally but are
enthusiasm, lofty praise of some used to suggest an image or
person or thing comparison

b. Elegy Word Meaning

● a poem that can be distinguished 1. Denotation- the meaning is taken from
by its subject- death, contains dictionary
author’s personal grief 2. Connotation- the word has another
meaning
c. Song
● melodious quality required by the METAPHOR
singing voice ● a word or group of words applied to
an object or action to imply a
d. Sonnet resemblance
● a poet form of fourteen rhymed Examples:
lines producing a single emotional ● “The sun was a toddler insistently
effect refusing to go to bed: It was past
eight-thirty and still light.”—Fault in
e. Folksongs (Awiting Bayan) Our Stars, John Green
 GREATBOOKS
dried and only hard, dry sobs shook
● All religions, arts and sciences are his wooden frame. But these were
branches of the same so loud that they could be heard by
tree.”—Albert Einstein the faraway hills (The Adventures of
Pinocchio, C. Colloid)
● But, soft! What light through yonder
window breaks? / It is east, and ● 'I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love youTill
Juliet is the sun.”Romeo and Juliet, China and Africa meet, And the
William Shakespear river jumps over the mountain And
PERSONIFICATION the salmon sing in the street, I’ll
● A figure of speech like an animal or love you till the ocean Is folded and
inanimate object is represented as hung up to dry.’ (As I Walked Out
having human attributes such as One Evening (By W. H. Auden)
human form, character, feelings,
behavior, or abilities IRONY
Examples: ● A means of expression or
● My heart danced when he walked in overstatement used for effect
the room.
● The hair on my arms stood after Types of Irony
● the performance. Verbal Irony
● Why is your plant pouting in the ● is when a speaker says one thing
corner? but means something entirely
● The wind is whispering outside. different. The literal meaning is at
● Additionally, that picture says a lot. odds with the intended meaning.
● Her eyes are not smiling at us.
● Also, my brain is not working fast Dramatic Irony
enough today. ● is when the audience knows
something that the characters don’t.
SIMILE
● a comparison of two unlike things Situational Irony
and uses the words “like” or “as” ● is when what happens is the
Examples: opposite of what you expect.
● The cafe was like a battleship Socratic Irony
striped for action.'' Ernest ● is when a person feigns ignorance
Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises in order to get another to admit to
● 'The wind is howling like this knowing or doing something. It is
swirling storm inside'' --''Let It Go'' named after Socrates, the Greek
by Idina Menzel philosopher, who used this
technique to tease information out
HYPERBOLE of his students.
● a deliberate exaggeration or
overstatement used for effect Examples:
Examples: ● All of the animals work together to
● 'He cried all night, and dawn found escape the tyranny of the humans
him still there, though his tears had who own them. In doing so they
 GREATBOOKS
end up under the even stricter rule Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,
of the pigs. sick health!
George Orwell masters situational irony in Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
Animal Farm through the animals’ endless and This love feel I, that feel no love in this."
fruitless battle to obtain freedom.
● Income Tax, Reality Show, Drag
● The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Race, Original Copy, Same
Mr Hyde is full of verbal irony. A Difference
great example of this is when Dr
Jekyll says “I am quite sure of him,” ALLITERATION
when referring to Mr. Hyde ● It is the use of nearby words or
This is verbal irony because the reader finds
stressed syllables beginning with
out that Hyde is actually Jekyll’s alter ego, so it
the same consonant
would be expected that he knows himself well.
Examples:
Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every
● In the prologue of Romeo and Juliet
where:
(William Shakespeare) through the
Then were not summer's distillation left,
line: “A pair of star-cross’d lovers
A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,
take their life.”
This well-known example is ironic because the Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,
reader knows from the very beginning that their Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was:
romance will end in death, but they don’t yet But flowers distilled, though they with winter
know how. meet,
Leese but their show; their substance still
● Buying your English teacher a mug lives sweet.“
that reads “your the best teacher (Sonnet 5, Romeo and Juliet)
ever.”
The poor English teacher may feel like they have ASSONANCE
failed in their job in this situationally ironic ● It is the repetition of the same or
situation where their student has bought them a
similar vowel sounds, usually close
mug with a grammar mistake.
to each other
Examples:
"Hear the mellow wedding bells, Golden
OXYMORON
bells!
● Combining contradictory words
What a world of happiness their harmony
usually for descriptive purposes
foretells!“
● Even though the two words are
(Bells, Edgar Allan Poe)
often antonyms (words with
opposite meanings), they don't
ONOMATOPOEIA
negate each other.
● words that sound like their
Examples:
meanings that imitate actual sounds
Why, then, O brawling love! O loving
Examples:
hate!
When a poem is born
O anything, of nothing first create!
What is the chance
O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Of words in rain
Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming
Drip drop dance
forms!
 GREATBOOKS
Ping ting sing separately.“
Pitter patter rhyme
Rain dance acceleration ANTITHESIS
Makes my poem climb ● the juxtaposition of contrasting
Dribble drench drizzle ideas in balanced phrases
Thinking on the fence Examples:
Sprinkle splish splash ● Man proposes, God disposes."
Bring balance to my sense” -Source unknown.
(Rain Dance Poem,(V. Reome) ● "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a
real thing." Goethe.
ALLUSION ● "That's one small step for man, one
● To make indirect reference giant leap for mankind." -Neil
Examples: Armstrong.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief, APOSTROPHE
So dawn goes down to day. ● breaking of discourse to address
Nothing gold can stay. some absent person or thing, some
(Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost abstract quality, an inanimate
(1923) object, or a nonexistent character.
Here, iconic American poet Robert Frost Examples:
makes an allusion to the Biblical Garden "Hello darkness, my old friend
of Eden ("so Eden sank to grief") to I've come to talk with you again."
strengthen this idea that nothing—not even Paul Simon, The
Paradise— can last forever. Sounds of Silence

ANAPHORA CATAPHORA
● The repetition of the same word or ● It is an earlier expression refers to
phrase at the beginning of or describes a forward expression.
successive clauses or verses It is the opposite of anaphora, a
Examples: reference forward as opposed to
• Be bold. Be brief. Be gone.” backward in the discourse.
• Get busy living or get busy dying.” Examples:
• Give me liberty or give me death. ● If you want them, there are cookies
in the kitchen. (them is an instance
ANTACLASIS of cataphora because it refers to
● A word is repeated and whose cookies which hasn't been
meaning changes in the second mentioned in the discourse prior to
instance. It is a common type of that point.)
pun.
Examples: CHIASMUS
Benjamin Franklin's ● It is a verbal pattern in which the
statement that: second half of an expression is
"We must all hang balanced against the first but with
together, or assuredly the parts reversed.
we shall all hang Examples:
 GREATBOOKS
● Swift as an arrow flying, fleeing like ● Lacy can do something about the
a hare afraid problem, but I don’t know what (she
● 'Bad men live that they may eat and can do.)
drink, whereas good men eat and ● She can help with the housework;
drink that they may live.' Socrates Nancy can (help with the
(fifth century B.C.) housework), too.
● John can speak seven languages,
CLIMAX but Ron can speak only two
● words, phrases or clauses are (languages.)
arranged in order of increasing
importance EUPHEMISM
Examples: ● the substitution of an offensive term
This note was a promise that all men, yes, for one considered offensively
black men as well as white men, would be Examples:
guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, ● Adult entertainment for
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." pornography.
Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream ● Comfort woman for prostitute
● Between jobs for unemployed
DYSPHEMISM
● The use of a harsh, more offensive LITOTES
word instead of one considered less ● It is an affirmative is expressed by
harsh. It is often contrasted with negating its opposite
euphemism and mostly used to Examples:
shock or offend ● He's not a very generous man.
Examples: ● She is not very beautiful.
● Nail mail for postal mail, ● He is not the friendliest person I've
● Cancer stick in reference to a met.
cigarette.
● Egghead for genius. MERISM
● Worm food for dead. ● Something is referred to by a
● Pig for policeman. conventional phrase that
● Bullshit for lies. enumerates several of its
● Dead tree edition for the paper constituents or traits
version of a publication that can be Examples:
found online ● High and low. (To search high and
● Fag for homosexual man. low means to look for something
everywhere)
ELLIPSIS ● Sun, sea and sand. (Referring to a
● It is the omission of a word or holiday destination).
words. It refers to constructions in
which words are left out of a METAPLESIS
sentence but the sentence can still ● reference is made to something by
be understood. means of another thing that is
Examples: remotely related to it, either through
 GREATBOOKS
a causal relationship, or through The word "prophet" is put in place of its
another figure of speech homophone "profit", altering the common
Examples: phrase "non-profit institution".
● Was this the face that launched a
thousand ships and burnt the UNDERSTATEMENT
topless towers of Ilium? ● The writer deliberately makes a
- Chistopher Marlowe, Doctor situation seem less important or
Faustus serious than it is
Examples:
METONYMY ● It stings a bit" - a soldier
● One word or phrase is substituted describing the pain he feels after he
for another with which it is closely has just lost his leg.
associated; also, the rhetorical ● "It has rained a little more than
strategy of describing something the average" - describing a flooded
indirectly by referring to things area.
around it. ● "It was an interesting
Examples: experience." - describing a difficult
● Dish. (To refer an entire plate of unbearable experience.
food.)
● The Pentagon. (For the Department
of Defense and the offices of the
U.S. Armed Forces. LESSON 4:
● Pen (For the written word.)
● Sword - (For military force.) Literary Standards
● Hollywood (For US Cinema.) Literary Criticism
● Hand (For help.) ● the art or practice of judging and
commenting on the qualities and
PARADOX character of literary works.
● It is a statement that appears to ● the study, analysis, and evaluation
contradict itself. of imaginative literature.
Examples: ● It is not an abstract exercise; it is a
● Less is more natural human response to
● If you don’t risk anything, you risk literature.
everything
● the louder you are, the less they Literature offers different perspectives and
hear in order to understand the perspectives, one
needs to examine a certain work of art.
PUN
● Play on words, sometimes on Traditional Approaches
different senses of the same word READE- RESPONSE
and sometimes on the similar sense 1. How do you feel about this work? For
or sound of different words example, what feelings did it evoke when
Examples: you read it? Pity, fear, suspense, surprise,
● Atheism is a non-prophet joy, or humor? Justify your answers.
institution"
 GREATBOOKS
2. Does your attitude toward or
understanding of the work change as you 9. What moral statements, if any, does the
read it? What brings about conditions that work make? What philosophical view of life
change? How many different ways can the or the world does the work present?
work be read? *Discuss your answers. Integrate real-life
situations.
3. By manipulating such literary devices as
tone and point of view, authors try to PSYCHOLOGICAL
establish a relationship between their work 10. What are the principal characteristics or
and their readers. What relationship to the defining traits of the protagonists or main
reader does this work (or author) assume? characters in the work?
What elements of the work help establish
this relationship? *Discuss your answers. 11. What psychological relationships exist
between and among the characters? Try to
FORMAL determine which characters are stronger
4. Make an inventory of the key words, and which are weaker. What is the source
symbols, and images in the work by listing of their strength or weakness?
those that seem most unfamiliar but
significant to you. What meanings seem to 12. Are there unconscious conflicts within or
be attached to these words, symbols, and between characters? How are these
images? conflicts portrayed in the work? Is the
Freudian concept of the id-ego-superego
5. How do these words, symbols, and applicable?
images help to provide unity or define the
overall pattern or structure of the work? id---one of the three divisions of the psyche
(human
6. Under what genre should the work be mind) in psychoanalytic theory that is
classified? What generic conventions are completely
readily apparent? If it is fiction or drama, unconscious and is the source of psychic
what does each of the five structural energy derived from
elements- plot, characters, setting, theme, instinctual needs and drives.
and mood – contribute to the work? If it is
poetry, how do meter, rhythm, rhyme, and ego---one of the three divisions of the
figurative language contribute to your psyche in
experience of the poem? *Discuss your psychoanalytic theory that serves as the
answers. organized conscious
mediator between the person and reality
TRADITIONAL especially by
7. How does the work reflect the functioning both in the perception of and
biographical or historical background of the adaptation to
author or the time during which it was reality
written?
superego---one of the three divisions of
8. What are the principal themes of the the psyche in
work?
 GREATBOOKS
psychoanalytic theory that is only partly 17. Do you find Jungian archetypes, such
conscious, represents internalization of as shadow, persons, or animal, growth, and
parental conscience and the of society, and individuation?
functions to reward and punish through a Jungian-----of, relating to, or
system of moral attitudes, conscience, and characteristic of C. G. Jung or his
a sense of guilt. psychological doctrines. *Discuss or justify
your answers.
13. Is sexuality or sexual imagery employed
in the work? Are there implications of SOCIOLOGICAL
Oedipus complex, pleasure principle, or 18. What is the relationship between the
wish fulfillment? work and the society it presents or grew out
of? Does it address particular social issues
Oedipus complex---a sexual desire that a either directly or indirectly- such as race,
child feels toward the parent of the opposite sex, class, religion, or politics?
sex along with jealous feelings toward the
parent of the same sex. 19. Does the sexual identity of the main
----the positive libidinal feelings of a child character affect the relationships and
toward the parent of the opposite sex and ultimately the events in the story?
hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent
of the same sex that in Freudian 20. Finally, does the story, poem, or play
psychoanalytic theory may be a source of lend itself to one of the various
adult personality disorder when unresolved. interpretative techniques more than the
others? *Discuss your answers.
Electra complex----the Oedipus complex
when it Contemporary Approaches
occurs in female. STRUCTURALISM
● A reading approach that identifies
14. How do the principal characters view structures of thought in the way
the world around them and other characters we read. Put more simply, it is a
in the work? Is that view accurate or perspective that shows the reader
distorted? *Discuss your answers to the ways in which he thinks as he reads
questions. patterns of deep structure.
● Structuralism does NOT categorize
MYTHOLOGICAL- ARCHETYPAL literature into plot, character,
15. Does the work contain mythic elements setting, etc. but rather relates text to
in plot, theme, or character? Are there language, landscape, kinship
recognizable mythic patterns such as systems, marriage customs,
rebirth/fertility, quest/journey, or fashion, menu, architecture,
struggle/return of the furniture and politics.
● The reader is in quest of “codes”
16. Are there archetypal characters, which the author has encoded and
images, or symbols, such as the great the interpreter decodes in several
mother, the wise old man, the sea, the ways as codes of action (proairetic),
seasons? codes of puzzle (hermeneutics) or
 GREATBOOKS
as cultural, connotative and impossible to discover any
symbolic codes. underlying principle for certainty or
General Questions Asked: knowledge.
a. What metaphors or symbols suggest a General Questions Asked:
set of structures of ideas in the piece of a. Start with same questions raised for
literature? structuralism. Find or locate points of
contradiction where the work can no longer
b. What concepts (binaries) suggest pairs of be interpreted according to a system it has
opposites, e.g. strong-weak, sun-moon, set up under structuralism.
day-night, etc.?
b. What suppositions or assumptions in the
c. What ideas are understood but are not work are inconsistent with what are implied
stated in the literary work? Do they relate to by the author? What does the author not
the culture of the period? *Discuss your know about his characters and his plot?
answers. *Discuss or justify your answers.

POST- MODERNISM (Deconstruction) FEMINIST (sometimes Gender or

Marxism and cultural criticism are Gynocentric) Criticism
subsumed under Deconstruction or ● An approach which seeks to
Post-Modern Criticism. discover awareness,
● The most thought-provoking consciousness, and
approach to literary re-evaluation of women- their
interpretation. It is called roles in life and their
Post-Modernism because it consciousness in literature.
questions all our assumptions ● Feminist reading means
about the accumulated recognizing that what is written
experience of modern Western about them in literature are
traditions, of civilization, examples of questionable
rationalization, urbanization, liberal assumptions. These assumptions
democracy and advanced are made by men (and some by
technology. women) that men are superior as
● It proposes to set itself outside they have been enshrined to be so
modern paradigms (by “modern” is by the patriarchal order of society.
meant all ideas after the ● Feminism, furthermore, offers one
Enlightenment) – to contemplate of the most important social,
modern evaluative criteria. economic, and aesthetic revolutions
● Post-Modernism seeks to of modern times. It not only
“de-center” any worldview exposes prejudices of masculine
(logocentric or any totalizing superiority but has also penetrated
meta-narrative that gives into the unconscious
pre-determined answers) and then psychoanalytical realms of
to “deconstruct” the text. expressions and focused on the
● Ultimately, it does NOT formulate significance of literary prototypes
any set of assumptions but rather such as a Medusa, Cassandra,
makes the reader believe that it is Arachne, Ceres, Isis, and Diana.
 GREATBOOKS
General Questions Asked along Marxist
General Questions Asked: and Cultural
a. What awareness or consciousness of Approaches:
womanhood or feminist roles occurs to the a. Is there an implied pattern of conflict
characters in the literature being between rich and poor, powerful and the
considered? unempowered, the strong versus the weak,
the dominant and subordinate, the
b. What patterns of implied male centralized and the marginalized, the
authority/oppression/superiority are found in privileged and powerless – whether these
the poem, story, or play? are ideas or characters? Explain.

c. What models of male-female differences b. What cultural forces (belief systems,

are built into the work? *Discuss your traditions, customs, superstitions, fashion,
answers. Integrate real-life situations. food, pop songs, films, news items) and the
responses to such forces or stimuli are
MARXIST CRITICISM capable o, dividing and binding
● An approach that shows the communities? Explain.
relationship between literature
and the political struggle. It
presents patterns of inferiority and MODULE 2
oppression by reason of class, Poetry
race, ethnicity and even of gender
(Feminist readings).
● The production theory states that LESSON 1:
capitalistic ideology has Elements of Poetry
pre-determined thought, feelings,
What is Poetry?
taste, and behavior of people.
● Poetry does not have a strict
Marxist reflection theory advocates
definition, but poets often use
that readers who recognize the
language in unusual ways to write
influence of capitalistic classes on
about highly imaginative and
human behavior and the
emotional subjects.
perpetuation of injustice and
inequality should propose workable
● Poetry (from the Greek word
solutions.
“poiesis”, meaning “a making”: a
forming, creating or the art of
CULTURAL CRITICISM
poetry), is a form of literary art in
● A combination of elements of these
which language is used for its
critical theories – that is gender
aesthetic and evocative qualities in
studies, film theory, pop culture,
addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent
post-colonial studies. It presents
meaning.
cultural forces that divide and
alienate communities from each
● Poetry primarily is governed by
other or on a more hopeful note,
idiosyncratic forms and
create and unite communities with
conventions to suggest differential
each other.
interpretation to words, or to evoke
 GREATBOOKS
emotive responses. Devices such ● the meaning is taken from the
as assonance, alliteration, dictionary
onomatopoeia, and rhythm are b. Connotation
sometimes used to achieve ● the word has another meaning
musical or incantatory effects. 2. Imagery-
● The use of ambiguity, symbolism, ● involves words or phrases that
irony and other stylistic elements of appeal to the five senses
poetic diction often leave a poem 3. Mood
open to multiple interpretations. ● the dominant emotion or feeling the
Similarly, metaphor, simile, poem want to convey to the reader
metonymy create a response 4. Form
between otherwise, disparate ● the way the poem looks or the
meanings- a layering of meanings, arrangement of the lines and
forming connections previously not stanzas
perceived. 5. Genre
● a French word meaning “kind” or
Epic of Gilgamesh, from the 3rd “type”
millennium BC in Sumer (in 6. Theme
Mesopotamia, now Iraq) ● the basic idea the writer tries to
● oldest surviving epic poem convey; the purpose of the
● written in cuneiform script on clay message of the poem
tablets, later, papyrus. 7. Tone
Other ancient epic poetry ● the author’s attitude toward the
● Greek epics: Iliad and Odyssey, work, the way the writer looks at his
● the Old Iranian books: The Gathia subject
Avesta and Yasna, 8. Sound
● the Roman national epic: Virgil’s ● words that create sounds
Aenid, 9. Figurative Language
● and Indian epics: Ramayana and ● words are not used to literally but
Mahabharata. are used to suggest an image or a
comparison
POETICS a. Metaphor
● the study of the aesthetics of b. Personification
poetry. Context can be critical to c. Simile
poetics and to the development of d. Hyperbole
poetic genres and forms. e. Irony
f. Oxymoron
“Poetry is the language of feelings, while
poetics is the study of its aesthetics.” 10. Sound Devices
a. Rhyme-
● words that end with the same
Elements of Poetry sounds
1. Word Meaning b. Rhythm
a. Denotation ● the beat of the poem
c. Alliteration
 GREATBOOKS
● the use of nearby words and Poetry: Seeing Likeness
stressed syllables beginning with Poetry lives and breathes because poets
the same consonant sound make especially imaginative comparisons
d. Assonance
● repetition of the same or similar Metaphors and Similes:
vowel sounds, usually close to each Metaphor example:
other. ● My baby sister is a doll
e. Onomatopoeia ● My brother is a rat
● words that sound like their Simile example:
meanings that imitate actual sounds ● My sister is like a doll
f. Rhyme Scheme ● My brother is as good as gold.
● using letters for similar rhyme
Poets try to find unusual metaphors and
POETRY: SOUND EFFECTS similes
Rhyme: Chiming Sounds Christina Rossetti:
● Pairing of two words that sound Simile: My heart is like a singing bird.
alike If metaphor: My heart is a singing bird.
End rhyme: pairing the last word in the next
line Emily Dickinson
Internal rhyme: the last word in a line will Metaphor: Fame is a bee
be echoed by a word placed at the If Simile: Fame is ike a bee
beginning or in the middle of the following
line Personification: Making the World
Human
● Rhyme makes the music in poetry ● Speaking of something that is not
and it helps you to memorize lines human reactions
Example:
Repeating One Sound White house: presidency
Alliteration: repetition of a single letter in Hill or capitol Hill: Congress
the alphabet or a combination of letters.

The Beat of a Poem

LESSON 2:
Meter: a beat A Survey of Poems
● A way of combining accented
syllables with unaccented syllables “ The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost
to make a regular pattern. (1874- 1963)
Example: Robert Browning’s lines on the rat ● Deal with the question “ How to
invasion make a difference in the world?”
● Traditional view of individualism
Free Verse: no regular beat ● Importance of choice, as in the
● Poetry written to sound like regular case of democracy as well as
conversation. constitutional freedoms
example: “Fifty cents apiece”- Sandra ● Readers are left with the impression
Cisneros profound imagery, and time itself
 GREATBOOKS
puts value on striving to make a ● Grecian Urn live on for what seems
difference. eternity
● Ancient Greeks are all certainly
“ The New Colossus” By Emma Lazarus dead, but the Greek art and culture
(1849-1887) live onn through Renaissance
● Lazarus compares the Statue of painters
Liberty to the Colossus of Rhodes ● We can escape ignorance,
● An enormous god-like statue humanness, and certain death and
positioned in a harbor. approach another form of life
● Symbolizes the ancient Greek through the beauty of art.
World and its greatness with
Roman civilization “The Tiger” by William Blake (1757-1827)
● Succinctly crystallizes the ● Contemplates a question arising
connection between the ancient from the idea of creation by an
world and America, a modern intelligent creator
nation. ● Tiger: represents evil
● Golden door: new hope and ● “Why would such a divine
opportunity blacksmith create beautiful children
and then also allow such children to
“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley be slaughtered?”
(1792- 1822) ● Blake explains the question
● Paints the image of the ruins of the ● His language peels away the
statue of ancient Egyptian King mundane world and offers a look at
Ozymandias the super- reality to which poets are
● His legs: it was huge and privy
impressive ● The reality that we ordinarily know
● Shattered head and snarling face: and perceive is really insufficient,
how tyrannical he was shallow, and deceptive.
● Inscribe quote: they might not have ● This poem is great because it
been quite as magnificent as concisely and compellingly presents
Ozymandias imagine. a question that still plagues
● In terms of lost civilization: No humanity today, as well as key clue
better example than the Egyptians to the answer.
● The perfectly composed scene
itself, the Egyptian imagery, and the “On His Blindness” by John Milton
Biblical backstory convey a (1608- 1674)
perennial message ● Deals with ones limitations and
shortcomings in life
“Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats ● Milton become totally blind at the
(1795- 1821) age of 42
● Response to OzymaOffers a sort of ● He frames himself as a failed
antidote to the inescapable and servant to the Creator.
destructive force of time ● Through the voice of patience he
● Art is the antidote explains that serving the celestial
 GREATBOOKS
monarch only requires bearing nature of beauty and its associate,
those hardships truth and bliss.
● A great poem since Milon has not
only dispelled sadness over a major “Holy Sonnet 10: Death, Be Not Proud”
shortcoming in lofe but also shown John Donne (1572- 1631)
how the shortcoming itself imbued ❖ Death is a perennial subject of fear
with an extraordinary and uplifting and despair.
purpose Rhetorical attacks
● Sleep: closest human experience to
“A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth death
Longfellow (1807-1882) ● All great people die sooner or later
● The first six stanzas are rather and the process of death could be
vague since each stanza seems to viewed as joining them.
begin a new thought ● Death is under command of higher
● The emphasis is on a feeling rather authorities such as fate and kings
than a rational train of thought. ● Death must associate with some
● Feeling: reaction against science unsavory characters: poisons, wars,
(focused on calculations, and and sickness
empirical evidence) ❖ Death can’t kill Donne
● The force of science seems to ❖ Great because of its universal
restrain one’s spirit or soul application
● Last three stanzas: suggest that ❖ Fear of death is so natural and
this acting for lofty purposes can instinct
lead to greatness and can help our ❖ The intrinsic quality of one’s soul
fellow man. lives eternally
● The greatness of this poem lies in ❖ Donne message: confront what you
its ability to so clearly prescribe a fear head on and remember that
method for greatness in our modern there is nothing to fear on earth if
world. you believe in a soul.

“Daffodils” by William Wordsworth “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

(1770- 1850) ● The narrator tells someone he is
● We are presented with the power better than a summer’s day
and beauty of the natural world. ● Modern perspective: pompous (
● First: the poem comes at a time assuming the greatness of one’s
when the Western world is own property), arbitrary (criticizing a
industrializing and man feels summer day upon what seems a
spiritually lonely in the face of an whim), and sycophantic ( praising
increasing godless worldview. someone without substantial
● Second: the simplicity of enjoying evidence)
nature is perfectly manifested ● Shakespeare achieves greatness
● Third: he has subtly put forward and creates am eternal poem.
more than just an ode to nature ● Woven throughout the language is
● Demonstrates that an implicit connection between
all-encompassing and accessible
 GREATBOOKS
human beings, the natural world, ● Bishop’s much loved and much
and heaven. discussed ode to loss, which
● Comparison between human being Claudia Roth Pierpont called “a
and summer day leads to spiritual triumph of control, understatement,
perspectives; an ethereal realm of wit. Even of self-mockery, in the
poetry and beauty. poetically pushed rhyme word
“vaster,” and the ladylike, pinkies-up
OTHER GREAT POETS AND THEIR POEMS “shan’t.” An exceedingly rare
William Carlos Williams, “The Red mention of her mother—as a
Wheelbarrow” woman who once owned a watch. A
● The most anthologized poem of the continent standing in for losses
last 25 years for a reason. See larger than itself.”
also: “This is Just to Say,” which,
among other things, has spawned a Emily Dickinson, “Because I could not
host of memes and parodies. stop for Death –”
● The truth is, there are lots of equally
T. S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” iconic Dickinson poems, so
● Without a doubt one of the most consider this a stand-in for them all.
important poems of the 20th Though, as Jay Parini has noted,
century. “It has never lost its this poem is perfect, “one of
glamour,” Paul Muldoon observed. Dickinson’s most compressed and
“It has never failed to be equal to chilling attempts to come to terms
both the fracture of its own era and with mortality.
what, alas, turned out to be the
even greater fracture of the ongoing Langston Hughes, “Harlem”
20th century and now, it seems, the ● One of the defining works of the
21st century.” See also: Harlem Renaissance, by its
“The Love Song of J. Alfred greatest poet. It also, of course,
Prufrock.” gave inspiration and lent a title to
another literary classic: Lorraine
Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun.
● Otherwise known as “the most
misread poem in America.” See Sylvia Plath, “Daddy”
also: “Stopping by Woods on a ● To be quite honest, my favorite
Snowy Evening.” And “Birches.” All Plath poem is “The Applicant.” But
begin in delight and end in wisdom, “Daddy” is still the most iconic,
as Frost taught us great poems especially if you’ve ever heard her
should. read it aloud.
Robert Hayden, “Middle Passage“
Gwendolyn Brooks, “We Real Cool”
● This blew my mind in high school, ● The most famous poem, and a
and I wasn’t the only one. terribly beautiful one, by our
country’s first African-American
Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art” Poet Laureate (though the position
was then called Consultant in
 GREATBOOKS
Poetry to the Library of Congress). in pop culture, “The Raven” is
See also: “Those Winter Sundays, certainly the most common.
which despite what I wrote above
may be equally as famous.” Louise Glück, “Mock Orange“
● One of those poems passed hand
Wallace Stevens, “Thirteen Ways of to hand between undergraduates
Looking at a Blackbird” who will grow up to become writers.
● This one takes the cake for the
sheer number of “thirteen ways of Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the
looking at x” knockoffs that I’ve Mask“
seen. But please see also: “The ● Dunbar’s most famous poem, and
Emperor of Ice-Cream.” arguably his best, which biographer
Paul Revelldescribed as “a moving
Allen Ginsberg, “Howl“ cry from the heart of suffering. The
● With On the Road, the most poem anticipates, and presents in
enduring piece of literature from the terms of passionate personal
mythologized Beat Generation, and regret, the psychological analysis of
of the two, the better one. Even the the fact of blackness in Frantz
least literate of your friends would Fanon’s Peau Noire, Masques
probably recognize the line “I saw Blancs, with a penetrating insight
the best minds of my generation into the reality of the black man’s
destroyed by madness . . .” plight in America.”

Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise“ e.e. cummings, “i carry your heart with
● So iconic, it was a Google Doodle. me“
● As quoted at many, many
Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle into weddings.
That Good Night”
● I mean, have you seen Interstellar? Marianne Moore, “Poetry“
(Or Dangerous Minds or ● All else aside, the fact that it starts
Independence Day?) with hating poetry has made it a
favorite among schoolchildren of all
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” ages. See also: “The Fish.”
● Or Citizen Kane? (See also: “The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”) Rudyard Kipling, “If“
● According to someone in the
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias“ Literary Hub office who would know,
● . . . or Breaking Bad? this poem is all over sports
stadiums and locker rooms. Serena
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven” Williams is into it, which is proof
● We had some votes for “Annabel enough for me.
Lee,” on account of its
earworminess, but among the many Gertrude Stein, “Sacred Emily“
appearances and references of Poe ● Because a rose is a rose is a rose
is a rose.
 GREATBOOKS
● A uniquely American poem, written
William Blake, “The Tyger” in 1978, that should be outdated by
● Tyger, tyger, burning bright . . . now, but still is not.
Blake famously wrote music to go
along with his poems—the originals Frank O’Hara, “Meditations in an
have been lost, but this verse has Emergency“
been widely interpreted by ● Courtesy Don Draper, circa season
musicians as well as repeated to 2.
many sleepy children.
John McCrae, “In Flanders Fields“
Robert Burns, “To a Mouse“ ● Probably the most iconic—and
● As (further) immortalized by John most quoted—poem from WWI.
Steinbeck. Particularly popular in Canada,
where McCrae is from.
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself”
● The most famous poem from Lewis Carroll, “Jabberwocky“
Whitman’s celebrated Leaves of ● Still the most iconic nonsense poem
Grass, and selected by Jay Parini ever written.
as the best American poem of all
time. “Whitman reinvents American W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming“
poetry in this peerless ● Otherwise known as “the most
self-performance,” Parini writes, thoroughly pillaged piece of
“finding cadences that seem utterly literature in English.” Just ask our
his own yet somehow keyed to the hero Joan Didion. Joan knows
energy and rhythms of a young what’s up. One more thing. The
nation waking to its own voice and above list is too white and male and
vision. He calls to every poet after old, because our literary
him, such as Ezra Pound, who iconography is still too white and
notes in “A Pact” that Whitman male and old. So, here are some
“broke the new wood.” other poems that we here at the
Literary Hub office also consider
Philip Larkin, “This Be The Verse“ iconic, though they are perhaps not
● We know, we know, it’s all your as widely
parents’ fault. anthologized/quoted/referenced/use
d to amp up the corny drama in
William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 18” films as some of the above (yet).
(“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
day?”) Adrienne Rich, “Diving into the Wreck”
● Like Dickinson, we could have put ● One of my very favorites from
several of Shakespeare’s sonnets Rich’s rich (sorry) oeuvre. I read it
in this slot. Most people only in college and have been quoting it
recognize the first couplets anyway. ever since.

Audre Lorde, “Power“ Patricia Lockwood, “Rape Joke“

 GREATBOOKS
● The poem that officially broke the reader’s participation in the journey
internet in 2013. to Gauley Bridge. The reader is
implicated from the first section,
Lucille Clifton, “Homage to My Hips“ “The Road,” in which Rukeyser
● She’s just . . . so . . . damn . . . sexy. calls outward to her audience:
See also: “To a Dark Moses” and “These are roads you take when
“won’t you celebrate with me,” you think of your country.” The
because Clifton is the greatest. disaster Rukeyser is about to
explore is a part of “our country”
Lucie Brock-Broido, “Am Moor“ and the reader will have no choice
● This happens to be my own but to confront it.”
personal favorite Brock-Broido
poem, though almost any would do Rita Dove, “After Reading Mickey in the
here. Night Kitchen for
the Third Time Before Bed“
Sappho, “The Anactoria Poem” (tr. Jim ● Again, a thousand poems by Rita
Powell) Dove would do; this is the one that
● I’m breaking my rule about the sticks in my brain.
poems being written in English to
include Sappho, whose work is Nikki Giovanni, “Ego Tripping“
uniquely appealing for being almost ● I mean, “I am so hip even my errors
lost to us are correct” should probably be
your mantra. Watch Giovanni
Kevin Young, “Errata“ perform her poem here.
● The greatest wedding poem that no

LESSON 3:
one ever reads at their wedding.

Mark Leidner, “Romantic Comedies“ The Poetry of Robert Frost

● For those who enjoy snorting their
coffee while reading poetry. ROBERT LEE FROST
● American poet
Muriel Rukeyser, “The Book of the Dead“ ● “If we all die together, we will be in
● A long, legendary poem, written in good company”
1938, about the illness of a group of ● “I write them to see if I can make
miners in Gauley Bridge, West them sound different from each
Virginia. “Coming hot on the heels other
of modernist long poem ● Invited by John F. Kennedy to read
masterpieces like Eliot’s “The a poem at his inauguration as
Wasteland” or Stein’s “Tender President
Buttons,” the poem’s deliberate ● Unknown as a poet until at the age
lucidity isn’t just an aesthetic of 41
choice—it’s a political one,” Colleen ● While at England, he had published
Abel wrote in Ploughshares. two books: A Boys’ Will, 1913 and
“Rukeyser, from the beginning of North of Boston, 1914
“Book of the Dead,” seeks the
 GREATBOOKS
● The English first recognized his ● The characters in his poems are
genius independent
● He is a “ New England Poet” ● They share their creator’s attitude
● “ I am not a regionalist, I am a toward freedom : freedom is
realmist.” humanity’s greatest good.
● Russian Newspaper: “Robert ● Frost was neither a do-gooder nor a
Frost is the President of the real joiner
American” (refers to the values of ● His advice: Don’t join too many
individualism and freedom that are gangs. Join Few if any, Join the
so strongly emphasized in his United States and join the family-
poems) But not much in between unless a
● Named after General Robert E. Lee college.
● Inscribed in his gravestone : Robert ● He disliked fashions
Lee Frost “He had a lover’s quarrel ● He distrusted labels and resisted
with the world classification
● He naturally felt sympathetic toward
FROST AS A POET OF NATURE a great variety of people
● An out-of-doors poet ● Liked to write about untypical
● Every page of his book reflects his people, good or bad
interest in the natural world
● His poems record an older and a The Figure in the Doorway
more rural America ● Frost's tone is bemusement
● Frost helps us to see what we ● His bemused tone is two-sided, for
would otherwise only look at just as he wished only to inhabit his
● To his poems, nature is the whole singular, private world, he still
creation recognized his need to be in
● Frost had only contempt for what he communion with his fellow man
called “sunset raving”
Three Famous Frost Poems
Dust of Snow ● In a public lecture Frost once called
● Tells that even a simple moment three of his poems- “The Road Not
has a large impact and significance Taken,” “Stopping by Woods on
● Crow: signifies his depressive and a Snowy Evening,” and “Come
sorrowful mood in” – his triple these songs. Each of
● Hemlock: a poisonous tree these poems combines Frost’s
● The poet is not in a good mood and themes of individualism and nature
so he describes the dark, in an incident involving character,
depressive side of nature to present choice, and temptation.
his mood.

FROST”S INDIVIDUALISM LESSON 4:

Individualism: the quality in a person that
Analyzing Poetry
enables him to be himself rather than
another person
What is Poetry?
 GREATBOOKS
2. The order of the words may be different
“A man is a poet who lives... by watching from the order in which words are
his moods. An old poet comes at last to usually found in prose or in common
watching his moods as narrowly as a cat speech.
does a mouse.” – Henry David Thoreau
3. The words may be used in original and
“Moon talk by a poet who has not been in unique ways, stretching their ordinary
the moon is likely to be dull.” – Mark Twain meanings.

“I never had the least thought or inclination In reading a poem, remember that a line of
of turning poet till I got once heartily in love.” poetry is not the same as a sentence.
– Robert Burns Often several lines of poetry are needed to
contain one sentence, and the sentence
“A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in may even stop in the middle of a line.
existence, because he has no identity; he is Therefore, when you read a poem you
continually filling some other body.” – John cannot stop at the end of each line as if
Keats it contains a complete thought: you must
go on until thought is complete.
“You must have rules in poetry, if it is only
for the pleasure of breaking them.” – Two: A Poem Makes a Sound
George Moore ● A poem should be heard as well as
seen.
“Poetry gives most pleasure when only
generally and not perfectly understood.” Three: A Poem is Silent
–William Wordsworth ● A poem always suggests more than
it says.
“Poetry is certainly something more than A poem can be silent in many ways.
good sense, but it must be good sense, at ● If it tells a story, it may leave certain
all events; just as a palace is more than a parts of the story to the reader’s
house, but it must be a house, at least.” imagination.
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge ● If it describes a scene or an
emotion, it may do so in a very few
EIGHT WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT POETRY words- but words carefully chosen
One: A Poem is a Surprise to suggest a great deal.
● It doesn’t say what the reader
expects it to say Four: A Poem has a Speaker
● The “I” in a poem is almost never
A poem may be surprising in so many exactly the same as the poet
different ways that it would be impossible to himself.
name them all. ● A poet is free to imagine anyone or
Three of the most common ways are anything as the speaker of his
these: poem
1. The feelings or ideas expressed in the
poem may be unusual or unexpected.
 GREATBOOKS
Five: A Poem is a Game
● poem has rules; without rules, there 3. Fee the poem’s rhythm. Poetry has a
would be no poems and no games. special rhythmic sound, like music.
● Each poem has its own rules, which
may differ greatly or slightly from 4. Poets choose their words very carefully.
the rules that govern other poems. Use context clues to figure out the
meanings of unfamiliar words. (Don’t resist
Six: A Poem is Untrue using a dictionary of you are stuck.) Do any
● almost any poem you can find words have more than one meaning?
statement that are literally not true,
statements that cannot be proved 5. Poets use comparisons. If you are
or verified, statements that cannot reading a poem in which snowflakes are
be taken at their face value described as if they were insects, let the
● Metaphor, then, is a way of saying comparison create a picture in your mind.
something in a concise, striking, Think about why the poet chose this
and original way. comparison. How does it make you feel?

Seven: A Poem is an Experience 6. Think about what the poem is saying to

● Poetry is to be experienced, by the you. Does it relate to anything in your own
feelings as well as the mind. life? Does it give you a new way of looking
● Poetry communicates experience at something?
largely by means of images- words
or phrases that make an impression 7. If you like the poem, memorize.
on the reader’s senses
ANALYZING POETRY
Eight: A Poem is True ● Poetry does not always come right
● good poem may be described as a out and say what it means. Its
collection of untruths that add up to “form”- the way poetry is written and
some kind of truth. the figurative language that is often
didactic poem used in poetry affects its “meaning”.
● few poems- a rather small One way to think of poetry is as a
percentage of the total amount of puzzle to solve- look for the clues
good poetry- have as their aim the in a poem to figure out what the
teaching of a moral or a useful author is trying to convey.
lesson.
● Just as we analyze other types of
STRATEGIES FOR READING POETRY fiction, we can analyze poetry- we
1. Read the poem aloud at least once. You can find explicit and implicit
will find it easier to make sense of a poem if evidence in the poem. We can draw
you hear how it sounds. inferences from the writer’s word
choice and the form (how the writer
2. Pay attention to punctuation. Stop briefly breaks up stanzas, if the writer
at commas and semicolons, and stop longer repeats lines, how the title figures
after periods. If you see no punctuation at into the poem, and so on).
the end of a line, don’t pause.