Approaching a Difficult Poem -- Strategies
Certainly, you can look up anything on the Internet. But, the problem arises when you are asked to explicate (explain and analyse) a poem when you do not have access to the Internet. You need to have some strategies that you can use to help you.
When you have to deal with a difficult poem:
1. Read all the extra material that is given to you. This includes the questions.
2. Scan the poem. Use a dictionary to look up any unfamiliar words. Write them down, with their definitions!
3. Take a look at the title. It will be relevant. Perhaps you don't recognize the relevance right at the beginning, so you'll need to go back and think about it after you have analyzed the poem.
4. Where is the punctuation that indicates a stop?
Is it at the end of the line (called end stopped)
Is it in the middle of the next line? (No punctuation at the end of a line is called enjambment)
YOU MUST READ THROUGH TO THE PUNCTUATION!!! PUNCTUATION FRAMES A THOUGHT GROUPING-- LIKE A SENTENCE!!!
5. Who are the characters mentioned? Make some notes. Who is the speaker? Reliable? Unreliable? Naive?
6. Chunk up the poem into manageable pieces. The manageable pieces are often the thought groupings.
Paraphrase those chunks. Write this down.
7. What is the tone of the poem? What does this say about the theme of the poem? The tone should help you understand if the poet is being ironic or satiric.
8. What is the poet's message? Theme?
When you have to deal with a difficult poem:
1. Read all the extra material that is given to you. This includes the questions.
2. Scan the poem. Use a dictionary to look up any unfamiliar words. Write them down, with their definitions!
3. Take a look at the title. It will be relevant. Perhaps you don't recognize the relevance right at the beginning, so you'll need to go back and think about it after you have analyzed the poem.
4. Where is the punctuation that indicates a stop?
Is it at the end of the line (called end stopped)
Is it in the middle of the next line? (No punctuation at the end of a line is called enjambment)
YOU MUST READ THROUGH TO THE PUNCTUATION!!! PUNCTUATION FRAMES A THOUGHT GROUPING-- LIKE A SENTENCE!!!
5. Who are the characters mentioned? Make some notes. Who is the speaker? Reliable? Unreliable? Naive?
6. Chunk up the poem into manageable pieces. The manageable pieces are often the thought groupings.
Paraphrase those chunks. Write this down.
7. What is the tone of the poem? What does this say about the theme of the poem? The tone should help you understand if the poet is being ironic or satiric.
8. What is the poet's message? Theme?
Poetry
"My Last Duchess"
Your assignment is to explicate a poem. Work with a partner. Do not use the Internet. Use the strategies I have outlined above.
"My Last Duchess" is a great example of dramatic dialogue, a poetic form used to narrate and dramatize Victorian concerns. As a convention, each dramatic monologue should include:
The poem, "My Last Duchess" is based on incidents in the life of Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara in Italy. The duke's first wife, Lucrezia, died in 1561 — after they'd been married for 3 years. The background of the poem is interesting, but the text can be difficult to understand. The use of dramatic monologue works to separate the speaker from the poet (Browning), which forces the reader (you) to work hard to understand the words of the speaker and thus, hopefully, get a grasp on what the poet is saying.
We learn about the Duke by what he says and how he says it. Through him, we also learn about his wife, the last Duchess. We decipher something of how their relationship stood, what his expectations were, how she responded, etc.
In short, we learn a great deal about his character by hearing how he thought and felt about her. The Duke is manipulative, filled with family pride, and a feeling of ownership over even the memory of his deceased wife. We even get the impression that he might have murdered her — perhaps when "all smiles stopped altogether"?
Ultimately, we see what money and power can buy — not love. For this moral commentary in dramatic monologue, Browning draws from the traditions of Shakespeare's soliloquies, John Donne's poetry, and Hopkin's sonnets to offer readers that "truth broken into prismatic hues."
Source: http://classiclit.about.com/cs/articles/a/aa_mylastduches.htm
My Last Duchess
(Ferrara)
Robert Browning
That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
That depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain drawn for you, but I) [10]
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough [20]
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, [30]
Or blush,at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked
Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set [40]
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
- E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence [50]
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
Questions for "My Last Duchess"
1. Complete the explication according to the steps outlined above. (Strategies)
2. Write a paragraph of 6-8 sentences to describe the speaker in the poem. Use the character trait handout to choose strong and evocative words to describe the speaker.
3. How do you think the listener (the envoy) will react to the Duke's tale? What is the ethical issue the listener faces? What will he tell his master? What will happen next?
4. What point of view is used to tell this story? What type of narrator (reliable, unreliable, naive) do you think is used in this poem? Prove with two quotations.
5. Compare the speakers in "The Cask of Amontillado" and "My Last Duchess." How successful was each poet? Identify two particular quotes from each piece that highlight the
6. What is the double entendre of the title?
7. What are the characteristics of a dramatic monologue that this poem exhibits?
"My Last Duchess" is a great example of dramatic dialogue, a poetic form used to narrate and dramatize Victorian concerns. As a convention, each dramatic monologue should include:
- a fictional speaker/audience
- a symbolic setting
- symbols
- dramatic gestures
- an emphasis on speaker's subjectivity
- a focus on dramatics
- irony and/or satire
The poem, "My Last Duchess" is based on incidents in the life of Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara in Italy. The duke's first wife, Lucrezia, died in 1561 — after they'd been married for 3 years. The background of the poem is interesting, but the text can be difficult to understand. The use of dramatic monologue works to separate the speaker from the poet (Browning), which forces the reader (you) to work hard to understand the words of the speaker and thus, hopefully, get a grasp on what the poet is saying.
We learn about the Duke by what he says and how he says it. Through him, we also learn about his wife, the last Duchess. We decipher something of how their relationship stood, what his expectations were, how she responded, etc.
In short, we learn a great deal about his character by hearing how he thought and felt about her. The Duke is manipulative, filled with family pride, and a feeling of ownership over even the memory of his deceased wife. We even get the impression that he might have murdered her — perhaps when "all smiles stopped altogether"?
Ultimately, we see what money and power can buy — not love. For this moral commentary in dramatic monologue, Browning draws from the traditions of Shakespeare's soliloquies, John Donne's poetry, and Hopkin's sonnets to offer readers that "truth broken into prismatic hues."
Source: http://classiclit.about.com/cs/articles/a/aa_mylastduches.htm
My Last Duchess
(Ferrara)
Robert Browning
That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
That depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain drawn for you, but I) [10]
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much" or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:" such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough [20]
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed: she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 't was all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech, [30]
Or blush,at least. She thanked men - good! but thanked
Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech - (which I have not) - to make your will
Quite clear to such a one, and say, "Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss
Or there exceed the mark"- and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set [40]
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse
- E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will 't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence [50]
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me.
Questions for "My Last Duchess"
1. Complete the explication according to the steps outlined above. (Strategies)
2. Write a paragraph of 6-8 sentences to describe the speaker in the poem. Use the character trait handout to choose strong and evocative words to describe the speaker.
3. How do you think the listener (the envoy) will react to the Duke's tale? What is the ethical issue the listener faces? What will he tell his master? What will happen next?
4. What point of view is used to tell this story? What type of narrator (reliable, unreliable, naive) do you think is used in this poem? Prove with two quotations.
5. Compare the speakers in "The Cask of Amontillado" and "My Last Duchess." How successful was each poet? Identify two particular quotes from each piece that highlight the
6. What is the double entendre of the title?
7. What are the characteristics of a dramatic monologue that this poem exhibits?
Poetry -- Ethics Unit -- Can you identify the ethical issue in each poem?
Read about:
Satirical Poetry P. 193 and Didactic Poetry p. 206
The poems you are responsible for are listed below.
For each poem:
1. Do a stanza by stanza paraphrase.
2. Write a 2 sentence plot summary
3. Write a theme statement, identifying the ethical issue that underlies the poem. If the poem is ironic or satirical say so in your theme statement.
Satirical Poetry
_
Earth, by John Hall Wheelock p. 193 Green Memory by Langston Hughes p. 193 St. George by Nancy Senior p. 194 |
Didactic Poetry
Heart, by Suniti Namjoshi
The Sunlight, by Chief Dan George Universal Soldier by Buffy Sainte-Marie There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale |