26 Lesson 9: Understanding Levels in Poetry (16/24) -- Introduction to Creative Writing

26 Lesson 9: Understanding Levels in Poetry Introduction to Poetry Poetry may be a lost art because somewhere and somehow between middle school and high school, some students find poetry difficult to understand. They don’t want to read it. They don’t want to listen to it, and they certainly don’t want to write it. However, understanding poetry doesn’t have to be difficult or feared. Like a toy model or lego set, poetry is put together piece by piece–word by word. Each level builds on the foundation before it–line by line and stanza by stanza. Typographical Level of a Poem The typographical level of a poem is how it is typed on the page. Generally, a poem is typed in lines and stanzas like song lyrics. However, a well-known writer, E. E. Cummings, was known for pushing the boundaries for how a poem should be typed. Read his poem “Buffalo Bill’s”: Buffalo Bill’s Author: E. E. Cummings ©1920 Notice the typography. Some words are run together. Some lines are indented. Most of the words are in lowercase letters; only the proper nouns are capitalized. Finally, there’s no punctuation. Readers need to ask the question, “How do all these decisions, made by Cummings, impact the meaning of the poem?” Sound Level of a Poem The sound level is the musicality of the language when the poem is read aloud. It may include rhyme, rhythm, repetition, alliteration, assonance, consonance, caesura, or other techniques. Read aloud this stanza (excerpt) from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells”: The Bells Author: Edgar Allan Poe ©1849 I. Hear the sledges with the bells— Silver bells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night! While the stars that oversprinkle All the heavens, seem to twinkle With a crystalline delight; Keeping time, time, time, In a sort of Runic rhyme, To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells— From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. Notice the use of rhyme: bells, foretells, wells and tinkle, oversprinkle, twinkle. Notice the repetition of words in some lines. Tinkle, time, and bells have repeating words three times each. Notice the alliteration–words that sound the same at the beginning. Notice the assonance–words that have the same vowel sounds. Notice the consonance–words that have the same consonant sounds. Imagery Level of a Poem Poets create snapshots of life through word pictures. That imagery can be a description using the five senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Like fiction, it will focus on specific nouns and action verbs. Imagery can also be achieved through figures of speech: similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, etc. In the early 20th Century, William Carlos Williams was part of the Imagism Movement. Read his poem “The Red Wheelbarrow”: The Red Wheelbarrow Author: William Carlos Williams ©1923 so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens. Notice the isolation of a single image–the red wheelb