Unit 2: Reflective Essay on Poetry

Question: Diction refers to the choice of words or use of words in a piece of writing. The choice of words can have a big impact on the meaning of a poem. What are some of the ways in which diction can influence a poem? Make the meaning more specific create a certain style influence the pace of a poem influence the rhythm of a poem Diction also plays an important role because of *connotation* and *denotation* What is diction? Choose the correct definition. How do we identify a rhyming pattern in poetry ? What is the difference between free verse and a sonnet? a. Free verse is not a real poem, a sonnet is a real poem b. Sonnets are poems from long ago. Modern poetry is written in free verse. c. Sonnets follow a specific rhyme scheme and structure, a free verse does not d. A sonnet is a poem of 14 lines; free verse has more than 14 lines a. A book of definitions b. The definition of a word c. The rhythm of the poem d. The writer's choice of words Question 2 Complete Marked out of 1.00 Flag question Question text Read pages 21-23 of TL501. These pages contains a discussion on the poem. Remember to complete the activities in your activity journal as you read through the material. Match the terms with the correct definitions. Personification Answer 1 a figure of speech that attributes a living quality to an inanimate object Mode Answer 2 speaker's attitude toward the specific subject that the poem is about Denotation Answer 3 the dictionary definition of the word Oxymoron Answer 4 a figure of speech that uses words together that seem to contradict one another Connotation Answer 5 what we associate with a certain word Tone Answer 6 an atmosphere of a poem or a piece of writing What is the difference between the literal and figurative meaning of a word or a phrase? Explain by giving an example of both. The literal meaning of a word or phrase is the exact, straightforward meaning, without any exaggeration or metaphor. The figurative meaning, on the other hand, is more imaginative and uses figures of speech like metaphors or similes to convey something beyond the literal words. Example of Literal Meaning - "It's raining cats and dogs." - Literal meaning: If we take this literally, it means cats and dogs are falling from the sky, which is impossible and doesn't make sense. Example of Figurative Meaning- "It's raining cats and dogs." - Figurative meaning: This is a common expression that means it's raining very heavily. No actual animals are involved. How to read a poem 1. While rhyme is important, reading a poem involves much more, including tone, imagery, and structure 2. This approach combines both distant and close reading techniques, helping you grasp both the overall message and specific poetic devices 3. A poem should be read multiple times to understand its deeper meaning and layers 4. The how (form, language, devices) is just as important as the what (theme or message) What is a poem? A poem is a piece of writing in which words are arranged in a certain way to express a specific idea. A poem is usually much shorter than a novel or a play. Sometimes poems can seem challenging because they are bound by rules and use language in a way that differs from every day speech. The more you are exposed to poetry, the easier it becomes to identify these rules and patterns, and the easier it is to read and understand poems. This illustrated video introduces you to some of the many forms poetry can take. Although there are many types of poems, what they have in common is their ability to communicate meaning creatively through the use of language. This is done in a number of different ways. In this study unit, we explore the ways in which poems communicate their meaning to us. We consider their form, how they use words, and decipher what they mean. To help you better understand a poem, it is important to be familiar with the tools that poets use to create them. These tools are also known as poetic devices. Poetic devices A list of all the poetic devices that you need to know in order to complete this module successfully appears in the Toolkit at the back of this tutorial letter. If you are unsure of what a term means when you come across it, please consult the Toolkit at the back of this tutorial letterto help you. Let us have a quick look at some of the most important devices that poets use to create poems. We will look at these literary elements under the categories of ‘Diction’, ‘Form’, ‘Rhythm and Rhyme’, ‘Imagery’, and ‘Meaning’. Understanding these tools will not only help you better understand poetry, but it may even inspire you to write your own! Writing can be a wonderful way to interpret the world around you. Diction Broadly speaking, diction refers to the choice or the use of words in a piece of writing. The exact words that a poet chooses when writing a poem can have a big impact on its meaning. A particular word can make the meaning more specific, it can create a certain style, and it can even influence the pace and rhythm of a poem. Diction also plays an important role because of denotation and connotation. 21 ENG1501/501/0/2025 Poets choose words with certain denotations and connotations in mind when writing a poem. We may not be able to know what the poet’s own intention or association with a word was, but we can deduce a kind of intended meaning by thinking about what could possibly be associated with certain words and by looking at the poem as a whole in order to understand the context in which a word occurs. Consider the poem ‘Whales’ by Kelwyn Sole on page 469 of The New Century of South African Poetry (available as an eReserve on the library website). The first line of this poem uses an unfamiliar word in relation to whales: ‘lugubriousness’. Lugubrious has a similar meaning to words like sad, gloomy, or mournful. These are also some of the connotations of the word. The first line reads like an incomplete sentence – ‘Their lugubriousness’ – which makes you ask: what about it? What about their sadness? Now you have to read the rest of the poem to find out what the speaker wants to tell you about this aspect of whales. What is the effect of using the word ‘lugubriousness’ instead of sadness? First of all, lugubriousness is a much longer word, so it influences the pace and rhythm of the poem. The long word slows down the pace of the poem: lu – gu – bri – ous – ness = 5 beats sad – ness = 2 beats Secondly, the word is more descriptive and specific than the word ‘sadness’. It means looking or sounding sad or gloomy, not necessarily being sad or gloomy, but looking or sounding as if you are. Can you see how the denotation of this word helps us to gain a deeper understanding of why this word was chosen? Think about what whales look and sound like. Have you ever heard a whale call? It is perhaps one of the saddest sounds on earth. It does not necessarily mean whales are sad, but they can sound or look sad to us. Blue whales, for example, almost look asif their mouths are in an upside down smile permanently. Using ‘lugubriousness’ instead of ‘sadness’ paints a much more vivid picture of the whales. The first stanza of this poem consists merely of this one line, these two words: ‘Their lugubriousness’. The poet highlights the importance of this feature of whales by using stanza breaks in this manner. It emphasises that this aspect of whales is important for understanding the rest of the poem. If you continue to read the poem, you may find more unfamiliar or strange words, for example: ‘daintiness’ (line 2), ‘infinity’ (line 3), ‘hermeneutic’ (line 6), ‘fetid’ (line 8), ‘scuttles’ (line 9), ‘ponderous’ (line 14). Denotation refers to the dictionary definition of a word. It is easy to remember, because both denotation and dictionary begin with the letter ‘d’! Denotation is the standard definition. For example, according to the dictionary, a cloud is a visible water mass high above the ground. Connotation is also related to the meaning of a word, but it is specifically about what we associate with a certain word. For this reason, connotations can sometimes differ from person toperson. However, they will not usually be vastly different, because of the way language is structured. For example, when we hear the word ‘cloud’ we might think of a storm cloud or a rain cloud, and that could bring either positive or negative associations. But when we hear the word ‘cloud’ we do not usually associate it with cars, for example, or experiments, or money. 22 ENG1501/501/0/2025 Activity Find the denotations of all the words you may be unfamiliar with in the poem. Once you have done this, try to think what their possible connotations may be. Write your answers in your activity journal. Some of these words may have been chosen for their exact descriptive qualities or to serve a particular purpose. For example, ‘daintiness’ (line 2), means small or delicate beauty, yet this contrasts with the phrase ‘huge bellies’ (line 2). How can something be huge and delicate at the same time? The choice of words here performs a certain function and in this case it is to emphasise an apparent contradiction. The ‘daintiness of huge bellies’ (line 2) may be a reference to the ribbed texture of a blue whale’s underside. The speaker could be highlighting that although whales are huge, they have delicate looking patterns on their skin. Other words contribute to the overall tone of the poem, such as ‘hermeneutic’ (line 6). Simply put, ‘hermeneutic’ means interpretative or explanatory. How can shores be ‘hermeneutic’? Shores or beaches cannot literally perform interpretations, but when you think about it, in a way they do perform the function of interpretation – they ‘analyse’ the things that are washed to shore, spreading them out on the sand. This includes the wildlife such as fish, birds, and other sea creatures, but also the things that do not belong in the ocean, such as plastic pollution. In the case of this poem, a whale has beached on the shore. The shore will need to ‘interpret’ or take it apart as it decays. Not only has the poet chosen specific words for their exactness in meaning, but also to create a specific mood in the poem. In ‘Whales’ a sombre mood is created from the very first line. The word ‘lugubriousness’ is emphasised by the use of stanza breaks, and this long word also slows down the pace of the opening line, contributing the heavy mood. The poet initially uses words to describe the whales that have connotations of sadness, death and decay (‘lugubriousness’, ‘hung’, ‘beached’ ‘boomed’, ‘fetid’). The poet later describes the whales with words associated with happiness, life and joy (‘clown faces’, ‘dance’, ‘ease’, ‘grace’). The contrast is that when the speaker talks This is an example of an oxymoron – a figure of speech that uses words together that seem to contradict one another. Every day examples include ‘same difference’, ‘original copy’, ‘act naturally’, and ‘bittersweet’. Can you think of other examples? Personification is the figure of speech that attributes a living quality to an inanimate object. It is easy to remember: Person – ification: giving the qualities of a person to something that cannot perform those functions. Personification can refer to giving animal qualities to an inanimate object too, so it is important to remember that it is about giving living qualities to something that is not alive. In the poem ‘Whales’, the beach cannot literally interpret or analyse something because this is a human function. This is an example of personification where the beach is given a human quality. Mood refers to the atmosphere of a poem or a piece of writing. If you look closely at the poet’s choice of words, you can see what kind of atmosphere or feeling she or he wants to convey in her or his work. ENG1501/501/0/2025 23 about the beached whales, the mood is gloomy, while when he speaks about the whales in the depths of the ocean, it is clear that they are happy where they have no contact with humans. Note that the word ‘laughter’ (line 4) also appears in the first few lines of the poem. However, this word does not create a positive mood at this point in the poem. This is because the poet follows the description of a whale’s belly with the word ‘beached’ (line 5). Thus, the poem highlights that this ‘laughter’ or joy has been put to an end because the whale has died. Remember that it is possible for you to have a somewhat different interpretation of the poem to the interpretation provided in this tutorial letter. However, your interpretation must always look at individual words or sentences in the context of the text as a whole. If we argued that the word ‘laughter’ creates a joyful mood in the first half of the poem, this would be an incorrect reading of the poem, as the word ‘laughter’ must be looked at in the context of the rest of the poem. Once you have established the mood of the poem, you should also consider the tone of the poem. It seems that the speaker of this poem takes the matter of the beached whales very seriously. This serious tone is highlighted by the sombre mood in the first half of the poem, where the speaker discusses the topic of beached whales. The speaker also brings to our attention the state of our beaches, emphasising human pollution with words such as ‘condoms and crumpled valentines’ (line 7). The fact that the speaker talks about beached whales and polluted beaches together suggests that he sees these two issues as related. Did you know? Marine biologists believe that the chemicals that pollute the ocean are among the possible reasons why whales beach themselves (Whale Facts, 2019). The speaker highlights the idea that we need to think about how our activities affect our oceans with his choice of words and serious tone. The speaker is clearly not happy about the fate of the whales and he calls for us to think about the seriousness of the matter. Activity You ask your friend: ‘Do you like reading poetry?’ They reply: ‘Yeah, I love it, it’s so easy to learn, so many new words that I don’t understand.’ What tone does the response convey? Is your friend being serious or sarcastic? How do you know this? Form Form refers to the various shapes that poems can take. You may know some examples of classic forms – odes, sonnets, couplets – and there are also contemporary forms, such as free verse. Tone refers to the speaker’s attitude toward the specific subject that the poem is about. For example, the tone can be light-hearted or serious, in awe, compassionate, angry, or mournful. When we consider tone, we think about how the speaker or writer feels about the thing that they are talking about. This is closely linked to the poet’s choice of words. Tone and mood are also related to each other, but tone refers to the attitude of the speaker while mood refers to the atmosphere of the poem. ENG1501/501/0/2025 24 Poets sometimes use form to write as part of a certain tradition. They may also want to use a particular rhyme scheme or pattern. Contemporary poetry sometimes rejects classic forms. An example of a classic form that you may already know is the sonnet. Sonnets have been written since the fourteenth century and have at least two distinct shapes: the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, and the English or Shakespearean sonnet. Both sonnets have fourteenlines, but they have different rhyme schemes and structures. We discuss rhyme in more detail inthe next section, but we introduce you to the basics of rhyme scheme in this section. The Petrarchan sonnet can be divided into two parts: the first eight lines form the octave, and the final six lines form the sestet. The sestet is usually a response to the octave in the form ofan answer, a counterargument, or another type of response. There is thus a distinct break in thought between the first eight lines (octave) of the poem and the last six (sestet). The Petrarchan sonnet also follows a strict rhyme scheme: abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd. Did you know? abba, abba, cdecde/cdcdcd … What do these letters mean? They simply suggest a rhyme pattern. Words that rhyme are words that end with the same sound, for example ‘surround’ and ‘found’. The letter ‘a’ is used for the sound of the last word of the first line. The letter ‘b’ is used for the sound of the last word of the second line if this word does not rhyme with the last word of the first line. This is the case with a Petrarchan sonnet. In a Petrarchan sonnet, the last word of the third line rhymes with the last word of the second line, so the letter ‘b’ is used again. The last word of the fourth line rhymes with the last word of the first line, so the letter ‘a’ is repeated. To avoid confusion, we use letters as shorthand to represent rhyming patterns in poems. The Shakespearean sonnet consists of three quatrains (four lines each) and a rhyming couplet (two lines). The rhyme scheme is also different: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. That means line 1 rhymes with line 3, line 2 with line 4, line 5 and 7, 6 and 8, and so forth, with the final two lines that rhyme with each other. The final two lines usually play an important role in terms of the meaning of a Shakespearean sonnet. These lines can contain the poem’s conclusion, or even take the poem in a different direction. Have a look at the poem ‘The Cape of Storms’ by Thomas Pringle on page 3 in Voices of this Land (available as an eReserve on the library website). Activity Before you continue to read this section, try to identify what type of poem ‘The Cape of Storms’ is. Give a reason for your answer. A sonnet is a type of poem that consists of fourteen lines and follows a particular rhyme scheme. Petrarchan sonnets have the following rhyming pattern: abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd. Shakespearean sonnets follow a different rhyming pattern: abab, cdcd, efef, gg. A couplet is a stanza that consists of two consecutive lines of poetry that rhyme. It is popular in Shakespearean sonnets. ENG1501/501/0/2025 25 ‘The Cape of Storms’ has fourteen lines and follows the following rhyme scheme: Lines 1-4 – abba Lines 5-8 – abba Lines 9-14 – cdcdcd Based on this information we can assume that it is a Petrarchan sonnet, because the form follows the rules of this kind of poem. The word ‘dark’ (line 1) rhymes with ‘bark’ (line 4), as well as ‘mark’ (line 5) and ‘stark’ (line 8). Activity Try to identify the other rhyming words at the end of each line of the poem. This poem uses some archaic (old-fashioned) words that we no longer use in spoken English today. One such a word is ‘thy’ (lines 2 and 3). This used to be the intimate form of the word ‘your’. ‘You’ and ‘your’ were used in formal contexts – that is why people referred to a king as ‘Your Majesty’ – but nowadays we use ‘you’ and ‘your’ in both formal and informal contexts. Activity Notice that the word ‘thy’ is used to refer to the Cape of Storms. Which poetic device does ‘the choice of words’ to refer to the Cape in the first quatrain remind you of? The poem addresses the ‘Cape of Storms’. Note that this phrase refers to Cape Town as it was known when the Portuguese explorer, Bartholomeus Dias, arrived at the shores of South Africa. The first four lines tell us a bit more about the Cape of Storms and hints to why it may have been known by that name. Activity Think about the diction in lines 5 to 8 of this poem. How does it contribute to the description of the place? What does it tell you about the ‘Cape of Storms’? The speaker suggests that the Cape is not a happy place. He notices ‘with grief’ (line 5) the ‘servile and the slave’ (line 6). This information tells us more about why the Cape is a ‘cheerless’(line 2) place to the speaker. This is a place of ‘sorrow’ and ‘oppression’ (line 8), where slavery is practiced. However, we see a change in the speaker’s attitude towards the Cape from line 9 onwards. The word ‘Yet’ at the beginning of this line already suggests this change. It indicates that although the Cape is a place of ‘physical and moral ill’ (line 9) he still feels as though ‘strong links’ (line 10) bind him to this place. The fact that the speaker feels a connection to the Cape of Storms has the effect of making even its ‘rocks and deserts’ (line 12) dear to the speaker. Despite the horrible events that took The speaker is the person who is speaking in the poem. The speaker is not necessarily the poet! The poet is the person who writes the poem, the person who chooses specific words and creates specific lines. But the words spoken and the meaning and ideas that these words represent belong to the speaker. Think about it: If you are a young woman writing a poem from the point of view of an aging grandfather and you use the word ‘I’ in your poem, you do not want your readers to think that you are the grandfather! You are the poet, the grandfather is the speaker in the poem. ENG1501/501/0/2025 26 place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries – such as colonialism and slavery –the speaker suggests that there were a few ‘kind hearts’ (line 13), ‘loved Kindred’ and ‘congenial Friends’ (line 14) in this unruly place. Can you see how the form of this poem is connected to its meaning? The poet describes the Cape in a negative way in the first eight lines of the poem, and then tells us another aspect of the Cape in the final sestet (6 lines). In this manner, form and meaning are closely connected. This makes the poem an example of a Petrarchan sonnet. Now let us consider the form of a more contemporary poem: ‘shak-shak’ by Seitlhamo Motsapi. This poem appears on page 427 of The New Century of South African Poetry (available as an eReserve on the library website). When you look at the poem the first thing you will probably notice is that the form is different to what you may have expected. Most of the stanzas are only one or two lines. There is also no clear pattern in the form of the poem: the first six stanzas contain two lines, stanza seven contains one line, stanzas eight and nine two lines, stanza ten one line, and so forth. The poem also does not use a distinct rhyme scheme. We cannot predict where a change in the speaker’s attitude may occur based on the form of the poem. ‘shak-shak’ is an example of free verse. The poem does not follow a specific rhyme scheme or format. This poem is unusual as it uses some informal symbols as part of the poem. For example, the poem begins with the ampersand sign. This sign (&) represents the word ‘and’. This is not a sign that you would usually see in a poem. It creates an informal tone. Apart from its lack of a clear pattern, the poem also uses enjambment throughout. The effect of this is that the poem sounds different when read aloud than you would expect when you look at it on the page. The first stanza may appear to be only two lines long, but because the second line runs over into the next, it is not read as the end of the stanza when you read it aloud. Free verse is a form of poetry that closely follows the patterns of everyday speech. It contains no clear rhyme scheme, form, or use of metre. This does not mean that some rhythmic or rhyme patterns do not emerge in free verse, but it is not as structured as some other forms of poetry. The difference between free verse and prose (like a novel) is that this style of poetry still uses rhythm and rhyme, just not in the same way as other formal types of poetry. Enjambment occurs when the syntax of a line of poetry is incomplete at the end of the line. It is also known as run-on lines, because the meaning of the line runs from the one to the next. Do you see what we did there? This is an example of enjambment. The effect of this poetic device is that it can emphasise the word at the end of the line. It can also create tension due to the incomplete syntax. The use of enjambment contributes to the overall rhythm of the poem. Sometimes it can create a sense of urgency or excitement because it speeds up the reading of a poem. In ‘shak-shak’, the enjambment emphasises the excitement and vibrant atmosphere created by the carnival. ENG1501/501/0/2025 27 The poet uses other interesting and unusual techniques in this poem. Line 3, for example, contains two slash signs, or //. In academic writing we usually use a slash to indicate line breaks when we quote a few lines from a poem. The poet thus creates a similar effect here, suggesting that there should be another line break between ‘my soul’ and ‘lightning speed rhythm’ (line 3). Another possible interpretation is that the slash sign can be read as the word ‘or’. In a formal letter, for example, we often say: ‘Dear Sir/Madam’. The poet could thus be creating a link between ‘my soul’ and ‘lighting speed rhythm’. If we consider the diction of the poem, just briefly, we see more unusual features. The poet uses incomplete words or words spelt incorrectly: ‘& so the poor wd throw pots of paint’ (line 5); ‘and while the electrick carnival / kicked the weals off’ (lines 26-27). We can assume that ‘wd’ is short for ‘would’ based on the rest of the sentence. ‘electrick’ means ‘electric’ and ‘weals’ means ‘wheels’. The effect of using these spellings is that the poet is trying to mimic natural speech. Perhaps then, in a way, the poet does use form to tell us a bit about the meaning of the poem, but not in a way we may have expected. The use of informal spellings and punctuationemphasises the informal atmosphere created by the carnival. Carnivals are also associated withtransgression. This aspect of carnivals could be hinted at in the contravention of formal spelling and punctuation rules. The final stanza of this poem reads: ‘HISTRYS ON DE SIDE / OF DE OPRES’. First, take note the use of capital letters here. What do they mimic? As the previous lines suggest, they mimic the ‘graffiti’ that is written on the speaker’s ‘soul’ (lines 32-33). These words written in capital letters stand out from the rest of the poem because of their visual size. Again, the poet uses a technique of shortening words or spelling them incorrectly to imitate how these words are spoken and to emphasise a sense of transgression. These final words of the poem are an allusion to a speech made by Nelson Mandela to the African National Congress’s youth league at an annual conference in 1951. Did you know? In his speech to the African National Congress’s youth league at an annual conference in 1951, Mandela said: ‘These are hopeful signs, but precisely because the African liberation movement is gaining strength the rulers will become more brutal and, in their desperation, will practice all manner of deception in order to stay on at any rate to postpone the day of final victory. But history is on the side of the oppressed.’ We see that the final lines of this poem are almost an exact quotation of this speech made by Nelson Mandela, although it is written in a way that imitates spoken language. When you read the poem ‘shak-shak’ again, realising that the final words allude to a speech made by Nelson Mandela during apartheid, the poem makes sense in a different way. It adds to An allusion is a reference to another person, text, place, or event outside the poem or literary work. In the poem ‘shak-shak’ we find a version of a quotation from a speech made by Nelson Mandela. The purpose of an allusion is to enrich or enhance the poem, because it now draws the meanings and associations of the other text to the poem as well. ENG1501/501/0/2025 28 your interpretation as well as the overall meaning of the poem, because now you understand more about the poem’s historical context. The syntax, grammar, and punctuation you find in poems play an important role in their overall meaning. When you read a poem, you should try to read it according to the rules of grammar. In other words, if you see a comma, you should pause in your reading. If you see a full stop, you know that the sentence forms of a unit of meaning. Similarly, question and exclamation marks also complete sentences. If you do not see any punctuation, you should not pause when reading the poem. In this way, punctuation contributes significantly to the rhythm and the rhyme of a poem. Rhythm and rhyme Poets use rhythm and rhyme to create sounds and to contribute to the overall meaning of the poem. To do this, they make use of sound devices. For example: In ‘shak-shak’ the poet not only tries to imitate speech by means of form and spelling, but he also attempts to imitate movement and sound with words like ‘feet/ shoo shoo shifty snap shuffle’ (lines 20-21) where the words imitate the movement of the people dancing and celebrating through the streets of the township. In poetry we find different types of rhyme. Sometimes it is very easy to spot rhyme patterns and rhyming words, because the words appear at the end of each line of the poem, as we saw in ‘Cape of Storms’. This type of rhyme is called end rhyme. Alliteration refers to the repetition of the consonant sounds at the beginning words that appear close to each other in lines of poetry. For example, in ‘shak-shak’ the author repeats the s- sound throughout the poem, but especially in lines such as ‘already there’s a sign/ in the sky/ for those who see’ (lines 29-31). Repeating the s-sound at the beginning of the words creates rhythm in the poem.] Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in words that appear close together in a poem. In ‘shak-shak’ examples include ‘& the carnival entered the last streets’ (line 1) – repetition of the asound, and ‘my soul // lightning speed rhythm / light moving heavy swinging hip’ (lines 3-4) – repetition of the ing-sound. Similar to alliteration, this repetition creates rhythm.] Onomatopoeia refers to the formation of a word that sounds like the thing it describes, a word that imitates or represents the sound of what it refers to. This may sound confusing, but these words are usually easy to spot, as they often relate to water, animal, or vocal sounds, or are used to describe loud unexpected noises. For example: ‘splash’ is a word that describes the sound that water makes, and it tries to sound similar to the actual sound! Likewise ‘meow’ sounds a bit like the sound of a cat, ‘giggle’ sounds a bit like a person laughing, and ‘bang’ sounds a bit like a shot. Can you think of other examples? End rhyme refers to rhyming words that appear at the end of lines. Pair rhyme refers to rhyming words that appear at the end of two or more consecutive lines. This type of rhyme usesthe pattern aabb ccdd, and so forth. Cross rhyme refers to rhyming words that appear at the end of every other line. This type of rhyme follows the pattern abab cdcd, and so forth. Both pairrhyme and cross rhyme are types of end rhyme. ENG1501/501/0/2025 29 Read the extract of ‘The Author to Her Book’ by Anne Bradstreet on page 66 of Seasons Come to Pass below ad see if you can spot the type of rhyme it uses (available as an eReserve on the library website). Do not worry about understanding all the words in the poem at this point. Activity Try to find the rhyme pattern in the poem ‘The Author to Her Book’ (Anne Bradstreet). Write your response in your activity journal before looking at the discussion below. The Author to Her Book Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth didst by my side remain, Till snatched from thence by friends, less wise than true, Who thee abroad exposed to public view, Made thee in rags, halting to th’press to trudge, Where errors were not lessened (all may judge). This kind of rhyming pattern creates rhythm in the poem. Pair rhyme can also make it easier to remember the lines, because you will know that two consecutive lines end with words that rhyme. Other types of rhyme can be a little bit trickier to spot. Middle rhyme, or internal rhyme, refers to rhyming patterns created when two or more rhyming words appear in the same line of a poem, or across different lines. The difference between middle or internal rhyme and end rhyme is: • Internal or middle rhyme – in the middle of lines • End rhyme – at the end of lines, includes pair rhyme and cross rhyme Consider the poem ‘are you the river or am i’ by Shabbir Banoobhai on pages 226-227 in A New Century of South African Poetry (available as an eReserve on the library website). The poem begins: ‘are you the river or am i/ do i flow into the sea or do you flow into me’ (lines 1- 2). As you can see, the words ‘sea’ and ‘me’ rhyme and appear in the same line. This is an example of internal rhyme. Similarly, in the final stanza we find: ‘all the silt of my journeying/ all the salt of my yearning flows into you (lines 21-22). The poet uses this technique to show how the speaker and his beloved are joined closely together. The lines in the final stanza of this poem also contain an example of half-rhyme. Activity Based on the definition of half-rhyme, see if you can find an example in the final stanza of ‘are you the river or am i’. Internal rhyme or middle rhyme refers to rhyming patterns created when two or more rhyming words appear in the same line of a poem, or across different lines. Half-rhyme refers to a rhyming pattern that repeats identical consonant sounds but with different vowel sounds. ENG1501/501/0/2025 30 Imagery Poems often try to bring to mind an object, a ‘picture’, or a certain idea. Imagery in poetry refers to the idea or picture that the poem makes you imagine when you read it. Consider the poem ‘Sometimes when it rains’ by Gcina Mhlophe on pages 298-299 of The New Century of South African Poetry (available as an eReserve on the library website). In the first five stanzas of this poem, the speaker remembers events or experiences from her childhood. She recollects these memories ‘sometimes when it rains’; the rain inspires her to think about these things. Each stanza contains a different memory. In stanza three, for example, the speaker thinks of ‘goats/ Running so fast from the rain/ While sheep seemed to enjoy it’ (lines 14-16). This is a very straightforward image: The speaker remembers seeing goats running away from the rain, and sheep enjoying it. The image we imagine is very closely relatedto what the speaker tells us. We may think of this scene as being quite peaceful and serene too,as it evokes a simple life where a child is able to live closely with animals and observe their behaviour. At the outset, this poem seems simple and straightforward, a representation of memories of a child. The images created are given to us in easy to understand language and without using poetic devices. However, as the poem progresses and its intention becomes clear, the language used becomes more complex, and the poet begins to use poetic devices to create the images that she wants to convey. The poem builds in complexity until the final stanza. Line 55 reads: ‘hail stones biting the grass’. If we think about it, hail stones cannot literally ‘bite’ – this is an example of personification (giving human qualities to a non-living entity). This personification creates a vivid image in our imagination. What happens when we bite something? We break it into pieces, like when you bite and chew an apple. Think about the last time you saw a hail storm. What does hail do to plants and other things? It almost ‘bites’ into things! This image is continued in the next line when the speaker says: ‘I can’t help thinking they look like teeth’ (line 56). Here she uses a simile to compare one thing to another: the hail stones looklike teeth to her. Line 57 suggests that the teeth-like hail stones make her think of ‘smiling friends’, smiling widely with their teeth showing. Finally, she wishes that ‘everyone else/ Had something to smile about’ (lines 58-59). These two lines compare her smiling friends to everyone else that she mentions in the poem – the ‘people who have nowhere to go’ (line 32), the ‘mothers/ who give birth in squatter camps’ (lines 38-39), the “illegal’ job seekers’ (line 43), ‘life prisoners’ (line 50) – and wishes that these others had something to smile about. Sometimes poets use figurative language to say that one thing is like another, and other times they wish to say that one thing IS another. This kind of comparison is different to a simile, because instead of making you imagine similarities between things, it suggests that these thingsare the same. This kind of poetic device is called a metaphor. A simile is a figure of speech that compares one thing to another. It is a comparison that includes the use of the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ to compare two different things. For example, ‘[the hailstones] look like teeth’. ENG1501/501/0/2025 31 Read ‘Poems’ by Don Maclennan on page 42 of Voices of this Land (available as an eReserve on the library website). The first thing you should notice when you read this poem is that it is about poems! The first four lines provide a metaphor that tell us what poems are according to the speaker: ‘Poems are nets of thought’ (line 1). This metaphor – ‘poems are nets of thought’ – tries to create an image in our minds of what a poem actually is. We can imagine what a net looks like, perhaps one used to catch a butterfly or fish. In this case the nets are made of thoughts, and what do they catch? According to the poem, these nets are ‘put out to catch/ what can be sensed only/ in a corner of the mind’ (lines 2-4). Now we see that the speaker thinks of poems like nets of thought that catch things we sense in our minds, not an ‘actual’ object. This entire image is not meant to be taken literally; this is figurative language. A poem is not literally a net, it is literally words put together in a certain pattern. The poet uses figurative language to make us use our imagination and try to think of poetry in a different way. Activity Do you like this image of a poem as a net of thoughts trying to catch things that we can only experience in our minds? What are poems to you? If you wrote a poem about what a poem is, what kind of imagery would you use to describe it? Meaning How do poets create meaning in poems? We have already looked at a number of ways in which they do this by using poetic devices. From now on, when you read a poem you will begin to think not only about what a poem means, but also how it creates meaning. In the section on imagery, we discussed the difference between literal and figurative meaning. Sometimes words or phrases in poems can have more than one meaning. Poets use this technique of creating double meanings in poems for a particular effect. Figurative has the opposite meaning to literal. Literal is the actual, exact, or correct meaning. For example, if I say the earth is round, I mean it literally – the earth is a planet with a round shape. Figurative refers to the symbolic, metaphoric, or implied meaning of a word. For example, if I say ‘money makes the world go round’ I do not mean it literally! Money does not make the planet earth orbit on its axis – angular rotation does. Rather, ‘money makes the world go round’ is an expression that is meant figuratively because money is considered important to maintain economies and because of that, some people believe that money is what keeps our world functioning. A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things without using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. It is also called a direct comparison. A metaphor is a type of comparison in which you, the reader, are expected to infer or understand the connection between the two things that it compares. Irony is related to double meaning in that it also deals with two sets of meanings. However, irony occurs when there is a difference between what a situation appears to be and what it actually is. Poets often use irony to express the opposite meaning of what they say in words. ENG1501/501/0/2025 32 Consider the poem ‘City Johannesburg’ by Mongane Wally Serote on pages 240-241 of Seasons Come to Pass (available as an eReserve on the library website). The speaker in the poem addresses the city of Johannesburg and says: ‘This way I salute you’ (line 1). What is the meaning of the word ‘salute’? A ‘salute’ is a type of greeting often used in the army. It is a gesture used to show respect. Activity If we read and think about the rest of the poem, do you think that the speaker means to show respect to Johannesburg with his salute in line 1? Why, or why not? The lines following line 1 read: ‘My hand pulses to my back trousers pocket/ Or into my inner jacket pocket/ For my pass, my life,/ Jo’burg City’ (lines 2-5). We can see that the speaker’s rehearsed movements imitate the action of a salute (raising your hand to your forehead) but instead of literally saluting the city, he greets the city by reaching for his pass book in his back pocket or jacket pocket. During apartheid, black people in South Africa were required to carry pass books whenever they left their designated residential areasfor travel or work. The intention of the pass laws was to restrict the movement of black people and to force them to live in specific areas. This law also degraded and demeaned black people, and was used as a form of oppression. Based on this information, we can deduce or presume that the speaker does not mean it when he says he ‘salutes’ Johannesburg with his pass book. He does not wish to show respect to the city. Rather, he is being ironic and means to say the opposite. Being forced to show the pass book to be able to enter the city is not a sign of the city’s deserved respect; it is a sign of oppression. In this case, knowing something about the historical context of the poem helps us to understand it better. Poets can also use symbols to convey meaning in their works. Some symbols and theirmeanings are widely understood, for example the heart symbol represents love, while othersmay be more personal or specific. In the poem, Johannesburg itself does not oppress the speaker, but rather what it stands for or represents, that is, the apartheid government’s racist policies and the system of oppression. Johannesburg began as a settlement for gold mining and relied heavily on the labour of black people to make it successful. As mentioned before, black people were not allowed to live in Johannesburg during apartheid, only in specific segregated sections on the outskirts of the city. The historical context refers to the social, economic, political, and religious conditions that existed during a specific time period and in a specific place. For example, if you read the poem ‘City Johannesburg’ for the first time and you do not know anything about apartheid laws, you would still be able to understand the poem. However, your understanding becomes greatly enhanced by knowing something about pass laws, because now you can see that the speaker means it ironically when he ‘salutes’ the city and you understand why. Symbolism refers to use of symbols or symbolic images to represent something else. In the poem ‘City Johannesburg’, for example, the city is symbolic of the oppression of the apartheid state. ENG1501/501/0/2025 33 We can say that in the poem, the city is a symbol of prosperity (eGoli, the place of gold) as well as oppression. How to read a poem Reading a poem once can be enjoyable, but reading it many times with a specific purpose or goal makes understanding and appreciating the poem much easier. Below are some useful tips to follow the first time you read a poem: • Read the poem aloud; • Read the punctuation marks and follow their rules: If there are no punctuation marks, keep reading. If there is a comma, pause in your reading. If there is full stop, exclamation, or question mark, read it as the end of a sentence; • Read the sentences that form the poem, not line by line only (use the punctuation to guide you). Think of each sentence as a unit of meaning in the poem; • Read on a literal level first to ensure that you understand the poem and all the important words before you begin to unpack it and look for other meanings; • Read the poem again (and again and again). There are two main ways in which to read a poem that you will read about in this unit: ‘distant’ reading and ‘close’ reading (as identified by Barry, 2013). Distant reading The first time you read a poem, you should try to get a sense of the overall meaning or effect that the poem tries to achieve. Even if some words or references are unclear, you will get a general sense of what the poem is about. Step 1: Stages or phases of the poem Poems usually contain different ‘stages or phases’ (Barry, 2013: 76). When you read a poem for the first time, see if you can identify a beginning phase (sort of like the ‘exposition’ in a novel), a middle phase that shows some kind of development, and a final phase that breaks away from the rest, or brings it all together. Once you have completed this task, write down your ideas so you can return to them as you work through the steps. It may help you to try to write some parts of the poem in your own words as part of this step. This is called paraphrasing. Paraphrasing a poem can help you to better understand it overall. Step 2: The theme of the poem Now read the poem again. Try to find the ‘crux’ of the poem, the central argument, or what it is ‘about’. This is also called the theme. Try to identify the theme before you continue reading the poem again. Take notes as you go – this helps a lot to gain a good understanding of the poem! Step 3: Patterns and repetition Have another look, and see if you can identify some patterns in the poem that are obvious to you. Look for patterns (or repetition) in terms of the poetic devices discussed earlier in this unit – rhythm, rhyme, style, or length of lines, anything that catches your eye. Also make note of moments in the poem when these patterns are broken as this is often significant (Barry, 2013: 76). Now that you have an overall understanding of the poem with some insight regarding what it is about, you are ready to unpack the poem in detail. This process is known as close reading. ENG1501/501/0/2025 34 Close reading Close reading refers to a way of reading that considers the details of the poem very carefully. When you perform a close reading, you will analyse each word, phrase, line, unit of meaning, and punctuation mark in the poem, as well as the effect of the use of language. In this unit, we have introduced you to a number of tools that can assist you in doing a close reading. These tools are called poetic devices. You can also refer to the glossary at the back of the tutorial letter as a quick reference. In this module, we use distant and close reading to understand and unpack poems. You begin by reading the poem from a distance, then go deeper to do a close reading, and return to read itfrom a distance once more to see how your understanding of the elements of the poem affect your understanding of the poem overall. Let us look at an example of one of the poems we have already discussed in this unit and put these reading techniques to the test. Return to the poem ‘Whales’ by Kelwyn Sole (The New Century of South African Poetry, p. 469, available as an eReserve on the library website). Distant reading Step 1: Stages or phases of the poem The first section or phase of the poem is quite short. We know that the poem is about whales. We also know that ‘their lugubriousness’ is important, because the poet dedicates an entire stanza to this one line. There is an oxymoron in stanza two that describes the whales as ‘dainty’and ‘huge’ at the same time. The next phase or section of the poem introduces another idea with the words ‘an oil of laughter’ (line 4) and the single word ‘beached’ (line 5). We now start to see that there is moreto this description of whales than their physical appearance. Instead, the focus moves to the state of the beached whales on shores filled with litter. We start to get a sense of decay, sadness, and death. In the final two stanzas, the whales are ‘deep in the valleys of the oceans’ (line 10), far away from humans (‘aquamarine with distance’, line 11). The description of the whales change – they have ‘clown faces’ (line 12) now; they ‘dance’ (line 13) and move with ‘ease’ (line 14) and‘grace’ (line 15). Step 2: The theme of the poem The poem seems to be about the impact of humans on the environment and specifically the oceans and its animals. It is also about death and decay and in that sense, the circle of life. Whales beach themselves on the shores where they decay. Far out in the oceans, untouched by human influence, they seem happy. Step 3: Patterns and repetition The poem does not have a specific rhyme scheme or follow a definite style. It is an example of free verse. The poet seems to create a slow rhythm in the poem by using words with multiple syllables like ‘lugubriousness’, ‘daintiness’, ‘infinity’, ‘hermeneutic’, ‘aquamarine’, and so forth. Reading these words slows down the pace of the poem. Although the poem seems to be about whales and most of it describes their behaviour, there is a break in this pattern in line 9 where the speaker introduces himself with the words ‘my desire’. This is a strange break in the description, and leaves the reader wondering what a human and his desire is doing in a scene depicting the death of a whale. Perhaps that is the point the poet ENG1501/501/0/2025 35 is trying to make – that humans, their desires, their ‘condoms and crumpled valentines’ (line 7) are out of place in this scene. Close reading Activities to help you unpack the poem • Revise your understanding of the terms diction, form and structure, imagery, rhythm and rhyme, as well as meaning, as discussed in this unit. Write short definitions of each of these in your activity journal. • Do you think the title of the poem is important? Why, or why not? • Print out a copy of the poem, ‘Whales’, and circle or underline all of the poetic devices that you can find. In your activity journal, write notes about how each of the poetic devices that you have identified contributes to the meaning of the poem. This is how you should study all of your prescribed poems in preparation for the examination. Note that Tutorial Letter 102 provides you with specific questions that will guide you in your study of each poem. When you have made your notes on ‘Whales’, compare your notes to the section below. Diction The poet uses a number of words that are unfamiliar yet descriptive. Read through the notes on his use of diction in the earlier discussion in this unit. Tone and mood Earlier in this unit, we explained that the speaker’s tone is serious as he wants to convey the gravity of his message that we need to take better care of our oceans. The speaker’s tone also seems to be respectful of the massive sea creatures. He describes the whales in a way that makes them seem graceful and peaceful despite their massive size. The mood of the poem changes as the poem progresses. At the start of the poem, the whales are described as looking or sounding mournful (‘lugubriousness’, line 1) and the scene on the beach is one of death and decay as the whales are beached on the shore. The speaker describes the horrible smell of the decaying corpse (‘fetid’, line 8) and the whale seems almost misplaced among the ‘condoms and crumpled valentines’ (line 7) of human life. This changes in the final two stanzas. The whales, ‘deep in the valleys of the oceans/ aquamarine with distance’ (lines 10-11), far away from human interference and pollution, seem happy as they ‘dance’ (line 13) and glide through the oceans with ‘grace’ (line 15). Form and structure This is an example of free verse. The poem does not have a particular structure or rhyme scheme. It does not follow a specific pattern. What we can identify, however, is that the poet makes use of enjambment. If we read the poem with this in mind, it can be divided into three sentences, each containing a different description of the whales. Who is the speaker in this poem? That remains unclear. Most of the poem is a description of whales, but in line 9 we see that ‘my desire scuttles’. Who is this person? And how does their desire fit in with the rest of the poem? The answer remains unclear, as the poem contains too little information to help us decipher this reference. We can only speculate that perhaps this is the point that the poet is trying to make: Perhaps this out-of-place mention of a first person in the middle of the poem suggests how outof-place humans are in the bigger picture of things. The only human references in the poem are ENG1501/501/0/2025 36 references to litter on the beach (‘condoms and crumpled valentines’) and ‘desire’ of someone who seems to want to get away from the smelly corpse of the whale. Imagery The imagery in this poem focuses on descriptions of whales in different scenarios. In the first stanza of the poem, the poet mentions ‘their lugubriousness’ (line 1). In the next stanza, he uses an oxymoron to describe them as both huge and dainty. Then in stanza three, we are told that the whales are ‘beached/ by waves’ (lines 5-6) on shores to decay and be taken apart. The image created in our imagination is that of massive whales beached on shores filled with litter (‘among condoms and crumpled valentines’ line 7). To get rid of whale carcasses, humans often use explosives. This is suggested by the word ‘boomed’ in line 8. The reader also gets the impression that the beached whales smell awful because the poet uses the word ‘fetid’ (line 8). In the final part of the poem, the speaker describes the whales as they appear out in the ocean, untouched by human influence. Here they have ‘clown faces’ (line 12), they ‘dance’ (line 13), and they move with ‘grace’ (line 15). The final lines suggest that despite storms that may occur on the surface of the ocean – the place where humans can observe things – these whales continue to live playfully and gracefully. Rhythm and rhyme The poet creates rhythm in the poem by using words that contain multiple syllables, such as ‘lugubriousness’ (line 1), ‘daintiness’ (line 2), ‘infinity’ (line 3), ‘hermeneutic’ (line 6), ‘valentines’ (line 7), ‘aquamarine’ (line 11), ‘ponderous’ (line 14). These words create a slow pace when reading the poem, which contributes to the serious tone of the poem. There are also a few examples of alliteration in the poem: ‘huge’ and ‘hung’ (lines 2-3);‘condoms’ and ‘crumpled’ (line 7); ‘dance’ and ‘display’ (line 13); ‘grace’ and ‘glides’ (lines 15- 16); ‘surface’ and ‘storms’ (line 17). The use of alliteration creates a steady pace in the poem overall. Title of the poem Finally, it seems important to talk about the title of the poem now that we have analysed it as a whole. In this case, the title is very important. Without it, we would not know what the poet is speaking about! Have another look at the poem and cover the title with your finger. Would you have known that the poem is about whales without the title for assistance? Perhaps, because there are some hints in the poem. However, the title plays an important function here in that it tells us what the poet describes in the poem. Activity Now that we have performed a structured close reading of ‘Whales’, perform a similar close reading of ‘Bring the statues back’ (page 93 of Voices from this Land, available as an eReserve on the library website). Use the same headings that we used in our analysis of ‘Whales’. How to write about poetry Writing about poetry is not that different to writing poetry. To be able to write a poem, you need to use language in a creative and imaginative way to make your reader see or understand something in a particular way. In a sense, you manipulate language to express a thought or ENG1501/501/0/2025 37 idea, or to convey a certain message. When writing about a poem you also try to use language to express a thought or idea and to make your reader understand your viewpoint in the same way that poets use language. The difference is, however, that writing about poetry expresses a certain argument. As we explain in Unit 1, an argument is a discussion that explains your ideas systematically and that provides evidence and logical reasoning to support or justify your ideas. When we write about poetry, we use tools, such as the poetic devices that we have discussed, to analyse and interpret texts. We have to write in a way that shows our readers that we not only understandthe poem, but that we have certain ideas about it based on the evidence available in the poem itself. In later years of your studies, you will be asked to perform a line-by-line analysis of a poem, commenting on poetic devices as they come up in the poem, and explaining how each device contributes to the meaning of the poem. At first year level, we provide you with questions that focus your attention on specific parts of the poem, and you are required to respond in a short properly structured paragraph. Did you know? When you write the title of a poem, you should use ‘quotation marks’ to indicate that it is a title. You can use either ‘single’ or “double” quotation marks, as long as you are consistent. For example, in this tutorial letter we prefer to use single quotation marks throughout, so you will see that titles of poems appear like this: ‘Whales’. When you write about a short story, you also use quotation marks for the title of the story itself, and the title of the collection is printed in italics. The titles of novels or plays are also printed in italics. If you are writing an assignment by hand, you should underline the title of a short story or poetry collection, novel, or play. Academic writing conventions Academic writing tends to be more formal than the writing you may find in other forms of media. That is because academic writing is a form of scientific enquiry. Since you want to substantiate or support an argument with logical evidence when you write an academic essay or even a paragraph, you usually need to use an official, impersonal and unemotional tone. As we explain in Unit 1, your opinion is very important when you perform an academic investigation of a text, but your opinion needs to be informed by facts or examples that support your ideas. In other words, you need to provide a scholarly opinion rather than an instinctive opinion. It is not enough to say simply that something is the case, you need to show your reader why you think so by means of evidence taken from the text and explaining the importance of this evidence. Examples and evidence make for a much more convincing argument in your essay; without this, you are merely expressing a personal opinion. Think about it: If it is a hot summer’s day and someone tells you that it has started to snow outside, you may not immediately believe them. If they say ‘No really, I promise’, you still may not believe them. But if they show you the snowflakes on their clothing, or a photograph of the snow that they have just taken, or the weather forecast on their phone, you might start tobelieve them. And then you might go outside and see that they were right! In the same way, you need to provide evidence that supports your interpretation of a poem. However, interpreting literature is a little different to describing the weather. In our example above, it is either snowing or it is not – there is little space for debate once good evidence has been presented – but when it comes to literature there are often multiple possible ENG1501/501/0/2025 38 interpretations. You have to make a case for your interpretation by paying close attention to diction and other literary devices in the poem, and by making sure that you read each word in the context of the poem as a whole. How to formulate an argument To form an argument, you need to begin with an idea or an opinion. Your idea or opinion may be based on a specific word you read in the poem, or the rhythm of the poem when you read it, or even your intuition. You then need to test your idea or opinion by seeing if you can find evidence to support it. Before you can present your argument to your reader, you need to find evidence in the text to support your argument. You need to go back to the poem and look for the particular word or phrase, or identify the rhythm, or show your reader what it is in the poem that makes you feel a certain way when you read the poem. Here close reading is critical. By carefully considering the words in the poem and how they have been put together, you can get a better sense of how to explain to someone else why and how you formed your opinion. If you cannot find logical evidence to support an idea or opinion, you should not include the idea as part of your argument. It can be useful to question yourself once you have written something, as if you are a critic of your own work. After you make a statement, look at what you have written and ask yourself ‘why’? The motivation should be part of what you have written down, because you will not be there to explain to your lecturer why you said something in an assignment or an exam! You will need to explain your ideas carefully in your writing to ensure that your reader understands your point of view. How to write a paragraph To refresh your memory, refer to the section ‘How do we write about literature?’ in Unit 1. Focus specifically on the sections entitled ‘Engaging with the question’, ‘The paragraph’, ‘The topic sentence’, ‘The argument’, ‘Incorporating quotations’, and ‘Using secondary sources in your assignment’ before you continue to read the rest of this unit. How to answer questions in an assignment or examination Let us consider some examples of questions you may find in an assignment or examination paper. The questions below are based on the poem ‘Whales’ that we have already discussed in this unit. Try to answer them on your own first before looking at the answers that follow. Remember to write your responses in full sentences and in properly structured paragraphs. One word answers will not be marked. Example questions 1. Identify an oxymoron in the poem and explain its meaning. 2. Discuss the use of sound devices in the poem. 3. What does the word ‘dance’ (line 13) tell you about the speaker’s attitude towards the whales? 4. Explain the theme of the poem. Quote from the poem to justify your answer. 5. What does the poem tell us about nature and wildlife conservation? ENG1501/501/0/2025 39 Suggestions and guidelines for answers NOTE: If your answers are not written in full sentences or not supported with proof from the text, you will not receive any marks. While the explanations below make use of bullet points in order to outline the aspects of each question more clearly, your answers should be written in paragraph form and you should not make use of bullet points. Question 1 To answer this question, it is important that you: • Give the definition of the term: An oxymoron is a figure of speech that uses words together that seem to contradict one another. • Give an example from the text and explain what it means: An example from the poem ‘Whales’ is ‘[t]he daintiness of huge bellies’ (line 2). The word ‘daintiness’ means delicate or petite, while ‘huge’ means very big. These two words together seem to have opposite meanings. They serve to highlight the idea that the whales are graceful in spite of the fact that they are huge. Note that the word ‘grace’ actually appears in the poem line 15 – this can be used as additional evidence to support our interpretation of the oxymoron. Question 2 To answer this question, you must include the following information: • An example of a sound device from the poem and its definition: This poem uses the sound device known as alliteration. Alliteration refers to the repetition of the consonant sounds at the beginning of words that appear close to each other in lines of the poem. • A few examples from the poem: ‘huge’ (line 2) and ‘hung’ (line 3), as well as ‘condoms’ (line 7) and ‘crumpled’ (line 7), and so forth. (You can list any relevant examples, as long as they are the examples of the correct device to show that you know what it means and that you can find it in a poem.) • A comment on the effect of the use of sound devices: In this poem, the poet does not use a formal rhyme scheme. Instead, he uses sound devices such as this example of alliteration to create rhythm in the poem. Question 3 When answering this question, you must first find the quoted word in the poem. Once you have found it, read the poem again, bearing in mind what the speaker’s attitude may be towards the whales. The speaker seems to think that whales are happier out at sea, in the wild, untouched by human interference. The speaker describes the whales as appearing gloomy at the beginning of the poem by means of the word ‘lugubriousness’ (line 1), but when he uses the word ‘dance’ in line 13, he is trying to tell us that the whales are happy and free. There is a contrast between the beached whales at the beginning of the poem, and the graceful whales at the end. The speaker seems to admire the whales. He uses words that convey their elegant movements such as ‘dance’ (line 13), ‘ease’ (line 14) and grace (line 15). (Notice how we have quoted words from the poem here to support our interpretation.) Question 4 In your answer, you should discuss the overall theme of the poem, what it is ‘about’, based on your reading and understanding of it. For example: The poem seems to be about the impact of humans on the environment and specifically the oceans and its animals. This is made clear by the mention of litter on the beach where the whales go to die. The poem is also about death and decay. Whales beach themselves on the shores where they die and decay. Far out in the oceans, untouched by human influence, they seem happy. ENG1501/501/0/2025 40 Question 5 To answer this question, you must engage with the ideas presented in the poem. Keep in mind that you cannot simply give an opinion without giving a reason for our answers! For example: The poem creates a mournful mood when it discusses the beached whales and human pollution. Thus, the poem suggests that we should take better care of our oceans and it promotes the conservation of nature. The poem also emphasises the beauty and grace of the whales that are untouched by human interference. In this way, the poem seems to suggest that these creatures are wonderful and worthy of preserving. This unit has showed you the different ways in which language is used to convey meaning in the genre of poetry. You have become familiar with the literary elements that help to express a poem’s overall theme or message. You have also seen how to write about poetry using solid argumentation and the correct academic conventions. We hope that this unit has deepened your appreciation of poetry and that it inspires you to read and enjoy more poems on your own in future! from the activities and topics completed above answer the following for me Section A: Reflective essay: Poetry (Unit 2) Now that you have worked through Unit 2 (Poetry) in the study guide, write a reflective essay of 250-350 words in which you reflect on the exercises provided as part of this unit. In your answer, respond to the following: • Did you complete your activity journal? If not, why? • Which of the activities did you find manageable, and what do they have in common? • Which of the activities did you find challenging, and why? • Which aspect of this unit did you find the least enjoyable or difficult to understand? Please be as specific as possible (quote from the section and provide page references). Section A: 10 marks We use the following as a rubric for marking the reflexive essay: Level Mark Range Descriptor Good 6-10 demonstration of engagement with the Study Guide using the given prompts Adequate 5 • generic response that skims the surface • poorly structured essay • response that is not always clear Inadequate 0-4 • AI-generated response • sourced response • unconvincing reflection