Analyzing Poetry

[NOS2006]

Some of it is simple and some is just downright ridiculously hard! Wouldn't you agree?

How many of you have analyzed poetry?

[ocnblu]

Emily Dickinson (sp?) was fun.

I bet you haven't analyzed Allen Ginsberg's Howl yet.

[Flybrian]

[ocnblu]

I've never met poetry, so no. Not yet. But if he's cute...

[/ocn]

Seriously, I got to the point where I wondered that if Emerson, Thoroeu, or Dickinson were around today and heard experts' analysis of their work, would they nod in agreement, bust up laughing, or kill themselves again because its so woefully wrong?

Some things don't need to be analyzed that much, just appreciated for whatever you get from it. I love teacher's that say you read a poem wrong. Y'okay...

[Variance]

Ugh, reminds me of reading Shakespearean stuff in high school. Nothing they said meant what you thought it meant. Never before had I loved footnotes so much.

[NOS2006]

Emily Dickinson (sp?) was fun.

I bet you haven't analyzed Allen Ginsberg's Howl yet.

I'm analyzing her "I started Early–Took my Dog" right now for AP Lit.

My teacher's cool though because he agrees that it's okay to disagree as long as you have a good thesis and assertions!

[ocnblu]

I love her stuff. I have a book of it. I should go grab it and catch up.

[NOS2006]

Some of it is so damn difficult though!

This one's easy just by recognizing its structure and her use of capitalization. Plus, her use of dashes help analyzation quite a bit.

[ocnblu]

I think my favorite poem of hers start out like this:

There once was a man from Nantucket...

[NOS2006]

Very baseline analyzation of a few lines:

The poet then portrays sexual innuendo to liken the reader, proving that sex sells. Intriguing the observer, Dickinson writes, “And made as He would eat me up– As wholly as a Dew Upon a Dandelion’s Sleeve– And then–I started–too–.”(13-16) The syntax, “eat me up” is used to signal the man, “He,” indulging in her body to make love. Optimistically, she uses multiple allegorical words to represent this man, the “Dew;” his actions with a soft word, “Upon;” and herself as a tender being, the connotative definition of “Dandelion.” Finally, in the last line, she distorts the words, separating them from one another to amplify her instincts during this event: nervous and hesitant. The reader perceives this affair, which hinders his/her possible observation of this poem being about a walk to the beach, intriguing interest in the literature.

Good? Not?

Edited February 13, 2006 by NOS2006

[Enzora]

analyzation >> analysis. Making up words is fun, but don't use it in the actual papers. English professors get really bitchy about that.

Analyzing poetry is a lot of fun. Actually, I don't really like much poetry unless I'm analzying it.

[Sixty8panther]

I like Edgar Allen poe & Robert Frost. Frost lived on a farm just a few towns over in N.H. for a good part of his life. Back in college I rote a paper on Sylvia Plath. So damn depressing.

[NOS2006]

I just had a paper to write on a Wordsworth poem last week for a test.

[Northstar]

Analyzing poetry is probably my least favorite part of English class. To me, it's pretty much useless, and I could care less what the meaning of some poem is.

[CSpec]

I've never analyzed a poem; my high school realized that doing that is why no one reads it anymore. I'm taking a Shakespeare class this semester, but we just discuss what happens.