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Not necessarily. I just analyzed a poem in the "I need help too" thread, and I fully understood the meaning and saw, and felt the art.Quote:
Ok, this is related to another discussion in the "dream deferred" thread about needing to know historical/cultural details to understand the full meaning of a poem.
I wasnt taught this at school, or really much of anything. But with the amount of analyzing i do for fun and the fact that we were forced to figure out things on our own in school analysis because no one told us anything, i have essentially followed the system below for analyzing any form of literature.
1)Know the cultural context (value and belief systems, ideologies, important events,etc.) of when the poem was written
2)Know the authors personal context and experience within the above
3)Compare the two in terms of the author conforming to or challenging his societal context(looking at how popular the author was,be it good popular or infamous, when they wrote it helps in this comparison)
4)Look at the style or movement the poem was written in and its conventions
5)Observe the techniques used by the author to conform to this style or movement
6)Observe the different themes and moods achieved by 5)
7) Combining your knowledge of the context,techniques, and effects of the poem, make an educated assumption as to what you think the author's message/s are. What is the purpose of writing this poem?
8) How does YOUR personal context influence your assumption and reading? How would it differ then that of someone of the authors context?
9) How do all the above tie in with the big picture of life? How do these messages and theme relate to society or the human condition?
Or, in brief:
What is the poem trying to say?
Why do they need to say it?
How do they say it?
What do you think of what they are saying?
thanks :) that's what im doing. .my english a level has 3 papers of 3 essays each hehe it's going to be tough. the pass rates are disheartening too (only 210/804 passed last year) .. this week I wrote a critical analysis/appreciation of ella higginson's sonnet in a valley of peace- could i post it here and here some thoughts on it?Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony Furze
well here is my latest crit! how would you rate it and my approach? (I always write crit in this style)
In A Valley of Peace by Ella Higginson
This long green valley sloping to the sun,
With dimpling, silver waters loitering through;
The sky that bends above me, mild and blue;
The wide, still wheat-fields, yellowing one by one,
And all the peaceful sounds when day is done -
I cannot bear their calm monotony!
Great God! I want the thunder of the sea!
I want to feel the wild red lightnings run
Around, about me; hear the bellowing surf,
And breathe the tempest's sibilant, sobbing breath;
To face the elements, defying death,
And fling myself prone on the spray-beat turf,
And hear the strong waves trampling wind and rain,
Like herds of beasts upon a mighty plain.
Popular legends and tales are littered with images of stories and tempests, usually that reflect dramatic disasters, many times implying an irrevocable change to the worse. Mankind's instinct always protected him from such elemental, brutal anger. Can such devastation be regarded as good, even as something to be wished for?
In most cases, it is the other way round: it it the calm and serenity of nature that has always been idealized by literature and artists. What better way, then, to express rage and frustration towards a life that yields no opportunity for change, but to evoke these very storms and wish for them most passionately?
This is the essential rebellious concept behind Ella Higginson's sonnet: the medium by which the very evident emotion of frustration trembles in the development of the images used, which begin as a seemingly ideal description of what may be seen as paradise on earth from a traditional perspective,
but which are suddenly inverted by use of a volta five verses into the poem: "I cannot bear their calm monotony!" explodes out of the poet's heart- straight to the reader, plunging him in constant upheavals of emotional entrapment.
After that, it soon becomes apparent that the title and the first quatrain's conveyed description of "a valley of peace" is deeply ironic. The initial diction, while seemingly glorifying life and nature with undeniably beautiful visual evocations of the "dimpling, silver waters loitering through" feel increasingly hollow- even suffocating! "The sky that bends" above the persona, for example, can be easily imagined closing off the poet in her "valley" from the rest of the world. The image itself suggests and deliciously conveys the sense of infinite entrapment: it seems that the even the sky and the valley are conspiring together to trap her in like two cupped hands. The result of this "imprisonment" by slow routine leads to the release of extreme frustration by the poet.
A rather clever play on words is employed just before the false exposition shifts tone (but not style.) The image of "clam monotony" indicates total utter stillness and stagnation. The choice of "clam" instead of "calm" conveys, through implication, a sense of a much heavier weight than would have otherwise been attained. The idea is that clams, being unable to move and trapped between their shells, are a projection of the poet's feelings about her stalemate. This shackling feeling heightens considerably when one also takes the form of the work in account with its content: the poem, being is a sonnet, must abide by the sonnet's restrictions and rules; a curious choice for a rebellious poem, but which serves an end. The form itself again expresses how much the world bears down heavily, so much, in fact, that even the only outlet for the ever mounting anger, writing, is restricted! This sonnet does, at times, digress from following the rules too strictly, but in barely noticeable ways compared to the restrictions the sonnet imposes. These digressions mainly stretch to the enjambment "red lightnings run/around, above me" and to the fact that it mixes the Shakespeare form of three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet with Italian Sonnet elements like the two main concepts separated by a volta.
Imagination is let loose in the second part of the sonnet: the tone becomes darker, and seems to descend into hysteria, as the poet damns the "still wheat fields" and years for the powerful "thunder of the sea" the "bellowing surf" and the "tempest's sibilant sobbing breath." All these images combine precise linked diction and unmistakably recreate the seaside storm through visual and the aural connotations of the words chosen.
"In a Valley of Peace" also employs a musical quality in its verses. Reading the sonnet aloud, one realizes how easily the words roll of the tongue as the poem progresses and the rhythm increases. This brings out the rushing, rolling tones of the apocalyptic tempest the poem evokes towards its unfulfilled closure: the poem seems to be leading to some final culmination since it seems to gain power and momentum constantly, and yet its finale is "compromised" by the anti-climax of the concluding rhyming couplet, which merely leaves one feeling how much the poet feels the situation is hopeless and unchangeable; preferring to be trampled beneath the hooves of beasts rather to endure the present situation.
Ella Higginson's work displays traces of the wish for rebellion in its content and images conveyed that awake dormant emotions of fervor in the reader. Yet it is also submissive to the sonnet form; acknowledging that "the valley" of our lives can rarely be escaped- only a lucky few manage to do so. Its utter lack of hope, expressed powerfully in its strong diction, is what what makes it an extended metaphor to the daily torments of routine, making it instantly identifiable and easy to relate with its intelligent portrayal of the soul's innermost frustration.
what do you say? have i got the makings to become a literary critic someday? or should i just go shoot myself?
SPECS & SLIMS = a great, easy method of analysing poetry. I have to use it in English right now and it outlines exactly every part of the poem. Look it up, it's a great help :)
This may not be helpful but for me to understand a poem i must first understand the poet. The poets background will sometimes make the unclear slide into focus, as we all need a way to express experiances or feelings which many can express through writting. xx