Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Remix the Text Book: Poetry Analysis
Prelude I by T.S. Eliot:
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots.
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
Analysis:
1.) Dramatic Situation: The speaker is someone ambiguous; the reader might know them or not. Whether male or female, there is no distinction or explicit details into this. The speaker is describing a setting to the reader. "Of withered leaves about your feet," this line shows that the reader is in the setting and they are placed outside. The situation is much like standing in a painting.
2.) Structure: There is rhyming but it doesn't follow a set pattern of ABBA or ABAB. The poem flows in triplets of two, 8 syllable lines followed by a 4 syllable line with the exception of line 3 which is 3 syllables. The poem ends with two couplets of two 8 syllable lines. The poem seems to be divided in two big chunks by the semi-colon in line 8.
3.) Grammar/Mechanics: Usage of periods to end complete ideas. Semi-colon used to separate two parts of the poem. One comma used in a place of natural pause and where the thought continues down to the next line. Set in present tense.
4.) Theme: I think that the central message of this poem is the condition of the industrial slums and the passage of time (a very common theme in modernism).
5.) Imagery: The whole poem is really an image that the poet is setting the reader in so that they can experience the atmosphere and mood and take away the poems meaning.
6.) Single words/Diction: This poem doesn't contain any repeating words that contain a particular emphasis from the repetition. The diction is used heavily to convey the mood: "wraps," "scraps,"vacant," "beat,"broken," "lonely,"withered,"burnt-out," "smokey," all of these words create the image of a run down, poor industrial city area and set the mood of this city as well. These words don't paint a bright city, but one of smoke, cold, rain, fracture, and emptiness.
7.) Tone: Monotonous and reserved yet forceful enough to push you into the sight of the poem.
8.) Literary Techniques:
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots.
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
Analysis:
1.) Dramatic Situation: The speaker is someone ambiguous; the reader might know them or not. Whether male or female, there is no distinction or explicit details into this. The speaker is describing a setting to the reader. "Of withered leaves about your feet," this line shows that the reader is in the setting and they are placed outside. The situation is much like standing in a painting.
2.) Structure: There is rhyming but it doesn't follow a set pattern of ABBA or ABAB. The poem flows in triplets of two, 8 syllable lines followed by a 4 syllable line with the exception of line 3 which is 3 syllables. The poem ends with two couplets of two 8 syllable lines. The poem seems to be divided in two big chunks by the semi-colon in line 8.
3.) Grammar/Mechanics: Usage of periods to end complete ideas. Semi-colon used to separate two parts of the poem. One comma used in a place of natural pause and where the thought continues down to the next line. Set in present tense.
4.) Theme: I think that the central message of this poem is the condition of the industrial slums and the passage of time (a very common theme in modernism).
5.) Imagery: The whole poem is really an image that the poet is setting the reader in so that they can experience the atmosphere and mood and take away the poems meaning.
6.) Single words/Diction: This poem doesn't contain any repeating words that contain a particular emphasis from the repetition. The diction is used heavily to convey the mood: "wraps," "scraps,"vacant," "beat,"broken," "lonely,"withered,"burnt-out," "smokey," all of these words create the image of a run down, poor industrial city area and set the mood of this city as well. These words don't paint a bright city, but one of smoke, cold, rain, fracture, and emptiness.
7.) Tone: Monotonous and reserved yet forceful enough to push you into the sight of the poem.
8.) Literary Techniques:
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