PHILLIT Session 6: Love Poetry

The thing that amazes me about Shakespearean sonnets is their sheer number. I find it difficult to write even a decent verse in iambic pentameter so 14 lines that rhyme and make sense (with multiple meanings) just boggles me. Multiply that by 154.

Next meeting: your chosen songs.

PHILLIT Session 5: Various Poems

The first step in understanding poetry is paraphrasing, which most of us learned in basic writing. As mentioned in class, poetry is supposed to be packed with meaning, and this package is fit into a specific meter and incorporates a rhyme scheme. Which means this is not ordinary language. Paraphrasing is needed to unravel the poem's most basic meaning. Double that for Shakespeare and other older material.

Cirilo Bautista used to have us bring dictionaries every session to help with difficult words (which is the idea behind dictionaries). I'm not that demanding although having references handy helps. A tagalog dictionary would be nice, too. I still need to explain isperma whenever I discuss Tinio's "Payo sa Bumabasa ng Tula." It means wax candle.

Paraphrasing helps us understand the first level of interpretation. Some poems (and most songs) stop there, but the really good ones (like "Payo...") have a second level. In fact, "Payo..." tells you exactly what it is in the first line. An extended metaphor.

In Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son," the first level of meaning is obvious.

Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

The stairs are a metaphor for life itself, which can be difficult but needs to be climbed anyway.

But what's cooler is the other interpretation, which involves the American civil rights movement. I leave that up to you to find out (if you weren't in class).


Reminder: Email me your choice of good and bad song lyrics. And label which is which. Seriously, I can't tell some of them apart.

PHILLIT Session 4: Understanding Poetry 2 -- Prosody

Eight years ago I was doing a teaching demo for a high school class in San Beda. I taught Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare the to a summer's day") to a group of summer school slackers.

That was a trip.

The tricky part was explaining what iambic pentameter was, and its significance to English literature. I *think* I was able to get the point across, but that event has always been stuck with me so every literature class I teach HAS to have a session on meter. Besides, dropping "dactylic hexameter" in conversations just guarantees weird stares. As in:

Friend: I just saw "Troy" starring Brad Pitt
You: I like reading the Iliad better in the original dactylic hexameter, preferably the Hobbes translation.
Friend: You need to get out more.

If there's anything geekier than a computer nerd, it's a literary nerd.

Anyhoo, prosody is an important part of poetry, concerning itself with how the final product sounds. Most poetry is meant to be read aloud, and care must be taken to make sure it sounds good (or bad, as in the case of Shakespeare's Sonnet 130). This is why we studied schemes like alliteration / assonance and anadiplosis.

In Hardy's "The Man He Killed," rhythm plays a key role, too. Upon reading aloud one automatically switches to a martial beat, like a marching drum. Which is perfect for the peoms' theme: that of war and the general weirdness of the situation for enlisted men.

PHILLIT Session 4: Understanding Poetry 1 -- Poetry for Dummies

Reminder: Don't forget to email me your good and bad song lyrics. We'll discuss them this Thursday or next Tuesday.

* * * * *

The biggest difference between poetry and normal language is the peculiar use of words. (Good) Poetry stretches the boundaries of language and tries to make us see things in a new light. The problem is in determining which poems are "good" and which aren't.

My first tip is so obvious that students do it all the time without acknowledging it. You probably did it when you chose your piece for the poetry reading. You first need to check the context of the poem. This means that stuff found in textbooks or reputable anthologies* are probably good, while rhymes in noontime show songs are probably not.

The next tip is to check the content of the poem. You need to determine if it's saying something new about the human condition or it's saying something old in a new or creative way. Examples I gave were Pablo Neruda's "Tonight I can write the saddest lines," which says something old (I am sad) in a new and more dramatic way.

Then you need to look for imagery, which is key to poetry. Those words need to paint pictures in your mind to sear the poet's message. This is where most songs and love poems (the kind you find in high school newspapers) fail as poetry; they just say things without painting pictures. In those cases they're little better than prose. Shelley's "Ozymandias" is a great example of a poem that paints an ironic picture.

After that you need to check if those images symbolize anything. In good poems (heck, in most good literature) everything stands for something else.

Next post will be on prosody, which we touched on with my explanation of iambic pentameter and the analysis of Hardy's "The Man He Killed."

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*"Reputable" is key. Some of you got your poems from books which are obviously self-published. There's no assurance of quality with those.

PHILLIT Session 3: Poetry Reading

The key to reading poetry is in finding the rhythm. This can be a bit difficult for free verse but makes the whole thing easier once you've mastered it. Most of the students who read yesterday had some trouble finding the pauses.

Once you have the rhythm right, it's time to put some emotion into it. Which requires you understand the poem first. Avoid being hammy (think William Shatner) but try to act sad when the poem is sad or pensive if the tone calls for it.

I mentioned slam poetry in the discussion. It's a modern take on poetry reading that sometimes involves performance art. Check this video of Jack McCarthy at a poetry reading session. While it sounds impromptu (there are probably improvised parts), it is generally prepared beforehand.

For something more youthful, here's some hip-hop influenced stuff from Poetic Asylum and Jaylene. Roxy Azari on the other hand, does it smooth, like a song. Finally, here's Lara Stoll, who is performing in German. (Nah, we can't understand any of it, but she's hot.)

Reminders:

• The five guys who haven't read yet will perform on Tuesday
• Be ready for a lecture on poetry
• Start thinking about your song choices
• 1 good song lyric
• 1 bad song lyric
  

PHILLIT Session 2: Figures of Speech

One big difference between literary works and normal prose is the amount of figurative language present. While news reports and technical / academic papers are supposed to be clear and accurate, a literary work may choose not to be so. Writers typically play around with language. These forays into figurative words have been classified (by anal-retentive renaissance academicians) into various figures of speech, a number of which we discussed in class.

Favorite examples submitted:

Hyperbole: "After ten years..."
Antiphrasis: "That was entertaining."
Synechdoche: "Give me a hand."
Apostrophe: "Rain, rain go away, come again another day."
Allusion: "Math is his Achilles' heel."
Neologism: "Just google it."
Synesthesia: "He gave me a cold stare."
Metaphor: "School is hell."


NEXT SESSION: Poetry Reading!

Choose a poem and be ready to read it in class. No epic poetry or haiku, it should be of a decent length (maybe a couple of minutes to read). Read it several times before class and get a feel of the rhythm of the piece, especially if it's in free verse.

PHILLIT Session 1: Intro

For those of you who weren't there (or weren't paying attention), here's what you missed:

1. Free index cards. My reward for showing up on the first day. I require index cards for record purposes and since the second day usually has late enrollees coming in, I don't check attendance in the first few days. I do, however, believe in rewarding good behavior. Think Pavlov, only with less saliva.

2. Grading system:

30% - Class standing, divided into assignments, seatwork, and recitation
25% - 5 point quizzes. Almost daily.
25% - Final project, which will probably be a book review
20% - Midterm exam, which involves poetry

3. The class wrote their definitions of Literature and gave answers ranging from the good (involving some variant of "art" and "writing") to the inadequate ("any written work") to just plain wrong ("a form of english art").

4. Also asked what books they read and what TV shows they watched. Apart from the usual "Heroes," various anime, and "Harry Potter," notable answers were "Manila Bulletin" (yung may istorya nga eh) and "Maging Sino Ka Man."


HOMEWORK: Read up on Figures of Speech. To be discussed Tuesday.