First poem for you meaning

Poetry speaks figuratively, using language artfully in order express “things oft thought but ne’er so well expressed,” as the poet Alexander Pope once said.The literal meaning of the words must be grasped and then taken in or felt inwardly as we allow them to play on our imaginations and emotions.Figures of speech called metaphors and similes compare suggested or implied possibilities to literal meanings, often stating truths that more literal language cannot communicate.These are some of the many poetic devices that make meaning happen in a poem. Like short stories, poems also devise speakers, settings, or themes to call attention to or emphasize something. See your textbook and the poetry worksheets associated with this unit for more information about the elements of poetry.

To write about a poem, you must first read it aloud to yourself. Open up your sense gates – see, sense and feel how the language makes things happen for you. Read it again.Then, do your best to summarize it. Who’s speaking, about what? Is there a topic? A scene? An audience? In a 1-4 sentence paragraph that opens with the author’s name and the poem’s title, summarize the poem’s literal meaning to the best of your ability. In the final sentence of the paragraph, make a claim (a thesis) about the overall meaning or impact of the poem, to your way of thinking. In a second paragraph, follow up on this point and compose a response to the poem that interprets how its images, poetic devices, form or tone enables you to interpret its meaning. Use quotes from the poem itself, where possible. What’s the poem’s take-away message or theme? Why do you think so? Keep these Summary/Responses short! Do not use the internet for this exercise. Find the three poems for this exercise HERE .

Compose a separate summary/response essay for each of the poems listed below. Then, combine the three assigned essays together into one document and submit them in fulfillment of the required Unit Three Lab Exercise.

1. “First Poem for You” by Kim Addonizio (1954-- )

Read the poem aloud to yourself, letting its images play over your imagination. Then compose a brief 300 word Summary/Response essay in which you consider the power of the images in the poem. In your response paragraph, consider how the images in the poem comment on the new and unfamiliar feelings the speaker may have about this apparently new relationship? Quote at least one image in your response, one that helps us understand how you see it. Do some of the images work as metaphors for the speaker’s uncertain exploration of this apparently new relationship?

2. “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

For this poem, read the poem aloud to yourself at least twice before composing a brief 250 word Summary/Response essay. In the summary, consider the literal meaning of the poem. What happens? In a second paragraph, the response, consider the figurative (implied) meaning of the speaker’s words. In your response, concentrate on how the figurative meanings influence the literal meaning of the language? What’s the point the speaker is really trying to make? Why do you think so?