Stolen from Poets.org
"Born on June 27, 1872, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African-American poets to gain national recognition. His parents Joshua and Matilda Murphy Dunbar were freed slaves from Kentucky. His parents separated shortly after his birth, but Dunbar would draw on their stories of plantation life throughout his writing career. By the age of fourteen, Dunbar had poems published in the Dayton Herald. While in high school he edited the Dayton Tattler, a short-lived black newspaper published by classmate Orville Wright. Despite being a fine student, Dunbar was financially unable to attend college and took a job as an elevator operator. In 1892, a former teacher invited him to read his poems at a meeting of the Western Association of Writers; his work impressed his audience to such a degree that the popular poet James Whitcomb Riley wrote him a letter of encouragement. In 1893, Dunbar self-published a collection called Oak and Ivy. To help pay the publishing costs, he sold the book for a dollar to people riding in his elevator." |
Poetry Analysis Steps for CompletionWrite your answers on your own sheet of paper. BE SURE to restate the question in your answer. Write in complete sentences in ink (blue or black preferred).
1. Read just the title and then write a prediction of what you think the poem will be about. • Read the poem straight through without stopping to analyze it (aloud, if possible). This will help you get a sense of how it sounds, how it works, what it might be about. 2. Check for understanding: Write a quick “first-impression” of the poem by answering the questions, “What do you notice about this poem so far?” and “What is this poem about?” • Look for patterns. 3. What patterns did the author use (rhyme, meter, repetition, others)? • Look for changes in tone, focus, narrator, structure, voice, patterns. 4. If the pattern changes, answer what has changed and what does the change mean? • Identify the narrator. 5. Who is speaking in the poem? What do you know about them? • Check for new understanding. Re-read the poem (aloud, if you can) from start to finish, underlining (again) those portions you do not yet understand. Explain the poem to yourself or someone else. 6. What are the crucial or pivotal moments (might be as small as the word but or yet. Such words often act like hinges within a poem to swing the poem in a whole new direction. Also pay attention to breaks between stanzas or between lines)? Quote the line(s) and tell why it is crucial or pivotal. 7. Tell the specific type of poem the poet used and explain, using the definition of the type of poem, how this poem fits. 8. Summarize the poem in your own words and be sure to tell about the implied meaning (3-5 sentences). 9. Find three poetic device used in the poem a. State the poetic device b. Give the line (actually quote it, don’t just give a line number) c. Tell how the device affected the meaning and/or the sound of the poem (be specific to this poem). d. Repeat steps a-c until you have identified three devices 10. Describe how this poem fits in the literary movement –Realism, Regionalism, Naturalism a. Give premise – quoting words/phrases that you intend to prove b. Give quotes from the poem that supports the definition c. Explain how each or all quotes prove the premise you have given d. Repeat until you have proven at least three tenets |
"We Wear the Mask""Douglass"Ah, Douglass, we have fall’n on evil days,
Such days as thou, not even thou didst know, When thee, the eyes of that harsh long ago Saw, salient, at the cross of devious ways, And all the country heard thee with amaze. Not ended then, the passionate ebb and flow, The awful tide that battled to and fro; We ride amid a tempest of dispraise. Now, when the waves of swift dissension swarm, And Honor, the strong pilot, lieth stark, Oh, for thy voice high–sounding o’er the storm, For thy strong arm to guide the shivering bark, The blast–defying power of thy form, To give us comfort through the lonely dark. |