Stylistics 2013/2014

Robert Frost ( 1874    —   1963 ) BIOGRAPHY Robert Frost: The Man and His Work  - 1923 "Sometimes I have my doubts of words altogether, and I ask myself what is the place of them. They are worse than nothing unless they do something; unless they amount to deeds, as in ultimatums or battle-cries. They must be flat and final like the show-down in poker, from which there is no appeal. My definition of poetry (if I were forced to give one) would be this: words that become deeds." "All poetry is a reproduction of the tones of actual speech." "There are two types of realists: the one who offers a good deal of dirt with his potato to show that it is a real one, and the one who is satisfied with the potato brushed clean. I'm inclined to be the second kind. To me, the thing that art does for life is to clean it, to strip it to form" "A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a home-sickness or a love-sickness. It is a reaching-out towar

WILLIAM BLAKE  (1757-1827) GO TO THIS LINK TO READ ABOUT W.BLAKE'S LIFE     BIOGRAPHY W.Blake was the first of the great English Romantic poets, as well as a painter and printer and one of the greatest engravers in English history. Largely self-taught, he began writing poetry when he was twelve and was apprenticed to a London engraver at the age of fourteen. His poetry and visual art are inextricably linked. To fully appreciate one you must see it in context with the other. A rebel all of his life, Blake was once arrested on a trumped up charge of sedition. Of course, he was a complete sympathizer with the forces of revolution, both in America and France. He was a personal friend of Thomas Paine and made the American War of Independence and French Revolution parts of his grand mythology in his  America: A Prophecy  and  Europe: A Prophecy. Blake is frequently referred to as a mystic, but this is not really accurate. He deliberately wrote in the style of the H

How to Write a Poetry Analysis Rating:  5.0           Poetry analysis , also sometimes referred to as a poem review, is a reflection of a poem that involves analyzing the poetic instruments, discussing the language and the figures used by the author, as well as sharing ones personal position on the poem. When it comes to poetry analysis, one has to go beyond just reviewing the words and phrases used, but instead see the bigger picture, try to read between the lines and understand what has driven the poet to use a particular word combination. Thus, poetry analysis requires some primary research on the author of the poem, as well as some background and history behind the poem’s creation. Poetry analysis assignments are in fact, normally a lot more challenging than one would expect. One would think that analyzing a poem of a few stanzas, should not require more than any simple two-page essay on a common topic. However, poem reviews require deeper analysis, and thus, a better kn

This link may be very helpful   A Complete Guide to Shakespeare's Sonnets Listen to Sonnet 27 Analysis Sonnet 27 Interpretation Sonnet 27 Listen to Sonnet 66 Analysis of Sonnet 66 and B.Pasternak's Translation

HOW TO ANALYZE A POEM 1. TO BEGIN Read the poem all the way through  at least twice.  Read it aloud.  Listen  to it. Poetry is related to music, so the sound is important. You listen to your favourite CDs many times; the principle is the same. It takes time to fully appreciate and understand a work of art. Make a note of your first impressions or immediate responses, both positive and negative. You may change your mind about the poem later, but these first ideas are worth recording. 2. LITERAL MEANING AND THEME Before you can understand the poem as a whole, you have to start with an understanding of the individual words. Get a good dictionary. Look up, and write down, the meanings of: • words you don't know • words you "sort of know" • any important words, even if you do know them. Maybe they have more than one meaning (ex. "bar"), or maybe they can function as different parts of speech (ex. "bar" can be a noun or a verb). If the po