Literary Device

Protagonist: 

Definition: The leading character in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text.

Example: In the "Love Song of Alfred Prufrock" the protagonist is Alfred Prufrock because that is who is telling the story and what the idea of the story is based around.

Function: A protagonist is what allows the story to happen and is as important as the six elements of plot. Without the protagonist the story would not happen because it would not revolve around anybody or anything. The function is simply to have somebody to go throughout the six elements of plot.

The Burial of The Dead

This section starts with the speaker saying how cruel spring is which is odd because most people love spring. However the speaker is obviously much older than most, we know this because she reads much of the night and goes south in the winter which is something most elderly do. "Mixing memory and desire" tells us why the speaker believes spring is cruel because it shows that it brings up most likely good memories of youth when she used to hang out with her friends and have a good time. Now that she is older she does not do these things but instead stays inside and reads. The speaker then goes to mention how "Winter kept us warm, covering earth in forgetful snow". When winter comes it keeps everybody indoors and hides you from reality. The speaker feels that winter is better because she is most likely equal with everybody else by staying inside and reading and doesn't see the people outside having a great time like she would in the summer that reminds her of her youth. We know the speaker does have good memories that she wishes she could go back to because of lines 10-16. "My cousin's, he took me out on a sled...Marie, hold on tight. And down we went". The speaker used to have a wonderful youth but now that she is old she has no hope and nothing to look forward to.

onomatopoeia

Literary Device: Onomatopoeia 

Definition: Onomatopoeias are words that sound like the objects they name or the sound an objects makes.

Example: This poem was written by a 4 year old by the way

Function: An onomatopoeia gives a better view in to the item or sound you are describing. For example when you think of a mechanical number counter you often call it a clicker because thats what sound it makes. Like when you get baffled and say "where is my clicker i need it to count the flock of sheep"

Cafeteria 

Boom!

Went the food

trays. 

Clap! Clap!

Goes the teacher.

Rip! 

Went the 

plastic bag.

Munch! Munch!

Go the students.

Slurp!!!

Went the straws.

Whisper

Is what half the kids

in the room

are doing.

Crunch! 

Crunch!

go

the candy bars.

By: Rachael

The words crunch crunch are onomatopoeias because they are words but they are also the sound of what the candy bar is making. Slurp is also an onomatopoeia because that is what the sounds straws make especially after you are out of your beverage..

Blues Poem

woke up one morning couldn't feel my toes

woke up one cold damn morning, could not feel my toes

why my papa left me, no body knows

but one day i'll hopefully se'em

think one day i'll hopefully se'em

but don't know which way he went in the end

so I'm a deciding on a fine line

yes I'm a deciding on a fine line

wether to be good or bad during my time

for the problem is if i do the wrong one

yes the problem is if i do the wrong one

o my papa I will be with out none

for ill be higher or below some from where he gone

Its easy to wirght bad poetry

Example:
Sitting in class thinking of AP
Stressing and crying of the homework thats ganna be
the nazi of english poors it on like it's free
you sit there and think of how much fun college will be

stressing and crying of the homework thats ganna be
kicking yourself for reaching farther than your grasp
you sit there and think of how much fun college will be
sitting in a desk think of ex hopes and dreams

kicking yourself for reaching farther than your grasp
as the nazi of english poors it on like its free
sitting in a desk thinking of ex hopes and dreams
sitting in class thinking of AP

The Heights of Macchu Picchu

The Heights of Macchu Picchu is a story of the hard times and troubles the Incas had. The speaker says "The human soul was threshed out like maize in the endless granary of defeated actions," this shows that the people were worn down and were not doing well. "Not only death, but many deaths, came to each one, each day a tiny death, dust, worm, a light flicked off at the city's edge." is a line that tells us that many people were dying but also that other hardships came to them. "Dust" is the idea that where they lived was a dirty place to be and the word "worm" represents the disease and infections that they most likely had. "A light flicked off in the mud at the city's edge" gives the feeling that another drop of hope is lost from the city. The idea of insects "a tiny death with coarse wings" can mean many things but in this case it is why so many people are dying from sickness and hungar. Insects bring disease when they bight and destroy food supplies by killing crops. The speaker goes farther with the idea of a bugs, "the man was besieged by the bread or y the knife", the bread being that the crops that have been destroyed which is why they lack food and the knife being the "bite" and the disease the bite carries.
In the poem you see a few words of importance that are set out by themselves in-between the paragraphs, happened, coarse wings, captain of the plow, and short death of everyday. These words are set out for a meaning by the speaker because they tell the main story of why the people are suffering. "Happend" is important because the speaker and his people did not just start to suffer for no reason it was because of harmful events such as the the insects. "Coarse wings" is set by itself because insects, animals with coarse wins, are the main cause of their downfall because it caused the people their lack of food and disease. The idea of "the short death of every day" gives the reader the feeling that there is no hope and that waking up every morning is like a death because the suffering that is to come. The people have nothign to look forward to besides hunger and sickness which leads to death.

English and Italian Sonnet

The English sonnet or Shakespearian sonnet is made up of  three quatrains and a couplet with the ryhme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg.

Example:

To Wordsworth by: John Clare

Wordsworth I love, his books are like the fields,

Not filled with flowers, but works of human kind;

The pleasant weed a fragrant pleasure yields,

The briar and broomwood shaken by the wind,

The thorn and bramble o'er the water shoot

A finer flower than gardens e'er gave birth,

The aged huntsman grubbing up the root--

I love them all as tenants of the earth:

Where genius is, there often die the seeds;

What critics throw away I love the more;

I love to stoop and look among the weeds,

To find a flower I never knew before;

Wordsworth, go on--a greater poet be;

Merit will live, though parties disagree!

The Italian sonnet or Petrarchan is composed of an octet, eight lines with a rhyme scheme of abbaabba, and a sestet, six lines of abcabc or ababab.

Example:

Italian Sonnet Turn back the heart you've turned away Give back your kissing breath Leave not my love as you have left The broken hearts of yesterday But wait, be still, don't lose this way Affection now, for what you guess May be something more, could be less Accept my love, live for today. Your roses wilted, as love spurned Yet trust in me, my love and truth Dwell in my heart, from which you've turned My strength as great as yours aloof. It is in fear you turn away And miss the chance of love today! James DeFord

Lying In A Hammock....by James Wright

1) The speaker in the poem is laying in a hammock noticing all the small sounds and things going on around him on a farm.

2) The person lying in the hammock is a very observant and descriptive person and knows a lot about nature. The man has most likely spent a lot of time outdoors or worked outside in his past. We also know that the speaker is visiting the farm because the title says (William Duffy's Farm)

3) I arrived at the conclusion that the speaker is very observant and knows a lot about nature because he noticed the color of the bronze butterfly and the sound of the cows following each other down the ravine behind the empty house. The speaker also knows that the two trees he sees the sun between are pines and that the horse droppings are from a year ago and knows that the bird that flies above him is a chicken hawk which many people would not know.

4) The title tells us that the speaker is lying in a hammock, on the setting of a farm, at the place he is visiting (William Duffy's Farm) and that he is in Pine Island, Minnesota.

5) The speaker makes you feel involved with what is going on around him by using sounds and different ways of saying what is happening in a different way. Instead of saying the cows are following eachother around he notes the sound of cowbells follwing one another giving you a greater sense of what is going on. He also gives the idea of a "beautiful" picture of poop in a field by saying it is blazed up in golden stone giving us the picture of sun shining down on a pile of horse droppings. Overall the descriptions are in great detail in the look and sound of what is happening around him.

6) The speaker notices the things he does because those are the things he feels most like. He notices a butterfly blowing like a leaf in the green shadow giving the feeling of floating anywhere and just going where life takes you which may explain why the speaker is sitting in a hammock on a island in minnesota. He notices the cows following one another in a herd behind the empty house because the feels that he is the empty house all alone while the cows have a pack that they can call family. Then he notices the chicken hawk that floats over him looking for home which is very likely how the speaker feels. He feels that he is floating around looking for a place that he can call home but hasn't seemed to settle down yet.

6) The speaker feels that he has wasted his life because he sees all these beautiful things happening like the butterfly at piece sleeping and fluttering in the wind. He sees the ravine with the cattle in the herd that are most likely doing all they need to ever do and describes the brilliance of simple horse dung shining in the sun. Last he sees a hawk gliding over himself looking for home and he feels that he is doing nothing but looking at all the wonderful things going on around him as he sits and wastes his time lying in a hammock.

Literary Devices: Cacophony

Cacophony:

A horrible, scrambled, mixture of unpleasant sounds. The word cacophony originates from the greek word meaning "bad sound"

Function:

Cacophony is used by poets to describe something unpleasant or to make a horrible sounding noise which is done by combining sharp, harsh and hissing sounds. The use of cacophony is often used to show how a monster or something that is not human may speak such as a daemon. When cacophony is used it makes the speaker or writing seem more supernatural and more powerful especially since it is "set out" in the text because it sounds much different than the other writing.

Example

Jabberwocky

by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

And the mome raths outgrabe. 

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! 

The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! 

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun 

The frumious Bandersnatch!" 

He took his vorpal sword in hand: 

Long time the manxome foe he sought -- 

So rested he by the Tumtum tree. 

And stood awhile in thought. 

And as in uffish thought he stood, 

The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, 

Came wiffling through the tulgey wood, 

And burbled as it came! 

One, two! One, two! And through and through 

The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! 

He left it dead, and with its head 

He went galumphing back. 

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? 

Come to my arms, my beamish boy! 

frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" 

He chortled in his joy. 

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

And the mome raths outgrabe.

Punk Pantoum

Punk Pantoum gives me the image of two gothic lovers who are hooked on some very powerful drugs. The idea of

walking a razor across your throat gives the idea that they are obsessed with death and the ochre bruise is left from "paint on" drugs.

They live in a beat down shack because they have no money because they spend in on drugs and it may possibly be a horse stall.

Sorry fielding i know its bad but thats seriously all i get out of it. It's just babble.

Sestina: Altaforte

In the Altaforte the speaker tells how he loves to fight and here the "music" of swords clashing. The speaker believes that piece is something that only woman suffer and that there is nothing better that the cries of battles and the drip of blood from a man or sword. Throughout the poem the speaker expresses his love for war and his distaste for the people who prefer piece by comparing it to thunder, lighting and music and how it makes him feel alive. The end words to the lines are mostly all "happy" words such as rejoicing, music, piece, and crimson. These words do not necessarily go with the dark lines they are with but are there because the speaker believes that battle and war is a good thing so they make it sound better.

Do Not Go Gentle inot That Good Night

The repeating of the lines "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "Rage, rage against the dying of the light", are used throughout the poem in different ways to give each line a new meaning. In each stanza a new type of person is explained and shows how each one deals with death or "The night" and how one should fight off death. In the last stanza the speaker is talking to his father who he is hopefully praying that he will fight off death like the many other types of people he has listed before.

Tone

The Telephone:

The tone in The Telephone is coming from a very convinced insane person with a lot of force in his voice. The speaker is convinced that somebody has talked to him through the flower on the sill and will not even let the other person tell him that it was not them that spoke. The poem sounds as if it were coming from a person who is not quite right in the head and is very forceful.

The Flea:

The speaker in The Flea is sitting in bed with his lover and is looking at a flea who has just bitten them both and is wishing that he could do what the flea has done. The tone of The Flea is both sad and hopeful because the man is sad that he has not made love with his lover and is hopeful because he hopes to do so one day and obviously wishes they were married because thats what he starts saying the flea has done by mixing each others blood.

I'll do the other poem tomorrow because i cant find it in the book or on the internet.....and its not on shelbys thing either.