LESSON OF SEPTEMBER 27^th, 2011

Poetry:

• Lyrical poetry: poetry that speaks about intimate, inner, private, personal problems, emotions, thoughts, something peculiar to the author;
• Reflecting poetry: poetry that makes the reader reflect, think;
• Narrative poetry: poetry that narrates, tells a story;
• Argumentative poetry: poetry that discusses a problem and provides argumentations.

There are a lot of different reasons to write a poem. Besides existing many kind of poetry, there exist different forms of poetry:

·         Poems in free verse: free from conventions;

·         The Sonnet;

·         The Ballad;

·         The Ode.

The language of poetry is complex because it requires serious analysis of words, sounds, word order and much more.

ORAL TEST

• What is the title of the text?
• What do you expect to read about?
• Is the poem a description?
• What sort of description do you expect? I expect the text to describe vagabond's feelings, emotions and why vagabonds don't have a final destination.

I'll read the poem to see if my expectations were right or wrong.

Title creates expectations on readers which may be right or wrong.

• Who is the speaking voice?

The poet has used an enjambment (run-on lines). It compels the reader to read on to the next line in order to understand the meaning.

• Why do you think the poet uses a substantive made from an adjective? Because he is taking into consideration the problems of the category. He focuses his attention on a category of people.

At line three there is another run-on-line.

Nowhere -> using this word the poet hints (makes the reader think about something without saying it) at they are homeless.

Using this choice (nowhere, no place), the poet makes it so that the reader has the idea of privation stick in his mind. He uses therefore an anaphoric construction, reinforced by the alliterative sound "no". The idea of privation, of the lack of a home, is given not only by words but also by syntax and sound.

There are also two infinitive in the poem (to eat, to sleep). What is the effect? To sleep and to eat create an idea of distance, of a remote dimension from their everyday reality, reinforced by the assonance of the sound "ee".

The poem ends with the reiteration of an abstract adjective "tearless", where the suffix "-less" highlights a sense of lack again.

The use  of the modal verb "cannot" underlines the impossibility of vagabonds to have what is the minimum for survive (for human survival).

Analysis of the poem "Vagabonds" by Langston Hughes

The text is a short poem organised into three short groups of lines that convey the idea of vagabonds' privations and difficult life. Their daily existence is marked by the lack of the minimum for human survive. They are deprived even of their identity: you cannot see any specific face, you can name no one because they have not got a name: they are "The desperate", "The hungry" and "The tearless".

The reader is free to imagine their faces but not to think of their homes.

The poem proceeds with statements and exploits an anaphoric structure (who do not, who cannot). Repetition, the use of assonance (to eat, to sleep) and alliteration (nowhere, no care) create a memorable effect in the reader's mind.

HOMEWORK: