LESSON OF SEPTEMBER 27^th, 2011

Poetry ≠ Poem!

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/... on problems/topics/...;

• Narrative poetry: poetry that narrates, tells a story; a poetry resulting into a story;

• Argumentative poetry: poetry that discusses a problem and provides argumentations.

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 and no on a single person.

♪ There is a run-on line at line one, three and seven.

♪ Nowhere -> using this word the poet hints (makes the reader think about something without saying it) at they are homeless.
The allitterative sound "NO" reinforce the sense of negation; the poet makes it so that the reader has the idea of privation sticking in his mind.
The idea of the lack of a home is given not only by words but also bu syntax and sound, therefore the poet uses an anaphoric construction.

♪ There are two infinitive in the poem ("to eat", "to sleep") that create an idea of distance, of a remote dimension from everyday reality; all that reinforced by the assonance of the sound "e".

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

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

Analysis of the poem "Vagabonds" by Langston Hughes

The text is a short poem organized into three short sentences (lines; groups of lines) that convey the idea of vagabonds' privations and difficoult life. Their daily existence is marked by the lack of the minimum for huyman survivor.
They are deprived even on their identity: you cannot see any specific face, you can name no one because they haven't got a name: they are "The desperate", "The hungry", "The tearless". The reader is free to imagine their faces but not to think of their names.

The poem proceeds with statements and exploids an anaphoric structure (who do NOT – who canNOT). Repetitions, the use of assonance ("To eat"- "To sleep") and allitterations (Nowhere – NO care) create a memorabily effect in the reader's mind.