Diction Imagery Syntax Tone Poetry Day 1 A

Diction, Imagery, Syntax, Tone Poetry: Day 1

A Note About This Unit… • You will be taking notes and answering practice questions on your own paper • Don’t lose these notes! You will need to know these terms WELL for the unit assessment

On your own paper, answer. . . 1. How do you feel about poetry? What has been your past experience? 2. Keeping the meaning, rewrite the sentence to be positive: – You’re fired! – She dumped her boyfriend. 3. Rewrite these sentences to be negative: – Our teacher is energetic. – She only wears vintage clothes.

DICTION (word choice – easy to remember if you remember the word dictionary) Questions to consider: • Where are there words with positive or negative connotations? • What are the key words in the passage? • Repeated words? Unexpected words? Inappropriate words? • What emotions are attached to the words?

ELEMENTS OF DICTION • Denotation: dictionary definition of a word (thin) • Connotation: the unspoken ideas and emotional connections that a word suggests (bony vs. slender)

In your group: • Rank each set of words from most positive to most negative • 1=most positive • Highest # = most negative

• economical • thrifty • stingy • cheap • frugal

• vain • conceited • self-confident • cocky • arrogant

• old • ancient • decrepit • seasoned • elderly

IMAGERY (relating to the 5 senses: sight, taste, touch, sound, hearing) • What are the central (most important) sensory experiences? • What smaller images does the writer use? • Any Patterns? Contrasts? Positives/Negatives?

In your groups… Brainstorm and write down at least 3 associations you have with the following images (anything it makes you think of!) Then, decide whether the image has a mostly positive, mostly negative, or neutral connotation.

In your groups… • A moss-covered stump • A gnarled oak • A weeping willow • Bare branches rattling in the wind

SYNTAX (grammar and sentence structure) Look for: • Punctuation marks • Length of sentences • Important conjunctions • Types of sentences (question, command) • Order of sentences

SYNTAX – What do you notice? Smiling, with a strange gleam in his eyes and a pale sheen across his cheeks, the boy staggered, wavering like a thin stalk in the breeze, before he fell to the ground, dead.

SYNTAX – What do you notice? Minutes ticked by. Then hours. Minutes. She didn’t come. And I was relieved.

SYNTAX – What do you notice? They were behind him and Macomber was filling his rifle, dropping shells onto the ground, jamming it, clearing the jam, then they were almost up with the bull when Wilson yelled “Stop, ” and the car skidded so that it almost swung over and Macomber fell forward onto his feet, slammed his bolt forward and fired as far forward as he could aim into the galloping, rounded black back, aimed and shot again, then again, and the bullets, all of them hitting, had no effect on the buffalo that he could see.

The Importance of Good Syntax

TONE • The attitude of the speaker towards the subject • If you misinterpret the tone, then you will misinterpret the meaning

Change in tone = Change in meaning EXAMPLE 1 A: Wow! You wrote FIVE pages for your theme essay? B: Yeah! I just got really into it. A: Thanks for setting the bar high for everyone else! B: You’re welcome!

Change in tone = Change in meaning EXAMPLE 2 A: Wow… you wrote FIVE pages for your theme essay? B: Yeah… I suppose I just got really into it. A: Thanks for setting the bar high for everyone else! B: You’re welcome…

Tone Formula: + + = IMAGERY DICTION SYNTAX TONE • Meaning: imagery, diction, syntax, among other literary devices help CONTRIBUTE TO and DEVELOP the tone. • Analyzing literary devices and their effects will help you understand TONE

Shifts in Tone (“tone shifts”) A good writer rarely uses only one tone. Often, a change in tone is a key to the meaning of the poem. Look for: • Breaks between stanzas, punctuation • Diction or imagery changes • Sharp contrasts

Brainstorming Good Tone words?

Speaker: the narrator of the poem, sometimes a specific character. The speaker is not necessarily the Poet.

Write your own! All this __________ (feeling) Is just __________ (place name) What matters is _____________________________________ (specific, concrete details)

Write your own! Snow/Rain/Sunshine is falling _________________ And ________________________________________ On _________________________ It’s _________________________ (continue writing until you find an ending)