POEMS AND

DRAMAS UNDER
CPEL
Contemporary, Popular and Emergent Literature
 POEMS AND DRAMAS UNDER
C O N T E M P O R A R Y L I T E R AT U R E
 GETTING STARTED

What contemporary poetry is “NOT”

Defining What Lacks Definition

Where Did This Come From?

One Question: ―Why?

So What is ―Good?

What Does This Mean to Me? 

 W H AT C O N T E M P O R A RY P O E T RY I S N O T

• NOT found on social networking websites

• NOT a coping mechanism for whiny teens

• NOT a string of words stuck together without thought or
planning

• NOT without rules and guidelines

• NOT the same thing as modern song lyricsturns out,
contemporary poetry actually is something.
BUT WHAT IS IT?
YOU TELL ME
D E F I N I N G W H AT L A C K S D E F I N I T I O N

 { How Can You Define Something

Without a Standard Form?
“TECHNICALLY”

―contemporary poetryis: poetry written after the start of the

1920‘s, especially poetry having to do with modern literary genres,
such as modernism and post-modernism

however, this is just a start at something much bigger

contemporary poetry implies more than simply a time period and
an association with various literary styles.
 WHEN REFERRING TO
C O N T E M P O R A RY P O E T RY … .

writers and critics tend to be discussing a style of poetry that follows a

specific series of traits and literary tools, such as…

• inconsistent meter
• variations upon standard rhyme
• abandonment of a classical ―musical‖ style
• variations on the conventions of poetic lines

• an otherwise inconsistent regard for standard poetic structure

  this is commonly
called…Free Verse
 Free verse:
“ verse whose meter is irregular in
some respect or whose rhythm is
not metrical”

Pretty Simple?
not so much.
free verse still has rules and limitsbut
more on that later
WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?

{ Exploring the History of

Contemporary Poetry
 HISTORY:

 King James Bible

 Walt Whitman – ―The Father of Free Verse”
 experimented throughout the Victorian era

Now:
• very popular • some controversy
• recurrence of classical forms of poetry • conflict
 ONE QUESTION: ―WHY?

art, music, literature, and other forms of media and artistic expression
have experienced a paradigm shift as some point as they have entered
contemporary times
art – impressionism, abstract expressionism, pop art, performance
artmusic– classical, jazz, rock & roll, British invasion, metal, death
metalliterature – neoclassicism, romanticism, modernism, post-modernism
W H Y I S F R E E V E R S E I M P O RTA N T ?

poetry, like other forms of literature, is a living medium

free verse allows for new ideas and experimentation
it has an expressive capacity different than traditional poetry
the form is advocated by numerous professionals free verse, through its
freedom and structural looseness, provides an incredible amount of
expressive potential, with arrhythmic meter, alternative rhyme schemes,
and attention to subtle poetic tools – making it an optimal style for poets
and professional writers
W H AT O T H E R WAY S I S F R E E V E R S E
I M P O RTA N T

what qualities might

make free verse good?
 GOOD FREE VERSE POETRY
• some free verse is absolutely better than others
• it has to align with the same poetic tools that traditional uses

while free verse is not dependent upon meter, rhyme, or

other structural poetic tools, the majority of good free
verse pays attention to these tools and incorporates them
somehow.
 QUALITIES OF FREE VERSE

• imagery • rhythm internal rhyme all of this

• alternative rhyming • metaphor, simile, and conceits

• slant rhyme • off rhyme

• caesura • creative use of ―white space

•enjambment • end-stopped lines

• alliteration, consonance, and assonance
S O W H AT D O E S T H I S M E A N TO M E ?

{ Yes, It Does Have

Personal
Applications
PERSONAL APPLICATION

• free verse is extraordinarily expressive,

making it very personal
• it is often very enjoyable to write
• and frankly, you have an assignment on the
whole thing
SOME FAMOUS POEM AND DRAMA
UNDER CONTEMPORARY
LITERATURE
 “ W H E N I H E A R D T H E L E A R N ’ D A S T R O N O M E R”
B Y WA LT W H I T M A N ( 1 8 6 7 )

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the
lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
 BACKGROUND OF THE POET
Influenced by his mother; father was a carpenter

The society he grew up in was concerned with surroundings He

considered life in a broader context and was open-minded.
Founded “The Long Islander” – a journal/magazine

His poetry celebrates life and nature, landscapes, injustice, optimistic

democracy
Travelled to New Orleans for 3 months to establish a newspaper. Had
to leave because of his voiced opposition to slavery.
ST RUCT UR E AND NARRATOR

8 LINES Broken rhyme scheme = emphasises the

unstructured and inexplicable vastness of nature and
being.
Some things cannot be explained. First-person
narrator = “I”
 SETTING AND TITLE
Lecture room among a crowd, probably a community hall.
Public lectures were a popular form of entertainment in the 19 th century.

TITLE = “When I heard the learn’d astronomer”

Tells the reader that the content is about a lecture given by an intelligent
astronomer.
However, the word “learn’d” implies that the speaker is not impressed by
what the astronomer had to say.
 SYMBOLS Knowledge and intelligence =
astronomer, proofs, figures, columns, charts,
diagrams, add, divide, measure, lectured, lecture
room
 GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS

This David Mamet play, which has been remade into an iconic film starring
Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, and Kevin
Spacey, first premiered in September of 1983 in London at the National
Theatre. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for its portrayal of real estate
agents in Chicago and the lengths, no matter how low, they will go to dupe the
customer. Glengarry Glen Ross made its way to Broadway in March of 1984
settling in at the John Golden Theatre.
The run lasted for nearly 400 performances, which were
directed by Gregory Mosher with an ensemble that included Joe
Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum, and Lane Smith. That year the Tony
Awards gave Glengarry Glen Ross four nods including
nominations for Best Pay and Best Director. Joe Mantegna was the
only winner from this production, walking away with the Tony
Award for Best Featured Actor.
Joe Mantello directed a revival of this work in May of 2005 on Broadway at the
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Liv Schreiber, Alan Alda, Frederick Weller, Gordon
Clapp, Jeffrey Tambor, Tom Wopat, and Jordan Lage all starred in this staging. This
production also received many Tony Award nominations with Schreiber winning the
Best Featured Actor Award and the entire production winning Best Revival of a Play.
An interesting fact is that the character Alec Baldwin played in the movie was not
in the original stage versions.
 ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

{ You Knew It

Was Coming
ASSIGNMENT OBJECTIVES

demonstrate a practical understanding of contemporary poetry

by writing two free verse poems from the following prompts:

• use a kitchen application

• write an confused poem as the subject to convey about a piece

of artwork your hypothetical feelings or artistic photograph of
romance
ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
• at least 8 lines long
• at least 4 different poetic tools

• cannot be whiny or angsty

• must use imagery, metaphor, and simile

• include photo of kitchen appliance

• font: Times New Roman, Helvetica, Didot, or Cambria
POEMS AND DRAMAS
UNDER POPULAR
LITERATURE
 W H AT I S P O P U L A R L I T E R AT U R E
A C C O R D I N G TO Y O U N G A D U LT S ?

 Popular literature is fiction that does not deal with

abstract problems; it takes moral principles as the
given, accepting certain generalized, common-sense
ideas and values as its base. (Common-sense values and
conventional values are not the same thing; the first can
be justified rationally, the second cannot.
 GENRE
Genre is any category of literature or other forms of art or
entertainment, e.g. music, whether written or spoken, audible or
visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by
conventions that change over time as new genres are invented and
the use of old ones are discontinued. Often, works fit into multiple
genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions.
 GENRE IN LITERATURE

A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be

determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even (as in the case of
fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by
which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult, or
children's. They also must not be confused with format, such as graphic
novelor picture book. The distinctions between genres and categories are
flexible and loosely defined, often with subgroups
DIFFERENT TYPES OF GENRE

Comedy Drama Epic

Erotic Nonsense Lyric Mythopoeia

Romance Satire

Tragedy Tragicomedy
EFFECT ON YOUNG ADULTS

It influences on young adults attitudes, values,

behavior. Sometimes they are more likely to
respond to situations emotionally, and they are
less likely to consider consequences through
rational forethought.“
?? S O M E FA M O U S D R A M A A N D
P O E T RY
 CITIZEN KANE

 is a 1941 American drama film produced and directed by Orson

Welles. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Herman J.
Mankiewicz. The picture was Welles's first feature film.
Considered by many critics and experts to be the greatest film
ever made, Citizen Kane was voted number 1 in five consecutive
British Film Institute Sight & Sound polls of critics, and it topped
the American Film Institute's 100 Years
W H AT I S T H E S T R U C T U R E O F " T H E R O A D N O T TA K E N ? "

This poem consists of four stanzas, each five lines in

length (a quintrain), with a mix of iambic and anapaestic
tetrameter, producing a steady rhythmical four beat
first-person narrative. Most common speech is a
combination of iambs and anapaests, so Frost chose his
lines to reflect this:
 TWO ROADS DIVERGED IN
A Y E L L O W  W O O D ,
A N D   S O R R Y I   C O U L D   N O T   T R AV E L   B O T H

This simple looking poem, mostly monosyllabic, has a

traditional rhyme scheme of ABAAB which helps keep
the lines tight, whilst the use of enjambment (where one
line runs into the next with no punctuation) keeps the
sense flowing.
 W H AT I S T H E M O O D A N D T O N E
O F " T H E R O A D N O T TA K E N ? "

So, the tone is meditative. As this person

stands looking at the two options, he is
weighing the pros and cons in a quiet, studied
manner. The situation demands a serious
approach, for who knows what the outcome
will be?
All the speaker knows is that he prefers the road less
travelled, perhaps because he enjoys solitude and believes that
to be important. Whatever the reason, once committed, he'll
more than likely never look back.
On reflection, however, taking the road "because it was
grassy and wanted wear" has made all the difference, all the
difference in the world.
 W H AT A R E T H E P O E T I C D E V I C E S
U S E D I N " T H E R O A D N O T TA K E N ? "

In "The Road Not Taken," Frost primarily

makes use of metaphor. Other poetic devices
include the rhythm in which he wrote the
poem, but these aspects are covered in the
section on structure.
W H AT I S T H E F I G U R AT I V E M E A N I N G
O F " T H E R O A D N O T TA K E N ? "

Frost uses the road as a metaphor for life: he portrays

our lives as a path we are walking along toward an
undetermined destination. Then, the poet reaches a fork
in the road. The fork is a metaphor for a life-altering
choice in which a compromise is not possible. The
traveler must go one way, or the other.
W H AT I S T H E L I T E R A L M E A N I N G
O F " T H E R O A D N O T TA K E N ? "

Literally, "The Road Not Taken" tells the story

of a man who reaches a fork in the road, and
randomly chooses to take one and not the other.
 W H AT I S T H E S Y M B O L I S M O F
" T H E R O A D N O T TA K E N ? "

The road, itself, symbolizes the journey of life, and the

image of a road forking off into two paths symbolizes a
choice.
As for color, Frost describes the forest as a "yellow
wood." Yellow can be considered a middle color,
something in-between and unsure of itself. This sets the
mood of indecision that characterizes the language of the
poem.
 FROST ALSO MENTIONS THE
COLOR BLACK IN THE LINES:

And both the morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Clearly, this is to emphasize that both roads appeared

untouched, not having been tarnished by the foot of a
previous traveler. The poet is the first to encounter this
dilemma.
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!