Inlandia Poetry

•Tomlinson, “At Barstow” (179)

•Barnes, “At Barstow” (181), “Few & Far Between”
(182), “Willie Boy” (184)
•Hernandez, “Eastside Walls, Riverside CA 1999”
(310), “The Canal” (312), “Life Lessons” (312)
•Delgado, “Ofelia” (325), “Flavio’s New Home” (327)
•Burrows, “Glitter” (350)
•Kramer, “Strong Winds Below the Canyons” (355)
•Nolan, “Gated Community, Palm Springs” (378)
•Chapman, “Farming Below Sea Level” (379)
 Charles Tomlinson
• British poet Charles Tomlinson was born in
1927 in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, G.B.
• He became an elementary school teacher, was
a secretary in Italy, and then taught at Bristol
University, becoming Emeritus Professor of
English Literature and travelling widely in
Europe, the US, Mexico and Japan.
• His view of America and its landscapes
reflects a stark view of the modern West.
 Dick Barnes

• American poet Dick Barnes was born in San Bernardino, California, in 1932. He
died in May, 2000.
• Educated at Pomona, Harvard, and the Claremont Graduate School, he taught
medieval and renaissance literature at Pomona for nearly forty years.
• His great subject is the Mojave Desert, the vast basin of ranges and valleys east and
north of Los Angeles, with its beautiful shrubs and flowers, magnificent trees,
ephemeral grasses, high lakes, rivers and dry river beds, alfalfa farms, and isolated
towns with names like Essex, Cadiz Summit, Elephant Butte, Running Springs,
Helendale, and often canny and solitary men and women. Of this world, Dick
Barnes gives an indelible portrait in poem after poem.
Juan Delgado
• Juan Delgado’s poems deal honestly with the realities of
urban life, whether dramatizing the effects of drive-by
shootings, unfolding a labor protest that "spreads across the
city like a prayer," or summoning a ghostlike immigrant
damned to retrace his journey across the border. Daily and
historical struggles are elevated to the level of myth.
• Yet, amid his poems there are images of life and love: a girl
leaving hickeys rich as chocolate, a boy pledging to rescue
his mother from poverty, a man studying the desert ground
for tracks signaling immigrants in distress.
• Delgado is unflinching in showing us the harshness
surrounding the lives he cherishes, and with resonant details
and lyrical language he urges us to examine those.
 Larry Kramer
• Larry Kramer was born in Newton, Iowa, and grew up in Amarillo, Texas, and
Columbia, Missouri. He died in 2000.
• A graduate of Ohio State University and the University of the Iowa Writers’
Workshop, he was Professor of English at California State University, San
Bernardino.
• His early writing career cast him as something of a wunderkind. After graduating in
1968 from the prestigious University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop, Kramer was
christened one of the most promising of a highly talented group of writers & poets.
His first poem was published in the prestigious New Yorker magazine—not bad for
the Midwestern son of a five-and-dime store manager.
 Ruth Nolan
• Ruth Nolan, M.A., is a native of the Mojave
Desert in the Apple Valley area and Associate
Professor of English at COD.
• She is also a poet, writer, and book
editor/publisher. For two summer seasons,
1986-87, she worked for the BLM as a
helicopter hotshot and engine crew firefighter
in the California Desert District.
• She has extensively hiked, traveled, and
embraced the essence of her desert homeland.
 Poetic Elements
Alliteration and Assonance
– Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounding letters
• Initial alliteration= Repetition of the first letter/consonant
– Often used for humorous effect
“Little Lyle lies longingly on the lawn”
Beowulf, from the beginning of the 8th century, is the first poem composed
in what was to become the English language & uses an style based on
alliteration
– Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within a
phrase
In the room the women come and go
Talking of michelangelo
 Onomatopoeia
• Derived from the Greek meaning “to make
names,” is a word made up to describe a
sound.
• Onomatopoeia means that a word can
“sound” like the noise it describes.
– Bang!
– Crash!
– Splat!
– Pow!
 Rhyme & Poetry
• Rhyme is the similarity of sound.
• For hundreds of years, part of the
definition of poetry was that it rhymed.
• In the early 20th century, American poets
moved away from strict rhyme schemes
as part of what defined poetry.
 Rhyme
• Eye Rhyme = two words look like they sound alike
but when pronounced, they don’t.
– House/rouse or tough/though
• Perfect rhyme=most typical poetic rhyme; the
most common is end rhyme.
– The sound of the two words is exactly alike.
• Moon/june or sigh/cry
• Near/Slant rhyme=varying of sound, more subtle
rhyme; the sound of the two words is close but not
exact.
– Read/red or seal/sail
 Song and Rhyme
• Rhyme is no longer considered an essential part
of poetry, however it is still used today
primarily in song lyrics.
• Rhymes in a song help us follow the song’s text.
– Pop=Perfect rhyme
– Hip-hop=Alliteration, assonance, etc.
• The Bridge
• The chorus
 Rhythm
• In the 20th century, many young poets in
Europe and the U.s. broke free of old poetic
forms.
– Free verse or open verse=looks as if it is poetry
written without the restrictions of traditional
poetry.
• Free/open verse still requires skill and an
economy of words to create poetic images.
 Accent
• The rhythm of a poem is built on the sound
of words. This sound is created through
accent, which is the strong syllables or
syllables in a word.
– All words with more than one syllable have at
least one strong accent.
– Stressed and unstressed syllables give the words
their rhythm.
 Meter
• Meter is the pattern set up by the regular
rhythm of words in a poem.
– To have meter we need at least three or four
words in a line.
• Foot=the unit of two syllable (weak &
strong) in a line.
• Iamb=rhythm based on a foot of one weak
and one strong syllable.
– Iambic meter is the basic block of English
poetry.
 Accent and Meter
• Iambic Pentameter=
– Commonly used by William
Shakespeare.
–“Penta” means five=a meter
with five feet.
• Five strong accents.
 Blank Verse
• A poem that has Meter But no rhyme.
• Blank verse is the most common form for
Elizabethan drama.
So shaken as we are, so wan with care
Find we a time for frightened peace to pant,
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenced in strand afar remote.
 The pattern Poem
• One of the earliest poetic forms.
• Used by Greek writers.
• Sometimes called shape poems, the physical placing
of the letters and words creates a picture.
 Poetry Questions
Choose any three poems from this section to
discuss/analyze (they don’t have to be from the same
poet)—please use the questions below to guide your
discussion/analysis:
1. What, if any, poetic elements are used in these
poems? (Use quotes from the poems for
support.)
2. Why do you think that the poet uses this genre
(poetry) to convey his/her impression of CA?
Why not use an essay, story, image?
3. Write your own poetic response to at least one
of the poems you chose.