Poetry

Week III—Wednesday, 2 March 2022

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
EVEN SEMESTER 2021
UNIVERSITAS NEGERI SEMARANG
 Course Description

Today’s topic discusses some aspects in poetry,

namely speaker, setting, subject and theme.
These four aspects are important in poetry
since they describe the major things in poetry.
The word speaker refers to a narrator or ‘poetic
voice’ or someone who tells the story and scene
in a poetic text.
The word setting suggests a temporal and
spatial backdrop of the poem.
 Course Description
 The third and fourth terms deal with what issue or
problem the poem describes. The term ‘subject’
describes the issue in the poem, while the term
‘theme’ can also mean ‘the subject of the poem’.
Though both terms look the same, they differ in
their presentation.
 A subject tends to be explicit, while a theme to be
implicit. Another meaning of theme is the central idea
that underlies a piece of work. A theme is usually
expressed in a statement. For example: Simplicity
brings a happy living; gratitude is the door to
prosperity; good deeds will reap sweet fruits in time
 Learning Objectives

The students are expected to be able to

understand the terms namely speaker, setting,
subject and theme in a poetic text.
The students are expected to be able to identify
speaker, setting, subject and theme in the text.
The students are expected to be able to correctly
write about these aspects from reading the
poetic text and understanding its general and
detailed meaning.
 Speaker, Setting, Subject & Theme

 In reading and trying to identify speaker, setting, subject and

theme, one has to pay attention to each word used in the lines
of the poem. Besides, he/she has to consider some aspects,
including diction (choice of words), tone (the writer’s attitude
toward the subject and the readers), monologue, dialogue,
polyvocality (a medley of other voices) (Hoffman 2005, 75-84).
 The term ‘diction’ itself has four kinds, namely ‘formal and
elevated diction’, ‘informal and colloquial diction’, ‘dialect’, ‘abstract
versus concrete diction” (ibid., 2005, 75-78).
 Diction (formal and elevated diction) refers to “formal,
elaborate, strongly ‘poetic’ language that serves as a kind of
dialect, a branch of nonstandard English” (Hoffman 75-76).
 Speaker, Setting, Subject & Theme

Polyvocality suggests “a medley of other

voices” in a poem by staging ‘a dialogue’,
‘an introductory setting’ or ‘tales-within-a
tale’.
This functions “to distinguish between
poems in which this second voice seems
to interpose itself wilfully” (Hoffman 2005,
84-85).
 Diction

Diction (formal and elevated diction) refers to

“formal, elaborate, strongly ‘poetic’ language
that serves as a kind of dialect, a branch of
nonstandard English” (Hoffman 75-76).
Abstract versus Concrete Diction: the former
means “words referring to intangible
concepts,” while the latter to “tangible
objects” (Hoffman 78).
 Denotation and Connotation

The average word has three components: sound, denotation, and

connotation.
Denotation is the dictionary meaning or literal meanings of the word.
For instance, the word ‘spring’ has various meanings, such as (1) a
pounce or leap, (2) a season of the year, (3) a natural source of water,
(4) a coiled elastic wire, etc.
Connotation is what a word suggests beyond what it expresses or its
overtones of meaning. For instance, the word ‘home’, by denotation it
only means a place where one lives, while by connotation, this word
suggests “security, love, comfort, and family” (Perrine & Arp 37).
In poetic language, denotation also means a literal meaning, while
connotation refers to a figurative meaning.
 “I wandered lonely as a cloud”
by: William Wordsworth (a British Romantic Poet)

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,
 “I wandered lonely as a cloud”

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
(lively)
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: (fizzy)
A poet could not but be gay,
In such as a jocund company: (cheerful)
 “I wandered lonely as a cloud”

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dance with the daffodils.
 Somewhere or Other
by: Christina G. Rossetti (a British Victorian poet)

Somewhere or other there must surely be

The face not seen, the voice not heard,
The heart that not yet—never yet—ah me!
Made answer to my word.

Somewhere or other, may be near or far;

Past land and sea, clean out of sight;
Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star
That tracks her night by night.
 Somewhere or Other

Somewhere or other, may be far or near;

With just a wall, a hedge, between;
With just the last leaves of the dying year
Fallen on a turf grown green.
 The Load of Sugar-Cane
by: Wallace Stevens

The going of the glade-boat

Is like water flowing;

Like water flowing

Through the green saw-grass,
Under the rainbows;

Under the rainbows

That are like birds,
Turning, bedizened, (decorate gaudily)
 The Load of Sugar-Cane

While the wind still whistles

As kildeer do,

When they rise

At the red turban
Of the boatman.
 Questions:

1. Read the poems. Who speaks in the first, second, and third
poems? Through what words does the speaker tell the
story? What does the speaker feel about his/her subject?
2. Where is the setting (temporal & spatial) of the two
poems? What words do the poems use to describe the
setting?
3. What differences can you find in the poems in terms of
their stanza, lines, the use of punctuations, repetition?
4. How are words used in the poems? What are denotative
and connotative words? Give examples.