Wednesday, April 22 finishing "The Song of the Smoke"

Reading as a class: "I saw a man pursuing the horizon" by Stephen Crane
                               and "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson
Due by the end of class:  completed analysis of W.E.B. Dubois "The Song of the Smoke"  writing grade!

class handout / copy below

"I saw a man pursuing the horizon"

BY STEPHEN CRANE

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;

Round and round they sped.

I was disturbed at this;   

I accosted the man.

“It is futile,” I said,

“You can never —”

“You lie,” he cried,   

And ran on.

"Richard Cory"

BY EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,

And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich—yes, richer than a king—

And admirably schooled in every grace:

In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,

And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;

And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,

Went home and put a bullet through his head

Name_________________________________________ Please complete the following abbreviated TIPCASTT Poetry Analysis for E.B. Du Bois’ “The Song of the Smoke”

THE “TIPCASTT” METHOD OF POETRY ANALYSIS will integrate the literal and figurative meanings conveyed by a poem into a coherent understanding of the poem, highlighted by an understanding of the literary devices that helped the poem’s purpose to be realized.  

“The Song of the Smoke”

BY W. E. B. DU BOIS

   I am the Smoke King

   I am black!

I am swinging in the sky,

I am wringing worlds awry;

I am the thought of the throbbing mills,      5

I am the soul of the soul-toil kills,

Wraith of the ripple of trading rills;

Up I’m curling from the sod,

I am whirling home to God;

   I am the Smoke King                                  10

   I am black I am the Smoke King,

   I am black!

I am wreathing broken hearts,

I am sheathing love’s light darts;

   Inspiration of iron times                            15

   Wedding the toil of toiling climes,

   Shedding the blood of bloodless crimes—

Lurid lowering ’mid the blue,

Torrid towering toward the true,

   I am the Smoke King,                                   20

   I am black.

   I am the Smoke King,

   I am black!

I am darkening with song,

I am hearkening to wrong!

   I will be black as blackness can—              25

   The blacker the mantle, the mightier the man!

   For blackness was ancient ere whiteness began.

I am daubing God in night,

I am swabbing Hell in white:

   I am the Smoke King                                   30

   I am black.

   I am the Smoke King

   I am black!

I am cursing ruddy morn,

I am hearsing hearts unborn:                       35

   Souls unto me are as stars in a night,

   I whiten my black men—I blacken my white!

   What’s the hue of a hide to a man in his might?

Hail! great, gritty, grimy hands—

Sweet Christ, pity toiling lands!

   I am the Smoke King                                    40

   I am black.

_______________________________________________by_________________________________

STEP 1: PARAPHRASE the poem; put into your own words.

 __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

 STEP 2: CONNOTATION.

Reread the poem and state its point of view. (1^st person singular / plural, 3^rd person limited, 3^rd person omniscient)

Then, reread the poem, looking for rhyming patterns. What is the rhyme pattern, if any? A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.  Example:

______________________________________________________________________

Next, look for especially significant or unusual words in the poem. Why were they included? What meaning do they convey?

Word/ line #	Denotation of word-what it literary means	Connotation- what is its deeper meaning
1
2
3
4
5

Step 3:

Look for examples of poetic devices in the poem. Describe these devices. How do such devices aid the poem in achieving its poetic effects?

Look for: simile(compares two things using like or as), metaphor (a connection between two unlike things); personification (human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or ideas), hyperbole (outrageous exaggeration); litotes (ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g., you won't be sorry, meaning you'll be glad ), synecdoche (a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”); symbolism (word which has meaning in itself but is used to represent something entirely different), alliteration (repetition of the first consonant sounds), assonance (repetition of a vowel sound e.g., penitence, reticence ).- idiom (expression that has a meaning that is only known to a particular group of people. For example: kick the bucket; raining cats and dogs); onomatopoeia (words that sound like their meaning, or mimic sounds); oxymoron (two seemingly contradictory elements, such as "wise fool," "jumbo shrimp" or "icy hot."); imagery (detailed description which incorporates the five senses -- sight, sound, smell, taste and touch); apostrophe- (speaker detaches himself from the reality and addresses an imaginary character in his speech.)

 Note these examples below. 1.__________________________________________________________________________________________ 2__________________________________________________________________________________________ 3__________________________________________________________________________________________ 4__________________________________________________________________________________________ 5__________________________________________________________________________________________ 6__________________________________________________________________________________________ 7__________________________________________________________________________________________ 8__________________________________________________________________________________________

Step 4

Write the theme of the poem in a complete sentence. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Song of the Smoke

BY W. E. B. DU BOIS

   I am the Smoke King

   I am black!

I am swinging in the sky,

I am wringing worlds awry;

I am the thought of the throbbing mills,

I am the soul of the soul-toil kills,

Wraith of the ripple of trading rills;

Up I’m curling from the sod,

I am whirling home to God;

   I am the Smoke King

   I am black.

I am the Smoke King,

   I am black!

I am wreathing broken hearts,

I am sheathing love’s light darts;

   Inspiration of iron times

   Wedding the toil of toiling climes,

   Shedding the blood of bloodless crimes—

Lurid lowering ’mid the blue,

Torrid towering toward the true,

   I am the Smoke King,

   I am black.

   I am the Smoke King,

   I am black!

I am darkening with song,

I am hearkening to wrong!

   I will be black as blackness can—

   The blacker the mantle, the mightier the man!

   For blackness was ancient ere whiteness began.

I am daubing God in night,

I am swabbing Hell in white:

   I am the Smoke King

   I am black.

   I am the Smoke King

   I am black!

I am cursing ruddy morn,

I am hearsing hearts unborn:

   Souls unto me are as stars in a night,

   I whiten my black men—I blacken my white!

   What’s the hue of a hide to a man in his might?

Hail! great, gritty, grimy hands—

Sweet Christ, pity toiling lands!

   I am the Smoke King

   I am black.

 Name_________________________________________

THE “TIPCASTT” METHOD OF POETRY ANALYSIS will integrate the literal and figurative meanings conveyed by a poem into a coherent understanding of the poem, highlighted by an understanding of the literary devices that helped the poem’s purpose to be realized.  

Use the rest of this worksheet to follow these steps for your given poem, writing in the spaces provided.  

STEP 1: TITLE. Write the title and author of the poem: _______________________________________________by_________________________________ Then, predict what the poem will be about: __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

STEP 2: PARAPHRASE

 Silently read the poem. Then, with your partner, each of you read the poem aloud, following along as the other reads. Finally, restate its literal meaning in your own words on the following lines. Write at least one sentence for each stanza of the poem, capturing all of its literal ideas: __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________

 STEP 3: CONNOTATION.

Reread the poem and state its point of view. (1^st person singular / plural, 3^rd person limited, 3^rd person omniscient)

Then, reread the poem, looking for rhyming patterns. What is the rhyme pattern, if any? A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.  Example:

______________________________________________________________________

Next, look for especially significant or unusual words in the poem. Why were they included? What meaning do they convey?

Word Line # Why included/Meaning

Word/ line #	Why included?	Meaning?

Step 4:

Look for examples of poetic devices in the poem. Describe these devices. How do such devices aid the poem in achieving its poetic effects?

Look for: simile(compares two things using like or as), metaphor (a connection between two unlike things); personification (human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or ideas), hyperbole (outrageous exaggeration); litotes (ironical understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative of its contrary (e.g., you won't be sorry, meaning you'll be glad ), synecdoche (a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa, as in Cleveland won by six runs (meaning “Cleveland's baseball team”); symbolism (word which has meaning in itself but is used to represent something entirely different), alliteration (repetition of the first consonant sounds), assonance (repetition of a vowel sound e.g., penitence, reticence ).- idiom (expression that has a meaning that is only known to a particular group of people. For example: kick the bucket; raining cats and dogs); onomatopoeia (words that sound like their meaning, or mimic sounds); oxymoron (two seemingly contradictory elements, such as "wise fool," "jumbo shrimp" or "icy hot."); imagery (detailed description which incorporates the five senses -- sight, sound, smell, taste and touch)

 Note these examples below. 1.__________________________________________________________________________________________ 2__________________________________________________________________________________________ 3__________________________________________________________________________________________ 4__________________________________________________________________________________________ 5__________________________________________________________________________________________ 6__________________________________________________________________________________________ 7__________________________________________________________________________________________ 8__________________________________________________________________________________________

 STEP 5. SHIFT. Rarely does a poet begin and end the poetic experience in the same place. Discovery of a poet’s understanding of an experience is critical to the understanding of a poem. Trace the feelings of the speaker from the beginning to the end, paying particular attention to the conclusion. Look for the following to find shifts: 1. Key words (but, yet, however, although) 2. Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, ellipsis) 3. Stanza division 4. Changes in line or stanza length or both.

Key words	Punctuation/ after?	Stanza division/ how?	Changes stanza / line length

Look over the above chart you created. Write two sentences about why you think the poet made particular choices.

________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

                                               

Step 6

Write the theme of the poem in a complete sentence. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________