Imagery and the Language of Poetry
By the due date assigned, post your response of one or two paragraphs (at least 150-200 words) to the Discussion Area. To support your comments, your discussion answers should include specific information and quotations from the readings. By the end of Week 1, comment on at least two of your classmates’ submissions. Your replies to classmates should be at least a paragraph in length and made with an eye to expand, clarify, defend, and/or refine their thoughts. Consider asking questions to further meaningful conversation. Be clear and concise, referring to specific ideas and words from your classmates’ postings. Participation must be completed by the end of the first week to earn credit.
Prompt:
Choose a poem from the assigned readings listed below, and identify some of the key imagery or other kinds of poetic language used in the poem, which you believe are vital to understanding it. Here are some possible approaches:
Provide a detailed discussion of how the images function in the poem.
Do the images work together to form a coherent pattern?
What ideas or feelings are conveyed by the images or figurative language?
How do the images contribute to the overall meaning of the poem?
Our course eBook (Portable Literature) should be your only source. Do not use outside sources.
Title your discussion response with the poem’s title. This will help other students see which poems have been discussed. Once a poem has been discussed twice, please do not choose it for analysis.
Read the following poems and choose one to discuss:
9-5Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “How Do I Love Thee?” (1850)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) is one of the most respected English poets of the nineteenth century. She was born at Coxhoe Hall, in Durham, England, to an extremely wealthy family. On the estate where she grew up, she enjoyed riding her pony, visiting with friends, reading, picnicking, and participating in theatrical productions with her siblings. In 1826, at the age of twenty, Browning published An Essay on Mind, With Other Poems. Browning was particularly respected for her independence and willingness to share her views. She was passionate about the classics and the Christian faith. Her collection of love poems, Sonnets from the Portuguese, written before her marriage and dedicated to her husband, the poet Robert Browning, is widely considered her best work. Critics have often compared Browning’s use of the Italian sonnet form to Petrarch’s and her imagery to Shakespeare’s.
Reading “How Do I Love Thee?”
The sonnet is a poetic form that is fourteen lines long. Although there are many sonnet styles, the two most common are the Italian, or Petrarchan sonnet, and English, or Shakespearean sonnet. Browning’s poem, “How Do I Love Thee” is an Italian sonnet. Its rhyme scheme is ABBA ABBA CDC DCD. As you read, consider the way the poem is constructed within this particular rhyme scheme. Can you see any connection between the poem’s form and its content?
Analyzing “How Do I Love Thee?”
Form. Consider the sonnet form in this poem. What is the most important part of the poem? In what part of the sonnet is it placed? Why?
Simile. Where are there similes, or comparisons using “like” or “as” in this poem? How would you characterize these comparisons? Are they similar?
Tone. How would you describe the tone of this poem? Is it at all religious? What intersections of love and religion/morality do you notice in this poem?
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