Interactive Guide Grade 8

10 Eighth Grade Core Subjects : : Literature

(The Secret Code of Poetry: Excerpt from Student Text)

L esson Thirteen: Ellipsis and hyperbaton In the poems we have studied so far, the literal meaning has been fairly simple to figure out, so long as we took the time to think about it. In Unit Two we focused on analyzing the imagery and sound of poetry. In more complicated poems, though, we need to look deeper than the poem’s literal meaning, because the poet communicates much of the poem’s meaning in the organization of the poem, or in poetic devices such as irony and allusion. These poetic devices are parts of the poetic code, and they allow the poet to say more than one thing at once. Do you remember how in Lesson Four your dad said, “No we can’t go swimming,” but he also winked? He was saying two things at once, and you had to figure out how the meanings related to each other, and what he ultimately meant. As you have learned, poets also like to say more than one thing at once. They do this through the sound and images of their poems, but they also do it through poetic devices such as organization, irony, and allusion. These poetic devices allow poets to pack more meaning into their words, but it can also make their poems difficult to understand. In the next few lessons, we will learn how to decipher this part of the poetic code. Before we study organization, irony, and allusion, we first need to look at ellipsis and hyperbaton (hye- per -buh-tawn). These two poetic devices aren’t as important as organization, irony, and allusion, but being familiar with them can make all the difference when it comes to understanding a poem. a Did you notice the metaphor in Rossetti’s poem? What is “the rose upon her briar” being compared to? You may wonder how we know lines 1 and 3 are based on the same meter, since they are not actually identical. Couldn’t line 1 be

meaningful ideas. To make things a little easier for themselves, poets sometimes bend the rules of grammar. Ellipsis and hyper- baton are examples of times when poets don’t follow the rules. Ellipsis Imagine you are a poet and you have thought of words which are perfect to express your ideas, but which will break the metrical pattern you have chosen. This is probably the situation in which Christina Rossetti found herself when she wrote “The Rose.” The poem opens with the following lines: Ù  Ù  Ù  Ù The lily has a smooth stalk, Ù As you can see in the lines above, Rossetti is following a pattern in which the second and fourth lines have six syllables in the following meter: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM. The first and third lines follow a pattern of seven syllables in the pattern da DUM-da DUM-da DUM-da, except that line 3 begins with an extra unstressed syllable. This is the only irregularity in the meter. Do you notice how unusual the second line sounds? In order to maintain the meter she has chosen, Rossetti leaves out a word in line 2. This is an example of ellipsis , which occurs when a writer leaves out a word that can be understood from the context. In Rossetti’s poem, the second line needs another word, such as “and,” “which,” or “it.”  Ù  Ù  Will never hurt your hand; Ù Ù  Ù  Ù  Ù But the rose upon her briar Ù  Ù  Ù  Is lady of the land.

following one meter, with seven syllables, and line 3 be following another meter, with eight syllables? Although this is theoretically possible, four-line stanzas almost always alternate lines of two different meters, or stick to a single meter for all four lines. Ellipsis: when a writer leaves out a word that can be understood from the context

Writing poetry is quite a challenge, because poets need to com- bine beautiful sounds and rhythms with evocative images and

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And will never hurt your hand Which will never hurt your hand It will never hurt your hand

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