Topic 3 of 6 · Form 5
Poetry: close analysis and comparison
Influences of oral tradition: praise poetry (nhetembo/izibongo), call and response, repetition, proverbs, and performance. Themes include colonial experience, the liberation struggle, the land, urban alienation and protest.
Notes for this topic 1 file, in order
Create a free account to download PDFs.
Analysing a poem
- Voice and persona; addressee; tone and mood, and shifts in tone.
- Form: sonnet, ode, elegy, ballad, dramatic monologue, free verse, praise poetry.
- Structure: stanza organisation, enjambment, caesura, the volta (turn) in sonnets.
- Metre and rhythm: iambic pentameter, stressed and unstressed syllables, irregularities for effect.
- Sound: rhyme, alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia.
- Imagery and figurative language: metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, paradox, oxymoron.
African poetry and orality
Influences of oral tradition: praise poetry (nhetembo/izibongo), call and response, repetition, proverbs, and performance. Themes include colonial experience, the liberation struggle, the land, urban alienation and protest.
Comparing poems
Compare themes and techniques side by side, using linking phrases (similarly, whereas, in contrast). Avoid writing about one poem and then the other separately.
Unseen poetry
Read carefully several times, identify the situation and speaker, annotate, then build an argument about meaning and method.
Check yourself
- What is a volta?
- Name one feature of oral poetry found in African written poetry.
- What is iambic pentameter?
Show answers
- The turn in argument or tone in a poem, especially a sonnet.
- Any one: repetition, call and response, praise names, proverbs, direct address.
- A line of ten syllables in five pairs, each unstressed followed by stressed.
Questions about this topic (0)
No questions about this topic yet.
Sign in or create a free account to join in.