Scansion of a Verse from Poem #328 Emily Dickenson
The purpose of Scansion is to enjoy a poem both at first blush (the first reading with all the spontaneous emotions and reactions) as well as after analysis to appreciate its complexity.
For this assignment, be brief. This is not a mini-essay. But I invite you to let your mind and your imagination notic the oddities, the playfulness, the unique piece, the clever aspect, all of which make these poems "delicious" to read and appreciate over and over again. So my notes, too, are my idiosyncratic "notices" of this and that. Begin with the "Poetry" and "Poem" entries: Ue the URL:
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/glossary/glossary_p.htm#p
#328
1. Punctuation: Bird is capitalized which suggests a proper name as though of a person. Walk, too, is suggested as someone that the bird "connects" or meets with. The author, the "I," appears as an invited guest into a boudoir or private space, a sort of voyeur into this little scene. Angleworm is also capitalized suggested the same anthropomorphic creation of giving an animal a personality. It also suggests parables which are short stories using animals as the main characters and bequeathing animals a human personality. Then there's "fellow" which underlines the humanity even of a worm. And then the ironic suprise of the word "raw," a word that hardly appears in polite company, suggesting an uncivilized state.
2. Your emotional (aesthetic) reaction to the poem, BOTH the first reaction AND after you've done the scansion exercise:
3. Rhythm or Meter: is iambic foot. da DA (a BIRD) da DA (came DOWN) da DA (the WALK) --
4. Verse length: is tetra. There are FOUR FEET (da DA, da DA, da DA, da DA) in each line of the poem.
5. Verse form: is iambic tetrameter (an iambic foot repeated four times in each line).
6. Alliteration: This poem does not have the traditional repetition of the initial sound, but I suggest that all of the "a" sounds (came, walk, saw, an, angleworm, halves, ate, raw) all require opening the mouth suggesting eating!!
7. Genre : Poem.
8. Form of Poem (Narrative, Dramatic, Lyric, Sonnet, Free Verse): Narrative.
8. Assonance: is suggested by all of the "a" sounds discussed in #4.
10. Onomatopoeia: Suggested in the airiness of the vowels which suggested something not earth bound and in the da DA da DA da DA short lines which suggest small footsteps. (this is all my idea!! there's no right or wrong!!)
11. Pun, irony, paradox, or satire: There's a playfull irony in the poem. What seems to start of as a frivolous, sweet idea with a playfull rythm and a benign topic ends up describing violent death indicative of the uncivilized world of nature (as opposed to the depiction of nature as pure, harmless).
12. Conceit: The suggestion of a Sunday afternoon civilized walk in the park as well as the food chain. So one might say that civilization can be just as unforgiving, just as cruel, just as power and size driven as the bird's meal.
13. Visual Image: The depiction of this bird scene as violent.
14. Personification: The insect/bird image is eerily suggestive of human behavior.
15. Apostrophe: Absent in this poem.
16. Variation of rhythm or other poetic strategy: None. Each line stays exactly within the meter. The commas alone suggest a slight pause or breaking of the meter for emphasis; thus the comma before the "raw" for emphasis.
17. Rhyme pattern and masuline or feminine rhyme: End of lines 2 and 4 are rhymed, abdb.
18. Ending pattern (masculine or feminine): The ending rhyme is masuline, da DA/da DA/da DA/da DA
19. Stanza: One stanza.
20. Layers of Meaning (literal): Bird kills a worm.
21. Layers of Meaning (metaphorical): Violence of nature.
22. Layers of Meaning (other, religious, historical, cultural, political): I think Dickenson is satirizing those poets who portray nature as nurturing, calming, spiritual. She sees nature as violent and refers to the out-of-doors as well as human nature.