Rhyme and Structure

11060For this discussion, please read “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “Musee des Beaux Arts,” “The Flea,” “Still-Life,” and “Ode to a Grecian Urn.”

Respond to one of the following sets of questions. Refer to specific passages from the poems in your response.

Read John Donne’s poem “The Flea” out loud. In this poem, the speaker addresses a woman, whose replies we don’t hear, though she seems to do something between each stanza, to which the speaker responds in the following stanza. What is the situation in this poem? What does the speaker want from the woman? Can you paraphrase his arguments and her responses? How does the rhyme in the poem contribute to the speaker’s tone of voice? How would it sound different if it did not rhyme?
Read W. H. Auden’s poem “Musee des Beaux Arts” out loud. If you’d like to see the painting referred to in the poem, “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus,” follow this link: https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/MgIyXpmuNdcLJg. Does it seem to follow any regular form? What is the effect of having some lines rhymes and others not? Why is this poem in two stanzas? What is the relationship of the second stanza to the first stanza? How do the structure and length of lines and clauses contribute to the meaning or effect of the poem? How would you describe the tone of the poem?
Read Langston Hughes’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” out loud. What patterns or structures do you notice in the poem? Does it use rhyme or line length to create patterns or some other structural features? Do the sound or structure of the poem lend it a particular tone? How does this tone contribute to the effect or meaning of the poem?
John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” is one of the most famous Romantic poems in English. The speaker in the poem addresses the antique Greek urn (a container, sort of like a large vase) of the title, on which are painted several scenes, including two young lovers (in the second stanza), a musician under some trees (in the third stanza), and a procession through a village (in the fourth stanza). In each case, the speaker ponders what he sees as the urn’s ability–similar to that of all art, including poetry–to resist the inevitability of time and change. The equation in the next-to-last line nicely sums up a Romantic ideal: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” Read the poem out loud, and then comment on anything you find interesting, appealing, or puzzling in this poem.
Katie Ford’s poem “Still-Life” is two sentences long. What is the relationship between those sentences? How would you describe the internal structure of the poem? What is the significance of the final question and the title?