For Thursday, read through the poems by Rich, Rukeyser, and Plath. Pick the one that seems the richest and most interesting to you. Start a semiotic reading of your selected poem.
To do this, recall the steps:
- First, get a sheet or two or three of paper and a writing instrument.
- Next, print the poem out and highlight or underline all the high-value words in the poem. High-value words are words that seem very particular or very important. I.e. “the,” “a,” “is,” etc. are not usually high-value words. (Recall the list of high-calorie words we culled from Frost’s “Stopping by Woods.”)
- Make a list of these high-value words. Examine the list and ask yourself some questions: are there any similar words in the list – – words that go together? are there contrasting words in the list – – words that seem opposite in meaning? Re-organize your list to group these similar and dissimilar words together.
- Focus for the moment on the dissimilar or opposing words. Do these pairs seem to echo some common opposition or contrast? (E.g. natural/human, colors, solitude/company, sound or other senses, etc.). What you are doing here is looking for patterns, groups of words that seem to cluster around a particular difference or opposition.
- Once you’ve found a pattern – – that begins with particular paired words from the poem – – now is the time to re-read the poem. How does your pattern help you to grasp a meaning/s for the poem? How might this pattern help you to interpret the poem? Write a couple of paragraphs answering these questions.
Bring all your work on your selected poem (along with your Frost stuff, which I forgot to collect on Tuesday) – – highlighted text of poem, list of paired/associated words, pattern clusters, and your two or three paragraphs – – to class on Tuesday.