(Adapted from Basics of Speech by
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 2004)
Although the term oral interpretation may be new to you, the experience of interpreting literature is part of everyday life. Lawyers read evidence to a jury. Pastors/mufti read prayers. Parents and teachers read to their children.
You may remember how much you
enjoyed being read to as a child. In this guide you will learn how to prepare
for oral interpretation. You will learn the characteristics of oral
interpretation , How to select appropriate, quality material for oral
interpretation and how to analyze that material.
CHARACTERISTICS OF ORAL INTERPRETATION
Oral Interpretation involves the performing of literature aloud to communicate meaning to an audience. An interpreter analyzes the literature and uses his or her voice to communicate the results of the analysis. The interpreter is the connection between the literature and the audience.
There are major differences between oral interpretation and public speaking or acting:
1. You are not the author. You are performing literature
written by another person. You are not sharing your own personal thoughts and
feelings as you would in public speaking.
2. You perform the author’s words by
direct reading.
As an interpreter, you bring to life the exact words of another person.
3. You interpret a piece of
literature. You
are not trying to create a message to persuade or inform your listeners.
Instead you are trying to help the listeners “see” the images you are creating
orally. Your goal is to share the meaning of the literature as you interpret
it.
4. You remain yourself during the
performance.
When you are acting, you take on the role of a character in a play. When you
interpret, you use your voice and body to suggest the mood or the characters,
but you do not become a character.
APPROPRIATE LITERATURE FOR ORAL INTERPRETATION
Here are some of the many kinds of literature you could use for oral interpretation:
- Favorite Authors—you are already emotionally
invested in the authors you like
- Literature Collections—for example your English
textbook
- Biographies or Autobiographies
- Plays or Screenplays
As you
select your performance material, think about these standards:
- the quality of the literature,
- its audience appeal,
- the oral possibilities of the literature and,
- your feelings for the piece,
Quality of the Material
Good literature has certain characteristics. It has a theme that connects the reader or listener to common human experiences such as love, anger, joy and pain. It also has conflict, the struggle between two opposing forces. All people have experienced conflict within themselves, with other people or with nature. The literature should help the reader see ordinary ideas in a new way. The material should excite the reader’s imagination. (Teachers-read a poem that illustrates this. eg: Foul Shot by Edwin Hoey—trying to accomplish a goal under pressure)
Audience Appeal
- Ask yourself how you listeners will respond to
the material you selected.
- Is it appropriate for the age?
- Is it concerns and feelings of your audience?
- Does the piece fit the occasion?
Oral Possibilities
Can your listeners grasp the meaning of your piece in just one reading? You don’t get a second chance. If the language is too difficult or sentence structure too complex, that literature is not appropriate for reading aloud. Look for words and ideas that can be clearly communicated, As poet Ted Hughes says in his book Poetry Is, look for words that “live.”
Words that live are those which we hear like “click” or “chuckle.” Or which we see, like “freckled” or “veined” or which we taste, like “vinegar” or “sugar” or touch like ”prickle” or “oily” or smell like “tar” or “onion”. Or words that act and use their muscles, like “flick” or “balance.”
Your Feelings
You must feel a connection to the material. You cannot expect an audience to get excited over a piece that has no meaning for you. If you don’t feel connected to the literature you will have a hard time communicating its meaning to your audience.
Checklist for selecting material for oral interpretation:
1. ______Does
it connect with common human experiences?
2. ______Is
it appropriate to the audience and to the occasion?
3. ______Will
listeners be able to grasp the meaning in one reading?
4. ______Do
you feel personally connected to the material?
ANALYZING LITERATURE
Did you know that Katherine Paterson wrote Bridge to Terabithiaas a way to help her son understand the death of his friend? Did you know Anne Frank actually was between twelve and fourteen years old when she wrote in her diary?
As
you prepare for a performance you must become very familiar with the literature
you have selected. The better you understand a piece, the easier it will be to
communicate its meaning to your audience.
There
are four keys to analyzing literature. You need to look at the dramatic
speaker, the elements of the literature, the language and the author.
The Dramatic Speaker
This is the voice that is heard asyou perform your piece. This is the person telling the story or describing the scene. It is not the author’s voice but a voice created by the author. The voice may belong to a character in the piece or to a narrator who is not part of the action.
Who is the dramatic speaker in the following cuttings?
Cutting A:
What a day, Dicey thought. What a
summer for that matter, but especially what a day. She stood alone in the big
old barn, in a patch of moonlight; stood looking at the sailboat resting on its
sawhorse cradle, a darker patch among shadows. Behind her, the wond blew off
the water, bringing the faint smell of salt and the rich, moist smell of the
marshes……
Cynthis Voigt from Dicey’s Song
Cutting
B:
Like I’ve been telling you, I am
Leigh Botts. Leigh Marcus Botts. I am just a plain boy. This school doesn’t say
I am Gifted and Talented, and I don’t like soccer very much the way everybody
at this school is supposed to. I am not stupid either.
Beverly Cleary from Dear Mr. Henshaw
In cutting A it is clear that Dicey is not the dramatic speaker as she would not say, Dicey thought. It is someone who knows the character well. In cutting B, the speaker is a plain boy named Leigh Botts. It certainly is not the adult female author.
The search for the dramatic
speaker(s) is your first step because you will want to behave and speak as if
you were that speaker. For example, If you speaker is a child, you will not
want to sound like an adult. If your speaker is a wise old woman, you will not
want to sound like a bored teenager.
Elements of Literature
As you analyze your piece, you will need to look at elements such as setting, plot , mood, theme, conflict, characters and culture.
- SettingThe time and place of the literature creates a setting for the performance. A setting in a roller rink in 1992 would be performed very differently that it it is set in an English church in 1820.
- Plot The plot or story line must be made clear to your listeners. If you are doing a cutting from a story or book, you must be sure share any main points of the plot with the audience in the introduction .
- Mood The interpreter creates the mood, or emotional feeling, of the literature. This is done through non verbal message such as facial expressions, and pace. For example a humorous piece might be faster paced, with quick movements and have many smiles; where a serious piece might need a slower pace and more serious facial expressions.
- Theme Finding the theme or main idea of the piece lets you know what to emphasize in your performance. Some examples are:
Charlotte’s
web by E.B.
White—Friendship can be found in many places.
The Planet of Junior
Brown by
Virginia Hamilton - Pride in individuality is important.
Bridge to
Terabithia by
Katherine Paterson - Death does not end
the influence of someone in your life.
An Oral interpretation performance may contain a number of pieces of literature that have a similar theme..
- Conflict. Conflict is at the heart of most literature. Without conflict, it would be hard for an audience to get involved in a story. Conflicts can exist internally, within characters or between characters. They can also exist between characters and the environment.
- Characters. Interpreters need to understand their characters in order to get a sense of how to portray them in the performance. in order to get a sense of how to portray them in the performance. Our study should include their appearance, words, language, actions, attitudes and what other characters say about them.
- Culture Many works of literature are written from a cultural perspective different than your own. You need to study the culture to get a better sense of what your character is about. You also need to be sure you are comfortable using the dialect of the culture and be sure you can pronounce foreign words correctly.
Language
As an interpreter you need to study the author’s word choice, style and rhythm and rhyme. If you don’t understand why something is expressed in a certain way, you can’t communicate its meaning to an audience.
- Word ChoiceYou need to quote the author exactly as it is written. The words were chosen for a reason and should not be changed.
- Style The way a piece was written helps create the mood or feeling for your listeners. Writers use imagery, descriptive and figurative language to appeal listeners eyes and ears.
- Rhythm and Rhyme All poems have rhythm. You need to determine what it is. Some poems are rhymed. You must decide how you will read it. For example if you read a rhymed poem in a sing song fashion you will create a different message than if you read the lines naturally and thoughtfully.
Author
You can understand a piece of literature better by studying its author. Try and find out at what time in the life of the author the piece was written? What was going on in his/her life? Is there a significance to the time or setting? On what themes does the author generally write?
PREPARING THE MATERIAL
Two important steps in preparing
your piece for performance are cutting the literature and creating an
introduction.
Cutting
Sometimes a piece of literature
is too long and it must be cut. Cutting the literature means shortening it by
taking out parts without changing its meaning. In shortening a piece you can
cut (remove) the following;
- Unnecessary descriptions—some descriptions may add interest to the written piece, but not be needed in presenting the main idea or feelings.
- Descriptions of action or manner of speaking- Statements like “Madison shot him an angry glance” can be cut because you can create that feeling with voice and facial expression. Any phrases that you can show with facial, voice or gestures, can be removed.
- Statements of “he said” or “she said”—since you are creating the characters through your voice and non verbal actions, you can leave out words that tell who is speaking.
- Offensive words – any words that might upset listeners can be substituted (exception to the rule of not changing words) or removed.
- Unnecessary characters- sometimes minor characters are in a scene for a short time. You may cut that character’s lines as long as it does not change the meaning of the scene.
Creating an Introduction
Generally speaking the interpreter gives a short teaser (or beginning) of the piece and then closes the script to give a memorized introduction.
Effective
introductions do the following:
Capture
the audience’s attention
Tell the Author and Title
Give any necessary background
information about the piece or author
Set the scene
If possible, tie the piece to the
audience’s experience
For
example:
Everyone has that cantankerous
relative. You know-the one that can be so irritating, yet wise and endearing.
In the following selectionwe meet 14 year old Will Tweedy and share with him
his interactions with his Grandpa Rucker Blakeslee in a small Southern town at
the turn of the 20th Century. Through Will’s eyes we see his
grandfather as both rough and stubborn yet caring; capable of tenderness and
love.(pause)Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
USING YOUR VOICE AND BODY
To
begin, this of yourself as the dramatic speaker. There is a fine line between
acting and interpretation. If the Dramatic speaker is an uninvolved narrator or
observer, your voice and body should reflect that. If the dramatic speaker is a character in the
middle of an argument, your voice and body should show the character’s anger.
Remember,
however, you are interpreting the material, not acting it out. You are sharing
the story with your listeners with your voice and body. In the non verbal part
of your performance you need to consider sense recall, use of voice and use of
body.
Sense Recall
Sense
recall is remembering physical experiences you have had, which will help to
suggest images or sense memories to your audience .Physical experiences you
recall include sounds, tastes, smells touch and sights, For example, you could
recall biting into a lemon and the sour taste, if you are describing the sour
taste of an unripe green apple.
Other
examples—
Sound-imagine the sound of a car
horn, or chalk scraping across a chalkboard
` Taste- imagine eating a chocolate
candy bar or bad tasting medicine
Touch-imagine the softness of a
baby,or jumping into a pool on a hot day
Smell- imagine the smell of a skunk
or your favorite flower
Sight- imagine a severe thunderstorm
or your favorite vacation spot
Body Recall
Body
recall is when you remember your kinesthetic of or bodily responses when you
had feelings such as fear, anger, anxiety, or great joy. For example if you are
interpreting a piece where the character is afraid of an intruder in her home.
You would want to recall a situation where you were very afraid and use that
feeling for your character.
Use of Voice
Your
voice will sound different depending on the tone of the piece, and who your
characters are. Volume can have a great effect on your performance, For
example, a shy character would speak more softly than a confident one. An angry
character would speak more loudly than a sad one. As a narrator you would speak
more softly to describe a peaceful scene than you would to describe a hurricane
coming through, Your \pitch will vary as you read male or female, adult or
child voices. An excited person has a pitch higher than a depressed one.
Suggest the differences with your voice but don’t exaggerate it. Your rate of
speech will be faster or slower depending on the text. An excited person may
speak faster than an older character.
When
you are shifting to a new character or changing the mood, you can use pauses to
obtain the desired effect, Pauses can also create suspense. Vocal quality can
also be used . for instance you might use a raspy tone for an old man or a
nasal tone for an annoying character, You may also want to use an accent. But
beware, if you can’t do it well, it will be distracting. In that case it would
be better not to do it at all.
Use of Body
You
bring characters to life by using posture, gestures and facial expression. As
an interpreter you will remain with your feet planted in most cases, so you
cannot use movements such as walking. falling or touching others. You may use
gestures such as shrugging your shoulders, pointing your fingers, or scratching
your head. You may throw a punch at the
audience to represent a fight, but you won’t actually get into a fistfight with
another character. You can creat a mood with your posture, such as an
embarrassed child by rounding your shoulders forward and hanging your head
toward your chest.
Your
facial expression should quickly communicate the mood of the piece to your
audience. A joyous mood can be shown with a smile and a scary mood can be shown
by tension in your face. Because you can’t use large movements, you may want to
exaggerate your facial and ey expressions a little to communicate the meaning.
EYE FOCUS
You
usually look at the audience when you are performing, scanning the audience
slowly and pausing, holding your gaze, every once in a while before continuing
to scan. However if you have more than one character, one way to show the
difference between the characters is to have a different, but consistent eye
focus for each character, For example, you may look at a spot on the back wall
when speaking as the first character and then shift your eyes to a different
spot as the second character. The audience should see your head and eyes move
slightly as you switch characters. You don’t want to swing your head each time
a different character speaks.
PREPARING A PERFORMANCE SCRIPT
To prepare a performance script you must
2.
Mark
the pieces to reflect your thinking on how you will perform them
3.
Create
the overall structure of the performance including transitions between pieces,
and insertion of the introduction.
Ordering the pieces
When
performing several short pieces such as a poetry program, you need to put them
in order to create the right mood and keep the audience interested. This is
known as weaving the pieces together to create the whole effect.
Marking the Script
Marking the script involves writing symbols that will help you to remember how to read the script. Any system of symbols will work as longas you know and will remember what they mean. However, here are a few suggestions.
Tips for marking a script
- Pauses: use one diagonal line (/) to show a
pause two diagonal lines (//) to show a longer pause.
- Emphasis: use a solid
underlining (______) to indicate words to be stressed; a wavy line to
underline words that need a special tone or special emphasis.
- Pronunciation: write the letter x over a
syllable that needs stress
- Movement: write cue (cue) to show a special
movement
- Rate: use highlighter colors to show changes in
pace.
Creating the Structure
You
need to decide where in the piece your introduction will go. Generally it will
be after a 30 sec-1 minute performance teaser. All your transitions and markings should be noted in the correct place
and your script should glued onto card stock or construction paper pages and
put in a three ring binder. Cut script pages so you are not turning the page in
the middle of a paragraph or verse of poetry. The end of the page should be a
natural pause in the script.
REHEARSING ORAL INTERPRETATION
Following are steps to practice the delivery of your oral interpretation.
1.
Read
your piece silently two or three times. Go Straight through. Don’t stop and
start over, and don’t go back over any section.
2.
Repeat
step 1, this time aloud.
3.
Stand
up! Give your piece while looking up at regular intervals. Practice gestures
and movement. Work with your script. Follow your markings. Complete the entire
piece. This is a rehearsal, so it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. It is
important to go through the entire piece without stopping.
4.
Continue
step 3 until you can give the entire piece with all the planned vocal tones and
body movements.
PRACTICING RELAXATION
You will probably be nervous before a performance. You may wish to try some relaxation techniques. Here are some strategies. Use what works for you.
1.
Clench
your fists tightly for a count of ten. Release and let your whole body go limp.
2.
Take
a deep breath and hold it for a count of ten. Let it out all at once, letting
your body go completely loose and limp.
3.
Breath
normally, let your muscles relax more and more as you let out each breath.
4.
Let
your head hang down so your chin almost touches your chest. Slowly rotate your
head in a circle, one way and then the other. Do this two or three times.
5.
Imagine
yourself on a warm beach, in a hot bath or anywhere that seems relaxing to you.
Breath slowly and deeply.
Ten Poems Students Love to Read Out
Loud
How voice and attitude can change how we understand poetry.
Performing a poem can offer pleasures unlike any other experience of literature. “Words mean more than what is set down on paper,” the poet Maya Angelou has written. “It takes the human voice to imbue them with the shades of deeper meaning.” But approaching a poem as a script for an oral performance demands that students pay attention to aspects of the work that they aren’t used to looking for. I’ve put together a list of sonically rich poems with strong narrative hooks—and a few performance tips that will point students in the high school and college classroom and beyond to the pleasures of reciting poetry.
1. “They Flee from Me” by Sir Thomas Wyatt
What can attitude tell us? To help students
find out, begin by asking who owns the action of each stanza in this poem. This
will help a performer trace the speaker’s transformation from line to line and
stanza to stanza. Then ask about shifts in the speaker’s attitudes toward
women, the loose gown–wearing ones in particular. How does the speaker feel
about women by the end of the poem? Be warned: If you plan to teach “They Flee
from Me” to high school students, they’ll probably groan when they first
encounter the archaic language. But entice them by telling them that this
provocative poem is rated PG-13, and assure them that after close reading they
will understand it perfectly.
2. “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake (1789)
What can rhyme tell us? At the end
of the 18th century, Blake wrote two scathing poems that denounce the
abominable practice of exploiting very young children as chimney sweepers. In
the 1789 poem, from Songs of Innocence, the reader’s sense of horror is
heightened by the jarring contrast between the nursery-rhyme structure and the
grim subject matter. The perfect rhyme scheme falters as the speaker moves from
recounting the loss of his mother and being sold into bondage by his father to
describing the solace an “angel” promises little Tom Dacre. An oral reading
reveals how rhyme contributes to the devastating argument of this poem in ways
that a silent reading cannot.
3. “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake (1794)
What can point of view tell us? Five
years later, Blake wrote a second poem about child chimney sweepers that
appeared in Songs of Experience. This much shorter poem begins with the
same rhyme scheme as the earlier poem. The first stanza also contains a short
dialogue between an observer and the now-experienced chimney sweeper. In the
second stanza the poet introduces a new rhyme pattern, which reflects a shift:
the chimney sweeper’s point of view has changed from that of one who is innocent
to that of one who is experienced. Struggling with the challenge of how to
vocalize this poem with the chimney sweeper’s accusatory tone will help
students understand how Blake uses point of view.
4. “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
What can syntax tell us? Carroll’s
Alice says of “Jabberwocky”: “Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas—only
I don’t exactly know what they are!” This quote has always stuck with me, and I
often repeat it when I use this poem to review parts of speech with high school
freshmen. The poem reveals how syntax—the way words are structured to form
phrases and sentences—fills our heads with ideas about meaning, even the
meaning of nonsense words, as in this from the first stanza, which also serves
as the last: “All mimsy were the borogroves, / And the mome raths outgrabe.”
Playing with the syntax of this poem can provide a keener sense of its drama.
What can intonation tell us? With
pounding rhythms and overwhelming images of destruction, Whitman’s famous
anti-war poem mimics the fervent speech of a warmonger but leaves the reader
nearly chanting in protest of war. In three powerful stanzas, Whitman catalogs
the ways in which war obliterates peaceful domesticity, civil society, and even
the restfulness of death. This text presents a number of interesting challenges
for the performer. Paying special attention to the actors and what they say
will highlight the emotional dramas, which are expressed in a series of ironic
commands and rhetorical questions. The last line in each of these stanzas
suggests the question How would you say that aloud? “So fierce you whir
and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.” Taken as a separate unit of
meaning, this line could be an answer to the question What is the cause of
this horror? As part of the sentence, however, it must be spoken as a
command. Thus, part of the difficulty of this performance is negotiating the
irony of these speech acts. The powerful cadence of this series of iconic
images and the onomatopoeic devices gathers enormous weight in performance.
6. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot
What can imagery combined with sound
devices tell us? As Prufrock, the would-be suitor, contemplates forging a
romantic relationship, he is haunted by his inadequacies and retreats to the
safety of his intellect, exclaiming, “No! I am no Prince Hamlet, / Nor was
meant to be.” The emotional drama unfolds in the vivid imagery of a cityscape,
where dingy streets contrast with the playgrounds of the social elite, and moves
to the mythical image of a Homeric ocean a safe distance from society, where
“human voices wake us and we drown.” Though tragic, the speaker and his doubt
are beautiful to hear. Who can forget the beauty and sadness of the rhymes that
bind Prufrock in his isolated world? “I grow old . . . I grow old . . . / I
shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” Ask the students to read aloud
the first couple of stanzas, savoring the beautiful rhythms and rhymes and
other sound devices; then go back and ask them to consider the author’s use of
verb tense, image, and allusion. This interior monologue is a perfect choice
for solo or group performance.
7. “I Am Waiting” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
What can allusion tell us? Like many
of the poems on the list, this piece would be great for a group performance.
The mounting frustration of the speaker, who awaits the coming of a peaceful
and just world and “a rebirth of wonder,” is captured, often humorously, in
twisted snippets of popular rhetoric. Ferlinghetti weaves biblical,
mythological, literary, and historical allusions into a litany against tyranny
and cultural hegemony. How might these allusions be brought to bear on the
text? How would the strategic line breaks, particularly those between
well-known sound bites of American speech and the speaker’s ironic response to
them, sound with multiple voices, as in the lines “and I am waiting for the war
to be fought / which will make the world safe / for anarchy”? The growing
anxiety of this speaker cries out for a human voice as much as the text cries
out for hyperlinks
8. “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa
What can images tell us? The drama
of this poem lies in the shifting emotional tone created by the juxtaposition
of paired images. The images the speaker sees reflected in the polished granite
of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial—a woman’s blouse, a streaking red bird—mirror
the back-and-forth between the speaker’s self and his reflection, his past and
his present, and bring readers face to face with the fissures in American life
present in public discussion since the Vietnam era. The challenge of performing
this poem lies in bringing these word-pictures to life. The concrete sense of
place, however, offers the opportunity to bring a physicality to this imagery.
9. “Let Evening Come” by Jane Kenyon
What can various sound devices tell
us? In this poem, Kenyon captures the conflict between the comfort and the
anxiety of death in startling ways. The reassuring pastoral imagery is often
undermined by unusual vantage points and disturbing objects, as in the first
lines, where sunlight is described from within a darkening barn, “moving / up
the bales as the sun moves down.” Kenyon’s use of consonance—the repetition of
consonant sounds—and assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds—brings a vivid
physicality to the speaker’s conflict. We see this when the comforting flow of
“Let the light of late afternoon” is suddenly obstructed by the tongue forming
the word “chinks.” The sonic repetition in this poem also reveals the intricate
phonemic—referring to the smallest distinct units of sound within
words—relationships the poet has so skillfully knitted together through the
dominant l and k sounds. This sonic tension, like the fear and relief the
speaker finds in the idea of death, are brought to a close in the final line, “comfortless,
so let evening come.” Finally, though line breaks are difficult to capture
aloud, the strategic breaks, particularly in the last stanza, are well worth
noting as readers explore ways in which this last line might be performed.
Why has the speaker of this poem
been moved to speak, and to whom? These are the most important questions a
performer must ask when tackling this text. Embodying the speaker requires a
firm answer. But the uncertainty with which the speaker struggles is at the
core of this poem about the dangers of unquestioning belief. The “you” may be a
fundamentalist, but only half of the cause-and-effect assertion is stated in
each of these rhetorical questions, leaving the reader to wonder, who is the
“you” being addressed? What is the purpose of this interrogation, explanation,
or accusation? Ask students to try presenting it both ways. In the second
section, who is this little boy, faced with the choice between the pencil and a
knife? Who is the observer? Like “I Am Waiting,” this poem offers wonderful
opportunities for a chorus of voices in group performance.
They
flee from me that sometime did me seek
With
naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
I
have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
That
now are wild and do not remember
That
sometime they put themself in danger
To
take bread at my hand; and now they range,
Busily
seeking with a continual change.
Thanked
be fortune it hath been otherwise
Twenty
times better; but once in special,
In
thin array after a pleasant guise,
When
her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
And
she me caught in her arms long and small;
Therewithall
sweetly did me kiss
And
softly said, “Dear heart, how like you this?”
It
was no dream: I lay broad waking.
But
all is turned thorough my gentleness
Into
a strange fashion of forsaking;
And
I have leave to go of her goodness,
And
she also, to use newfangleness.
But
since that I so kindly am served
I
would fain know what she hath deserved.
When
my mother died I was very young,
And
my father sold me while yet my tongue
Could
scarcely cry " 'weep! 'weep! 'weep! 'weep!"
So
your chimneys I sweep & in soot I sleep.
There's
little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That
curled like a lamb's back, was shaved, so I said,
"Hush,
Tom! never mind it, for when your head's bare,
You
know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair."
And
so he was quiet, & that very night,
As
Tom was a-sleeping he had such a sight!
That
thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned, & Jack,
Were
all of them locked up in coffins of black;
And
by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And
he opened the coffins & set them all free;
Then
down a green plain, leaping, laughing they run,
And
wash in a river and shine in the Sun.
Then
naked & white, all their bags left behind,
They
rise upon clouds, and sport in the wind.
And
the Angel told Tom, if he'd be a good boy,
He'd
have God for his father & never want joy.
And
so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark
And
got with our bags & our brushes to work.
Though
the morning was cold, Tom was happy & warm;
So
if all do their duty, they need not fear harm.
A
little black thing among the snow,
Crying
"weep! 'weep!" in notes of woe!
"Where
are thy father and mother? say?"
"They
are both gone up to the church to pray.
Because
I was happy upon the heath,
And
smil'd among the winter's snow,
They
clothed me in the clothes of death,
And
taught me to sing the notes of woe.
And
because I am happy and dance and sing,
They
think they have done me no injury,
And
are gone to praise God and his Priest and King,
Who
make up a heaven of our misery."
’Twas
brillig, and the slithy toves
Did
gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All
mimsy were the borogoves,
And
the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware
the Jabberwock, my son!
The
jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware
the Jubjub bird, and shun
The
frumious Bandersnatch!”
He
took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long
time the manxome foe he sought—
So
rested he by the Tumtum tree
And
stood awhile in thought.
And,
as in uffish thought he stood,
The
Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came
whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And
burbled as it came!
One,
two! One, two! And through and through
The
vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He
left it dead, and with its head
He
went galumphing back.
“And
hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come
to my arms, my beamish boy!
O
frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He
chortled in his joy.
’Twas
brillig, and the slithy toves
Did
gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All
mimsy were the borogoves,
And
the mome raths outgrabe.
Beat! Beat!
Drums!
By
Walt Whitman
Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles!
blow!
Through the windows—through
doors—burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter
the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is
studying,
Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no
happiness must he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace,
ploughing his field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you
drums—so shrill you bugles blow.
Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles!
blow!
Over the traffic of cities—over the
rumble of wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for sleepers at
night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers’ bargains by day—no
brokers or speculators—would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would
the singer attempt to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court
to state his case before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier
drums—you bugles wilder blow.
Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles!
blow!
Make no parley—stop for no
expostulation,
Mind not the timid—mind not the
weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the
young man,
Let not the child’s voice be heard,
nor the mother’s entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the
dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible
drums—so loud you bugles blow.
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out
against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a
table;
Let us go, through certain
half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night
cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with
oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious
argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming
question ...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
The yellow fog that rubs its back
upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its
muzzle on the window-panes,
Licked its tongue into the corners
of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand
in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that
falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a
sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft
October night,
Curled once about the house, and
fell asleep.
And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides
along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the
window-panes;
There will be time, there will be
time
To prepare a face to meet the faces
that you meet;
There will be time to murder and
create,
And time for all the works and days
of hands
That lift and drop a question on
your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred
indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and
revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and
tea.
In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.
And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I
dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the
stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my
hair —
(They will say: “How his hair is
growing thin!”)
My morning coat, my collar mounting
firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but
asserted by a simple pin —
(They will say: “But how his arms
and legs are thin!”)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a
minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already,
known them all:
Have known the evenings, mornings,
afternoons,
I have measured out my life with
coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying
fall
Beneath the music from a farther
room.
So
how should I presume?
And I have known the eyes already,
known them all—
The eyes that fix you in a
formulated phrase,
And when I am formulated, sprawling
on a pin,
When I am pinned and wriggling on
the wall,
Then how should I begin
To spit out all the butt-ends of my
days and ways?
And
how should I presume?
And I have known the arms already,
known them all—
Arms that are braceleted and white
and bare
(But in the lamplight, downed with
light brown hair!)
Is it perfume from a dress
That makes me so digress?
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap
about a shawl.
And
should I then presume?
And
how should I begin?
Shall I say, I have gone at dusk
through narrow streets
And watched the smoke that rises
from the pipes
Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves,
leaning out of windows? ...
I should have been a pair of ragged
claws
Scuttling across the floors of
silent seas.
And the afternoon, the evening,
sleeps so peacefully!
Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep ... tired ... or it
malingers,
Stretched on the floor, here beside
you and me.
Should I, after tea and cakes and
ices,
Have the strength to force the
moment to its crisis?
But though I have wept and fasted,
wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown
slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet — and here’s no
great matter;
I have seen the moment of my
greatness flicker,
And I have seen the eternal Footman
hold my coat, and snicker,
And in short, I was afraid.
And would it have been worth it,
after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the
tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk
of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,
To have bitten off the matter with a
smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a
ball
To roll it towards some overwhelming
question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the
dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall
tell you all”—
If one, settling a pillow by her
head
Should
say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That
is not it, at all.”
And would it have been worth it,
after all,
Would it have been worth while,
After the sunsets and the dooryards
and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups,
after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I
mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the
nerves in patterns on a screen:
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or
throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window,
should say:
“That
is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.”
No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was
meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will
do
To swell a progress, start a scene
or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy
tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit
obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—
Almost, at times, the Fool.
I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my
trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair
behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers,
and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing,
each to each.
I do not think that they will sing
to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on
the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves
blown back
When the wind blows the water white
and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of
the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed
red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we
drown.
I am waiting for my case to come
up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
of a new symbolic western
frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting
for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting
for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Second
Coming
and I am waiting
for a religious revival
to sweep thru the state of
Arizona
and I am waiting
for the Grapes of Wrath to be
stored
and I am waiting
for them to prove
that God is really American
and I am waiting
to see God on television
piped onto church altars
if only they can
find
the right channel
to tune in on
and I am waiting
for the Last Supper to be served
again
with a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for my number to be
called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the
earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like
rain
and I am waiting for lovers and
weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the Great Divide to
be crossed
and I am anxiously waiting
for the secret of eternal life to be
discovered
by an obscure general practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting
to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and tv rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am awaiting retribution
for what America
did
to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting
for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come
again
youth’s dumb green fields come back
again
and I am waiting
for some strains of unpremeditated
art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long careless rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeing lovers on the
Grecian Urn
to catch each other up at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder
My black face
fades,
hiding inside the black
granite.
I said I wouldn't
dammit: No tears.
I'm stone. I'm
flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of
night
slanted against morning. I
turn
this way—the stone lets me
go.
I turn that way—I'm
inside
again, depending on the
light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to
find
my own in letters like
smoke.
I touch the name Andrew Johnson;
I see the booby trap's white
flash.
Names shimmer on a woman's
blouse
but when she walks
away
the names stay on the
wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red
bird's
wings cutting across my
stare.
The sky. A plane in the
sky.
A white vet's image
floats
closer to me, then his pale
eyes
look through mine. I'm a
window.
He's lost his right
arm
inside the stone. In the black
mirror
a woman’s trying to erase
names:
No, she's brushing a boy's
hair.
Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn,
moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.
Let the cricket take up
chafing
as a woman takes up her
needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.
Let dew collect on the hoe
abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver
horn.
Let the fox go back to its sandy
den.
Let the wind die down. Let the
shed
go black inside. Let evening come.
To the bottle in the ditch, to the
scoop
in the oats, to air in the
lung
let evening come.
Let it come, as it will, and
don’t
be afraid. God does not leave
us
comfortless, so let evening come.
Because the eye has a short shadow
or
it is hard to see over heads in the
crowd?
If everyone else seems
smarter
but you need your own secret?
If mystery was never your friend?
If one way could satisfy
the infinite heart of the heavens?
If you liked the king on his golden
throne
more than the villagers carrying
baskets of lemons?
If you wanted to be sure
his guards would admit you to the
party?
The
boy with the broken pencil
scrapes
his little knife against the lead
turning
and turning it as a point
emerges
from the wood again
If
he would believe his life is like that
he
would not follow his father into war
Learning the Basics of Oral Interpretation
Oral Interpretation is the process by which words are pulled from the page and given dimension in a reader’s voice and body. Practitioners of oral interpretation bring stories to life, serving as a vehicle for the messages of the text.
Some scholars argue that readers
should unlock the meanings intended by the author (the vehicle should be empty)
while others believe the meanings of texts inevitably transform as they filter
through a reader’s voice, body, experiences, and culture (the vehicle is full
of your stuff).
Both ends of this dialectic are
true:
1) readers should aim to honor the
integrity of a text, using logic, analysis and research to investigate the
concreteness and completeness literary text, and
2) readers should embrace the
creative and artistic ways they effect how texts are understood, adapted,
embodied, and delivered to an audience.
This tutorial will help you more
thoughtfully analyze and compellingly perform literary texts. Each
interpretation type (AKA: “Event”) listed below is distinguished based on
literary genre or the number of performers, but each “event” also involves a
related set of skills, strategies, techniques and practices. Read each event
description and click on at least one of the hyperlinks that follows to watch
an exemplary demonstration of what you are aiming to accomplish in the coming
months; be entertained but not intimidated as these videos are the product of
hours and years of hard work.
- Dramatic
Interpretation
- Prose
Interpretation
- Poetry
Interpretation
- Programmed
Oral Interpretation
- Duo
Interpretation
- Reader’s
Theater
Dramatic Interpretation
Material may be published or unpublished but must be drawn from a play. The play selections can incorporate monologues, dialogues, narrative or a mix of the three. Realism and character depth tend to be valued.
Prose Interpretation
Basically the same rules as Drama, but with the emphasis on first person narrative (greater attention to the story in prose, as opposed to the character in drama). Selections may be from a short story, essay, or novel, either published or unpublished. Selections can incorporate monologues, dialogues, narrative or a mix of the three. Emphasis is placed on the prose aspect of the performance and not the dramatic qualities of the performance. While most performers choose a single text, most tournaments allow you to compile a script, as long as all material is prose. This is the largest event at nationals.
Poetry Interpretation
Plays and prose works are strictly
prohibited. Material can be a single poem or a poetry program (collection of
poetry), although because 8-minute poems are rare poetry programs are more
common. The material should fit themes and work to support the argument posed
in the introduction. Additionally, the chosen poetry may be focused on exploration
of the realms of sight, sound, or image. The poetry selected should include
some recognized poetic techniques including but not limited to metaphor,
alliteration, repetition, and condensed levels of meaning. If multiple
selections are used, they should be interwoven into a cohesive and carefully
designed and organized whole by the linking of author(s) or of theme(s)
inherent to the literature; an intellectually unified program is the desired
result.
Programmed Oral Interpretation
This event is to consist of a
unified presentation made up of at least two selections from different genres
(i.e. prose, poetry, dramatic literature, plays). A contestant may use the
works of one or more authors. The selections should develop a theme. Same as
Prose, Poetry, and Drama; but a Program requires you to use at least two genres
of literature spliced together in a theme, argument or style. Weaving material
together (as opposed to delivering the pieces separately) tends to make for a
more cohesive performance.
Dramatic Duo Interpretation
Two people perform a single
selection or a program of drama, prose, or poetry. A single selection with at
least 2 characters remains the norm, but there has been a recent trend toward
programmed duo scripts. Drama scripts often work well because the dialogue
lends realism and immediacy to the performed emotions and experiences of the
characters. Frequent interaction between characters tends to be requisite to
competitive success. As with prose and poetry, scripts are required. Each performer
may play one or more characters, so long as the performance remains balanced.
If the selection is prose or poetry and contains narration, either or both of
the performers may present the narration. Focus may be direct during the
introduction (the performers may look at each other) but should be primarily
indirect (offstage) during the performance. This is not an acting event; thus,
no costumes, props, lighting, etc., are to be used.
Interpreters’ Theater (AKA: Readers’
Theater)
Interpreters’ Theater is defined as
interpretation of literature by a group of oral readers who act as a medium of
expression for an audience. While Interpreters’ Theater is both oral and
visual, the emphasis is on the oral interpretation of the printed word and its
resultant effects on the minds, emotions and imaginations of the
listeners/viewers. The audience should have the feeling of a unified whole in
which each performer at all times contributes to the total effect desired. The
audience must have a sense of production being interpreted from a manuscript.
Director, performer, and judges should be allowed freedom to exercise artistic,
interpretive judgment; however, manuscripts must be interpreted from during the
presentation. Suggestions in contemporary or ensemble dress may be used. The
literature should determine the nature of this suggestion, although costuming
should not be a focus of this presentation. Readers may stand, sit, or both and
may move from one reading stand or locale to another so long as the movement is
consistent with the ideas or moods of the literature and the director’s
concept. The time limitation for the performance is twenty-five (25) minutes.
An additional 2 minutes shall be allowed for set-up and take-down of material.
A Guide to Interpreting Poetry ~ Dr. Chris Koenig-Woodyard
|
The Stages Of Reading
Read . Re-read. And read again:
First reading:
|
read
straight through—ignoring line and stanza breaks—as though you were reading
prose (full sentences).
|
Second reading:
|
read out
loud, paying attention to line breaks, and punctuation.
|
Third reading:
|
circle/underline words and phrases that you don’t understand.
|
Fourth Reading:
|
circle/underline words and phrases that you do understand, and
that you feel help you to understand the poem. Perhaps a key word or phrase
that embodies a theme of the poem.
|
Fifth (and subsequent readings):
|
interact
with the poem. Read out loud, again. Sound out individual words and lines
repeatedly, trying to gain a sense of rhythm (stress and accents), the sound
of letters (hard/soft). Mark up the page(s)—and if you do not want to write
in your book, photocopy the page(s)—writing down thoughts and questions;
recording definitions of words from your third reading, when you noted words
that you didn’t understand.
|
Reverse Reading:
|
To be
performed after your first reading. As you read, and an idea enters your head
(you have a sense of the big picture of a poem, its theme), STOP reading!
and began moving backward through the poem, trying to locate the word, image,
line that triggered your idea. If you can’t find a specific trigger—make a
note in the margin that “here—it occurred to me—the poem is a about death”
(for instance)
|
Reading and the Form and Content of Poetry
The elements of analysis discussed below are
designed to help you identify the ways in which poetry makes its meaning,
especially its 'parts'; they do not give a sense of how one goes about
analyzing a poem. It is difficult to give a prescription, as different poems
call on different aspects of poetry, different ways of reading, different relationships
between feeling, images and meanings, and so forth. My general advice, however,
is this: - look at the title
- read the poem for the major
indicators of its meaning -- what aspects of setting, of topic, of voice
(the person who is speaking) seem to dominate, to direct your reading?
- read the ending of the poem
-- decide where it 'gets to'
- divide the poem into parts:
try to understand what the organization is, how the poem proceeds, and
what elements or principles guide this organization (is there a reversal,
a climax, a sequence of some kind, sets of oppositions?)
- pay attention to the tone of
the poem -- in brief, its attitude to its subject, as that is revealed in
intonation, nuance, the kind of words used, and so forth.
- now that you've looked at
the title, the major indicators of 'topic', the ending, the organization,
the tone, read the poem out loud, trying to project its meaning in your
reading. As you gradually get a sense of how this poem is going, what its
point and drift is, start noticing more about how the various elements of
the poetry work to create its meaning. This may be as different as the
kind of imagery used, or the way it uses oppositions, or the level of
realism or symbolism of its use of the natural world.
Analysis
1.
What is the genre, or form, of the poem?
Is
it a sonnet, an elegy, a lyric, a narrative, a dramatic monologue, an epistle,
an epic (there are many more). Different forms or genres have different
subjects, aims, conventions and attributes. A love sonnet, for instance, is
going to talk about different aspects of human experience in different ways
with different emphases than is a political satire, and our recognition of these
attributes of form or genre is part of the meaning of the poem.
2.
Who is speaking in the poem?
Please remember that if the voice of the poem
says "I", that doesn't mean it is the author who is speaking: it is a
voice in the poem which speaks. The voice can be undramatized (it's
just a voice, it doesn't identify itself), or dramatized (the voice
says "I", or the voice is clearly that of a particular persona, a
dramatized character). Identify the voice. What does the voice have to do with what is happening in the poem, what is its attitude, what is the tone of the voice (tone can be viewed as an expression of attitude). How involved in the action or reflection of the poem is the voice? What is the perspective or 'point of view' of the speaker? The perspective can be social, intellectual, political, even physical -- there are many different perspectives, but they all contribute to the voice's point of view, which point of view affects how the world of the poem is seen, and how we respond.
3.
What is the argument, thesis, or subject of the poem
What, that is to say, is it apparently
'about'? Start with the basic situation, and move to consider any key
statements; any obvious or less obvious conflicts, tensions, ambiguities; key
relationships, especially conflicts, parallels, contrasts; any climaxes or
problems posed or solved (or not solved); the poem's tone; the historical,
social, and emotional setting.
4.
What is the structure of the poem?
There are two basic kinds of structure,
formal and thematic. Formal structure is the way the poem goes together in terms of its component parts: if there are parts -- stanza's, paragraphs or such -- then there will be a relation between the parts (for instance the first stanza may give the past, the second the present, the third the future).
Thematic structure , known in respect to fiction as 'plot', is the way the argument or presentation of the material of the poem is developed. For instance a poem might state a problem in eight lines, an answer to the problem in the next six; of the eight lines stating the problem, four might provide a concrete example, four a reflection on what the example implies. There may well be very close relations between formal and thematic structure. When looking at thematic structure, you might look for conflicts, ambiguities and uncertainties, the tensions in the poem, as these give clear guides to the direction of meanings in the poem, the poem's 'in-tensions'.
5.
How does the poem make use of setting?
There is the setting in terms of time and
place, and there is the setting in terms of the physical world described in the
poem. In terms of the physical world of the poem, setting can be used for a variety of purposes. A tree might be described in specific detail, a concrete, specific, tree; or it might be used in a more tonal way, to create mood or associations, with say the wind blowing mournfully through the willows; or it might be used as a motif, the tree that reminds me of Kathryn, or of my youthful dreams; or it might be used symbolically, as for instance an image of organic life; or it might be used allegorically, as a representation of the cross of Christ (allegory ties an image or event to a specific interpretation, a doctrine or idea; symbols refer to broader, more generalized meanings).
Consider this a spectrum, from specific, concrete, to abstract, allegorical:
concrete --- tonal -- connotative -- symbolic --- allegorical
6.
How does the poem use imagery?
"Imagery" refers to any sort of
image, and there are two basic kinds. One is the images of the physical
setting, described above. The other kind is images as figures of speech, such
as metaphors. These figures of speech extend the imaginative range, the
complexity and comprehensibility of the subject. They can be very brief, a word
or two, a glistening fragment of insight, a chance connection sparked into a
blaze (warming or destroying) of understanding; or they can be extended
analogies, such as Donne's 'conceits'or Milton's epic similes.
7.
Are there key statements or conflicts in the poem that appear to be central to
its meaning?
Is the poem direct or indirect in making its
meanings? If there are no key statements, are there key or central symbol,
repetitions, actions, motifs (recurring images), or the like?
8.
How does the sound of the poetry contribute to its meaning?
Pope remarked that "the sound must seem
an echo to the sense": both the rhythm and the sound of the words
themselves (individually and as they fit together) contribute to the meaning.
9.
Examine the use of language.
What kinds of words are used? How much and to
what ends does the poet rely on connotation, or the associations that words
have (as "stallion" connotes a certain kind of horse with certain
sorts of uses)? Does the poem use puns, double meanings, ambiguities of
meaning?
10.
Can you see any ways in which the poem refers to, uses or relies on previous
writing?
This is known as allusion or intertextuality.
When U-2's Bono writes "I was thirsty and you kissed my lips" in
"Trip Through Your Wires," the meaning of the line is vastly extended
if you know that this is a reference to Matthew 25:35 in the Bible, where Jesus
says to the saved in explanation of what they did right, "I was thirsty
and you wet my lips."
11.
What qualities does the poem evoke in the reader?
What sorts of learning, experience, taste and
interest would the 'ideal' or 'good' reader of this poem have? What can this
tell you about what the poem 'means' or is about? The idea is that any work of
art calls forth certain qualities of response, taste, experience, value, from
the reader, and in a sense 'forms' the reader of that particular work. This
happens through the subject matter, the style, the way the story is told or the
scene set, the language, the images, the allusions, all the ways in which we
are called by the text to construct meaning. The theorist Wayne Booth calls the
reader as evoked or formed by the text the "implied reader."
12.
What is your historical and cultural distance from the poem?
What can you say about the difference between
your culture's (and sub-culture's) views of the world, your own experiences, on
the one hand, and those of the voice, characters, and world of the poem on the
other? What is it that you might have to understand better in order to experience
the poem the way someone of the same time, class, gender and race might have
understood it? Is it possible that your reading might be different from theirs
because of your particular social (race, gender, class, etc.) and historical
context? What about your world governs the way you see the world of the text?
What might this work tell us about the world of its making?
13.
What is the world-view and the ideology of the poem?
What are the basic ideas about the world that
are expressed? What areas of human experience are seen as important, and what
is valuable about them? What areas of human experience or classes of person are
ignored or denigrated? A poem about love, for instance, might implicitly or
explicitly suggest that individual happiness is the most important thing in the
world, and that it can be gained principally through one intimate
sexually-based relationship -- to the exclusion, say, of problems of social or
political injustice, human brokenness and pain, or other demands on us as
humans. It might also suggest that the world is a dangerous, uncertain place in
which the only sure ground of meaningfulness is to be found in human
relationships, or it might suggest on the other hand that human love is
grounded in divine love, and in the orderliness and the value of the natural
world with all its beauties. What aspects of the human condition are
foregrounded, what are suppressed, in the claims that the poem makes by virtue
of its inclusions and exclusions, certainties and uncertainties, and depictions
of the way the natural and the human world is and works.
Oral Interpretation
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Excellent
4 pts You worked hard and knocked it out of the park. |
Good
3 pts You met the requirements of the assignment. |
Fair
2 pts You struggled a bit with this assignment. |
Poor
1 pts You likely did not adequately prepare for this assignment. |
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Preparation
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Excellent
Student is well prepared and it is obvious that she/he rehearsed the selection thoroughly. Presents fluidly. May have memorized the selection. Rarely, if ever, refers to notes. |
Good
Student is well prepared but the presentation of the poem requires a few more rehearsals. Stumbles on a word or two. Seldom refers to notes. |
Fair
Student is not well prepared and would benefit from many more rehearsals. Occasionally stumbles over words. |
Poor
Student is obviously unprepared for the task. No evidence of any rehearsals. Frequently stumbles over words. Doesn't seem to understand the meaning of the passage. |
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Physical Presence
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Excellent
Student employs proper posture and gestures, is relaxed and confident, and maintains appropriate audience contact. |
Good
Student employs proper posture and gestures, is relaxed and confident, and maintains appropriate audience contact most of the time or is lacking in one of these elements. |
Fair
Presentation is lacking in two or more of the criteria. |
Poor
The student slouches, looks uncomfortable and makes no effective contact with the audience at all. Tension and nervousness is obvious. |
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Interpretation
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Excellent
The student uses pauses and pace effectively to communicate meaning and/or enhance dramatic impact of the selection. |
Good
The student uses pauses and pacing to communicate meaning and/or enhance dramatic impact of the selection. |
Fair
Pauses and pacing were not effective in improving meaning and/or dramatic effect. Pauses at ends of lines rather than at punctuation marks, perhaps. Delivery is in bursts. |
Poor
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Clarity and Expression
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Excellent
The student speaks clearly, distinctly, and with appropriate and varied pitch and tone modulation. Recites loudly enough for all to hear throughout the presentation. |
Good
The student speaks clearly and distinctly. Some minor lapses in pitch, tone and volume OR the emotion conveyed did not always fit the content OR emphasis uneven. |
Fair
The student speaks clearly but is, at times, indistinct, too quiet, and/or pitch was rarely used OR the emotion it conveyed often did not fit the content. |
Poor
The student does not speak clearly, mispronounces words and is inaudible to the audience. Spoken in monotone. |
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Listening
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Excellent
Student is always silent and attentive while other students are presenting. |
Good
Student is always silent and usually attentive while other students are presenting. |
Fair
Student is always silent but not attentive while other students are presenting. |
Poor
The student is neither silent nor attentive while another student is presenting. |
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