The Gift of the Magi
"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story, written by O. Henry (a pen name for William Sydney Porter), about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been a popular one for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its "twist ending" are well-known, and the ending is generally considered an example of comic irony. It was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern[2] on Irving Place in New York City.Summary[edit]
Mr. James Dillingham Young ("Jim") and his wife, Della, are a couple living in a modest apartment. They have only two possessions between them in which they take pride: Della's beautiful long, flowing hair, almost touching to her knees, and Jim's shiny gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather.
On Christmas Eve, with only $1.87 in hand, and desperate to find a gift for Jim, Della sells her hair for $20 to a nearby hairdresser named Madame Sofronie, and eventually finds a platinum pocket watch fob chain for Jim's watch for $21. Satisfied with the perfect gift for Jim, Della runs home and begins to prepare pork chops for dinner.
At 7 o'clock, Della sits at a table near the door, waiting for Jim to come home. Unusually late, Jim walks in and immediately stops short at the sight of Della, who had previously prayed that she was still pretty to Jim. Della then admits to Jim that she sold her hair to buy him his present. Jim gives Della her present – an assortment of combs, useless now that her hair is short. Della then shows Jim the chain she bought for him, to which Jim says he sold his watch to get the money to buy her combs. Although Jim and Della are now left with gifts that neither one can use, they realize how far they are willing to go to show their love for each other, and how priceless their love really is.
The story ends with the narrator comparing the pair's mutually sacrificial gifts of love with those of the Biblical Magi:[3]
東方三博士
東方三國王（希臘語：μάγοι；拉丁轉寫：magoi），又稱東方三王、東方三賢士、三智者、麥琪，術士等，是藝術作品和基督教刊物經常提到，出現在許多與聖誕節有關的畫像裡面的人物，一般會與耶穌和其父母、牧羊人，以及馬廄中的動物一同出現。根據《新約聖經·馬太福音》第2章第1－12節的記載，在耶穌基督出生時，有來自東方的「博士」朝拜耶穌。天主教會在1月6日主顯節慶祝。《福音書》中沒有提到有三個人，也沒有提到他們的身份。但研究古波斯宗教文化的人[誰？]指出，「MAGI」就是拜火教祭祀或神職人員的稱呼，類似於基督教中的神父、牧師或主教。
東方三博士的身份
這幾位博士精通天文學和占星術，因此他們必定不是猶太人，因為在猶太教中，摩西律法規定，禁止人使用魔法和占星術和崇拜偶像。由於波斯原文（Magus）乃占星術士（法師）之義，他們可能是古波斯的高級神職人員。
有人認為三博士的名字是Caspar、Melchior和Balthasar
聖經的記載
據《馬太福音》第2章第1－12節記載，耶穌降生時，幾個博士在東方看見伯利恆方向的天空上有一顆大星，於是便跟著它來到了耶穌基督的出生地。其實沒證據證明有多少位博士朝拜耶穌基督，但他們帶來黃金、乳香、沒藥，所以有人推測有三個人到來，每人獻上一樣禮物，所以稱他們為「東方三博士」：但馬太福音只寫了「有幾位來自東方的博士」，而從沒有提到博士的數目。[1]
習俗
在世界很多地方，聖誕節期間，東方三博士都扮演特殊的角色。在有的地方，如西班牙，他們甚至替代聖誕老人的角色。
在歐洲的基督教國家，很多信徒認為這三個人的首字母縮寫CMB加上年份能夠保護他們的住宅。例如2008年就寫作20*C*M*B*08。這個標誌一般寫在民宅建築入口處。
但事實上，C - M - B，這三個字母是拉丁文 「CHRISTUS MANSIONEM BENEDICAT」的縮寫，大意是「基督保佑這所房屋」。
墨西哥
新年接近的時候，墨西哥人舉行熱鬧的派對慶祝。1月5日黃昏，「三博士」會分發玩具給小孩子。派對的高潮是1月6日，大家會分吃一個圓形的餅。有人會發現自己的餅裡有個代表嬰孩耶穌的小玩偶。找到小玩偶的人要負責安排2月2日舉行的最後派對。（有些地方採用三個玩偶， 代表「三博士」。）
在這段期間，有一樣相當引人注目的東西——納西米恩托（耶穌誕生情景的模型）。在公眾場所、教堂和人們家裡，都設有耶穌誕生的場景。人物用陶瓷、木或黏土造成，大小不一，分別代表約瑟和馬利亞。他們跪在馬槽前，槽裡有個新生的嬰孩。通常還有牧羊人和「三博士」在一旁。人物的背景是個馬廄，有些動物在周圍點綴。中心人物則是一個新生的嬰孩，西班牙語叫埃爾·尼尼奧·迪奧斯（意即孩子上帝）。這個主要人物會在聖誕前夕才放在場景裡。
拉丁美洲
在拉丁美洲，三博士取代聖誕老人。但跟其他國家的情形一樣，許多父母把玩具藏在家裡某個地方，然後讓孩子在12月26日早上把它們找出來，就像這些玩具是三博士帶給他們似的。這段時間玩具商生意興隆。許多人看出，這只是裝假而已，但商人卻利用這個習俗獲得巨大的收益。
What Child Is This?
"What Child Is This?" is a Christmas carol whose lyrics were written by William Chatterton Dix, in 1865. At the time of composing the carol, Dix worked as an insurance company manager and had been struck by a severe illness. While recovering, he underwent a spiritual renewal that led him to write several hymns, including lyrics to this carol that was subsequently set to the tune of "Greensleeves", a traditional English folk song. Although it was written in Great Britain, the carol is more popular in the United States than in its country of origin today.[1]
Lyrics
The lyrics of the carol are taken from a poem written by Dix called "The Manger Throne".[1][2] The part of the poem that was utilized as the song's lyrics consists of three stanzas in total.[1] The first verse poses a rhetorical question in the first half, with the response coming in the second half. The second verse contains another question that is answered, while the final verse is a universal appeal to everyone urging them "to accept Christ".[3] The carol's melody has been described as "soulful",[1] "haunting and beautiful" in nature.[4]
Context
The context of the carol centres around the Adoration of the Shepherds, who visited Jesus during his Nativity. The questions posed in the lyrics reflect what the shepherds were possibly pondering to themselves when they encountered him, with the rest of the carol providing a response to their questions.[1]
Background and influence
At the time he was writing the lyrics to "What Child Is This?" in 1865, William Chatterton Dix was working as the manager of an insurance company.[5] He was afflicted by an unexpected and severe illness that resulted in him being bedridden and suffering from severe depression. His near-death experience brought about a spiritual renewal in him while he was recovering. During this time, he read the Bible comprehensively and was inspired to author hymns like "Alleluia! Sing to Jesus!" and "As with Gladness Men of Old".[1][4] The precise time in 1865 when he wrote the poem "The Manger Throne" is disputed. While the St. Petersburg Times details how Dix penned the work after reading the Gospel for Epiphany that year (Matthew 2:1–12) recounting the journey of the Biblical Magi;[6] Singer's Library of Song: Medium Voice contends that it was actually authored during the Christmas of 1865.[4]
History
Although written in 1865, "What Child Is This?" was only first published six years later in 1871, when it featured in Christmas Carols Old and New,[6] a "prestigious"[7]and "influential"[8] collection of carols that was published in the United Kingdom.[7] The hymnal was edited by Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer; even though it is not known with certainty who paired the three stanzas from "The Manger Throne" with the music from "Greensleeves", the third edition of The Christmas Encyclopedia by William D. Crump and Stories of the Great Christmas Carols both suggest that Stainer – who was also responsible for "harmoniz[ing] the musical setting"[3] – may have done so.[1][3]
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas,[1] commonly known as A Christmas Carol, is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843.[2] The novella met with instant success and critical acclaim. A Christmas Carol tells the story of a bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come.
The book was written at a time when the British were examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past as well as new customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Carol singing took on a new lease of life during this time.[3]Dickens's sources for the tale appear to be many and varied, but are, principally, the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.[4][5]
A Christmas Carol remains popular—having never been out of print[6]—and has been adapted many times for film, stage, opera, and other media.
Plot
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Dickens divided the book into five chapters, which he labelled "staves".
Stave one
The story begins on a cold and bleak Christmas Eve in London, seven years after the death of Ebenezer Scrooge's business partner, Jacob Marley. Scrooge, an old miser, hates Christmas and refuses an invitation to Christmas dinner from his nephew Fred. He turns away two men who seek a donation from him in order to provide food and heating for the poor, and only grudgingly allows his overworked, underpaid clerk, Bob Cratchit, Christmas Day off with pay to conform to the social custom.
At home that night, Scrooge is visited by Marley's ghost, who wanders the Earth, entwined by heavy chains and money boxes, forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness. Marley tells Scrooge that he has one chance to avoid the same fate: he will be visited by three spirits and he must listen to them or be cursed to carry chains of his own, much longer than Marley's chains.
Stave two
The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of Scrooge's boyhood and youth, reminding him of a time when he was more innocent. The boyhood scenes portray Scrooge's lonely childhood, his relationship with his beloved sister Fan, and a Christmas party hosted by his first employer, Mr. Fezziwig, who treated Scrooge like a son. They also portray Scrooge's neglected fiancée Belle, who ends their relationship after she realises that Scrooge will never love her as much as he loves money. Finally, they visit a now-married Belle with her large, happy family on a recent Christmas Eve.
Stave three
The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to a joy-filled market of people buying the makings of Christmas dinner and celebrations of Christmas in a miner's cottage and in a lighthouse. Scrooge and the ghost also visit Fred's Christmas party. A major part of this stave is taken up with Bob Cratchit's family feast and introduces his youngest son, Tiny Tim, a happy boy who is seriously ill. The spirit informs Scrooge that Tiny Tim will die soon unless the course of events changes. Before disappearing, the spirit shows Scrooge two hideous, emaciated children named Ignorance and Want. He tells Scrooge to beware the former above all and mocks Scrooge's concern for their welfare.
Stave four
The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a Christmas Day in the future. The ghost shows him scenes involving the death of a disliked man. The man's funeral will only be attended by local businessmen if lunch is provided. His charwoman, his laundress, and the local undertaker steal some of his possessions and sell them to a fence. When Scrooge asks the ghost to show anyone who feels any emotion over the man's death, the ghost can only show him the pleasure of a poor couple in debt to the man, rejoicing that his death gives them more time to put their finances in order. After Scrooge asks to see some tenderness connected with any death, the ghost shows him Bob Cratchit and his family mourning the passing of Tiny Tim. The ghost then shows Scrooge the man's neglected grave, whose tombstone bears Scrooge's name. Sobbing, Scrooge pledges to the ghost that he will change his ways to avoid this outcome.
Stave five
Scrooge awakens on Christmas morning a changed man. He spends the day with Fred's family and anonymously sends a large turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner. The following day, he gives Cratchit a pay increase and becomes like another father to Tiny Tim. From then on Scrooge began to treat everyone with kindness, generosity and compassion, embodying the spirit of Christmas.
Background
The writer Charles Dickens was born to a respectable family which got into financial difficulties as a result of the profligate spending of John, Dickens's father. In 1824 John was committed to Marshalsea, a debtors' prison in Southwark, London. Dickens, aged 12, was forced to pawn his collection of books, leave school and go to work at a shoe-blacking factory, a dirty and rat-infested place. The change in Dickens's circumstances gave him what his biographer, Michael Slater, described as a "deep personal and social outrage", which heavily influenced his works.[7][8]
At the end of December 1842 Dickens began publishing his novel Martin Chuzzlewit as a monthly serial;[n 1] although the novel was his favourite work, sales had been disappointing and he faced financial difficulties. By this time he was a well-established author, having written six major works,[n 2] as well as several short stories, novellas and other works.
Celebrating the Christmas season had been growing in popularity through the Victorian era.[11] Although the Christmas tree had been introduced into Britain in the 18th century, its use was popularised by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and their practice was copied in many homes across the country.[12][13] In the early 19th century there had been a revival of interest in Christmas carols, following a decline in popularity over the previous hundred years. The publication of Davies Gilbert's 1823 work Some Ancient Christmas Carols, With the Tunes to Which They Were Formerly Sung in the West of England and William Sandys's 1833 collection Christmas Carols, Ancient and Modern led to a growth in the form's popularity in Britain.[14][15][16]
Dickens had an interest in Christmas, and his first story on the subject was "Christmas Festivities", published in Bell's Weekly Messenger in 1835; the story was then published as "A Christmas Dinner" in Sketches by Boz (1836).[17] "The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton", another Christmas story, appeared in the 1936 novel The Pickwick Papers,[n 3] followed by a passage about Christmas in Master Humphrey's Clock.[19]
Literary influences
Dickens was not the very first author to celebrate the Christmas season in literature.[4] Among earlier authors who influenced Dickens was Washington Irving, whose 1819-20 work The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. included four essays on old English Christmas traditions that he experienced while staying at Aston Hall, Birmingham as well as a number of short stories.[20] The tales and essays attracted Dickens, and the two authors shared the belief that the staging of a nostalgic English Christmas might restore the social harmony that had been lost in the modern world.[21]
Several works may have had an influence on the writing of A Christmas Carol, including two Douglas Jerrold essays: one from an 1841 issue of Punch, "How Mr. Chokepear Keeps a Merry Christmas" and one from 1843, "The Beauties of the Police".[22][6] More broadly, Dickens was influenced by fairy tales and nursery stories, which he closely associated with Christmas, because he saw them as stories of conversion and transformation.[23]
Social influences
Dickens was keenly touched by the lot of poor children in the middle decades of the 19th century.[8] In early 1843, he toured the Cornish tin mines, where he was angered after seeing children working in appalling conditions.[24] The suffering he witnessed there was reinforced by a visit to the Field Lane Ragged school, one of several London schools set up for the education of the capital's half-starved, illiterate street children.[25]
In February 1843 the Second Report of the Children's Employment Commission was published. It was a parliamentary report exposing the effects of the Industrial Revolution upon working class children. Horrified by what he read, Dickens planned to publish an inexpensive political pamphlet tentatively titled, An Appeal to the People of England, on behalf of the Poor Man's Child, but changed his mind, deferring the pamphlet's production until the end of the year.[26] In March he wrote to Dr. Southwood Smith, one of the four commissioners responsible for the Second Report, about his change in plans: "you will certainly feel that a Sledge hammer has come down with twenty times the force—twenty thousand times the force—I could exert by following out my first idea".[27]
In a fundraising speech on 5 October 1843 at the Manchester Athenaeum, Dickens urged workers and employers to join together to combat ignorance with educational reform,[28][13] and realised in the days following that the most effective way to reach the broadest segment of the population with his social concerns about poverty and injustice was to write a deeply felt Christmas narrative rather than polemical pamphlets and essays.[28][29]
Writing history
By mid-1843 Dickens began to suffer from financial problems. Sales of Martin Chuzzlewit were slowing, and his wife, Catherine, was pregnant with the couple's fifth child. Matters worsened when Chapman & Hall, Martin Chuzzlewit's publishers, began to talk about reducing his monthly income by £50 if sales dropped further.[29][26]He began to write A Christmas Carol in October 1843.[15] Michael Slater, Dickens's biographer, describes the book as being "written at white heat"; it was completed in six weeks, with the final pages written in early December.[8][30] He built much of the work in his head while taking night-time walks of 15 to 20 miles around London.[31]Slater says that A Christmas Carol was
George Cruikshank, the illustrator who had previously worked with Dickens on Sketches by Boz (1836) and Oliver Twist (1838), introduced him to the caricaturist John Leech. By 24 October Dickens invited Leech to work on A Christmas Carol, and four hand-coloured etchings and four black-and-white wood engravings by the artist accompanied the text.[30][32]
Characters
The central character of A Christmas Carol is Ebenezer Scrooge, a miserly London-based moneylender,[33] described as "a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!"[34] Kelly writes that Scrooge may have been influenced by Dickens's conflicting feelings for his father, who he both loved and demonised. This psychological conflict may be responsible for the two radically different Scrooges in the tale—one a cold, stingy and greedy semi-recluse, the other a benevolent, sociable man.[35] Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, the professor of English literature, considers that in the opening part of the book covering young Scrooge's lonely and unhappy childhood, and his aspiration for money to avoid poverty "is something of a self-parody of Dickens's fears about himself"; the post-transformation parts of the book are how Dickens optimistically sees himself.[30]
Scrooge could also be based on two misers: the eccentric John Elwes, MP,[36][37] or Jemmy Wood, the owner of the Gloucester Old Bank who was also known as "The Gloucester Miser".[38][39] Scrooge's views on the poor are a reflection of those of the demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus,[40][41] while the miser's questions "Are there no prisons? ... And the Union workhouses? ... The treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" are a reflection of a sarcastic question raised by the Chartist philosopher Thomas Carlyle, "Are there not treadmills, gibbets; even hospitals, poor-rates, New Poor-Law?"[42][n 4]
There are literary antecedents for Scrooge in Dickens's own works. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's biographer, sees similarities between Scrooge and the elder Martin Chuzzlewit character, although the miser is "a more fantastic image" than the Chuzzlewit patriarch; Ackroyd observes that Chuzzlewit's transformation to a charitable figure is a parallel to that of the miser.[44] Douglas-Fairhurst sees that the minor character Gabriel Grub from The Pickwick Papers was also worked into Scrooge.[45][46][n 5] Scrooge's name came from a tombstone Dickens had seen on a visit to Edinburgh. The grave was for Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie, whose job was given as a meal man—a corn merchant; Dickens misread the inscription as "mean man".[47][n 6]
When Dicken's was young he lived near a tradesman's premises with the sign "Goodge and Marney", which may have provided the name for Scrooge's former business partner.[49] For the chains the character carried, Dickens had remembered a visit he had made to the Western Penitentiary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in March 1842, where he saw—and was affected by—seeing fettered prisoners.[42] For the character Tiny Tim, Dickens used his nephew Henry, a disabled boy who was five at the time A Christmas Carol was written.[50][n 7] The two figures of Want and Ignorance, sheltering in the robes of the Ghost of Christmas Present were inspired by the children Dickens had seen on a visit to a ragged School in the East End of London.[25]
Themes
Dickens wrote in the wake of British government changes to the benefits system known as the Poor Laws, changes that required, among other things, benefits applicants to work on treadmills. Dickens asked, in effect, for people to recognise the plight of those whom the Industrial Revolution had displaced and driven into poverty, and the obligation of society to provide for them humanely. Failing to do so, the writer implied through the personification of Ignorance and Want as ghastly children, would result in an unnamed "Doom" for those who, like Scrooge, believe their wealth and status qualify them to sit in judgement over the poor rather than assisting them.[52]
Christian themes are woven throughout the book, and the entire novella may be classified as an allegory of the Christian concept of redemption.[53] Dickens's statement that Jacob Marley "had no bowels" is a reference to the "bowels of compassion" mentioned in I John, the reason for his eternal damnation. The themes of "sinfulness to regret to repentance to salvation" are also featured throughout the novella.[54]
As the title identifies the work as a "Christmas carol", the book's chapters are called "staves" (i.e. stanzas of a song). A carol is mentioned within the narrative as part of the exposition of Scrooge's character,
- "...at the first sound of 'God bless you, merry gentlemen! May nothing you dismay!', Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror, leaving the keyhole to the fog and even more congenial frost."
Restad suggested that Scrooge's redemption underscores "the conservative, individualistic and patriarchal aspects" of Dickens's "Carol philosophy" of charity (a more fortunate individual willingly looking after a less fortunate one). Personal moral conscience and individual action led in effect to a form of noblesse oblige, which was expected of those individuals of means.
Poetry
1. Prose and Poetry
2. Verse and Poetry
A Child's Garden of Verses
A Child's Garden of Verses is a collection of poetry for children about darkness and solitude by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. The collection first appeared in 1885 under the title Penny Whistles, but has been reprinted many times, often in illustrated versions. It contains about 65 poems including the cherished classics "Foreign Children," "The Lamplighter," "The Land of Counterpane," "Bed in Summer," "My Shadow" and "The Swing."
The Poems
Part I - A Child's Garden of Verses
- To Alison Cunningham
- Bed in Summer
- A Thought
- At the Sea-side
- Young Night Thought
- Whole Duty of Children
- Rain
- Pirate Story
- Foreign Lands
- Windy Nights
- Travel
- Singing
- Looking Forward
- A Good Play
- Where Go the Boats?
- Auntie’s Skirts
- The Land of Counterpane
- The Land of Nod
- My Shadow
- System
- A Good Boy
- Escape at Bedtime
- Marching Song
- The Cow
- Happy Thought
- The Wind
- Keepsake Mill
- Good and Bad Children
- Foreign Children
- The Sun's Travels
- The Lamplighter
- My Bed is a Boat
- The Moon
- The Swing
- Time to Rise
- Looking-glass River
- Fairy Bread
- From a Railway Carriage
- Winter-time
- The Hayloft
- Farewell to the Farm
- Northwest Passage: Good Night, Shadow March, In Port
The Child Alone
- The Unseen Playmate
- My Ship and I
- My Kingdom
- Picture-books in Winter
- My Treasures
- Block City
- The Land of Story-books
- Armies in the Fire
- The Little Land
Garden Days
- Night and Day
- Nest Eggs
- The Flowers
- Summer Sun
- The Dumb Soldier
- Autumn Fires
- The Gardener
- Historical Associations
Envoys
- To Willie and Henrietta
- To My Mother
- To Auntie
- To Minnie
- To My Name-child
- To Any Reader
3. Kinds of Poetry: Narrative Poetry & Lyric poetry (song poetry)
(1) Narrative Poetry—Situational or storytelling poetry, includes epics, ballads, and idylls.
Ballads are repeative, musical, narrative.
(2) Lyric Poetry: a songlike poem that uses sounds, rhythms, and figurative devices to express emotional response to some brief moment of experience
“Morning has Broken” by Eleanor Farjeon.
4. Rhythm: can be considered the recurrence of stressed beats in language.
Cadence: rhythm is set in prose
Meter: When rhythm is set into a more regular pattern as it is in verse or poetry
The rhythm in one line is -_-_-_-_-_-_. The major syllable should be read longer.
•Writer starts and stops line of poetry in units of meaning which requires readers to make a tiny pause at the end of the line
It doesn’t always have to rhyme
but there’s the repeat of a beat, somewhere
an inner chime that makes you want to
tap your feet or swerve in a curve
a lilt, a leap, a lightning split
5. Sound Patterns: in Patty Tacket, it is influenced by the limerick (second part of the poem), quick sounds, internal rhymes (still, stillness, skill, till, and will), and general silliness.
Patty tackett
held a racket
right beside my head.
“Move it once and,
boy, I’ll whack it
Patty Tackett said.”
So I stood there
very still —
(stillness is a kind of skill) —
till, motionless,
I broke the will
Of crazy Patty Tackett
It uses sound pattern to complete meanings and uses extended metaphor to compare throughout her book.
Pictures in the book shows a girl looking up the sky in the first section; then, shows the girl in her messy room frustrated; last, shows everything is all right when she is outside with the sky again. (p.270)
6. Figurative Language: implies metaphors or similes, the images called up may acquire connotative meaning
I smelled them from my room
A wafting wave of chocolate-ness.
I listened for a moment,
Ears pricked like a bat’s.
I crept down, stepped
Over the sleeping dog.
I felt the cold linoleum
On my bare toes
I saw the warm, thick
Brick of brownies.
I slashed a huge chunk
Right out of the middle.
The gooey hunks of chocolate
Winked at me as I gobbled them.
Afterwards, the pan gaped
Like an accusing eye.
My head said, Oops!
But my stomach said, Heavenly.
7. Compactness: is one of the pleasures of reading poetry to see how compactly the writer was able to say; the other pleasure is to see how quickly you can say it.
8. Varied Poetic Forms: Concrete Poetry — poems with a few short lines. Sijo (Korean, 時調) and Haiku (Japanese, 俳句) are also compact forms of poetry.
(1) Sijo (Korean, 時調):
내버디 멋치나 하니 (오우가 중에서):
Excerpt from "Song of my five friends"
English adaptaion by Larry Gross
Excerpt from "Song of my five friends"
English adaptaion by Larry Gross
나의 벗이 몇인가 헤아려 보니 수석과 송죽이라.
동산에 달이 밝게 떠오르니 그것은 더욱 반가운 일이로다
나머지는 그냥 두어라. 이 다섯 외에 더 있으면 무엇하겠는가?
You ask how many friends I have?
Water and stone, bamboo and pine.
The moon rising over the eastern hill is a joyful comrade.
Besides these five companions, what other pleasure should I ask?
by Yun Seondo (1587-1671):
(2) Haiku (Japanese, 俳句):
An old silent pond...
A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
- Matsuo Bashō
9. Emotional Intensity: response to poetry is very personal, what touches a reader depends on the experiences they have had
10. Poetic Styles to Avoid: There have been funny books of collected bad poetry. There are even contests to see who can write the worst poem
Worst Qualities: didacticism, sentimentality, and condescension. These use distracting connotations, trite comparisons, odd or impossible metaphors, repetitious and unvaried beat, or sound or rhythm unsuited to meaning and tone.
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