Layers of Poetry | Word Choice
1. Denotation: the dictionary meaning a word holds; its surface meaning
2. Connotation: extra meaning a word carries, or “suggests”; the meaning may be cultural, thematically related to rest of poem’s content. Also, a word or phrase may depend on reader understanding alternate meanings in dictionary, sound-relations to other words (insure/ensure), context of usage, & other credible connections of the words to the rest of the text.
- Writers use many figures of speech: they rely on a reader getting (or working to understand) the connotative values of their word choice. (Look these terms up for further comprehension!)
- Metaphor: comparing a thing to another thing that it is normally unassociated with. Key to seeing: "____ is ______"
- Similes: comparing specific qualities of a thing to an unlike thing, using "like" or "as"
- Personification: giving human qualities to non-human things, such as animals or inanimate objects
- Allusions: words in a piece that refer to people, places, historical events, literary works, works of art, etc. For instance, what may a "bald eagle" refer to?
- Hyperbole: a gross exaggeration to make a point (see "To His Coy Mistress")
- & others...
- Some examples historical references of how words evolve so our job is important to investigate:
- “to die” in Shakespeare’s time, in literature, is a sexual term!
- “a Coke” in the South is different than “a Coke” in much of the Midwest or East Coast
- Accurate word=meets denotative meaning
- Precise word= connotations, and also situational à slice: knife, not slice: ax (If word doesn’t fit the situation in a published piece – we should look into why they’ve used an imprecise word.)
- Writers, especially many poets, seek out the best word possible, based on a word’s accuracy and precision.
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