Unit 1 Questions from the Vendler Book

As I noted on the first day of class, in Unit 1 we'll be compiling a list of questions that can offer us a way "in" to poetry that seems difficult or complex. I've gathered a few of these questions here and I offer them as help as many of you write your first blog posts next week:

• What piece of life, private or public, is the poem concerned with? Where and when is this life being lived?
• How does the author avoid cliché? How does he or she bring originality to this moment?
• Where is the moment of disequilibrium in the poem? How is the status quo disturbed?
• What patterns (phonetic, grammatical, syntactic, psychological, temporal, spatial, etc.) appear in the poem? How do these patterns impact the sense of the experience depicted?
• How does the structure of the poem reinforce (or work against) the central contrast or comparison being made in the poem?
• Does the poem have a plot or a narrative? Does it begin at the beginning, in the middle, at the end, or somewhere else entirely? How does the author’s decision to begin at this point affect your interpretation of the action?

We'll continue to add to this list as we develop questions through our reading of the Vendler book and our in-class discussions.