Winter's Night Blog

What story down there awaits its end?

imageToday we went over the old TP-CASTT model for poetry/music analysis.  Then we tore it apart.  In doing so, we found the most appropriate method for us to use in analyzing any work, but shorter pieces in particular.  Here is what we came up with:

Awesome.  You all (inadvertently?) created a workable representation of the rhetorical triangle using the common sense you apply to describe the things you enjoy.  This is going to be a good year.

The rhetorical triangle is used to describe the interaction of the reader, the writer, and the message itself.  From what you have given me, it could be constructed this way:  A writer imagepresents some information (imagery, symbolism, or a straightforward statement to the audience.  The reader then takes this structure and applies it to what he or she has read (looking for allusions) or experienced.  This "reader history"  is then applied to the message.  If it fits, then you have a solid interpretation or analysis.  If not, 'round we go again.  (We'll discuss this "application of reader history" in more detail tomorrow.

We will continue looking at poetry on Friday, so if you have a song that you particularly enjoy, share it!  Together we'll try to find a new way of interpreting it.  The song's author does not necessarily have to be British, but that would be nice.  Even better:  Can you find a poem or song similar to Stevie Smith's "Not Waving but Drowning"?

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3 Comments

This is an awesome poem.
My favorite lines are 92a-97a
http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=text&id=Wdr
Awesome medievalosity.

Awesome. So we weren't just talking in circles...

Always seems that way, but there is a method to my madness.

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