Think of a word that has a straightforward denotation, but a more complicated or tricky connotation. Explain the distinction, including an example of how it could be used connotatively.
Read Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise” and then watch the video of her reading it: Choose one of the four-line stanzas from the poem and discuss the image it presents and how you think we should interpret it in the context of the whole poem. Then, briefly discuss whether Angelou’s performance/reading makes you see the poem in a different light. Do her choices in tone, emphasis, and body language affect the meaning of the work for you?
Choose one of the poems from the three assigned chapters and perform a close reading in which you address the following:
- What do you feel is the overall purpose/meaning of the poem?
- Choose one short excerpt from the poem — a single line or two, or even a single word choice — and unpack the language choices as precisely as you can. See my lecture video in which I address Shakespeare’s “Winter” for an example of this. You may also wish to take into account imagery, connotation, metre, or rhyme scheme.
- How does your analysis in part 2 contribute to your answer in part 1? In other words, as you break down this one small moment within the poem, how do you see it relating to the poem’s overall purpose?