AP poetry essay

    The stand out use of connotatively unsettling words, alludes to the lingering question in the narrators mind and his uncertain tone . Within the first stanza alone, the narrator presents the reader with an uncomfortable situation; weighing a dog with a bathroom scale using the displacement of their own weight. The scenario's discomfort is highlighted by the use of the words, 'awkward', 'bewildering', and 'shaky'.  It is later mentioned in the last stanzas of the poem that a relationship of the narrator's ended under uncertain terms. The unsettling words used in the first stanza, 'awkward' and 'bewildering' are again repeated in the last, capitalizing on the narrator's allusions. The way in which the narrator brings up the relationship, in the context of a mundane activity, causes the reader to believe that the relationship is always present in the narrator's mind. The lingering tones of regret and wistfulness are evident in the far fetched metaphor of weighing a dog, and the dynamics in which the narrator carried on a relationship with another person. To be reminded of such an event in everyday tasks emphasis's the extent to which it occupies the narrator's mind.

Poetry Notes

Musical Devices
-arrangement of sounds, repetition, and variation
Alliteration; repetition of first letter sound
Assonance; repetition of vowel sound
Consonance; repetition of consonant sound
Anaphora; repetition of an opening word/phrase

Rhyme; repetition of accented vowel sound
    -masculine; one syllable rhyme
    - feminine; two or more syllable rhyme
    - internal rhyme; multiple rhymes within a line (ehhem)
    -end rhyme; end of line rhyme
    - approximate rhyme; similar not exact

Rhythm and Meter
Rhythm; recurrence in sound pattern
Accented/Stressed; emphasis
Rhetorical Stress; clear intention
End stopped line; run on line corresponds with next
Run on; continues on next line
Caesuras; varying rhythm of lines
Free Verse; aware when necessary
Foot; one accented, 2 not

Metrical Variation; varying measure
Substitution; replacing feet
Extrametrical syllables; added at beginning or end
Truncation; omission of unaccented syllable
Scansion; defining form
Expected Rhythm- heard rhythm
Grammatical/Rhetorical pauses; punctuation or line breaks

Sound and Meaning

Onomatopoeia; word that represents sound
Phonetic intensives; sound connects to meaning