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Transcript

SOAPSTone

Speaker-

SOAPSTone (cont.)

Louise Bogan

educated

born in Maine

daughter of a mill worker

two bad marriages

difficult and unstable childhood

Occasion-

house in a forest

1923

This poem was one of many that Bogan included in the Body of this Death: Poems book.

I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,

Facing a sheer sky.

Everything moved, -a bell hung ready to strike,

Sun and reflection wheeled by.

When the bare eyes were before me

And the hissing hair,

Held up at a window, seen through a door.

The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead

Formed in the air.

This is a dead scene forever now.

Nothing will ever stir.

The end will never brighten it more than this,

Nor the rain blur.

The water will always fall, and will not fall,

And the tipped bell make no sound.

The grass will always be growing for hay

Deep on the ground.

And i shall stand here like a shadow

Under the great balanced day,

My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,

And does not drift away

Because of her difficult and unstable childhood, her poems are often about betrayal.

Audience-

educated young adults (16+) and adults

familiar with the myth of Medusa

interested in poetry

Is this poem rhetorically effective?

SOAPSTone (cont.)

Purpose-

Yes, this poem is rhetorically effective. The reader is able to recognize when the poem shifts tones, and it changes the mood of the reader. The devices add interest, and they keep the reader's attention.

to tell a story of saddness and betrayal

to tell the story of Medusa

SOAPSTone (cont.)

Rhetorical Devices (cont.)

Tone-

"Poetry is often generations in advance of the thought of its time,"

1st half of the poem:

Allusion

Medusa

Adventurous- She's adventuring through the woods to a house where she finds something she can never unsee.

An allusion is a brief reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance. The poem alludes to the myth of Medusa.

-Louise Bogan

SOAPSTone (cont.)

Rhetorical Devices (cont.)

Tone (cont.)-

Simile and Alliteration

2nd half of poem:

"And I shall stand here like a shadow," (line 18)

Despairing- She's in despair because she has turned to stone.

Alliteration is the same letter or sound repeated in a group of words. Many of these words begin with s.

A simile is the comparison of one thing to another thing using like or as. This statement compares the speaker to a shadow.

Rhetorical Devices (cont.)

Rhetorical Devices

Imagery

Personification

Rhetorical Devices (cont.)

"yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind, and does not drift away," (line 20-21).

Paradox

"And the hissing hair,"

(line 6).

"And the tipped bell make no sound," (line 15).

Personification is giving human characteristics to something non-human. Bogan personifies hair because she describes it as hissing.

Imagery is visually descriptive or figurative languages. This statement is visually descriptive because you're able to picture the yellow dust floating in the air.

A paradox is a statement or proposition that leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable or self-contradictory. In line 3 in the poem, it says, "a bell hung ready to strike." In line 15, it says, "the tipped bell make no sound." A tipped bell would always make sound, but since she was turned to stone, it doesn't.

Medusa by Louise Bogan

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