Before Reading

Piano Poem by D. H. Lawrence

Fifteen Poem by William Stafford

Tonight I Can Write . . . / Puedo Escribir Los Versos . . . Poem by Pablo Neruda

Which MEMORIES last? RL 4 Analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning. RL 5 Analyze an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text. RL 10 Read and comprehend poems.

Think back to a moment from your past that evokes powerful feelings in you. Why has this memory made such a lasting impression? Was it the person you shared the experience with, or the activity itself? In the poems that follow, three speakers recall moments that have had a lasting impact. QUICKWRITE In a short paragraph, describe a particular memory. Why is this recollection special? What feelings do you remember? Include sensory details that help present a clear picture.

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Meet the Authors D. H. Lawrence

text analysis: sound devices In the poems that follow, the poets use rhyme and other sound devices to convey rhythm and meaning: • Assonance—the repetition of vowel sounds in words that don’t rhyme We could find the end of a road, meet the sky on out Seventeenth. . . . • Consonance—the repetition of consonant sounds within and at the ends of words Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see • Repetition—a sound, word, phrase, or line that is repeated I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too. She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.

Consonance

Writer of Experience Although impoverished during his childhood, D. H. Lawrence nce found great pleasure in learning and culture, a love ve of which was instilled by his mother. Lawrence’s confessional, essional, earnest style is illustrated d in the poem “Piano.” He wrote itt in memory of his mother.

William Stafford 1914–1993

Record examples of the various sound devices that establish in a chart like the one below. Assonance

1885–1930

Repetition

“Piano” “Fifteen” “Tonight I Can Write . . .”

reading skill: understand line breaks End-stopped lines of poetry end at a normal speech pause, as in these lines from “Tonight I Can Write . . .”: The same night whitening the same trees. We, of that time, are no longer the same. This emphasizes the line endings and makes a reader view each line as a complete unit of meaning. Enjambed lines run on without a natural pause, as in “Fifteen”: South of the bridge on Seventeenth I found back of the willows one summer day a motorcycle with engine running Enjambment can create a tension and momentum until the thought is complete. As you read each poem, think about how line breaks affect rhythm and meaning. Review: Make Inferences Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.

Remembering the Past William Stafford remembered, red, growing up in Kansas, being “surrounded ed by songs and stories and poems, ms, and lyrical splurges of excited ed talk. . . .” These memories eventually became the stuff ff of his poetry. “Fifteen” is part of a collection of poems that recall call his past.

Pablo Neruda 1904–1973 Boy Wonder Pablo Neruda was drawn to poetry at an early age, even though gh his working-class family scoffed at his literary terary ambitions. By age 20 he had achieved literary stardom with the he publication of Twenty Love Poems ems and a Song of Despair. The book chronicles a passionate love ve story, from the couple’s first meeting eeting to eventual breakup. “Tonight ght I Can Write” is the 20th poem. m.

Authors Online Go to thinkcentral.com. KEYWORD: HML10-803

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The Spinet (1902), Thomas Wilmer Dewing. Oil on wood, 151/2˝ × 20˝. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. Photo © Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C./Art Resource, New York.

P iano

D. H. Lawrence

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. 5

10

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In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside And hymns in the cozy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide. a So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

unit 7: the language of poetry

a

SOUND DEVICES Reread lines 5–9 aloud. Where can you find assonance and consonance in this stanza?

Fifteen William Stafford

5

South of the bridge on Seventeenth I found back of the willows one summer day a motorcycle with engine running as it lay on its side, ticking over slowly in the high grass. I was fifteen.

b

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I admired all that pulsing gleam, the shiny flanks, the demure headlights fringed where it lay; I led it gently to the road and stood with that companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen.

15

We could find the end of a road, meet the sky on out Seventeenth. I thought about hills, and patting the handle got back a confident opinion. On the bridge we indulged a forward feeling, a tremble. I was fifteen.

20

Thinking, back farther in the grass I found the owner, just coming to, where he had flipped over the rail. He had blood on his hand, was pale— I helped him walk to his machine. He ran his hand over it, called me good man, roared away.

b

LINE BREAKS Notice how Stafford continues a thought or sentence from one line to the next. How does this enjambment affect the way you read the lines?

I stood there, fifteen.

piano / fifteen

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Tonight I Can Write . . . Pablo Neruda Tonight I can write the saddest lines. Write, for example, ‘The night is shattered and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’ The night wind revolves in the sky and sings. 5

Tonight I can write the saddest lines. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

c

What impact is created by the repetition of “Tonight I can write the saddest lines”?

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms. I kissed her again and again under the endless sky. 10

SOUND DEVICES

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too. How could one not have loved her great still eyes. Tonight I can write the saddest lines. c To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her. To hear the immense night, still more immense without her. And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

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What does it matter that my love could not keep her. The night is shattered and she is not with me. This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance. My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

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RL 5

d

d

The line is the core unit of a poem. Line length is an essential element of a poem’s meaning and rhythm. Some endstopped lines express complete thoughts, while other enjambed lines run on, their thoughts completed in one or more lines. Find examples of end-stopped and enjambed lines in the poem. What effects do these different line lengths create?

My sight searches for her as though to go to her. My heart looks for her, and she is not with me. The same night whitening the same trees. We, of that time, are no longer the same. I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her. My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

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Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before. Her voice. Her bright body. Her infinite eyes. I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her. Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

30

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her. Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer and these the last verses that I write for her. e Translated by W. S. Merwin

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unit 7: the language of poetry

LINE LENGTH

e

MAKE INFERENCES Reread lines 27–32. Do you think the speaker still loves the woman? Why or why not?

Puedo Escribir Los Versos . . . Pablo Neruda Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche. Escribir, por ejemplo: ‘La noche está estrellada, y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos.’ El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta. 5

Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche. Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso. En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos. La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.

10

Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería. Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos. Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche. Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido. Oir la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella. Y el verso cae al alma como al pasto el rocío.

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Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla. La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo. Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos. Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.

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Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca. Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.

Waiting (2001), Ben McLaughlin. Oil on board, 30.5 cm × 30.5 cm. Private collection. Photo © Bridgeman Art Library.

La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles. Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos. Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise. Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído. 25

De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos. Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos. Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero. Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.

30

Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos, mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido. Aunque éste sea el último dolor que ella me causa, y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.

tonight i can write . . . / puedo escribir . . .

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Reading for Information JOURNAL ARTICLE In 1971, nearly 50 years after writing “Tonight I Can Write . . .” Pablo Neruda was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. For Neruda, this meant a prize of $450,000 and worldwide fame, although he was already quite famous in and around Chile, his native country. The following selection gives background on this prestigious award.

e z i r P l e NLoibterature

The in In

1888, the well-known scientist and inventor Alfred Nobel experienced the shock of reading his own obituary. A French journalist had mistakenly reported his passing and described him as a “merchant of Death.” The name was a reference to Nobel’s most famous invention: dynamite. This description troubled Nobel. He had often spoken out against violence and considered himself a pacifist. Many believe that he was moved to create a more positive legacy; for when he did die, his will specified that his fortune be used to honor people whose achievements enrich human life. Since 1900, the Nobel Prize has rewarded some of the world’s most dazzling achievements in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, economics, peace, and literature. Given out each year by the Swedish Academy, the prize consists of a gold medal, a diploma, and money (in 2000, it reached one million dollars), but its actual worth is much higher. Nobel winners, or laureates, are considered among the most important and influential people in the world. The Nobel Prize has both launched new careers and brought closure to long and successful ones. Nobel’s will required that a prize winner’s work provide “the greatest benefit to mankind.” For achievements in literature, however, Nobel had a second requirement: this work must

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unit 7: the language of poetry

also be “in an ideal direction.” Over the past century, there has been debate over what “ideal direction” means, and why any particular writer should be chosen. As a result, the prize has been used at different times to honor different things: talented but unknown writers, for example, or writers who pioneer new styles. Pablo Neruda falls into the “pioneers” category, while recent winning poets Seamus Heaney (1995) and Wislawa Szymborska (1996), were honored as “unknown masters.” When Neruda won his Nobel Prize in 1971, the Swedish Academy’s presentation speech stated that “his work benefits mankind precisely because of its direction.” Neruda’s early poems describing “isolation and dissonance” gave way to later ones declaring “harmony with Man and the Earth.” The academy saw this as an “ideal direction” for all of mankind to take. Neruda’s work was also praised for its political content, particularly as it criticized the oppression of writers and artists. In recent years, the Academy has moved away from determining “ideal direction” in favor of simply honoring writers for work which “furthers knowledge of man and his condition.” This tendency might have pleased Neruda, who once stated, “The books that help you most are those which make you think the most . . . a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.”

After Reading

Comprehension 1. Recall How does the speaker in Stafford’s poem react to finding the motorcycle? 2. Recall What are some nature images in Neruda’s poem? 3. Summarize In Lawrence’s poem, what is the speaker remembering?

Text Analysis

RL 4 Analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning. RL 5 Analyze an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text. W 2b Develop the topic with quotations appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

4. Visualize Cite specific lines from both Lawrence’s and Stafford’s poems that helped you to visualize what the speakers remember. For example, what mental pictures did you form when reading lines 3 and 4 of Lawrence’s poem? 5. Analyze Sound Devices What examples of sound devices did you list as you read? Explain what ideas are emphasized through repetition of words and phrases. 6. Examine Line Breaks Compare and contrast the poets’ use of end-stopped and enjambed lines. How do their choices affect the rhythm of the poems? 7. Compare and Contrast Themes Compare and contrast the memories of the speakers in these poems. In your opinion, why have these memories endured? 8. Evaluate Read “The Nobel Prize in Literature” on page 808, and consider “Tonight I Can Write . . .” in light of the Swedish Academy’s comments on Neruda’s work. Does the poem have more to do with isolation and dissonance, or harmony?

reading-writing connection
YOUR

Explore the imagery in “Tonight I Can Write . . .” by responding to the prompt below. Then use the revising tip to improve your writing.

TURN

writing prompt

revising tip

Extended Constructed Response: Analysis

Review your response. Have you used quotation marks correctly when quoting text from the poem?

What do the images from nature in Neruda’s poem reveal about the speaker’s relationship with the woman? What do they tell the reader about the speaker’s emotions? Use details from the poem to write a response in three to five paragraphs.

Which MEMORIES last? What will you most remember about this period in your life?

piano / fifteen / tonight i can write . . .

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