ENGL 362: Spring 2004 Dr. Helen Bittel Study Guide #15: "Goblin Market Instructions: Complete any 4 of the following 8 question clusters. Please note that these questions were designed to accommodate a diverse group with different types and levels of prior experience as well as to illuminate a wide variety of poems. Therefore, not every question can be readily applied to every reading, and not every student will feel well prepared to answer every cluster. Use your best judgment to choose the clusters that seem most likely to enhance your understanding of the particular poem we are studying and to best address your own interests. FYI, the "smaller" questions within each cluster are intended as prompts or suggestions and not as a definitive outline. You are not expected to answer each systematically (or to cover as much ground as the prompts themselves), but only to provide substantive and well-supported responses to the poems, responses that goes beyond "what" and into "why it matters" (i.e. go beyond identifying the rhyme scheme or recurrent imagery and speculate on their significance within the poem). Who? 1. What does the poem directly reveal about the speaker (i.e. through actions, descriptions, and assertions)? Indirectly (i.e. through language choices, style, assumptions, implied attitudes)? Whom does the speaker seem to be addressing? Are the speaker and audience addressing the same person or persons? What is the speaker's attitude toward the audience? What assumptions does s/he make about them? What is the speaker's attitude toward the subject? In each case, how do you know? Does the speaker seem to "play" with the reader and his or her expectations? What? 2. Situation/Action. What is the poem "about"? Is it "about" different things on different levels (literal vs. metaphorical, local vs. global)? Is there a "plot"; is something "happening"; is a story being told? If so, what is going on? What is the setting (place, time, season, indoor/outdoor, etc.) and why might it matter in terms of the meaning of the poem? 3. Argument. Does the poem have a "message" or take a position? What is it? Is the speaker's message the same as the authors? Is the message or position expressed straightforward, or is it ambiguous (either in the sense of being indeterminate or of being contradictory)? If so, does one meaning seem to prevail? Why? What is the effect on the reader? Are there any "key lines" which seem to encapsulate the argument? How? 4. Sound and sense. Can you identify the rhyme, meter, and genre (i.e. sonnet, lyric, dramatic monologue) of the poem? Then take it a step further and consider the "so what", the significance of these choices? Do the rhyme, meter, and/or genre seem appropriate to the subject or situation? How so (or how not)? Are there places where the author deviates from the established patterns? How might these deviations or disruptions be significant? What are the effects on the reader? What kind of mood is conveyed by the rhyme and meter? By "sound effects" like alliteration, assonance, and onomatopoeia? Is there anything unusual about the punctuation or the placement of line breaks? Again, what are the effects on the reader? 5. Words and Images. Why do you think the author chose the title that s/he did? Does it have meaning on more than one level? How do the author's word choices establish tone, and what does this contribute to the development of the poem? Are there any words that are especially striking? Why might the author have chosen that word and not another? Are there words with strong connotations (associations beyond the dictionary meaning of the word)? Words that have several possible meanings? Does the author use allusion (i.e. references to other texts)? What are they and why might the author have chosen them? What associations might they have for the reader? Are there any strong symbols or recurrent images? What are they and why might the author have chosen them; how do they complement or contradict other elements of the poem? Why? 6. Putting the poem in context. How does your knowledge of the poem's historical, literary, or cultural context enhance your understanding of the poem? Illuminate its motive/s? What events, situations, debates, or anxieties might the author be responding to? And what does the author have to say about these things; what does the author seem to be opposing or advocating? How does this work fit or not fit with other works by the same author? With other works written during this period? With whom is the author in dialogue? Implications for readers today. 7. Is there anything in the poem that you think might speak especially powerfully to people in our own time and culture? What and why? Do you think that it speaks to today's readers for similar reasons and in similar ways, or in different ones? How so? Is there anything in the poem that---due to differences in cultural context---might be especially difficult for contemporary readers to appreciate or sympathize with? What and why? Potpourri 8. Is there any else that you think might be important in understanding how the poem works that we have not covered above? What and why? Contact the English Department at: 570-348-6219. E-mail: English@marywood.edu.

HOME || GOALS || FACULTY || MAJORS/MINORS || COURSES || UG RESEARCH || ACTIVITIES || NEWSLETTER || BAYLEAF || BOOK SWAP || LAMBDA || CAREER DAY || USING YOUR DEGREE || ALUMNI || NEWS/EVENTS || ADMISSIONS || USEFUL LINKS

Comments to the English Department Pagemaster: lsantarsiero@ntsvr002.marywood.edu

Last update August 12 2004
Copyright © 2003 by Marywood University. All rights reserved.