Poetry Struggles

I would say that when reading poetry, I tend to have a hard time analyzing the tone of the poem. I find it difficult sometimes to get the overall feeling of a poem without actually hearing it read out loud. For example, in John Donne's poem, "A valediction: forbidding mourning," I thought the tone seemed to be longing, yet optimistic. The question regarding tone in the diagnostic test said that the tone was, "sanguine," or cheerful. It worried me that I was pretty far off. I also struggled with some of the sample questions regarding  tone and feeling in the poetry section in Peterson's AP English.
I find it especially difficult to figure out the tone when there is humor or sarcasm involved. Sometimes the sarcasm goes over my head, especially when a poem is satirizing the way other poetry is written. I hope that throughout this year I can become better at analyzing the tone of the poems I read.

Response to Diagnostic Test

          I must admit that I struggled with some parts of the diagnostic test. I had the hardest time with the two poems, especially the one by John Donne. I found it difficult to answer objective questions on poems that seemed to leave a lot open for interpretation. For example, question thirty three (referring to the Amy Lowell poem) asks "What is the best interpretation of the expression 'glass heavens'"? The correct answer was C, "The road the mares were on". This question tripped me up because it asked which is the best interpretation, even though there could be a lot of interpretations and there isn't always a "best" one. I interpreted the expression as more along the lines of E, "an opening to the other side of the world," the other side being heaven. I reread the poem and did not find anything that clearly supported answer C over answer E, which kind of frustrated me. I thought the question seemed a little more on the subjective side.
          Something that surprised me was the trickiness of the wording of some of the questions.  For example, question twenty four asks "What is Mr. Bennet doing when he says 'Lizzy has something more of  quickness than her sisters'"? I fell for the trap and answered D, "He admires her intelligence," because it is true, but it's worded in such a way so that it does not answer the question. If it had said "He is admiring her intelligence," it would have worked, but the way it is actually worded just states a fact without answering the question. The correct answer is C, "He is defending his position," which makes sense, but it just didn't pop out at me. When I was looking over the answers, that surprised me a little, because I expected the answers to be more straight forward. That just shows how carefully you have to read the directions!
          One aspect of the test I felt confident on was knowing what kind of poem or writing each work was. I felt more confident on the technical questions. I felt uneasy on the questions on interpretations and tone. That is something that I am hoping to improve over the course of this class.
         

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