Class discussion of poetry
For any poem that your group discusses, first do the following:
a. check key word meanings, especially unfamiliar ones or ones whose use in the poem is unfamiliar.
b. List key images and try to create clusters of these if they occur.
c. Paraphrase the poem
d. Try to decide its theme.

TONE WORDS
joyous, humorous, playful, light, hopeful, brisk, lyrical, admiring, celebratory, laudatory, sxpectant, wistful, sad, mournful, dreary, tragic, elegiac, solemn, somber, poignant, earnest, blasé, disillusioned, straightforward, curt, hostile, sarcastic, cynical, ambivalent, scathing, bitterly ironic, gently ironic.

PERSONA AND TONE--some examples
angry, frightened, astonished, admiring, sincere, sarcastic, humorous, deceptive

Denotation/Connotation

Words have emotional meanings (connotations) as well as direct dictionary meanings (denotations).

A. Tell what kind of clothes you'd wear to each of the following parties and what you'd bring for the party. Rather than analyze closely, go with your gut sense of what each will be like:
1. A get-together
2. A social gathering
3. A blowout
4. A blast
5. A reception
6. A do

B. Give several meanings for the following and then tell what the difference in feeling is between them:
I crawled back to him.

C. Which is worst to be forced to say and why:
"I lost."
"I was defeated."
"I was mastered."

D. Which would you rather not be in and why:
Crowd, gathering, mob.

E. Which would you rather own and why?
Steed, charger, courser, thoroughbred, palfrey, cob, nag, jade, hack.
Which of the above would you not want to buy and why?

F. Where would you most like to live and why? Where least and why?
Habitation, house, home, domicile, residence, address, hearth.

G. In your house would you most like to be a:
dweller, occupier, addressee, householder, inmate, tenant, incumbent, resident, inhabitant.