Talk:IB English/Commentary

Please doublecheck spelling/grammar before submitting next time!
I am also unsure of/confused as to the use of "metrosexual" in the following sentence: "This guide aims to change you from the useless waste of unpoetic space there is into a metrosexual lover of Byron and Keats!" (While I understand the somewhat humourous intent, does the sentence make any sense?) 64.229.224.182 03:18, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

I am further curious as to the author's original intent- is there supposed to be a Step 4? And if so, why has it been left out? 64.229.224.182 03:22, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

To answer both, metrosexual has been removed, and the missing Step 4 appears to be a minor error, which has been fixed. If the original author and/or someone else feels something is missing, feel free to add it in. Akademix 21:23, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

Meter needs clarification
The author says the poem has "hectameter", which means 7 feet. However, each line of the poem has 8 syllables. For the poem to have hectameter it would have to have more syllables per line, wouldn't it? Can someone please clarify this?

As you may/may not have noticed, the use of "dactylic hectameter" was a mere example for scansion, and precedes the poem by a section or two. Additionally, dactylic infers epic poetry, which Wordsmith did not write. You are correct, the poem is 8 syllables (iambic octameter), but the use of "dactylic hectameter" is not in reference to the poem. Akademix 21:09 08 May 2007 (UTC)

Please Discuss Changes Before Making Them
An unknown recently made a plethora of edits, not necessarily bad, but some of them were arguable. I reverted the ones I am certain of, such as the use of narrator versus speaker, the latter being the preferred one in IB papers, mainly because a narrator refers to a storyteller, and quite often the texts are not stories. The unknown also changed Step 4 to Step 5, without creating a new Step 4, so I reverted it. Also made several grammar edits. A change was also made to the title of Wordsworth's 1804 poem, as it is chiefly in anthologies that it appears as "I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud", with the original title being "The Daffodils". Akademix 20:18, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Prose
Great! so we have something on poetry, what about prose now???

Structure
Ok, I edited the structuring of the essay bit. I put down a better structure layout as an alternative to the less useful original. - Frenziedst00ge

Thanks!
Just wanted to give my sincere thanks to those who kindly took the time to write this. It was a really useful read to me, since I have just begun learning Poetry Commentary (and to be honest, was struggling, despite being rather good in other areas of English) and I am extremely grateful indeed! Thank you!

Step 1: Reading the Poem, issue surrounding usage of the word "context".
In "step 1: reading the poem" we are instructed to "...take notes about the literal and figurative context of the poem...". What exactly is meant by this sentence? When i subsequently googled "Literal and figurative context" i found a wikipedia article named Literal and Figurative Language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literal_and_figurative_language) outlining a method of analysis for language. This article explains how to distinguish between the usage of literal and figurative language. So my question is ultimately: By "...literal and figurative context..." do you actually mean "Literal and figurative language"?

Thank you

harrisonjagoward@gmail.com

217.211.179.32 (discuss) 13:37, 10 September 2011 (UTC)