Spoon River, Voice, & Oral Interpretation

As we read Spoon River pay attention to how the author creates a voice for his personas.

Diction: word choice. Select words in your poem carefully to carry the most meaning. All words have a denotative meaning and a connotative meaning.

DENOTATION: The dictionary meaning of a word.
CONNOTATION: The implied meaning of a word based on how it is said or the tone used.

Understatement, euphemism, and other rhetorical strategies may be used to affect a poem's diction. Speaking to your elderly grandparents uses a different diction than speaking to your "homies". We change our diction depending on who we are talking to.

Voice: The character or "speaker" speaking through the poem. Also called the "persona". Just like an actor, a writer tries to create a character whose "voice" we hear when reading or listening to a poem.

Tone: Often the attitude of your speaker or the voice. Identified in a poem by diction.

• Tone can be formal or informal depending on the diction a poet uses.
• Tone can be ironic, sarcastic, serious, pedantic, full of awe, friendly, fearful, silly, drunk, hyperbolic or any other type of feeling depending on the voice a poet selects.
• Tone can be positive or negative or neutral. Selecting one of these tones can or should affect your diction.

For each poem, notice WHO the speaker is (the persona), WHY are the speaker is speaking (what secrets do they tell us?), and the tone and voice in their poem. (Those characters might appear later in the book)

In the lab: Write a new poem using a specific voice. Consider the words you use (diction) to create a tone for your "character" or persona. The poem character should NOT be YOU! Use understatement, euphemism, rhetorical devices, or any connotation within your diction.

HOMEWORK: Please complete the reading of Spoon River. Choose 3 "characters" that you would like to work with and bring these choices with you next class. We will be working on memorizing and preparing the poem for performance.