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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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What is the difference between summarising a poem and writing a critical appreciation of it?
A summary says what the poem is about, and an appreciation also says how well it works.
Good. And how is an appreciation different from an opinion?
It has to be supported with evidence from the poem. It cannot just say that I liked it.
Exactly. An appreciation says what the poem does, how it does it and how well, with proof.
So it uses summary, devices and tone, but it adds a judgement.
Yes, those are the ingredients.
What should the first paragraph contain?
The title, the poet, the sequence it belongs to and the main theme.
Can you give me the theme of 'Crow Tyrannosaurus' in one sentence?
Hughes pairs a mythic bird with a prehistoric predator in his title and presents violence and survival as part of existence.
Very good. That is a thesis sentence, and everything after it should support it.
So we should not drift into retelling.
Right. Each paragraph should add evidence for the thesis.
Some critics found the Crow poems relentlessly bleak, and others admired their daring. How do you handle that in an appreciation?
We can mention that opinion was divided and then say where we stand.
And how do you justify where you stand?
By pointing to features of the poem, such as the central pairing and the unflinching tone.
Should you ignore the criticisms?
No, we should answer them. We could say that the bleakness is the poem's honesty.
Good. A balanced judgement is stronger than a one-sided one.
a critical appreciation judges the poem and supports every claim with features of the text.
introduction, theme, structure and form, imagery and symbols, language and sound, tone and mood, evaluation and conclusion.
a brief reference to the Crow poems and the divided response to them places the poem and frames the evaluation.
strengths such as the daring comparison and the unified effect are weighed against limits such as relentless bleakness.
link back to the title and the poem's vision, and finish with your clearest judgement.
A thesis sentence for an introduction: in 'Crow Tyrannosaurus', one of his Crow poems, Ted Hughes pairs a mythic bird with a prehistoric predator in his title and presents violence and survival as part of existence, in nature and in humanity.
An evaluative sentence with a counter-argument: a reader might object that the poem's vision is relentlessly bleak, but the bleakness is its integrity, because the poem refuses to soften a truth that many poems about nature prefer to hide.
A concluding sentence: the poem succeeds because the two names of its title do the work of a long argument, and its unsparing voice leaves the reader to feel, and not merely to know, that violence is part of existence.
Say what it is and how it's made / judge it well with proof displayed / weigh the doubts beside the praise / end with a verdict that stays.
Picture a food critic at a table. She does not just list the ingredients, and she does not just say that she liked it. She explains how the dish is made, judges how well it works and gives a reason for her verdict, and that is exactly what an appreciation does for a poem.
In Their Studies Intelligent Learners Test Everything: Introduction, Theme, Structure, Imagery, Language, Tone, Evaluation.
F.A.I.R. - Frame, Argument, Illustration, Reasoned verdict
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What is a critical appreciation?
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What are the parts of a critical appreciation, in order?
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How were the Crow poems received when they appeared?
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What are two strengths of 'Crow Tyrannosaurus' that you can argue?
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What is a possible criticism of the poem?
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A reasoned response to a poem that says what it is about, how it works and how well it works, with evidence.
A judgement of the quality or success of a text, based on reasons and evidence.
The background that helps place a poem, such as the poet, the sequence it belongs to and the time of writing.
An explanation of what a text means, which readers may reach in different ways.
Specific features of the text, such as an image, a word choice or a structural feature, used to support a claim.
A point that goes against your view, which a balanced answer acknowledges and responds to.
A sentence, usually in the introduction, that states your central claim about the poem.
A critical appreciation of 'Crow Tyrannosaurus' introduces the poem and its theme, examines its symbols, imagery, form, tone and mood, and ends with a reasoned judgement of its power and its limits.
A critical appreciation goes beyond summary and explanation to judge how well a poem achieves its effects. For 'Crow Tyrannosaurus' that means introducing the poem in the context of Hughes's Crow poems, stating its theme of violence and survival, examining the pairing of Crow and Tyrannosaurus, the stark imagery, the plain diction and free verse, and the dark tone and mood, and then weighing the poem's strengths and limits. This lesson gives a structure to follow, a model appreciation, the points on which readers disagree and the mistakes to avoid.
What a critical appreciation is. A critical appreciation is a reasoned response to a poem. You say what the poem is about, how it works and how well it works. It combines summary, explanation of devices and comment on tone with your own informed judgement. Unlike a summary, it evaluates. Unlike a personal opinion, it argues from evidence in the poem.
A structure to follow.
The context to mention. Hughes's Crow poems (1970) present a mythic crow in a harsh world with no kindly moral order, in plain, blunt language and free verse. When the sequence appeared, critics were divided: some admired its daring, primal energy and originality, while others found it relentlessly bleak. Mentioning this briefly helps you place the poem and frame your evaluation.
A model critical appreciation. Ted Hughes's 'Crow Tyrannosaurus', one of the Crow poems of 1970, is a stark vision of nature in which hunger, violence and survival are the basic rules of life. Its central stroke is the pairing in the title: a living bird joined to the most famous predator of the prehistoric world. By setting the mythic Crow beside the ferocious Tyrannosaurus in that title, Hughes collapses about sixty-six million years and makes the reader see one appetite at work in both. The symbols do real work. Crow stands for the survivor and scavenger who endures, Tyrannosaurus for raw predatory power, and together they suggest that brutality is not an exception in nature but its condition. The poem does not keep that brutality among the animals, for it suggests that the same instincts are embedded in human beings. The imagery is hard and physical and the language plain, as in the other Crow poems, and the free verse, with no regular rhyme or metre, withholds the comfort of a tidy pattern. The tone is stark and unsentimental and the mood dark and unsettling, and the poem leaves the reader with no consoling moral. Some readers may find this vision relentlessly bleak, and the one-sidedness of the picture may seem a limitation. Yet the bleakness is the poem's integrity: it refuses to soften a truth that many poems about nature prefer to hide. Its power comes from the daring of its central comparison and the discipline of its unsparing voice.
Strengths you can argue. The daring of the central comparison; the economy of a title made of two names; the force of the stark imagery; the way tone, form and theme work together; and the way the poem challenges comfortable ideas of nature and of human nature.
Possible criticisms. Some readers find the vision one-sided and relentlessly bleak, since it leaves out the gentler sides of nature and of people. The symbolism may seem heavy because Crow and Tyrannosaurus are asked to carry so much. The absence of consolation can feel like a refusal to deal with the whole of experience. A balanced appreciation weighs these points and says why you still judge the poem a success, or why you do not.
Phrases for evaluation. The poem succeeds in; the most striking feature is; this is effective because; a reader might object that, but; ultimately.
Common mistakes. Retelling instead of judging; listing devices without effects; praising without evidence; ignoring the title; quoting at length; and giving opinions that ignore what is in the poem.