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A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
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A student writes: The poem uses imagery. Will that earn full marks?
No, because it names the device but says nothing about where it is or what it does.
Right. We need three steps: name it, place it and explain its effect.
So for imagery we would say which stanza has the strongest image and what feeling it creates?
Yes, and which senses it appeals to. Remember also that a device you cannot find in the text should not be named.
That sounds like a rule worth remembering: name, place, effect.
A symbol stands for more than itself. What does Crow stand for in Hughes's Crow poems?
A mythic survivor and scavenger, a creature that endures in a harsh world.
And Tyrannosaurus?
The great prehistoric predator, so raw predatory power and brutality.
What happens when the title sets them side by side?
The reader sees that the ancient power and the modern survivor share one appetite.
And that is why the symbols and the juxtaposition work together.
Hughes often uses harsh sounds and strong verbs. Does that mean we can say this poem has alliteration?
Not until we find it in our copy.
Good. What do we write when we find an example?
The stanza and line, the device, and the effect, such as harshness or speed.
What if we cannot find one?
Then we leave it out and write about the devices we can prove.
every device you mention needs its location in the poem and its effect on meaning or mood.
Crow stands for appetite and survival, Tyrannosaurus for raw predatory power, and together they stand for violence in nature and humanity.
setting Crow beside Tyrannosaurus in the title makes the reader compare them and see violence as continuous across time.
hard physical pictures and blunt words keep the violence unsoftened and the tone unsentimental.
the absence of a regular rhyme or metre gives a rough, uncushioned rhythm that suits a world without comfort.
A juxtaposition sentence: Hughes sets the mythic Crow beside the ferocious Tyrannosaurus in the title, and the effect is to collapse about 66 million years and make the reader see one appetite in both.
A symbol sentence: Tyrannosaurus is a symbol of raw predatory power, so when Crow is placed beside it in the title the poem suggests that the same brutality lives on in the modern bird.
A device log entry for your own notes: write the stanza and line, the device, and the effect, for example the title, juxtaposition and compression, which announce the pairing before the first line.
Name the device and find its place / then tell what effect it makes in that space / symbol, side-by-side, image stark / free verse rough against the dark.
Imagine a detective at the scene of a crime. She does not just say that there is a footprint. She says where it is and what it proves, and that is how you should treat every device.
Silly Jackals Imitate Dancing Frogs: Symbol, Juxtaposition, Imagery, Diction, Free verse.
N.P.E. - Name, Place, Effect, the three steps for writing about any device
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What are the three steps for writing about a device?
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What do Crow and Tyrannosaurus symbolise in the poem?
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Why is the title a device in its own right?
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What is free verse and why does it suit the poem?
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What should you do before naming a sound device such as alliteration?
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Something that stands for an idea or quality beyond itself; Tyrannosaurus, named in the title, stands for raw predatory power.
Placing two things side by side so that the reader compares them.
Language that appeals to the senses and creates pictures or sensations in the reader's mind.
An indirect reference to something the reader is expected to know, such as prehistoric predators or the folklore of crows.
The poet's choice of words; in the Crow poems it is plain, blunt and hard-edged.
Poetry with no regular rhyme scheme or metre, whose rhythm follows emphasis and speech.
The running on of a sentence or phrase from one line to the next without a pause at the line's end.
The repetition of the same consonant sound at the start of nearby words, which can create harshness, speed or emphasis.
'Crow Tyrannosaurus' relies chiefly on symbolism, juxtaposition and stark imagery, supported by a compact two-name title, the mythic treatment of Crow, plain hard-edged diction and free verse, which together make its violence feel inescapable.
The poem's key devices are its symbols, with Crow standing for the scavenger and survivor and Tyrannosaurus for raw predatory power; the juxtaposition of the two names in the title; and stark imagery that makes violence physical and hard to avoid. Around these sit other techniques typical of Hughes's Crow poems: a compressed title, a mythic treatment of Crow, plain and harsh diction, and free verse without a regular rhyme or metre. A good answer names a device, shows where it appears and explains its effect on meaning or mood.
How to write about a device. Use three steps: name the device, point to where it appears by stanza and line, and explain its effect on meaning or mood. A device that is named without an effect earns little credit, and a device you cannot find in the text should not be named at all.
Symbolism. A symbol is something that stands for more than itself. In Hughes's Crow poems, Crow is a mythic survivor, scavenger and trickster, and in this poem he stands for appetite and the will to survive. Tyrannosaurus, the prehistoric apex predator, stands for raw predatory power and brutality. Together they stand for the violence and survival instincts that the poem finds in nature and in humanity. These symbols carry the poem's meaning and are not decoration.
Juxtaposition. The device of the title is the placing of Crow beside Tyrannosaurus. The reader is invited to compare a living bird with an extinct predator and to notice a shared appetite. The effect is to collapse about 66 million years, so that violence seems continuous and not accidental.
Imagery. The poem's imagery is stark: hard, physical and unsoftened. Its effect is to make violence something the reader experiences and cannot easily look away from. When you write about imagery, say which senses it appeals to (sight, touch, hearing, taste or smell) and what feeling it produces.
The two-name title. The title joins two names with no linking word. This compression works almost like an equation: one creature is to be read through the other, and the comparison is invited before the first line.
Mythic characterisation. Crow is treated as a figure in a myth and not as a bird observed in a field. This allows the poem to speak about human nature through an animal and gives it the feel of a dark folk-tale.
Allusion. The names carry shared knowledge. Tyrannosaurus calls up the giant predators of prehistory, and Crow calls up folklore in which crows are scavengers, omens and birds of death. The poem does not have to explain these associations because the reader brings them.
Diction. Hughes's Crow poems favour plain, hard-edged words and blunt statement over ornament. The effect is bluntness and an unsentimental tone, since the language does not decorate violence.
Free verse and line breaks. Like the other Crow poems, this poem is in free verse, with no regular rhyme scheme or metre. Its rhythm follows emphasis and speech and not a fixed pattern, so it moves roughly and without the cushion of neat harmony, which suits a vision of nature without comfort. In free verse the line break is itself a device: look at where lines end and ask what pause or emphasis results.
Devices to test in your own copy. Hughes often uses strong verbs, harsh consonant sounds, alliteration, assonance and enjambment, and the Crow poems often carry a dark irony. Check whether and where these appear in this poem, note the stanza and line, and state the effect, such as harshness, speed, emphasis or menace.