02-04 Connotation-Exercise Blackberry Picking

Comp. Lit.
405
Name: Seeing the C in TP-CASTT: Understanding Connotation
Denotation is the strict dictionary meaning of a word.
Connotation is the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word.

Practice: Examine the group of words, and then arrange them in order of positive to negative. 1.________________________________________ most positive 2.________________________________________
Thin, slim, lanky, skinny, gaunt, slender
3.________________________________________ 4.________________________________________ 5.________________________________________ 6.________________________________________ most negative
All six words have a denotation that is essentially the same, but there is a very big emotional difference between calling someone slender and calling someone gaunt. Poets rely heavily on connotation to emotionally connect with readers in as few words as possible. Connotation directly relates to the tone of the poem (the attitude of the speaker and the mood it conveys). Lets try another exercise: Practice: Examine the group of words, and then arrange them in order of intensity.
7.________________________________________ most intense 8.________________________________________

mad, pissed, furious, angry, annoyed, displeased
9.________________________________________ 10._______________________________________ 11._______________________________________ 12.________________________________________least intense
Notice how the level of intensity is directly related to how descriptive and specific the word is
Poetic Connotation Exercise Blackberry-Picking, by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills We trekked and picked until the cans were full, Until the tinkling bottom had been covered With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's. We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found a fur, A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
Read the following poem by Seamus Heaney Title: Preview? Predictions? Questions? Significance?
Paraphrase: What is the face-value narrative here? This is our text.
Connotation: Underline the lines in the first stanza that correspond to the following questions
What lines seem important? How does the way they are written show importance? Where are the emotional words/lines in this poem? What are unusual phrasings, specific verbiage, repeated lines, etc? Where is the figurative language employed?
Subtext is the meaning simmering underneath the words and actions of the text (the face-value narrative). The text is the
tip of the iceberg, but the subtext is everything underneath that bubbles up and informs the text. You develop subtext by relying on specific connotative elements. Now, as an exercise in bringing subtextual elements to the surface: 1. Circle the words in the first stanza that I display on the screen. These will likely be words that you underlined in your Connotation annotations. 2. Look at the circled words what deeper, subtextual meaning seems to reveal itself in the first stanza? 3. Circle the words in the second stanza that I display on the screen. 4. Look at the circled words what deeper, subtextual meaning seems to reveal itself in the second stanza? What are the implications (the conclusions that can be drawn from something, although it is not explicitly stated) of this shift? 5. What is the takeaway feeling (tone) you think the author intended with this poem?
Use your analysis of connotation to arrive at a brief, interpretative statement about the poems meaning. Answer the following questions to help: A. How is blackberry-picking used as a conceit in this poem?
B. How does the poets use of connotative, loaded words effectively link blackberry-picking to the answer in A?
C. What is the essential shift, or change, that happens between the first and second stanzas?
D.
Considering this shift, how would you describe the tone of this poem?
In your group, write a thesis for Blackberry-Picking. Thesis: What is your interpretation? What deeper meaning seems to underlie the surface? What are the implications? Include the poets name, the title of the poem, the tone and interpretation, and how the specific TP-CASTT elements contribute to the theme.

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Comp. Lit.

Name: Seeing the C in TP-CASTT: Understanding Connotation

Denotation is the strict dictionary meaning of a word.

Connotation is the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word.

3. 4. 5. 6. most negative

7. most intense 8.

9.____________________ 10._ 11._ 12.____________________least intense

Paraphrase: What is the face-value narrative here? This is our text.

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