For RAT #5, you will be given passages from a short poem on the syllabus, and asked which of the following elements of analysis it provides information for:

  1. the speaker of the poem.
  2. the addressee of the poem.
  3. the mood of the poem.
  4. cultural references and coordinates in the poem.
  5. figures of diction
  6. figures of thought in the poem.

You will therefore need to have memorized these six elements and know what they refer to. You DO NOT need to memorize specific figures (such as catachresis, etc.). For explanations, see the team assignment page for lyric under Thursday, 16 March.

Example:

Passage (supplied) Element (you supply) Explanation (not included on RAT)
They led you away at dawn Addressee The speaker addresses her husband
I followed you, like a mourner Speaker She participates in the action she describes
In the dark front room the children were crying Mood along with "mourning, "chill," and other words, this acrion identifies a mood of mourning and grief
The deathly sweat on your brow figure of diction catachresis: sweat cannot literally be deathly
I will be like the wives of the Streltsy, figure of thought comparison, using "like" or "as", does not involve substitution of one word for another, and is therefore considered a figure of thought
Howling under the Kremlin towers cultural reference (Streltsy and Kremlin) we must know Russian history to understand the comparison