U4 Rosa Poem - Word Relationships

Define

Thinking in terms of word relationships can help build your vocabulary. It can also help you to analyze and appreciate how
carefully an author has chosen particular words to describe or express something.

One type of word relationship is denotation and connotation. Of course, all words have denotations, or dictionary definitions.
But also knowing and understanding their connotations—the implied meanings that are not part of their dictionary
definitions—can help you to identify the subtle differences between them. For example, the words cheap and inexpensive are
synonyms: they have the same denotation (not costly), but their connotations are different. The word cheap usually has a
negative connotation, implying that something is inexpensive but poorly made. By contrast, the word inexpensive has a neutral
connotation: it doesn’t make any judgment about quality.

Another good tool for thinking in terms of word relationships is to use analogies. An analogy is a comparison that illustrates an
idea by comparing it to something that is already understood. You can use analogies to understand various types of word
relationships, including synonyms and antonyms, item to category, part to whole, and cause to effect. For example, you know
that synonyms are words that share the same denotation. So an analogy can be used to illustrate their different connotations:
Sad is to gloomy as happy is to cheerful. Similarly, antonyms are words with opposite denotations. An analogy using antonyms
might be: Lively is to listless as happy is to sad.

Identification and Application:

●When reading poetry, look for words with multiple meanings and think about the connotations associated with words and
how these words enhance the meaning of the poem.

●Poets may use antonyms to create contrasting images in order to highlight the difference between such things as ideas,
emotions, and situations in poems.

●Poets may create word relationships using several different forms of analogy:

●In an item to category analogy, one word in each pair is a category; the other word is part of that category: bus to
vehicle.

●In a part to whole analogy, one word in each pair is a part of the other word which names the whole: step is to staircase.

●In a cause to effect analogy, one word in each pair is a cause of the other word: rainstorm is to flooding.

Model

In the poem "Rosa," poet Rita Dove takes her inspiration from Rosa Parks and Parks’s refusal to give up her seat on a
Montgomery, Alabama, bus. Dove is careful and deliberate in her word choices—using opposing relationships between words
and phrases to convey meaning, create images, and build tension—as she reflects on a historic individual and a historic moment in
time. The tension created by the relationships between words reflects the tensions of the time, and of the events Dove is
describing. Consider the first stanza of the poem:

How she sat there,

the time right inside a place

so wrong it was ready.

By choosing “how,” as the first word of the poem, Dove sets the tone and immediately calls upon readers to pay attention. For it
is not enough simply to remember that Parks sat on a bus— how she conducted herself, with quiet strength and determination,
matters.

Model

In lines two and three, the poet uses the antonyms “right” and “wrong” to contrast what happened on that December night in
1955, when the time was “right,” but the city was “wrong.” Not wrong as in, the wrong city for Rosa’s action—wrong because of
its deep discrimination. By choosing not to give up her seat, Parks gave notice to the racially charged city of Montgomery (“a
place so wrong it was ready”) that blacks would no longer submit to the ongoing indignities of segregation on city buses.
“Wrong” and “ready” are not antonyms, but they are still set up as a contrast in these lines; despite the city’s racist laws, it is
“ready” for change.

That trim name with

its dream of a bench

to rest on. Her sensible coat.

In the second stanza, the contrasting words “dream” and “sensible” invite readers to take a closer look at Parks. Who was she,
really? Her modest, down-to-earth manner, reflected by a “trim name” and “sensible coat,” suggest a dreamer whose small, but
heroic act had a significant impact on civil rights.

Model

Dove uses contrast again in the third stanza:

Doing nothing was the doing:

the clean flame of her gaze

carved by a camera flash.

In the first line, the poet suggests that “doing nothing” is “doing” something. At first, this paradox—a statement that seems
contradictory, but is true—may challenge readers. How can Parks, or anyone else for that matter, do something by doing
nothing? Dove gives readers time to pause at the colon to consider this idea. Parks refuses to stand and give up her seat. In
essence, she does nothing. However, by refusing to stand, Parks does something very important. She figuratively stands up to
the laws of segregation. By not standing or “doing nothing,” she makes a bold statement.

Your Turn

Read this stanza from “Rosa” to analyze word relationships and answer the follow-up questions.

How she stood up

when they bent down to retrieve

her purse. That courtesy.

Multiple Choice

Part A

What example of a word relationship is represented in this stanza?

• Words with similar meanings.

• Words that show item to category.

• Words that show part to whole.

• Words with opposite meanings.

Multiple Choice

Part B

Which words from the stanza support your answer in Part A?

• “stood up,” “bent down”

• “to,” “retrieve”

• “her,” “purse”

• “that,” “courtesy”