Add some instructions in instructions.md file
Before Playing
If, before you begin to explore and engage the poems on this site, you wish to more fully acquaint yourself with poetic turns—especially how to locate and describe them—familiarize yourself with the >“Types of Turns”< on which this site focuses. Read the descriptions of the kinds of turns, of course, but also click the links to examine some examples of the various kinds of turns. See if you can spot the kinds of turns being described.
The links on >Types of Turns< take you to particular pages on the “Structure and Surprise” website. However, feel free to explore and read more broadly on that site.
Additional resources that for the poetic turn include Structure & Surprise: Engaging Poetic Turns (the inspiration for the “Structure and Surprise” website) and “Voltage Poetry”.
Select a Poem
You can select a poem a number of ways:
- Title: Select from an alphabetical list of poem titles.
- Author: Select from an alphabetical list of author’s names.
- Difficulty: Select a poem from among the following three levels of difficulty:
- Easy
In easy poems, the turns are located where one would generally expect to find them: often at the beginning of a line, and often in a place that’s formally significant, such as at the beginning of a stanza, or at the beginning of the sestet or the couplet in a sonnet. Furthermore, these turns often are announced by keywords that signal the presence of a turn, including “But,” “Yet,” and “Then.” Exclamations also often are signs of turns as they represent the speaker’s surprise at the shift in their experience and/or emotions, which the turn marks. - Moderate
In moderate poems, the turns tend to be either located where one would generally expect to find them or announced pretty clearly with a keyword. - Challenging
In difficult poems, the turns occur in places where they are generally not expected and no keyword clearly marks them.
- Easy
Random
Surprise yourself!
Identify the Turn
After you’ve found the location of the turn, you will be asked to identify the kind of turn operating in the poem from among four choices. Though turns often can be described in a variety of ways, only one answer of the four options will be correct.
If your selection is incorrect, you will be prompted to try again.
Once you’ve made the correct selection, you will be provided with a paragraph that discusses the poem and its turn. Feel free to read it over to see if your ideas about the poem and its turn line up with the site’s.
Then, select another poem, and play on!
Types of Turn
The following is a list of types of turns featured on this website, along with a brief description of each type. If you wish to learn more about these turns, click on the links provided.
The cliché-and-critique structure begins with a cliché (or clichés) then turns to critique that cliché.
The concessional structure turns from making concessions (that is, admitting the problems or difficulties in the argument one wants to make) to then, in fact, making the argument.
The dejection-to-elation structure turns (often as a result of some kind of triggering event) from sadness to happiness.
The dream-to-waking structure is a two-part structure that, first, provides a dream (or a daydream, or reverie, or a vision), and then, second, wakes from that dream. (Note that waking has the power to confirm or to negate the power of the dream. So, if the dream is undermined, it is likely that the poem will be structurally similar to poems that employ the ironic structure.)
The elegiac mode has three kinds of structures, each one revealing a different way of handling grief: one turns from grief to consolation; one turns from grief to the refusal of consolation; and one turns from grief to deeper grief.
The emblem structure turns from an organized description of an object to a meditation on, a consideration of, the meaning of that object.
The ironic structure turns from making an assertion to undercutting that assertion, or pulling the rug out from underneath what (one had thought) had been established in the poem.
The list-with-a-twist structure includes a list that turns–or twists–significantly toward the end. (Note: lots of poems use the list-with-a-twist structure; many of the structures listed here are more specific varieties of the list-with-a-twist.)
The metaphor-to-meaning structure is a two-part structure that moves from supplying a metaphor for something (a thing, or a situation) to revealing the meaning of, the significance behind, that metaphor.
The question-and-answer structure. Q. Is this structure really as self-explanatory as it seems? A. Yes.
The retrospective-prospective structure begins with a consideration of past events and then turns to look ahead to the future, or else look at a present situation differently.
The story-with-a-moral structure turns from telling a story to offering the lesson(s) of that story.