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The Litany Summary & Study Guide Description
The Litany Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:
This detailed literature summary also contains For Further Reading on The Litany by Dana Gioia.
The Litany Summary and Analysis
Preview of The Litany Summary:
Stanza 1
“The Litany” begins with the speaker calling attention to the poem as “a litany” in the first stanza, repeating the title phrase. The word litany can have two meanings: a series of prayers spoken or sung at a Christian worship service, asking for God's blessing, or a long, repetitious list of items that are usually considered complaints or problems. Both would be appropriate definitions here, since the poem is about “lost things,” as noted in the first line.
The speaker finds another way to describe the litany in the second line, as a “canon.” There are several definitions of this word, too, but the most relevant ones—which would suggest another term for litany as it is used in the first line—would be a body of religious or artistic works; the most solemn part of the Mass, or Holy Communion; and a list of Catholic saints.
The...
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This section contains 783 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |
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