Which are you?

Civilization is made up of leaders, followers, inventors and peacemakers.  Which are you?  Give examples of the qualities you have that make you a leader, follower, inventor or peacemaker.  Four to five sentences.

Never give all the heart

Consider the poem below.  What is the author's attitude toward romantic love?  Do you agree with his position?  Please post before Wednesday, 12 noon.

Never give all the heart

  by W. B. Yeats

Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.

Where are you going, where is the theme?

Consider the elements of Southern Gothic Literature:
* Setting is eerie, remote, sometimes drafty old family estate;
* Atmosphere is mysterious, suspenseful;
* There is a ghostly legend, an unexplained occurrence, OR a horrible death or tragedy that took place;
* Omens, foreshadowing, dreams, that add to the mystery;
* Emotions run high, particularly terror, anxiety, anger, agitation, a feeling of doom, or obsessive love;
* Supernatural events (sometimes masqueraded as natural events -- including weather and natural disasters);

* Damsel in distress, women who are frightened, threatened or confused; women who are ailing, dying of a mysterious disease;
* Words (diction) that evoke gloom and doom, foreboding, forbidding, ghostly imagery;
* Romanic themes of that involve the death of a man or woman who are madly in love; obsessive love, excessive grief upon the loss of a loved one;
* Injustice.

How do Mockingbird and "Where are you going..." measure up as Gothic works?  Is one work more "gothic" than the other?  Explain your answer.  Due in class today.

Good or evil? It's complicated.

 

NATURE VS. NURTURE:  Ender's Game deals with characters  failing to live up to our standards of morality, civility, or generosity.  Does this novel truly reflect how people are, at their core?  Are men and women born with evil in their hearts, or is it shaped by the environment in which they are born and raised?  Due during the first 10 minutes of class.

FOR PERIOD F - Same poem, over a century later...

Read the poem, below.  Consider the theme, tone and message of the poem, and write your own UNIQUE poem using the ideas and attitudes demonstrated by Dickinson.  Do not simply paraphrase Dickinson's poem, but create your own special way of discussing this topic. Because I could not stop for Death
by Emily Dickinson
Because I could not stop for Death –  He kindly stopped for me –  The Carriage held but just Ourselves –  And Immortality. We slowly drove – He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility –  We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess – in the Ring –  We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –  We passed the Setting Sun –  Or rather – He passed us –  The Dews drew quivering and chill –  For only Gossamer, my Gown –  My Tippet – only Tulle –  We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground –  The Roof was scarcely visible –  The Cornice – in the Ground –  Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity –

This poem, more than a century later.

Read and reflect on the poem below, determining the poet's message.  Now, in your own unique way, rewrite your own version of this poem, keeping its message intact.  You have 7 minutes.

THE BODY grows outside,—
The more convenient way,—
That if the spirit like to hide,
Its temple stands alway
Ajar, secure, inviting;	5
It never did betray
The soul that asked its shelter
In timid honesty.

Emily Dickinson 

(1830–86).  

POETRY - How to read a poem

Read the poem below and answer question one here on the blog.  Attempt to answer questions 2 through 16 on a sheet of paper.  Hand in on Monday.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

By Dylan Thomas

  

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

1. Who is the speaker in this poem? What kind of person is he or she?

2. To whom is he/she speaking? In other words, describe the speaker's audience.

3. What is the situation and setting in time (era) and place?

4. What is the purpose of the poem?

5. State the poem's central idea or theme in a single sentence.

6. Indicate and explain (if you can) any allusions. Do the allusions share a common idea?

7. Describe the structure of the poem. What is its meter and form? (Scan it.)

8. How do the structure of the poem and its content relate?

9. What is the tone of the poem? How is it achieved?

10. Notice the poem's diction. Discuss any words that seem especially well chosen?

11. Are there any predominant images in the poem?

12. Note metaphors, similes, and personification, and discuss their effects.

13. Recognize and discuss examples of paradox, overstatement (hyperbole), and understatement (litotes).

14. Explain any symbols. Is the poem allegorical?

15. Explain the significance of any sound repetition (alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc.).

16. Discuss whether or not you think the poem is successful.