Saturday, March 8, 2014

Week of April 1st Poetry Explication

Write a paragraph explaining the meaning of e.e. cummings poem.

 

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

e. e. cummings



somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond               1
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me                           5
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,                        10
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture               
compels me with the color of its countries,                       15
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands                  20

Week of March 24th Practice Essay Prompt

Write a paragraph outlining what you would discuss in answering this essay prompt.

"Choose a novel or play that depicts a conflict between a parent (or a parental figure) and a son or daughter. Write an essay in which you analyze the sources of the conflict and explain how the conflict contributes to the meaning of the work."**

Romeo and Juliet
Pride and Prejudice
Hamlet
The Mayor of Casterbridge

Tuesday March 18th Practice Essay Prompt

Below is a copy of a previous prompt used on the AP exam. In a short paragraph, explain what you would discuss in your essay if you were answering this question.

"Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole."**

The prompt then offers numerous examples of novels to choose from. I have a listed a few below that I know you have read.

Great Expectations
Heart of Darkness
A Midsummer Nights Dream
Pride and Prejudice 

**collegeboard.com

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Oscar Wilde

Please go to www.oscarwildecollection.com and read The Importance of Being Ernest.

As we are reading A Tale of Two Cities, you have two weeks to read the play. On Friday, March 21st, we will discuss the play and answer an AP prompt.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Poetry Explication for Weekend of February 22nd

Please read the following poem by Elizabeth Jennings. Write a short essay explaining the meaning of the poem. Next, write a few sentences explaining the significance of the use of enjambment in the poem.
 
 
 
Answers
 
I keep my answers small and keep them near;
Big questions bruised my mind but still I let
Small answers be a bulwark to my fear.

The huge abstractions I keep from the light;
Small things I handled and caressed and loved.
I let the stars assume the whole of night.

But the big answers clamoured to be moved
Into my life. Their great audacity
Shouted to be acknowledged and believed.

Even when all small answers build up to
Protection of my spirit, I still hear
Big answers striving for their overthrow

And all the great conclusions coming near.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Response to Enotes analysis of "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron

After reading your copy of the enotes summary on "She Walks in Beauty," please write one paragraph summarizing the usage of enjambment and change in meter as noted in the article. Try to not use any quotes. I am wanting you to truly comprehend what the article is saying, and then put it into your own words.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Begin learning all terms from "What is Imagery" worksheet located in  your packet.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Below you will find five poems. Please identify the form of each using your "Kinds of Poetry According to Form" worksheet. You may use your worksheet.

The definition of terza rima is a series of tercets with the rhyme scheme aba bcb cdc etc...

From Second Satire
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-42)
My mother’s maids, when they did sew and spin,
They sang sometimes a song of the field mouse,
That for because their livelihood was but so thin
Would needs go seek her townish sister’s house.
She thought herself endured to much pain:
The stormy blasts her cave so sore did souse...

1._________________________________

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
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.

2.__________________________________________

Autumn Love
author not knownCome take my hand my autumn angel
No longer summers colours bright
Lush green hues are no longer visible
And days share equal time with night.
Cool mornings and a paler sky sight
Leave a legacy the colours of red and gold.
So thankful crops are gathered, and sold,
This time is ours in our private nest
Away from cooler seas that chill the air
It is now we find that time alone is best
With evenings by a fire in a comfy chair
Now that time is best to show we care
And future lives stretching out forever
That we earned through our endeavor


3. _____________________________________

From Marriage
Marianne Moore (1887-1972)
This institution,
perhaps one should say enterprise
out of respect for which
one says one need not change one’s mind
about a thing one has believed in,
requiring public promises
of one’s intention
to fulfill a private obligation:
I wonder what Adam and Eve
think of it by this time,
this fire-gilt steel
alive with goldenness;
how bright it shows—

4._____________________________

From Visions
Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374)
Being one day at my window all alone,
So manie strange things happened me to see,
As much as it grieveth me to thinke thereon.
At my right hand a hynde appear’d to mee,
So faire as mote the greatest god delite;
Two eager dogs did her pursue in chace.
Of which the one was blacke, the other white:
With deadly force so in their cruell race
They pincht the haunches of that gentle beast,
That at the last, and in short time, I spide,
Under a rocke, where she alas, opprest,
Fell to the ground, and there untimely dide.
Cruell death vanquishing so noble beautie
Oft makes me wayle so hard a desire.

5.________________________________________