You have 40 minutes in which to complete the following timed essay. Please begin your time with your first reading of the prompt.
The following open ended question was taken from the 2010 AP Literature and Composition Exam.
BEGIN TIME - 40 minutes
"In the following soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II, King Henry laments his inability to sleep. In a well-organized essay, briefly summarize the King's thoughts and analyze how the diction, imagery, and syntax help to convey his state of mind."
How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle sleep!
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness? (5)
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hush'd with buzzing in night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state, (10)
And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast (15)
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge,
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them (20)
With deaf'ning clamour in the slippery clouds,
That with the hurly death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude
And in the calmest and most stillest night, (25)
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a King? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
__________________________________
huts
not impartial
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Monday, September 23, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
Friday, September 6, 2013
The Canterbury Tales: Symbolism
Please discuss the following three symbols from "The Prologue": springtime, clothing, and physiognomy.
Questions to consider for springtime:
1. What does Spring represent?
2. What does Spring have in common with a pilgrimage?
3. Why is this time of year particularly suited to a journey?
Questions to consider for clothing:
1. Why did Chaucer spend time describing what each pilgrim was wearing?
2. What do our clothes symbolize?
Information you need to know for physiognomy:
1. In Chaucer's day people believed that members of a particular social class
shared the same physical features.
This should be three separate paragraphs.
Questions to consider for springtime:
1. What does Spring represent?
2. What does Spring have in common with a pilgrimage?
3. Why is this time of year particularly suited to a journey?
Questions to consider for clothing:
1. Why did Chaucer spend time describing what each pilgrim was wearing?
2. What do our clothes symbolize?
Information you need to know for physiognomy:
1. In Chaucer's day people believed that members of a particular social class
shared the same physical features.
This should be three separate paragraphs.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Tone/Close Reading Practice for Tuesday September 3rd
Please use your Attitude Word handout pg. 59 to determine the tone of the following passages. More than one tone might apply.
Next, choose either passage 1 or 4 and apply the Close Reading techniques you learned from the video. Write a well written paragraph on your analysis.
1. "...I don't miss them now - don't get me wrong. But I do, just sometimes, miss the time when the place I called home had so much wrong with it that what kept it from falling apart was the joke all around it. And I do, just sometimes, miss my state of mind, an easier dimension then, that allowed me to laugh at the thought of gigantic, mutant roaches living in my linen closet..."
2. "Jim Foxx, who convinced millions of the benefits of exercise in his book running, died a few months ago while jogging in Vermont."
3. "They sued him on trumped-up charges and convicted him in a kangaroo court, and they burned his home to the ground while the fire department stood around watching the flames consume the night. Was this justice? No. It was racism."
4. "I returned to Rainy Mountain in July. My grandmother had died in the spring, and I wanted to be at her grave... My grandmother had a reverence for the sun, a holy regard that is now all but gone out of mankind... I remember her most at prayer. She was the strength of the family. She had at last succeeded to that holy ground."
Next, choose either passage 1 or 4 and apply the Close Reading techniques you learned from the video. Write a well written paragraph on your analysis.
1. "...I don't miss them now - don't get me wrong. But I do, just sometimes, miss the time when the place I called home had so much wrong with it that what kept it from falling apart was the joke all around it. And I do, just sometimes, miss my state of mind, an easier dimension then, that allowed me to laugh at the thought of gigantic, mutant roaches living in my linen closet..."
2. "Jim Foxx, who convinced millions of the benefits of exercise in his book running, died a few months ago while jogging in Vermont."
3. "They sued him on trumped-up charges and convicted him in a kangaroo court, and they burned his home to the ground while the fire department stood around watching the flames consume the night. Was this justice? No. It was racism."
4. "I returned to Rainy Mountain in July. My grandmother had died in the spring, and I wanted to be at her grave... My grandmother had a reverence for the sun, a holy regard that is now all but gone out of mankind... I remember her most at prayer. She was the strength of the family. She had at last succeeded to that holy ground."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)