monDAY, november 27 (6)
Defining poetry / What might we take away from these few weeks reading and thinking about poems?
We'll begin today by looking at a few of history's greatest definitions of poetry before trying to come up with one of our own.
Poems: Billy Collins, "Introduction to Poetry", Archibald Macleish, "Ars Poetica", Wallace Stevens, "Of Modern Poetry", and Howard Nemerov, "Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry"
tuesDAY, novemBER 28 (1)
Reading poetry out loud, studying poetry, enjoying poetry / Chaucer's "sentence and solas" / "This poem dramatizes the conflict between..." / Shelley's metaphor for poetry
Poem: Richard Wright, "Between the World and Me"
wednesDAY, november 29 (2)
Poem pair 1: Richard Wilbur, "A Barred Owl" and Billy Collins, "The History Teacher"
Poem pair 2: Theodore Roethke, "My Papa's Waltz" and Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays"
thursday, november 30 (3)
friday, december 1 (4)
Poem Pair 3: John Keats, "When I have Fears that I May Cease to Be" and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Mezzo Cammin"
monDAY, december 4 (5)
Today we're going to formally think about the difference between literal and figurative language. What are some of the purposes of thinking figuratively? In general, figures are used to make abstract ideas more concrete. We're specifically going to be looking at one type of figure of speech, the famous but elusive METAPHOR. Let's make the abstract more concrete by using a few metaphors to define metaphor.
Poem: WH Auden, "Law like Love"
Tomorrow I will not be on campus, so you'll have the period to work on your final poetry assignment. When we return on Wednesday, we'll look at our next poem pair.
tuesDAY, december 5 (6)
Kubus at jury duty - No class
wednesDAY, december 6 (1)
Poem pair 4: Anne Stevenson, "Eros" and Robert Bridges, "Ἔρως""
thursday, december 7 (2)
Poem pair 5: Emily Dickinson, “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and Robert Frost, “Acquainted with the Night”
friday, december 8 (3)
Today we're going to look at 4 sample poem comparisons from students like yourselves.
monDAY, december 11 (4)
Poetry Assignment Work Day
tuesDAY, december 12 (5)
Poem: Richard Wilbur, "Love Calls Us to the Things of this World"
wednesDAY, december 13 (6)
Poem: William Butler Yeats, "Sailing to Byzantium"
thursday, december 14 (1)
Final Poetry Presentations - Day 1
friday, december 15 (2)
Final Poetry Presentations - Day 2
monDAY, december 18 (3)
Final Poetry Presentations - Day 3
tuesDAY, december 19 (4)
Final Poetry Presentations - Day 4
Over the Christmas recess I'd like for you to read pages 3-13 of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, so we have some text to work with on day one. Respond to the following in your notes. I want you to have a good chunk of your notebook reserved for The Road. This will be your storehouse of insights for use later in the third quarter.
(1) How do you characterize McCarthy's style?
(2) What is the novel's first action? Whose action is it? Why begin with that action? What theme does it set immediately?
(3) How does the father show love to his son? Why does the father care so much for the boy? (Think. Question not as stupidly obvious as it seems.) What does the son mean to the man?
What's Due?
Thursday, December 14 - Tuesday, December 19: Final Poetry Assignment
Friday, December 15: Crime and Punishment rewrite
current texts to bring daily
No textbooks are needed for the current unit. Please always come prepared with a printout of the day's poem or poems.
text to purchase now
Word of the day
studying poetry
Essays on poetic theory (Make Aristotle, Horace, Sidney, Keats, and Shelley a priority)
enjoying poetry
Compilation by Maria Popova at BP
Brian Cranston reads Shelley's "Ozymandias"