due Friday 12/18

Read "How" pp. 132-138 if you haven't done so.

due Thursday 12/17

Read "How," 132-138

due Wed. 12/16

Hand in your essay, electronically or physically, by 8 am.

due Tuesday December 15

Read "Gorilla, My Love," pp. 418-422, in a wide-awake state.

Don't forget: your poetry essay is due Wednesday. Please email it to me, but if you have any doubt about the transmission, bring in a physical copy. If I don't get it, I'll have to mark it late, and this is a pretty important grade.

due Monday 12/14

Your introduction, summary, and body paragraphs, edited, proof-read, beautiful: email them to me. ALSO bring a physical copy to class.

due Thursday 12/10

Write a summary of your poem that includes references to five of our literary terms.

Revise your summary so that it is subtly biased in favor of the claim you're making.

Bring all your essay-related materials to class.

due Wed. 12/9

In honor of The Nutcracker, no homework.

due Tuesday 12/8

Please write body paragraphs one and two of your essay about your poem. Bring in a hard copy or email me your paragraphs.

due Friday 12/4

1. Go to a second example (quotation) from poem that might support your simile idea. Choose a rich word from that example (quotation).

2. Look up the word in the American Heritage Dictionary or the OED. Find a definition that applies helpfully to your example. Discuss why it is helpful. Dig deep. Connect what you're saying to your simile idea.

3. Think of the connotations of the same word under discussion. Discuss how these connotations might apply to the example, the poem, and your simile idea.

Do the same activities regarding a third example.

due Thursday 12/3

1. Having decided on your poem(s) and simile(s), and having sent it (them) to me, choose five or so examples that might possibly support your simile.

2. For ONE of your examples, choose an important word.

3. In the American Heritage Dictionary (can be found on dictionary.com; keep scrolling down) or the Oxford English Dictionary, find a definition that is particularly apt. Explain why that definition is helpful.

4. Discuss how this helpful definition bears on your simile/claim.

5. Spend a few sentences writing about connotations of this same word and how they bear on your simile/claim.

due Tues. 12/1 and Wed. 12/2

due Tuesday 12/1:

1. Go back over the column two discussions you have written concerning different kinds of poetry/languages in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Underline important, specific nouns as they appear.

2. Write a claim about different kinds of poetry/language in A Midsummer Night's Dream, plus your best piece of evidence for the kind of character discussed. Include your four "rows." Try to include three or four specific nouns, mostly derived from your column two discussions.

Although this is Tuesday night's homework, you may hand it in on Wednesday, as I won't be in class. We'll have a substitute.

due Wednesday 12/2:

Choose a poem or matched pair of poems to write an essay about. You may choose one of the poems you wrote a simile for, or you may choose a different poem (or matched pair of poems) that we have studied. If you choose a different poem, write a simile for that poem ("what is the poem like?") or for each of the paired poems. Have your choice and your simile(s) ready to present in class.

due Friday 11/20

1. Do "row 3" (full-page version) of your chart about MSND.

Over vacation: "row 4."

due Thursday 11/19

1. , Write in a comment on this blog post, a simile for "Poetry," 792, "Sestina," 793, and "Ars Poetica" (794); then write a simile for the way one of these poems (or ["Do not go gentle into that good night"]) SOUNDS.

2. Have two "rows" (pages, really) of your "chart" on MSND. Your starting questions are, how does the language of each character differ from the language of the other characters? Is there anything notable that is common to the language of the different characters?

due Wednesday 11/18

1. MSND 4.2 and 5.1.1-107. No reading journal necessary.

2. Write a discussion in response to one of the following prompts, each concerning the poem "Poetry" on p. 792. If you prefer, you may combine two or more of the prompts. Email your discussion to me, or hand it in in person.

a. This poem is included in a section called "stanza forms." How would you describe the stanzas in this poem? How are they typical stanzas, or atypical stanzas? Do the stanzas reflect the content in any way?

b. The poem sounds like a lecture on poetry. Setting the stanza form aside, is it anything more than a lecture, or to put it another way, is there anything that makes it an unusual lecture?

c. What does the spekaer like and appreciate? Do these things have anything in common?

due Tuesday 11/17

1. Read the rest of MSND 3.2 (3.2.82-389) and do a reading journal about it.

2. Read "Ars Poetica," on p. 794 and email a discussion about it, answering one of the following prompts:

a. Describe the importance of references to the senses (i.e. images) in this poem.

b. On the one hand, the senses play an important role in this poem; on the other, the poem has parts that don't refer to the senses, like "A poem should be equal to: not true." How might the sense-infused parts and the parts that are not sense infused be related to each other?

If this homework assignment is taking you too long, stop reading 3.2 of MSND before the end of the scene and do a reading journal based on what you've read up until then.

due Monday 11/16

Read to the end of 2.2 in MSND, and do four-part journal.

Read "Sestina," p. 793, and discuss it in an email that you send to me in the usual way. In your discussion, please respond to one OR both of these prompts:

a) First thinking about the different images that arise, can you detect a pattern of imagery/ If so, discuss.

b) Is the poem more cozy and warm, or more anxious? Discuss.

1. Midsummer Night's Dream 2.1.188 to end of scene and 2.2.1-34; reading journal.

2. An example of the fairy, Puck, Titania, and Oberon at their most poetic, an a few words to distinguish how in each case the characters' way of being poetic is different from the others' way of being poetic. (The exercise we started to do in class.)

due Thursday 11/12

1. Casablanca analysis, cont.

2. Read 1.3.1-187; no journal necessary tonight.

due Wednesday 11/11

1. Continue to work on your Casablanca analysis.

2. NOTE CHANGE: A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1.2 (the entire scene), and journal, as yesterday.

due Tuesday 11/10

1. Work on your analysis (chart, claim, evidence); final version due Friday; find the scene on Youtube.

2. Do a reading journal concerning lines 1.1.48-252. It will have four parts:

(1) Three sentence summary of the reading.

(2) A question or two that the reading gave rise to.

(3) a word from the reading you found striking, with a sentence of explanation as to why.

(4) quote an image you found striking, and explain why in a couple of sentences.

due Monday 11/9

1. Hand in your analysis of Casablanca, including a chart, a claim, five pieces of evidence ranked in order of awesomeness.

2. Read A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 1, Scene 1, lines 1-56.

due Friday 11/6

Be ready to hand in your analysis of The Real Inspector Hound: chart, claim, five pieces of evidence in order of awesomeness. (No discussion required.)

Due Monday: same for Casablanca.

Due Thursday 11/5

1. Continue to work on your Real Inspector Hound analysis. Don't forget the different parts (see previous post). Due Friday.

2. Do row three of your Casablanca chart. If you need to see another scene and make a specific request, we'll watch it.

due Wednesday 11/4

PLEASE NOTE: if your chart-work leads you to desire to see a particular scene from Casablanca, and you come to class with a specific request, we will locate the scene and watch it.

1. "Joy Sonnet in a Random Universe" and "Sonnet," both on page 789: compare and contrast in an email to me.

2. Do your second row of a chart on Casablanca, using the scene we've watched as at least your starting point.

3. If you want to work more on your chart, claim, and five top pieces of evidence for your Real Inspector Hound analysis, do so. This package of work is due Friday.

due Tuesday 11/3

Finish your Real Inspector Hound chart and come up with a claim, an x + y = z claim if possible. To be graded.

due Monday 11/2

1. Write about "In the Park" and ["My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun"], both on p. 788, comparing and contrasting them; email your discussions to me.

2. Do at least one row of a chart, to be graded, on "The Real Inspector Hound." Re-reading the play, or parts of it, would be an excellent idea.

due Friday 10/30

Compare and contrast "In an Artist's Studio" and [What lips these lips have kissed], both on page 787. How are they alike? How are they different?

1. Read "Range-Finding," p. 785. Email me a discussion in which you consider this question: how many times or in how many ways does physical energy appear, or is it implied? If you're feeling ambitious, include in this discussion the elaborate rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter rhyme scheme.

due 10/27

Read "Church-Going," p. 760, and write an response to TWO of the following.

1. Give a plot summary. If someone has already given a plot summary and you're satisfied with it, use a different prompt. If you feel the plot summary/summaries provided so far aren't perfect, you may respond by respectfully offering an emendation.

2. Figure out the rhyme scheme. Off-rhymes (i.e. near-rhymes) count. If someone has already discovered a rhyme scheme and you're satisfied with it, use a different prompt. If you feel the rhyme scheme/s provided so far aren't perfect, you may respond by respectfully offering an emendation.

3. T or F: It's important to the speaker to try to tell the truth, to be accurate, about his experience. Quote an example in support of your reasoning.

4. Look up the meanings of these words, and then say something about what these words say about the way the speaker looks at life. If someone has already presented the meanings of the words satisfactorily, you can skip that part and go right on to saying what the words say about the way the speaker looks at life. Here are the words:

hectoring

sniggers

pyx

randy

5. Same as (4), with these words:

myrrh

silt

accoutered

frowsty

6. What is the speaker's attitude, overall, to churches?

7. Why do you suppose the speaker goes up behind the lectern in the front of the empty church, looks over a few Bible verses, and says the words "here endeth," as if he were a minister at a church service?

due Friday 10/23

1. Read The Real Inspector Hound 1071-1077.

2. Read "Mr. Flood's Party" 755 and answer one of the following prompts:

a) How would you describe the stanzas of this poem? (Once someone has answered satisfactorily, respond to a different prompt.)

b) Give a brief plot summary. (Once a satisfactory plot summary has been offered, respond to a different prompt.)

c) T or F: Eben Flood is a drunk, but he has dignity.

d) T or F: Mr. Flood has a dialogue with himself, but he do so with ironic consciousness that he is talking to himself.

e) List three of the most striking images by quoting them. Just quote the image, not the surrounding words. You don't have to explain; just quote them.

due Thursday 10/22

1. Read "123rd Street Rap," 752-753. Read it at least a couple of times, and one of the times, try reading it aloud.

2. Read The Real Inspector Hound, pp. 1065-1071, and comment on this blog in response to the following:

a. Try to summarize the plot of this section, or emend someone else's attempt to work out the plot summary.

b. find an example of something that someone would conceivably find humorous, quote it, and attempt to explain the humor (although that's a hard thing to do).

due Wednesday 10/21

1. Real Inspector Hound 1060-1065 up until s.d. "A strange impulse makes Simon turn on the radio."

A. T or F: Birdboot has his own kind of cleverness.

B. T or F: Sometimes Birdboot and Moon talk at cross-purposes; for example, when one is talking about the murder-mystery play-within-the-play, the other thinks he is talking about life outside the play.

C. T or F: Funny things happen in this section.

D. T or F: Exposition is handled in an unconventional manner. For a definition of exposition, see the Department Handbook, terms of literary analysis, at www.walnuthillfaculty.org.

E. Birdboot is also concerned with his status as a theater critic.

F. There is evidence that Birdboot is a womanizer despite his denials.

due Tuesday 10/20

1. The Real Inspector Hound, 1058-1060 ("Of such tiny victories and defeats . . . " [s.d.]) No further. Do T-F quiz on this blog. See below.

2. Read "Watching the Dance" p. 745 and be ready for a fishbowl discussion about it.

T-F Quiz: remember, don't just repeat what someone else has said. The same piece of evidence can be used for more than one argument.

A. T or F: Moon, the theater critic, is an insecure person.

B. T or F: Birdboot, the theater critic, is an insecure person.

C. T or F: Moon is not intelligent.

D. T or F: Birdboot is genial but self-centered.

E. T or F: There are some odd things about this play so far.

due Monday, 10/19

1. Read "Trifles," 1046. You will probably be in a fishbowl discussion on Monday or Tuesday and it will be a graded situation.

2. Please post a True or False-type comment on the poem "Dirge," p. 732. Don't forget supporting evidence. Questions are below; just answer one of them.

Have a good weekend!

A. T or F: This poem is a dirge. (You might have to look this word up.)

B. T or F: Lines 5-16 being one long sentence says something about the nature of the life of "he" who is the subject of the poem.

C. T or F: the author apparently approves of the life lived by the "he" who is the subject of the poem.

D. T or F: there is something fun about this poem.

Due Friday 10/16

Hand in your essay on a short story, including your chart.

Include a title.

If time, go through and get rid of the words "quote" and "quotation."

due Thursday 10/15

1. introduction and conclusion of essay.

2. Please read "Pied Beauty," page 695, and do a "true-false quiz, just like last night.

A. T or F: the exact definition of some of the words of this poem matter.

B. T or F: this is a happy poem.

C. T or F: this poem has an elaborate rhyme scheme.

D. T or F: alliteration contributes to our understanding of the tone (implied attitude) of the poem.

E. T or F: some of the poem's rhythms are syncopated.

due Wednesday 10/14

1. Work on your introduction and conclusion of your essay. The essay, plus your chart, is due Friday. Handwritten chart is okay.

2. "My Papa's Waltz," p. 691: in a comment on this post, say "statement (a) is true/false because . . ." Briefly give one reason and one supporting quotation from the poem. Don't repeat someone else's reason.

(a) T or F: this poems is about happiness.

(b) T or F: the sound of the poem matters. Sound could refer to rhythm, rhyme, or other.

(c) To or F: the imagery in this poem makes for a multi-sensory experience.

due Tuesday 10/13

Five body paragraphs of your short story essay.

Optional: think about their order. Re-arrange? New transitions?

Optional: ask yourself in the case of each paragraph, "have I isolated and analyzed?

Optional: have I mentioned my claims key words?

Due Friday 10/9

1. Make more progress on your short story essay. Due Monday: all five body paragraphs.

2. Email me a body paragraph.

thank you!

Due Thursday 10/8

More progress on your essay. Ideally you are writing your third body paragraph for tomorrow.

due Tuesday October 6

1. Your iambic pentameter exercise if you haven't handed it in already.

2. a draft of a chart analyzing your short story analysis. Include four pieces of evidence (quotations), a handling and grappling column, and an implication/line of inquiry column. AT LEAST ONCE in your second column, choose a word from the quotation and think about its denotation and its connotation.

Thank you!

Due Friday, Monday, and Tuesday

Tonight's homework is to discuss the poem "Morning Song," p. 675.

There will be no class on Friday. (However I will be here for my other classes including Art and Community, those of you in that class.)

Due Monday:

1. Discuss two poems in one discussion: "Morning" 676 and "A Description of Morning" 677.

2. Be ready for a quiz on ONE of the four short stories we have read in our anthology from which you have been collecting images. Your choice. It will be on literary terms. Closed books, no notes. BUT you must bring a list of quotations from the story that you can use as examples in responding to questions like "what is the setting of your story?" or "what is the imagery like in your story?

3. Keep bringing to class the list of images you have compiled from the four stories.

4. Hand in your iambic pentameter exercise by Tuesday (or before).

due Thursday 10/1

1. Find five images that you think seem pregnant with meaning or interest from each of the four short stories we've read: "Roman Fever," "A Rose For Emily," "The Yellow Wallpaper," and "The Country Husband."

2. Write about "The Night Wind," p. 670.

due Tuesday 9/29

1. Write a comment on this blog about "The Country Husband." See below for prompts.

2. Work on your analysis of the two paintings, due Wednesday. Hand in on Wednesday your observations, your chart, your summary, your claim, and your discussion.

3. Optional: write another "what I learned" personal essay, due tomorrow.

Prompts for "The Country Husband":

a) Tor F: Francis might be having a mid-life crisis.

b) Why might the dog, Jupiter, be in this story?

c) Why might Gertrude be in this story?

d) How does the near-airplane crash figure in?

e) What is the role of memory in this story, specifically Francis's memory of World War II?

due Monday 9/28

1. Discuss the poem "To His Coy Mistress," p. 671, another carpe diem poem

2. Read the rest of "The Country Husband," pages 81-88.

Please note that the analysis (observations, chart, summary, claim, discussion) is due Wednesday. Don't rewrite or type the observations and chart. Do type the summary, claim and discussion. Please hand in your work in hard copy.

Please also note that the OPTIONAL new essay about something you learned is due Tuesday.

due Thursday 9/24

1. Please discuss "Cherrylog Road," p. 447.

2. Please comment on this post about The Yellow Wallpaper. Some possible topics:

a) could this be read as a parable about feminism/sexism? Explain.

b) if it is a a parable about feminism and sexism, take a detail and explain how it would work.

c) How else could this story be read than as such a parable?

You're allowed to simply make an observation and think about it.

Specific references to the text are informative and persuasive.

due Wednesday 9/23

1. Please finish reading "The Yellow Wallpaper," if you haven't already. It's on pp. 513-524.

1. Please do discuss, as usual, the poem Song of Myself (just the first two parts though). I've pasted the two parts below. You may also find the two parts on our class blog. Don't forget to think about language unless you have a good reason not to. Send your discussion to me by email as usual.

Song of Myself

1

I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,

I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,

Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their

parents the same,

I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,

Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,

Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,

I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,

Nature without check with original energy.

2

Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with

perfumes,

I breathe the fragrance myself and know it and like it,

The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the

distillation, it is odorless,

It is for my mouth forever, I am in love with it,

I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and naked,

I am mad for it to be in contact with me.

The smoke of my own breath,

Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and

vine,

My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing

of blood and air through my lungs,

The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and

dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,

The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of

the wind,

A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,

The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,

The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields

and hill-sides,

The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising

from bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the

earth much?

Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?

Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of

all poems,

You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions~

of suns left,)

You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look

through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in

books,

You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,

You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

Due Tuesday 9/22

1. Discuss the poem "[I being a woman and distressed]" (p. 655).

2. Fill in the observation protocol for "Young Mother Sewing," found at www.metmuseum.org. (Use the search box.) The terms of visual analysis can be found in the department handbook, available at www.walnuthillfaculty.org.

3. Read "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Wednesday, 9/23.

due Monday 9/21

1. Please write about "Sololoquy of the Spanish Cloister" in the usual way. It will help to know that it's set in a monastery in the Renaissance era in Europe. The speaker hates Brother Lawrence in an obsessive way. Figuring out why might be something to right about.

2. Read "A Rose for Emily," 470-474, and write about it: see last night's prompt. Note that you should wait to look at the blog until after you have read, or the plot will be spoiled for you, and you don't want that to happen.

have a good weekend.

due Friday 9/18

1. Please write about "The Ruined Maid" (639) and "In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day" (641)--one discussion comparing the two poems.

2. Please read pp. 467-470, parts I and II of "A Rose For Emily," and blog. You might comment on plot, point of view, setting, diction, or anything else related, but I particularly urge you to look at Faulkner's syntax (sentence-structure), especially when a particular sentence's syntax catches your eye/ear.

3. Don't forget about the OPTIONAL revision of your discussion of "Rare Bird."

due Thursday 9/17

1. Write about "Persimmons" (631) in the usual way.

2. Write a comment on this post on the subject of "Roman Fever." Address one of the following questions, or not. Backing up what you say with evidence--a quoted phrase--is always effective.

a. What do Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley think of each other before the revelation that Babs (Barbara) is the daughter of Mrs. Slade's husband? How will this change now that the truth has been revealed?

b. Why is the setting appropriate to what goes on in the story?

c. Are Mrs. Slade equally sympathetic (likable or dis-likable), or do you end up rooting for one more than the other? Explain.

d. Is the view of human beings here essentially more positive or more negative?

e. What about the language of this story makes the story more than just a soap opera story of intrigue and betrayal?

due Wednesday 9/16

1. Please read pp. 113-119 (that is, to the end) of "Roman Fever." Comment as you did last night: first attempt a plot summary, or emend someone else's plot summary, until someone has gotten it right, in your opinion. If someone has, make an observation and give us your thinking about that observation.

2. Please read "Woodchucks" and "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" (627 and 628) and write about them in the usual way.

Thank you.

Homework due Tuesday 9/15/09

http://travel.webshots.com

1. Read "Let me not to the marriage of true minds," p. 611, and write about it in the usual way.

2. Read part I of "Roman Fever," pp. 110-113.

(a) Attempt to summarize the plot this far. If someone before you has done so and has made an error, respectfully say what you think is correct.

IF someone has come up with a summary you agree with, go on to (b).

(b) Make an observation, and think about it for a bit. (Column two thinking.) Feel free to refer respectfully to what others have said.

In case it's not clear, I am asking here for one, not two, blog comments.

Do read the comments made previously.

Please check back in after a half hour or so, read what people have written in the meantime, and say "I have read."

Thank you.

homework due Monday 9/14

1. Write about "Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone" and email it as usual. For your observations, remember that your list of literary terms can be helpful.

2. Write up your discussion of "Rare Bird."

Have a good weekend.

homework for Thursday September 10 2009

1. Poetry: Please write about TWO poems, both about grief over the death of a loved one: "On My First Son" (p. 602) and "The Vacuum" (p. 603). Your observations can either be about an individual poem OR about both poems. Do the "important words" part for each poem. Write only one "discussion" part for both poems, not one for each.

Remember: you don't have to write about the important words (although there's no penalty for doing so), you just have to list them.

2. Write at least one claim about "Rare Bird" based on your chart.

3. If you didn't do your summer reading or only did part of it, please email me a realistic schedule you intend to follow to get it (the rest) done. For example, "I'm going to read x stories per weekend.") Keep in mind that the last two stories are quite a bit longer than the preceding ones.

homework for Wednesday night, September 9

1. Please read The River-Merchant's Wife: a Letter" on p. 599 of your Norton Anthology. Same instructions as last time. Please include your observations. Please try to make one of your observations have to do with what the poem sounds like, because the sound is where a lot of the fun is. A poem without consideration of its sound is long a song with only the lyrics, no music.

2. Finish your analysis chart on the two pages from "Rare Bird."

Thank you!

First Day's Homework

http://en.wikipedia.org

1. Find your way to this blog.

2. Read "We Real Cool," p. in your Norton Anthology, and write about it.

a. Make 3-5 observations about the poem. (An observation is something that no sane person would disagree with.)

Each observation should seem intuitively to have some potential importance. For example, the fact that the letter e occurs x amount of times probably isn't too important. The fact that the poem contains no articles seems more important.

Other possibilities (feel free to use these): "The verbs in this poem are . . ." or "The rhymes in this poem work this way: . . ." or "The metaphors in this poem are . . ." (if you think there are any metaphors). The list of literary terms and definitions in the Humanities Department Handbook will provide you with lots of ideas for observations.

b. Write down 3-5 words that occur in the poem that seem to you the most most important or interesting.

c. Look over what you've done in (a) and (b). Now write for 1/2 a page to one page, typed, double-spaced, about the poem, in a relaxed way. Try to keep going until you think you've gotten somewhere, until you think you've made a discovery about the poem.

d. Save what you've written [in (a), (b), and (c)] in a folder dedicated to writing about poems. Send an email to me and attach what you've written to the email. (If you don't know how to send an attachment, copy what you've written into the body of your email.) My address is sdurning@walnuthillarts.org.

2. Read or re-read "Rare Bird" from Ship Fever.

3. Optional: make some more progress on your chart about the passage from "Rare Bird" we looked at in class (if we got as far as starting a chart.)

Thank you!