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.