Words of the Week:
predestinarianism
Quote of the Week: "America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still." - Edward Estlin Cummings
Website of the Week: The Worst Items from the SkyMall Catalogue
1.-5. All week we will work on poems not yet taught in preparation for our poetry test the week after spring break! I will review everything you need to know for the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition as well.
Form V English
In-class, open-book, open-note Poetry Test
Wednesday/Thursday, March 14 or 15; entire block
Tunstall Computer Laboratory
For the purposes of this test, you should consider the following 50 poems our subject matter:
"A Pact" by Ezra Pound p. 434
"A Supermarket in California" by Allen Ginsberg p. 532
"After Apple Picking" by Robert Frost p. 401
"After the Dinner Party" by Robert Penn Warren p. 635
"Annabel Lee" by E. A. Poe (on web)
"anyone lived in …" e e cummings p.352
"Birches" by Robert Frost p. 403
"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg p. 435
"Child" by Sylvia Plath p. 615
"Daddy" by Sylvia Plath p.607
"Desert Places" by Robert Frost p. 405
"Fever 103" by Sylvia Plath p. 610
"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost p. 406
"Harlem" (2) by Langston Hughes p. 638
"Heaven" Cathy Song 632
"I shall forget you presently, my dear" by E. S. V. Millay p. 415
"I will put chaos into 14 lines" by ESVM p. 418
"I, Too" by Langston Hughes p. 412
"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound p. 433
"In the Waiting Room" by Elizabeth Bishop p. 483
"Kitchenette Building" by Gwendolyn Brooks p. 489
"Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath p. 612
"Living in Sin" by Adrienne Rich p. 619
"Mending Wall" by Robert Frost p. 399
"My Papa's Waltz" by Robert Hayden p. 620
"next to of course god america I" by e e cummings p. 355
"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost p. 407
"o sweet spontaneous" e e cummings p. 356
"Of Mere Being" by Wallace Stevens p. 444
"oh, oh you will be sorry" ESVM p. 417
"One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop p. 486
"Out, out" by Robert Frost p. 408
"pity this busy monster" by e e cummings p. 357
"See No Evil" by Billy Collins (web)
"Sestina" by Elizabeth Bishop p. 487
"since feeling is first" by e e cummings p. 358
"Stopping by Woods" by Robert Frost p. 411
"Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens p. 445
"The Death of the BTG" by Randall Jarrell p. 535
"The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop p. 480
"The Hollow Men" by T. S. Eliot p. 365
"The Love Song of JA Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot p. 360
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes p. 413
"The Red Wheelbarrow" by W. C. Williams p. 451
"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost p. 410
"The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens p. 440
"The Young Housewife" by William Carlos Williams p. 450
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens p. 437
"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Earl Hayden p. 534
"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks p. 490
Your answers should draw from this list of poems. Choose four (4) of the following eight (8) questions to answer. Three (3) of your answers should be a single paragraph and no longer than ten (10) sentences, your fourth (4th) answer may be any length you like. Plan your answers well and make every word count. You may also use your knowledge of complex-compound sentences and modification to make each sentence say more. Your answer should reveal thoughtful reflection, deep understanding, and precise and eloquent writing. Good close reading skills are important in every question. While you may mention class discussion in your answer, you should work to show independent thought and your own critical understanding.
1. Choose three poems that have a significant commentary on the nature of family. How do these poems offer a theory of how human beings are to understand their families and how that part of who they are shapes their identity and world? While your individual readings may be different, your overarching thesis for this question should strive to find some common element or idea that the three poems you have chosen share about the nature of families.
2. How do men and women view each other? Choose three poems that have a significant contribution to the way that men view women or how women view men and write an analysis of how these poems present the insights and limitations of the ways that genders see and understand each other.
3. Using your knowledge of Frost’s poetry, write a letter from Robert Frost to Wallace Stevens where you articulate what Frost would like and dislike about Stevens’s poetry and what Frost might recommend that Stevens do with future writings.
4. Find a total of four (4) similes and/or metaphors from these poems and analyze the nature and use of those poetic devices. How do these poets use simile and metaphor to create meaning? What lies behind the power of the similes and/or metaphors you have chosen? What
5. What three poems define the nature of how poetry works as an art form? Articulate what the three poems you have chosen teach readers about how to understand and interpret poetry.
6. Devise a system that classifies at least 25 of these poems, and explain your categorization and organization. What does your system offer as its theory of how we should understand poems?
7. Nature and perception Several of these poets offer observations about perceiving nature as well as the nature of perception. Choose three poems that foreground nature and perception and argue for an analysis of how these poems teach their readers about both the natural world and our abilities to perceive (or failing to perceive) nature.
8. Are social problems merely the result of single human beings (perhaps even several individual human beings) doing things that they should not or is there something more to them than that? Choose three (3) poems that examine social problems and write an analysis of them that also answers the question about whether it is individuals or something like social systems that create social problems.
9. The Maverick: Design your own question and get it approved before the test!
10. The Prodigy: How do the paleo-modernist poetic visions of T. S. Eliot (as expressed in poems like “The Hollow Men,” The Waste Land, and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”) combine with the imagist minimalist-modernist visions of William Carlos Williams (expressed in such poems as “The Red Wheelbarrow,” and “This is Just to Say”) lead to the postmodernism expressed in such poems as Allen Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California” and Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”?
Form V English
American Literature
Mr. Kidd
Poetry Teaching Project
Length: As long as it needs to be to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting
Date for Presentation: schedule to be announced (set in class!)
Date Due: Two school days after you teach
Please read all the directions and speak with me about any questions you may have.
We will draft a teaching schedule for each bell once we have determined our final choices.
Your final composition should have all of the following parts to it: (and keep them in this order unless you have some creative rationale for changing the order)
1. Your individual close reading of the poem (no research)
2. Research Summary: this section of the essay will reflect your understanding of what people have said about your poet, his/her poetry, and even this specific poem. You do not need to have an original thesis for this writing; your job is to do some expository reporting on what people have said about this poem and issues important to it. Don’t get hung up on looking for criticism specific to your poem; that won’t always be available. You may have to look more broadly for research that can help you. Think about themes involved in your poem and research those. A poem about a war, for example, might lead you to some research about the politics and history involved. Also consider how a critic’s comments on another poem may offer guidelines for how you should interpret your poem. Look also for images and audio (especially your poet reading your poem). Use MLA formatting for your documentation of the research you use. All of the information you need about how to cite your work is in Diana Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual. Additional information about citation is available online at:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/pocket5e/player/pages/Login.aspx?sViewAs=S&sUserType=
(You may find the model papers on the Hacker website to be useful guides to how your final draft should look.)
3. Lesson Plan: make this as detailed as you can; list what questions you will ask (and in what order?), what activities you will do, etc.
4. (To be written after the teaching) A reflection on how your teaching went: write about how it was for you to teach this class and the entire process of becoming an expert on this poem and communicating that understanding of your class.
Your essay will count twice (out of 100 points), and your teaching will count once (100 points) You may revise your essay for this assignment, but your teaching grade is not eligible for revision.
Poetry Assignments
B Bell (18)
Matt Cole "Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens
Lee Davis "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost
Tabor Furr "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost
Caroline Grell "oh, oh you will be sorry" ESVM
Gabi Hibbert "Harlem" (2) by Langston Hughes
Michelle Kislyakov "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath
Jordan Kovach "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks
Rachel Lawson "After Apple Picking" by Robert Frost
Garrett Ott "anyone lived in …" e e cummings
Meredith Ross "Lady Lazarus" by Sylvia Plath
Alan Salimov "Of Mere Being" by Wallace Stevens
Julie Scaglione "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost
Kelley Smith "o sweet spontaneous" e e cummings
Charles Springer "Out, out" by Robert Frost
Katherine Stine "My Papa's Waltz" by Robert Hayden
Harris Thomas "Desert Places" + "Stopping by Woods" by Robert Frost
Joey Velasquez "pity this busy monster" by e e cummings
Grace Webb "The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens
F Bell (18)
Darrell Boyce "In the Waiting Room" by Elizabeth Bishop
Harry Burdett "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost
Victoria Cornetta "The Hollow Men" by T. S. Eliot
Erin Dorr "since feeling is first" by e e cummings
Kathryn Fink "Sestina" by Elizabeth Bishop
Nathan Kanter "Desert Places" and "Stopping by Woods" by Robert Frost
Hannah Luker "Out, out" by Robert Frost
Lily Mantz "I will put chaos into 14 lines" by ESVM
Thomas Moss "Kitchenette Building" by Gwendolyn Brooks
Allison Parks "I, Too" by Langston Hughes
Jay Shah "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost
Olivia Shaves "anyone lived in a pretty how town" e e cummings
Holly Shearin "The Young Housewife" by William Carlos Williams
Nick Swarup "Birches" by Robert Frost
Terence Tsang "Of Mere Being" by Wallace Stevens
DeMarcus Turner "Harlem" (2) by Langston Hughes
Simon Walpole "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop
Jay Windsor "pity this busy monster …" e e cummings
G Bell (16)
Wendi Chen "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath
Aidan Cochrane "See No Evil" by Billy Collins
Darden Copeland "o, sweet spontaneous" by e e cummings
Blake Culver "The Love Song of JA Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot
Erica Fink "anyone lived" by e e cummings
Sarah Ford "Sestina" by Elizabeth Bishop
Barclay Freeman "The Death of the BTG" by Randall Jarrell
Lindsay Gould "Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens
Carter Hall "pity this busy monster" by e e cummings
Libby Henry "Oh, Oh, you will be sorry …" by ESVM
Franklin Kramer "The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens
Nathan Levy "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop
Sarah Nelson "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop
Patrick Robertson "Out, out" by Robert Frost
Kevin Tan "Heaven" Cathy Song
Ian Tembe "Stopping by Woods" by Robert Frost
Form VI English: Philosophical Literature:
Reading Schedule for William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Due on 2/9: Act I sc 3 and 4
2/10 Act I Sc 5; Act II, Sc 1
2/13 Act II Sc 2
2/14 Act III Sc 1
2/15 Act III Sc 2 + 3
2/17 Act III Sc 4
2/21 Act IV Sc 1-5
2/22 Act IV Sc 6+7
2/23 Act V Sc 1
2/24 Finish
2/27 Hamlet review and discussion
2/28 Hamlet review and discussion
3/1 test on William Shakespeare's Hamlet: quotation identification (speaker, occasion, audience, purpose) and short answer relating quotes to philosophical quotations. Closed-book, in-class.
