October 2009 Archives

The Full Text

I hope everyone won't pick "The Raven," but please pick a poem and be ready to read it aloud in class.  You can pick two short poems, if you like.

I'll assign a 10% bonus for picking a poem that I didn't already assign for class (meaning you could earn 55 out of 50 points).

You don't have to memorize your selection, but I would like you to submit a printout that you've marked up to indicate how the way you delivered the words helped you to convey the meaning.

For example, what words are really important, so that you need to punch them by making them louder?

Where will you make an extra effort not to pause at the end of a line, because the thought continues from the end of one line to the beginning of the next?

I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.

If you pause after "see," it sounds like you're saying that you're blind, which is completely different from what you would mean if you read the two lines straight through, without any pause.

Where will you make your voice louder? Where will you insert a gasp, or a hand gesture, or something else that might help you to convey the meaning?

1) Perform your poem, 2) listen to the class reaction, then 3) speak briefly about the effects you were trying for and how your study of the poem directed you to read the poem aloud a certain way.  Then 4) turn in your marked-up printout.

Here is an example of a poet giving life to a poem... note that he doesn't sound in the slightest like he's "reciting a poem" (though the audio doesn't exactly match the text on this page).

Taylor Mali, "What Teachers Make (Or, If Things Don't Work Out, You Can Always Go to Law School)"

Of course, if the poem you select has a rhyme scheme and a strict rhythm, you do need to respect and use that rhythm.  Here's a recitation of Green Eggs and Ham, by civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. (This was a Saturday Night Live skit, performed shortly after Dr. Seuss died in the early 1990s.)

Please write two agenda items for this collection, each one referring to one or two poems.

Vol 1. Life
X: "In a Library"
XIII: "The soul selects her own society"
XX: "I taste a liquor never brewed"

Love
XIII Renunciation

Nature

IV Perhaps you'd like to buy a flower?

Time and Eternity
XVII I never saw a moor

Volume II
Life
The Railway Train

Love
VI The way I read a letter 's this

Nature
XX Old Fashioned

Time and Eternity
VIII I have not told my garden yet

Everyone should read and blog about The Raven (1845) Everyone should also read and comment on peer agenda items on "The Raven."

Everyone should also read the other poems, and write a blog entry in which you refer to at least two. Everyone should also read and comment on peer agenda items about the other poems.

• Science (1829)
  
• Fairyland (1831)
• Epigram for Wall Street (1845)
• The Haunted Palace (1845)
• Silence (1850)

It's another close reading paper, making a debatable argument (tell your reader right away which side you fall on, but give evidence both pro and con), about a literary work we have read. 

Choose a topic that differs from the assignments you have already submitted. You may refer to works you have read outside class, but keep them in a secondary position -- the focus should be on the debatable claim you make about a work we have studied in the class. 

You are welcome to include outside research if you wish, but all that's required is another close reading.

Revisit all the tips I've already provided you about thesis statements, a blueprint, avoiding plot summary (remember, you are writing for a reader who already knows the story well), and avoiding simplistic structure (such as a paragraph-long mini-paper on character 1, followed by a paragraph-long mini paper on character 2, and so on).  

Please bring the draft to class, so that we can workshop it during class time.

• You will have until 1:30pm Friday to upload (to Turnitin.com) your draft. I encourage you to revise it, reflecting what you have learned from the classroom activity.
• I will read your submissions on Turnitin.com, and provide feedback in time for me to submit a midterm grade (which is due shortly after break).
• If your paper isn't online in the proper slot when I start marking them Friday afternoon, I may not get to your paper until after midterm grades are due.
• I am happy to meet with you during my office hours, or make an appointment outside my scheduled hours, to help you on this assignment.