Box Prompting

As we end our experience with Petrarch and Donne by completing box prompts, do not feel blue that you will be leaving poetry behind. Tomorrow, we will move into structure and types of poetry to further your comprehension of poetry, prepare for multiple choice passages (coming very soon), and compose even better prompt response analysis.

Donne's Sonnets

After those songs of varying length and structure, Donne began to formulate his sonnets. While these sonnets may have forced rhymes, the structure and rhyme scheme are quite consistent, just as his rhapsodizing ideology regarding death, the soul, and faith retains precedence in his works. 

Homework tonight is to complete the Donne box prompt. Treat this assignment as the middle ground between an outline and an essay. You will compose a thorough thesis answering the prompt, sections for the literary element and its usage, columns for evidence with citations (you have poem titles and line numbers available), boxes for full analysis, and concluding statement. Use your literary terms and diction precisely and engage with the Songs & The Sonnets to procure your ultimate Donne analysis.

Tomorrow we will be Donne.

Sidney Prompt

After vocabulary today, we spent the remainder of the hour covering the Rangefinders for the Sidney Prompt. Heading to a 9 essay, writers utilized more in-depth poetry terms (apostrophe, epithet, antagonist), placed evidence throughout a paragraph and not "chunked" evidence in one quick sentence, and composed thorough analysis that connected to the relationship portion of the prompt.

On Monday, Donne is back for more --- he will share his Sonnets (structure will be play a part) and we will see how his personas differ from the Songs.

We will have 2 box prompts next week dealing with Petrarch & Donne and then more on poetry, multiple choice, and, eventually, Shakespeare.

Compasses, Relics, and Shadows, Oh my!

After commencing with vocabulary today, we finished Donne's songs by identifying conceits, motifs, and other literary elements in "Valediction," "The Relic," and "A Lecture." As with his previous poems, we see a diverse persona emerging from each text (although the majority of them, thus far, have dealt with lovers in some shape or form).

Then...Donne...Donne...Donne...we had a Literary Device Quest in two parts. First part was all brain; second part was brain and toolbox. At this point in the course, you should have a grasp on these terms. As we move further into poetry structure, make sure your are utilizing the appropriate structural and literary terms.

And, of course, it is time for Rangefinders regarding the practice prompt. For homework, you will need to assign a number 1-9 to evaluate the essay's  merit. Even the last essay must have some merit to give it a score.

On Friday, we will go over the Rangefinders, your prompts, and start Donne's Sonnets.

Donne's Personas

I am going to ignore any connection between Donne and Marvell's Carpe Diem poems for this post. Today's class returned to Donne and four of his songs, the poetry of love, relationships, satire, and odd conceits. Our poems today, "The Flea," "The Good Morrow," "Woman's Constancy," and "The Anniversary," feature varying personas to reflect the character of Donne's particular speaker.  For tomorrow's installment, we will begin our next 10 vocabulary words, complete a Lit Device Quest (some toolbox usage will be utilized), finish Donne's "Songs," and most likely deal with his Sonnets and some rangefinders. Make sure you close read your assigned Donne poem and "The Paradox."

P.S. The New Historicist Essay. The New Historicist Essay. The New Historicist Essay.

Peer Review Day

Our class centered around peer review of the New Historicist essay. Tomorrow, we will review how to complete a Works Cited page for literary texts, commence our next unit of vocabulary, and return to our Donne. Remember, the final draft of the essay is due by 3:30 p.m. on Friday in hard copy form. 

P.S. These literary personality quizzes online are fascinating. I just finished the "Which Bronte Sister Are You" quiz and it looks like I am Charlotte Bronte. I think I am going to take another one to see if that result is consistent. 

And, if you want to check your Byronic hero knowledge -- a quiz for you: http://www.sporcle.com/games/sabrinap/byronic_heroes

Personas & Conceits

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The transition from Petrarch's eyes and angels to Donne's fleas and compasses has begun. As noted in class today, we will be analyzing poetry for the speaker's persona, the character the author adopts to create the tone and theme of the poem. In our comparison of "Glorious Fame" and "The Indifferent," your class picked personas such as "preacher" and "boss" to describe the Petrarchan speaker's directions to the immoral women of society and "scorned lover" to clarify the Donne's speakers comprehension of relationships. As we interpret Donne's songs next week, we will spend some quality time discussing all of Donne's personas and his conceits, the extended metaphors occupying many of his poetic works. 

On Monday, we will have peer evaluation day for the New Historicist essay. You will need to have a hard copy for this activity. Final drafts are due by Friday, October 9, at 3:30 p.m. in hard copy form.