Poetry Unit
Unit Summary:
In this unit, students will read and study a group of poems written by various poets in various styles. They will understand poets use various poetic devices to help them convey the meaning. Students will focus on textual details to draw inferences. Upon completing the unit, students will write an analysis comparing a poem with a work of art on the same subject through research, in-depth reading of a poem and making comparison and contrast between the two works of art.
Pacing Calendar
Day 1: Introduction by Billy Collins| Day 2 “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by J.W. Johnson | Day 3-Day 4 Yet Do I Marvel by Countee Cullen | Day 5 | Day 6 Emily Dickinson 12/05 | Day 7 Dickinson 12/06 | Day 8 Dickinson | Day 9 A.E. Housman | Day 10 W.H. Auden | Day 11 W.H. Auden | Day 12 Formative Assessment | Day 13 The Raven #1Edgar Allen Poe | Day 14 The Raven#2 | Day 15 Raven #3 Central Idea | Day 16 | Day 17 | Day 18-19 | Poetry Summative Assessment |
Desired Results ( State Standards and or/ grade level benchmarks addressed):
New York State Common Core Learning Standards: R 1, 4, 6, 7, 11; W 1, 3, 4, 6; S 1, 2, 4)
Reading
- 1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- 4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
- 6. Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States,drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
- 7. Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment.
- 11. Interpret, analyze, and evaluate narratives, poetry, and drama, aesthetically and ethically by making connections to: other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, personal events and situations
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Writing1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using validreasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Explore and inquire into areas of interest toformulate an argument.3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique,well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style areappropriate to task, purpose, and audience.6. Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or sharedwriting products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information andto display information flexibly and dynamically.Speaking1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, ingroups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 9–10 topics, texts, and issues, buildingon others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.2. Integrate multiple sources of information presented in diverse media or formats (e.g.,visually, quantitatively, orally) evaluating the credibility and accuracy of each source.4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence clearly, concisely, and logically suchthat listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, substance,and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and task.
Enduring Understanding
Overarching Enduring Understanding(s) Students will understand that…
Topical Enduring Understanding(s) Specific to Unit:
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Overarching Essential Question(s) To understand, students will need to consider such questions as….
Topical Essential Question(s) Specific to Unit:
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Students will be able to-
- Read and understand poems in depth
- use seven habits of a good reader to help them dig deep into the meaning of texts
- write an analysis of a selected poem and compare it to another work of art.
Students will be able to understand-
- poets use poetic devices to enhance their meaning
- poetry is not only to express emotions but also tell stories and share philosophical views.
- Poetry is part of our daily language but in a different form.
Assessment Evidence
Diagnostic Assessment(s) To determine students’ readiness (based upon required knowledge and skills), interests, and learning profiles):
- journal writing, class participation, completion of daily assigned reading, small group discussion
- Synthesis journals
- Poetic devices quizzes
Summative Assessment
Analyze how artistic representation of Ramses II (the pharaoh who reigned during the time of Moses) vary, basing their analysis on what is emphasized or absent in different treatments of the pharaoh in works of art ( image sin British Museum) and in Percy Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”.
Lesson One: Introduction to Poetry
Objectives: Students will understand reading poery is different from reading prose. Students will see and understand that poetry has its unique language and structure.
Aim: How do we read poetry?
Do Now: Pre-Assessment.
Answer the following questions (10 minutes).
- On a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is really like and 1 is strongly dislike, what would you give…
- Writing poetry is…
- Reading poetry is…
- What are some of the poetic devices you’re familiar with? Name three and give an example for each.
- What are some poems that are meaningful to you and why?
Acquisition: How do we read poems?
Introduction to Poetry
I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slideor press an ear against its hive.I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem’s room I want them to waterski But all they want to do They begin beating it with a hose –Billy Collins |
How does Billy Collins use the poem to suggest how we read poetry?
Stanza 1: the image of “hold it up to the light like a color slide “ to suggest poetry needs to be read from certain perspectives or experiences so its intensity, vibrancy and radiance will “shine” through
Stanza 2: the act of “listening to hives” suggesting listening for the individual messages, the nuance
Stanza 3: the image of a mouse “probing his way out” suggests the enigmatic nature of poetry- it’s not so easy to get through a poem right away
Stanza 4: the imagery of a “poem’s room” that needs to be lit suggests that the obscure nature of poetry that we need to find our way to turn on the “light switch” so we see the “light”
Stanza 5: The “waterski”ing image across the surface of a poem indicates reading poetry is the adventurous, exciting and daunting task but fun.
Stanza 6: The diction of “tie” and “torture” suggest poetry will not “confess” its meaning no matter what.
Stanza 7: “beating with a hose” by a reader suggests a reader’s anger and frustration when confronted by poetry’s silent treatment.
Answer: All these suggest, reading poetry is a subjective experience based on figuring out its nuance, meaning and finding the right switch to see the “inside of a poem”.
Meaning Making- Each group works on the assigned stanza and figure out its meaning using the strategies we learned today.
The following poem by James Weldon Johnson has been referred to as “The Black National Anthem” because it celebrates the triumph of slavery. It is actually a hymn, which is a type of song that is usually religious, and written as a form of praise and exhaltation. The poem celebrates how far black Americans have come since the days of slavery but acknowledges that the path to freedom still remains in the distant horizon.
Lift Every Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson
Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
Transfer (1 minute): What’s your new understanding how poem should be read?
Homework # 1: Read Johnson’s poem and respond to the following questions.
- What is your immediate reaction to this poem? This question should be answered with expressive adjectives.
- What could this poem mean? Not what does this poem mean, but what could it mean. It can be argued that poetry has multiple meanings.
- What poetic techniques were used in this poem? Consult the list of vocabulary terms.
- What are your favorite lines? Why? What makes them stand out and grab your attention?
- What lines are you unsure about? Are there any lines that have left you wondering?
- What is your feeling about the poem now that you have explored it in full?
Objective: Students will understand the central meaning of a poem by analyzing its diction and literary devices.
Aim: How do the individual parts of a poem create its overall message?
Do Now: Listen to Harlem Boys Choir’s rendition of Weldon’s poem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. Now that you are listening to the song, why might people refer to this work as the Black National Anthem?
Acquisition: Sound, poetic devices, central meaning
- What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?
Lift ev’ry voice and sing, [A]
Till earth and heaven ring, [A]
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; [B]
Let our rejoicing rise [C]
High as the list’ning skies, [C]
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. [B]
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, [D]
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; [D]
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, [E]
Let us march on till victory is won. [E]
2. Is the poem iambic?
- Yes, because unstressed and stressed syllables are alternated to sound like da-DUM:
- “Lift ev’ry voice and sing,”
3. Examples of poetic devices and inferred meanings-
- Similes: “High as the list’ning skies / …loud as the rolling sea.” meaning “Rejoicing”
- Personification: “harmonies of Liberty” indicating________________
- Symbolism as indicated in the image of the “sun” suggesting hope in the new day
4. What is the tone/mood conveyed?
- Faith and perseverance of beliefs through adversity of past bondage through key words of _______________________________
- Hope in the present and future for liberty for all mankind through ________________
- Jubilation and pride in unique heritage and triumph over adversity through__________________
3. What’s the meaning of the stanza? How do the poetic devices contribute to its meaning?
4. Use a Semantic Map to figure out the central meaning
Meaning Making: Complete the worksheet in small groups. Each group will either work on the second or third stanza.
Worksheet#1
Group members:________________ Group #___ Date________ Period_
Material : “Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod, Do the follwoing task with the poem-
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Group members:________________ Group #___ Date________ Period_
Reading Material- Do the following-
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Transfer: Where did you find the “light switch” today to help you see the inside of a poem?
HW #2: Identify the central idea of Johnson’s poem and explain how individual parts of the poem contribute to its central meaning. Use as many examples as you can identify to help you determine its meaning.
Day 3 Poem #2
Yet Do I Marvel By Countee Cullen 1903–1946
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,
Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus
Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare
If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
To struggle up a never-ending stair.
Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brain compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
Objectives: Students will become familiar with the structure of an English Sonnet and understand how the knowledge about sonnets can help them probe the poet’s intention and atiitude.
Aim: How does the poet use irony to convey a sense of pride?
Do Now:
Group#1 | Group #2 | Group # 3 | Group 4 |
Look up Countee Cullen,the black poet(1903-1946) and his role in Harlem Renaissance.
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Look up what each allusion means as well as its origin-
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Look up the definitions of the new vocabulary words-
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Look up the poetic devices-
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Acqusition:
- The structure of an English Sonnet and its intention-
- a fourteen-line poem written in iambic pentameter
- Its seven rhymes are arranged in two quatrains, abab and cdcd, and one sextet eeffgg.
- In each quatrains, the poet makes observations and poses his problems
- In the sextet the poet draws a general conclusion from these observations.
- The final couplet of the poem offers a conclusion, in this case, a dramatic transformation from the general observation into a statement about his own position in the world.
- What’s the observations the poet made or problems posed in the 1st quatrian?
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I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die,- How is God described?
- Who is “kind” and who is “blind”?
- Whose “flesh” does the poem refer to “that mirrors Him”?
- What’s the irony?
- What’s the tone?
- How does the irony help bring up the speaker’s question?
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- What’s the observations the poet observed or problems posed in the 2nd quatrian?
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Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus
Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare
If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus
To struggle up a never-ending stair.- How is God described omnipotent? (all-knowing)
- How do Sisyphus and Tantalus’s conditions mirror human plight?
- How is God’s relationship to His subjects portrayed? ( consider “make plain” & “declare” vs ” baited” & “struggle”)
- What are the contrasting tones?
- How do the contrasting tones help bring up the 2nd problem?
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- What conclusion or dramatic transformation does the poet make in the sextet ?
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Inscrutable His ways are, and immune
To catechism by a mind too strewn
With petty cares to slightly understand
What awful brain compels His awful hand.
Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!- Who is inscrutable? Whose mind is “strewn with petty cares”?
- How does the sharp contrast prepare the reader for the conclusion?
- What does “awful” mean here? Whose brain and hand?
- Which word suggests dramatic transformation?
- What does the poet marvel and why?
- What’s the final tone? How does the ending tone reveal how the poet feels towards his ethnicity?
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Meaning Making-
Each row completes answering the questions for each section of the sonnet. Work in pairs or groups of three. Copy in Word Doc and complete the worksheet.
Transfer: List three things you have learbed today about a sonnet or fixed form poetry.
HW#3 How does the poet use irony to convey a sense of pride? Use textual evidence from the sonnet to support your answer.
Day 5 Yet Do I Marvel By Countee Cullen 1903–1946
Objectives: Students will be able to understand that poets write about social problems by contextualizing the poems .
Aim: How do poets reveal social issues through poetry?
Do Now: Share your answer to the questions( 1st quatrain, 2nd quatrain and the sextet) with a student in your class who has worked on a different portion of the sonnet. If you didn’t complete, do it now.
Acqusition: Contextualize
- In what circumstances did Johnson compose his poem “Lift and Sing” ? For what purpose?
- Look at the year it was composed.
- His life experiences
- the social setting when the poem was written
- In what circumstances did Cullen write his poem” Do I Marvel”? For what purpose?
- the timeframe of his life
- his role in Harlem Renaissance
- his pride being a black poet of his time
Meaning Making-
- Write a short essay response to “How does the poet use irony to convey a sense of pride?” Provide as much textual evidence as possible.
- Identify the social issues implied in each poem and the poets’ attitude toward them.
Transfer: Do you feel poets are as eloquent as Civil Rights Movement leaders when they “spoke” for African Americans’ rights?
H.W.#4 Explain why oets are as eloquent as Civil Rights Movement leaders when they “spoke” for African Americans’ rights.
Days 6 Poem#3 by Emily Dickinson
We grow accustomed to the Dark —
When light is put away —
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye —
A Moment — We uncertain step
For newness of the night —
Then — fit our Vision to the Dark —
And meet the Road — erect —
And so of larger — Darkness —
Those Evenings of the Brain —
When not a Moon disclose a sign —
Or Star — come out — within —
The Bravest — grope a little —
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead —
But as they learn to see —
Either the Darkness alters —
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight —
And Life steps almost straight.
Objectives: Students will get to know what kind of poet Emily Dickinson is and her style of writing; they will use the knowledge about the poet to help them understand the meaning of the poem.
Aim: What kind of writer is Emily Dickinson? How is her writing style unique?
Agenda-
Do Now: Click open the website http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/dickinson.html ; http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/emilydickinson/index.shtml
and read about Emily Dickinson’s life and her writing. Jot down five facts about the poet that you found intriguing.
Acquisition– ‘Dickinson’s Poetic Style”
- Emily Dickinson’s style- ( cited from http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/dickinson.html )
- distilled or eliminated inessential language and punctuation from her poems
- leaves out helping verbs and connecting words;
- drops endings from verbs and nouns
- compress language; (the compression may be so drastic that the poem is incomprehensible;) it becomes a riddle or an intellectual puzzle
- she enjoyed words for their own sake, as words-This interest gives a number of her poems their form–they are really definitions of words, for example “Pain has an element of blank,” “Renunciation is a piercing virtue,” or “Hope is the thing with feathers.”
- Her linguistic mastery and sense of the dramatic combine in the often striking first lines of her poems, such as “Just lost when I was saved!,” “I like a look of Agony,” and “I can wade grief.”
- Dickinson consistently uses the meters of English hymns. This is undoubtedly one reason why modern composers like Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland have set her poems to music and why the dancer Martha Graham choreographed them as a ballet.
- She uses the dash to emphasize, to indicate a missing word or words, or to replace a comma or period.
- She changes the function or part of speech of a word; adjectives and verbs may be used as nouns; for example, in “We talk in careless–and in loss,” careless is an adjective used as a noun.
- She frequently uses be instead of is or are. She tends to capitalize nouns, for no apparent reason other than that they are nouns.
- Her disregard for the rules of grammar and sentence structure
Meaning-Making
Each group works on the assigned stanza of the poem and does the following. Copy the stanza on top of the poster paper, draw a squre to enclose it and write the responses below the stanza.
- Identify the stylistic features as described above from the reading.
- How is Dickinson’s poem different from other poems you have read? Do you like Dickinson’ style? Why or why not?
- How is “dark” described in each stanza? What kind of literary technique does the poet use to describe it? What does it mean?
- What’s the motif( the repeated imagery) of the poem? How does the motif help reveal the meaning of the poem?
- How are last two lines of each stanza diferent from the 1st two lines? ( hit: find words or phrases that are opposite in meaning to the ones in the 1st two lines).
- Why doe the poet bring out such as a contrast?
Group 1
We grow accustomed to the Dark — |
Group 2 A Moment — We uncertain step For newness of the night — Then — fit our Vision to the Dark — And meet the Road — erect — |
Group 3
And so of larger — Darkness —
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Group 4 The Bravest — grope a little — And sometimes hit a Tree Directly in the Forehead — But as they learn to see — |
Group 5
Either the Darkness alters — |
Transfer: What is the one “new” thing you have learned today about poetry and its writing?
HW#5 Respond to the “Meaning-Making” individually and complete all the questions in your notebook.
Objectives: Students will study and understand the emotional undertone of Dickinson’s poem.
Aim: How to “re-live our own experiences through Dickinson’s intensity and with her emotional and intellectual clarity”?
Do Now: Respond to Dickinson’s remark about poetry, “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?“
Acqusition: Diction and Tone/Emotion
1. Capture the moment- use the real life experience to set the stage for a more sophisticated discourse
2. Shift in meaning: when does the poet discuss the darkness literally? Metaphorically?
Meaning-Making
How is the motif of “darkness portrayed by Dickinson in her poem?
- Based on each stanza of the poem, make a list of the words that are used for their literal meaning.
- Make a list of words that are used metaphorically.
- Explain the meaning of each metaphor.
Transfer: Make up a metaphor to describe any shade of meanings of “darkness” .
HW# 6Write a paragraph discussing “How is the motif of ‘darkness’ portrayed by Dickinson in her poem? “. Provide textual evidence for your interpretation.
Day 8 “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark”
Objectives: Exploring the poet, Emily Dickinson, and poems; creating context by studying the poet’s language and physical environment that fueled her poetry.
Aim: How do online resources of a poet’s home and a guide to the language that they used provide context to the study of their poetry?
Agenda-
Do Now: Explore the Emily Dickinson Museum in small groups to learn more about her homestead, its importance to her as a writer, and to help us interpret the poem. Review the properties of Dickinson’s family. Find five key facts on the following properties. Use the guiding questions to help you. http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/
Row 1 – Homestead | Row 2 – Evergreens | Row 3 – Landscape |
When was the Homestead built and where was it located? | How do you think the Evergreens could have influenced Dickinson’s writing? | What does Dickinson’s study of botany and possession of a sample of plant specimens reveal about her? |
Acquisition:
Poets like Dickinson use words sparingly, which intensifies the significance of every word.
- The lexicon (vocabulary) chosen by the poet influences subtleties of the poem, which determine cadence, tone, voice, and the overall message.
- How does our home environment influence our speaking and writing?
- What are the implications of the words chosen and those omitted?
Meaning Making: http://edl.byu.edu/introduction.php
- Work in small groups. Copy the stanza and questions into Word. Use the Emily Dickinson Lexicon page above to look up words that you find important in the poem. This resource will help us learn subtle clues in the meaning of the words that may no longer be commonly used. Example: Think about the image in the first line of the lamp. Do people still hold lamps?
- Think about the word choices Dickinson used and why she used them in the stanza for assigned to your group.
- Which words do you think Dickinson used:
- For alliteration?
- Cadence?
- Tone?
- Emotion?
- Precision of meaning?
- Which words do you think Dickinson used:
- Take turns reading the lines of the stanza aloud. Why did you read it in the way that you did? Think about emphasis, pause, and when you chose to take a breath.
- Support your understanding of each stanza with evidence from the poem by asking some questions:
- What word or phrase made you think the way you did?
- Why did you find this word important to Dickinson’s meaning/tone?
Group 1 We grow accustomed to the Dark — When light is put away — As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp To witness her Goodbye — |
Group 2 A Moment — We uncertain step For newness of the night — Then — fit our Vision to the Dark — And meet the Road — erect — |
Group 3 And so of larger — Darkness — Those Evenings of the Brain — When not a Moon disclose a sign — Or Star — come out — within — |
Group 4 The Bravest — grope a little — And sometimes hit a Tree Directly in the Forehead — But as they learn to see — |
Group 5 Either the Darkness alters — Or something in the sight Adjusts itself to Midnight — And Life steps almost straight. |
Transfer: How does your home environment influence your own writing?
Homework #7: Find other poems of Dickinson and discover the connection between her life and craft. Write about the connections between the physical spaces she lived in and the art she produced.
Poem#4 Loveliest of trees, the cherry now…” Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Now, of my threescore years and ten, And since to look at things in bloom
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Objective: Students will understand how a poet can use imagery to imply his attitude toward life.
Aim: How does the natural beauty of the cherry blossom in Housman’s poem represent the transient nature of human life?
Agenda
Do Now: Do the following-
- Look up A.E. Housman’s life and work. Jot down a few facts about each.
- Use google image to look up imagery of Cherry Blossom and Woodland Ride
- Write a sentence or two to describe cherry blossoms
Acquisition:
- Image as a metaphor
- Look for Shift of meaning in a poem
- What is the Transient (fleeting) Nature of life?
Meaning Making-
- In stanza 1, how is cherry blossom described? What does color white symbolize, in particular during Easter holiday?
- Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
- Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
- In stanza 2, how old is the poet as described?
- Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
- Now, of my threescore years and ten,
- In stanza 3, How does the poet shift his admiration for the beautiful cherry blossoms to life? What does the last line indicate his attitude toward life
- And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
- And since to look at things in bloom
Transfer: Since we know we won’t live forever, what does this poem tell us about life?
HW#8 Copy and answer the “Meaning-Making” questions ( in bold).
Poem#5 Musee des Beaux Arts W. H. Auden About suffering they were never wrong, In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
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Objectives: Students will learn to construct meanings of a poem by studying the social setting of the poet’s life, making inferences from the allusions, using visuals of works of art and identifying the key lines of the poem.
Aim: Why is it important to identify the key elements of a text to help us grasp the essentionl meaning? How do we find an “entrance point” to start?
Agenda-
Do Now: Read the poem silently by yourself and pick one of the activities from below that you feel mostly inclined to starting as the entrance point to the poem-
Activity 1
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Activity 2
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Activity 3
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Activity 4
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Activity 5
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Find out more about the author, W. H. Auden’s life and work | What was the social setting of Auden’s time in 1930s England? | Visual & captions | Who is Breughel? | Allusion: |
Acqusition:
- Key Concepts:
- Ekphrases (ekphrastic) – – it describes a visual work of art
- allusion Christ to Greek mythology and Brueghe’s artworks
- From far to a close up view : from generalities and abstraction to ever greater levels of detail and specificity.
- paradox
- Syntax- The line lengths vary
- Tone- a reflective musing tone about a serious subject
- Which lines in the poem are most essential? Why?
- Make a list of imagery we can “see” in the poem.
- What about the poem that is strange or stands out for us for any reason?
- What does the title mean?
Meaning Making-
- Find imagery we “saw” in the poem in the paintings below by Breghel. Match the verbal imagery with the details in the paintings.
- What do all the painting have in common?
- What can we infer from the commonality about the poem? Author’s attitude?
The Royal Museums of Fine Art in Brussels which houses Flemish work including that of Breughel
Pieter Brueghel the Elder, The Census at Bethlehem (1566)
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/11/hbc-90003880 |
http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/arthum2/publicportfolio.cgi?view=2837&columns=2# Bruegel, Christ Carrying the Cross, signed and dated 1564, (oil on panel, 124 x 170 cm [48 3/4 x 66 7/8 in]), Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna |
Pieter Brueghel, The Fall of IcarusOil-tempera, 29 inches x 44 inches. Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels. http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html |
Transfer: What was the most difficult or intereting piece of knowllsdge you have learned today?
Homework#9: Complete other “Do Now” activities. Take notes and be prepared to share tomorrow.
Objectives: Students will understand that imagery helps the poet create a specific tone. They will also learn that the connections among all the imagery reveal the theme or central idea of the poem.
Aim: What is the power of “showing” instead if “telling”? What do all imagery share in common and what does it reveal?
Agenda-
Do Now: Find imagery we “saw” in the poem in the paintings above by Brueghel. Match the verbal imagery with the details in the paintings. Identify the image of “suffering” in each painting and describe the surrounding people’s emotional reactions toward it.
Acqusittion-
- How to indentify imagery and its purpose? For example, “…someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;” what kind of mood does the image portray?
- What do all the images share?
- From the genrality to the specifics-
- “About suffering they were never wrong,/The old Masters: how well they understood/Its human position …” these lines depict a general view of the poet’s ;
- How does he illustrate his view in the subsequent lines?
- What’s the general view in the 2nd stanza? How does the poet illustrate his view?
- Identify the variety of sentence structure in Auden’s poem.
Meaning Making
How does William Carlos Williams’s poem reveal the same attitude as Auden’s? What are the similarities and differences between the 2nd stanza of Auden’s poem and William’s ” Landscape with the Fall of Icarus“?
Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
William Carlos Williams According to Brueghel a farmer was ploughing of the year was sweating in the sun unsignificantly a splash quite unnoticed |
(http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/williams.html)
Listen to “Fortuna Desperata,” a song by the Flemish composer Heinrich Isaac, in a performance by Jordi Savall and the Capella reial de Catalunya in an AliaVox CD (9814). The lyrics are -”Reckless fortune/you are born, suffer and die/unjust and accursed/who to so choice a lady/has fame been denied.” The work survives in a transcription by Isaac’s student Ludwig Senfl, recorded about the time that Brueghel completed “The Census at Bethlehem,” and has many links to the painting (note that in the exact center of the painting, Brueghel has placed one of the hallmark images of the late Middle Ages, the rota fortuna, or wheel of fortune, and that his core message is of the unrecognized fame of the great lady, which is also the theme inspiring Isaac’s work. The donna eletta is, of course, the Virgin Mary.)
Resources: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/11/hbc-90003880
Transition: Do you agree with the poets that people feel indifferent toward others’ sufferings? Why or why not?
Homework #10 Describe how W.H. Auden show people’s attitude toward sufferings. Be sure to use textual evidence.
Poetry Unit Assessment #2 12/14/2011
The list of poems-
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Day 13 Poem#6 The Raven [First published in 1845] by Edgar Allen Poe
Objectives: Students will leann Poe’s distictive style of expessions by undestanding various sound devices.
Aim: How does Poe use various sound devices such as rhyme, internal rhyme and alliteration to create mood?
Do Now: Do one of the following and take notes. Be ready to present to the class your findings.
About Edgar Allen Poe | alliteration/cacophony | internal rhyme/ external rhyme | Onomatopoeia | Assonance/Consonance |
http://www.online-literature.com/poe/ |
The Text -The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door – Only this, and nothing more.’Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore – For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore – Nameless here for evermore. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only, Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer `Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! – `Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! `Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!’ I shrieked upstarting – And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting |
Acqusition:
- alliteration/cacophony
- internal rhyme/ external rhyme
- Onomatopoeia
- Assonance/Consonance
- Imagery & sound -mood: How does Poe use the sound device to create a mood of “horror”?
Meaning-Making
Internal Rhyming
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1) “The Raven” has how many unique internal rhyme schemes? 2
2) The rhyme schemes are found where in each stanza? |
List the internal rhyming scheme words from two different stanzas in the poem 3) Example #1 4) Example #2
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External Rhyming
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5) What is the external rhyme scheme used? 6) Site one example from the Raven of the external rhyme scheme
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Alliteration |
1) Example #1:
What is this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore?
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2) Example #2: While I nodded, nearly nappingThere are many examples throughout |
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Assonance provide one example of how Poe used assonance |
3) Example: For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore
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4) Assonance is used to convey and reinforce some meaning or to link ideas in the poem. |
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Cacophony provide one example of how Poe used cacophony |
5) Example What is this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt and ominous bird of yore? |
Consonance provide one example of how Poe used consonance |
6) Example Poe ends several stanzas of The Raven with a line containing a repeated v sound: “Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore’.” |
Onomatopoeia |
7) Example: Suddenly there came a tapping, as if some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door |
8) This device is used to: help bring a poem to life by letting you use all your senses, including hearing, when you read and imagine what’s happening. |
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Rhythm | 9) Describe how Poe uses rhythm in “The Raven” Poe’s use of rhythm in the first stanza helps to set the tone throughout the poem; he also uses the he uses rhythm throughout the poemExample: this is the ebony bird beguiling my sad face into smiling |
Transfer: Does the sound devices successfully create the horror effect? What’s the most useful to you?
Homework#11 Create one example of your own of each sound device.
Day 14– Dreary Imagery in The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
Objectives: Students will know the meanings of the essential vocabulary that is crucial to the understanding of the poem.
Aim: What kind of imagery looms in the poem?
Do Now: Look up the meanings of thenew vocabulary( in red font) in the poem The Raven.
Acqusition: Elements of poetry
- Imagery
- mood/tone
- speaker
- sound
- narrative
- central meaning
Meaning-Making
Read the first five stanzas of the poem and find an example of each element.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door – Only this, and nothing more.’Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; – vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow – sorrow for the lost Lenore – For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore – Nameless here for evermore. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, |
Transition: What’s the most useful information you have gained in today’s lesson?
Homework#12 Complete the Meaning -Making activity. Study vocabulary and make one slide of KIM voc sheet with one of the words.
Day 15 Central Idea “The Raven”
Objectives: Students will learn how to infer the central idea of the poem of The Raven by making connections between parts of the poem and the “whole”.
Aim: How do we draw the central idea from a poem?
Do Now: Make a list of the important parts of the poem The Raven you have learned. List at least 5.
Acqusition:
- Fgure out the main idea of each stanza through key imagery or diction.
- Making connection between parts of the poem and the “whole” using a semantic web.
Meaning -Making
Complete writing the main idea of each stanza.
The Text -The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
I.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
II.
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
III.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
IV.
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
V.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
VI.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
VII
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
VIII.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
IX
Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
X
But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XI.
Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XII
But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XIII
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XIV
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XV
`Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! – |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XVI`Prophet!’ said I, `thing of evil! – prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us – by that God we both adore – Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore – Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?’ Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.’ |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XVII
`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!’ I shrieked upstarting – |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
XVIII
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting |
Main Idea:
Textual Evidence: |
Write a paragraph describing the central idea of the poem “The Raven” and use the “parts” as examples to support the central idea.
Transfer: What’s the key to infer a central idea of a text?
HW#13 Complete reading stanzas 6-10 and describe the main idea of each stanza. Provide evidence.
Objectives: Students will continue working ont he main idea of each stanza and understand its relationship to the central idea of the poem.
Aim: How can we use the repetitive imagery or sound to help determine he central idea of the poem?
Do Now: Describe the most important imagery including auditory images that help you determine the mood and menaing of the poem so far ( stanzas 1-6). Post your answer in the Litstudies Forum. Respond to at least one of your classmates’ posts.
Acqusition: repetition and central idea
1. What are repeated in the first 5 stanzas? What does the repetition reveal about the poem?
2. Repetition can be imagery, sound, or action. What effects does repretition create?
Meaning-Making
Work in small groups of three and do the following-
- Each group works on 1- 2 stanzas
- Identify the key imagery in each stanza, examples of repretition and diction
- Use one or two sentences to describe the main idea of the stanza based on the imagery, repretition and diction
- Post your main ideas in the Litstudies Forum.
Transfer: What’s the most important skill you have learned today? Why?
Homework#14: Finish reading the poem, “The Raven”,and make an inference about its central idea.
Essay Prompt: : How does the poet, Edgar Allen Poe, describe the sense of irreplaceable loss? How does the title “The Raven” foreshadows and encapsulate the theme of the poem? Provide evidence for your assertion.
Shelley, Percy Bysshe “Ozymandias”
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
Objectives: Students will understand the irony through contrasting imagery.
Aim: How is Ozymandias, Ramses II, portrayed in the poem by Shelley?
Do Now: Visit the sites http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/ramesses_01.shtml and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II and respond to-
- the meaning of “Ozymandias”
- your brief descriptions of Ramses II
- Share your responses in the Forum
Meaning Making-
- Irony- contrast between the sculpture and the inscriptions
- Voc: Visage, colossal, trunkless, boundless
- How is Ozymandias treated in the poem?
- Compare and contrast
- what is emphasized? –the ruin and helplessness
- What’s absent? –the power
Summative Assessment
Analyze how artistic representation of Ramses II (the pharaoh who reigned during the time of Moses) vary, basing your analysis on what is emphasized or absent in different treatments of the pharaoh in works of art ( images from British Museum) and in Percy Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramesses_II
Meaning Making
Look at the sculpture of Ramsey II and respond to
- what is emphasized? –the ruin and helplessness
- What’s absent? –the power
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_image.aspx?image=20_ramesses.jpg&retpage=15242
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/b/bust_of_ramesses_ii.aspx
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/05.4.256
Transfer: What did you learn from the poem?
Homework#15: In what ways do the poem and sculpture portray Ramsey’s power and helplessness respectively?
TP-CASTT: A Tool To Use When Analyzing Poetry
T=TITLE:
- Ponder the title before reading.
- Brainstorm what the poem will probably be about.
Read the poem aloud at least twice to understand it!
P=PARAPHRASE:
- Put the poem in your own words—line by line and stanza by stanza.
- Circle words you do not know. Look them up and record their definitions.
- Rephrase inverted lines.
C=CONNOTATION: Examine the poetic devices, focusing on how those devices contribute to the meaning. These poetic devices include:
- Rhyme (ex. rhyme scheme [i.e. ABAB CDCD EE FF], true rhyme [i.e. right/height], slant or approximate rhyme [i.e. thin/skim], internal rhyme [rhyme within a line of poetry], end rhyme [the last word on a line rhymes with another word that is the last on its line])
- Figurative language (ex. metaphor, simile, personification, imagery, allusions, apostrophe)—identify examples AND explain their purposes/effects.
- Symbolism—Identify symbols and explain their purpose/role in the poem.
- Use of paradox, oxymoron, and irony—identify examples AND explain their purposes/effects.
- Sound devices (ex. alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia)—Identify them and explain their roles, purposes, and effects.
- Diction—Consider the connotative meanings of words that “stand out”—those that are particularly specific, memorable, or striking.
A=ATTITUDE (TONE): Describe the attitude (or MULTIPLE attitudes) that is (are) present. Look
again at diction, imagery, details, language (figurative), and syntax—anything that conveys the TONE of
the poem. Consider both the attitude of poet toward his/her subject as well as his/her attitude toward
the reader/audience.
S=SHIFT: A shift in attitude or tone will often point to the real significance of a poem. Here are some
ways in which a poet might signal a shift:
- Key words (but, however, yet, although)
- Punctuation (hyphens, periods, colons, ellipsis)
- Stanza divisions
- Changes in line or stanza length (or both)
- Effect of structure on meaning
- Changes in sound that indicate changes in meaning
- Changes in level or connotation of diction (such as colloquial to formal or elevated or optimistic to pessimistic)
T=TITLE (AGAIN): Now examine the title on an interpretative level. Compare your original response
to your “informed” response.
T=THEME: Theme is a controlling idea or a subject for philosophical reflection in a literary work. It
is what the poem (or other literary work) is really about (NOT just what is on the surface, literal level).
The poet conveys theme—a universal truth about life—through BOTH the structure and content of the
poem. In order to determine theme:
- List general subjects of the poem (ex. death, dying, love, growing up, aging, war, grief, loss).
- Write a declarative sentence that expresses the poet’s specific viewpoint on each subject. THESE
SENTENCES ARE THE THEMES. For example, a theme statement might read as follows: “War affects
everyone, not just people who are fighting on the front lines.” A theme cannot be expressed in
terms such as “The theme is war.” WHAT, SPECIFICALLY, IS THE POET SAYING ABOUT WAR? The
answer to THAT QUESTION is the theme!!
Poem#8 “Song ” by John Donn
Objective:
Song by John Donn
GO and catch a falling star,
Get with child a mandrake root,
Tell me where all past years are,
Or who cleft the devil’s foot,
Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
Or to keep off envy’s stinging,
And find
What wind
Serves to advance an honest mind.
If thou be’st born to strange sights,
Things invisible to see,
Ride ten thousand days and nights,
Till age snow white hairs on thee,
Thou, when thou return’st, wilt tell me,
All strange wonders that befell thee,
And swear,
No where
Lives a woman true and fair.
If thou find’st one, let me know,
Such a pilgrimage were sweet;
Yet do not, I would not go,
Though at next door we might meet,
Though she were true, when you met her,
And last, till you write your letter,
Yet she
Will be
False, ere I come, to two, or three.