Halfway gone check the three homework assignments and dates below carefully.
In class today: passing back
Thanatopsis essays and reviewing some overarching items: citations, page breaks, MLA heading, and treating the author like he or she is your best buddy.
Grade handouts- last until June.
Most folks are on parent connect; this was an expensive program put in by the district to help everyone. Get signed up, please.
Homework for Tuesday 31 January
We are finishing up Romanticism with some of the New England poets. You have been assigned a partner to work on a specific poem, which you will present to the class tomorrow. Some poems are assigned twice; that means there will be more than one presentation on that particular poem.
I have given each group guiding questions to organize your presentation. That does not mean you read the question to the class and answer it; rather you construct your presentation incorporating the ideas within the question.
You may use notes. You will begin by reading the poem to the class, making sure you follow the punctuation as the poet wrote it. Do not read with your back to the class. Read clearly off the sheet. Please enunciate and project. Make sure you understand every word in the poem. If you are unsure of a rhythm or pronunciation, check with me before school or during first or second period when I'm in the library. Both partners (or in one case three people) must read; so divide it up ahead. I suggest you listen to each other for practice.
Your grade is based 1.on understanding the content of the poem (since it is an oral presentation, make sure you communicate this clearly) and 2) partner grading.You are quite accurate on your assessments. If you are absent, there will be a substitute written assignment.
Poem Partners
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls group 1 Ashley Linai group 2 Ty Amanda
The Chambered Nautilus group 1 Malikk Meghan group 2 Mariah Julie
Auspex group 1 Matt Rosie group 2 Joe Zach
Hope group 1 Aaron Kimicah
Tell the Truth, but tell it slant group 1 Leon Nah Tivah group 2 Landon Taquan
I never saw a moor group 1 Kerri Erin group
The Noiseless Patient Spider group 1 Hannah Aireanna group 2 Brianna Raphael
I heard a Fly Buzz Quinton Dorothy
Because I Could Not Stop for Death Elijah Sharon Keith
Homework for Friday 3 February.
When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer by Walt Whitman
Similarly to what you have done with the New England poets presentation, you will respond to the Whitman poem. Here is a copy of the handout. Make sure you allow yourself enough time for the last question. This counts as a writing grade. Proof read!
Homework Monday 6 February Vocabulary 8 is due. At the end of the blog, there is a copy of the handout.
As always, any vocabuluary not received at the beginning of the class on Monday is 10 points off and falling 10 more each day.
The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls. 5
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls. 10
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls 15
1. Identify the setting
2. What do the “little waves” do?
3. What happens in the thirds stanza?
4. What details of the setting in the first
stanza suggest that the traveler is nearing
death?
5. What does the poem suggest about the relationship between humanity and nature?
6. What is the effect of the refrain or repeated line?
7. How does the rhythm contribute to the meaning?
8. What do the details in lines 11-13 suggest about Longfellow’s attitude toward death?
THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS
by Oliver Wendell Holmes
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings, 5
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell, 10
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after year beheld the silent toil 15
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door, 20
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born 25
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll! 30
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! 35
1. What has happened to the nautilus the speaker is describing?
2. What did the nautilus do “as the spiral grew”?
3. What does the voice that rings ‘through the deep caves of thought” tell the speaker?
4. Each year throughout the course of its life, the nautilus creates a new chamber of shell to house its growing body. How does Holmes compare this process to the development of the human soul?
5. What is it about the chambered nautilus that makes it appropriate for Holmes’ message?
6. What can be learned from the life of the nautilus?
AUSPEX
by James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)
(in ancient Rome, an auspex was someone who watched for omens in the flight of birds)
My heart, I cannot still it,
Nest that had song-birds in it;
And when the last shall go,
The dreary days to fill it,
Instead of lark or linnet, 5
Shall whirl dead leaves and snow.
Had they been swallows only,
Without the passion stronger
That skyward longs and sings,--
Woe's me, I shall be lonely 10
When I can feel no longer
The impatience of their wings!
A moment, sweet delusion,
Like birds the brown leaves hover;
But it will not be long 15
Before their wild confusion
Fall wavering down to cover
The poet and his song.
1. According to the first stanza, what will “ill” the speaker’s heart when the songbirds have gone?
2. According the second stanza. When will the speaker be lonely?
3. What is the “sweetest delusion” the speaker refers to in lines 11-14?
4. What will happen when the delusion ends?
5. In this poem, Lowell compares songbirds to the happiness that provides him with poetic inspiration. To what does he compare the emptiness following gh disappearance of his happiness?
6. What do the swallows (7) represent? How is this different than what the songbirds represent?
7. What does the image of the leaves falling and covering the poet represent?
8. What type event in Lowell’s life might have prompted him to write the poem?
Hope
by Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
1. According to the speaker, what “perches in the soul”? What type of tune does it sing? When does it stop singing?
2. Name two places where the speaker has heard the ‘little Bird”? What has the “little Bird” never done?
3. Throughout the poem Dickinson develops a comparison between hope and a “little Bird.” What is the effect of this comparison?
4. What qualities does the bird possess? What does this suggest about the characteristics of hope?
5. In what way do the final two lines suggest that hope is something that we cannot consciously control?
6. What does this poem suggest about the human ability to endure hardships?
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
by Emily Dickinson
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant---
Success in Cirrcuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightening to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind---
1. According to the speaker, what is “to bright for our infirm Delight”?
2. Why must the truth “dazzle gradually”?
3. What does Dickinson mean when she tells us to “to tell all the Truth but tell it slant”?
4. To what type of “Truth” do you think Dickinson is referring?
I never saw a moor
by Emily Dickinson
I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks,
And what a wave must be.
I never spoke with God,
Nor visited in heaven;
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.
1. What two things has the speaker never seen? What does she know in spite of never having seen them?
2. With whom has the speaker never spoken? Where has she never visited? Of what is she certain?
3. How might the speaker have acquired the knowledge she claims to possess in the first stanza? In what way is the knowledge presented in the second stanza different from that of the first stanza? How might she have acquired the knowledge in the second stanza?
4. Explain the difference between intuition and experience?
A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman
A NOISELESS, patient spider,
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them. 5
And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul. 10
1. Where is the spider standing when the speaker first sees it?
2. How does the spider explore its “vacant vast surroundings”?
3. Where is the speaker’s soul standing? What is it doing?
4. What similarities does the speaker see between his soul and spider?
5. With what do you think the speaker’s soul is seeking connection? (lines 8-10)
6. Like the Transcendentalist, Whitman believed that the human spirit was mirrored in the world of nature? How does this poem reflect this belief/
7. Whitman presents a paradox, or apparent self-contradiction, in line 7, when he describes the soul as being “surrounded” and “detached.” Why do you think this paradox might be used to describe the position of the poet in society?
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
1. Explain why Death stops for the speaker.
What does Death’s carriage hold?
2. What does the speaker “put away” in the second stanza/
3. In the third stanza, what three things does the carriage pass? Where does the carriage pause in the fifth stanza?
4. How is death portrayed in the first two stanzas? What is ironic about this portrayal?
5. How does the speaker’s attitude toward death change in the fourth stanza?
6. How does Death affect the speaker’s conception of time?
I heard a fly buzz when I died;
The stillness round my form
Was like the stillness in the air
Between the heaves of storm.
The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
And breaths were gathering sure
For that last onset, when the king
Be witnessed in his power.
I willed my keepsakes, signed away
What portion of me I
Could make assignable,-and then
There interposed a fly,
With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz,
Between the light and me;
And then the windows failed, and then
I could not see to see.
1. What does the speaker hear? When does she see it/
2. To what does the speaker compare the stillness of the room?
3. For what were breaths gathering firm in the second stanza?
4. According to the final stanza, what happens when the windows fail?
5. What does the buzzing of the fly heighten the speaker’s awareness of the stillness and tension in the room?
6. What does the speaker’s attitude toward death seem to be? How is this attitude reflected by the fly?
Below is a copy of the vocabulary handed out on Monday 27 January; it is due Monday 6 February.
Vocabulary 8 definitions
Vocabulary 8 definitions
Vocabulary 8 definitions
1. allege (verb)- to assert without proof or confirmation; to claim, contend
2. arrant (adj)- thoroughgoing, out-and-out; shameless, blatant, egregious, unmitigated
3. badinage (noun)- light and playful conversation; banter, persiflage, repartee
4. conciliate (verb)- to overcome the distrust of, win over; to appease, pacify, to reconcile, placate, mollify
5. countermand (verb) to cancel or reverse on order or command with another that is contrary to the first
6. echelon (noun)- one of a series of grades in an organization or field of activity; level, rank
7. exacerbate (verb) – to make more violent, severe, bitter or painful; to aggregate, to intensify
8. fatuous (adj)- stupid, foolish in a self-satisfied way; silly, vapid, inane, doltish, vacuous
9. irrefutable (adj) – impossible to disprove; beyond argument, indisputable, incontrovertible, undeniable
10. lackadaisical (adj) – lacking in spirit or interest, half-hearted
11. litany (noun)- a prayer consisting of short appeals to god recited by the leader alternating with responses from the congregation; any repetitive chant; a long list, rigmarole, catalog, megillah
12. juggernaut (noun) – a massive and inescapable force or object that crushes whatever is in its path.
13. macabre (adj)- grisly, gruesome, horrible, distressing; having death as a subject; grotesque, grim, ghoulish
14. paucity (noun) – an inadequate quantity, scarcity, dearth of original ideas; lack
15. portend (verb)- to indicate beforehand that something is about to happen; to give advance warning of; bode,
foretell, foreshadow, suggest
16. raze (verb)- to tear down, destroy completely; to cut or scrape off or out to make room for a larger complex
17. recant (verb)- to withdraw a statement or belief to which one has previously been committed, renounce, retract; repudiate, disavow.
18. saturate (verb)- to soak thoroughly, fill to capacity; to satisfy fully, permeate, drench flood, imbue
19. saturnine (adj)- of a gloomy or surly disposition; cold or sluggish in mood; sullen, morose
20. slough (verb)- to cast off, discard; to get rid of something objectionable or unnecessary; to plod through mud; to shed, slog (noun)- a mire; a state of depression
Vocabulary 8 exercise 1 Use the correct form.
1. However much it may cost me, I will never ________________________ the principles to which I have devoted my life.
2. No sooner had the feckless tsar decreed a general mobilization that he __________________________ his order, only to reissue it a short time later.
3. Though some “home remedies” appear to alleviate the symptoms of a disease, they many in fact __________________________ the condition.
4. Ms. Ryan’s warnings to the class to “review thoroughly” seemed to me to ________________________ an unusually difficult exam.
5. The men now being held in police custody are _________________________ to have robbed eight supermarkets over the last year.
6. Her friendly manner and disarming smile helped to ________________________________ those who opposed her views on the proposal.
7. The service in honor of the miners trapped in the underground collapse included prayers and _________________________________.
8. We object to the policy of ________________________________ historic old buildings to make way for unsightly parking lots.
9. You are not going to do well in your job if you continue to work in such a(n) _________________________________ and desultory manner.
10. The enemy’s lines crumpled before the mighty _______________________________ of our attack like so much wheat before a harvester.
11. As a snake ______________________________ off its old skin, so he hoped to rid himself of his weaknesses and develop a new and better personality.
12. My shirt became so ______________________________ with perspiration that beastly day that I had to change it more than once during the match.
13. After he made that absurd remark, a(n) _______________________________grin of self-congratulation spread like syrup across the lumpy pancake of his face.
14. “I find it terribly depressing to be around people whose dispositions are so ______________________________ and misanthropic,” I remarked.
15. The breaking news story concerned corruption among the highest ________________________________ of politics.
16. Only someone with a truly ________________________________ sense of humor would decide to use a hearse as the family car or a coffin as a bed.
17. “It seems to me that such ________________________________ hypocrisy is indicative of a thoroughly opportunistic approach to running for office,” I said sadly.
18. The seriousness of the matter under discussion left no room for the type of lighthearted ____________________________ encountered in the locker room.
19. At first I thought it would be easy to shoot holes in their case, but I soon realized that their arguments were practically ________________________________.
20. His four disastrous years in office were marked by a plenitude of promises and a(n) __________________________ of performance.
Vocabulary 8 exercise 2
1. Ebenizer Scrooge, the protagonist of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, has a decidedly _____________________
personality.
2. On the stand, the defendant _____________________________ the guilty admissions she had made in her
confession to the police.
3. Shouting and name-calling are sure to _____________________________ any quarrel.
4. The continuing popularity of horror movies suggests that one way to score at the box office is to exploit the
_________________________________.
5. Any population that has experienced the ______________________________ of war firsthand will not easily
forget its destructive power.
6. The newspaper tabloid ____________________________ that the movie star and the director were having
creative differences.
7. In Shakespeare’s tragedy the audience sees clearly that Iago is an _____________________ scoundrel, but
Othello is blind to his treachery.
8. Although the civil servant began in the lower _______________________of government service, he rose
quickly through the ranks.
9. The town ____________________________ the old schoolhouse to make room for a larger, more modern
school complex.
10. We were presented with such overwhelming proof that our verdict was ____________________________.
11. At New Year’s time, many people resolve to ____________________________ off bad habits and start
living better, healthier lives.
12. The team’s performance in the late innings was _____________________________ because they were so
far ahead.
13. In order to discredit the candidate, the columnist quoted some of his more _______________________,
self-serving remarks.
14. I enjoy delightful ____________________________ between stars like Spencer Tracy and Katherine
Hepburn in 1940’s movies.
15. The senate campaign was marred by a _____________________________ of original ideas.
16. A sponge that is _______________________________ with water swells up but does not drip.
17. Whenever she talks about her childhood, she recites an interminable _____________________________ of
grievances.
18. In Shakespeare’s plays, disturbances in the heavens usually ______________________________ disaster or
trouble in human affairs.
19. Today’s directive clearly ______________________________________ all previous instructions on how to
exit the building in case of fire.
20. Because of the weakness of our army, we had to try to _________________________________ the enemy.
Vocabulary 8 exercise 3
Synonyms
1. the indisputable evidence __________________________________
2. the banter of the morning talk show hosts ___________________________________
3. the egregious corruption of the officials ___________________________________
4. claimed that a crime had been committed ___________________________________
5. foreshadows dangers to come ___________________________________
6. an idea that permeates all aspects of society __________________________________
7. will aggravate tensions between the rivals _________________________________
8. a long rigmarole of questions and answers ___________________________________
9. a listless response from voters _____________________________________
10. the upper levels of power ______________________________________
11. tried to placate both sides in the dispute __________________________________
12. revoked the outgoing President’s orders ______________________________________
13. wore a very grotesque mask ___________________________________
14. crushed by the force of progress ___________________________________
15. slog through the seemingly endless files ____________________________________
Antonyms
16. a growing abundance of cheap labor _____________________________________
17. given to lighthearted predictions _____________________________________
18. known for his sensible opinions ___________________________________
19. has reaffirmed her support of free trade _________________________________
20. constructed a downtown shopping district __________________________________
Vocabulary 8 exercise 3
1. By (portending / sloughing) off the artificiality of her first book the novelist arrived in a style that was simple, genuine and highly effective.
2. By denying your guilt without offering any explanation of your actions, you will only (recant / exacerbate) an already bad situation.
3. Not surprisingly, the committee’s final report was an incongruous mixture of the astute and the (irrefutable / fatuous).
4. Stephen’s King’s book Danse (Macabre / Lackadaisical) surveys popular and obscure horror fiction of the twentieth century.
5.
With incredible unconcern, the nobles of
Europe immersed themselves in social frivolities as the fearful
(juggernaut / litany) of World War I steamrolled ineluctably toward them.
6. Over the years, hard work and unstinting devotion to duty have raised me from one (echelon / paucity) of company management to the next.
7. She excused herself from lending me the money I so desperately needed by (conciliating / alleging) that she had financial troubles of her own.
8. Economists believe that the drop in automobile sales and steel production (countermands / portends) serious problems for business in the future.
9. We have many capable and well-meaning people in our organization, but it seems to me that there is a (paucity / juggernaut) of real leadership.
10. It is a good deal easier to (raze / allege) an old building that it is to destroy a time-honored social institution.
11. I never ask any one “How are you?” anymore because I am afraid I will be treated to an endless (litany / badinage) of symptoms and ailments.
12. His attempts at casual (badinage / echelon) did not conceal the fact that he was acutely embarrassed by his blunder.
13. What possible purpose will be served by setting up yet another hamburger stand in an area already (saturated / sloughed) with fast-food shops?
14. His debating technique is rooted in the firm belief that anything bellowed in a loud voice is absolutely (saturnine / irrefutable).
15. Our excitement at visiting the world-famous ruins was dampened by the (lackadaisical / arrant) attitude of the bored and listless guide.
16. In earlier times, people whose views conflicted with “received opinion” often had to (recant /portend) their ideas or face the consequences.
17. Only a(n) (arrant / macabre) knave would be capable of devising such an incredibly underhanded and treacherous scheme.
18. The authority of the Student Council is not absolute because the principal can (countermand / exacerbate) any of its decisions.
19. Someone with such a (fatuous / saturnine) outlook on life doesn’t make an agreeable traveling companion, especially on a long journey.
20. The views of the two parties involved in this dispute are so diametrically opposed that it will be almost
impossible to (conciliate / saturate) them.
Note: Free verse is verse that has irregular meter and line length. What Whitman’s use of free verse reflects his belief in freedom, democracy and individuality.
WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
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When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
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When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
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When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
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How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
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Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
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In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
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Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
All responses should be in complete sentences. Preferably this should be typed.
- What visual aids does the astronomer use during his lecture?
- How does the speaker respond to the lecture?
- Where does the speaker go when he leaves the lecture? What does he look up at from time to time?
- How is the speaker’s attitude toward the stars different from that of the astronomer?
- The word mystical means “spiritually significant.” Why do you think Whitman chose this word to describe the moist night air in line 7?
- Who do you think is more ‘learn’d” in regard to the stars? Explain.
- What is the theme of the poem? How does Whitman’s use of parallel structures in the first four lines reinforce the theme?
8. In no fewer than 200 words, respond to the following: How would this poem be different if it were written in verse with regular meter and line length? In your response demonstrate that you know how to correctly use an MLA heading, cite and insert line breaks. DUE FRIDAY FEBRUARY 3 at the start of class or send earlier. Any received after class are 10 points and dropping each day an additional 10 points.
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