Hello all!

Mr. Benainous and I are back from Europe. Please remember that you are to read both FRANKENSTEIN, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, and selected poems and biographical details from the literary anthology. At the beginning of school your work will be due. This includes your short form for both FRANKENSTEIN and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, and your responses to the questions in the anthology.


An interesting factoid for you to consider is that SOME scholars believe that Marlowe was not actually killed in that fight over his bar tab, but rather faked his own death (he was a spy, remember?) and went into hiding where HE and NOT Shakespeare wrote all those wonderful plays, HAMLET, ROMEO AND JULIET, MACBETH, etc. and the sonnets. Marlowe merely used Shakespeare as a "cover." The reasoning is that the time line fits, and that only someone with Marlowe's education and of his social class could produce such masterpieces - not someone from Shakespeare's very modest background. Hmmm....I personally think that reasoning reeks of snobbery, but what do you think? Extra credit to anyone who wants to do some research on it. Jessica, are you up for it?

Be sure to read page 268 on CARPE DIEM and be sure that you understand the concept of "seize the day"! I would also like to encourage you to see the dvd of DEAD POETS' SOCIETY which deals with that very subject. ("Carpe diem" was the cry also used by young suiters - and not so young - to encourage recalcitrant lovers to "gather ye rose buds while ye may" for life was very short, and love and happiness were fleeting.

Next, please read Ben Jonson's biography. Now, who would guess that your English teacher would encourage you to read the works of a convicted felon - a murderer at that? Jonson quarrelled with an actor and killed him in a duel. Well, you know how writers are about their words and how they just hate it when actors mess them up.

Please read pages 270 and 271, "Song, to Celia" and "On My First Son," and "Ben Jonson's Vision of His Son."

Please answer the following questions:

In "Song, to Celia" there are two extended metaphors, one in the first stanza, the other in the second stanza. What are they?

In the first stanza what does the soul thirst for?

What choice does the writer indicate that he would make in lines 7 - 8?

In the poem "On My First Son" what "sin" does the writer confess to?

What line conveys the idea that Jonson considers his greatest masterpiece to be his son?

When we meet, I will show you another poem Jonson wrote about the death of his daughter, entitled, "On My First Daughter."

You may send your answers to me by e-mail: jkatbridge@aol.com. You will receive credit for this which will carry you through the first four weeks of the spring semester.

Keep reading FRANKENSTEIN!

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