November 6, 2017 - November 9, 2017 Weekly Agenda for A.P. English Literature

Monday, November 6th: 



ENGLISH LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION FREE-RESPONSE QUESTIONS
Question 3
(Suggested time—40 minutes. This question counts as one-third of the total essay section score.)

In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present actions, attitudes, or values
of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either
personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character’s relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

Please use Death of a Salesman for your essay. Do not merely summarize the plot. 

Tuesday, November 7th: 

The Sonnet!

Elizabethan
Iambic pentameter
Form
Perrine’s; page 966 - 967
Answer the questions on 967 in Perrine’s “Sonnet 73”
Friday, November 10th!!!
“That Time of Year” by William Shakespeare
Multiple Choice Test

The sonnet has fourteen lines!!!!
The Elizabethan sonnet’s last two lines end in a couplet!
A couplet is the last two rhyming  lines of a sonnet. (Shakespeare also used couplets to end scenes and plays.)
A sonnet is also in iambic pentameter
The rhyme scheme of an Elizabethan sonnet is AB AB CD CD EF EF GG
The Elizabethan has three quatrains and a couplet.

Iamb is the heartbeat of poetry!
Iamb is two syllables of unstress/stress
Penta = five
Iamb = two syllables

Read and analyze Sonnet 73
Pair up and see if you can find any references to time, or to division of time, or division of the day into night, or a movement of the poem through the day, the seasons.

See if you can find a common theme of imagery or oppositional imagery


References to time:
Kais: that time of year, twilight,
Oscar: expire,
Day
Sandra: yellow leaves suggestive of fall
Brandy: boughs which shake against the cold….where the late the birds sing….
Brandy: “twilight of each day / As after sunset fadeth in the west
Black night doth take away
Death’s second self

Oppositional imagery: youth vs. old
Youth – passion, energy
To streak across the sky and explode like a fireball is a much better way to die than to slowly wither away into a feeble ember and then expire into nothingness.
Soapstones
Who is speaking?
Shakespeare
Shakespeare is old at the time of this poem.



Wednesday, November 7th:  

“What is a Sonnet?”
Iambs - two syllables that are unstressed/stressed  
It is suggestive of the heart beat.
(That time) (of year) (thou mayst) (in me) (be hold) 
But like the heart beat, iambic pentameter can have irregularities which suggest the vagaries of life and emotion. If the rhythm were too rigid and unyielding, the poetry would lapse into doggerel. 

doggerel– badly written poetry 

Unfamiliar words in Sonnet 73:
 Ere – (pronounced “air”) before 

Bough - a tree branch 

Take a moment and analyze Sonnet 73
Soapstones
S – speaker
O – occasion
A – audience
P – purpose
S -  subject
Tone: attitude of the author towards the subject or the character. 

Figurative language you may be unfamiliar with but may need to answer the multiple choice questions. 

Caesura: a natural break in the rhythm of speech
In Shakespeare, it usually occurs in the middle of the line and can be indicated by a dash, a period, a comma, or an exclamation mark

Metonomy – when an object stands for another or an object that is closely allied with another. Examples: The White House issued a denial of any culpability in the incident.
Buckingham Palace announced today that Prince William would be crowned king.

Paradox: a statement that initially sounds false, contradictory, or ridiculous but upon further examination proves to be true.
Examples: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others – George Orwell Animal Farm
"I can resist everything but temptation." Oscar Wilde

Assigned: multiple choice questions on Sonnet 73

Thursday, November 9th: 
I am not here. I am attending a meeting.
Assigned from Perrine's:
"Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?"
Questions
"My Mistress' Eyes"
Soapstone
Quatrains
Couplet
Rhyme Scheme
Meter



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Middlemarch Essay

Image
How to Approach the A.P. prompt for MIDDLEMARCH How does Eliot portray characters? How does she portray complex relationship between husband and wife? Literary devices: Narrative perspective (Pov) and selection of detail. Middlemarch: underline novels!!!!! Rosamond’s personality: She was not given to weeping and disliked it. Lines 14 – 16: Rosamond thinks….. Go through the entire prompt and find examples of pov (narrative perspective) of Rosamond. Find at least three examples. Lines 77 – 79: “The thought in her mind was if she had known what he was going to be like she would never have married him.” Lines 87 - 90: “She was determined to make no further resistance or utterance.” Lines 23 – 26: This sudden trial was to a creature who had known nothing but indulgence. 52 – 53: His self blame gave her some hope that he would attend to her opinion. Tertius: Lines 48 – 50: Lydgate was bowing his neck like a creature……” Lines 34 – 35: That she had ...
Read more

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1

Image
Hamlet Act 2, Scene 1: In this scene Polonius is giving instructions to his servant Reynaldo to spy on Laertes, his son, in Paris. (Again, note the theme of spying) Polonius is giving Reynaldo money to give to his son, but tells him to “to make inquire of his behavior”. “Inquire me first what Danskers are in town….” This is an example of elision or omission of words (words are intentionally left out to insure the lines scan in iambic pentameter.) What word or words are left out? Dansker: Danes Polonius tells Reynaldo to inquire about Laertes’ behavior in a roundabout general way: “encompassment and drift of question” and by this way will arrive at the truth faster and more completely than by asking directly (“…come you more nearer / Than your particular demands will touch it.”) Do you think that’s true? Polonius further instructs Reynaldo, the servant, to say that he doesn’t know him well, but has some “…distant knowledge of him…” Mark: Listen well! Are ...
Read more

Oedipus Rex

Image
Oedipus Notes Act 1 There is a pestilence which has descended upon Thebes.  The people of Thebes have assembled at the front steps of Oedipus’ palace to plead with him to save them as he once did with the Sphinx. Oedipus says that he has sent Creon to ask Teiresias to come and tell them what he knows, but Creon has been gone for some time now and all anxiously wait for his return. Creon at last arrives and says he has spoken with Teiresias but first asks Oedipus if he would like to hear the news in private or in front of the people. By his comment, “I am prepared to speak, but should we not go in?” suggests that he would like to be more cautious and circumspect. Oedipus’ response is “Let them all hear it. It is for them, I suffer, more than for myself.” This is magnanimous and is suggestive of a large, generous and open heart but also one that might be foolish and a little rash.  What if the news is not good, frightening or embarrassing for him?  The crowd m...
Read more