A.P. Blitz, Saturday, March 24, 2018

Musee des Beaux Arts 
W. H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Look at Bruegel's painting of "Icarus" 

Take an overview of it: write down some of the things you notice about the painting.

Now after some analysis, write a sentence describing the scene.

There is a man farming,  a man herding sheep,  a pirate ship in the distance and a city across the water.

Now divide the painting into quadrants and analyze each part.

What do you see in the upper left quadrant?

What do you see in the lower left quadrant?

What do you see in the lower left quadrant?

Watch the video of "The Myth of Icarus"

Read the poem by W. H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts" again.

Now, in your own words paraphrase what the poem is about.

Watch video of William Carlos Williams' "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"

Read William Carlos Williams' "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus"

According to Brueghel
when Icarus fell
it was spring

a farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole pageantry

of the year was
awake tingling
near

the edge of the sea
concerned 
with itself

sweating in the sun
that melted
the wings' wax

unsignificantly
off the coast
there was

a splash quite unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning

Write a short paraphrase of the poem.

Who is the speaker?

Any figurative language?

Attitude? (Tone!)

Any shifts?

What is the theme?

Read the following poem "Flight 063" by Brian Aldiss

Flight 063

Why always speak of Icarus’ fall?—

That legendary plunge

Amid a shower of tallow

And feathers and the poor lad’s

Sweat? And that little splash 

Which caught the eye of Brueghel

While the sun remained

Aloof within its private zone?

That fall remains

Suspended in the corporate mind.

Yet as our Boeing flies

High above the Arctic Circle

Into the sun’s eye, think—

Before the fall the flight was.

(So with Adam—just before

The Edenic Fall, he had

That first taste of Eve.)

Dinner is served aboard Flight 063.

We eat from plastic trays, oblivious

To the stratosphere.

But Icarus—his cliff-top jump,

The leap of heart, the blue air scaled—

His glorious sense of life

Imperiled. Time

Fell far below, the everyday

Was lost in his ascent.

Up, up, he sailed, unheeding

Such silly limitations as

The melting point of wax.

Write a short paraphrase of the poem.

Who is the speaker?

Any figurative language?

Attitude? (Tone!)

Any shifts?

What is the theme?

To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph 

Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on,

testing that strange little tug at his shoulder blade,

and think of that first flawless moment over the lawn

of the labyrinth. Think of the difference it made!

There below are the trees, as awkward as camels;

and here are the shocked starlings pumping past

and think of innocent Icarus who is doing quite well:

larger than a sail, over the fog and the blast

of the plushy ocean, he goes. Admire his wings!

Feel the fire at his neck and see how casually

he glances up and is caught, wondrously tunneling

into that hot eye. Who cares that he fell back to the sea?

See him acclaiming the sun and come plunging down

while his sensible daddy goes straight into town.

Anne Sexton (1928 - 1974)

Write a short paraphrase of the poem.

Who is the speaker?

Any figurative language?

Attitude? (Tone!)

Any shifts?

What is the theme?

"Icarus"

by Edward Field (b. 1924, poem 1950)

Only the feathers floating around the hat 

Showed that anything more spectacular had occurred 

Than the usual drowning. The police preferred to ignore 

The confusing aspects of the case, 

And the witnesses ran off to a gang war. 

So the report filed and forgotten in the archives read simply 

“Drowned,” but it was wrong: Icarus 

Had swum away, coming at last to the city 

Where he rented a house and tended the garden. 

“That nice Mr. Hicks” the neighbors called, 

Never dreaming that the gray, respectable suit 

Concealed arms that had controlled huge wings 

Nor that those sad, defeated eyes had once 

Compelled the sun. And had he told them 

They would have answered with a shocked, 

uncomprehending stare. 

No, he could not disturb their neat front yards; 

Yet all his books insisted that this was a horrible mistake: 

What was he doing aging in a suburb? 

Can the genius of the hero fall 

To the middling stature of the merely talented? 

And nightly Icarus probes his wound 

And daily in his workshop, curtains carefully drawn, 

Constructs small wings and tries to fly 

To the lighting fixture on the ceiling: 

Fails every time and hates himself for trying. 

He had thought himself a hero, had acted heroically, 

And dreamt of his fall, the tragic fall of the hero; 

But now rides commuter trains, 

Serves on various committees, 

And wishes he had drowned.

Write a short paraphrase of the poem.

Who is the speaker?

Any figurative language?

Attitude? (Tone!)

Any shifts?

What is the theme? 

Choose one of the five poems we read and write a paragraph which includes the following:

The title, a brief paraphrase of the poem, the speaker, the figurative language used, the tone, a shift in the poem – if any, and the theme!

“Foregrounding and Privilege”

Write what you think “foreground” means.

Write what you think the word privilege means.

Discussion

Read “Foregrounding and Privilege”

Read the excerpt from Heart of Darkness

Discussion: What makes Heart of Darkness racist?

London’s Summer Morning

BY MARY ROBINSON

Who has not waked to list the busy sounds 

Of summer’s morning, in the sultry smoke 

Of noisy London? On the pavement hot 

The sooty chimney-boy, with dingy face 

And tattered covering, shrilly bawls his trade, 

Rousing the sleepy housemaid. At the door 

The milk-pail rattles, and the tinkling bell 

Proclaims the dustman’s office; while the street 

Is lost in clouds impervious. Now begins 

The din of hackney-coaches, waggons, carts; 

While tinmen’s shops, and noisy trunk-makers, 

Knife-grinders, coopers, squeaking cork-cutters, 

Fruit-barrows, and the hunger-giving cries 

Of vegetable-vendors, fill the air. 

Now every shop displays its varied trade, 

And the fresh-sprinkled pavement cools the feet 

Of early walkers. At the private door 

The ruddy housemaid twirls the busy mop, 

Annoying the smart ’prentice, or neat girl, 

Tripping with band-box lightly. Now the sun 

Darts burning splendor on the glittering pane, 

Save where the canvas awning throws a shade 

On the gay merchandise. Now, spruce and trim, 

In shops (where beauty smiles with industry) 

Sits the smart damsel; while the passenger 

Peeps through the window, watching every charm. 

Now pastry dainties catch the eye minute 

Of humming insects, while the limy snare 

Waits to enthrall them. Now the lamp-lighter 

Mounts the tall ladder, nimbly venturous, 

To trim the half-filled lamps, while at his feet 

The pot-boy yells discordant! All along 

The sultry pavement, the old-clothes-man cries 

In tone monotonous, while sidelong views 

The area for his traffic: now the bag 

Is slyly opened, and the half-worn suit 

(Sometimes the pilfered treasure of the base 

Domestic spoiler), for one half its worth, 

Sinks in the green abyss. The porter now 

Bears his huge load along the burning way; 

And the poor poet wakes from busy dreams, 

To paint the summer morning.

Read the poem and circle all the verbs and adjectives.
What tone and all overall impression is created by the verbs and adjectives?
Create a word bank of your own verbs and adjectives that captures the mood and tone of the poem.

Transcript of A.P. Enrichment Workshop; March 17th:

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Saturday, March 17^th:

What Did You See in the Upper Left Quadrant:

Sydney –

Glaciers, rocks, pretty trees

Upper Right:

Jessilee:

Glaciers, sky

Lower Left:

Aliyyah:

A horse is pulling a plow (plough), a ploughman,

Lower Right:

Jacqueline:

Someone is jumping in the water, a boat or a ship (Sandra)

Aliyyah:

A man tending a flock of sheep

Analysis of the poem "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden inspired by

P. Breugel – The Fall of Icarus

Musee des Beaux Arts

W.H. Auden

Who is the speaker?

The author

Who is the speaker addressing?

Bystanders, the reader

What is the subject – what is he talking about?

Suffering

What universal truth is being revealed here?

Sydney: Suffering happens while everyone is living their lives and not really paying attention.

Sandra: that suffering is always happening and other people ignore it.

Jessalie: One person’s worst day maybe some one else’s best day.

Kyla: Suffering doesn’t always look like suffering.

Tone – diction (word choice)

Sydney: Matter-of-fact; this is how it is

Who are “they”?

The old masters

Sandra: the old painters and poets – Rembrandt, Breugel, Aristotle,

What are “they” never wrong about?

Suffering

“How it takes place” – what is the “it”? When does it occur?

Martyr: a person who suffers for a greater cause.

Christ is a martyr, a parent, teacher, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Harvey Milk, Rosa Parks are all martyrs. Malala is a martyr.

Who waits for the miraculous birth? And why?

The aged

Who doesn’t particularly care – and why not?

The children. They don’t care because they want to have fun.

Watch the youtube video “Musee des Beaux Arts  - W.H. Auden”

Discussion

Watch video of “The Myth of Icarus”

Sydney read:

Read William Carlos Williams “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

Who is speaking?

Who is the speaker addressing?

What is the purpose?

What is the tone?

What is the theme?

Why is the title ironic?

The juxtaposition of the banal (“Landscape”) with the tragic (“the Fall of Icarus”) a

Pageantry is a show filled with beautiful colors, movement, perhaps music, different and beautiful objects on display.

A pageantry of life!

The pageantry of all the species of the animals parading onto Noah’s Arc.

The pageantry of the stars and the planets and their movement across the universe.

Connotations:

Spring – fresh, rebirth, bright, beauty, new start, rejuvenation, colorful

Write a brief one paragraph expressing, revealing William Carlos Williams’ universal truth in his poem “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”

Use the words from the poem and their correlates in your writing.

Read “Icarus” by Edward Field

Circle the words that reveal the tone or attitude of the poet

What is the tone of the poet?

What is the theme of the poem?

Look for juxtapositions of images

Sandra: juxtaposition is the placing of two contrasting images together which reveals and heightens the truth and/or quality of each.

What is humorous and contemporary in this poem?

What is the irony in this poem?

Jessalie, Sydney, Michelle

What are the connotations to the suburbs?

Banal, boring, normal, average, uncool, nonartists, ordinary people live in the suburbs!!!!!

Now Icarus is living in the suburbs. Ironic, no? 

“Flight 063” by Brian Aldiss

Circle the words and the phrases that reveal the tone or attitude of the poet.

What is the tone?

What is the theme of the poem?

What universal truth is revealed by the poet?

Look for juxtapositions or contrasts!

Allusion –

Sandra – references in a piece of literature that references another piece of literature, such as the Bible or mythology, or culture – even pop culture – and historical events

Tallow is animal fat that is used in candles.

Aloof: emotionally distant and cold and uncaring

What is the tone of the poem?

List some of the words, the allusions, the imagery that give birth to the tone

Alliyah – “The glorious sense of life”, “his cliff top jump”

Michelle -

What is the theme of “Flight 063”?

Foregrounding and Privileging:

Read and discussed an excerpt from Charles Dicken’s Hard Times.

Read and discussed an excerpt from The Heart of Darkness:

 Who is being observed?

Who is the observer?

Who controls the narrative?

Who is in control?

What do we privilege in this society – the mind or the body?

Which is considered superior – the mind or the body?

Why is this excerpt racist?

What makes this excerpt racist?

Class poll: read the suggested ways of dealing with racist materials and took a poll as to which would be the more effective way of dealing with this issue.

The class agreed that “alternating the narration between two points of view – African and Western” – would be the most effective way of dealing with racist and/or sexist material.

The class agreed that the least effective ways to deal with racist/sexist materials are:

Refusing to read the book

Remembering the book is fictional and has no impact on the “real world”.

Read Mary Robinson’s “A London Summer’s Morning”:

Read aloud and discussed any unfamiliar words or 19^th century customs.

Reviewed definition and meaning of imagery.

The students reviewed the poem again and underlined all the active verbs and adjectives.

The students wrote a brief opening paragraph, using strong active verbs and colorful adjectives, to analyze Mary Robinson’s use of tone in her poem