Dear Sir Madam:
This Unit Assignment #4 consists of three (3) Lessons. Lesson#10, 11, and 12
You will find in this document the Lecture Notes (which will be used to answer the questions, and can be used as reference) as well the Questions, also called (Outcomes, Readings, and Assessments) that needs to be answered for each lesson
Please know that I have highlighted the mandatory part of the assignment with yellow color
Outcomes Lesson#10
In this lesson, you will:
Answer a series of questions about point of view, relative to the poetry selected for this lesson.
Write an essay in which you examine how the speaker and the auditor are presented in Robert Frost’s poem “Home Burial.”
Assessments
1. Short Answer Questions for Lesson#10
In general, unless otherwise stated, answers consisting of 5-10 complete, well-written sentences will suffice. Use MLA-formatted quotations to support your remarks.
1Which passage in the poem reveals the Duke’s arrogance? Discuss how this particular characteristic is presented.
2What did the Duke’s wife often do that he found intolerable? Is it something that most husbands would judge similarly?
3What do you find sinister about lines 45-46? What effect do these lines have when considered in relation to lines 52-53?
4What is revealed about the Duke’s character as he passes casually from one art object (his wife’s portrait) to another (the bronze statue of Neptune)?
2. Essay Writing Assignment
In an essay that’s at least 5 paragraphs in length (with a catchy title), discuss Robert Frost’s poem “Home Burial.” Examine how the speaker and the auditor are presented, using lines from the poem to support your remarks. A rubric for the essay, blank and model planning sheets, and a sample essay can be found in the Appendices module. Use MLA-formatted quotations to support your remarks.
Lecture Notes for Lesson 10:
I attended a reading of poet Marie Ponsot’s in 2007. Then 85, Ponsot described her experience teaching poetry to small children. “Do you know any poems?” she’d ask, and they’d shake their heads. “Well, do you know any songs then?” This question would inevitably launch students into a verbal cacophony of song lyrics. In response, she’d shout, “You do know some poems!” and the children would nod fervently because they knew a great many poems, in fact, even if they’d never thought of the songs they loved in this way.
Until I heard this story, I thought I hated poetry, and although I may remember what Ponsot said differently than what she actually said, I believe I’ve captured the essence of her words here. What I hope you will take away from this brief anecdote is the idea that poetry is accessible to and, as evidenced by the children in that classroom, enjoyed by everyone. Some poems are more difficult to read and understand than others, certainly, but if you are patient with yourself, you’ll develop as much love for these as you developed for Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” as a teenager.
Since this lesson is about point of view, specifically, I’d like to draw your attention to one of the most important questions you’ll need to ask: “Who is, or who are, the poem’s speaker(s)?” Sometimes, the answer(s) will be obvious, as it is in Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” (Mays 868).
Please read My Last Duchess.
Like most readers, I often assume the voice of a poem is that of its poet—an assumption I would never make of a fictional work, ironically. I suspect, however, that this reveals how I feel about poetry, i.e., that the intimacy of a poem naturally makes it seem more personal. The editor of The Norton Introduction to Literature clarifies that a poem’s voice is often the “voice of the poet, but not always. Poets [like Robert Browning, for example] sometimes create characters just as writers of fiction or drama do” (Mays 887).
Essentially, Browning’s “My Last Duchess” is a dramatic monologue, which can be defined as a poem in which only one person speaks even though others are present. The Duke (i.e., the speaker) is addressing an agent, who is at the castle to arrange the marriage of his master’s (the Count’s) daughter to the Duke. Thus, the auditor of the poem is the Count’s agent, which answers the another important question: “Who is, or who are, the poem’s auditor(s), if any?” (Mays 868).
Standing in front of a painting of his last Duchess, the Duke describes a woman who was full of life to the Count’s agent, but it is clear that the Duke did not appreciate his wife’s character or her values, for she was one who ranked his “gift of a nine-hundred-year-old name with anybody’s gift” (Browning 33-34). Lastly, “Who are the other characters, if any, that appear in the poem?” Mays asks, and the answer is, of course, the Duke’s last Duchess (and the Count’s daughter, to some extent) (868).
What becomes clear is the Duke’s appreciation for the artworks he describes because they, unlike his last Duchess, are objects he can possess. Look closely at the text to see the agent’s reaction to the Duke’s words. Consider what the Duke reveals about himself in the conversation as well. Once you know and, to some degree, understand the Duke, answer the questions in the “Activities/Assessments” section of the plan for Lesson 10 (See Above)
Please read Home Burial.
Although I tend to shy away from Robert Frost’s work, I like “Home Burial” a great deal, and largely because of the story the two speakers tell and its ability to evoke different reactions in different readers.
In an essay, examine how the speaker and the auditor of Frost’s poem are presented using lines from the poem to support the remarks you make.
Outcomes for Lesson#11
In this lesson, you will:
Identify and interpret information from the text by answering a series of questions about point of view, theme, and tone.
Readings
Lecture Notes Lesson#11 (See Below)
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold (1867)
Assessments
1. Short Answer Questions for Lesson#11
In general, unless otherwise stated, answers consisting of 5-10 complete, well-written sentences will suffice. Use MLA-formatted quotations to support your remarks.
1. How soon are we aware of someone else’s presence in "Dover Beach," and how much are we told about him or her?
2. How would you describe the speaker’s mood, and what does this have to do with the poem’s temporal and geographical settings?
3. Which details seem especially important to the theme?
2. Blackout Poetry
Forthis assignment, you’ll need to photocopy, or rip out, several pages from a book, magazine, or newspaper. You’ll also need a permanent marker, to black out words. To begin, pick one of the pages you’ve photocopied (or ripped out), and look at the first sentence. Don’t think too much about this; just pick a word or group of words you like, and black out the others. Repeat this process for each of the subsequent lines until a poem emerges. Once you've createdfive poems, choose the three you like best, photograph them, and include them with your unit submission. To see some really wonderfulexamples of blackout poetry, please visit Words of Others.
Lecture Notes for Lesson#11
I love the way Kelly J. Mays, editor of The Norton Introduction to Literature, differentiates between theme and tone: “What a poem says involves its theme. How a poem makes that statement involves its tone—the poem’s attitude or feelings toward its topic” (948). We have discussed much of what is included in this lesson before, as theme and tone are as important to the other genres as they are to poetry. But, while the definitions of both terms are essentially the same, their applications are slightly different.
According to Kelly J. Mays, “Tone is closely related to style and diction; it is an effect of the speaker’s expressions” (948). Let’s consider Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” for a moment:
This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.
She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.
She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.
In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending (Mays 1356).
What expressions does the poem’s speaker use to make it clear that she (presumably) is being sarcastic? “The magic of puberty” is one example Piercy’s speaker employs since there is nothing, in any way, magical about the process (stanza 1, line 5). In another, the speaker openly mocks the girl, as she goes “to and fro apologizing,” essentially condemning gender roles specific to women, i.e., the theme of “Barbie Doll.”
“A theme,” writes Mays, “is not simply a work’s subject or its topic; it is a statement about that topic” (948). Let’s read “Dover Beach” by Mathew Arnold, before we discuss theme further.
Please read Dover Beach.
Structurally, “Dover Beach” has five stanzas of varying lengths. Stanza one introduces the situation of Arnold’s poem—the speaker is communicating with someone: “Come to the window,” he says (stanza 1, line 6). The mood is peaceful, the sea calm, moon fair, and bay tranquil. We have the noise and motion of the tide, as it brings with it “the eternal note of sadness” (Arnold 2.9-13). Does the reference to emotion seem strange here in light of everything else the speaker has described?
The sadness that the speaker hears at the end of the second stanza is similar to what Sophocles heard “long ago,” i.e., the “ebb and flow” of “human misery” described in the third (Arnold 3.18). Make note of the imagery, as well as the historical reference to the Pagan heritage of modern man in the form of Sophocles.
Stanza four continues with a reference to the “Sea of Faith,” or Christianity, with its “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.” And, like the tide, once full, it has retreated exposing the “naked shingles” of the world (Arnold 4.26). Note the consistency of the images. In the second stanza, we had “pebbles,” and now we have “naked shingles” exposed by the retreat of the tide. Why does the poet use these images as opposed to softer ones?
The speaker turns to his companion in the last stanza and speaks of love and faithfulness before he develops the contemporary images of confusion and anarchy. What hope, then, is there, the love between two people?
Let’s take a look at the structure and content of “Dover Beach” to see if we can identify its theme. The lengths of the poem’s lines vary, but there is a pattern to them: short, long, short, long, in, out, in, out—just as the tide ebbs and flows. In terms of the poem’s content, a brief summary of each stanza follows:
Stanza One / Readers are introduced to the speaker, his companion, the tide, the hope of the French Revolution, and sadness.Stanza Two / A historical reference is made to Sophocles (i.e., the Pagan heritage of mankind) and human misery with its ebb and flow.
Stanza Three / Christianity is referenced, as well as the hope raised but now faded (once full, now retreating).
Stanza Four / The speaker asks his companion for love and faithfulness.
Stanza Five / The future is uncertain.
Thus, Arnold’s poem develops the comparison between the tide’s movement and cycles of hope and despair, concluding that salvation is found in love, not society.
Outcomes for Lesson#12
In this lesson, you will:
Identify and interpret information from the text by answering a series of questions about point of view and visual imagery.
Apply the figures of speech (refer to the document located in the Appendices module) to Eliot’s poem by completing a fill-in-the-blank quiz.
Readings
Lecture Notes Lesson#12 (See Below)
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot (1915)
Assessments
1. PowerPoint
Create a PowerPoint presentation in which you answer the following questions:
- Who is J. Alfred Prufrock? What’s he like?
- To whom is Prufrock speaking? How can you tell?
- Are there other characters present in Eliot’s poem? Who? What are Prufrock’s perceptions of them?
- Are any of these other characters important to the narrative? Why, or why not?
- identify and examine five images from the poem, the visual impressions they produce, and what each indirectly communicates.
The use of MLA-formatted quotations is required, as is the incorporation of images that support your content.
Lecture Notes for Lesson#12:
Elements of this lesson will hearken back to Unit 2 when we discussed figures of speech. Perhaps you’ll recall the various references I made to the television series Lost? Those references, which I used as examples of simile and metaphor, among others, will be useful here, too.
The editor of The Norton Introduction to Literature explains that “most poems use the sense of sight to help us form, in our minds, visual impressions that communicate more directly than concepts,” adding that “usually they are quite concrete in what they ask us to see” (Mays 988). Consider, for example. “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carol Williams:
So much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens (Mays 983).
“What we are trying to imagine,” Mays writes, “is pictured in terms of something else familiar to us, and we are asked to think of one thing as if it were something else” (988).
“Sometimes,” Mays adds, “rather than accumulating metaphors, a poet presents a single metaphor that extends over a section of a poem…or even over the whole poem” (992). To illustrate her point, Mays offers readers the poem “Marks” in which poet Linda Pastan employs a controlling metaphor:
My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out (Mays 992).
Pastan asks readers to picture the judgment to which she is subjected “as if it were” an assigned grade, or a series of grades. Despite gender, age, and a number of other factors, all of us, as readers, can relate to the process of being evaluated and/or judged in school, right?
Often, it is the metaphor(s) of a poem that give(s) students pause, though solving such riddles presents difficulty for some. Don’t let this deter you from the challenge though! “Explicit comparisons [which are more easily understood],” writes Mays, “are called similes, and usually the comparison involves the word like or the word as. Similes work much as do metaphors, except that usually they are used more passingly” (994). Keep your eyes peeled for examples of both as you read T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
Please read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
If you’re anything like me, you probably glossed over the preface (in Italian) and started reading T. S. Eliot’s words, “Let us go then, you and I” (stanza 1, line 1). It was only when I first taught “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” that I actually took note of these words and, more specifically, where they’d come from. The footnote in our text provides an English translation as well as information about who states them:
From Dante, Inferno (27.61-66): “If I thought that my reply would be / to one who would ever return to the world, / this flame would stay without further movement; / but since none has ever returned alive from this depth, / if what I hear is true, / I answer you without fear of infamy.” The words are spoken by the character Guido da Montefeltro—imprisoned in flame in the depths of hell as a punishment for giving false counsel—to Dante, whom daMontefeltro believes will never return from his journey into the inferno.
Can you see how important these words are to the poem? Eliot is comparing the trip we, as readers, are about to take with the poem’s speaker, J. Alfred Prufrock, to Dante’s journey into Hell. This is a powerful allusion, and one that immediately establishes Prufrock’s attitude and feelings (i.e., tone) about the subject matter (i.e., theme).