Honours British Literature
Summer Reading 2014
You’ve heard the legend of Brit Lit.Now experience the reality!
For your summer reading assignment, you will read the novel Regeneration by Pat Barker. The book features a mix of real and fictional characters at a Scottish military mental hospital during World War I. In addition to the book, you will read seven poems:
- “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke
- “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae
- “Pro Patria” by Owen Seaman
- “Pain” by Ivor Gurney
- “Dreamers” by Siegfried Sassoon
- “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen
- “Dulce et Decorum Est”by Wilfred Owen
The poems are at the bottom of this file.
As you read Regeneration and the poems, you will keep a dialectical journal. The directions for the dialectical journal appear below. You will also, as does any good reader, look up any words that are either unfamiliar or that are seemingly familiar but appear illogical. For example, the word “lime” at the end of line 12 in “Dulce et Decorum Est” has nothing to do with citrus fruit—look it up to discover its other meaning, the meaning that Owen had in mind.
You may find it easiest to keep the journal in manuscript form with pen and paper. However, I ask you to type up your journal before you submit it. (You need not set up the typed version of your journal in three columns; merely use a format for the quotations, citations and comments that I can follow.) When you submit your journal, please include a Works Cited page (in proper MLA format) so I know which edition of Regeneration you have read; you need not include the poems. I will ask you to submit the journals to turnitin.com after we have set up accounts. And I will be grading the journals.
You must complete journal entries for a minimum oftwenty passages fromRegeneration and at least one entry for each poem.
Dialectical Journals
The term “dialectic” means “the art or practice of arriving at the truth by using conversation involving question and answer.”Think of your dialectical journal as a series of conversations between you and the text.The process is meant to help you develop a better understanding of the texts we read.Use your journal to incorporate your personal responses to the texts, your ideas about the themes we cover and our class discussions.You will find that it is a useful way to process what you are reading, prepare yourself for group discussion and gather textual evidence for an upcoming paper.
Procedure
As you read, choose passages that stand out to you and record them in the left-hand column of a T-chart (ALWAYS include page numbers).
In the right column, write your response to the text (ideas/insights, questions, reflections and comments on each passage)
If you choose, you can label your responses using the following codes:
- (Q) Question: ask about something in the passage that is unclear
- (C) Connect: make a connection to your life, the world, or another text
- (P) Predict: anticipate what will occur based on what’s in the passage
- (CL) Clarify: answer earlier questions or confirm/disaffirm a prediction
- (R) Reflect: think deeply about what the passage means in a broad sense: not just to the characters in the story.What conclusions can you draw about the world, about human nature, or just the way things work?
- (E) Evaluate: make a judgment about the character(s), their actions or what the author is trying to say
Sample Dialectical Journal Entry: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Passages from the text / Pg# / Comments and Questions“…they carried like freight trains; they carried it on their backs and shoulders-and for all the ambiguities of Vietnam, all the mysteries and unknowns, there was at least the single abiding certainty that they would never be at a loss for things to carry.” / 2 / (R) O’Brien ends the first section of the novel with this sentence.He provides excellent visual details of what each solider in Vietnam would carry for day-to-day fighting.He makes you feel the physical weight of what soldiers have to carry for simple survival.When you combine the emotional weight of loved ones at home, the fear of death, and the responsibility for the men you fight with, with this physical weight, you start to understand what soldiers in Vietnam dealt with every day. This quote sums up the confusion that the men felt about the reasons they were fighting the war, and how they clung to the only certainty—things they had to carry—in a confusing world where normal rules were suspended.
Choosing Passages from the Text:
Look for quotes that seem significant, powerful, thought provoking or puzzling.For example, you might record
Effective and/or creative uses of stylistic or literary devices
Passages that remind you of your own life or something you’ve seen before
Structural shifts or turns in the plot
A passage that makes you realize something you hadnot seen before
Examples of patterns: recurring images, ideas, colors, symbols or motifs
Passages with confusing language or unfamiliar vocabulary
Events you find surprising or confusing
Passages that illustrate a particular character or setting
Responding to the Text:
You can respond to the text in a variety of ways.The most important thing to remember is that your observations should be specific and detailed. You should write as much as you can for each entry.You should respond in BOTH of the following ways:
Basic Responses
Raise questions about the beliefs and values implied in the text
Give your personal reactions to the passage
Discuss the words, ideas or actions of the author or character(s)
Relatethe passageto your own experiences
Write about how the passage makes you think or feel
Agree or disagree with a character or the author
Sample Sentence Starters:I really don’t understand this because…
I really dislike/like this idea because…
I think the author is trying to say that…
This passage reminds me of a time in my life when…
If I were (name of character) at this point I would…
This part doesn’t make sense because…
This character reminds me of (name of person) because…
Higher Level Responses
Analyze the text for use of literary devices (tone, structure, style, imagery)
Make connections between different characters or events in the text
Make connections to a different text (or film, song, etc.)
Discuss the words, ideas, or actions of the author or character(s)
Consider an event or description from the perspective of a different character
Analyze a passage and its relationship to the story as a whole
The Soldier
Rupert Brooke (1914)
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed:
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,5
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England’s breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less10
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
In Flanders Fields
John McCrae (1915)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 5
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: 10
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. 15
Pro Patria
Owen Seaman (1915)
England, in this great fight to which you go
Because, where Honour calls you, go you must,
Be glad, whatever comes, at least to know
You have your quarrel just.
Peace was your care; before the nations’ bar5
Her cause you pleaded and her ends you sought;
But not for her sake, being what you are,
Could you be bribed and bought.
Others may spurn the pledge of land to land,
May with the brute sword stain a gallant past;10
But by the seal to which you set your hand,
Thank God, you still stand fast!
Forth, then, to front that peril of the deep
With smiling lips and in your eyes the light,
Steadfast and confident, of those who keep15
Their storied scutcheon bright.
And we, whose burden is to watch and wait—
High-hearted ever, strong in faith and prayer,
We ask what offering we may consecrate,
What humble service share.20
To steel our souls against the lust of ease;
To find our welfare in the common good;
To hold together, merging all degrees
In one wide brotherhood;—
To teach that he who saves himself is lost;25
To bear in silence though our hearts may bleed;
To spend ourselves, and never count the cost,
For others’ greater need;—
To go our quiet ways, subdued and sane;
To hush all vulgar clamour of the street;30
With level calm to face alike the strain
Of triumph or defeat;—
This be our part, for so we serve you best,
So best confirm their prowess and their pride,
Your warrior sons, to whom in this high test35
Our fortunes we confide.
Pain
Ivor Gurney (1916)
Pain, pain continual; pain unending;
Hard even to the roughest, but to those
Hungry for beauty…Not the wisest knows.
Nor most pitiful-hearted, what the wending
Of one hour’s way meant. Gray monotony lending5
Weight to the gray skies, gray mud where goes
An army of gray bedrenched scarecrows in rows
Careless at last of cruellest Fate-sending.
Seeing the pitiful eyes of men foredone,
Or horses shot, too tired merely to stir,10
Dying in shell-holes both, slain by the mud.
Men broken, shrieking even to hear a gun.
Till pain grinds down, or lethargy numbs her,
The amazed heart cries angrily out on God.
Dreamers
Siegfried Sassoon (1917)
Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land,
Drawing no dividend from time’s to-morrows.
In the great hour of destiny they stand,
Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win5
Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.
I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,10
Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,
And mocked by hopeless longing to regain
Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
And going to the office in the train.
Anthem for Doomed Youth
Wilfred Owen (1918)
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,5
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,—
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes10
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls’ brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
Dulce et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen (1918)
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,5
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,10
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,[1]
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams before my helpless sight,15
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;20
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest25
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.[2]
[1] The gas masks worn by World War I soldiers included glass lenses that had a green tint.
[2]From a famous ode written by the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65 b.c.e.–8 b.c.e.), more commonly known in English as Horace: “It is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.”