1. Love Connections

Love Connection: Walt and Emily Go A-Courtin’

Your buddy Walt isn’t looking so well. All he does lately is mope. In fact, the other day, you caught him lying on the front lawn. When you asked him what the heck he was doing, he said, “I loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.” He let out a huge sigh. “And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.” What he needs is a girlfriend. Big time. He plainly needs help. Look at him.

It’s depressing. He hasn’t shaved in weeks. And he’s starting to smell. However, you just happened to have met this nice girl, Emily. She doesn’t get out much, but she seems kind of lonely. You wonder… what if? Maybe it could work.

Your assignment is to set up these two (very different) lovebirds on date and record what happens. You will need to gather some biographical information about each poet so you can successfully depict how they might interact AND include some biographical information in their date (five-ten items about each poet). Finally, you must seamlessly integrate at least five lines of poetry from each poet (10 total) into their conversation as dialogue. Nothing inappropriate!

B.Poetry Study Group Presentation

Choice B- Poetry Study Group Presentation

Steps to Success:

Create a group of four or five. This project will require homework. Choose individuals you can work with it. Choose a group that will stay focused.

We will do anonymous group evaluations; these will be included in your project grade. Make sure you are on task and giving your best effort!

Decide which “poet group” you would like to research and teach to the class. This is “first come/first serve.”Sign up on the clipboard.

· New England Romantic Poets:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow , William Cullen Bryant, and Oliver Holmes

· American Masters:Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen Crane, and Robert Frost

· Women Who Rocked the Poetry Boat: Emily Dickinson, Philis Wheatley, and Anne Bradstreet

· The Modern Poets:Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, and e.e. cummings

· The Harlem Renaissance Poets: Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen

· Contemporary Male Poets: W.H. Auden, Theodore Roethke, Billy Collins, and Richard Wilbur

· Contemporary Female Poets: Sylvia Plath, Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, and Maya Angelou

C.P.Y.O.P.- Propose Your Own Project

This must include roughly the same amount of work as the other two projects and you must propose this idea to me during an appropriate time in class/tutoring/advisory NOT in the middle of class or the day the project is due.

The sky’s the limit!

Poet/Poetry Presentation

You will need to make an online shareable presentation (where you can all collaborate) that contains the following information.

  • Information Slide for EACH Poet: 10 Key Facts (background, inspiration, education, interesting information, etc.) and an image of the poet
  • One “best example” of each poet’s work (include the entire poem on the slide)
  • An analysis of the poem

What is the poem describing/discussing?

Discuss at least three literary devices that are used in the poem(simile, metaphor, rhyme, personification, imagery, onomatopoeia, alliteration, etc.).

  • A Comparison and Contrast of the poets you researched. How are they similar? How are they different?
  • Best Poet: Of the poets you studied, which poet did you like the best? Why? (If group members chose different poets, you may discuss multiple poets.)
  • MLA Works Cited Slide containing information about where the group found the poet facts and images