--Week Two--



Introduction to Poetry

I ask them to take a poem  
and hold it up to the light  
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem  
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room  
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski  
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author’s name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope  
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose  
to find out what it really means.

--Billy Collins
  1. Review of online work for Week One. Check:
  • My responses to your questions and comments to pages 10-17 of the class packet HERE
  • Class responses to Symbol and Allusion HERE. 
     2.  Houses Workshop:
  • Seating by Houses. Find your House mates HERE.
  • Poetry Analysis: "Song for a Dark Girl" (packet, page 20). Each House will be charge of 2-3 aspects of the poem. Instructions HERE. 
  • Class Discussion
     3. Read "Online Writing = 21st Century Writing," "Requirements and Tips to Writing a Good Journal Entry," and "Criteria for the Evaluation of Journal Entries" (packet, pages 7-9).

 Homework

By Thursday 9/26 at 9:00am:

1. Complete the Poetry Analysis Form for the poem assigned to your House (below). Be prepared to defend your answers to the rest of the House members and the class on Tuesday!
Shakespeare
“Sonnet 130” (p. 19)
Plath 
“Holy Sonnet X” (p. 21)
Browning 
 “Her face”  (p. 21)
 Poetry Analysis Form
 Poetry Analysis Form
 Poetry Analysis Form


Butler
“What lips my lips...” 
(p. 23)
Morrison
“Funeral Blues”(p. 23) 
Dickinson 
“Those Winter Sundays” (p. 26)

Poetry Analysis Form
 Poetry Analysis Form
 Poetry Analysis Form 

If you have not already:

1. Complete Journal 1 on "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852) by Frederick Douglass
2. Read "Poems for Presentation and Quiz" closely (packet, pages 18-20)
3. Study the Literary Terms for Poetry in this PRESENTATION (or this PDF)
4. Take the Quiz on Literary Terms I and Poems on Blackboard

Ongoing during Poetry Unit: Get and read Octavia E. Butler's Kindred.

P.S. For Dr. X: Slides on Images
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