Thank you. I've already begun enjoying your poetry anthologies.
Here's what's next.
Read Going after Cacciato (336 pages) by Tim O'Brien by Friday March 4.
Now that we've concluded our all-poetry-all-the-time immersion, we're ready to tackle some new prose fiction.
We spent the summer and first semester dealing primarily with bildungsromans, repeatedly asking questions about the nature of identity and the self (who am I?), about the development of self (how does a self come into being?), and about the relationship between self, choice, and environment (what has shaped me?).
From here to the end of the year we'll be concerned primarily with journeys: Going after Cacciato (a novel including real and imagined journeys during the Vietnam War in 1968), Slaughterhouse-Five (a novel including real and imagined journeys during World War II and after), As I Lay Dying (a tragic-farcical novel told from many perspectives about a poor southern family's journey to bury its matriarch) , and Heart of Darkness (a dark, impressionistic novel about a journey from Europe to Africa then up the Congo River).
While reading Going After Cacciato think about and take notes on...
Themes
The significance of journeys (with destinations, purposes, the need for courage, failure of will, hardships, obstacles, success, survival, failure)...
The relationship between war, memory, and imagination....
(What is the relationship between memory and imagination, between what we recall and what we make up? What role does the imagination play in making memory (and present reality) bearable? How true are our memories? How true are the stories we concoct? When does factual truth deviate from experienced truth?)
The relationship between control and its absence, between order and disorder...
Technique
Narrative perspective and voice, narrative threads (there are three major narrative threads in GAC), narrative pacing, direct and indirect characterization, parallel characters and foils, suggestive imagery, the use of realistic and grotesque depictions, and anything else you notice.
Here's the original review of Going After Cacciato from the New York Times (February 12, 1978).
*******
Continue reading books for your independent reading and research project.
You'll turn in evidence of the reading on or before April 1.
You're expected to read between 500 and 1000 pages or so by the end of the term. (If you're reading difficult experimental fiction you'll likely read closer to 500 pages and if you're reading popular children's fiction you'll be expected to hit 1000.)
The goal of this reading is to prepare for the paper you will write during the fourth quarter. The notetaking and writing you do about the reading you are doing during third quarter will help you a lot when you write the paper.
There are three different ways you could show evidence of your reading and thinking.
Option 1: Keep a quotation response journal. You should have a quotation and response for every twenty to thirty (20-30) pages or so. Your responses should often relate to the central question and/or thesis in your proposal.
Option 2: Keep a double-entry notebook. Take notes -- quotations, paraphrases, other information -- on the left side of your notes & on the right side write down your thoughts about the information on the left side. What you write on the right side should often relate to the central question and/or thesis in your proposal. You should have a page of notes for every twenty to thirty (20-30) pages or so of your reading.
Option 3: Write short essay responses (300-500 words or so). You should write an essay for every fifty to sixty (50-60) pages of so of reading.
When I talked to you about this in class today I foolishly quoted total numbers that were too low. Sorry. By April 1 you'll either have between 8 -- not 6 as I said in class -- and 20 page-long responses or 15 -- not 12 as I said in class -- and 50 quotation responses/double-entry notes.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Twenty-First Century Poems & More Ideas for Writing Your Own Poems
Some of you asked for help finding a twenty-first century poem. Others asked for (more) help writing your own poems. Here are some resources & ideas.
Poetry in the twenty-first century:
Go here for the UBUWeb. In the upper left hand corner of the page (below Samuel Beckett's head) you'll see a search box. Search for your theme. Not everything you'll find will be poetry. Not everything you'll find will be from the twenty-first century. But I found a lot of interesting things while looking for your themes. (Note: It took me a few minutes to notice that in order to get the "next 10" results of my search I had to scroll down a bit & look at the lower right corner of the page.)
Go here for issues of Poetry magazine from the last decade. Look for titles that sound promising. Not all the poems are available on the web.
Go here for issues of Jacket magazine from the last decade. (Jacket #10 was published in January of 2000. I know, I know, the new millennium didn't begin until 2001 but I'm trying to give you guys an extra year in which to find a poem that addresses your theme.)
Go here for issues of Octopus magazine. (The link will take you to issue #14 but in the right most margin you'll see links to the previous 13 issues too.)
Go here for electronic books published by Faux press. (You'll see the titles of dozens of e-books published in the last decade. Look for titles directly related to your theme or which seem to share associations with your theme.)
*****
Ideas for Writing your Own Poems:
* Write your own poem in response to one of the poems you've found.
Perhaps you've found a poem that you relate to; you might present the theme in a similar way but with your own style (slang, modern diction, modern syntax, archaic syntax), your own images (ones from your own lived reality or from the mediated virtual reality you're familiar with) and your own details.
Perhaps there's a poem that upsets you might write a response chastising the poet or the poem's speaker. Or, you might create an alternative to the vision of the theme presented in the upsetting poem.
Your response might attempt to use the same form as the original.
Or, like Harryette Mullen's "Dim Lady," it might use a different form.
You might take further inspiration from Mullen to rethink & rewrite a poem:
Mullen transforms the traditional natural images of beauty found in Shakespeare's poem into imagery derived from contemporary companies and products. Could you transform the imagery in a poem you've found in a similar way? Or in some other way?
Mr. Telles recently "translated" a sonnet into Gloucester dialect. Could you "translate" one of the poems you've found into another dialect or speech register?
You might confine yourself to using only the words (or forms of the words) found in a poem you've found.
Or, you might write a distorted-mirror poem in which you write a variant of every word in the original. So "Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art" might be rendered as "Dim moon, I'm certain that you change like me".
Some poets take a line that they like (or that moves them, or that disturbs them, or that stirs them) and use it as a catalyst for their own writing, titling their new poem "Poem beginning with a line from X". Here are some examples: 1, 2, 3.
* Write your own poem by "Google sculpting". Google sculpting is the process of using search results to generate language material for a poem.
There are several ways to do this:
1. Go to Googlism.com. Search for you theme. (Here is a search for "birth".) Edit the results into a poem. You'll be able to generate interesting and surprising new relationships and juxtapositions that reveal aspects of the theme that appear in our online culture but not, perhaps, in most poetry about the them.
2. Conduct a search of your theme -- or to make it more interesting use word combinations related to your theme -- using your favorite web search tool. Collect the language -- words and phrases -- from text that appears under the links. Edit the results into a poem.
Poetry in the twenty-first century:
Go here for the UBUWeb. In the upper left hand corner of the page (below Samuel Beckett's head) you'll see a search box. Search for your theme. Not everything you'll find will be poetry. Not everything you'll find will be from the twenty-first century. But I found a lot of interesting things while looking for your themes. (Note: It took me a few minutes to notice that in order to get the "next 10" results of my search I had to scroll down a bit & look at the lower right corner of the page.)
Go here for issues of Poetry magazine from the last decade. Look for titles that sound promising. Not all the poems are available on the web.
Go here for issues of Jacket magazine from the last decade. (Jacket #10 was published in January of 2000. I know, I know, the new millennium didn't begin until 2001 but I'm trying to give you guys an extra year in which to find a poem that addresses your theme.)
Go here for issues of Octopus magazine. (The link will take you to issue #14 but in the right most margin you'll see links to the previous 13 issues too.)
Go here for electronic books published by Faux press. (You'll see the titles of dozens of e-books published in the last decade. Look for titles directly related to your theme or which seem to share associations with your theme.)
*****
Ideas for Writing your Own Poems:
* Write your own poem in response to one of the poems you've found.
Perhaps you've found a poem that you relate to; you might present the theme in a similar way but with your own style (slang, modern diction, modern syntax, archaic syntax), your own images (ones from your own lived reality or from the mediated virtual reality you're familiar with) and your own details.
Perhaps there's a poem that upsets you might write a response chastising the poet or the poem's speaker. Or, you might create an alternative to the vision of the theme presented in the upsetting poem.
Your response might attempt to use the same form as the original.
Or, like Harryette Mullen's "Dim Lady," it might use a different form.
You might take further inspiration from Mullen to rethink & rewrite a poem:
Mullen transforms the traditional natural images of beauty found in Shakespeare's poem into imagery derived from contemporary companies and products. Could you transform the imagery in a poem you've found in a similar way? Or in some other way?
Mr. Telles recently "translated" a sonnet into Gloucester dialect. Could you "translate" one of the poems you've found into another dialect or speech register?
You might confine yourself to using only the words (or forms of the words) found in a poem you've found.
Or, you might write a distorted-mirror poem in which you write a variant of every word in the original. So "Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art" might be rendered as "Dim moon, I'm certain that you change like me".
Some poets take a line that they like (or that moves them, or that disturbs them, or that stirs them) and use it as a catalyst for their own writing, titling their new poem "Poem beginning with a line from X". Here are some examples: 1, 2, 3.
* Write your own poem by "Google sculpting". Google sculpting is the process of using search results to generate language material for a poem.
There are several ways to do this:
1. Go to Googlism.com. Search for you theme. (Here is a search for "birth".) Edit the results into a poem. You'll be able to generate interesting and surprising new relationships and juxtapositions that reveal aspects of the theme that appear in our online culture but not, perhaps, in most poetry about the them.
2. Conduct a search of your theme -- or to make it more interesting use word combinations related to your theme -- using your favorite web search tool. Collect the language -- words and phrases -- from text that appears under the links. Edit the results into a poem.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Works Cited
Some of you asked for this.
Here's the works cited page I created for my poetry anthology.
The works cited page has examples of citing your own work and citing a song from an album.
Oh, & Moriah, I got a few things wrong in the anthology citation:
Last name, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of Publication.
Here are a few sources. Thanks to Purdue University.
MLA Works Cited Page: Book
MLA Works Cited Page: Electronic Sources
MLA Works Cited page: Other Common Sources
Here's the works cited page I created for my poetry anthology.
The works cited page has examples of citing your own work and citing a song from an album.
Oh, & Moriah, I got a few things wrong in the anthology citation:
Last name, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of Publication.
Here are a few sources. Thanks to Purdue University.
MLA Works Cited Page: Book
MLA Works Cited Page: Electronic Sources
MLA Works Cited page: Other Common Sources
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Introduction Example
Here's a link to the title page, introduction, and table of contents for the poetry anthology I created for the AP Lit teacher class I took several years ago. In the introduction I tried to suggest the significance of the theme itself and (briefly) the relationship of the poems to the theme. A good introduction will clearly set forth the theme, its significance, and say a something about the poems' relationship to the theme. A strong introduction will pique the reader's interest in the theme, perhaps suggest some of the complexity and variations within the theme; and suggest -- but not necessarily flesh out -- nuances and surprises in the poems' take on the themes.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Bring a typed poem of your own to class tomorrow (Friday 2/11)
We spent class time talking about how to go about doing translations but in case you want some help writing the other poems here are a few ideas.
Writing a poem on your theme using an allusion.
An allusion is an implied or direct reference to an event, literary work, myth, or work of art. An allusion does not explain at length the connection to the place, event, text, myth, or art; this encourages the reader to interpret the nature and meaning of the link.
An idea:
• Choose a well-known event, story, myth, song, etc. related to your theme. (If the theme is tragic love you might begin with Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. If the topic is the ocean you might begin with Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. If your anthology is focused on birth you might begin with the Botticelli’s painting the Birth of Venus.)
• Free-write for five minutes about whatever you’ve picked.
• Write a poem in which you transfer some of the details from your free-write into a new situation. (Imagine Romeo and Juliet at Gloucester High School. Imagine a Gloucester fisherman experiencing his own “odyssey” on his way home from the Grand Banks. Imagine your own birth taking place in the manner of Botticelli’s Venus.) This is a technique used in most of the Icarus poems we studied.
If you think your allusion might not be clear enough include a footnote in your anthology.
*******
Write a poem on your theme using a traditional or invented form.
Idea #1: For traditional forms look at the directions for the project or click here. Make sure you produce at least twelve lines of poetry. That's a minimum. You might try to excel in terms of quality, quantity, and/or formal rigor.
Idea#2 To invent your own form here are the guidelines for this assignment.
Make sure you have at least three rules or constraints. Rules/constraints could include:
* The use of particular words in particular places as with the sestina.
* The use of rhymes (or other sound techniques) in a particular pattern as with sonnets, ballads, terza rima, etc.
* The use of stressed and/or unstressed syllables in a particular pattern as with sonnets, ballads, blank verse, etc.
* The repetition of certain phrases, as with poems that use anaphora and epistrophe.
* The use of acrostics, double acrostics, or mesostics.
* The shaping of words on the page to form representative images or to achieve other effects.
* The omission of certain letters, such works are called "lipograms". (A novel called La Disparicion by George Perec is written using only words that do not contain the letter "e". The English translation by Gilbert Adair is called A Void and also uses no "e". Perec also has a novella in which all the words contain no vowels other than "e".)
* Oulipo is a loose gathering of writers who have come up with some very interesting constraints (including lipograms). A reasonable list of these constraints can be found here.
* What other rules or constraints can you think of?
Make sure you have at least twelve lines. That’s a minimum. Go above and beyond with quality, quantity, and/or the rigor of the constraints. If you invent your own poem make sure you include the rules in your anthology.
***
Write a poem on your theme in any form or style you want. (Free Verse! Free Verse! Free Verse!)
Idea: Free-write for five minutes about your theme. Circle fifteen words or word clusters (no longer than four words in a row). Make sure you have fifteen (15). Give yourself fifteen minutes to write a fifteen line poem in which you use one of the fifteen words or word clusters in each line. Make sure you use all fifteen words or clusters. For your title tweak (revise, change) a common expression related to your theme. (If your theme is the "fear" you might use the expression "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" but change it to "The Only Ring You Have to Wear is Fear of Self".)
Variations: You might restrict your free-write to concrete images only or a list of abstract nouns linked to concrete nouns (for politics: "the celebration of manure" "the vulnerability of starmoles" "the ubiquity of loosestrife," etc.) or a list of verbs related to your theme around which you will build each section of the poem...
Idea #2:
Writing a poem on your theme using an allusion.
An allusion is an implied or direct reference to an event, literary work, myth, or work of art. An allusion does not explain at length the connection to the place, event, text, myth, or art; this encourages the reader to interpret the nature and meaning of the link.
An idea:
• Choose a well-known event, story, myth, song, etc. related to your theme. (If the theme is tragic love you might begin with Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. If the topic is the ocean you might begin with Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. If your anthology is focused on birth you might begin with the Botticelli’s painting the Birth of Venus.)
• Free-write for five minutes about whatever you’ve picked.
• Write a poem in which you transfer some of the details from your free-write into a new situation. (Imagine Romeo and Juliet at Gloucester High School. Imagine a Gloucester fisherman experiencing his own “odyssey” on his way home from the Grand Banks. Imagine your own birth taking place in the manner of Botticelli’s Venus.) This is a technique used in most of the Icarus poems we studied.
If you think your allusion might not be clear enough include a footnote in your anthology.
*******
Write a poem on your theme using a traditional or invented form.
Idea #1: For traditional forms look at the directions for the project or click here. Make sure you produce at least twelve lines of poetry. That's a minimum. You might try to excel in terms of quality, quantity, and/or formal rigor.
Idea#2 To invent your own form here are the guidelines for this assignment.
Make sure you have at least three rules or constraints. Rules/constraints could include:
* The use of particular words in particular places as with the sestina.
* The use of rhymes (or other sound techniques) in a particular pattern as with sonnets, ballads, terza rima, etc.
* The use of stressed and/or unstressed syllables in a particular pattern as with sonnets, ballads, blank verse, etc.
* The repetition of certain phrases, as with poems that use anaphora and epistrophe.
* The use of acrostics, double acrostics, or mesostics.
* The shaping of words on the page to form representative images or to achieve other effects.
* The omission of certain letters, such works are called "lipograms". (A novel called La Disparicion by George Perec is written using only words that do not contain the letter "e". The English translation by Gilbert Adair is called A Void and also uses no "e". Perec also has a novella in which all the words contain no vowels other than "e".)
* Oulipo is a loose gathering of writers who have come up with some very interesting constraints (including lipograms). A reasonable list of these constraints can be found here.
* What other rules or constraints can you think of?
Make sure you have at least twelve lines. That’s a minimum. Go above and beyond with quality, quantity, and/or the rigor of the constraints. If you invent your own poem make sure you include the rules in your anthology.
***
Write a poem on your theme in any form or style you want. (Free Verse! Free Verse! Free Verse!)
Idea: Free-write for five minutes about your theme. Circle fifteen words or word clusters (no longer than four words in a row). Make sure you have fifteen (15). Give yourself fifteen minutes to write a fifteen line poem in which you use one of the fifteen words or word clusters in each line. Make sure you use all fifteen words or clusters. For your title tweak (revise, change) a common expression related to your theme. (If your theme is the "fear" you might use the expression "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" but change it to "The Only Ring You Have to Wear is Fear of Self".)
Variations: You might restrict your free-write to concrete images only or a list of abstract nouns linked to concrete nouns (for politics: "the celebration of manure" "the vulnerability of starmoles" "the ubiquity of loosestrife," etc.) or a list of verbs related to your theme around which you will build each section of the poem...
Idea #2:
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Independent Reading Project Proposal
Independent Reading & Research Project Proposal
Write a proposal letter in which you explain the idea for your project. The paragraph should include (1) the relationship of what you’re going to read to what you’ve already read, (2) what you plan to read during term three, (3) the central question that you are exploring (or if already have a thesis you might include a bold, insightful assertion instead of an exploratory), (4) the approximate number of pages in the books you plan to read during term three. Plan to read between 500 and 1000 pages.
Example
During second term I read Paradiso by Jose Lezama Lima, which has been described as a Cuban A Portrait of the Artist. I would like to read other books that are influenced by Joyce’s bildungsroman; I would also like to read literary criticism that analyzes the influence of A Portrait. The first work of criticism I’m interested in reading is From Modernism to Neobaroque: Joyce and Lezama Lima, which I found through Google Books. After reading the work of criticism I plan to read Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. (The first chapter is called “Old Father, Old Artificer,” words taken from the end of A Portrait.) Finally I plan to read The Dalkey Archive by Flann O’Brien in which a fictionalized Joyce is a speaking character. The question I’m interested in exploring is “How did subsequent writers make use of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?” (The three books are approximately 800 pages in length.)
Turn in the proposal letter by class time on Monday, February 7, 2011.
Write a proposal letter in which you explain the idea for your project. The paragraph should include (1) the relationship of what you’re going to read to what you’ve already read, (2) what you plan to read during term three, (3) the central question that you are exploring (or if already have a thesis you might include a bold, insightful assertion instead of an exploratory), (4) the approximate number of pages in the books you plan to read during term three. Plan to read between 500 and 1000 pages.
Example
During second term I read Paradiso by Jose Lezama Lima, which has been described as a Cuban A Portrait of the Artist. I would like to read other books that are influenced by Joyce’s bildungsroman; I would also like to read literary criticism that analyzes the influence of A Portrait. The first work of criticism I’m interested in reading is From Modernism to Neobaroque: Joyce and Lezama Lima, which I found through Google Books. After reading the work of criticism I plan to read Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel. (The first chapter is called “Old Father, Old Artificer,” words taken from the end of A Portrait.) Finally I plan to read The Dalkey Archive by Flann O’Brien in which a fictionalized Joyce is a speaking character. The question I’m interested in exploring is “How did subsequent writers make use of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?” (The three books are approximately 800 pages in length.)
Turn in the proposal letter by class time on Monday, February 7, 2011.
Poetry Anthology Project
AP English Literature and Composition
Personal Poetry Anthology
1. Email me your theme.
2. Bring typed copies of seven of the fifteen poems to class on Friday, February 4
3. Bring a draft of one of your own poems to class on Friday, February 11
4. Bring a draft of the introduction to class on Monday, February 14
5. Completed project is due Friday, February 18(no extension letters will be accepted)
Theme: ___________________________________
For this assignment, you will prepare a poetry anthology. For our purposes, poetry will include song lyrics. The anthology will be unified by a common theme, and must consist of the following minimal requirements:
Criteria Title of Poem (Author of Poem)
1. A late sixteenth or seventeenth
century poem (Elizabethan,
Metaphysical, Cavalier)
2. A nineteenth century poem
(Romantic, Gothic, Victorian)
3. A twentieth century poem
(modern or post-modern)
4. A twenty-first century poem
(post-modern)
5. Lyrics to song
6. A sonnet (or poem written in
another traditional form: sestina,
terza rima, rondeau, villanelle, etc.)
7. A poem translated
from another language
8. A poem that you have written
containing an allusion
9. A poem that you have written
using a traditional or invented form
10. A poem that you have written
that is a strict, loose, or homophonic translation
11. A poem that you have written
in any form
12. Free choice
13. “ “
14. “ “
15. “ “
You must include
a. A title page with MLA information (See Compass page 55.)
b. A dedication and epigraph page
c. An introduction (300-500 words introducing the theme, briefly explaining the relationship between the poems and the theme, and reflecting upon the theme.)
d. A table of contents with titles, authors, and the criteria fulfilled by each poem
e. A minimum of fifteen (15) separate poems/songs. You are expected to type the poems. Do not copy and paste. I can often tell.
f. A Works Cited page, including discography (MLA format See Compass page 56-58) Five or more of the cited sources must be books.
You may include:
a. More of your own poems, more translations, more poems in any category
b. Illustrations and/or photograph (Art taken from other sources much be cited)
c. More than one song lyric
d. A mixed-CD/mixed-tape with the song(s) and poems
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