Thank you class of 2009

In case any of you log on, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated the gift and notes. You were a perfect class to finish my teaching career with. I will miss you all and hope you all keep in touch. I feel blessed to know you and proud to have been your teacher.

I couldn't resist leaving you a few more poems -- some of my favorites that we never got to. You might be able to deduce my life philosophy in there somewhere. Love, Mrs. Minor


Secret Life

Why you need to have one
is not much more mysterious than
why you don't say what you think
at the birth of an ugly baby.
Or, you've just made love
and feel you'd rather have been
in a dark booth where your partner
was nodding, whispering yes, yes,
you're brilliant. The secret life
begins early, is kept alive
by all that's unpopular
in you, all that you know
a Baptist, say, or some other
accountant would object to.
It becomes what you'd most protect
if the government said you can protect
one thing, all else is ours.
When you write late at night
it's like a small fire
in a clearing, it's what
radiates and what can hurt
if you get too close to it.
It's why your silence is a kind of truth.
Even when you speak to your best friend,
the one who'll never betray you,
you always leave out one thing;
a secret life is that important.
--Stephen Dunn

Guest House

This being human is a guest house
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

--Rumi (12th century Persian poet)

A Minor Bird

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.
--Robert Frost


O sweet spontaneous
earth how often have
the
doting

fingers of
purient philosophers pinched
and
poked

thee
,has the naughty thumb
of science prodded
thy

beauty .how
oftn have religions taken
thee upon their scraggy knees
squeezing and

buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive
gods
(but
true

to the incomparable
couch of death thy
rhythmic
lover

thou answerest


them only with


spring)

E. E. Cummings

When I heard the learned astronomer,
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams,
to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer,
where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
--Walt Whitman


I WANDERED lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
1804.

--William Wordsworth

Homework 6/2

Again, be ready to present your Macbeth parodies!

Homework 5/29

Get ready to perform your MacBeth Parodies Friday!

Homework 5/27

Enjoy working on your MacBeth Parodies! Be ready to perform on Friday!

Also, if you need a way to easily share and edit your script among many people, I recommend Google Docs. It's like a word processor online, except multiple people can view and edit it, even at the same time.

Macbeth test

Tuesday: Finish Macbeth and take the objective test. You need to know the play well, so don't rely on a quick skim through the play and the pieces we read in class. Enjoy this glorious weather!

p.s.

I want to see everyone with their books on Friday. The test Tuesday is composed of 50 questions and many are nitpicky -- you need to know your play well. Besides reading it again with us while we study, you should read it again this weekend.

Macbeth prompt #1

Last week I read that yet another famous baseball star, Manny Ramirez, had tested positive for steroids. I began to wonder just when he . . . or Alex Rodriguez, or Barry Bonds or . . . had first decided that hard work alone was not enough to put them on top. When, I wondered, did they first decide to cheat their way to stardom? Did they lose any sleep over it? And how many potential stars have been edged out by others of equal or even lesser ability? What does this have to do with Macbeth? Ah, that's what I want you to discuss -- include quoted passages as relevant.

Macbeth on Monday

Bring your copy of Macbeth to class on Monday. Prior to class, read through Act III; by Wed. finish reading the entire play.

AP exam

May the force be with you tomorrow!

Homework 4/30

If you have not already done so, please bring all your Crime and Punishment notes to class, preferably stapled together.

Also note that this Thursday at 7:30 AM is the AP English Literature Exam.

Prompt-- 4/27

In Heart of Darkness, Marlow's descriptions of Kurtz include the following:  "a wandering and tormented thing", someone whose words were like "phrases spoken in nightmares", someone who "had no restraint, no faith",  whose "soul was mad",  someone who "struggled, struggled".   Think back to the nightmare-like atmosphere that suffused Heart of Darkness, then read again the description of Rodya's last dream  (6 pages from the end of the novel,  p.  547 P/V version, paragraph beginning "He lay in the hospital all through the end of Lent. . . " and ending with ""had heard their words or voices."   Both Rodion and Kurtz engage in interior battles fought between their inner goodness and their desire to "step over", to be "supermen".   Crime and Punishment, however,  ends with a powerful feeling of hope and redemption, whereas Heart of Darkness ends with a feeling of hopeless darkness.  How can we better understand Raskolnikov's redemption through the tragedy of Kurtz?  (as always,  support your opinions)

Prompt and homework -- 4/23

Homework: With the exception of Luzhin, most of the characters in the novel seem drawn to Raskolnikov. Choose two characters and ascertain what it is that draws them to him. Come prepared with notes and marked passages to support your analysis.

Prompt: Why does Raskolnikov reject his family's and Razumikhin's attempts at solace and comfort? Why, when they are at their most loving, does he have his most virulent feelings of hatred for them? Support your opinion with specific examples/quotes.

Prompt and homework -- 4/20

1.  For class on Thursday:  We will be focusing on the theories in the novel.  Review the discussion between Porfiry and Raskolnikov about his article (Part 3, ch. 5, 258-265 in Peavear/Volkonsky)  as well as the conversation between Lebeziatnikov & Luzhin (Part 5, ch. 1, 363-371 P/V) and Raskolnikov's interior dialogue  (near the end of part three, ch. 6, right before the dream about the old crone, 274-275 P/V).  Come to class with notes and passages marked.

2.  Prompt:  Throughout the novel Raskolnikov spins a web in which he is himself trapped.  He  even says that he "turned spiteful . . . Then I hid in my corner like a spider."  But of all the characters, Porfiry is the one who seems most "spiderlike".  Nevertheless, he also has keen insight into Raskolnikov.  When he finally confronts Raskolnikov in part six, chapter 2, he tells him:  "Do you know how I regard you?  I regard you as one of those men who could have their guts cut out, and would stand and look at his torturers with a smile -- provided he's found faith, or God"

Discuss what he means by this.  Notice that he does not say "faith in God", but "faith, or God" (part 6, ch. 2, 3 pages from the end of the chapter, 460 in P/V).

Prepare Yourself for the In-Class Essay on Monday

No blog prompt this weekend.

But, you would be highly interested in creating notes for the upcoming in-class essay. Notes are allowed and encouraged.

In-class essay on Monday

No blog prompt this weekend.

C & P prompt #4 & homework assignment

1. For the next class we will be focusing on Dostoevsky's treatment of women, particularly Sonya & Dounia. Come prepared with specific passages marked that shed light on these women.

2. Go to Part Three, Chapter One, about six pages in (202 in Peavear/Volkonsky) and find the paragraph that begins, "What do you think?" Razumikhin shouted, raising his voice even more. "You think it's because they are lying?" Read from the line, "I like it when people lie!" through about a page and a half, ending with "Pyotr Petrovich . . . is not on a noble path."

Deceit abounds in C & P, and Rodya seems to have more than a little Hamlet in him. What do you make of this dialogue with Razumikhin? How does lying lead to truth in this novel? Cite specific passages/details to support your ideas.

C & P prompt #3 & homework assignment

For the next two or three discussions we will be focusing on characters who serve as foils/doubles to Raskolnikov and/or as representatives of particular "types" or "theories". Without running to Google or Cliff's Notes or whatever your crutch of choice might be, choose a character who you think serves as a double or foil to Raskolnikov. Find a list of passages that reveal that character and be ready to support your reasoning (FYI: I have 17 just for Svidrigailov). Be sure to take down these notes and be ready for the discussion. As you will recall, I am collecting all your notes at the end of the unit for a truckload of points (no, I haven't decided how many) and am evaulating your blog responses as well as your in-class participation.

For the blog: Discuss Marmeladov. Some critics say he serves as a type of foil to Raskolnikov, others that he is a representative of a "type", others that he represents a major theme of the novel. What do YOU think? Look again at the discussion with Raskolnikov in the tavern (ch. 2), beginning with paragraph 7: "My dear sir," he began almost solemnly, "poverty is no vice . . . " on through the point where they leave the tavern. As always, support your ideas -- don't make me get out my hip boots to wade through your post.

p.s. For those of you out there who haven't finished reading the book and are winging it: Be scholars. You will discover great joy and form all kinds of powerful synapses in those massive brains by sinking your teeth into a novel with this depth. You short-change yourself, your classmates, and me when you phone it in. This is our last big unit--be with us fully by Tuesday!

Crime & Punishment blog prompt #2 April 7

Why did Raskolnikov murder the pawnbroker? Support your responses with evidence from the novel please.

Crime & Punishment Prompt 1-- April 3

Use your computer skills and do some research about the history, design, climate, and topography of St. Petersburg. Why do you think Dostoevsky set this novel in this particular city?

March 30

Study for the poetry unit test on Wednesday; check the glossary of poetry terms at the end of the book and make sure you know all of them. Finish Crime & Punishment before Friday. We like to keep it light.

March 19

1.  No blog prompt today.

2.  Write either a villanelle or a sestina -- due Monday after the break.  You can choose to write a sonnet instead, in which case it would be due on Wed.  The big poetry test will take place on Wed.

3.  Finish reading Crime & Punishment, which we will begin discussing on Friday the 3rd.

4.  Have a lovely spring break!

Prompt -- March 17

1. Be ready to dive into Crime and Punishment on April 3rd.
2. Register for AP exams by Friday of this week.
3. The following poem is by a famous Portland writer, Ursula Le Guin, and was republished in last Sunday's Oregonian. Consider how Le Guin uses sound, rhythm, imagery, and symbolism to serve her purpose.

The Cactus Wren

In this great silence, to sit still
and listen till I hear the wren
is to draw free from wish and will.
She flits to perch; her slender bill
spouts a thin jet of music, then
in the great silence she falls still.
Wind nods the short-stemmed flowers that fill
the sandy wash. She sings again
her song devoid of wish or will.
The hummingbird's quick drum and thrill
is gone just as I hear it, when
in this great silence all holds still.
The granite sand, the barren hill,
the dry, vast, rigorous terrain
answer no human wish or will.
Again, the small quicksilver trill
that has no messages for men.
In the great silence she sings still
of pure need free from wish or will.


"The Cactus Wren" is from Incredible Good Fortune,
Shambhala, 2006, © 2006 by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Prompt for the weekend 3/12

A. Read the poem that follows: Consider all the elements of poetry that we have studied thus far. How does the poet use these poetic elements to give the poem meaning?


Hope -- Lisel Mueller

It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyes
and drops from mushroom gills,
it explodes in the starry heads
of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels
that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

B. You need to register and pay for AP tests by Friday. If you wait until Friday, you will also end up waiting in a line.

C. The following students need to turn in their "Snowstorm" essays to turnitin.com: Sharon, Kassie, Sandeep, both Jonathans, Connor P., Sanjana, Nupur, Tabron, James, and Niloy

Prompt - March 10

Read the poem "The Wild Swans at Coole" by William Butler Yeats (405/346/426/420).  How does Yeats use all the elements of poetry (diction, imagery, figurative language, sound, rhythm, tone) to embue his poem with a sense of the timelessness of nature in contrast to that of man.

Homework - March 4

1. Write an essay on Emerson's use of sound to create the experience of a snowstorm. 2-3 pages, 75 points, due Tuesday the 10th. You must attach a copy of the "worked" poem to the back of the essay. Also, be sure to submit it to turnitin.com.

2. No blog prompt tonight.

Homework and prompt for Wed. March 4

1.  Homework:  (a)  Read chapter 11  (b)  Read "Snowstorm" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Using a printed copy, mark all the sound devices you find.  If you have misplaced your copy, you can find one online.

2.  Engage in a blog discussion of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.  Focus on how Frost uses sound to enhance meaning.

Prompt and homework

1. Engage in a blog discussion of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold (uncle of our friend Aldous Huxley) and "Church Going" by Philip Larkin. Both have a similar theme, but what a difference in tone! These take time, but are both worth it -- two of my favorites in this book.

2. Answer the questions following the poems and bring them on Monday.

3. Say hello to March, the month that will bring spring!

Prompt and homework for 2/26

1. Read chapter 8 on allusions. Answer the questions following Milton's poem "On His Blindness" (135/127/140/140) and turn them in on Thursday.

2. Read "Snow White and the Seven Deadly Sins" (355/295/365/369) and join in a discussion on the blog.

How does a poem mean?

The following is a post Mr. Duncan made to his blog about analyzing poetry. Please read it, as he makes some excellent points that might aid you in appreciating poetry.

I'm going to relay a little advice from poet John Ciardi as a way of, if possible, altering and enriching the way you read poetry. Too many of you tend to, in the immortal words of Billy Collins: "…tie the poem to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it."

That way lies madness and, probably, an abiding hatred for all things poetical. I'm asking you to take an approach that is gentler on the poem and yourself. And to begin with, I'm going to cite these words of John Ciardi's from chapter one of How Does A Poem Mean?, his wonderful guide to poetry (alas, no longer in print):

"What greater violence can be done to the poet’s experience than to drag it into an early morning classroom and to go after it as an item on its way to a Final Examination? The apology must at least be made. It is the experience, not the Final Examination, that counts. Though one must note with care…that passionate learning is full of very technical stuff…
"And in poetry there is the step beyond: once one has learned to experience the poem as a poem, there inevitably arrives a sense that one is also experiencing himself as a human being…
W. H. Auden was once asked what advice he would give a young man who wished to become a poet. Auden replied that he would ask the young man why he wanted to write poetry. If the answer was 'because I have something important to say,' Auden would conclude that there was no hope for that young man as a poet. If on the other hand the answer was something like 'because I like to hang around words and overhear them talking to one another,' then that young man was at least interested in a fundamental part of the poetic process and there was hope for him.
"When one 'message-hunts' a poem (i.e., goes through the poem with no interest except in its paraphraseable content) he is approaching the writing as did the young man with 'something important to say'…The common question from which such an approach begins is “WHAT Does the Poem Mean?” His mind closed on that point of view, the reader tends to 'interpret' the poem rather than to experience it, seeking only what he can make over from it into a prose statement (or Examination answer) and forgetting in the process that it was originally a poem.…
"For WHAT DOES THE POEM MEAN? is too often a self-destroying approach to poetry. A more useful way of asking the question is HOW DOES A POEM MEAN? Why does it build itself into a form out of images, ideas, rhythms? How do these elements become the meaning? How are they inseparable from the meaning? As Yeats wrote:
O body swayed to music, o quickening glance,
How shall I tell the dancer from the dance?
"What the poem is, is inseparable from its own performance of itself. The dance is in the dancer and the dancer is in the dance. Or put in another way: where is the 'dance' when no one is dancing it? and what man is a 'dancer' except when he is dancing?"

From How Does A Poem Mean, The Riverside Press Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company

Essay posts to turnitin.com

Be sure to post your comparison/contrast essays to turnitin.com before midnight on Tuesday, as well as bringing a hard copy to class.