Study Guide for Final

Here is the prettied-up version of our study guide for the final.


Film -- Nosferatu (1922)
scenes from Nosferatu (1979)    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE2niO-Th4U  Go to 1:43:51 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VXBZOaz7Ts
scenes from Murnau's Sunrise   Here is a link to the scene that we saw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XYZQbjGykA  

Fiction--
Ha Jin's Saboteur -- revenge, 3rd person, set in China, Mr. Chiu is a newlywed, professor from Harbin
Poe's The Cask of Amontillado -- death; 1st person reliable narrator, vengeance, retribution, Montresor (narrator as older man), Fortunato (victim)
James Joyce's Araby -- epiphany -- narrator (unnamed) -- Araby = bazaar/marketplace -- setting: Ireland in the late 1800s/early 1900s

Poetry
Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43768 -- dramatic monologue (speaker is the Duke of Ferrara who was rumored to have killed his first wife)

James Mason reads "My Last Duchess" here.  You can also find various lectures explaining Browning's classic poem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZbNrNE9q8g

Philip V. Allingham provides various readings of the poem here: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/rb/duchess/pva264.html

Sherman Alexie's "Dangerous Astronomy": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dangerous-astronomy -- villanelle by author of "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven"

Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night -- villanelle to his father

Sir Anthony Hopkins reads "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfK809B0Qs

Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for cousin vit": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/51983 -- Italian or Petrarchan sonnet

Yusef Komunyakaa's "Facing It": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/facing-it -- Vietnam memorial

Komunyakaa reads his poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90yxqlVrLP8&t=2s

Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 (My mistress' eyes...)  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/my-mistress-eyes-are-nothing-sun-sonnet-130

Alan Rickman reads the poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP06F0yynic&t=2s

William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" -- no idea but in things -- a physician who wrote poems on the side -- modern poetry
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/red-wheelbarrow

Williams reads his poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqIl3oX_44s

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" is in chapter 13, but here is a link for you:  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/those-winter-sundays

Robert Hayden reads his poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmJYs6PQKVc

I'll finish with Mary Ellen Solt's "Forsythia":  http://writing.upenn.edu/library/Solt-Mary-Ellen_Forsythia.html -- shape, graphic poem

Another of her poems is "Lilac."

Petrarch's Sonnet 3 in the Canzioniere -- Good Friday, how he met Laura
http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=3

Here is Philip Levine's "M. Degas...":     https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php -- listened to poet read, doesn't look like a poem but sounds like a poem

You can listen to the poet read his poem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-77j2Aw6dM

John Hollander's Swan and Shadow -- visual poem but unlike Solt's poem -- words horizontal and made sense -- not just a visual poet unlike Solt
https://www.naic.edu/~gibson/poems/hollander1.html

We also looked at Russell Edson's prose poem:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/memory-and-distance

Let's finish with Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art":  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47536 -- villanelle -- drafts

Miranda Otto reads "One Art" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aIcWdX7xaY&t=177s

Poe's "The Raven" -- creepy ambiance/dominant impression -- rhythm (trochaic octameter) -- internal rhyme -- death -- depression -- Michael Oliver's film with backstory about Poe -- Poe: tension in the US coming up to the Civil War -- poetry as escape
To read the poem, see this link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/48860

Here is another performance of "The Raven": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K6-wO94-6I

Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" -- two performances -- oppression -- Dunbar's life
To read "We Wear the Mask," see this link: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44203

The two performances we saw are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDwgnWE6jW8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0qy90YT_II

Li Young Lee's "Eating Alone" -- free verse -- used farming to show that everything has its season -- impression -- published in 1986
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/eating-alone

We finished our unit on poetry by looking at the bop, the poetry of Aafa M. Weaver, and the poetry of Wang Ping, a poet-activist who emigrated to the US from China.

Let's start with the bop.  Poets.org has a good overview of the form:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/bop-poetic-form

Aafa M. Weaver's "Rambling" is here:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/rambling

I also shared a bop written by Evelyn N. Alfred for a poetry workshop that we both took:

flashes: a bop for bix b.

he hungered for the notes

playing before he could see the keys

mother bird chewed them for him

while he regurgitated beauty

fingertips savoring the song

without knowing the recipe.

the hungry and the hanged, the damaged and the done
striving along this spinning rock, tumbling past the sun

without knowing the recipe

he learned how to taste the tune

adding brown sugar, nutmeg,

and horn lines

but couldn’t bake an unfamiliar harmony

cooling his heart,  sinking the middle

to what effect?

is a fallen cake ruined?

the hungry and the hanged, the damaged and the done
striving along this spinning rock, tumbling past the sun

is a fallen cake ruined?

forced to flash up the treble

singed in chicago winds.

south side speakeasies

intoxicated his ballads

he hungered for the notes.

the hungry and the hanged, the damaged and the done
striving along this spinning rock, tumbling past the sun

 --- Evelyn N. Alfred

The song excerpt comes from “God Bless Our Dead Marines” by A Silver Mt. Zion

 This is the music that Evelyn was responding to in her poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqEIM2VAyXw

Tara Betts' "More Salt," a bop poem about her grandmother, takes a more down to earth tone:
http://coloronline.blogspot.com/2009/07/tara-betts-poetry-friday.html

We watched the Grandma Thanksgiving Rap Song, a remix of Shirley Caesar's song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amONEHAhLHY

Aafa M. Weaver has also taught in Taiwan and is fascinated by Chinese culture.  This poem, "Being Chinese," shows this aspect of him.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/58516

We also watched this interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR86CHOJrnU

For more information about this poet, see these links:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/afaa-michael-weaver
http://www.afaaweaver.net/index.html

We finished the unit on poetry with Wang Ping, a poet who is concerned with not only identity but also the environment.
The first poem we looked at was "Solstice in Lhasa":
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/solstice-llasa

The other was "A Hakka Man Farms Rare Earth in China":  http://fpif.org/a_hakka_man_farms_rare_earth_in_south_china/

terms:
poetry --
personification
prose poem -- no line breaks, written like prose,
rhythm
voice -- poet's/poem's individuality
speaker -- narrates the poem (can be poet, may not be poet)
pace
line breaks (end-stopped; enjambment)
alliteration (consonants)
assonance (vowels)
metaphor
simile (like/as)
irony
free verse
villanelle (song)
graphic poem/concrete poem/visual poem
sonnet (Shakespearean/Petrarchan or Italian)
theme

fiction --
epiphany (ah-ha moment at the end of the story)
point of view (1st--naive, unreliable, reliable/3rd--omniscient, objective, limited)
plot (narrative arc -- flashbacks -- exposition--foreshadowing)
character (protagonist--antagonist--round/flat--major/minor -- motivation)
setting
theme

intersectionality

Free Verse and Another Villanelle

I want to make sure that I post links to the poems we looked at and our questions for next week.

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" is in chapter 13, but here is a link for you:  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/those-winter-sundays
Listen to the poet read his own work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmJYs6PQKVc

Other poems by Hayden are "Middle Passage" and "Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday":
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43076
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/48798

For more information about Hayden, see this article by Lavelle Porter:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/articles/detail/70280

Here is Philip Levine's "M. Degas...":     https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php

The link above includes a recording of the poet reading.  The article below is by a former student of his:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/detail/69938

We also looked at Russell Edson's prose poem:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/memory-and-distance

For more information about the prose poem, see this article:
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/prose-poem-poetic-form

 Mary Ellen Solt's "Forsythia" is here:  http://writing.upenn.edu/library/Solt-Mary-Ellen_Forsythia.html
Brian Reed comments on this poem here: http://coldfrontmag.com/singular-vispo-first-encounters/

We also looked at and listened to John Hollander's "Swan and Shadow":
https://www.naic.edu/~gibson/poems/hollander1.html
Here is an interview with John Hollander although it doesn't seem to mention the poem we covered:
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2866/the-art-of-poetry-no-35-john-hollander


Let's finish with Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art":  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47536

Sarah Ruhl has written a play about Ms. Bishop: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/features/articles/detail/69912

To learn more about the revisions of "One Art," see these blog entries:  https://helensquared.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/tuesday-poem-one-art-elizabeth-bishop/
https://bluedragonfly10.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/one-art-the-writing-of-loss-in-elizabeth-bishop%E2%80%99s-poetry/
http://displacement-poetry.blogspot.com/2011/07/redrafting-elizabeth-bishop-and-one-art.html

Elizabeth Bishop is reading her poetry here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERfx52Qfyrc

By the way, you may use some of these links in your final paper for ENGL 190.

For Nov. 30, I would like you to read chapters 15 and 16 in our anthology.

Here are some questions for you and your journal.

Choose one of the poems we've discussed in class.  What is its theme?  Which elements contribute to the theme?

Which poem would you pair with the poem you've written about above?  Why?  Why not?

Which other piece of writing would you pair with this poem?  Why?  Why not?

What did Wednesday night's poems add to your understanding of poetry?  Why?

What did Wednesday night's poems add to your confusion about poetry?  Why?

How do the essays I've posted help you understand the poems and their poets?

Why did Philip Levine place Degas in a Detroit schoolroom?  What is he trying to say?  How is M. Degas different from a typical middle school teacher?

Which celebrity or historical figure would you place in a poem about MC?

Is it a good thing to place celebrities in poems?  Why?  Why not?

Describe the voice in one or more poems that we discussed.

Discuss the difference between the poet and the speaker in one or more poems.

How does it help you to listen to a poet read his/her own poem?  Consider how a poet introduces his/her poems.

Describe tone in one or more poems that we discussed.

Describe irony in one or more poems that we discussed.

Discuss a poem that you read but that we did not discuss.  Use some of the techniques we mentioned in class.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving--and best of luck with Black Friday!

Starting Poetry!

Last night we began our unit on poetry by looking at mainly formal poetry (dramatic monologue, villanelle, and sonnet) although we did look at Yusef Komunyakaa's "Facing It," a free verse poem.

Here is a link to the snippet of Dante's The Divine Comedy that we looked at.  Unfortunately, the URL does not link to the specific examples.
http://www.divinecomedy.org/divine_comedy.html

You can even listen to the original Italian of Petrarch's Canzionere:
http://petrarch.petersadlon.com/canzoniere.html?poem=3

James Mason reads "My Last Duchess" here.  You can also find various lectures explaining Browning's classic poem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZbNrNE9q8g

Sir Anthony Hopkins reads "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIfK809B0Qs

Dylan Thomas himself reads the same poem:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cgcx-GJTQ

Here is a recording of "the rites for cousin vit":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBa_OmLs4nM

Alan Rickman reads Shakespeare's Sonnet #130: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP06F0yynic

Yusef Komunyakaa reads "Facing It."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90yxqlVrLP8

For our next class, I'd like you to read chapter 14 and the following free verse poems:

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" is in chapter 13, but here is a link for you:  https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/those-winter-sundays

Here is Philip Levine's "Animals Are Passing From Our Lives":  https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/animals_are_passing_from_our_lives.php

This is Seamus Heaney's "Digging":
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/47555

Elizabeth Bishop's "Crusoe in England" is here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/48287

I'll finish with Mary Ellen Solt's "Forsythia":  http://writing.upenn.edu/library/Solt-Mary-Ellen_Forsythia.html

Here are a few questions for you.

-- What was it like for you to listen to various poems aloud this past week?

-- Which do you prefer--formal poetry or free verse?  Why?

-- What do this week's poem add to your understanding of poetry?  of free verse?

-- Compare and contrast "Crusoe in England" and "My Last Duchess" as dramatic monologues.  Does it matter that "Crusoe in England" is free verse?

-- Choose one of our poems to discuss word choice.

-- Choose one of our poems to discuss imagery.

-- Choose one of our poems to discuss tone.

-- Choose one of our poems to discuss voice.

-- What do you make of Mary Ellen Solt's "Forsythia"?  Is it poetry or is it visual art?

-- What do you make of the ending of "Animals Are Passing from Our Lives"?

-- If you haven't read Robinson Crusoe, does this make a difference to you when you read this poem?

-- How do you feel about the ending of "Digging"?

See you in class!

Finishing Up Film and Fiction

The picture above is from F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, a film he directed after moving to the United States.  Here is a link to the scene that we saw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XYZQbjGykA  The late Roger Ebert reviews the film here:  http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-sunrise-1928

We also watched the ending of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE2niO-Th4U  Go to 1:43:51 -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VXBZOaz7Ts

Tonight we finished up fiction with "Araby," "The Cask of Amontillado," and "Saboteur."  For next week, I would like you to read chapters 12 and 13 as well as the following poems:

Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/43768

Sherman Alexie's "Dangerous Astronomy": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/dangerous-astronomy

Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night

Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for cousin vit": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/51983

Yusef Komunyakaa's "Facing It": https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/facing-it

Here are the questions for your journals:

What have you learned about fiction this semester?  Why?

-- Compare/contrast the role that flashbacks play in "This is What It Means..." with the role that they play in "Everyday Use."

-- "The Red Convertible," on the other hand, is a story told in retrospect.  Would this have been an effective method for "This is What It Means..."?  Why?  Why not?

-- If you have read other work by Poe, how has it helped you to read "The Cask of Amontillado"?

-- Should we read more older works?  Why?  Why not?

-- Should we read some fiction in translation?  Why?  Why not?

-- Should we read more fiction set outside the US?  Why?  Why not?

-- Could a story like "Saboteur" happen in the US?  Why?  Why not?

-- Choose one of the stories we did not discuss in class.  Discuss how one symbol in this story helps you understand it more fully.

-- Chose one of the stories we did not discuss in class.  Discuss the importance of the story's setting to the story.

-- Choose one of the stories we've read.  Research its setting (time and place).  How does this research help you understand the story more fully?

-- Do you feel empathy for Mr. Chiu in "Saboteur"?  Why?  Why not?

-- Is the narrator in "Araby" fair to himself?  Why?  Why not?

-- Choose two of the stories we've read.  What is their theme?  Why?

-- Choose two stories to compare/contrast.  

Here are a few questions on poetry:

-- What comes to mind when you think about poetry?

-- Which is more important to you in poetry, words or sound?  Or sound or sense, to use older terminology?

-- Is poetry better when it is read?  Or when it is recited?

-- What kind of form does poetry seem to have?

-- How is poetry different from fiction or drama/theater?  How is it similar?

-- Is rhyme in poetry important to you?  Why?  Why not?

-- Compare and contrast "My Last Duchess" to "The Cask of Amontillado."

I'll be posting the study guide for the fiction take home soon!