Readings and Questions for Monday 4/9

Above is a picture of another scene from Reaching for the Moon.  It appears that Elizabeth Bishop is in Brazil in this scene.

Today we went over the following poems: Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art," and Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays."  We watched the following videos:

Dylan Thomas' own reading of his poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cgcx-GJTQ&t=2s

Miranda Otto's performance of Elizabeth Bishop reading her poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST2mOE4d7Pg&t=1s

Elizabeth Bishop reads her own poems here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERfx52Qfyrc&t=284s

Robert Hayden may be reading "Those Winter Sundays" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiZnt5ZL4Xk

We are moving onto free verse.  We'll start with Bishop's "Crusoe in England": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48287/crusoe-in-england  We'll also look at Philip Levine's "M. Degas...": https://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/levine/m._degas_teaches_art_and_science_at_durfee_intermediate_school--detroit1942.php  Then I will show you the first study guide for the final.

Here are a few questions for you.  Feel free to go back to the questions from last time: http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/old-and-newer-poetry-rhymes-and-free.html

What do you like best about the villanelle?  Why?

What makes the villanelle difficult for you?  Why?

How did the video clip from the movie about Elizabeth Bishop help you understand her poem better?

How did it get in your way?

Do you prefer that the poet him or herself read the poem?  Or is it better for a trained actor to read it?  Why?  Why not?

We also looked over this blog entry on Bishop's revisions to "One Art": https://helensquared.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/tuesday-poem-one-art-elizabeth-bishop/
How does looking at Bishop's revisions help you understand poetry better?  How does it help you understand this poem?

Compare "Do Not Go..." and "One Art" as poems and villanelles.  Note that "Do Not Go..." is a poem by a (relatively) young man whose father is still alive and that "One Art" is a reflective poem by an older woman in the last few years of her own life.

Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" is about the same length as a sonnet, but it does not rhyme, and it is not in iambic pentameter.  Compare this free verse poem to one of the sonnets we read.  What do these poems have in common?  How do they differ?

How does Hayden handle content in his poem?  Does his lack of rhyme help him?  Or hinder him?

How does Hayden handle language?

How does Hayden evoke emotion?

Here are a few questions about our upcoming poems.

Is Elizabeth Bishop writing about herself in "Crusoe in England"?  Why?  Why not?

How does she handle content in her free verse poem?

How does she handle language?  Which word or phrase do you like best?  Why?

How does she evoke emotion?

Is Philip Levine writing about himself in his poem?  Why?  Why not?

How does he depict life in a classroom?

Look up M. Degas.  Why does Levine depict him as a middle school teacher in the city of Detroit?  What is he trying to do here?

Discuss the speaker in this poem.  How does he shape your understanding of the events?

The picture above is of an abandoned book depository in Detroit.