When Analyzing a Poem …

9/11s

Nines: You had a double block today and the first part was the HACE lesson on tobacco.  This info is even scarier than figuring out how much time is left for your Poetry Assignment: It was finding out what happens to your body if you smoke a cigarette. My addition to the government’s lesson was the word “cumulative.” Whatever you put into your body has a cumulative effect. You may not see the immediate results when you’re young, but you will as you get older.

After HACE, back to Poetry!

Elevens: I began by creating a calendar on the board showing how much time is left and then gave you a calendar on paper showing your test dates. Then more poetry! I am nothing if not informative and consistent. I also handed back marked assignments and complimented a couple of students whose work was absolutely outstanding. You know who you are. Bravo.

Everybody I teach!

9/10/11: This is my multipurpose blog for you all.

Here’s what’s happening: I write the instructions on the board. I attempt to scare you into realizing it is almost June and your exams are a few short weeks away. I wander around explaining elements of analyzing a poem. I am doing this all day every day in every class. This should explain, at least in part, why I’m so weird. You try repeating this over and over and over and over on a daily basis to people who just want to run away and play in the sun.

If I didn’t see you today and give you a calendar of your life in June, I will tomorrow. The calendar tells you the following:

FOR ENGLISH 9, ENGLISH 10, AND ENGLISH 11, ALL POETRY ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE FRIDAY JUNE 1st. THE DAY OF GRACE IS MONDAY JUNE 4. NO ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER THAT DATE.

ENGLISH 9:

• the Written Component of your Final Exam is Thursday June 7
• the Multiple Choice Component of your Final Exam is Tuesday June 5

ENGLISH 10:

• 1-1: Mock Provincial is Wednesday June 6
• 1-1: Written Component is Friday June 15
• 1-3: Mock Provincial is Monday June 3
• 1-3: Written Component is Friday June 15
• 1-4: Mock Provincial is Friday June 8
• 1-4: Written Component is Friday June 15

ENGLISH 11:

• the Written Component of your Final Exam is Thursday June 7
• the Multiple Choice Component of your Final Exam is Monday June 11

Dissecting a Poem

Tens: Today you just worked and worked and worked. At least that’s what I’m believing you did. If you weren’t actually working, you were doing a good enough imitation that you fooled me.

Here’s a review of everything I wrote on the board, with a few Do’s and Don’ts tacked on for good measure. (For those of you who chose the poem Pied Beauty, the picture at the left is Gerard Manley Hopkins contemplating all things dappled, brinded, and stippled. You should feel pretty smart. You are probably the only people in the room who know what those words mean.)

How to Analyze a Poem:

1. Read the poem.
2. Look up difficult or significant words. Look up the glosses. Look up info about the poet.
3. Read the poem.
4. Find every poetic device in your particular poem.
5. Read the poem.
6. Do point form notes about how the poet uses language to convey the meaning of the poem.
7. Read the poem.
8. Write two paragraphs (8 sentences minimum) analyzing the poem. Include lines from the poem you quote to make your point. First paragraph: How poet uses language. Second paragraph: Overall meaning of the poem.

DO:

• analyze the poem
• dissect the poem
• quote lines from the poem to prove your points
• make sure you understand the time period of the poem
• make sure you understand the background of the poet
• use the example I did for you as a template (Margaret Atwood’s It is Dangerous to Read Newspapers)
• remember to attach the poem to the analysis
• remember to write your name on the assignment

DON’T:

• write about whether you like the poem or the poet
• be vague and wishy washy
• talk “about” the poem with no references to actual lines in the poem!

The Entire World in Under Five Minutes

9/11s

11′s: You had a double block and a chance to really get focussed on your Poetry Assignment. This would have worked much better if someone hadn’t pulled the fire alarm. Although the sunshine was nice and I got to practice my printing skills and Mitch got to practice his message delivering skills, going outside to stare at a fire truck wasn’t really very useful. So I know you know this, but I am going to say it anyway. We have four classes left before the Poetry Assignment is due. This means working on it outside of class might be a good idea.

It is now officially the end of the year.

9′s: You had a single block and you had Maureen and I wandering around ensuring you’d picked your poems and helping you recognize poetic devices.

If you go to Assignments 9, you can see the instructions yet again.

Sadness

Tens: Someone you liked and cared about died and it was a sad and horrible day. Many of you were upset and feeling pain, and it was a long, strange day. Anyone who needed to, went down to the Annex to talk to the counsellors and anyone who needed to,  just sat and thought or sat and wrote.

What I will always remember about this day is how you showed such compassion toward one another.

I gave out ten different poems to anyone who wanted them. They’re all appropriate for the Poetry Assignment. You can still find your own if you wish. Scroll down and find the ones I’ve already put on this blog.

Jordan

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 
own were; any man's death diminishes me, 
because I am involved in mankind. 
And therefore never send to know for whom 
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

by John Donne
MEDITATION XVII
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

9/11s

11′s: Since it worked so well last time, I read the same poem to you and the 9′s. Only with you, I went into greater depth and gave you an entirely different and significantly harder response to write. The poem was Margaret Atwood’s Boredom, a poem in which she goes into excruciating detail about the minutiae of her childhood. In fact, she uses the word minutiae — and since teaching you this poem I have found at least five specific times when I’ve been able to use the word. It’s my new favourite word, edging out pusillanimous, my old favourite word.

Your written response was to look at one of three things: the theme of death or childhood or growing awareness/maturity in the poem. You were also to remember the cardinal rules of poetry analysis: Your feelings don’t count. Whether you like the poem or the poet doesn’t count. What counts is exactly what is in the poem and how the poet uses language and poetic devices to get meaning across. It’s a harsh world, this poetic analysis. But there you go. No more Shel Silverstein. This is SciencePoetry.

Above, you can see two pictures of Margaret Atwood that are straight out of the poem. She’s about four years old in the first one and seventeen in the second. Doesn’t she look like she’s plotting her escape in the teenage one?

9′s: We looked at exactly the same poem as the 11′s did: Boredom. First of all, you made a list of the things that make a person bored and then considered the elements of boredom. When do we get bored? Why do we get bored?

Then, we looked at the denotation of words (dictionary meaning), and how Atwood uses repetition to show her boredom. We dissected all of the pieces of the poem and then we figured out the meaning. That is exactly what you will be doing when you do the Poem Analysis.

10s