We had another poetic day in British Literature. I recognize that not all students love poetry, but they were all troopers as we worked through our selections of Victorian poetry. I often equate unraveling and analyzing poetry to looking at an oil painting by a great artist. Many times with paintings, artists use layers of paint to produce a single effect. With poetry, as we look closely at the various elements (rhyme scheme, imagery, rhythm, word choice, enjambment, etc.) we are often able to see into the depths of the poets intent. (A note for the students: When we take time to dig deeply into a poem, the inner meanings almost appear magically to us ... if we are distracted, the image seems to fly out the window, and the reflection of the poet's thoughts and emotions are broken. Hmm... sounds like a poem I read by Tennyson.)
We read "The Lady of Shalott," line by line. Many times, Victorian poetry uses a narrative structure, which makes the poems a little easier to read and to understand on a surface level. We also read aloud Browning's "My Last Duchess," the nonsense poems of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll, and the deeply spiritual poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
We are now done with poetry. In class this week, I handed out to the students their final books: Pygmalion, which we will read next, and The 39 Steps, our final selection.
Assignments for Next Week
-- Read Pygmalion (Acts 1, 2, 3)
-- Write 3 discussion questions for the assignment sections
-- Read the handouts on the book and author
This week's links
Class Notes
See you next week!
Mrs. Prichard
No comments:
Post a Comment