Notes Dec 6-10

Hamlet in Film

• Does actor cover all perspectives of Hamlet?
• How does film show Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia, Gertrude, and the ghost?
• Why would the second movie begin with the view from the security camera?
• Hamlet constantly physically lower than ghost (father) and is physically close to him many times in that scene?  - Shows father and son relationship.
• To be or not to be soliloquy
• Mirrors in first movie- everyone constantly watching everyone, vanity, Hamlet's obsession with self reflection
•  second movie he is in shadows.

Notes Nov 29- Dec 3

Hamlet Discussion
Questions to ponder... day 1 of discussion

• What's up with the delay? Why does Hamlet take so long for revenge?
• Maybe he's scared to do it, hesitant, coward
• careful thinker, takes a lot of things into consideration
• Why do Hamlet's words dominate the play and yet we still don't know much about him?
• constantly changes what he's thinking
• sometimes pretending to be another type of person- so you never get his true personality
• What is Shakespeare trying to reveal with Hamlet?
• Oedipal Complex- Hamlet and Gertrude- scene in her room
• Fortinbras and Hamlet --> foils
• Laertes is also a foil
• foil is like protagonist in all ways but one
• Fortinbras and Hamlet: both looking for revenge, both their fathers died, both royals.
• Laertes and Hamlet: both looking for revenge, both their fathers died, but he isn't royal.
• If they are foils, why did Fortinbras survive? What is the one thing different about him?
• Is Hamlet really mad and insane?
• How should we feel about Hamlet?
• Is the ghost really his father? Is it trying to trick him?
• Hamlet has a new set of values brought from Germany. Should he ignore his values and listen to what his father is telling him to do?

Discussion day 2


Why does this play open with a question ("Who's there?")? Of what significance is its answer?

• *Opening of play is a question of identity.
• Shows confusion, shows that maybe its dark and foggy because they can't see who is there.
• audience confused- we don't know who characters are at first.
• Everyone's on edge, mistrust
• Importance of showing loyalty- "long live the king" (password)
• differences between good and bad.
• King either came back as ghost to help and warn city of trouble or maybe he hid treasure and came to get it.
• day more pure than night- ghosts only come out at night- not holy, bad                      ----> Scene ends with question of ghost's identity.

Ophelia

Act 1 Scene 3

• violet- symbol of innocence
• "no more but so?" - tone used in line can completely change our perspective of Ophelia
• Changing moon- good, bad, night, day
• "For nature cresent..." everything at night is bad
• moon is insane, can't be trusted- always changing- like Hamlet
• --> saying Ophelia's relationship with Hamlet won't last
• "But here my father comes."
• father-son motif
• it's not just his father
• father giving advice about how to get ahead no matter what- speech seems typical on the surface but is really political
• Polonius always rises to top, powerful
• Ophelia and Laertes were raised by him
• Laertes confident knowing he will be ahead in the world
• Polonius criticizing Ophelia for falling in love with Hamlet without playing the game, worried about his reputation
• after speech Ophelia not sure about his love
• BUT is she innocent and humble after his remarks or is she just playing him trying to get him to stop talking/

Act 2 Scene 1

• When Hamlet comes into Ophelia's closet, instead of going and asking him what's wrong she goes to tell her father.
• They don't speak even when they have a moment alone
• Maybe she made this whole scene up to show her father that Hamlet really does love her?

Act 3 Scene 1

• Gertrude likes Ophelia and would be okay with her and Hamlet marrying even though she isn't as high of class.
• Hamlet and Ophelia's discussion
• Hamlet accuses her of sexual corruption- but he's the one who corrupted her.
• But she is actually corrupt because she is spying for her father
• Does Hamlet know they're spying?

Notes Nov. 22-23

Hamlet
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/plays/incest.html 
Is Gertrude's remarriage to her husband brother incest?

• "Hamlet: My Mother: Father and Mother is man and wife: man and wife is one flesh, and fo my mother"
• If they are one flesh then to marry your dead husband's brother is to marry your brother- incest. 

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sources/hamletsources.html

Sources for Hamlet

• based on Norse legend by Saxo Grammaticus
• tell of the rise and fall of the great rulers of Denmark
• Similarities between Hamlet and legend:
• brother kills the king
• marries his brother's wife, the queen
• the son feigns madness and plans revenge
• Difference:
• In the legend the son becomes the new and rightful king of Jutland, but in Hamlet he dies. 
• Shakespeare's Hamlet based his play on Thomas Kyd's play, Ur-Hamlet, which was based on the legend.
• In Ur-Hamlet there is a character named Hamlet and a ghost who cried "Hamlet, revenge!"

http://humx.org/vocabulary/revenge-tragedy

Revenge Tragedy

• Aristotle defines tragedy in the Poetics "as an imitation of a single, unified, action that is serious, complete, and has a certain magnitude.
• Tragedy: fall of a good, believable and consistent character caused by and error or frailty.
• Revenge tragedy: depicts a son's revenge for a father's murder, which is revealed by the murdered man's ghost- inspired by Kyd's Spanish Tragedy
• Plot may include:
• hesitation of hero
• real of pretended insanity of hero
• hero's contemplation of suicide
• multiple levels of intrigue
• an able scheming villain
• abundance of philosophic soliloquies 
• the sensationalized of murder on stage or the exhibition of dead bodies
• dynamics of revenge:
• the offense
• the antagonist
• clarification of strategies
• series of delays, obstacles, diversions, mistakes
• the showdown

Connections

          When reading about the typical ideas included in a revenge tragedy plot it mentioned the great amount of soliloquies, which I remembered noticing while reading Hamlet.

Notes Nov. 15-19

 AP Exam Multiple Choice 

1. Know what you're supposed to do.
2. Know the structure of the question
• Rhetorical Function
• explain purpose of a part of a piece
• ask yourself what the selected part of the poem does
• Context
• identify the meaning of a word used in the context
• Antecedent
• what does word refer to? -from previously in text
• usually for poetry questions
• Style
• overall question about whole piece, about a pattern in the piece
• consider the choices the author has made
• usually has a correct answer and a more correct answer
• look for words like "primary, most important..."
• Tone
• identify the tone
• pay attention to who is named as person who is projecting feeling

             *For both style and tone- will give answers with pairs of words

                   -if one is incorrect the whole thing is incorrect.

       3. Know yourself- know what trips you up and what works best for you

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay #2

Reflective Essay: "From Rage to Relief: View from a Nurse's Station"
By Theresa Brown
published March 30, 2010

     Brown's reflective essay, "From Rage to Relief: View from a Nurse's Station" discusses the importance of healthcare with a tone of criticism and then consolation. The Nurse begins by criticizing the V.I.P. patients who get special treatment and their meals served on china, while others can not even afford a meal. Even worse, there are some people who, without having any health insurance, can't even pay for treatments, surgeries, or medication.

     With an opening criticizing tone, Brown pulls the reader in by either standing up for the reader or causing the reader to feel a sense of guilt or defensiveness if he or she is one of those wealthy patients with good health insurance. The other readers, the less wealthy ones with no health insurance, would completely agree with what the writer is saying, and therefore both groups of people would read on to see what Brown has to say. Brown says that the "vast disparities in health care coverage" troubles her because they affect her ability to do her job of being a "patient advocate" (2). 

     The tone of this piece not only intrigues people with it's blunt criticism, but it also persuades the reader of the importance of health insurance. The nurse's tone turns into relief when she begins discussing the positive effects the health care bill would have. She gives a sense of hope to the less fortunate patients when using repetition of the word, "relief," saying, "she feels relief. Relief that a patient will not have to worry about affording the treatment need to stop her cancer. Relief that medication decisions will be based on effectiveness and not cost. Relief that I can educate patients about the drugs they need without fretting that they won't take them if they can't afford them" (2). 


     Brown's successfully accomplishes her main purpose of convincing the reader that the health care bill is important, based on her experiences as a nurse. Her main technique used to fulfill this task is a tone of rage replaced by ease, which shows her passion for the controversial topic. 

Outside Reading: Book Review #2

 Book Review: "Double-Fault"
by Chelsea Cain
published October 22, 2010

      In Chelsea Cain's book review of "Our Kind of Traitor," by John le Carre, she uses a small amount of the formalism and historicism critical perspectives to analyze the novel, but generally she just summarizes the novel and her opinion of it.

     Throughout the majority of the review, Cain takes the reader on a journey through the book and all of the feelings the reader may experience, while occasionally using a couple critical perspectives on the way. She begins with a little Historicism by mentioning the background of the author, le Carre, who is the "papa of cold war spy novels" (1). In Cain's view, the writer of the novel brings the reader a sense of nostalgia and "warms the hearts of those... who long for the era before Jack Bauer, when spies quoted P.G. Wodehouse and wore mackintoshes," while living in a time of only brooding and romantic vampire novels (1). After a little summary of the plot the writer then uses the formalistic critical perspective while discussing the "classic spy archetypes" that le Carre uses when the spies' code names are introduced as Tom, Dick and Harry (3). Using a historical approach, she notices that le Carre tries to be relevant to what is happening in the present, with a plot involving "Russian gangsters and international banking," not to mention the the publicity materials that "include a 2009 article from The Observer of London that echoes the narrative conspiracy" (3). Cain's reaction to this though is that the allure of this novel is that it does bring back the past, and does not conform to the modern genres.

       The person of this review seemed to be trying to communicate to the readers what a great novel this is because of it's familiar characteristics of old spy novels that brings the readers a sense of sentimentality. It's strengths are that it does use critical perspectives to analyze the novel, but they are used sparingly with few other techniques to accompany them. The majority of the time Cain seems to just summarize the novel.

      Some connections between this piece and other pieces we've read in English classes is the stress on typical types of stories. Cain describes a run-of-the-mill spy story with a whisky drinking, educated English gentleman. This similar to what we talk about with archetypes and how everything is an allusion to myths, the Bible, or Shakespeare. There are plot and character archetypes that are characteristics in everything we read and see, since there is basically only one story. Cain is saying the same thing, only using a more specific genre to focus on.

      In Cain's book review of le Carre's "Our Kind of Traitor," she uses the critical approaches of formalism and historicism to successfully convince the reader of the excellence of his novel. Over all the message of this piece is adequately conveyed to the reader.

Outside Reading: Editorial #2

Editorial: "I Believe I Can Fly"
by Thomas L. Friedman
published November 13, 2010

     Thomas L. Friedman's editorial, "I Believe I Can Fly," is a criticism on the ignorance of world leaders, using a strong voice and support of his argument. Friedman argues that national leaders are behaving as if they believe they can fly because they are "ignoring that sudden stop at the end that's sure to come" (1).

    

    Friedman uses a strong voice with a great amount of support to convince the reader of the leaders' ignorance.  He begins with Israel's prime minister as his first example. Bibi Netanyahu refuses "to halt settlement building as prerequisite for negotiations" even though he claims that he is completely committed to peace with the Palestinians(1). Unless the first outcome is war, Netanyahu will eventually hit that sudden stop at the end, when they no longer have a Jewish majority because of all the risks he took. The writer uses America as his next example, describing the undermining efforts of the Republican Party to have a clean energy bill put in place. By doing this we could break away from the countries we are dependent upon for oil, have "cleaner air, more renewable energy, a stronger dollar, more innovative industries and enemies with less money" (1-2). If nothing is done and people remain ignorant to the situation, future generations will reach that sudden stop, when they can no longer be carefree and fly, but rather have to hit that hard reality. Friedman's last supporting detail discusses the people "working to scuttle Senate ratification of the New Start nuclear arms reduction treaty" (2). In his opinion, many people don't want to pass the treaty just because they don't want President Obama to have the success. The writer then points out the important fact that people should care less about weakening their own president and more about the ties between Iran or U.S. and Russia. Friedman successfully argues his point with multiple pieces of evidence.


       Not only does Friedman support his argument with many key points and criticisms, but he also comes up with solutions to the problems. According to the writer, the Republicans continuously try to push Obama out of power and keep him only as a one-term president so that they can obtain power to achieve their goals. Friedman argues that they didn't pursue those goals the previous eight years they were in office, and he believes those aren't even the right priorities anyways. The writer argues that their priorities should now should be to "mitigate the recession" (2). He even then goes on to explain how to achieve this goal, which he believes is by improving the skills and education of workers. 


      Using clear evidence and a strong believable voice, Friedman successfully support his argument.  His writing is very persuasive because he seems to know about the evidence he provides and even offers ways to fix the problems. For an AP essay, this would definitely be appropriate, with his sophisticated voice and knowledge. 








    

Notes Nov. 8-12

Thesis

Thesis Answers Prompt

& etc.----> do NOT use on AP test
---> use: "and other effects" instead.

Theme=meaning

First example thesis:
In ________'s "_________," the opening scene uses ________ to demonstrate [theme].

Notes Nov. 1-5

Oedipus Class Discussion

• What is the purpose of rewriting Oedipus? What are the different purposes of the play compared to the original story?

• Translations- some lines different in different translations
• changes interpretation of characters- is he saying he won't lie or is he saying he can't guarantee anything for the future?
• Foil Characters- Oedipus and Kreon
• Oedipus: more passionate, takes responsibility, noble, emotional
• Kreon: in the shadows, says he basically gets rights of king without responsibility, rational
• Power may corrupt some people- power makes you blind.
• Motif- sight and blindness
• power makes you blind
• Kreon has better "sight"/knowledge, more rational
• knows most about himself while Oedipus is blind to a lot about himself. 

Notes Oct. 25-29

Drama
Chapter 1: The Nature of Drama
Drama is a lot like Prose fiction or poetry. BUT what is unique about it is that it was written to be performed, not read. 

• Present action...
• through actors
• impact is direct and based on the actors' skills
• audience receives all info at once instead of multiple paragraphs- how character looks and moves and speaks
• on stage 
• and before an audience
• spectators' response is affected by other spectators- impact intensified
• Playwrights have tremendous amount of power but are also limited
• practically limited to 1 point of view: the objective, or dramatic
• Soliloquy- characters are presented as speaking to themselves (think out loud)
• Aside- characters turn from people on stage they are conversing with to speak directly to audience- allows audience know what they are really thinking/feeling
• Playwright can command undivided attention since audience only has the play to look at, but since it's confined to a stage that also limits the audience's imagination.
• use mostly humans
• can't quickly change settings constantly 

Drama Terms

• Realistic- drama that attempts in content and in presentation to preserve the illusion of actual everyday life. 
• Non Realistic- drama that departs markedly from fidelity to outward appearances of life. 
• Tragedy- type of drama with events that lead to downfall and suffering of protagonist a person of unusual moral or intellectual stature or outstanding abilities.
• Comedy- type of drama with a usually happy ending, emphasizing human limitation rather than human greatness
• Romantic Comedy- likable and sensible main characters placed in difficulties from which they are rescued at end of play, either attaining their ends or having good fortunes restored. 
• Scornful Comedy- main purpose to expose and ridicule human folly, vanity, or hypocrisy.
• Melodrama- type of drama related to tragedy but featuring sensational incidents, emphasizing plot, relying on cruder conflicts and having happy ending when good triumphs evil.
• Farce- type of drama related to a comedy, but emphasizing improbable situations, violent conflicts, physical action, and coarse wit over characterization and plot.
• Protagonist- main character in story/ play
• Antagonist- any force in story in conflict with protagonist. May be person, aspect of physical or social environment or destructive element in protagonist's own nature.
• Foil characters- a character whose distinguishing moral qualities or personal traits are summed up in one or two traits
• Plot- The sequence of incidents or events of which a story of play is composed
• Suspense- That quality in a story or play that makes the reader eager to discover what happens next and how it will end.
• Themes- The central idea or unifying generalization implied or stated by a literary work.
• Didactic- poetry, fiction, or drama having as a primary purpose to teach or preach.
• Dramatic Exposition- the presentation through dialogue of information about events that occurred before the action of a play, or that occurs offstage or between the staged actions; this may also refer to the presentation of information about individual characters' backgrounds or the general situation in which the action takes place. 

Chapter 2- Realistic and Non-Realistic Drama

• Drama adds another dimension of possible unreality since written to be performed
• involves certain necessary artificiality 
• audience must imagine there are four walls and actors must adapt to different stages to accommodate members from all sides of the audience.
• dramatic conventions- we have to accept certain departures from reality (room with less than four walls still represents one with four and actors speak language of audience disregarding nationality of their characters)
• other conventions (avoided in working in strictly realistic mode): example: characters reveal inner thoughts
• make possible the revelation of dimensions of reality
• chorus- group of actors speaking in unison (another nonrealistic devise)
• useful for conveying communal or group emotion
• narrator- vehicle for dramatic truth

Plagiarism

• Still plagiarism even if it is an accident.
• plagiarism results in a full or partial loss of credit
• Good paraphrasing:
• condenses
• restructures syntax
• replaces words

Outside Reading: Book Review #1

Book Review: "Sibling Rivalry"

by Jenaette Winterson

published October 1, 2010

          Jeanette Winterson’s book review, “Sibling Rivalry,” discusses Cunningham’s novel, “By Nightfall,” with a formalistic approach, arguing that he has an extremely effective writing style.  The writer easily accomplishes her goal of convincing the reader this by noticing a multitude of elements in the piece and how they enhance the writing. When she analyzes the use of syntax, she explains how the sentence structure creates a perfect pace of reading and keeps the novel alive. In another paragraph Winterson notices the way the author “externalizes [the novel’s] agonies” which puts us in the character’s head so that we can “look out at his life” (2). This review hardly gives away any of the book, while still persuading a reader of its interesting plot and style. 

         The most prominent critical approach used in this review is Formalism. Winterson picks apart this novel based on literary elements in it, including symbols, plot, dialogue, and many others. She begins to support her argument by describing the opening of the book with an animal sacrifice, symbolizing the losses and mistakes of the main character’s life, to introduce the reader to the main idea of the story. Then she talks about the “simple, potent plot” the author uses, allowing him to focus on “the hearts and minds, the groins and guts, of his characters,” while not boring the readers and keeping them anxious for more (2). Dialogue and sentence length, according to Winterson, are also skillfully mastered, with sentences “stretched or contracted at just the right time” (2). Towards the end of the review, the writer analyzes the way Cunningham concludes the novel, by using a second sacrifice like the one from the beginning. Although this time it’s a human sacrificed instead an animal, to completely wrap up a theme of the novel about letting things go about ourselves in order to grow up. 

           There also seems to be an emphasis in this book review about the allusions to Shakespeare, which Foster explained in “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” that almost everything is based off of Shakespeare’s work. The first allusion noticed by Winterson is the plot about the surprise arrival of a person bringing “chaos, self-knowledge, tragedy, [and] the ruin of one kind of life” not necessarily leading to a better one (2). She notices that the same plot is used in Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”  There is also a “gender swap confusion” when the main character mistakes the male guest in the shower for a young beautiful version of his wife (3). This common Shakespearean plot spin occurs in “Twelfth Night” with Viola and Sebastian, and in “As You Like It” with Rosalind. 

          By examining many literary elements and Shakespeare allusions, Jeanette Winterson effectively convinces the reader of this novel’s excellence. 

Outside Reading: Reflective Essay #1

Reflective Essay: "Mine is Longer Than Yours"

by Michael Kinsley

published April 7, 2008

           This essay is about living with Parkinson's disease and the competition of the length one's life. The writer begins the story with a couple personal experiences he had that dealt with age. He meets two men who seem to brag about how old they have been able to live. This brings him to the idea of the competitiveness about age, like it's something people have a large amount of control over when really most of it is determined by genetics, culture, and finances. Throughout the essay he displays a tone of slight criticism and jealousy but also contentment.

        Kinsley begins with a small amount of criticism towards those competitors, saying that “extending your own life expectancy is the most selfish motive imaginable for doing anything,” when one could focus on sacrificing his or her life for others (2). He goes on to debate the glamour of death at different ages. While dying very early can be noble or glamorous along with dying at such an old age that it’s shocking, dying in your fifties and sixties is not in any way interesting. It is not until he begins to talk about the three highest causes of death that we learn the writer actually has Parkinson’s disease. Now the reader can begin to realize and understand the tone of jealousy hinted in the first few pages. The envy is minimal though as the tone of the piece converts to acceptance and contentment. Kinsley talks about the limitations one feels when hit with the news about having a chronic disease. Most people take the viewpoint that you are automatically excluded “from the club of living” and left with a finite future, but the writer takes a different outlook (5). Each choice you make isn’t necessarily the last. He describes the unfair feeling that the arc of one’s career or life is not only unachieved but “unexpectedly chopped off” (7). Rather than being disappointed about a younger person beating you for a position, people with a chronic disease, feel disappointment about losing a job to someone older because while that person is still going strong, they realize that their time is running out. 

        For an AP essay the tone used is fantastic because it is appropriate and understandable. The writer is never angrily ranting, or making jokes, but rather calmly discusses his perspectives about different aspects. The tone is also always supported by reasons for the way he feels. He doesn’t just criticize a person’s actions without eventually giving his rationale. This essay is full of emotions from acceptance to disappointment and jealousy, which is completely understandable when one is forced confront life’s length and meaning, but Kinsley pulls through and has an overall positive tone. 

Outside Reading: Editorial #1

Editorial: “To our Readers: An Editorial: The President Should Resign”

Author unknown

Published November 12, 1973

         This editorial strongly states that President Richard Nixon should resign from office. The writer creates an assertive and confident voice concerning his or her decision about Nixon’s current position. They add a great amount of support to their argument by adding details of past political corruption and the possibility of a devastated future. 

          The editorial begins with the consequences and further damage Nixon would cause if he did not resign. The first supporting detail of this is that if Nixon sticks with the presidency, he will most likely be impeached and just the process alone “would leave him and the country devastated” (1). The trial for this would also take a significant amount of time, meanwhile leaving the country leaderless. The next paragraph explains why Gerald Ford, who would replace Nixon, would be “an unmistakable improvement” because he is free of corruption, “liked and respected on capitol hill,” and most importantly, he will be good with foreign affairs when there is no question of whether he will be in office for his full term (2). The writer uses a confident voice, which causes the reader to not question Ford’s ability. One small problematic aspect of Ford is also included, then quickly countered by an assurance that it is not a big deal. This way the reader would not wonder if something is being covered up to make Ford seem perfect. 

         Then, the writer admits that not too long ago even they believed, along with most of the country, that Nixon would be a fantastic president, but have reluctantly decided that he must go. By admitting this it makes the reader feel more connected with the writer and therefore more likely to sway over to his side of the argument. It also causes the writer to seem less like he is accusing people of choosing a bad president since he mad the same mistake. Soon after this the author reminds the reader of the long list of corrupt activities Nixon and his administration has done. Towards the end of the article he recognizes the fact that there is usually corruption in politics, but that the good leaders are separated from the bad by the way they handle it and whether that behavior is condoned. To conclude the essay the reader confronts people’s fear of America looking weak from the President resigning by instead saying that it would show the country’s strength to have the ability to “cleanse itself” “of a badly infected political system” (7).

           With a strong and assertive voice, the speaker of this essay would definitely be appropriate for an AP piece. There are multiple arguments the author uses to support their opinion and a great amount of evidence attached to them. By the end, the reader is mostly likely leaning towards what the writer is persuading if not completely convinced.  Along with the fantastic structure and support of this essay, the writers tone leads to an entirely convincing argument.

Notes Oct 11-22

More Poetry
In-Class Group Poetry Analysis

• A Light Exists in Spring p1036
• growing feeling, spring, 
• human activity not good enough- spiritual
• feeling goes away unnoticed
• If thou must love me p1032
• love her for love not characteristics- people change over time
• uses rhetoric well
• "let it be," commands- uses a lot of imperatives
• Sirens from Odyssey p1027
• don't enjoy their life, cry for help
• archetypal character- seductress
• allusion of sirens- women who are seductresses are trapped in this role
• On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High p1028
• speaker thought he was disconnected with students- frozen fish students
• pun- "swimming with school of fish"
• surreal experience- him and students "swim" together as they delve deep into text.
• water leaks out door, everything is back to normal.

Chapter 8- Allusion

• a reference to something in history or previous literature 
• richly connotative word or symbol suggesting far more than it says.
• reinforce emotion or idea of one's own work with emotion or ideas or another work or occasion
• vary in the number of readers that will be familiar with it- danger of being misunderstood.

Chapter 9- Meaning and Idea

• meaning of poem- experience it expresses
• total meaning of a poem- the only way an experience is communicated
• prose meaning can be separated out in form of prose paraphrase 
• story, description, statement of emotion, presentation of human nature.

Chapter 10- Tone

• speaker's attitude toward the subject, reader, or himself
• emotional meaning 
• affects interpretation
• tone can vary or shift throughout poem- achieve poet's purpose to create dramatic structure
• to recognize tone must have...
• increasing familiarity with meaning and connotations of words
• alertness to irony and other figures
• careful reading

Chapter 11- Musical Devices

• Poetry uses "music" of language
• chooses words for sound as well as meaning 
• poet achieves musical quality by...
• choice and arrangement of sounds
• arrangement of accents
• repetition and variation are essential elements

Chapter 12- Rhythm and Meter

• Rhythm-wavelike recurrence of motion or sound
• natural rise and fall of language in speech
• alternating between accented and unaccented words
• some syllables accented or stressed- more prominence in pronunciation
• toDAY, toMORROW, YESterday
• certain words in a sentence are also given more prominence
• rhetorical stresses- the words that are stressed can completely change the meaning of the sentence
• poetry has lines that create pauses in flow of speech
• end-stopped line- end of line corresponds with a natural speech pause
• run-on line- sense of the line moves without pause into next line
• no punctuation at end is usually run on
• caesuras-pauses within lines, either grammatical or rhetoric
• Free Verse- poetic line is basic rhythmic unit
• line arrangement is only difference between rhythms of free verse and rhythms of prose
• Prose Poem- depends entirely on ordinary prose rhythms
• attention to many poetic elements
• Meter- identify characteristics of rhythm we can tap our feet to.
• Rhythm v. Meter- mean different things
• rhythm designates flow of actual pronounced sound while meter refers to patterns that sounds follow when arranged into metrical verse
• Units of Meter:
• foot- one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented syllables
• basic kinds of feet
• Duple meter
• Iambic
• Trochaic
• Triple meter
• Anapestic
• Sactylic
• Spondaic
• line- same as in free verse
• names of lines:
• monometer- one foot 
• dimeter- two feet
• trimeter- three feet
• tetrameter- four feet
• pentameter- five feet
• hexameter- six feet
• stanza- group of lines whose metrical pattern is repeated throughout the poem.
• Metrical Variations- calls attention to some of the sounds because they are different from what is regular in the poem
• substitution- replace regular foot with another one
• extra-metrical syllables- added at the beginnings or endings of lines
• truncation- omission of an unaccented syllable at either end of line.
• Scansion- process of defining the metrical form of a poem
1. identify prevailing foot
2. name number of feet in line (if it follows a pattern)
3. describe stanzaic pattern (if there is one)

Chapter 13- Sound and Meaning

• music has 2 general functions
• enjoyable
• reinforce meaning and intensity communication
• Poet reinforces meaning through sound
• onomatopoeia- words that sound like what they mean.
• phonetic intensives- sound connect with its meaning
• ex: fl- sound associated with moving light- flames, flare, flash, flicker
• group sounds so effect is smooth and pleasant sounding or rough and harsh sounding.
• consonants- noises, vowels more pleasing- musical tones
• euphony- lightness and speed expressed
• and cacophony- heavy labor expressed
• controlling speed and movement of lines by meter and grammatical and rhetorical pauses
• control sound and meter to emphasize important words
• highlight words through alliteration, assonance, consonance, or rhyme
• synesthesia- stimulation of 2 or more senses simultaneously

Chapter 14- Pattern 

• Structure- arrangement of ideas, thoughts, sentences
• external pattern
• Form- external shape
• 3 kinds of form:
• continuous form- element of design is slight 
• lines follow each other without formal grouping
• stanzaic form- poet writes in a series of stanzas- repeated units having the same number of lines, same metrical pattern and identical rhyme scheme
• shows degrees of formal pattern 
• designating 4 things:
• rhyme scheme
• position of refrain
• prevailing of metrical foot
• number of feet in a line
• fixed form- traditional pattern that applies to a whole poem
• more forms used in french poetry that English- only 3 used in english (limerick, sonnet, and villanelle)
• limerick- 
• anapestic pattern aa3bb2a3
• allows use of a substitute foot in first foot of any line strictly adhere to form after that
• for humorous and nonsense verse
• sonnet-
• less rigidly prescribed 
• 14 lines in length
• almost always iambic pentameter
• italian sonnet- divided between 8 lines (octave), 2 rhymes arranged abbaabba
• 6 lines (sestet), using 2 or 3 rhymes cdcdcd and cdecde
• octave=situation, sestet=comment  OR octave=idea, sestet=example
• English sonnet- 
• 3 quatrains and concluding couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg
• 3 quatrains=3 examples, couplet= conclusion
• most effective for serious treatment of love
• villanelle
• complex pattern of repetition and rhyme
• requires only 2 rhyme sounds
• 19 lines divided into 5 3-line stanzas (tercets) and 4 line concluding quatrain
• difficult to compose effectively 
• haunting unforgettable effects

Chapter 15- Evalutating Poetry: Sentimental, Rhetorical, Didactic Verse

• understand poem before evaluation
• ask 3 questions
1. what is central purpose? - to understand poem
• make a few generalizations
• no excess words
• each word expresses total meaning
• word order
• diction, images, figures of speech are fresh
• good organization
2. How fully has this purpose been accomplished?- evaluate it, judges by scale of perfection.
3. How important is purpose? -judges on scale of significance
• sentimentality- indulgence in emotion, expression of more emotion than an occasion warrants
• "tear-jerking" literature: sentimental literature
• stimulates emotions directly rather than communicating experience
• Rhetoric Poetry- uses more glittering and high- flown language than necessary 
• has language without corresponding reality of emotion or thought underneath
• Didactic Poetry- teaches or preaches
• ranks high in excellence

Chapter 16- Evaluating Poetry: Poetic Excellence

• final standing of rating of poem depends on significance of purpose
• Great Poetry=
• engages whole person (senses, imagination, emotion, and intellect)
• brings us fresh insights into nature of human experience
• broader and deeper understanding of life
• it is knowledge