Our first day back from Thanksgiving, you will be asked to analyze a poem you have not yet seen. This will count as 10% of your grade from poetry. In order to analyze the poem, be sure you can answer questions on pages 17-19 AND that you can identify any shift that occurs in the poem, where it occurs, and how it affects the theme or meaning of the poem. The best way to prepare for this would be to practice--rather than read analyses from Wikipedia or elsewhere.
Please understand: this is not a question of how much talent you have in interpreting poetry or understanding poetry; this has more to do with your ability and skill in grasping the meaning in groups of lines that function together as a unit. For examples, essays, stories, fiction and non-fiction--all have paragraphs composed of sentences. Poems have groups of lines that function together, just as paragraphs do; often these lines are groups together in stanzas; other poets who use free verse choose to group their lines together differently, sometimes from sentence to sentence. If you get "stuck" in trying to determine the meaning of a poem, consider writing the poem out as prose. This doesn't always work, but many times you will find that a poem is simply the way the poet has chosen to break an idea into lines so that certain words or ideas are emphasized.
If you are absent for either of these in-class assignments, your grade will be a zero.
The remainder of our class time will be spent reading and discussing a brief introduction to drama and the ageless drama, Oedipus by Sophocles.
We will begin Oedipus the Wednesday after we return from Thanksgiving and our final exam will be an in-class essay over the play.
Keep in mind:
- two grades over poetry = 20% of your grade
- there still will be a grade for class participation = 10%
- the final essay = 20%
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