Question 3 Essay

For my outlines I write 'step one...step two' and so on because it helps me organize and break down the essays much more fluently. Its like cleaning my room, all the material is laid out for me all I need to do is put it in the right place and to do so I follow steps. I do my bed first, put everything on the bed and start separating the clothes into different piles depending on if they're pants, sleeping stuff, shirts, etc. Then I put them in their spots, do a final check for errors and it's clean! I'm not crazy, let me explain this to you guys...cleaning my room is like writing an essay because the material is laid out for me in my brain, all I need to do is put it in the right places. By doing my bed first, I can lay out all my clothes, so the bed acts as a foundation just as step one (figuring out what your essay's purpose will be and the question they want you to answer) acts as the foundation. Then when I start categorizing the clothes, it's the same thing as categorizing the body paragraphs, one pile of info for diction, one pile for imagery and so on. So the last thing is putting the clothes away which is like actually writing the essay which requires everything to be put in the right places, pants with the pants, words with diction, images with imagery. Then finally I do the finishing touches which is like proof reading! Then when the AP readers read my essay (or go into my room) they will either see a clean room (good organized essay) which will get a good grade or an attempt at an essay which is unorganized, the equivalent of stuffing your dirty clothes under the bed and throwing your shoes into the back of the closet. Weird comparison but it helps me and hopefully helps someone else...probably not! 

Outline:

Step one: Breaking down what they want from you-how the character's surroundings shape the character and help explain theme(s) of the novel.

Step two: Pick a book that you know more about how their surroundings affected them-Pride and Prejudice, Mr. Darcy. Surroundings shapes the prideful spirit of Darcy because he is rich and snooty until Liz makes him fall in love for her. The change of setting from London to the country was a huge turning point for him because he grows humble and dynamic.

1999 AP Essay #2

Outline:
Step one: Breaking down what they want from you- Identify two conflicting forces/powers that are conflicting within a character and how this conflict helps explain the work as a whole.
Step two: Pick a book that you know more about the conflict within a character- The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. He has to deal with the forces of society and the forces of temptation/love.
Step three: Structure- Body paragraph one: societies pressure over him, Body paragraph two: temptations, love and human nature. Body paragraph three: which one wins and the moral of the story (theme) is that sometimes society isn't always right, follow your heart and you'll be happy.

1999 AP Essay #1

Outline:
Step one: Breaking down what they want from you- How lit techniques convey the impact on the character after and during dramatic experience.
Step two: Choose Lit tech after reading the passage- diction, imagery and tone.
Step three: Go into detail with each of the lit techniques while STILL keeping step one in mind:

Diction: Alot of action words to emphasis impact and the spirit of the wolf which was characterized as being active. Also words of sadness, pain and hurt were used to describe his dramatic experience but when describing the wolf light and happy words were used to commemorate her.

Imagery: The imagery that is presented is depressing and really devastating. This is of course for the impact...the blood, the lifeless eyes, the darkness, the dying fire, the coyotes, the loneliness with only the dead wolf(since the horse left)...all these images, although some are less important than others, are placed in this scenes to show the lose of the wolf and how impactful it was for the character.

Tone: With the help of the author's diction and imagery, the tone is set for the passage. It is a very lonesome, sad tone but also very calm. Especially at the end where he describes the good attributes the wolf had.

POETRY ESSAY PROMPT #2

2004 Poems “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” (Emily Dickinson) and “Acquainted with the Night” (Robert Frost)
Prompt: The poems below are concerned with darkness and night. Read each poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the significance of dark or night in each. In your essay, consider elements such as point of view, imagery, and structure.



We Grow Accustomed to the Dark

We grow accustomed to the Dark --
When light is put away --
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye --

A Moment -- We uncertain step
For newness of the night --
Then -- fit our Vision to the Dark --
And meet the Road -- erect --

And so of larger -- Darkness --
Those Evenings of the Brain --
When not a Moon disclose a sign --
Or Star -- come out -- within --

The Bravest -- grope a little --
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead --
But as they learn to see --

Either the Darkness alters --
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight --
And Life steps almost straight.




Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
A luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.


Outline:
-Diction, Imagery and POV
The night is a metaphor for hard times, struggles and uncertainty. To get "acquainted" or "accustom" to the night means one gets used to the hurt and pain as it becomes more clear. This does not make the pain go away, or in this case the night, but it does make it clearer and easier to navigate through.

POV:First one talks of everyone getting accustom to hard times (the night) while the second speaks of a personal experience with hard times.

Diction: both view the night (pain) as a negative thing but something that naturally happens and that must happen through out the day or through out life.

Imagery: Navigation is key in both poems and both authors emphasis the imagery of someone traveling through the night.

(I will write pre-writes of all the essays in order to get practice on pre-writes and then I'll write the actual essays)

POETRY ESSAY PROMPT #1

[1994] Poems: “To Helen” (Edgar Allan Poe) and “Helen” (H.D.)
Prompt: The following two poems are about Helen of Troy. Renowned in the ancient world for her beauty, Helen was the wife of Menelaus, a Greek King. She was carried off to Troy by the Trojan prince Paris, and her abduction was the immediate cause of the Trojan War. Read the two poems carefully. Considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone, write a well-organized essay in which you contrast the speakers’ views of Helen.


Essay:
         The face that launched a thousand ships was also the face to launch the writing of two poems, "To Helen" by Edgar Allan Poe and "Helen" by H.D. With the use of diction and imagery, both authors express their contrasting views on the ancient Greek beauty.

         Both poets use an range of words in order to describe their view point on Helen of Troy. Poe uses words like "beauty", "perfumed", "gently" and "glory" because he sees Helen in a good light. H.D. on the other hand uses the words like "wan", "ills", "unmoved" and "white ash" because he portrays her in a negative light. Their use of contrasting words illuminates how they chose different point of views from which to speak about Helen.

        The Imagery in the both poems also supports this view of bad Helen and good Helen that the authors have. H.D. for example uses imagery in

"All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre as of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands." 

The reader sees an image of beauty but one that is stoic and indifferent because of the "still eyes". With Poe we see a different image being painted. One of admiration and respect in the stanza that says,

 "Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore." 

Every word embodies the overall theme of love and beauty while H.D.'s poem highlights the themes of beauty being dangerous.

       With the use of diction and imagery, H.D. described Helen from a negative point of view while Poe described her as being lovely and beautiful. Both authors show case their contrasting point of views of Helen through these great works.

Grid Lock

TPCASTT:  Poem Analysis Method


Title: A Summer’s Dream by Elizabeth Bishop sound like it will be happy and uplifting. 

Paraphrase: In this poem, I feel as if Bishop is observing these 4 characters in one room and making a poem about them. The owl seems a bit random. The poem, although it is titled A Summer's Dream which makes you think of sunny, fun and happy things, seems like a contradiction to the actual poem which has nothing to do with summer and who's tone has dark feelings at times. 

Connotation: 

Diction: wharf, geraniums, linoleums,  somnambulist 

Attitude: The attitude of the author is a mix between dreamy and gloomy. She doesn't stick to one subject and jumps from one thing to another. This moment seems like a real moment but pictured in a dreamy way where her attention shifts from one thing to another.

Tone: I hate repetition but her tone seems dreamy, smooth and gloomy at times. 

Shift(s): I think these two verses are where the poem shifts from normal, content to serious and gloomy.
Extraordinary geraniums
crowded the front windows,
the floors glittered with
assorted linoleums.

Every night we listened
for a horned owl.
In the horned lamp flame,
the wallpaper glistened.

Title revisited: The title is referring to a memory and the poem is the description of part of the memory that she allows us to see into. She gives us details that make us question the title but in all the title is what she got out of the memory although we can extract other feelings from the poem.

Theme: Im struggling on this one...

Seventh Reading (Poetry Boot Camp)

A Summer’s Dream

         = words I don't understand
         = summer words, or gloomy related words
(notes and connections)


To the sagging wharf
few ships could come.
The population numbered
two giants, an idiot, a dwarf,

a gentle storekeeper
asleep behind his counter, (people fall asleep during summer, it's easier to with the hot weather. Napping)
and our kind landlady—
the dwarf was her dressmaker.

The idiot could be beguiled
by picking blackberries,
but then threw them away.
The shrunken seamstress smiled.

By the sea, lying
blue as a mackerel,
our boarding house was streaked
as though it had been crying.

Extraordinary geraniums
crowded the front windows,
the floors glittered with
assorted linoleums.

Every night we listened
for a horned owl.
In the horned lamp flame,
the wallpaper glistened.

The giant with the stammer
was the landlady’s son,
grumbling on the stairs
over an old grammar.

He was morose,
but she was cheerful.
The bedroom was cold,
the feather bed close.

We were awakened in the dark by
the somnambulist brook
nearing the sea,
still dreaming audibly.

Elizabeth Bishop


In this poem, I feel as if Bishop is observing these 4 characters in one room and making a poem about them. The owl seems a bit random. The poem, although it is titled A Summer's Dream which makes you think of sunny, fun and happy things, seems like a contradiction to the actual poem which has nothing to do with summer and who's tone has dark feelings at times.