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. 

Lit Circle Work

Multiple Choice 
I didn't do the general questions because they do not contribute to studying for the exam since those books will not be on the test and they also didn't include literary term questions.

The Picture of Darian Gray
1. D
2. ?
3. C
4. D
5. A

Life of Pi
1. C
2. C
3. E
4. C
5. C

1. C
2. C
3. C
4. C
5. C E

Crime and Punishment
1. B
2. D
3. E
4. ?
5. E
6. E?
7. ?
8. B
9. A
10. C
11. D
12.?
13. E
14. E
15. C
16. D
17. A
18. B
19. B

Essay Prompts

Crime and Punishment


1) Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”: Author confronts the audience with a scene or scenes of violence. Explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary. (1982 prompts)

Outline: 

His actions gives the reader a picture of how the character actually is. His words may say one thing but this actions speak louder. This can be a theme in the story which helps contribute to the meaning of the complete work. 

His actions and reactions towards other characters give insite to how the meaning of the book relies on other characters

How crazy and disputing this scene is, give insight to the complete work and what values it will up hold. 

A scene of violence can dramatically shape a novel and the characters within. In Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Fyodor creates a scene of violence in order to better establish the themes and motifs of the novel. Through the main character's actions, Fyodor sets up the novel to be dark, reactive and meaningful. 

The 5 People You Meet In Heaven 

Explain how the author’s presentation of details is intended to shape the reader’s attitudes toward the place he describes.  Give specific attention to the function of word choice, imagery, phrasing, and sentence structure.

Outline: 

The different places and people he mets are described differently in order for the reader to imagine them differently, to feel the mood differently and because this tailors the experience to each individual person he meets in heaven. 

An author's use of literary tools to describe settings helps the reader better understand the work. We see this technique in The 5 People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom because of the very distinct and different settings each character contributed to plot line. This allows the reader to better imagine the setting, more clearly understand the mood and better "feel" the experience that main character was going through. 

Carrie

1. In some works of literature the insanity (or period of insanity) of a main character plays a central role. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write a well-organized essay in which you discuss the mental illness of a central character and the specific ways in which that character’s mental illness relates to the larger themes of the work.

Outline: she was bullied into insanity. bullying is larger theme. Isolation is larger theme and isolation leads to insanity. Through insanity she was able to let go and realize the strength of her powers.

Macbeth Act 2 Notes

Scene 1
-interesting how Banquo says

"So I lose none
In seeking to augment it, but still keep
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
I shall be counselled."

because he will do what Macbeth tells him to do but will still keep true to himself where as Macbeth will do whatever his wife tells him and defy his moral code.

-weird dagger hallucination, should maybe be a sign to stop
-bell summoning him to heaven or hell

Scene 2
-The deed is done and things went pretty sketchy: some servants woke up and screamed murder and another laughed, then they woke up and prayed but Macbeth couldn't say Amen after one said God bless us. Maybe because God could not bless him when he was committing murder.
-Macbeth already regrets what he has done and feels really guilty:

"Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst."

Scene 3
-The talk of hell by the porter just heightens the mood with fear and worry since its right after the murder.
-Lexxon talks about eerie stuff that happened at night to people and how it was pretty creepy, "woeful time" foreshadowing.
-Macbeth killed the servants who "killed" the king so they wouldn't testify against him
-Malcom and Don know what happened?

Scene 4
-Old man is talking about how unnatural the death was. Murder is unnatural just like horses eating eachother
-They think the sons did it

Macbeth Notes 4/11

Macbeth:
-introduced to us as a crazy fighter, then we get to the scenes with his wife and him and realize that there is much more to his character.
-He sticks up for himself when it comes to fighting and war but not with his wife?
-Why does he listen to her?
-His actions, if he does what she tells him to, will most likely cause chaos (exactly why Shakespeare will make him listen to her)
-she is influenced by greed and power. But seeking them with evil will only cause a mess.

Lady Macbeth:
-She's just a crazy lady, plain and simple.
-she married a man in power in order to share his power (something as a woman, you can't have)
-as a woman in this era, she is powerless in politics but because Macbeth listens to her opinion, she has much more power than most woman in her society.

Life of Pi- Open Essay Prompts

1.The British novelist Fay Weldon offers this observation about happy endings. “The writers, I do believe, who get the best and most lasting response from their readers are the writers who offer a happy ending through moral development. By a happy ending, I do not mean mere fortunate events -- a marriage or a last minute rescue from death -- but some kind of spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation, even with the self, even at death.” Choose a novel or play that has the kind of ending Weldon describes. In a well-written essay, identify the “spiritual reassessment or moral reconciliation” evident in the ending and explain its significance in the work as a whole.

2. The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Choose a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

3.One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.