POETRY IS THE FOCUS OF ESSAY QUESTION #1 ON
THE AP LITERATURE EXAM
WE WILL WORK ON POETRY THROUGHOUT THE
YEAR,
HOWEVER, THE FOCUS WILL BE ON THE THIRD
QUARTER.
THIS QUARTER WE WILL WORK ON A
GENERAL READING OF POETRY.
Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought -So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
POETRY HAS FORMS, STYLES,
AND TERMS JUST AS LITERATURE HAS.
POETRY BASICALLY SHOULD
BE BROKEN DOWN TO SEE
WHAT THE POEM MEANS, HOW THEY SHOW THAT,
AND MOST IMPORTANT THE SO WHAT QUESTION.
IN OTHER WORDS, HOW DO YOU KNOW THEY MEAN THAT
AND NOT SOMETHING ELSE?
WHAT DOES THE AUTHOR OF “AUTUMN REFRAIN” MEAN?
Mirror in February
The day dawns, with scent of must and rain,
Of opened soil, dark trees, dry bedroom air.
Under the fading lamp, half dressed -- my brain
Idling on some compulsive fantasy -I towel my shaven jaw and stop, and stare,
Riveted by a dark exhausted eye,
A dry downturning mouth.
It seems again that it is time to learn,
In this untiring, crumbling place of growth
To which, for the time being, I return.
Now plainly in the mirror of my soul
I read that I have looked my last on youth
And little more; for they are not made whole
That reach the age of Christ.
Below my window the wakening trees,
Hacked clean for better bearing, stand defaced
Suffering their brute necessities;
And how should the flesh not quail, that span for span
Is mutilated more? In slow distaste
I fold my towel with what grace I can,
Not young, and not renewable, but man.
WHAT DOES THIS
POEM MEAN TO
YOU?
HOW DID THE
AUTHOR GET THAT
ACROSS TO YOU?
DO YOU NOTICE ANY
LITERARY
ELEMENTS THAT
ENHANCE THE
POEM?
FOR TOMORROW:
READ THE FOUR POEMS ON THE
WORKSHEET AND COMPLETE QUESTIONS
1-3 FOR ANY ONE POEM.
YOU WILL NOT BE GRADED ON CORRECTNESS.
DISCUSS YOUR FINDINGS
ON THE POEM
YOU CHOSE.
READ THROUGH THE STEPS ON THE SHEET.
NOW LET’S APPLY TP-CASTT
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
Or rather, be passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
We paused before house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
USE THE TP-CASTT
METHOD ON THE
FOLLOWING POEM.
BE PREPARED TO
DISCUSS!!!!!!!!!!!
Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than loveI and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and meYes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than weOf many far wiser than weAnd neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
FOR MONDAY:
TP-CASTT ANY OF THE
FOUR POEMS FROM YOUR
WORKSHEET
YOU MAY NOT USE THE
SAME POEM YOU
ANSWERED THE
QUESTIONS ON.
my sweet old etcetera
aunt lucy during the recent
war could and what
is more did tell you just
what everybody was fighting
for,
my sister
isabel created hundreds
(and
hundreds) of socks not to
mention shirts fleaproof earwarmers
etcetera wristers etcetera, my
mother hoped that
i would die etcetera
bravely of course my father used
to become hoarse talking about how it was
a privilege and if only he
could meanwhile my
self etcetera lay quietly
in the deep mud et
Cetera
(dreaming,
et
cetera, of
Your smile
eyes knees and of your Etcetera)
O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!
by Walt Whitman
I.
O captain! my captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the stead keel, the vessel grim and daring.
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red!
Where on the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
II.
O captain! my captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up! for you the flag is flung, for you the bugle trills:
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths, for you the shores a-crowding:
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning.
O captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck
You've fallen cold and dead.
III.
My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will.
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done:
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won!
Exult, O abores! and ring, O bells!
But I, with silent tread,
Walk the spot my captain lies
Fallen cold and dead.
WHAT IS THE
TONE?
WHAT DOES THE
POEM MEAN?
WHO IS THE
CAPTAIN?
After Apple Picking
by Robert Lee Frost
My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
For I have had too much
Toward heaven still.
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
Beside it, and there may be two or three
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall,
But I am done with apple-picking now.
For all
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
That struck the earth,
The scent of apples; I am drowsing off.
No matter if not bruised, or spiked with stubble,
I cannot shake the shimmer from my sight
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
I got from looking through a pane of glass
As of no worth.
I skimmed this morning from the water-trough,
One can see what will trouble
And held against the world of hoary grass.
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
Were he not gone,
But I was well
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
And I could tell
Or just some human sleep.
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and reappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH NARRATIVE POEMS?
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
WHAT IS FROST TELLING US?
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
And I keep hearing from the cellar-bin
That rumbling sound
CAN YOU USE THE POEM TO SUPPORT YOUR
Of load on load of apples coming in.
ANSWER?
READ “THE EAGLE” PAGE 649
AND THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW.
BE READY TO ANSWER, DISCUSS, AND DEFEND.
READ “WINTER” ON PAGE 650
MAKE SURE YOU KNOW YOUR STUFF
READ “THE WHIPPING” ON PAGE 656
LOOK FOR BEAUTY AND TRUTH.
READ “THE FISH” AND WRITE 2 QUESTIONS
YOU WOULD LIKE YOUR CLASSMATES TO ANSWER
The Fish
by William Butler Yeats
ALTHOUGH you hide in the ebb and flow
Of the pale tide when the moon has set,
The people of coming days will know
About the casting out of my net,
And how you have leaped times out of mind
Over the little silver cords,
And think that you were hard and unkind,
And blame you with many bitter words.
BEFORE YOU LEAVE:
READ “THE LAST NIGHT SHE LIVED” AND
ANSWER QUESTIONS 2-5 IN COMPLETE SENTENCES.
READ “THE RED WHEEL BARROW”
WRITE DOWN TWO QUESTIONS --ESPECIALLY ANY POINTS OF CONFUSION
(IF YOU HAVE ANY).
RED WHEEL BARROW
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
READ THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW TO HELP YOU—SAME
AS THE TEST—TAKE WHAT THEY GIVE YOU.
READ “THE WAKING” AND WRITE
THREE QUESTIONS—MAKE SURE
THEY ARE QUALITY!!!!!!!!!!!!
ANSWER YOUR CLASSMATE’S QUESTIONS.
Ad Olum
by Robert Louis Stevenson
CALL me not rebel, though { here at every word
{in what I sing
If I no longer hail thee { King and Lord
{ Lord and King
I have redeemed myself with all I had,
And now possess my fortunes poor but glad.
With all I had I have redeemed myself,
And escaped at once from slavery and pelf.
The unruly wishes must a ruler take,
Our high desires do our low fortunes make:
Those only who desire palatial things
Do bear the fetters and the frowns of Kings;
Set free thy slave; thou settest free thyself.
USE ANY STYLE OR METHOD TO ANALYZE
“SUICIDE NOTE.”
SUICIDE NOTE
The calm,
Cool face of the river
Asked me for a kiss
USE ANY METHOD TO ANALYZE “POETRY:I”
DUE AT THE END OF CLASS.