Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Poetry Professor Schedule

Okey dokey, here be that schedule (click to enlarge):



Remember:

  • all poetry annotations are due on the day the presentation is given. If you have an excused absence I can accept the annotations on the day you return to school.
  • your poetry journal is due on Friday, March 21st and Friday, April 11th. I will gloss over the journal on the 21st and grade it more closely on the final due date.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Poetry Professor Poetry Assignments

Hello folks. Follow the link to reach your assignment for the Poetry Professor project.

Here you go...

Friday, February 22, 2008

Here's that poem...

DULCE ET DECORUM EST1

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares2 we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest3 began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots4
Of tired, outstripped5 Five-Nines6 that dropped behind.

Gas!7 Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets8 just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime9 . . .
Dim, through the misty panes10 and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,11 choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest13
To children ardent14 for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.15

8 October 1917 - March, 1918

1 DULCE ET DECORUM EST - the first words of a Latin saying (taken from an ode by Horace). The words were widely understood and often quoted at the start of the First World War. They mean "It is sweet and right." The full saying ends the poem: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - it is sweet and right to die for your country. In other words, it is a wonderful and great honour to fight and die for your country

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Poetry Professor Video

Well, it took me a few tries during school today, but I've just now finished with the Poetry Professor video from class today. I added subtitles to reinforce the structure of the setup and also to reemphasize the literary devices.




I also made note of several inaccuracies from the presentation. Most notably, Wilfred Owen was writing about Chlorine gas, not mustard gas. Consider this from the NYTimes:

In April 1915, hoping for a military breakthrough, Germany launched the war's first major chemical attack, releasing chlorine gas to blow toward French and Algerian troops in their trenches at Ypres, in Belgium. As Tucker gruesomely recounts, along four miles of the front line, tons of yellow-green gas rose to a height of 30 feet as the wind slowly edged it forward. The lethal cloud scorched the eyes and lungs of the terrified French and Algerian soldiers, who vomited and collapsed in agony. Hundreds died, coughing up blood and green froth. The soldiers' silver insignia and buckles immediately turned greenish black. Five months later, Britain launched its own retaliatory chlorine attack, and by 1916 both the Allies and the Central Powers were using artillery packed with chemicals — a total collapse of the Hague declaration.

Also, gas masks were introduced to the battlefield in 1916, so it can be presumed that the speaker was referring to a gas mask when he mentioned "clumsy helmets." Otherwise, the speaker would be as dead as the other guy. Lastly, Owen died at 25, not 19. He still died during the war.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Poetry Professor Handouts

We are now embarking on an excellent adventure. Over the next month YOU will take over teaching duties. You will put on the professorial vest and guide us through a poem.

Here are the handouts:

Assignment Sheet
Guideline Questions

Specific Assignment Sheet
Copy of Billy Collins' "Schoolsville"

Sample Poetry Journal Entry

"Schoolsville" - broken down by structure, annotated.










Finally, here is a copy of the "Schoolsville" explication paper I wrote last year.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Britney Spears - American Tragedy

Color me amused by the cover of the Rolling Stone that appeared on my doorstep (mailbox, to be more specific, but doorstep has such Middle American connotations) this past Thursday.  It'll be in the classroom next week, but if you can't wait, it is an expose of the "tragedy" of Britney Spears.  I think Aristotle might have a lot to say about Americans' fascination with Ms. Spears.  The article reads like a textbook tragedy.  Again, we are not at all unlike the Greeks, Romans, or Elizabethans.  In fact, we're probably worse, as most celebrities' tragic flaws seems to be their inability to deal with the pressure of celebrity.   Paradox and irony all rolled up into one.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Looking for Alaska

Today I showed you John Green's response to a handful of Depew citizens' call to ban Looking for Alaska. If you're home, here's that video:



If you're interested, here's his website and here's that Nerdfighter's site. After all, these guys are made of awesome. Here's an article about the Nerdfighter's cause.

If only Kate Chopin had access to Youtube!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

A-wiki-ning!

Today we're going to hold a discussion in a slightly different way. Proceed to this wikispace and await further direction.