Answer ONE of the following; please refresh your memory about how I grade these by reviewing the criteria on the syllabus. If one question has been completely answered, do NOT repeat others' answers. Go on to another question or raise a question of your own and/or write a response to something else Alexander wrote or said,letting us know what you are responding to.
1. Cite one example of a defamiliarizing image in an Alexander poem. Quote the image, with a parenthetical reference to the poem and line number, and explain exactly why the image is defamiliarizing. Now, write your own defamiliaring image for the same object/concept/thing that Alexander wrote hers for.
2.Cite one example of a surprising statement Alexander makes in one of the four interviews with Gates. Why is her statement surprising to you? What did you expect her to say and why?
3. Select a poem or a line of Alexander's and write a four line poetic response to it, using the five senses, defamliarization and metaphor. Write which poem and/or line you are responding to.
4. Take a phrase in the inauguration poem and respond to it.
Ask Elizabeth Alexander a question about the inaugural poem? Why are you raising this question? Explain.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Your Reading & Blogging Assignment for Tuesday, February 22nd
Reading Assignments
1. Please follow this link and read the information under the heading BIO and under the heading POEMS. You are responsible for all the vocabulary in whatever you are assigned to read. If you are not quizzed on the material, it may show up on your examination.
Here is the link: www.elizabethalexander.net/home.html
2. Read the poem Ms.Alexander wrote for President Obama's innauguration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-poem.html
or
http://contemporarylit.about.com/b/2009/01/20/elizabeth-alexanders-inaugural-poem.htm
Make sure you print out the poem and take notes about it, so you can discuss it in class. Look up any words you cannot translate and/or do not comprehend.
3. Finally, watch the following interview with Elizabeth Alexander:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/profiles/elizabeth-alexander/13/
Watch all four clips; they are about three minutes each.
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Your Blogging Assignment will be put up on this site by Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m.
1. Please follow this link and read the information under the heading BIO and under the heading POEMS. You are responsible for all the vocabulary in whatever you are assigned to read. If you are not quizzed on the material, it may show up on your examination.
Here is the link: www.elizabethalexander.net/home.html
2. Read the poem Ms.Alexander wrote for President Obama's innauguration.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-poem.html
or
http://contemporarylit.about.com/b/2009/01/20/elizabeth-alexanders-inaugural-poem.htm
Make sure you print out the poem and take notes about it, so you can discuss it in class. Look up any words you cannot translate and/or do not comprehend.
3. Finally, watch the following interview with Elizabeth Alexander:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/profiles/elizabeth-alexander/13/
Watch all four clips; they are about three minutes each.
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Your Blogging Assignment will be put up on this site by Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m.
Friday, February 11, 2011
A Creative Post: Due Monday at 9:00 p.m.
The poems I have assinged you to read are filled with a lot of wonderful concrete detail, i.e. very specific word choice that relays images in language, word-pictures that can be touched, tasted, seen, smelled, and heard. I will quote a few examples from the poems you have read:
1. There are people who do not "run and crucify themselves/ in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha" (Hoagland "I Have News For You" 22-23)
2. "Is she a pink life-size piece of chewing gum" (Hoagland "Poor Britney Spears" 22).
3."a chunk of night, in which my white/teeth are lightning" (de Burgos 6-7)
4."...startling, ripped canvas of sky./ Holes punched in a desert of clouds./ Thrust into nothing./Echo-a white mute./ Quiet." (Szymborska 4-8)
For your assignment, re-read the poems and find all the concrete details. Then, find a specific object you would like to describe using a string of at least six excellent concrete details inspired by and along the lines of the ones you have read.
Write your own string or list of concrete details for your response. Make sure they are specific and unique, and do not forget to write what you are describing at the top of the post. Try to make the reader see what you are describing as if for the first time. Attempt to give the reader a sense of wonder.
1. There are people who do not "run and crucify themselves/ in some solitary midnight Starbucks Golgotha" (Hoagland "I Have News For You" 22-23)
2. "Is she a pink life-size piece of chewing gum" (Hoagland "Poor Britney Spears" 22).
3."a chunk of night, in which my white/teeth are lightning" (de Burgos 6-7)
4."...startling, ripped canvas of sky./ Holes punched in a desert of clouds./ Thrust into nothing./Echo-a white mute./ Quiet." (Szymborska 4-8)
For your assignment, re-read the poems and find all the concrete details. Then, find a specific object you would like to describe using a string of at least six excellent concrete details inspired by and along the lines of the ones you have read.
Write your own string or list of concrete details for your response. Make sure they are specific and unique, and do not forget to write what you are describing at the top of the post. Try to make the reader see what you are describing as if for the first time. Attempt to give the reader a sense of wonder.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
For Monday Night at 9:30 p.m.:a short post
Select one of these questions please:
1. Look up the word "narrative" in the dictionary. Write down the meaning in your notebook; make sure you write down what tense a narrative occurs in or is written in please. Now, explain why "Journey of the Magi" or "Out, Out--" are narrative poems and "Big Grab" or "Romantic Moment" are not. Do not only dwell on the tenses of the poems, but talk about more than that please.
2. In "Journey of the Magi," what does the speaker mean when he says "There were times we regretted/ The summer palaces on slopes,the terraces,/ And the silken girls bringing sherbet./Then the camel men cursing and grumbling/ And running away, and wanting liquor and women" (ll.8-12). The lines I am referring to continue from line 13 up until line 15. How do these lines fit in with the poem?
3. What Death is the speaker referring to in the last stanza of the "Journey of the Magi"? How do you know? Please prove your point.
4. Does the speaker of "Out, Out --" have an opinion or a bias about the story s/he is telling? If so, show me in what lines you see it and what that opinion and bias is.
1. Look up the word "narrative" in the dictionary. Write down the meaning in your notebook; make sure you write down what tense a narrative occurs in or is written in please. Now, explain why "Journey of the Magi" or "Out, Out--" are narrative poems and "Big Grab" or "Romantic Moment" are not. Do not only dwell on the tenses of the poems, but talk about more than that please.
2. In "Journey of the Magi," what does the speaker mean when he says "There were times we regretted/ The summer palaces on slopes,the terraces,/ And the silken girls bringing sherbet./Then the camel men cursing and grumbling/ And running away, and wanting liquor and women" (ll.8-12). The lines I am referring to continue from line 13 up until line 15. How do these lines fit in with the poem?
3. What Death is the speaker referring to in the last stanza of the "Journey of the Magi"? How do you know? Please prove your point.
4. Does the speaker of "Out, Out --" have an opinion or a bias about the story s/he is telling? If so, show me in what lines you see it and what that opinion and bias is.
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