Blog Post #13 - Best of/Worst of...

Assignment: I'd like you to enter into a discussion about the following:

What was your favorite poem? Your least favorite poem? Why?

What was your favorite short story? Your least favorite short story? Why?

Should next semester's ENGL150 students read Death of a Salesman?

How did you feel about watching Hollywood versions of Bartleby and Death of a Salesman? Is there utility in seeing a visual version of something you're responsible to read?

What was your favorite in-class activity? What was your least favorite in-class activity?

You'll notice that I didn't have your small groups present (even though the syllabus claimed you would). Did you miss that? Would you have rather that whole-class discussions were led by students doing presentations?

Finally, what are your feelings on the creative blog entries? Which entry did you enjoy most? Least?

I won't specify a length for this, as long as you answer the questions above. However, the more specific you can be, the more helpful your answers will be as I reflect on this semester and what I'm going to change for the next ENGL150.

Thanks,
--Wendy

Blog Post #15 - "Grandpa" Willy

Assignment:  Write a monologue (at least 250 words--basically the equivalent of one typed, double-spaced, MLA format document) in which either Happy or Biff is describing what his father was like to one of their children who never met their grandfather.

Would Happy or Biff tell a child the truth? Or would they try to sugar coat the past? What actions would they emphasize? What actions would they de-emphasize?

If they recalled certain speech or mannerisms that characterized their father, what speech would they remember?   Remember that memorable tagline from Forest Gump? Remember how that character is forever saying, "Mama always said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates..." Does Willy have any taglines?

Be sure to write this so that it is appropriate for a child. You choose the age. Remember, you're role-playing. Feel free to key into whatever thoughts and emotions you think are in keeping with Biff or Happy. Finally, you might consider that, often, when we tell people about those who are no longer on the earth, we do so as a means of paying tribute or damning that person.

By virtue of his words and actions, Willy taught his sons lessons about what it means to be a husband and father. He taught them about money. He taught them lessons about love and marriage and parenting. He taught them about the value of work. He defined success and failure. He taught them about the American Dream. Were these positive or negative lessons? Which of these lessons might Biff or Happy pass down to a son? Or daughter?

Concentrate on tone. Try to express feelings appropriate to the data you've gathered about either Biff or Happy and their relationship with their father.  "Correctness" of this assignment depends upon your ability to refer to specifics in the play. However, you SHOULD NOT merely be providing plot summary. Instead, you're trying to internalize the events as they'd be seen through the eyes of this one character.

Blog Post #14 - Linda's Diary

Assignment:  Based on the events of Act I of Death of a Salesman, write two diary entries that Linda might have written. Each entry should be at least 100 words. Date one entry to indicate it was written in the past. Date the other entry to coincide with her current situation. What might this wife and mother have written? 

Be sure to write these two diary entries in first-person, using words like "I," "me," "my," and "mine." Basically, you're role-playing. What is happening with your life? What are you thinking about your husband, your sons, your finances, love, marriage, parenting, the American Dream, success, etc.? 

Concentrate on tone. Try to express feelings appropriate to the data you've gathered about this family in Act I.  "Correctness" of this assignment depends upon your ability to refer to specifics in the play. However, you SHOULD NOT merely be providing plot summary. Instead, you're trying to internalize the events as they'd be seen through the eyes of this one character.

Blog Post #12 - Making Connections to "The Lottery"

Assignment: This is an exercise in providing proof for claims/assertions. In this case, I'm going to take the pressure off you, a little bit at least. You need not come up with a theme or subject matter. For the sake of this post, I want you to begin with ONE of these themes:


a - The 'tribal' nature of any small community.

b- The need that all human beings have to feel in 'control' of what they
perceive to be an essentially hostile environment (universe).

c- The concepts of magic and superstition and their place in society.

d- The concept that it can be acceptable to require the individual to
sacrifice for the greater good.

e- 'stoning'

f- Man's ability (and need) to rationalise generally unacceptable actions.

Begin your post by introducing the author, the name of the short story, and the premise theme you've chosen from above. Then enter to a discussion about how this theme is present, not only in the short story but also in present society. Turn the theme into a thesis. Make it arguable. Then provide textual evidence for your assertions. Likewise, provide specific examples from society (pop culture or your family or school or neighborhood sphere) that seem to serve as proof for your belief.

Aim length-wise for the equivalent to a 1-page double-spaced "P" assignment.

Note:  There should be no need for outside research. Your ability to complete this blog entry really requires only your textbook and your ability to mine your personal experience and/or observation.

Blog Post #11 - What would this character's Facebook page look like?

Assignment:  For the sake of this blog post, I'd like you to do some thinking about the main characters in "The Story of an Hour" or "the Yellow Wallpaper."  What do you know about their hopes, dreams, fears, interests, hobbies, friendships, etc.? If they were alive during our modern times and were hip to social media, what would their Facebook pages look like? For either of the main characters (choose ONE), complete the following activities:

1. In character, create at least ten (10) mock Facebook posts. What would this character likely announce to her friends on Facebook? Related: Who would she be friends with? :)
2. Post at least one photo or image or meme you believe this character would post to her Facebook wall.
3. Post at least one link to an article you believe this character would share with Facebook friends. 

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, look at this example: http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=3719

You'll find another example here: http://www.hungergameslessons.com/2011/01/using-facebook-concept-for-modern.html

Note:  I'm not asking you to literally create a profile within Facebook, as it's kind of a hassle to do so. It requires a separate e-mail address, among other things. I'm satisfied with you using your blog entry space to accomplish these goals.

Blog Post #10 - From "Girl" to "Boy"

Assignment: In Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl," we have a story that does not have a conventional structure. We are missing fiction elements like plot, character development, and setting. We have a story featuring all dialogue (though there aren't the conventional markers of dialogue, like indenting with each speaker or quotation marks). The dialogue is primarily spoken by a mother who is delivering advice to her daughter.  It seems that the advice is broken up into:

• homemaking skills (cleaning,cooking, sewing, etc.)
• manners
• morals
• how to carry on relations with the opposite sex
• social conventions
• accusations

Via this mainly one-person dialogue (the daughter is only heard 2 times), we get a sense of the setting, Antigua. We get a sense of the relationship between the mother and daughter. And we get a sense of conflict (whether the daughter is or isn't a slut). There are also plenty of implicit lessons about what it means to be a female within this setting.

For this assignment, I'd like you to write an imitation in which you have a mother or father deliver similar instructions/advice to a son. Rather than Antigua, set your story in the U.S. What sorts of practical skills would a boy need to have? What sorts of manners would his mom/dad call for?  What advice would the mother or father give regarding how to interact with the opposite sex? Finally, I'd like for your set of instructions/advice to have its own hidden conflict. Be sure to have a strand of similar worries that come out in the mother or father's advice.

A successful imitation will give a sense of the setting (is it suburban or rural, big city or small?) A successful imitation will give the reader a sense of the relationship between the parent and the son. A successful imitation will imply lessons about what it means to be a boy or young man in the U.S. in 2013. Finally, it will provide the conflict that is necessary to any piece of fiction.

Blog Post #9 - Dialogue

Realistic dialogue is one of the most powerful tools at a writer's disposal. Done well, dialogue advances the story and fleshes out the characters while providing a break from straight exposition (telling rather than showing). It results in immediacy. The reader feels as if he/she is in the room and part of the situation. However, just as realistic dialogue is one of the most powerful tools at a writer's disposal, nothing pulls the reader out of a story faster than bad dialogue.You can find some examples of BAD dialogue HERE:

http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/11/03/bad-dialogue-bad-bad-dialogue/

You'll find, as you read the stories I've selected for the class, that famous writers avoid certain pitfalls when writing dialogue:

* They avoid stilted language. Instead, they write in natural speech patterns. What's a natural speech pattern?  Well, think about the things you say over the course of the day. Your statements are surprisingly short. You might also find that you rarely speak in complete sentences. When having a conversation, we rarely lapse into dramatic monologue, wherein we're speaking in paragraphs before someone responds.


Hint: you might need to tune your ear to the patterns of normal conversation. To do this, you certainly should study the dialogue you find in the short stories I've assigned, but you should also engage in a little spying or eavesdropping. Find a crowded place such as a restaurant, a bar, or a shopping mall and listen to the conversations you hear.

* They avoid Filler. They don't include any dialogue that does not further the plot and does not deepen your understanding of the characters
.
* They don't use it to explain the plot or repeat information for the benefit of the audience.In some instances, backstory will be necessary to the plot of a story. However, dialogue isn't the best place to deliver that data.

*They don't use people's names in dialogue.  People almost never say other people’s names back to them.

*They don't use too many attributive tags  (e.g. shouted, exclaimed, cried, whispered, stammered, opined, insinuated, hedged, etc.). A good writer can express the tone of a conversation and the emotions behind it without having to resort to using attributive tags. It's all about precision of word choice.  If they use them, they usually keep them simple (e.g. said, told, asked, etc.), and they only add them when it's absolutely necessary.

Assignment: Write a short scene (let's say that, if it was a double-spaced, MLA-format document, it would be 1 1/2 to 2 pages long) in which one person is listening to two other people have an argument or discussion. There should be some sort of conflict or tension. For example, maybe you'll write about a child listening to her parents argue about money. Have the third character narrate the argument and explain what is going on, but have the other two provide the entire dialogue.Think of this as primarily a script. If you gave your writing assignment to a couple actors, those actors should be able to act out the that script primarily via conversation. Try to follow the rules of a good fiction dialogue that I've outlined above.

Notice how Raymond Carver's story, "Popular Mechanics," reads like a script with very little in the way of blocking. That is, we don't get tons of setting description. We don't get tons of physical description about appearance or action. Almost everything we know about the characters and the plot (particularly the conflict and it's climax or point of most tension) is delivered within one conversation.

You can see his story played out in cinematic form here:

Blog Post #8 - Test Prep, Part II

See previous blog post for directions. Be sure, however, to choose a DIFFERENT poetry term to work with. :)

Blog Post #7 - Test Preparation

If you look on your schedule, you'll notice that we aren't too far away from a cumulative poetry test. The test will be administered on Tuesday, February 26. The class period prior to that is generally dedicated to preparing for that test via small-group test question development and via large-group review.

HOWEVER, as I've mentioned, on February 21, the majority of our test preparation day will be replaced by a teaching demonstration.  As such, let's divide test preparation into smaller sections, with a little bit of review each class period.

Step 1:  Begin by going back and re-reading the text chapters you've been assigned thus far. Also, review the notes you've taken in class. You are responsible for basic comprehension of poetry terminology introduced in your text and/or discussed during class time. Perhaps more important than simple memorization of terminology, you should have the ability to APPLY that terminology.

Step 2: Isolate ONE term which either 1.) WAS NOT discussed during class or 2.) WAS discussed in class, but you didn't understand it fully.

Step 3: Use this blog post #7 to help you and your classmates to understand the term more fully by doing AT LEAST TWO of the following:

* Find and post a link to a website that offers a related creative writing exercise.

* Find and post  at least one example of a poet and his/her work that hasn't been offered in your text or in lecture.

* Find and post a video on YouTube or elsewhere that will further illuminate your understanding of the particular term.

* Post one or more potential test questions you devise that will help your classmates get better acquainted with the poetry term  you've chosen to work with. Devise questions that can be answered quickly (e.g. true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, etc.)

Blog Post #6 - Howl Imitation

Although you've been assigned to read "A Supermarket in California," Allen Ginsberg's more famous poem is "Howl."

Assignment: Write a "Howl" imitation

Step 1:  Watch the video above to hear the poem read out loud.
Step 2: Write your own version. In your own version, make use of some of the same conventions that you see showcased in both "A Supermarket in California" and "Howl":

*Use long lines. In fact, your text prints the lines like paragraphs. Each of those things that looks like a paragraph is actually a line!
* Use  anaphora. Match the poet in the phrases he repeats.
*Make specific references to the times you live in.
* Make reference to political or social problems you see present in your neighborhood or your nation.

Step 3: It might also help to see these examples written by other ENGL150 students:

EXAMPLE #1

I saw the minds of my generation…

 

Turn into dope smoking hippie professors that think they’ve been everywhere, experienced everything, know more than me, and yet, in the process of all that, forgot how to teach “the damn class,” so they ramble on and on about non-sensible crap and hop that we don’t realize that they really don’t have a clue.

 

Who watch reality TV, what is the point. People go on network TV and make idiots of themselves, people who are desperate enough to look for their future partner, live in the wild for money when others are already forced to do it every day for free.

 

For drivers refusing to pull over while a long train of vehicles are forced to follow traveling 30 miles an hour behind it.

 

Who accept people talking on cell phones while driving and screaming “Check me out! I’m all foam, no beer!”

 

Who pay money for a parking permit only to park on the street because they have either torn up or blocked off the main parking lot.

 

Who use Mario and surround sound zenith as babysitters turning their children into electronic game obsessed television freaks.

 

And guys who obviously don’t know their waist sizes but feel the need to share their Calvin’s and Tommy’s with the world.

 

I saw the minds of my generation obsessed with no carbs, no fat, no calories—no taste that will make us think and look like someone else’s idea of perfection and beautiful.

 

Who break promises made to loved ones by saying they will do something but never do.

 

Who live in a male chauvinistic world where men believe women are doormats, who should cook and clean and bear their children and are not worth any more than that, we are to be neither seen nor heard only material objects, not living beings, forced to perform for the man’s glory and gratification.

 

I saw the minds of my generation accept a justice system based on the premise of “if you do the crime, you do the time” unless you know someone, you have the money, or your victim isn’t perfect.

 

Who have rights unless some pencil pushing holier than though carbon copy of whoever is in power at that time decides that you have no more rights.

 

For a government’s need to concern itself more with who I sleep with rather than if I have sufficient healthcare or the means to pay for it.

 

Who accepts a President’s lack of international leadership by alientating all countries for whom, if they are not with us, are against us.

 

Who saw the minds of my generation accept their political leaders sending other parents’ children forcefully into another country based on the premise of weapons of mass destruction: who are content with a terrorist free to terrorize again.

 

Who have seen a country change its demeanor everytime yellow changes to orange and god forbid ever to red.

 

 

 

EXAMPLE #2

 

I saw the best minds of my generation wallowing in huge piles of garbage

 

Who drive gas hog SUVs to McDonald’s, crying, “Fries with that?”

 

I saw the best minds of my generation drowning in debt—for here today, gone tomorrow material items.

 

I the grocery they buy their peanut butter tubes, Gogurts, individual pudding and Jello, chip grab bags, tuna salad sacks.

 

Drivng down the road in their SUV’s talking on their camera color picture cell phone, eating their instant microwaveable foods and pulling into Starbucks

 

Waiting in line in the drive through for $4 cup of double shot double mocha latte,

 

Wondering what is on sale at the Bon that they can charge to their plastic.

 

I saw the best minds of my generation contemplating bankruptcy or worse yet

 

Thinking of whether they can charge the bankruptcy fee, but then Scott Peterson comes to mind.

 

I saw the best minds of my generation taking new medications.

 

Who turn on their TV’s to hear of the latest medicines they have to have

 

Who cares what the side effects are as long as we receive satisfaction.

 

I saw the best minds of my generation getting shipped home in a box with nothing but a flag to show

 

Who and what are they fighting for?  Does anyone really know?

 

I saw the best minds of my generation wasting away their time,

 

Who seeking redemption from their daily .lives gazing into the world-wide web

 

Who go to Ebay to buy more material possessions and charge them on the web, to their credit cards.

 

Who can gamble away their home on web casinos.

 

We pull out our electric toothbrush and leave the water running.  All the lights are on in the house.  There are phones and TV’s left on in every room.

 

The cable, electric, water, cell phone, credit card, mortgage, car, mechanic, hair dresser, computer, insurance, pharmacist, doctor, dentist, and tax bills are all laying on the floor.

 

 

 

 EXAMPLE #3:

 

I saw the best minds of my generation stuck in school on the East Coast

 

Who drive beat-up cars down jam-packed streets craved pizza and luke-warm beer

 

Medical minds of the fast-food joint

 

Who escape the pressures of school by their pilgrimage to the bar

 

Who then meet what’s her name from out of state-single-one night stand

 

Who are at the financial burden of their parents, waste away in a one room dorm.

 

I saw the best minds of my generation contemplating quitting school, in the quietness of the school library

 

Who have no fear of never meeting their parents expectations and successful 6-digit salary

 

Who chanting basketball lingo and obscenities found that Jordan was God.

 

Who then later, after burn-out of college ways, ventured pilgrimage to the dean’s list.

 

And, after 3 years achieved the process of mental maturity, returned to the library

 

I saw the best minds of my generation, standing at the podium,

 

Pharmaceutical supplier of many lethal campaigns

 

Whose dependency and dazed character worshipped the pills in which they consume

 

Who on a cold-sweaty night lay shivering from their last fix

 

Who turn in every direction to pay for their addiction

 

I saw the best minds of my generation perfecting deceit

 

Who then stare their parents in the face tangled in a web of lies

 

Who lost and lonely gaze at the walls of a rehab center

 

I saw the best minds of my generation replaying life of an addict in his mind.

 

Clean cut members of the Taco Time franchise

 

Who maxed out credit and on his own tremored in his on reality

 

Who on the anniversary of graduation got stuck in the library with someone in his shoes yelling nonsense.

 

 

EXAMPLE #3

I see the best minds of my generation becoming incredibly shifty.

 

Department of Corrections reports high population of child sex offenders

 

The priests, the pope, the hooker, the hoodlum, the mechanic, my friend all out 4 money

 

I see the best  minds of my generation sucking dick.

 

Same sex marriage, Girls wanting foursomes in the bar. Exstasy and meth strange sex. Who’s next what’s next

 

In the paper yesterday an article on rampant child porn increasing among teacher’s computers.

 

I see the best minds of my generation chasing self-gratification in an existential nature

 

Who was the good Samaritan?

 

Where does he live so we can take his life

 

Steal his wife while he sits humbly at the table.

 

Girls Gone Wild, kids going wild, Government out of control.

 

If it makes you feel good, do it. God won’t care, doesn’t care about the end is nothingness.

 

Jealousy, Envy, Strive are consequence, $3.00 cup of Starbucks coffee and gas at $2 a gallon

 

Greedy minds and greedy times in the season of giving.

 

Happy minds and good times drunk from a bottle mixed with green leaf trees in ziplock baggies…

 

EXAMPLE #4:

I saw the best minds of my generation burdened by a state school board’s manipulations

 

Who willingly purchase parking permits only to end up parking with the dead

 

Who are forced to purchase books at unrealistically inflated prices

 

Whose dorm inhabitants are wrenched with the smell of sweaty gym socks, jock straps, and mold

 

Who eat pizza drenched with government cheese which is as touch as the cardboard crust after sitting under a heat lamp since last semester

 

Who share their higher education double latte with the caffeine addicted squirrels

 

Who are shuffled through the system by an uninformed staff of advisors

 

Who struggle with intro classes while breezing through 200’s

 

I saw the best minds of my generation stimulated intellectually despite the downfalls of the institution

 

Who are packed into a desk/chair donated by the recently condemned elementary school

 

Who are at the mercy of the corrupt financial aid department hovering over its weak victims

 

I saw the best minds of my generation climbing trees to get their morning fix from the thieving squirrels

 

I saw the best minds of my generation contemplating transfer to the U of I.

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

EXAMPLE #5

I saw the best minds of my generation…

 

Wilding away endless hours of mind numbing violence transfixed upon the gory images of Halo

 

Who are satisfied with mediocrity working dead end jobs coming home to their bongs in order to pass away valuable hours, hours that should have been spent rearing their children in a more positive light.

 

Whose ears are permanently attached to cell phones, selfishly risking the lives of others while recklessly weaving in and out of rush our traffic

 

I saw the best minds of my generation trap themselves into credit debt because of their materialistic necessities, a brand new Saab and pimped out to the max

 

Who lack respect for all other life forms but themselves, loud thumping music that vibrates the streets, screeching tires, flicking pierced tongues at the elderly, but we can because we are generation X

 

Who take the lives of others while still children themselves

 

Who strip the innocence of young children while entertaining their demented thoughts only to be slapped on the wrist after having shattered irreplaceable lives.

 

I saw the best minds of my generation who take free handouts from the government in order to sustain their own slothful laziness, more children = more money

 

Whose raising their children or lack thereof is inevitably leading to the irreversible downfall of our society

 

Whose personal freedoms are being stripped by the assholes that govern us

 

Who search for short cuts and half ass getting GED’s being satisfied with their pathetic minimum wage only to return to mommy and daddy while pushing the age of 30

 

Who prefer to live their lives watching others on reality series as if our own lives aren’t real enough, is it necessary to gain personal enjoyment off other drama?

 

I saw the best mind of our generations heavily self medicate in order to take away their problem or ease their pain.

 

Who destroy themselves mentally and physically to gain what society views as the perfect image, the Barbie doll image

 

Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and who can forget Mary Kate Olsen

 

Who tear down others to make themselves feel better to make up for their own insecurities because we are afraid of that which is different

 

Who artificially enhance their bodies in order to satisfy the absurd opinions of others as to what is acceptable, extreme makeovers

 

Who are more concerned with what’s on the outside than what is in the inside

 

Who live by the motto party today for tomorrow we shall die, sex, drugs, and rock and roll

 

Who run away from life and their problems not considering the future at hand

 

I saw the best minds of my generation fall apart, giving up on life, all of this without a care

 

Who knowingly transmit STD’s without the thought of any others in mind, thus ultimately committing murder

 

I saw the best minds of my generation crumble under the constant pressures of everyday life.

 

 

Blog Post #5 - Write an Imagist Poem a la Ezra Pound's "In the Station at the Metro"

The Imagism Movement

In some of the poems you've been exposed to thus far, meter and rhythm are the driving force of the poem. Imagist poets shifted attention from meter and rhythm to the power of the image. Image-driven poetry began with the Imagism movement in the early twentieth century. The movement began with poets such as Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) and eventually dovetailed into the Modernist movement as exemplified by T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, for which Ezra Pound was the editor.
There are three basic rules that the imagists followed:

1. Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective.
2. To use absolutely no word that does not contribute to the presentation.
3. As regarding rhythm: to compose in sequence of the musical phrase, not in sequence of the metronome.

Ezra Pound’s most famous application of this concept was the poem:
In a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

The concept, as exemplified in Metro, was to reduce a poem down to its most essential images, leaving out all the chaff that traditional poetry, especially iambic pentameter, seems so prone to. This does not mean that most poems should only be two lines, but rather that poetry should not waste time or space.

The Imagist and Modernist movements led to today’s widespread use of free verse rather than meter and rhyme. While the Imagist movement itself was fairly short-lived and not widely embraced (Wallace Stevens famously commented that “Not all objects are equal. The vice of imagism was that it did not recognize this”) it opened up the possibilities of poetry and influenced future movements such as the Objectivists and the Beats.

Assignment:
Write a poem that follows the three rules of the imagists.  I know you all are probably tired from your sestina work, so feel free to work within the tiny constraints of the Pound poem:

1.) Title should suggest the place or thing on which your meditating.
2.) The first line should concentrate on one portion of the whole thing you've identified in your title.
3.) The second line should compare that portion of the whole thing you've identified in your tile with something else. The comparison should be figurative rather than literal, and you should use a metaphor.

Blog Assignment 4: Sestina or "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" Imitation

Key words in describing a sestina are "obsession," "repetition," and "complexity." The poetry form is attributed to Arnaut Daniel, the Provencal troubadour of the twelfth century. The name "troubadour" likely comes from trobar, which means "to invent or compose verse." The troubadours sang their verses accompanied by music and were quite competitive, each trying to top the next in wit, as well as complexity and difficulty of style. Troubadours often wrote poems about courtly love. Later, the sestina migrated to Italy, where Dante andPetrarch practiced the form with great reverence for Daniel, who, as Petrarch said, was "the first among all others, great master of love."

ASSIGNMENT CHOICE #1: Write a poem consisting of 39 lines. Those 39 lines should be broken up into 6 (SIX) stanzas and a 3-line envoi. The end-words of the first stanza through get repeated in different patterns throughout the next 5 stanzas and the three-line envoi.  The form is as follows, where each numeral indicates the stanza position and the letters represent end-words:

1. ABCDEF
2. FAEBDC
3. CFDABE
4. ECBFAD
5. DEACFB
6. BDFECA
7. (envoi) ECA or ACE

The envoi, sometimes known as the tornada, must also include the remaining three end-words, BDF, in the course of the three lines so that all six recurring words appear in the final three lines. In place of a rhyme scheme, the sestina relies on end-word repetition to effect a sort of rhyme.

STEP 1: It might help to preselect the 6 words that you'd like to be emphasizing in various patterns at the end of your 39 lines.  Most of the time, you want those to be nouns or verbs.  Some poets find it helpful to choose words that are HOMOGRAPHS - words that have the same spelling but are pronounced differently and have different meanings. This allows a poet to use the same word but to extract multiple meanings from that word. You'll find a link to some examples of homographs: HERE

STEP 2: Once you've selected the 6 words, you might want to use the Sestina Generator website. Plug in your 6 words, and the sestina generator will do all the work for you of showing you how the end of each of your stanzas will look.  You can find the sestina generator at: http://dilute.net/sestinas/

STEP 3: To get a feel for the form, read some examples of sestinas.  Ezra Pound and John Ashbery were poets who took on the form. See Pound's  "Sestina: Altaforte." Pound chose: "peace," "music," "clash," "opposing," "crimson," and "rejoicing." The words, while general enough to lend themselves to multiple meanings, are common enough that they also present Pound with the difficult task of making every instance fresh. Here are the first two stanzas (after a prefatory stanza which sets the scene):

I
Damn it all! all this our South stinks peace.
You whoreson dog, Papiols, come! Let's to music!
I have no life save when the swords clash.
But ah! when I see the standards gold, vair, purple, opposing
And the broad fields beneath them turn crimson,
Then howl I my heart nigh mad with rejoicing.

II
In hot summer have I great rejoicing
When the tempests kill the earth's foul peace,
And the lightnings from black heav'n flash crimson,
And the fierce thunders roar me their music
And the winds shriek through the clouds mad, opposing,
And through all the riven skies God's swords clash.

Contrast Pound’s sestina with John Ashbery’s "Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape," 

The Web version of the literary magazine McSweeney’s maintains a repository of contemporary sestinas. Check out the modern-day sestinas they publish here: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/columns/sestinas

STEP 4: Publish the sestina to your blog and give it the following title: Sestina

ASSIGNMENT CHOICE #2: Thirteen Sets of Eyes

Write an imitation of "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," which is an exercise on perspectivism. The poetic exercise is related to philosophical nominalism. Basically, we can grasp the whole world by concentrating on each of its facets--just like we can appreciate a diamond more when we're noticing the qualities that each of its facets brings to the whole gemstone.  The poem takes its cue from haiku. Check your textbook from a brief lesson on haiku and examples.  The poem also has links to imagism and cubism. 

In this poem, sight is the dominant perceiving. Each stanza is almost cinematic, as though a camera focuses on a mountain panorama and then zooms in to the blackbird.  Each stanza zooms in on an element of the blackbird that we might not have noticed in any of the other camera shots.

You can find imitations and parodies of the famous poem all over the internet.  The subject matter of the imitations includes but is not limited to M & M candies, burritos, tortillas, Pringles, trees, etc. You might check out the following imitations:

* http://schnickledoogr2.livejournal.com/19867.html

* http://www.much-ado.net/flourish&blotts/main.php?p=pringle

* http://www.teachmix.com/litartgreen/node/66

* http://www.fictionpress.com/s/1894987/1/Thirteen-Ways-of-Looking-at-a-Tree

*http://organizationsandmarkets.com/2008/12/11/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-burrito/

Blog Assignment #2: Billy Collins Litany Imitation (emphasis on metaphor)

Litany:

1

: a prayer consisting of a series of invocations and supplications by the leader with alternate responses by the congregation

2

a : a resonant or repetitive chant <a litany of cheering phrases — Herman Wouk>

b : a usually lengthy recitation or enumeration <a familiar litany of complaints>

c : a sizable series or set <a litany of problems>

 

 

"Litany"  by Billy Collins

You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine...
-Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and--somehow--the wine.

 Assignment:


Step 1: Watch the two videos above.
Step 2: Write your own imitation of a litany. Your poem should contain the same number of lines. Each line of your poem should be structured in a similar manner to the poem by Collins.  Only your comparisons will be different.  Your poem should incorporate the same feel that Collins talks about in his video. Pinpoint a particular individual you want to praise.  Create a series of comparisons (metaphor) to help us get a sense of how you feel about that individual. Like Billy Collins, let you poem take a turn about halfway in. Notice how his initial comparisons are sort of your typical romantic, expected lovely comparisons. Then he moves to strange, surprising and even humorous comparisons about the person he's writing to poem to. Aim at a real person. It doesn't have to be a romantic partner. It can be a friend, a relative, a public figure, a pet, etc.


It might help to think of this assignment as similar to completing a Mad Lib:



You are the _____and the _____,
the ______ and the _____.
You are the ______
and the _____.
You are the ______,
and the _____.

However, you are not _____,

_____,
or _____.
And you are certainly not _____.
There is just no way that you are _____.

It is possible that you are _____,
maybe even _____,
but you are not even close
to being _____.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither _____
nor _____.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I _____.

I also happen to be ______,
______
and ______.

I am also the _____

and the _____.
But don't worry, I'm not the _____ and the ______.
You are still the _____ and the _____.
You will always be the _____ and the ______,
not to mention the _____ and--somehow--the _____.

 

Step 3: Be sure to give the new post a title. Let's all be consistent and call our post title Litany Imitation.

Step 4: Remember you need to post the blog entry by Tuesday, January 29. Remember also that it's your responsibility to post a comment on at least one of your classmates' blogs.

January 22 - Welcome

Step 1:  Watch the tutorial I've provided.  Note: There are numerous tutorials available regarding how to set up a blog on Blogger. If this one isn't as informative as you'd like, choose another.  If you have additional questions, don't hesitate to contact me. In fact, there are numerous sites that help a person build a blog. I chose this one because it's free and easy.

Step 2: Create a blog using the instructions provided in the tutorial.  As you can see in the video, it literally takes about 5 minutes. You're welcome to keep it simple or jazz it up.  For class purposes, we're mainly going to rely on the blog to post writing I'd like you to share with classmates, so there really isn't a need for "bells and whistles," unless you decide to do so and unless you are technologically sound.

Note: In creating the blog, be sure to write down (and keep in a safe place) your blog address and password information.

Step 3: Create blog post #1: In at least 100 words, introduce yourself to your classmates.  In class, I'll ask you to brainstorm the sort of content you should address.

Step 4: Once you've published your first post, write me a quick e-mail, giving me your blog name and your web address.  As these come in, I'll link them to the class blog.

Step 5:  Check the classroom blog for a list of your classmates' blogs. You can find the class blog at this address:  http://erman.blogspot.com The list will appear on the right-hand side. Respond to at least one classmate's post.