Finding Those Poetic Patterns: August 27, 2015

Focus: How do we find patterns in poems and short stories?

"By telling the truth," according to Auden, poetry can "disenchant and disintoxicate."

1. Warming up by sectioning Billy Collins' "Introduction to Poetry" and finding some patterns

How to section:

What happens when the author's stanzas aren't helping? Or there aren't any stanzas? Section the poem yourself by looking for SHIFTS!

My tricks to finding shifts: 

• Circle your buts (and other words that indicate shift, such as "however," "on the other hand," etc...)
• Look for end punctuation, such as periods, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points.

In the first section of the poem, the words tend to be about ______.

In the second section of the poem, the words tend to be about _______.

Billy Collins in "Introduction to Poetry" explores the tension between _______ and _________.

2. Doing a little grid group reflection: Where did you get stuck last night in the William Carlos Williams poem, what did you do, and what did you figure out?

In the first section of the poem, the words tend to be about ______.

In the second section of the poem, the words tend to be about _______.

William Carlos Williams in "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" explores the tension between _______ and _________.

3. Synthesizing different texts' interpretations of Daedalus and Icarus to get to theme: What's one thing that the song "Insignificant," the painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus," Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts," and Williams' "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" agree on? Is there anything they might disagree on?


HW:
1. Read the first three pages of "The Yellow Wallpaper," using your reading journal (linked HERE) to focus on interesting words and phrases. Keep looking for patterns! Fill out at least five complete rows.

2. Signatures, background research, and book are due this Friday, August 28.