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Ugh.
Sloppy run. That’s what happens when you take a couple of weeks off and eat hot dogs.
Understanding Poetry: the “West Wind #2” thesis rough-out
The essay begins to take shape.
Note that I’ve numbered the lines in increments of five.
The Wheel of Fortune
Another version.
The Wheel of Fortune
One depiction of The Wheel of Fortune.
Fourtuna is the Roman goddess of luck.
The Three Moving Forces
The Elizabethans of Shakespeare’s time, in response to the Question of Good and Evil, believed in three factors that shape how things unfold:
Providence, i.e., God’s will,
Fortune, i.e., luck and chance, and
human character, i.e., your diligent study, practice, training, and action.
Take care of your end, my friends: “‘Good luck’ is when opportunity meets preparation.”
A letter to Advanced Placement students…
…who have been assigned Crime And Punishment as a summer reading book:
HaaaaahaaaahahhhhaaAAAAAAA!
Nah, seriously:
“College-level literature.” By that, they mean university-level literature. (What, did you think it would be, The Alchemist? HaaaahahhhhaaaaaaHAAAAA. Okay, let me compose myself.) Hence the exhortation to start now.
One chief reason that we recommend the Norton Critical Edition of the Coulson translation is because of the excellent essays that follow: you did notice that 1/3 of the pages are commentary and essay, no?
Read the story. Raskolnikov thinks he can do the murder — that he should do the murder — but when he’s done it, his thinking really falls apart. Human nature is being illuminated quite deeply in this rich story.
Are you seeing that? If you are, then you’re on the right track and you’re doing fine. When you finish, read the commentary and essays. Things will click.
CaP is part of the canon. If the novel doesn’t show up on the free choice essay list, I will be a monkey’s uncle. (Even if it doesn’t, the question will say “or a work of equal literary merit,” and CaP is indeed that.) By taking your time with Dostoevsky, you are laying a firm foundation.
Take time and have faith.
Understanding Poetry: “West Wind #2” — the real questions
What is it that we are to row toward?
Were we initially rowing from something?
Why?
The answer is not literal, not “the churn of water,” the “pounding,” the “falls/plunging.” We have to go into symbol and metaphor at this point.
The speaker leaves us to answer. Our only clue: a life without love hasn’t much worth.
Would you like me to tell you the answer?
What makes you think I know?
Understanding Poetry: “West Wind #2″ literal and symbolic
http://www.screencast.com/t/jen7sURLE
Part two of the “West Wind #2” lecture.
Language is literal and symbolic, and to apprehend the symbolic meaning, we’d best know what is being said literally. Directly.
The poet is going to employ sentence variety and complexity, and we need to be able to follow the line.
Understanding Poetry: Is “West Wind #2” verse or free verse, sense or non-sense?
http://www.screencast.com/t/QCkdRyOEI
A basic walk-through using Snagit and Screencast.
This is the first part of the online lecture to illustrate the steps I’ve written about — see the tag “Poetics.”
A review of the types of sentence in the tag of the same might also be helpful.
Re-Imagining the Comprehensive High School
Re-Imagining the Comprehensive High School
What is the “authentic problem” of poetry?
Kingsley Andersen 