Monday, Feb. 3: Sonnets

A spirit moved. John Harvard walked the yard,
The atom lay unsplit, the west unwon,
The books stood open and the gates unbarred.

The maps dreamt on like moondust. Nothing stirred.
The future was a verb in hibernation.
A spirit moved, John Harvard walked the yard.

Before the classic style, before the clapboard,
All through the small hours of an origin,
The books stood open and the gate unbarred.

Night passage of a migratory bird.
Wingflap. Gownflap. Like a homing pigeon
A spirit moved, John Harvard walked the yard.

Was that his soul (look) sped to its reward
By grace or works? A shooting star? An omen?
The books stood open and the gate unbarred.

Begin again where frosts and tests were hard.
Find yourself or founder. Here, imagine
A spirit moves, John Harvard walks the yard,
The books stand open and the gates unbarred.

* Seamus Heaney wrote the poem above for the 350th anniversary of the founding of Harvard College.

"Miranda" by W.H. Auden

 My dear one is mine as mirrors are lonely,
 As the poor and sad are real to the good king,
 And the high green hill sits always by the sea.

 Up jumped the Black Man behind the elder tree,
 Turned a somersault and ran away waving;
 My Dear One is mine as mirrors are lonely.

 The Witch gave a squawk; her venomous body
 Melted into light as water leaves a spring,
 And the high green hill sits always by the sea.

 At his crossroads, too, the Ancient prayed for me,
 Down his wasted cheeks tears of joy were running:
 My dear one is mine as mirrors are lonely.

 He kissed me awake, and no one was sorry;
 The sun shone on sails, eyes, pebbles, anything,
 And the high green hill sits always by the sea.

 So to remember our changing garden, we
 Are linked as children in a circle dancing:
 My dear one is mine as mirrors are lonely,
 And the high, green hill sits always by the sea.

AP Students:

What text from our year is this alluding to?

How do you know?

Who is the speaker?

Identify each character in this poem.

What is the tone?

What meaning does "as mirrors are lonely" convey?  Why the dissonant note?

Block Day: Savvy Sonneteers!

* Open

Grammar: Copy and correct the following lines

"Shall I compare thee to a summers day/ thou art more lovly and more temprate" (1-2).

* Sonnet Work

The Sonnet Defined
Meter Defined

Examples

Shakespeare

Sonnet CXXX
Sonnet XVIII
Sonnet XII (and song, perhaps)

Christina Rossetti
Robert Frost

Here are a couple from Mr. Renault

Later, perhaps

* Journal 12

Copy a poem by hand that you like from a poet.
Compose your own poem using your selected poem for inspiration.
This may be handwritten or typed.

HW: J12 due Tuesday

Wednesday, 1/29/14

Open

Grammar: Identify at least one trope and one scheme
"Weep, Lovers, sith Love’s very self doth weep,

And sith the cause for weeping is so great;

When now so many dames, of such estate
In worth, show with their eyes a grief so deep:
For Death the churl has laid his leaden sleep

Upon a damsel who was fair of late,

Defacing all our earth should celebrate,—
Yea all save virtue, which the soul doth keep.
Now hearken how much Love did honour her.

I myself saw him in his proper form

Bending above the motionless sweet dead,
And often gazing into Heaven; for there

The soul now sits which when her life was warm

Dwelt with the joyful beauty that is fled."

* Dante

Follow the assignment
Due at the end of block day

Tuesday: Riddles of Love

* Open

Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

* Riddles

* Dante

Follow the assignment
Due Block Day

HW: Read Dante

Our honors poet, Dante Alighieri (1265--1321), is painted in black above. Interestingly, this was painted by another Dante, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828--1882). Rossetti was a master artist himself (both a painter and a poet) and had actually been named after Dante Alighieri. Rossetti translated La Vita Nuova and painted this fine piece by inspiration: "Dante's Dream at the Time of Beatrice's Death."

Monday: Riddles in the Light

* Open

* Fix the following line: "I am the yellow hemm, of the seas blue skirt."

* Today we consider riddles!

* Judges 14:14

And he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.” And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

* Oedipus and the Sphinx

"A thing there is whose voice is one;
Whose feet are four and two and three.
So mutable a thing is none
That moves in earth or sky or sea.
When on most feet this thing doth go,
Its strength is weakest and its pace most slow."

* Let's read them and note particulars together.

* Anglo-Saxon Riddles

#1 Thousands lay up gold within this house,

but no man made it.

Spears past counting guard this house,

but no man wards it.

#2 From hand to hand

About the hall I go,

Much do lords and ladies

Love to kiss me;

When I hold myself high

And the whole throng

Bows before me

Their blessedness

Shall flourish skyward

Beneath my fostering shade.

* Original Charades

"My first, tho’ water, cures no thirst,

My next alone has soul,

And when he lives upon my first,

He then is called my whole."

"When my first is a task to a young girl of spirit,

And my second confines her to finish the piece,

How hard is her fate! but how great is her merit

If by taking my whole she effects her release!"

* Next: Tolkien's "Riddles in the Dark"

Riddle: What has roots as nobody sees,

Is taller than trees,

Up, up it goes

And yet never grows?

Riddle: Thirty white horses on a red hill,

First they champ,

Then they stamp,

Then they stand still.

Riddle: Voiceless it cries,

Wingless flutters,

Toothless bites,

Mouthless mutters.

Riddle: An eye in a blue face

Saw an eye in a green face,

"That eye is like to this eye"

Said the first eye,

"But in low place,

Not in high place."

Riddle: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt

Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.

It lies behind stars and under hills,

And empty holes it fills.

It comes first and follows after,

Ends life, kills laughter.

Riddle: A box without hinges, key, or lid,

Yet golden treasure inside is hid.

Riddle: Alive without breath,

As cold as death;

Never thirsty, ever drinking,

All in mail, never clinking.

Riddle: No-legs lay on one-leg,

Two-legs sat near on three-legs,

four legs got some.

Riddle: This thing all things devours:

Birds, trees, beasts, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down.

* Journal 11: Compose a Riddle!

HW: J11