Follow these instructions for your POSTS.
A. You must post at least two "introductions" to a short literary text we are not reading together as a class. These might be other poems, stories, or essays from our course books, poems/stories/essays you have read and enjoyed in the past (whether you discovered them on your own or were assigned them), poems/stories/essays you are currently reading in another class or on your own (in your infinite recesses of time!). You'll need to do the following, in the order given, including the numerals to designate the separate parts of the assignment:
1. Provide an MLA citation of your text. Follow that with a link to the text (or some version of it) online, if you can find one. If the text is, say, a poem from our anthology, there's a fair chance you can find it somewhere on the web. Google away.
2. Provide a short (no more than 50 words) summary or description of the text. Try to identify its genre, when it was written, and generally what it's about. As you'll find, descriptions or summaries can be tough, especially with lyric poetry. Just try to offer a basic overview.
3. Provide a short explanation of what you like about the text, or perhaps what intrigues you.
4. Make a brief comparison to something we have read as a class. This should not be a simple observation of how your text is "just like" another: they're both about identity, they're both written from the perspective of children, they're both sonnets, they both use the word "homunculas." Such statements are invariably trite overgeneralizations. Maybe the texts you're comparing ask a similar question about identity but suggest varied answers; maybe two female authors take a different view of a common problem; perhaps one sonnet adheres closely to the form, while another pushes at its limits; perhaps one author uses the homunculus as a metaphor for erotic waywardness while another uses it as a figure for spiritual decay. Note that each of these examples presents differences within apparent or surface similarities, an approach which generally isn't a bad way to go.
B. You must post at least two close readings. Pick a passage from a poem (no more than 6 lines) or from a prose work (no more than 5 lines) and explain what it means by carefully showing how it means. I expect you to use the critical vocabulary from class to identify tropes, metrics, sound effects, and other technical aspects that together convey the significance of the passage as a whole. Do not summarize the passage, though you may need to mention other parts of the text from which the passage comes. The reading of the passage should be about 200 words.
C. You must post at least two sets of "theory questions." For this assignment, pick a text, either one we've read or one from the "introduction" posts (whether it's your own post or another student's). Then, offer a brief explanation of why a particular theoretical approach that we've discussed (New Criticism, gender criticism, biography, historicism, etc.) recommends itself to this particular text. Finally, offer three critical questions that show how a reader might use the theory to begin to make meaning of the text.
Follow these instructions for your COMMENTS.
For your responding comments, you should agree or disagree with a post’s conclusions by providing and explaining NEW evidence (most likely from the text in questions) that either supports or questions the post.
2 comments:
I read the Robert Frost poem "Acquainted with the Night". The speaker in the poem appears to be either Frost himself, or it is Frost writing in the point of view of another person. The tone of the poem is of reminiscing the past and how it affects the future. In my opinion, it describes someone who has some sort of mental problem or addiction which torments them; "I have walked out the rain-and back in the rain"("Acquainted with the Night" 203). The subject appears to be depressed, and not willing to share his feelings with others; "I have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain"("Acquainted with the Night" 203). Furthermore, he goes so far as to express that no one genuinely cared for him, and by the end of the poem, one senses that although he isn't cured of his ailment, he has come to terms with it. I enjoyed it because it gives insight into the mind of someone who is troubled and it says so much with not too many words. This poem is similar to "Ask Me" by William Stafford in the sense that both use a setting, such as the forest in Stafford's work and a city in Frost's work to portray emotion and both use a first person voice in their works. Lastly, my two questions about the poem would be: How does the diction in the poem set the mood? and How do you think the person in the poem views their future; as bright or dim?
The poem is on page 203 of the Introduction to Poetry book, or online at http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/Acquainted_With.htm
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