DAY 1 - CYCLE 9 - SEMSESTER 2

Today, we covered the next five words of Unit 7 and finished the sentence diagramming review on page 60. Then, you took out your homework and we discussed Rupert Brooke's "The Dead" and "The Soldier."

Specific questions about the poems included:
"The Dead"

1. In line 9, who is "our"?
2. What is personified in line 11? How?
3. What is personified in line 13? How?
4. What effect does this personification have? What does it tell us about the speaker's values & beliefs?
5. What exactly have the Dead brought? How has it changed the recipients?
6. Consider this as an Italian sonnet: what exactly is "posed" by the octave? What exactly is "resolved" by the sestet?

"The Soldier"

1. To whom is the speaker of this poem addressing his words?
2. What exactly makes the "richer dust" referenced in line 4 actually "richer"?
3. According to what is suggested in the octave, what makes England special? What makes the speaker special?
4. There is a transition between the octance and sestet. What exactly is the nature of that transition?
5. Where is the speaker in the sestet?
6. About whom is the speaker speaking in the last line? Why are they at peace?

Then we moved on to discuss Mary Herschel-Clarke's "The Mother," which was written in response to Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier." We read it aloud together, and addressed the following questions:

1. To whom is the speaker of this poem addressing her comments?
2. Where does she assume her audience is?
3. How is the speaker handling things?
4. Why are the last two lines in parentheses?
5. What is the attitude of this speaker?
6. Does this poet like/admire Brooke's perspective?

After we concluded our discussion, I distributed a handout on Say Show Mean exercises. You will do a group Say-Show-Mean activity in class tomorrow on Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth" (page 8 of the packet).

HOMEWORK

Read over both the poem and the worksheet distributed in class (both handouts are linked to on this blog and you can find them on the wikispace) in preparation for tomorrow. You will want to refamiliarize yourself with literary terms.

Add 15 adjectives about WWI to the wikispace page (it will be up by 4pm).