It’s all about the Love Egyptian Poetry It’s all about the Love
Unit Objectives To understand how the theme of love spans the ages To appreciate concrete language To infer the dramatic context To understand Pastoral Poetry and Escapist Literature To appreciate Diction, Imagery, and the Lyric Poem To write Love Poems for Fictional Characters
Egyptian Love Poetry Provides: an archaeology of the emotions A sense of what was like to be Egyptian—the humor, the vivacity that lay beyond the monuments
The New Kingdom 1575 BC to 1087 BC
Found Where? Inside Tomb Walls Written on papyrus (Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant) Scribbled on shards of limestone pottery
Sentiments of the Poems Were couched in beautiful similes based on real life in Egypt Nature-based descriptions that appealed to the senses
Pastoral Poetry Egyptian poems belong to the Pastoral genre. Pastoral Poems celebrate the pleasures of a simple, rural life. Writers are often sophisticated, educated artists who assume the persona of a simple character. They try to “escape” the rigors of a complex life
Escapist Literature Allows high civilized writers to experience vicariously what they imagine to be the free life of ordinary folks
Imagery Word or words that appear in a very specific way to one or more of the five senses Sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell
Concrete Language Appeals to the senses
Lyric Poem A poem that expresses the observations and feelings of a single speaker Presents a single experience that does not tell the whole story Has a melodic quality due to rhythmic patterns May be rhymed or unrhymed