2. Notebook, open to reading journal Writing utensil Poetry packet While I’m stamping homework, discuss: What’d you write about in your journals?

4. Text-Based Questions The phrase “I love you” is repeated after each stanza; how does that affect you as a reader? What figurative comparisons (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole) are used? What is their impact? How can you describe the meter? How do you feel about it? What message is communicated to the reader? Critical Literary Theory Look at this text through a gender studies lens; how does it impact your reading? Try an eco-critical lens; what else can you pick up on? What about a Marxist lens?

5. Listen to Dylan Thomas read his poem here.here

6. Pick two to discuss: Text-Based Questions Label each line so you can identify the rhyme scheme. What effect does this pattern have on you as a reader? Two phrases are repeated throughout this poem; why are they significant? What figurative comparisons (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole) are used? What is their impact? What message (theme) is communicated to the reader? Critical Literary Theory Dylan Thomas’ father was battling cancer at the time he wrote this poem; how does this information help you to “historicize” it?

7. Highly structured 19 lines 5 tercets (three line stanzas) 1 quatrain (four-line stanza) Lines 1 and 3 of first tercet are repeated Alternate in last lines of next four stanzas Become two concluding lines in final stanza Interesting Facts: Villanelles didn’t start out as rigid poetry with fixed rules! Started in France, but didn’t become popular until English poets claimed the structure and made it their own. Source: Poetic Form: VillanellePoetic Form: Villanelle

8. Italian sonetto = “a little sound or song," Traditional Sonnets: 14 lines Iambic pentameter Has a rhyme scheme Thematic organization ∴ Poets don’t craft sonnets on accident.

9. Petrarchan Italian; named after poet Petrarch Divided into two stanzas octave (the first eight lines) presents an argument, observation, question, or some other answerable charge turn or “volta” between lines 8 and 9 indicates shift in focus sestet (the final six lines) counterargument, clarification, or whatever answer the octave demands Rhyme Scheme: abba, abba, cdecde or cdcdcd Shakespearean English; named after Shakespeare Divided into three stanzas three quatrains (first twelve lines) turn/shift between lines 12 and 13 rhyming couplet (last two lines) concludes poem; can refute, amplify, or describe an epiphany Rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, efef, gg Source: Poetic Form: SonnetPoetic Form: Sonnet

10. The very first poem we read together (“The Windhover” by Gerard Manley Hopkins) is a sonnet. Take a look at it; is it Petrarchan? Shakespearean?

11. Many modern poets have played with sonnets and made the form their own. If whatever you’re reading has fourteen lines, has some rhyming, and a distinguishable meter, it’s likely a sonnet. (Just so you know.)

12. European folk tradition Shared orally—passed down through many generations Topics: religious themes, love, tragedy, domestic crimes, and sometimes (*gasp*) even political propaganda Plot Driven (characters working towards some dramatic end) Descriptive—subscribe to “Show, don’t tell” philosophy Construction: quatrain (4 line) stanzas rhyme scheme, either: the second and fourth lines of each stanza all alternating lines. Writers start printing ballads in 15 th Century (1400’s) Some Renaissance poets started selling their ballads; not respected by many because writers were of the lower class.

13. Poems that tell a story; may be sung and/or set to music. Let’s look at/listen to an example! “Little Margaret,” traditional, performed by the Carolina Chocolate Drops

14. Text-Based Questions Summarize the plot. Who are the characters? What happens to them? What do you notice about the sounds at the end of the second and fourth lines of each stanza? In the third stanza, “Little Margaret appeared all dressed in white.” What does that mean? What comparisons can you make between this text and others you’ve read? Do you see any similarities? Critical Literary Theory Analyze this text using a Marxist lens. How could this ballad be a commentary on social class? Try using a gender studies lens; how do social constructions of gender impact your reading?

15. ALL of your Reader’s Response/Journal Entries are due TOMORROW (FRIDAY). If you didn’t complete this as we all went along, plan to have some caffeine tonight as you strive to complete this weighty endeavor. We did warn you. Are you already done? Feel free to hand them in before you go.