Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
blog discourse reflection essay assignment
ENG 250 Rouzie Blog Discourse Reflection Essay
Read over all of your blog writings and comments you wrote on others’ posts, plus the comments written by others for your posts.
Reflect on this writing by considering the following prompts and then write a 600-900 word essay (using “I”). The essay should be proofread and spell-checked etc. Spilt Czech airs doughnut cat itch owl heir airs.
Your essay should cover the prompts without using them to structure the essay. In other words, this is an essay, not a set of answers to a list of questions. Feel free to include pertinent thoughts not elicited by the prompts.
Be reflective, be candid, be thoughtful. Write well.
Due: Weds. March 18 by 5:00 pm. Either post it to your blog or email it to me as an attached document. If you post it to the blog, please use returns to create white space between paragraphs.
Prompts:
Compare posts from early in the term with those later on. What differences between early and later do you notice? Describe differences. Try to explain the cause of any differences.
Blog discourse is public, out there on the web for anyone to read. How did this affect the way you wrote for it? What audience(s) did you imagine when writing? (The professor? Your class peers? Both? Outside readers? All of the above?) How did how you imagined your audience affect how you wrote for the blog? (Jeez that’s a mouthful.)
Reflect on your comments on others’ posts. How do you see them contributing to others’ learning?
Reflect on others’ comments on your posts. How do you see them contributing to your learning?
Consider the qualities of your blog writing. Are you satisfied with it generally? What posts do you consider to be your best and strongest? Which your worst? Which in between? Explain what makes you classify the posts as best, worst, in between.
Reflect on how writing about course readings for the blog helped or did not help your understanding of the readings, on your understanding of textual analysis. Comment on our use of various concepts and terms and your application of those to readings.
Read over all of your blog writings and comments you wrote on others’ posts, plus the comments written by others for your posts.
Reflect on this writing by considering the following prompts and then write a 600-900 word essay (using “I”). The essay should be proofread and spell-checked etc. Spilt Czech airs doughnut cat itch owl heir airs.
Your essay should cover the prompts without using them to structure the essay. In other words, this is an essay, not a set of answers to a list of questions. Feel free to include pertinent thoughts not elicited by the prompts.
Be reflective, be candid, be thoughtful. Write well.
Due: Weds. March 18 by 5:00 pm. Either post it to your blog or email it to me as an attached document. If you post it to the blog, please use returns to create white space between paragraphs.
Prompts:
Compare posts from early in the term with those later on. What differences between early and later do you notice? Describe differences. Try to explain the cause of any differences.
Blog discourse is public, out there on the web for anyone to read. How did this affect the way you wrote for it? What audience(s) did you imagine when writing? (The professor? Your class peers? Both? Outside readers? All of the above?) How did how you imagined your audience affect how you wrote for the blog? (Jeez that’s a mouthful.)
Reflect on your comments on others’ posts. How do you see them contributing to others’ learning?
Reflect on others’ comments on your posts. How do you see them contributing to your learning?
Consider the qualities of your blog writing. Are you satisfied with it generally? What posts do you consider to be your best and strongest? Which your worst? Which in between? Explain what makes you classify the posts as best, worst, in between.
Reflect on how writing about course readings for the blog helped or did not help your understanding of the readings, on your understanding of textual analysis. Comment on our use of various concepts and terms and your application of those to readings.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
"The Flea"
In “the Flea” by John Donne, we are told the story of a flea that has bitten the poem’s speaker, which leads to the issue of whether or not the two characters will take their attractions to the ultimate physical level; premarital sex. The flea was used as an erotic symbol. One of the techniques of “the Flea” is that Donne writes the poem so that it can be read in two ways. One of direct meaning, and the other hidden between the lines about the already mentioned premarital sex.
On line 10 of stanza 2, Donne wrote “three lives in one flea spare.” He is essentially saying that the flea contains the flea’s fluids represent both he, his lover, and the flea itself. To confirm this understanding of that metaphor, we can see on line 12 when Donne wrote “the flea is you and I.” This proves my initial understanding of this poem. Through this poem, we are able to see the powerful use of symbolism in the eyes of the fly. The subject of a “flea” was typically used in these times to represent love, so this is a great insight the past and its reoccurring themes.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
January 15th Blog
1) Alliteration- An alliteration is a group of words that start with the same letter within a line of poetry. In Digging, Heaney uses the words "Of soggy peats, the curt cuts of an edge". In this line, "curt cuts" would be an alliteration.
2) End Rhyme- A couplet that rhymes at the end. "...holding up a moth" "...rigid satin cloth" these are end rhymes. Design- Frost
3) Simile- In Design by Frost, he compares the flower holding the spider, comparing it to a piece of "rigid satin cloth"
4) Itailian Sonnet- In Design, it is an Itailian Sonnet, because it is divided into an eight line stanza and a six line stanza.
2) End Rhyme- A couplet that rhymes at the end. "...holding up a moth" "...rigid satin cloth" these are end rhymes. Design- Frost
3) Simile- In Design by Frost, he compares the flower holding the spider, comparing it to a piece of "rigid satin cloth"
4) Itailian Sonnet- In Design, it is an Itailian Sonnet, because it is divided into an eight line stanza and a six line stanza.
"A Call"
"A Call" by Seamus Heaney is a poem about death. The overall tone this poem is somber. I believe that Heaney himself is the speaker in the poem. He is telling a story of himself calling his parents, who are now growing old. Heaney uses imagery of his father weeding, which may be a symbol of death. I believe that when he uses the words "frail and leafless" it has reference to his father growing older. The "grave ticking of hall clocks" symbolizes the time that his father has left. I find it interesting that Heaney uses death as a noun as if it were a person.
Thursday, January 15
"Digging" by Seamus Heaney is a great example of the use of imagery. With a line like "When the spade sinks into the gravelly ground," one can recall from memory the feeling sinking a shovel or spade into the earth. Another good use of imagery is when Heaney describes "The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap of soggy peat," because these things also bring about sensory sensory stimulation.
There is also a good use of symbolism in "Digging." In the way Heaney describes his use of a pen, he alludes to the past generations that had to do a great amount of physical labor in order to survive, and in this way his pen is the same in some ways as his father's spade.
"God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a Petrarchan sonnet that follows the rhyme scheme of abbaabbacdcdcd. The rhyme scheme of this poem is important because it helps to separate the original octave from the sestet, so one can see the different sections and analyze them separately.
Also interesting in "God's Grandeur" is the use of tone. In the octave, the tone is that of disappointment in mankind for no properly fearing God. However, in the sestet, the tone changes a bit, showing more hope and happiness than negativity that God will, for as long as the Earth is there, bring the sun up every morning and watch over all he created. The tone is important here because it completely changes at different points in the poem, from negative to positive, but ultimately is comforting.
There is also a good use of symbolism in "Digging." In the way Heaney describes his use of a pen, he alludes to the past generations that had to do a great amount of physical labor in order to survive, and in this way his pen is the same in some ways as his father's spade.
"God's Grandeur" by Gerard Manley Hopkins is a Petrarchan sonnet that follows the rhyme scheme of abbaabbacdcdcd. The rhyme scheme of this poem is important because it helps to separate the original octave from the sestet, so one can see the different sections and analyze them separately.
Also interesting in "God's Grandeur" is the use of tone. In the octave, the tone is that of disappointment in mankind for no properly fearing God. However, in the sestet, the tone changes a bit, showing more hope and happiness than negativity that God will, for as long as the Earth is there, bring the sun up every morning and watch over all he created. The tone is important here because it completely changes at different points in the poem, from negative to positive, but ultimately is comforting.
Blog Assignment - Christina Rossetti's "A Birthday"
"My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me."
First of all, I think it's fair to say that there are loads of similies in this poem. In the first stanza alone, every other sentence uses the words 'like a', comparing her heart to a bird, a tree and a shell. I also think that the speaker of the poem is a female. I can't say it is the poet, but it seems like it is about a woman who has finally found someone to make her happy. I get the feeling that it is not an outside factor that has brought all of this joy to her, but some inner peace. She never makes any mention of a man (or woman), so it's difficult to place the cause of her happiness on one thing.
Please bear with me now because I'm going to deviate a little bit and talk about symbols. To be fair, I'm really really bad at analyzing poetry. I'm also just going to ignore the first stanza because I can't find any symbols in this. The first thing to catch my attention was when she talked about fleurs-de-lys. That could be one of two things: the fleurs-de-lys is the symbol of French royalty as well as a flower itself. The flower represents female virtue and spirituality. I think with the way the poem is structured and the diction (words used) works, it's fair to say that she means the flower itself. At least, that would work for the first verse since it deals a lot with nature. The second verse does seem to deal more with rich and material things. All in all, I think the poem is really Rosetti talking about how she doesn't need anyone else to make her happy but herself. I also think it is about her loving herself. But, as I said earlier, I'm really bad at analyzing poetry on my own.
Whose nest is in a water'd shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thick-set fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these,
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me."
First of all, I think it's fair to say that there are loads of similies in this poem. In the first stanza alone, every other sentence uses the words 'like a', comparing her heart to a bird, a tree and a shell. I also think that the speaker of the poem is a female. I can't say it is the poet, but it seems like it is about a woman who has finally found someone to make her happy. I get the feeling that it is not an outside factor that has brought all of this joy to her, but some inner peace. She never makes any mention of a man (or woman), so it's difficult to place the cause of her happiness on one thing.
Please bear with me now because I'm going to deviate a little bit and talk about symbols. To be fair, I'm really really bad at analyzing poetry. I'm also just going to ignore the first stanza because I can't find any symbols in this. The first thing to catch my attention was when she talked about fleurs-de-lys. That could be one of two things: the fleurs-de-lys is the symbol of French royalty as well as a flower itself. The flower represents female virtue and spirituality. I think with the way the poem is structured and the diction (words used) works, it's fair to say that she means the flower itself. At least, that would work for the first verse since it deals a lot with nature. The second verse does seem to deal more with rich and material things. All in all, I think the poem is really Rosetti talking about how she doesn't need anyone else to make her happy but herself. I also think it is about her loving herself. But, as I said earlier, I'm really bad at analyzing poetry on my own.
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