The lessons that I have learned so far in AP English have truly been invaluable. What will always stand out in my mind will be the speech that Ms. Holmes gave on one of the first days of class. She compared classes in literature to a walk in the park. The teacher is our guide, but students are free to go down any path they choose and find any number of different things along them. Literature is a subjective field, and with the right knowledge and evidence to back it up, you can receive any number of different meanings from a text.
This brings us to our next big focus: strategic argument. While reading poetry, we were taught how to think like a real literary analysis when coming up with analyses for poems (and literature in general). First step is to annotate the text. To do this, you must look at the literary devices used and what specific meaning that it gives to the writing. After one has read and understood the text, claims can be made and are backed up by the ideas in the annotations.
These steps are important to remember because on the AP Test, it is precisely what we will be asked to do. We are given a short piece or poem and, in minutes, come up with a specific and strong analysis.
Personally, I believe that my strength within the class has been the creativity that it requires to analyze a poem. I am proud of the original claims that I have come up with and how my specific warrants back them up. I demonstrated this mostly through the poetry forums on Spruz.
As much as I am proud of my arguments considering text, I believe that I have a weakness when it comes to writing within time limits. The essay that we wrote in class about the two "Chimney Sweeper" poems was not well-written and I know that I could have done better. I need to figure out a better way to lay out my argument in an outline before I begin writing so that the process is more efficient and the outcome is clearer and can be compared to college writing.
As I am planning on attending the James Madison College at MSU for college, I know that I am in for a LOT of critical reading and writing. This class is preparing me well for my future, but I am worried that analyzing non-fiction literature will not interest me as much as creative poetry, plays, and novels will. Also, throughout high school I have found that I have a passion for studying Shakespeare, so I plan to take courses in Shakespearean literature throughout my college education.
For the upcoming marking period, I plan to stay on top of my schoolwork in AP. We get numerous assignments at once, and thus, my procrastination proves to be a large hindrance. I will do assignments before they are due so that I have time to look them over and ask Ms. Holmes specific questions. In this way, I can make my remaining time as a high school AP student be as productive as possible.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Class Notes: 10/11-10/22
Chapter 12: Rhythm and Meter
- Rhythm: refers to any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound
- In speech, the natural rise and fall of language
- accented or stressed syllables
Different rhythms produce different intended meanings...
Ex: "I don't believe YOU." vs "I don't believe you" vs "I don't beLIEVE you."
- Caesura: pause that occurs within a line (examples in Walt Whitman's "A Noiseless Patient Spider")
- Free Verse: poetic line is the basic rhythmic unit
- Except for line arrangement, there are no necessary differences between rhythms of free verse and rhythms of prose**
- Prose Poem: contains only ordinary prose rhythms
- Categorized as poetry because of its use of other poetic elements (connotation, imagery, figurative language, etc.)
- Meter: identifying characteristic of rhythmic language where accents occur at equal intervals
- Foot: one basic unity of meter
- consists of one accented syllable plus one or two unaccented syllables
Chapter 13: Sound and Meaning
The rhythm of poetry contributes to the overall music of the poem. This poetic music can serve two purposes:
- Pure pleasure in the sounds
- Reinforce meaning and intensify poetic communication
- Onomatopoeia: words whose sound in some degree suggests their meaning
- Ex. hiss, snap, bang
- Phonetic Intensives: words whose sound to some degree connects with their meaning
- Ex. flame, flare, flash, flicker (an initial fl- sound is often associated with the idea of moving light)
- Euphonious: smooth and pleasant-sounding effect
- Cacophonous: rough and harsh-sounding effect
Chapter 14: Pattern
- Structure: arrangement of ideas, images, thoughts, and sentences
- Form: external pattern or shape
- Continuous Form
- Stanzaic Form
- Fixed Form
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