Woden s Day, September 5: The Poetry of Paradox

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1 Woden s Day, September 5: The Poetry of Paradox EQ#1: What is paradox, and how is it an expression of and reaction to chaos? EQ#2: What is a sonnet, and how is it an expression of and reaction to chaos? Welcome! Gather pen/pencil, paper, wits! Reading/Freewrite: Indeterminancy Lecture: Chaos and Paradox from Chaucer to Shakespeare Literary Analysis: Sonnets Details of the Sonnet CLOZE/QUIZ: Chaos, Paradox, Sonnets M. C. Escher, Order and Chaos. Lithograph, Ending Activities o Project Journals ELACC12RI3: Analyze and explain how individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop ELACC12RL4-RI4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in text ELACC12RL5: Analyze an author s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text ELACC12RI5: Analyze and evaluate effectiveness of the structure an author uses ELACC12RI6: Determine an author s point of view or purpose in a text ELACC12RI7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources to address a question or solve a problem ELACC12RI8: Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal British texts ELACC12W2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas ELACC12W4: Produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience ELACC12W10: Write routinely over extended and shorter time frames ELACC12L1: Demonstrate standard English grammar and usage in speaking and writing. ELACC12L6: Acquire and use general academic and domain-specific words and phrases

2 Opening Freewrite 100 words I am not telling the truth right now. Explain what this means. If it s hard to explain what this means, explain why it s hard to explain what this means. Paradox Greek against the opinion of what is true A statement or situation which seems impossibly contradictory, but which is nonetheless true

Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, 1958 Chapter 2: The History of Quantum Theory (excerpted and adapted) The origin of quantum theory is connected with a well-known phenomenon: any piece of

3 Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, 1958 Chapter 2: The History of Quantum Theory (excerpted and adapted) The origin of quantum theory is connected with a well-known phenomenon: any piece of matter when it is heated starts to glow, gets red hot and white hot at higher temperatures, and shows those colors as it heats. The colour does not depend on the surface of the material, and for a black body it depends solely on the temperature. Therefore, the radiation emitted by such a black body at high temperatures is a suitable object for physical research; it is a simple phenomenon that should find a simple explanation in terms of the known laws for radiation and heat. But an attempt made at the end of the nineteenth century by Lord Rayleigh and Jeans failed, and revealed serious difficulties. To put it simply, the application of the known laws of physics did not lead to sensible results. Albert Einstein, a revolutionary genius among physicists, was not afraid to go far away from the old concepts about light in traditional physics: light could either be interpreted as consisting of electromagnetic waves, according to Maxwell's theory, or as consisting of light quanta, energy packets travelling through space with high velocity. But could it be both? Einstein knew, of course, that the well-known phenomena of diffraction and interference can be explained only on the basis of the wave picture. He was not able to dispute the complete contradiction between this wave picture and the idea of the light quanta; nor did he even attempt to remove the inconsistency of this interpretation. He simply took the contradiction as something which could not be understood at the present time, and moved on. It was from this time on that the physicists learned to ask the right questions; and asking the right question is frequently more than halfway to the solution of the problem. How could it be that the same radiation that produces interference patterns, and therefore must consist of waves, also produces the photoelectric effect, and therefore must consist of moving particles? Again and again one found that the attempt to describe atomic events in the traditional terms of physics led to contradictions. Experiments seemed to contradict each other without any possibility of compromise. I repeated to myself again and again the question: Can nature possibly be as absurd as it seemed to us in these atomic experiments? The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory starts from this paradox.

4 Chaos from Chaucer to Shakespeare Don t write anything yet; just look, listen, think Politics: Long periods of chaos, with oases of stability o : Wars of the Roses 2 families fighting over throne produces 9 changes of monarchy in 85 years Economic, political, cultural chaos Monarchy loses power, Parliament gains power o : The Tudors Henry VII ( ): Last king to win crown fighting in the field; stabilized Britain Henry VIII ( ): Tennis champion, Wrote Greensleeves, Began the English Church; Greatly expanded British power Royal Mess ( ): 5 changes in 11 years (incl. Lady Jane Grey, The Nine Days Queen ) o : Elizabeth I The Virgin Queen reasserted authority and stability patron of arts and sciences, incl. Shakespeare tremendously increased British power worldwide

5 Chaos from Chaucer to Shakespeare Don t write anything yet; just look, listen, think Culture: In technology and belief, rapid and radical changes Gunpowder (early 1500s) o Knights become obsolete anyone can throw a bomb or shoot a gun, and both obliterate armor. o Birth of Terrorism: Guy Fawkes Gunpowder Plot (1603) Remember, remember, the fifth of November, the Gunpowder treason and plot The Gutenberg Printing Press (1450) o In Chaucer s time books took months and were pricey (the Oxford Cleric: 20 Books and a Starved Horse); consequently, very few could read at all o After Gutenberg, books could be produced quickly, cheaply As books spread, literacy spread New ideas can spread quickly and cheaply As literacy and ideas spread, individual power spreads The Protestant Reformation (1517) o In Chaucer s time, one faith Catholicism; and one Bible the Latin Bible approved in Rome. o By Shakespeare s time several Christianities Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Anabaptist, Presbyterian and some increased influence for Judaism and Islam; and Bibles in every European language, sometimes several, each with subtle differences

6 Chaos from Chaucer to Shakespeare NOW take notes! The Megatrend from Chaucer s time to Shakespeare s: away from centralized power based on things outside of individual control (social class, family, inheritance); and toward decentralized power based on things within individuals control (reading, ideas). People could change their stars after all. To some, this is progress; to others, Chaos Greek vast, disordered abyss A disordered situation; ideas and things which in an ordered system would be true seem meaningless

7 One way to make sense of chaos is to call it Paradox Greek against the opinion of what is true A statement or situation which seems impossibly contradictory, but which is nonetheless true and to make one s peace with that existentially, philosophically, and artistically. One art form that does this is the sonnet.

8 Sonnets: The Poetry of Paradox Read and analyze the sonnets I give you. They are by Edmund Spenser, and they are pretty typical of the sonnet form almost stereotypical, in fact. Analyze for: Style. What versification (poetic sound tricks ) predominates in both sonnets? Look at things like number of lines, length of line, rhyme scheme, etc. Content. What are they both about?

9 Sonnet Analysis: Edmund Spenser, Amoretti Sonnet from Edmund Spenser, Amoretti Sonnet 30 My love is like to ice, and I to fire; How comes it then that this her cold so great Is not dissolved through my so-hot desire, But harder grows the more I her intreat? Or how comes it that my exceeding heat Is not delayed by her heart frozen cold; But that I burn much more in boiling sweat, And feel my flames augmented manifold? What more miraculous thing may be told That fire which all things melts, should harden ice: And ice, which is congealed with senseless cold, Should kindle fire by wonderful device? Such is the power of love in gentle mind, That it can alter all the course of kind. Rhyme scheme Style and content This poem is lines long. How long is each line (# of syllables)? What is this poem about? Sonnet 64 Coming to kiss her lips, (such grace I found) Me seemed I smelled a garden of sweet flowers, That dainty odors from them threw around For damsels fit to deck their lovers' bowers. Her lips did smell like unto Gillyflowers, Her ruddy cheeks like unto Roses red: Her snowy brows like budded Bellamores, Her lovely eyes like Pinks but newly spread. Her goodly bosom like a strawberry bed, Her neck like to a bunch of Columbines: Her breast like Lillies, ere their leaves be shed, Her nipples like young blossomed Jasmines. Such fragrant flowers do give most odorous smell, But her sweet odor did them all excel. This poem is line How long is each line (# of syllables)? What is this poem abou

10 Sonnets: The Poetry of Paradox Developed by the Italian poet Petrarch in 14 th century o Italian word sonnetto, little song A very formal style with rigid rules: o 14 lines o iambic pentameter du DAH du DAH du DAH du DAH du DAH o Complex rhyme scheme NOT COUPLETS! abba abba cde cde octet/sestet abab cdcd efef gg quatrains/couplet Spenserian variant: abab bcbc cdcd ee Lyric Poem about thoughts/feelings of narrator The sonnet gives philosophical exploration of emotional issues that are hard to express rationally. Rhyme scheme sets up and resolves problem : Early lines set up or summarize the paradox Volta ( turning point ) rhyme & ideas change Final lines resolve the problem A Sonnet Sequence tells a story using Sonnets. Most follow a traditional romantic formula: Woman is a stereotypical beauty Man suffers heartache as she resists him Man woos, flatters her in stereotypical ways She resists, but finally gives in

11 Turn In Today* Opening Freewrite (100 words): I am not telling the truth Heisenberg excerpt/freewrite (100 words [Reading Journal]) Spenser, Amoretti sonnet analysis CLOZE: Chaos, Paradox and Sonnets *if not today, first thing tomorrow CLOZE: Chaos, Paradox and Sonnets 1. The megatrend from Chaucer to Shakespeare was away from power based on things like which are of individual control, and toward based on things like which are of individual control. 2. Define: chaos

12 3. Define: paradox 4. The sonnet was invented by the poet in the century. 5. The word Sonnet means. 6. A sonnet is lines long, and written in. 7. It has a complex rhyme scheme NEVER. 8. Write one of the two common sonnet rhyme schemes: 9. The sonnet is a poem, which means that it s about the and of a narrator. The sonnet form allows exploration of that are hard to. 10. A sonnet and an emotional problem through its rhyme scheme. 11. The turning point, called the, comes where the rhyme and ideas. 12. Most sonnet sequences follow a traditional romantic formula: a. b. c. d.

RHYME. The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in the poem.

RHYME. The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in the poem. SONNETS RHYME The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them in words that are close together in the poem. End rhyme occurs at the ends of the line Rhyme scheme the pattern of rhymed