I. A FAREWELL TO ARMS ERNEST HEMINGWAY SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL World War I
II. POETRY A. PHASES WALLACE STEVENS SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL WORLD WAR I
II. POETRY B. I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH ALAN SEEGER SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL WORLD WAR I
II. POETRY C. BOMBARDMENT AMY LOWELL SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL WORLD WAR I
II. POETRY D. WHERE IS JEHOVAH? MARY BORDEN SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL WORLD WAR I
Two of the poems are available online through the Poetry Foundation: Phases https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetryma gazine/poems/detail/12986 I Have a Rendezvous with Death https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poemsand-poets/poems/detail/45077
Amy Lowell s poem can be found through PoemHunter.com: Bombardment https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thebombardment/
Mary Borden s poem can be found within an online collection: Where Is Jehovah? http://www.ourstory.info/library/2- ww1/borden2/fz.html
APPROACHING THE NOVEL
HEMINGWAY S STYLE Modernist A turning away from Victorian values All things are relative Themes alienation, loss, despair Focus on the individual Unstructured nature of life Open-ended symbolism Plain, unadorned, uncomplicated sentences But sometimes includes stream of consciousness Common, accessible diction Few adjective, fewer adverbs Concrete rather than abstract Paucity of conversational tags Repetition of images and diction Omission
Read closely Read critically DISCOVERING HEMINGWAY'S STYLE Discuss what is unusual, frustrating, attractive, real... about Hemingway s style Describe his syntax, diction, means of characterization, themes
THE HEMINGWAY HERO Masculinity Alcohol Sensuous pleasure Reticence Bravery Individualism Stoicism Honor Action Adventurousness Inevitability/finality of death
THE HEMINGWAY HERO Frederic Henry Catherine Barkley
THE NADA PRINCIPLE Naturalistic world Devoid of purpose, order, meaning, value... An indifferent or hostile universe
RELATED MOTIFS DEATH the great nothing DARKNESS the unknowable; death; hostile world WAR the pervasiveness of pain and death INSOMNIA the irresistibility of the nada HOPELESSNESS the inevitability of death RELIGION avoided or denied
APPROACHING THE NOVEL Make a character list as you read, noting names, roles, relationships, and other interesting traits and even quotes. (It is also OK to consult summaries and commentaries after you have read a chapter or chapters. Most online resources will connect chapter by chapter.) Work with your teammates, reading according to a mutually agreed upon schedule (or a schedule established by your coach) and discussing when you have each reached an established set of chapters.
FIVE STEPS TO CAREFUL AND CLOSE READING OF FICTION 1. If possible, read the novel more than once. 2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it or read near a computer and access an online dictionary. 3. Look up historical and geographical references and other allusions. 4. Keep track of characters, noting descriptions, attitudes, relationships, etc. 5. Keep a notebook, especially for the novel, noting character traits, values, and changes.
CHARACTERS: A CLOSER LOOK Keep a running program of characters as they are introduced. (There aren t as many as you may think.) Note character relationships. (Attend to details that connect them in positive or negative ways.) Note remarkable statements. (Note what characters say about themselves, about each other, and about their situations and circumstances, looking for details that develop not only their personalities but also the plot and theme.)
PLOT: A CLOSER LOOK Note physical conflicts that are focal points of the action. Note mental conflicts that motivate characters. Note emotional conflicts that develop and define relationships. Note moral conflicts and resolutions that define characters and point to themes.
MOTIF According to Holman s Handbook to Literature, a motif may be recognized in recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work A motif supports or develops a theme, but is not a theme itself.
SYMBOLS IN A FAREWELL TO ARMS According to A Handbook to Literature (Seventh Edition), a SYMBOL is itself and also stands for something else. In a literary sense a symbol combines a literal and sensuous quality with an abstract or suggestive aspect. The symbols in A Farewell to Arms, generally, acquire their suggestiveness not from qualities inherent [themselves] but from the way in which [they are] used in the novel.
EXAMPLES OF SYMBOLS IN THE NOVEL Rain danger, death Snow peace The priest constancy Alcohol escape, distraction
TONE: A CLOSER LOOK The writer s or speaker s attitude toward the subject, the audience, or himself/herself The emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work
THE DEVELOPMENT OF TONE Connotation Imagery Figurative language/allusion/symbolism Irony Hyperbole/Understatement Detail Sentence construction Organization or structure
THE POEMS
I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH Traditional view of the glory and sacrifice of war Traditional verse form Traditional devices
To what phases does the title refer? PHASES How are the phases developed? What poetic devices does Stevens employ? How do those devices develop tone and meaning?
Prose poem THE BOMBARDMENT A poem printed as prose, with both margins justified. Format is the distinction. Lowell meant it to be performed, not just read.
Influenced by Walt Whitman Her poetry is loose, impressionistic, steeped in feeling and imagery that conveys emotion almost hysterical in its intensity. Janet Cameron WHERE IS JEHOVAH? Rich in imagery and biblical allusion
MAKE EACH POEM YOURS
FOUR STEPS TO CLOSE READING A POEM 1. Read a poem more than once. Know the poem as much as possible by heart. 2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it. Consult encyclopedic sources. 3. Read poetry aloud (or lip-read) slowly. 4. Pay careful attention to meaning. [On the first reading you should determine the subjects of the verbs and the antecedents of the pronouns.]
PRACTICE ORAL INTERPRETATION Read affectionately, but not affectedly. Read slowly enough that each word is clear and distinct and that the meaning has time to sink in. Read so that the rhythmical pattern is felt but not exaggerated.
I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade And apple-blossoms fill the air I have a rendezvous with Death When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION Denotation dictionary definition (Know the meanings of every word in every poem.) Connotation the force or impact carried by a term that goes beyond denotation
Visual (sight) Auditory (sound) Olfactory (smell) Gustatory (taste) Tactile (touch) Organic (internal sensation) Kinesthetic (motion) IMAGERY
DEVICES OF SENSE Simile (explicit) and metaphor (implicit) [literal and figurative elements] Personification [literal and figurative elements] Apostrophe Metonymy Paradox Oxymoron Hyperbole Understatement
Alliteration Assonance Consonance DEVICES OF SOUND Rhyme (perfect, internal, end, approximate (or slant) Blank verse Free verse Refrain
Iamb unstressed stressed (tonight) METER: STRESS Trochee stressed unstressed (fearsome) Anapest unstressed - unstressed stressed (comprehend) Dactyl stressed - unstressed unstressed (surgery) Spondee stressed stressed (doorway)
Monometer 1 foot Pentameter METER RHYTHM 5 feet Dimeter 2 feet Hexameter 6 feet Trimeter 3 feet Heptameter 7 feet Tetrameter 4 feet Octameter 8 feet
Students will need to... POETRY Research any classical, biblical, and other allusions Analyze rhetorical elements/literary devices
PRACTICE QUESTIONS
COACHES PRACTICE 1 In this partial sentence from Hemingway s A Farewell to Arms They splashed more mud than the camions even... what does the word camions mean? A. motor cars B. freight trucks C. heavy artillery D. troop transports
COACHES PRACTICE 1 In this partial sentence from Hemingway s A Farewell to Arms They splashed more mud than the camions even... what does the word camions mean? B. freight trucks
COACHES PRACTICE 2 In Lowell s The Bombardment, the fire is developed with each of the following EXCEPT A. vivid color B. apostrophe C. plant imagery D. personification
COACHES PRACTICE 2 In Lowell s The Bombardment, the fire is developed with each of the following EXCEPT B. apostrophe
PRACTICE QUESTION 3 In terms of form, Stevens Phases is MOST accurately described as exhibiting all of the following EXCEPT A. end rhyme B. regular meter C. stanza divisions D. rhetorical questions
PRACTICE QUESTION 3 In terms of form, Stevens Phases is MOST accurately described as exhibiting all of the following EXCEPT B. regular meter
PRACTICE QUESTION 4 Seeger s I Have a Rendezvous with Death is devoid of any elements evoking A. passion B. accession C. trepidation D. acquiescence
PRACTICE QUESTION 4 Seeger s I Have a Rendezvous with Death is devoid of any elements evoking A. passion B. accession C. trepidation D. acquiescence
PRACTICE 4 Seeger s I Have a Rendezvous with Death is devoid of any elements evoking A. passion B. accession C. trepidation D. acquiescence
PRACTICE 5 Consider these lines from Borden s Where Is Jehovah? : [He] led His people out of bondage to scatter them again like dead leaves in a storm. These words evoke the speaker s A. confusion of God and nature B. disapproval of God s inconstancy C. view of the soldiers as slaves of war D. hope that God will save the soldiers
PRACTICE 5 Consider these lines from Borden s Where Is Jehovah? : [He] led His people out of bondage to scatter them again like dead leaves in a storm. These words evoke the speaker s B. disapproval of God s inconstancy