English Lit. Notes
May 11 2006

Disembarking in Quebec – by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood decided to write about Susanna Moody because she was one of the first canadian settlers. Margaret traces Susanna’s life coming to and being in Canada.

When Susanna came to Canada her life was not easy. Her status was gone and there was this new harsh way of living. She found herself in this situation that she was uprooted from her life and she was found in a situation that she didn’t want to be in. She lost one of her children, she had to deal with the pain of him drowning.

In the first stanza, Susanna Moody is talking about how she feels that she doesn’t belong. She is trying to figure out what the reason is. Her clothes, her book, the color of her shawl? You can tell that in the first stanza she is feeling very insecure by questioning why people may not like her. Susanna Moody came from an upper class life, so its a thought of hers that people may not like her appearance.

“This space cannot hear”

In the next stanza she is talking about the vistas of desolation, omens of winter and such. She is describing that feeling where many people question if they have the strength and or determination to get through this. Before it was her appearance she questioned, now she is questioning her lack of conviction.

“The others leap and shout freedom”

The others refer to other people that have perhaps been exiled from their countries because of their religious beliefs. They may have also come from poverty and now they have canadas wide open spaces to live.

“The moving water will not show me my reflection”

Even the water in Canada will not show her reflection. She is doubting herself. Vampires can’t see their reflections in mirrors because they aren’t considered people, they don’t have souls. Susanna must think that she is no longer seen as a person. She is lost.

“The rocks ignore”

Nature now ignore hers.

“I am a word in a foreign language”

She no longer understands herself, she is by far lost.

*Kenning- Two words to replace another.
Lily hopper- Frog

Just a reminder to read Arnold’s “Dover Beach” pg. 884 for Wednesday.

I hope you all have a great weekend, spend some time reflecting on what an awesome historical event this weekend marks, and spend some quality time with family.

Mr. N

Victorian Era has a different view on nature, because they see it as calyst, instead of putting themselves in it
dramatic monologue (title gives it away)
dramatic – tells a story
monologue – one person is talking
so therefore dramatic monologue is a person talking like a poem or story form
addresses somebody with a purpose
reveals a lot about the narrator (gives hints)

My Last Duchess – Robert Browning
shady like, not really sure what’s going on exactly
set in a 16th century castle in italy
aduca ferrera wife dies 3 years of marriage, began to seek remarriage, gets “match-making” person aka m-m person
has a painting of her that he mentions at the beginning of the poem, before he goes of to interview some eligible women
no one can pull over the curtain except him
talks about his late wife fondly, “she had a heart to soon made glad . . .” she looked at everything; she liked other men “. . . she liked everything he saw. . .“
“serve was all on, the dropping of the day light in the west”
“officious foul” is a guy
900 year old name, his last name is of high status power
she; late wife, doesn’t take his name as something special, she treats it as it were any other gift, nothing from her husband is special to her he says
he says he could have pointed out some of her flaws, but that would mean stooping down to her
doesn’t like her smiling at other people
he told her to stop and then all smiles stopped altogether, he was a very jealous man, he ordered his wife’s’ because she took more enjoyment in other things over him, so he got something to kill his wife
him and m-m person are walking down the hallway and he points out the statue of neptune the sea king beside his wife’s painting
he covers the painting because her attention to her husband kind of wondered in life
smiles at everyone
liked/looks at everything
she looked as if she is still alive, so now that she is dead he choses when she             looks at anything
he seems to treat women as property, livestock as something that he owns
Bronte Sisters
3 sisters; Emily and Anne are the most famous
Song – Poem by Emily Bronte
linnet – small finch kinda fly
moor-lark – a bird
wild deer browse above her breast?
the poem is talking about someone that is dead in a cemetery
pathetic fallacy – when nature matches the mood of the person
Well, let them fight for honors breath/ or pleasure’s shade pursue – -/ the dweller in the land of death/ is changed and careless too. ? what does this mean?
“pleasure shade” its like trying to chase after the wind, it doesn’t last forever
“the dweller in the land of death”/is changed and careless too” she’s dead she doesn’t care
“and if their eyes should watch and weep till sorrows were dry” they that miss her can cry all they want but she won’t flinch, she’s gone
[just to add a thought here= Bronte seems to show the Victorian idea of nature being somewhat indifferent to human existence and suffering...ex: the deer walking along above the grave]

I hope you enjoyed the house team activities today as a relaxing alternative to Literature class!
Don’t worry about the quiz, we will do that when you return from spring break.

Remember that your assignment for spring break is as follows:

1. Have fun and relax! Spend time with your friends and family…enjoy life!
2. Read Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (pg. 686 +). The text summarizes it nicely for you as you go, which is great for this poem!
3. Answer #3,5,6 on pg. 709. If you want to do this on the team blog, go for it. Paper is totally fine if you prefer.
4. Did I mention having fun??

I hope that you have an outstanding, relaxing, fun-filled and refreshing couple of weeks off. I hope God knocks your socks off (ie blesses you) with real refreshment and laughter.

See you in a couple of weeks…
cheers,
mr. n.

Remember to read:

Wordsworth’s “The World is Too Much With Us” pg. 675
and “My Heart Leaps Up” (from your photocopy handout)

For Wednesday.
We will have a short (10 question) quiz on Wednesday that will cover literary selections (identifying quotes) and terms.

Only a few more days until Spring Break!!

Rape of the Lock Pt. II

Belinda is playing a card game that has become a war between spirits
The game has come down to one final hand
Belinda plays the King, and it looks like she’ll win
Now Belinda and her opponent are having coffee
The coffee helps make her opponent alert and he comes up with a plan to get the lock of her hair
Her opponent gets scissors from Clarissa’s purse and goes to cut Belinda’s hair
The spirits try to warn Belinda of what’s going to happen
The opponent (the baron) can’t cut her hair and decides to wait
Finally he goes to cut her hair, gets the lock between the scissor blades, goes to cut it, when the sylph goes between the blades to try and stop it but gets cut in half and he gets the lock
The sylph will become better and when Belinda finds her hair’s cut she’s upset and screams
The opponent then gloats
A nymph tries to calm things down but a battle cry follows it
the nymphs fight over the lock of hair
the fight becomes like the Trojan War
Belinda attacks the Baron for her hair
Belinda subdues him with one finger and her thumb
Then she throws “snuff” at him and he inhales it and he sneezes and his eyes get watery
She grabs an ornamental pin shaped like a dagger from her side
The Baron confesses his love for Belinda but he’s never acted on it
Belinda demands for her hair back
Everyone searches for the lock of hair for Belinda but no one could find it
Someone said it must be on the moon
There was a shooting star of hair and now Belinda’s name is inscribed in the stars, it will never be forgotten

Discussion Questions Response:
Summary of the card game: The Baron and Belinda play a fierce game of cards and Belinda’s Queen is lost and things are looking poor for Belinda. Up until that point Belinda was doing great and now she’s worried for the first time in the game. Then the game is left to a single hand, and Belinda then plays a King and wins the game. This entire game shows how Belinda and the Baron are sneaky, confident, independent, and very competitive.

The effect of Clarissa’s assisting the Baron: Clarissa helps the Baron cut Belinda’s hair and this results in a fight between Belinda and the Baron over the hair. Again Belinda wins in the end just like in the card game. Throughout the entire poem Belinda’s pride is on the line.[the outcome will also effect all the relationships, ie Belinda and Plume’s, Belinda and the Baron...]

Literature 12 Notes.
Monday February 13, 2006.

*Epic- A very long story. There is an Epic hero. There’s the exile, journey, then the return. Good vs. evil. It starts usually in what’s known as the medias res (in the middle of things). Another thing an epic has is that there is always some sort of invocation (calling on or request) to a muse – a muse is something that inspires people or is a source of inspiration; it could be a person or a spirit.
*Paradise Lost. John Milton. -
This epic mainly starts with Satan waking up in Hell; by reading this you miss the whole battle in Heaven.
Lines 1-5. Talking about the fall, tree of knowledge. Good and evil.
Line 6- invoking the muse
Line 13- invocation again
Line 19- Refers to the Holy Spirit
Line 25-26.His purpose of telling this story is to justify the ways of God to men. He wants to make it clear, give a reason.
Line 26- Milton is asking for help from the Holy Spirit.
Lines 26-74. Satan is thrown out of heaven, because he rebels against God by saying he is better than God. Satan overreached his natural limitations. He tried to become something he wasn’t. Milton says in line 43 that Satan started a war in heaven and the result of that was that God threw him into hell. Part of his punishment is that Satan and his minions is that they start to change. At the beginning Satan had the same amount of knowledge as the angels, but then he becomes very corrupt.
Line 81- Beelzebub- Satan 

Here are my rough reading notes for these poems. I have also included vocabulary stuff.

Donne – A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning
First off, the title really strikes me here. I have to admit, I had to look up valediction in the dictionary.

“Valediction: saying farewell; a taking leave, an instance of this, a speech made at this time” (Webster’s New English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 623)

Hmmm… the multifaceted meanings of this word suggest a couple of different things…ok, so he is saying farewell. Consider the following footnote from my massive University text:

Izaak Walton speculated that this poem was addressed to Donne’s wife on the occasion of his trip to the Continent [Europe -- remember, the UK is an Island] in 1611, but there is no proof of that. Donne was, however, apprehensive about that trip; Walton also heard that, while abroad, Donne had a startling vision of his wife holding a dead baby at about that time she gave birth to a stillborn child (Adams, Greenblatt, et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol 1 of 2. 1248 )

Yikes…heavy stuff!
So, Donne’s title could be referring to his wife in an attempt to help her work through her grief, but the title suggests that mourning be forbidden…hmmm….

The first stanza seems to examine how some people speculate when death will occur. It is confusing, but seems to suggest that ‘virtuous men’ die in a composed or ‘mild’ way (ln 1), telling their souls it is time to give up their body (2). This occurs while their friends sit around debating whether or not they are dead (3-4).

Second stanza – here comes the forbidding part… he calls for no noise (5), no big show of tears (6)

Then we jump into this discussion of earthquakes…and how it scares people (9) and they discuss the meaning behind them…ie was there some kind of judgment there from above, or is it a dark omen (10)

Donne seems to state ‘we’ (here I can’t help but jump to think it is him and his wife he is talking of….see where footnotes get you?!) have a love that is so pure (”so much refined” {17}) that it is foreign (18)

Ahhh…here comes the great part, in my opinion, and the part that may suggest or allude to the idea of Donne writing this to his wife prior to leaving on his journey. Line 22- 24 suggest that although they are parting ways, their love will be stretched out like gold–still in tact, still as beautiful and ‘refined’ as ever. I hate to say this because it sounds a bit corny, but it is like Donne is saying ‘our love will be a bridge that keeps us connected’ hmmm…bad metaphor. I apologize, but I think you get what I am meaning. Remember, they didn’t have e-mail or cell phones. This journey would be a long and arduous one (yikes, big word…better look it up to make sure it means what I think it means….yes! Thank you, Webster). Translation = they would be apart for a long time. I am sure any of you would love to hear someone you love say such a thing. Believe me when I say that when someone is saying it to you, someone you love, it isn’t corny.

Ok, so the reference to a compass (a great simile, no?) is not to a magnetic one, but to a compass you would find in your math set…you know, the one that people use to poke their classmates with during class (ok, so maybe you could use it for better things. My friends used to spread out the legs and put a rubber band between it…makes for a great improvised slingshot!). So, if people in love are two separate people, like Donne and his wife (25), they are still joined by their souls (27-28), or Donne’s wife is the one that keeps them steady by staying at home “Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show / To move” (27-28). This is also an example of a conceit , where someone makes reference between two unrelated things (ie love and the compass). See pg. 421 of your text for this.

This is cool…continuing the conceit about the compass, Donne suggests the one who stays fixed will somehow extend him or herself out after the one who is away “Yet when the other far doth roam, / It leans and hearkens after it” (30-31). He says that the person’s constancy is the anchor for himself, that brings him home: “Thy firmness makes my circle just / And makes me end where I begun” (35-36). What a beautiful ending!

I must say, when I first read this poem (yes, it is a first read for me), I ended wondering why they chose to put it in this course. I didn’t really understand it, but after reading it a second time and spending some time thinking on it, it is a great poem!

“Death Be Not Proud (Holy sonnet #10)” – uses apostrophe- addressing an inanimate object (ie he addresses his poem to death), and personification – giving living qualities to non-living things (ie death being proud) (line1)
also is a variation on iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line) and rhyme scheme abba , abba, cddc, ee (3 quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet)
A great poem…
ln1-2 – death don’t be so proud, you aren’t so great
3-4 ref. to salvation? Those death “thinks thou dost overthrow/ Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me” (again, apostrophe here)
Donne acknowledges that death takes even ‘our best men’ (7)
Donne sees death as being subservient to ‘fate, chance,’ the act of rulers, and desperation (i.e. murder, suicide) (9), sickness, and war (10) instead of having the ability to act of its own accord.
He also makes reference to the use of opium and magic as either a means to achieve a more powerful death-like state, or to kill (i.e. overdose and curses?) (11)

the end couplet is a Christian declaration (or can be seen as such) — as we will awake to eternity (13) and Death will be conquered ref to I Cor. 15:26 — amazing jubilant ending! Death, however, has already been conquered. This is an example of paradox –> where one thing seems to contradict another ie death shall die… (see 421 of your text)

Herrick, “To the Virgins…” a short one – rhyming couplets…
ln1 jumps out at me— it is a line quoted in a song by Sixpence None the Richer called ‘Meaningless,’ that I used to listen to. The song basically talks about how life is meaningless, like the book of Ecclesiastes does.
“So gather ye rosebuds while ye may
tomorrow you could lie in a silent grave
pawing the dust and awaiting the end of time
meaningless, it’s all meaningless
all my life and labour is foolish
and now I don’t have a reason to live anymore” – Matt Slocum (Sixpence None the Richer)

I think the song echoes Ecclesiastes and also echoes the meaning of Herrick’s poem, that being our earthly life can be spent on trivial things and have it go by without us doing anything of value. Compare this to Herrick’s assertion that, “this same flower that smiles to day / To morrow will be dying” (Herrick, ln 3-4).

Lines 5-8 reflect on how time is ticking. Herrick relates the quick passing of time to the path of the sun, stating that as it nears the peak of it’s path it is that much closer to setting…this can be likened to life; as we near the peak of our lives, where we feel like we have hit our stride, we are really about half done and that much closer to death.

Herrick definitely has a view that the ‘twilight years’ are not as pleasant as youth (9-12). He also seems to recommend using your time wisely: “Then be not coy, but use your time” (12), although he does not say to use it well, and recommends ‘the Virgins’ get married (13) {apparently he thinks a single and chaste life is a waste….strange}, stating that once they lose the beauty of youth, it will be that much harder to catch a mate (15).

Ok, call me crazy, but I have to make another Biblical connection here. The title begs the comparison to Christ’s parable of the Virgins heading to the wedding feast, which is backed up by the content of the poem. If you recall, the virgins spend most of their time unwisely, and end up being late for the wedding feast. Herrick’s reference to ‘gathering rosebuds’ (1) is one of wasting time.

A strange class today, what with the ‘waiting for the lockdown’ and all…

Thank you for working through this and for letting us burn through a few poems. I will post my reading notes to them after this.

Assigned for Monday (no lit. class on Friday):
Read: Milton’s Sonnet XIX (”On His Blindness”) and blog an answer to either question 2 or 3 –>pg. 467.

Read: Pepys ‘The Fire of London’ –> pg. 498+

Your Poster Assignment has been extended and will now be due Monday, Feb. 20th .

Next week, we will read through Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” If you want to get a jump on this, I suggest you read the intro. to this work on pg. 462-3.
I will also give you time in Monday and Wednesday’s class to work on your posters (about half the class).

Have a great rest of your week!

Donne – A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning
First off, the title really strikes me here. I have to admit, I had to look up valediction in the dictionary.

“Valediction: saying farewell; a taking leave, an instance of this, a speech made at this time” (Webster’s New English Dictionary and Thesaurus, 623)

Hmmm… the multifaceted meanings of this word suggest a couple of different things…ok, so he is saying farewell. Consider the following footnote from my massive University text:

Izaak Walton speculated that this poem was addressed to Donne’s wife on the occasion of his trip to the Continent [Europe -- remember, the UK is an Island] in 1611, but there is no proof of that. Donne was, however, apprehensive about that trip; Walton also heard that, while abroad, Donne had a startling vision of his wife holding a dead baby at about that time she gave birth to a stillborn child (Adams, Greenblatt, et al. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol 1 of 2. 1248 )

Yikes…heavy stuff!
So, Donne’s title could be referring to his wife in an attempt to help her work through her grief, but the title suggests that mourning be forbidden…hmmm….

The first stanza seems to examine how some people speculate when death will occur. It is confusing, but seems to suggest that ‘virtuous men’ die in a composed or ‘mild’ way (ln 1), telling their souls it is time to give up their body (2). This occurs while their friends sit around debating whether or not they are dead (3-4).

Second stanza – here comes the forbidding part… he calls for no noise (5), no big show of tears (6)

Then we jump into this discussion of earthquakes…and how it scares people (9) and they discuss the meaning behind them…ie was there some kind of judgment there from above, or is it a dark omen (10)

Donne seems to state ‘we’ (here I can’t help but jump to think it is him and his wife he is talking of….see where footnotes get you?!) have a love that is so pure (”so much refined” {17}) that it is foreign (18)

Ahhh…here comes the great part, in my opinion, and the part that may suggest or allude to the idea of Donne writing this to his wife prior to leaving on his journey. Line 22- 24 suggest that although they are parting ways, their love will be stretched out like gold–still in tact, still as beautiful and ‘refined’ as ever. I hate to say this because it sounds a bit corny, but it is like Donne is saying ‘our love will be a bridge that keeps us connected’ hmmm…bad metaphor. I apologize, but I think you get what I am meaning. Remember, they didn’t have e-mail or cell phones. This journey would be a long and arduous one (yikes, big word…better look it up to make sure it means what I think it means….yes! Thank you, Webster). Translation = they would be apart for a long time. I am sure any of you would love to hear someone you love say such a thing. Believe me when I say that when someone is saying it to you, someone you love, it isn’t corny.

Ok, so the reference to a compass (a great simile, no?) is not to a magnetic one, but to a compass you would find in your math set…you know, the one that people use to poke their classmates with during class (ok, so maybe you could use it for better things. My friends used to spread out the legs and put a rubber band between it…makes for a great improvised slingshot!). So, if people in love are two separate people, like Donne and his wife (25), they are still joined by their souls (27-28), or Donne’s wife is the one that keeps them steady by staying at home “Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show / To move” (27-28).

This is cool…continuing the simile about the compass, Donne suggests the one who stays fixed will somehow extend him or herself out after the one who is away “Yet when the other far doth roam, / It leans and hearkens after it” (30-31). He says that the person’s constancy is the anchor for himself, that brings him home: “Thy firmness makes my circle just / And makes me end where I begun” (35-36). What a beautiful ending!

I must say, when I first read this poem (yes, it is a first read for me), I ended wondering why they chose to put it in this course. I didn’t really understand it, but after reading it a second time and spending some time thinking on it, it is a great poem!

“Death Be Not Proud (Holy sonnet #10)” – uses apostrophe! and personification! (line1) also is a variation on iambic pentameter (ten syllables per line) and rhyme scheme abba , abba, cddc, ee (3 quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet)
A great poem…
ln1-2 – death don’t be so proud, you aren’t so great
3-4 ref. to salvation? Those death “thinks thou dost overthrow/ Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me” (again, apostrophe here)
Donne acknowledges that death takes even ‘our best men’ (7)
Donne sees death as being subservient to ‘fate, chance,’ the act of rulers, and desperation (i.e. murder, suicide) (9), sickness, and war (10) instead of having the ability to act of its own accord.
He also makes reference to the use of opium and magic as either a means to achieve a more powerful death-like state, or to kill (i.e. overdose and curses?) (11)

the end couplet is a Christian declaration (or can be seen as such) — as we will awake to eternity (13) and Death will be conquered ref to I Cor. 15:26 — amazing jubilant ending! Death, however, has already been conquered.

Herrick, “To the Virgins…” a short one – rhyming couplets…
ln1 jumps out at me— it is a line quoted in a song by Sixpence None the Richer called ‘Meaningless,’ that I used to listen to. The song basically talks about how life is meaningless, like the book of Ecclesiastes does.
“So gather ye rosebuds while ye may
tomorrow you could lie in a silent grave
pawing the dust and awaiting the end of time
meaningless, it’s all meaningless
all my life and labour is foolish
and now I don’t have a reason to live anymore” – Matt Slocum (Sixpence None the Richer)

I think the song echoes Ecclesiastes and also echoes the meaning of Herrick’s poem, that being our earthly life can be spent on trivial things and have it go by without us doing anything of value. Compare this to Herrick’s assertion that, “this same flower that smiles to day / To morrow will be dying” (Herrick, ln 3-4).

Lines 5-8 reflect on how time is ticking. Herrick relates the quick passing of time to the path of the sun, stating that as it nears the peak of it’s path it is that much closer to setting…this can be likened to life; as we near the peak of our lives, where we feel like we have hit our stride, we are really about half done and that much closer to death.

Herrick definitely has a view that the ‘twilight years’ are not as pleasant as youth (9-12). He also seems to recommend using your time wisely: “Then be not coy, but use your time” (12), although he does not say to use it well, and recommends ‘the Virgins’ get married (13) {apparently he thinks a single and chaste life is a waste….strange}, stating that once they lose the beauty of youth, it will be that much harder to catch a mate (15).

Ok, call me crazy, but I have to make another Biblical connection here. The title begs the comparison to Christ’s parable of the Virgins heading to the wedding feast, which is backed up by the content of the poem. If you recall, the virgins spend most of their time unwisely, and end up being late for the wedding feast. Herrick’s reference to ‘gathering rosebuds’ (1) is one of wasting time.