agenda Fri Apr 29:The Samurai’s Garden

F / 10:30

H / 1:50

learning goal: what is the difference between analysis of and personal response to a chosen passage?

teacher model entry (remember all of your entries focus on one of these characters: Stephen, Sachi, Matsu)

individual time to compose first “Autumn” entry (for each chapter, you write two entries; an entry has three parts–passage, analysis, personal response)

if time allows, read into “Winter”

 

due next Poetry Day (Mon May 9)

Everyone brings a poem to class.  For extra credit, interested people may also submit a “PDF” with their poem (TURNITIN box: EC Chinese poem PDF) by 8am Mon May 9.  See this link  for PDF instructions.

You have two assignment choices, based on our studies from the Poetry Day on Tue Apr 26.

Assignment Context: On that day you wrote at least one example in the style of a jueju, the  basic instructions for which you have in your Poetry Folder.  After people shared their poems with classmates, we briefly looked at a poem by Li Bai, who wrote during the T’ang Dynasty in China, a little over a thousand years ago.  That poem is also in your folder.  I pointed out that in Li Bai’s poem the majority of phrases are rooted in concrete imagery.  This attention to imagery is one of the Chinese poetic tradition’s greatest gifts to us, three thousand years later.

Towards the end of class, we looked briefly at a poem you already know, James Wright’s “A Blessing.”  Why this poem?  Because some people say, and Mr. Wright has probably also said, that his poetry is influenced by Li Po (another name for Li Bai).  During class, I asked you to underline examples of concrete imagery in his poem.

Lastly, remember that I asked you about the mood of each poem (the feelings or atmosphere evoked by a poem).  I then asked–though we spent little time on this question–how do metaphors, imagery and structure help build the mood of either poem?

Assignment Choice #1

Write a poem in the style of a jueju, with at least four couplets.  Although this is one poem, each of its couplets expresses a distinct idea.  Make strong use of concrete imagery from the natural world.  Ideally, this poem expresses longing for someone or something .  If you want other examples of this particular style of poetry, see the “Context” tab for this poem–from the Words Without Borders site.

Assignment Choice #2

Write a poem about an experience or person(s) you see as a blessing.  James Wright’s poem describes a unique experience that he remembers as a blessing to him and his friend.  Wright uses twenty-four lines, and I ask you to write at least twenty for this assignment.  Make yours a free verse poem: no meter, and no regular end rhyme.  Finally, and here’s the part that overlaps between these two assignment choices, make strong use of concrete imagery from the natural world, just as many Chinese poets have done across the years.

due Fri Apr 29: online survey

Before Friday’s class, please complete this online survey administered by the group Words Without Borders.  They supplied the poems and background for the Egyptian and Chinese poets we recently studied (Iman Mersal and Li Bai).

 

Thank you for participating in this pilot project.  Your feedback helps the group continue to improve their materials and widen their reach.

Student Survey 

 

Thank you again.  It’s been a pleasure studying poetry with you.

agenda Wed Apr 27: Poetry Day, Li Bai

H / 8:30

F / 11:45

learning goal: What is a jueju? What does this style of poetry do best?  How and why?

two stories: gift book, poetry school

writing exercise

mood in Li Bai’s poem

mood in James Wright’s poem

assignment for next Poetry Day (e.c. option)

photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/LiBai.jpg

 

Reading Schedule for THE SAMURAI’S GARDEN

Please have read these chapters (by these days):

 

Autumn (Fri Apr 29)

Winter, Spring, Summer (Fri May 6)

Autumn (Fri May 13)

 

As you read, mark the margins for passages likely to enter your journal.

agenda: End of Macbeth, start of novel

H / 10:30

F / 1:50

learning goal: How do Macbeth’s speeches preceding his death compare to those of Lady Macbeth shortly before we learn of her death?  What does this comparison reveal about the essential natures of these two characters?

introduction to Gail Tsukiyama’s novel, The Samurai’s Garden, and journal assignment

film of Act Five

SIB quizzes with any time left

due Mon Apr 25: finish reading MACBETH

With or without guidance from “Shakespeare in Bits,” finish reading the play before class starts on Monday, April 25.

As you read the last act, consider the final condition of Macbeth’s conscience.  For example, how much does or does it not resemble the final condition of Lady Macbeth’s conscience?

agenda Thu Apr 21: M & M

F / 8:30

H / 11:45

learning goal: how does the Malcolm-Macduff resolve itself?  What does the exchange reveal about the state of Scotland?

due Thu Apr 21: read 4.3 in MACBETH

Before next class, read Act 4 Scene 3 and continue the outline that I demonstrated and you copied in Tuesday’s class (see attachments below).

Continue the basic pattern of alternating entries for Malcolm and Macduff, providing titles and line excerpts as you see fit.  The titles may change sightly for you, as you complete the outline to the end of Scene 3. You decide how many entries to add to the outline I provided.  Basically, this exercise (my start and your completion) tracks the evolving exchange of ideas between Malcolm and Macduff during a desperate time for their home country.  Up through lines 87-8 (my last entry), the ideas move back and forth between large (Scottish) and small (personal) concerns.  In other words, the broad climate of destruction under Macbeth’s tyranny causes people to fear and distrust one another.  Your homework is to map the last fifty lines of this scene–to see how the dialogue ends up for Macduff and Malcolm.

 

Macbeth / Global and Personal

 

TYRANNY

. . . as if it [heaven] felt with Scotland (4.3.7) Macduff

 

MISTRUST

you have loved him well (4.3.13) Malcolm

 

TYRANNY

Bleed, bleed, poor country (4.3.32)

 

MISTRUST

. . . all the particulars of vice (4.3.51)

 

TRUST

yet do not fear, / Scotland hath foisons . . . (4.3.87-8)

agenda Tue Apr 19: national and personal in MACBETH

F / 10:30

H / 1:50

learning goal: How do the national and personal overlap in the conversations between Malcolm and Macduff?