William Carlos Williams:
The Last Words of My English Grandmother
This is Just to Say (pg 586)
To a Poor Old Woman
Nantucket
The Young Housewife
The Dance
A Sort of Song
The Sparrow
IN THE LAB: Continue writing your poem drafts. Just as you would summarize or highlight the important moments of a novel or longer, short story--use parts in your poem, as Williams and Stafford do. You have two options:
A. Create your own story. Choose a character, a setting, a theme, etc. Then consider your plot. What happens in the beginning (inciting incident, rising action, etc.) Start by summarizing the important parts of your story and breaking them into at least 3 parts (you may break your story into as many parts as you'd like, as long as you have a minimum of 3) Ex. i. Beginning, ii. middle, iii end or i. morning ii. afternoon iii. evening, or i. birth ii. childhood, iii. adolescence, iv. young adulthood, v. adulthood, vi. middle age, vii. old age, etc.
B. Borrow a well known story from someplace else. Use a fairy tale, or favorite short story, or film, or well-known classic novel, and take the most important scene(s) from the story and break the story into at least 3 parts. Basically, you are doing the same as A above, but using source material from outside of your own creation. Consider: Historical events, myths, legends, fairy tales, Bible stories, or any thing else your audience would be familiar with. Avoid choosing stories that only you have read. borrow ideas from English/Social Studies classes, etc.
C. Extra credit poem draft: "The Last Words of my English Grandmother"--write the last words of someone you know who has passed, OR write the last words of a fictional character. Write the first words a child says to parent. Make a poem of it!
C. Extra credit poem draft: "This is Just to Say" is a refrigerator note. Write a
FOUND poem of your own.
C. Extra credit poem draft: Williams often writes TO his subject. Choose a subject and address it: speak to a city, a person, a thing/object, an idea, or action.
Period 8: please choose one of the poets on the sheet going around the room and begin researching and reading this poet's work.
All poets can be found at this
website:
The Poetry Foundation.
Begin researching and taking notes about the details of your author's life. Who is he/she? Where did he/she live? What is he/she known for? What influences or philosophy or historical events helped shape this poet's work? What themes does the poet seem to favor in his/her poetry? How does this poet fit into the period in which the author wrote, and how does the poet influence poets AFTER he/she wrote? What happened to this poet? What major works/awards/books did this poet create/achieve/obtain? What other interesting things about your poet's life and work did you find interesting or important?
Write your notes into a 1 page script. You will be using this script for the next step in the project.
HOMEWORK: Complete anything of the above that you have not finished in class.
D.H. Lawrence: Please read the poems "From: Love Poems & Others--1913" and from "Amores (1916)" (pages 1-12).
Drawing evidence from the poems from these pages, write a paragraph review of D.H. Lawrence's poetry: what is his style? What did you notice about his style? How does Lawrence use poetic crafting techniques in his poetry? (look for imagery, style, meter, stanza form, diction, tone, theme, figurative language, etc.)
