Monday, April 4, 2016

Week #3 - April 4-10, 2016

I hope you enjoyed your week with Nathaniel Hawthorne. We will spend this week with Edgar Allan Poe's poetry.  Poe will certainly send a few chills up your spine! Enjoy! Next week we will look at his short stories.

Assignment #1: With Poe, his life experiences influenced his writing.
Research:
  1.  His early years,
  2.  His education and work experiences,
  3. His loves, challenges, and hardships.
  4. His writings, fame, and fortune,
  5. and his death.
Be sure to include in-text citations and a Works Cited segment.

This of this as a brochure of Poe. Break your responses into the five sections listed above. You may create a brochure, or you may write a Word document and break it into the five sections. (50 points)

Sources: (Feel free to conduct additional research. These are good places to start.)                         

Discussion Board #3
Topic: Phobias
http://phobialist.com/reverse.html (Alphabetical listing of phobias)
Definition of phobia: An extremely strong dislike or fear of someone or something / an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phobia)
The Mayo Clinic site offers a more detailed definition. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/phobias/basics/definition/CON-20023478

Take a look at the list of phobias. Think about you own experiences and the experiences of others. Also consider the use of phobias in books, movies, stories, and poetry. Share your thoughts. How do phobias impact life?

Snakes - I guess I have something in common with Indiana Jones of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame. I dislike snakes. I boldly profess that I am not terrified of them and have even held and saved a little green garden snake that was in my yard and being tormented by the neighbors. I know that little green garden snakes are helpful and keep down the harmful insect population. I also know that they cannot poison anyone or anything. It wasn't much of an act of courage to pick  up the foot-long creature and place it in the swamp behind my Virginia house.

Now rattle snakes are another story. Here in Arizona we are living in their territory. I stepped out on my porch one hot afternoon and heard a strange hissing sound that was just like the sound the sprinkling system makes when watering the lawn. It was the wrong time of day for that. As I looked around, I realized that the sound was coming from the garden area by my feet. Yes, there it was. A three foot long rattle snake was curled up by my toes. I screamed and jumped past it.- a stupid thing to do. I should have kept on going out to the yard. However, once safely in the house, I called everyone I could think of to come and get the snake. Perhaps they were as frightened of snakes as I was because by the time any help arrived, the poor, lost creature had slithered its way back to the desert.

Do I have a phobia? Perhaps. I choose to think of it as a healthy respect for things that can kill me!

Assignment #2 - Poe's Poetry

A college English professor of mine once said that Poe thought that there was nothing more beautiful in this world than the death of a beautiful woman. Take a look at the following poems.

1. "Annabelle Lee" http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174151
   Musical Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAtSCz9ixWs
   A short film version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBvfLiI5uY8
2. "For Annie" http://poestories.com/read/annie
Audio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt2-BtoO8Fc
3. "The Sleeper" http://poestories.com/read/sleeper
  A visual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXERNqKOCuM

Write a brief summary of each poem.
Then, write a concluding summary noting the similarities among the three. Did Poe show beauty in death?

Assignment #3
"The Raven"
This is one of Poe's most famous works.
Read the poem. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713
or Listen to the poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuGZ_wp_i9w
or read and listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BefliMlEzZ8 

1.There are several mythological allusions in this poem. Pick one. Research. Explain what the reference has to do with the poem.
  • Angels
  • Plutonian shore
  • Seraphim
  • Pallas
  • Balm in Gilead
  • Nepenthe
2. Why a raven? Conduct research and find out the history and life of ravens. Write a paragraph or two. Then explain -  In what ways does the choice of a raven add to the poem? What if this were "The Robin" or "The Eagle"? What impact would the change in birds have on the poem?

3. Look up the meaning of "Lenore." What does the name mean? Thinking back on Poe's life, is Lenore someone from his past? Explain.

4. What Gothic elements do you see in this poem. Does the time of the feathered visitor impact the story? What about the flickering firelight? What other Gothic elements add to the story?

5. Think about it, was there really a raven? What happens to the narrator in the end? Justify you opinion with evidence from the poem.

Assignment #4
More Poe Poetry

Select two additional poems by Poe to study. http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/poe/poe_ind.html

Many of Poe's poems  are read on YouTube if you prefer listening in addition to reading.
1. Summarize each poem. (20 points)
2. Explain why you selected each. (10 points)
3. Then, select one of the two and create a visual collage to represent the poem. This can be done in Word or on a PowerPoint slide. Write a paragraph or two and explain your image choices. (20 points)

Total: 60 points


Reminder: Continue reading The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
http://www.learnlibrary.com/jekyll-hyde/
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42 (Some options)


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