Saturday, November 20, 2021

Final Announcements and Paper #4

 Just a few announcements as we end our journey in Composition 1: please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns at jgrasso@ecok.edu. 

1. Our class is technically over now (except for Paper #4--see below) so there are no more class meetings. 

2. All revisions are due no later than Friday, December 3rd (the week before finals). I won't accept any late revisions, so if you want to revise Papers 1-3, this is the time to do it.

3. Paper #4 is also due no later than Friday, December 3rd. Normal late policies will be in effect for this paper (see syllabus for details). 

FIGURING OUT YOUR GRADE

4. Since I don't post grades on Blackboard, you're more than welcome to e-mail me about your current grade. But remember, here's how to figure out your grade:

a, Papers #1-2 are worth 15 pts. On your rubric I told you how many points you got on these (so add both of them up).

b. Paper #3 is worth 10 points, so add you grade on this to the previous tally.

c. If you missed more than 4 classes, subtract 10 points from this tally.

d. In-Class and Daily Responses are worth 45 points. Add 45 to your tally.

e. BUT, If you missed more than 4 daily responses, subtract 10 points from this tally. If you missed more than 6 daily responses, subtract 15 points.

f. Right now, since we haven't turned in Paper #4, your grade is out of  85 points. So add up your tally and divide it by 85. That's your grade. 

So for example, let's say a student got 12/15 on Paper #1 and 9/15 on Paper #2, and 7/10 on Paper #3. That adds up to 28 points. The student didn't miss more than 4 classes, and didn't miss more than 4 daily responses. So their current grade is 73/85. Divide 73 into 85 and you get an 85 B (or .8588 technically). 

If you're not sure how many classes or responses you missed, feel free to e-mail me, since I keep a strict record of these. 

Good luck on Paper #4! The assignment is pasted below: 

Paper #4: The Allegory

For your fourth (and final!) paper, I want you to write a short allegory using the CENTRAL METAPHOR from the poems/songs in Paper #3. That’s why your Paper #3 was so important: I wanted you to get ‘inside’ each poem so you could see how the metaphors translated one experience in terms of another. So now you’ll do the same thing: write a story using Paper #3’s metaphor that can be read allegorically. This is NOT a poem, but a story told symbolically through figurative language and metaphors.

But here’s the catch: your allegory has to do at least ONE of the following:

  • SETTING: set the story in the distant past OR the distant future
  • CHARACTERS: tell the story using animals OR robots instead of people
  • CONTEXT: tell the story from a different perspective: as a football game, or a chess match, or a college class, or a five-course meal at a fancy restaurant, etc.

REMEMBER, an allegory is defined as “a more or less symbolic fictional narrative that conveys a secondary meaning (or meanings) not explicitly set forth in the literal narrative.” So tell a story that starts IN THE MIDDLE, and is set in a different SETTING, or with different CHARACTERS, or through a different CONTEXT to create distance, and use METAPHORS to help us see it.

FOR EXAMPLE, we read the poem “Ithaka” (p.3) with its metaphor that “home is a journey, not a destination.” So imagine a story about cats who escape the pound looking for the garage they were all born in—but find other homes along the way. Or a story about a soccer team playing a game where they’re completely outmatched, and by not worrying about winning anymore, they play the best soccer of their lives (but still lose). Whatever you decide to do, make sure your reader can see that the story isn’t literal: it’s not really about cats or soccer matches. It’s about US and OUR LIVES, just told in a symbolic manner.

REQUIREMENTS

  • 3-4 pages, double spaced
  • Follows one of the 3 requirements above: Setting, Characters, Context
  • Tells a story—doesn’t just summarize the meaning
  • Uses metaphors in the story that hints at the CENTRAL METAPHOR for Paper #3
  • DUE NO LATER THAN FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3rd by 5pm!
  • NOTE: All revisions are due on this date as well!

 

Friday, November 5, 2021

For Tuesday: Poems from "Home, Rest, and Final Voyages"



REMEMBER, Paper #3 is due next Thursday by 5pm [no class!] See the assignment sheet two posts down--and be sure to read it before you start the paper, to make sure you remember what you're being asked to respond to.

For Tuesday, read the following poems:

* McKay, "The Tropics in New York," p.49

* Lazarus, "The New Colossus," p.50

* Bronte, "Home," pp.50-51 

* Dunbar, "Anchored," p.52

* Rossetti, "Up-Hill," pp.55-56

* de la Mare, "The Listeners," pp.56-57

* Dickinson, "The Chariot," p.58-58

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: The poem, "The New Colossus" was written to accompany a pedestal on the Statue of Liberty, and refers literally to the Statue itself, which was one of the first things glimpsed by immigrants coming to the New World. What metaphors or imagery does she use in this poem to help translate the experience of America for the immigrant? What does she want them to 'see' America as (besides a statue, of course!). 

Q2: The last three poems are explicitly about the experience of death, and what this might mean to the world of the living. How do they try to translate something of the experience for the reader (discuss at least one of them). Do you find it consoling/hopeful, or dark/pessimistic? 

Q3: "Anchored" is another poem by the famous poet, Paul Dunbar, who also wrote "Sympathy" and "Ships That Pass in the Night." How does this poem also share something of the same theme as those poems? What separates the speaker from the "sweeter life afar"? 

Q4: Who are "The Listeners" in the poem of the same name? At first it seems like they're the invisible spirits of the house, who ignore the Traveler's knocking. Yet could the Traveler be the one who is dead? Any clues in the poem and the metaphors themselves? 

Saturday, October 30, 2021

For Tuesday: "Sea, Rail, and Sky" (poems below)


SORRY--the questions didn't post on Thursday, and I apologize for missing this! You'll find them below...

READ the following poems: "Sea-Fever, Exaltation is in the Going, Exiled, All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters, From the Shore, Ships That Pass In the Night, Travel, I Like To See It Lap the Miles, Taking the Night Train, Night Journey, Window, High Flight, The Journey is Everything, Sympathy

Answer TWO of the following:

Q1: Why do so many poems use the metaphor of  "night journey" in their poems? How does traveling through the night help us see/experience life in a different way? Use at least one of these poems to explain this. 

Q2: Dunbar's poem, "Sympathy," is one of the most quoted American poems in the 20th century, with its familiar refrain, "I know why the caged bird sings!" What is being compared to a "caged bird" in this poem? Who might identify with the bird's song/experience? Clues in the poem itself?

Q3: Why do you think so many poems are drawn to water as a metaphor for human experience? How does it lend itself to many other interpretations? Consider a poem like "All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters," which states, "I hear the noise of waters/Far below,/All day, all night, I hear them flowing/To and fro." How does this relate to the way many of this poems talk about (or observe) the "water" all around them?

Q4: Some poems play a guessing game with the reader, and refuse to tell them outright what the subject of the poem actually is. Only be deciphering the clues in the poem (and the metaphor) can we guess its secret identity. For example, what is the poem "I like to see it lap the miles" actually about? And why might it resemble a horse to the poet? 

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Paper #3: The Abstract

 


Your next assignment is in two parts: Paper #3 (Abstract) and Paper #4 (Allegory). I’ll talk more about Paper #4 in a few weeks. But here’s a hint: writing Paper #3 will give you everything you need to write Paper #4. That’s why I’m calling it an “abstract,” since an abstract is usually a summary or statement of a given work. I’m basically making you think about the conversation which will inform your final paper.

THE ABSTRACT: From our book Songs for the Open Road, I want you to find 2-3 poems that seem to use the same general or specific metaphor. Don’t just write about poems that talk about death, or time, etc., but a specific way they talk about time. For example, both “The Sacred” (p.12) and “Pennsylvania Station” (p.38) talk about cars and train stations as churches. The poets describe each one in terms of something holy, which helps people go on pilgrimages to find themselves and attain peace. Discuss how your poems translate these metaphors into a real experience of life. Don’t just summarize them; help us see the way each poem uses specific words, images, and ideas to alter our perspective through the metaphor. ALSO, explain why you find this metaphor meaningful…how do you relate to this metaphorical concept?

OR, you can use 2-3 poems and songs from anywhere in the world, as long as they develop the same general metaphor and you can clearly show this connection. Using our book is easier, since the poems are all there, and we’re going to discuss the majority of them. But if you have other poems or songs that are meaningful to you, and that you feel can better contribute to this assignment, be my guest.

Remember, the more you analyze these poems and understand how they develop their shared metaphor, the easier Paper #4 will be to write! (hint, hint).

REQUIREMENTS:

  • No page limit, as long as you write something meaningful
  • Find 2-3 poems or songs that share a similar metaphor or theme
  • Discuss the metaphor/theme clearly in your paper: don’t just say “these two poems both talk about death in different ways.”
  • Explain why this metaphor is meaningful to you and your experience

ABSTRACT DUE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11th BY 5pm [no class that day]

Friday, October 22, 2021

For Tuesday: Selected Poems from Songs for the Open Road (see below)



For Tuesday's class, I want you to read the following poems:

* "The Land of Beyond," pages 8-9

* Roadways," pages 9-10

* Highway," page 11

* The Sacred," page 12

* The Road Not Taken," page 13

* "Acquainted With the Night," page 14

* "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," page 15

* "Escapist--Never," page 18

Then, choose ONE of them to answer the following questions:

Q1: What is the controlling metaphor of the poem? For example, is it something like, "life is like a dream," or "a car is like your soul," etc.? Explain how the poem develops this basic metaphor through one of the lines of the poem. Why does this change the way we understand or experience this basic metaphor?

Q2: Discuss a line in the poem that doesn't make immediate sense. Or, a line that seems to mean one thing, but after re-reading it, could also mean something else. Explain how we might read and understand this line, and what makes the line confusing or ambiguous (with more than one meaning). 

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

For Thursday: Songs for the Open Road: Poems below...



On Tuesday, we discussed how common figurative language is in our society, and how almost everything we say and think contains a metaphor. Here's a brief refresher for those who either missed class or accidentally "dozed off" (to use one of the metaphors we discussed!).

1. Everyday speech is made up of metaphors, because we can't think abstractly. We need to place concepts such as time, sleep, love, death, belief, etc., into concrete terms that relate to something we do know. A metaphor (or simile) puts one things into terms of another to make the unknown knowable, or to suggest another aspect of this idea. 

2. For example: "I fell asleep," "I woke up." Both are metaphors. You don't "fall" asleep, since you can fall asleep sitting up, standing up, or simply laying down. "Falling" is a metaphor that explains the process of "going" to sleep...you feel like you're free falling into a state of unconsciousness. When you wake up, you feel like you're rising "up" into consciousness. Both are metaphors that explain a strange, abstract process that we otherwise wouldn't have words for.

3. Other common ones (see if you can get these): "Can I borrow your time?" "I have time to kill." "Life's a bitch," "No, love's a bitch." "I am SO over him." "Your school called looking for you." "Table #3 wants his check." 

4. Since all of these metaphors are so common, we no longer recognize them as poetry. So what poetry does is make NEW metaphors out of old ideas, so we can see the world through a new lens or perspective. One of the most common metaphors that poetry likes to play with is: "Life is a Journey." Most of the poems in this collection use this general metaphor to create hundreds of new poems that suggest new ways to understand what life is, how we live it, and what the purpose of living truly is.

READ THE POEMS ON PAGES 1-7 FOR THURSDAY, THEN CHOOSE ONE POEM TO ANSWER ALL THREE QUESTIONS:

Q1: Discuss an interesting metaphor in the poem that makes you see one thing/idea in terms of something very different. How does it work, and what makes it so new or interesting for you?

Q2: How does this poem use the idea "life is a journey" in a new or interesting way? How do we see life, growing old, dying, or exploring new things in terms of something different? Does the poem make you more hopeful about life, or more pessimistic about life? 

Q3: Poems are songs, meant to be read aloud and sometimes, even set to music and sung (song lyrics are also poems, though we rarely read them without the music). If this poem were a song, what kind of music would it be? How would this kind of music help us 'hear' the meaning of the song? 

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

See You Next Week: Tuesday, Oct.19th

REMEMBER that Paper #2 is due today by 5pm! The assignment sheet is on the blog, but you can also click here: https://grassocomp1.blogspot.com/2021/10/paper-2-assignment-curriculum-of-travel.html

No class on Thursday since it's FALL BREAK, but we'll be back the following class day, on Tuesday, to start the second part of the course. We'll be looking at metaphors of travel, and how poetry can change how we understand the concept of travel and how it can affect (and improve) our writing. 

Be sure you  have the book Songs for the Open Road: Poems of Travel and Adventure for next week. You don't have to read anything for Tuesday, but I'll give you a reading assignment for the following Thursday.

Let me know if you have any questions! Enjoy the break...