January Blog #1

Welcome back to the Spring Semester Bloggers!

I hope you had a great break! I'm excited for all of the fun stuff we have ahead of us to learn!

First, we begin with poetry... Here are the directions for this assignment:

1. Copy and paste one of your favorite poems onto your blog (don't forget to include the author!)

2. Below the poem, answer the following questions:
a. What is the point of view and who is the speaker?

b. What is the situation?

c. What is the main theme of this poem?

d. Cite one line that uses an "Element of Poetry" (i.e., metaphor, simile, alliteration, symbol, imagery, etc. Use your packet from class to help you understand each term).


After your citation, give me two sentences that analyze the significance of the element of
poetry.

Here is an example:

Nature's first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

By Robert Frost

a. The point of view is third person omniscient, and the speaker is unnamed, although I can see that he/she is wise, so maybe an older person.

b. The situation is that the speaker is declaring that all important/valuable things cannot last.

c. The most obvious theme of this poem is that all things that are beautiful, perfect, valuable, and/or precious are temporary and will not last.

d. When Frost writes in line 6 "So Eden sank to grief," he is alluding to the fall of Adam and Eve from the utopia of Eden. He does this not only to exemplify how perfection will inevitably be changed, but also to illustrate how humans are born fallable. By referencing Eden, Frost suggests that our destinies are largely determined by the sins of our actions. Since Eve ate the apple, so will humans err when possible, thus changing the outcome of our futures.

JANUARY BLOG #1 IS DUE BY 11:59:59 ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 19TH, 2010!