Response paper # 2 and Visual Poetry

You are free to choose any poem from “Poems for further reading” (Backpack Literature p. 581- 659) to write about (except D. H. Lawrence’s “Piano”). Choose at least three of the following perspectives to offer your interpretation of the poem.

• Diction (word choice and word order)
• Denotation and Connotation
• Imagery
• Metaphor
• Myth
• Rhythm
• Symbol
• Tone

You will write about the poem on both personal and academic levels. Do extensive library research on the poet and the historical context of the poem, if any, as well as the literary criticism that the poem has received. Also, in the analysis, tell us about how you resonate with the poem in the same ways that your favorite long lyric moves you inside.

A more exciting part is probably creating a visual representation of the poem on Animoto.com by using your “plus” account (you will need to click here to sign up by using the promo code you received in your email). Find images online and blend them with the verses and music to show the essence of the poem in a visually stunning way. If you happen to land on the relatively long poem with many stanzas, you may select the most important stanza or reweave the whole poem by picking the most telling verses.

The visual poem needs to be longer than 60 seconds.

You can type in limited amount text for each slide on Animoto. There are two ways to deal with restriction.

• You may break a long verse into smaller segments. That means you will need to find more images to “cover” the verse.
• You may paraphrase the verse to shorten it (more instructions on p. 393 in Backpack Literature). This is a somewhat risky approach because you may alter/lose things that you do not want to alter/lose in the poem.

In sum, you will email one document to me (lxie@fairfield.edu). The first part is an analytical response essay about the poem, and the second part is a reflective essay that tells us about your making of the visual poem, including where you found the images, what are the keywords you used to find these images, why you used these images, how you paired the images with the verses, and whether the visual practice helped you understand the poem a little better. Do not forget to include the web address of the slideshow.

Of course, you will get two grades – one for the analytical essay and the other for the visual poem.

The analytical essay should be 2.5-3 pages double-spaced with at least 3 scholarly sources in MLA style (“Works Cited” page and in-text citations are required). Limit the reflective essay to 2 pages.

Deadline: 11pm, April 17. Subject line: EN 12 visual poetry

How to get the link of the slideshow

You can find the “Share” button above your slideshow. Click it and go to “Share the link”  and your will see the link.

 

Lyric/Music on Thursday (Mar 31)

I guess this is one of the more entertaining assignments you will ever have in your college life. It is very simple.

(1) Find a song you like and have the lyric ready to be shown on the projector screen. The lyric must at least somewhat resemble the form of a poem.

(2) Read the lyric out loud for us and tell us something like why you like it, why it goes well with the music, its connotation, etc.

(3) Play the music (via itune or other MP3 programs) and let’s enjoy it.

Reading for W8

By Monday (Mar. 7), please read an introduction to Theme (p. 171-174) and Dead Men’s Path by Chinua Achebe (p.174).

By Thursday (Mar. 10), read pages on tone, style, and diction (p. 139-140), as well as A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway (p. 142).

Response Essay: Symbolism in “The Lottery”

Here’s another intellectual quest you will take in this course. We have discussed extensively in the class about various symbols in The Lottery. In your essay, elaborate on how symbols are used throughout the story to communicate with the reader. Quote specific passages in the text as necessary.

Symbols are often universally understood signs. In additional to your analysis, you will journey the visual world and find visual arts such as photographs, paintings, sculptures, cartoon, etc to show the universality of the symbols in the story. For example, how is the black color used in visual arts to convey the same connotations suggested by Jackson? For another example, Jackson played tactically with the free-floating relationship between the signifier and the signified (still remember semiotics?) by offering a shocking meaning to the Lottery as a symbol.  So, what is the visual presentation of the Lottery in popular culture that contributes our astonishment by the story’s climax? Find 2-3 such images and relate them to the symbols in the story.

Copy and paste the graphics in the Word document. Indicate the author, year, and context of the images, if applicable, in your essay. You have great freedom to organize your paper. The bottom line is to integrate your visual analysis with your analysis of the story.

You will need to include at least three citations in MLA style. Note that all the cited materials should come from books or scholarly journals; no Web page should be used. You do NOT need to cite the visual works. The library session on Monday should help you find those sources.

Write 4-5 pages (not including bibliography) using Times New Roman, double-spaced.

Deadline: Staple your response essay and turn it in on March 3 (Thursday) in class. Also send an email to me before the deadline using the subject line lottery analysis. The purpose of submitting an electronic copy is that I then have access to the color images.

Enjoy!

[Writing Practicue] Research on Allan Poe and “The Tell-Tale Heart”

The young madman killed the old man for no apparent reason, which is one of the mysteries the writer left in this classic thriller. Do a little research on Edgar Allan Poe’s personal life and explore how his own experience (especially father-son relationship) informed the murder. Does your research offer a new way to look at the story? If so, how?

Email your response to me (lxie@fairfield.edu) using subject line “Poe analysis” by the end of the day today (Feb. 3).