Prompt for Tomorrow's In-Class Essay

     Discuss Shakespeare's use of setting in "Midsummer Night's Dream" to develop the plot, theme, and/or tone of the play. Do not merely summarize the play. Use pervasive present tense and strong verbs throughout. Implement a short and to the point introduction. Avoid trite expressions. Do NOT address the reader as "you." Avoid the use of "This" by itself. Do not write in fragments or use comma splices. Use correct subject/verb agreement. And lastly, for the sake of the deity of your choice, do not misspell "Shakespeare." 

You may consult your text if you like but do not get bogged down in reading/re-reading. This is a timed essay. No further time can be provided. 

Poetry test

Poetry Unit Test

Respond to the following prompts in completely developed, thoughtful sentences. As usual, rely primarily on the present tense, use active verbs, and avoid the common errors discussed so often in this class. You must write on your own paper. Do not skip lines.

A Song in the Front Yard

            Discuss the poet’s use of symbol in this poem.

My Papa’s Waltz

            Discuss how the poet’s connotatively rich diction ironically juxtaposes with events of the poem.

War is Kind

            Discuss how the poet develops irony to condemn glorification of war.

I wandered lonely as a cloud

            Discuss how this poem presents classically Romantic ideals.

Miniver Cheevy and Richard Cory

            Contrast the concept of alienation as developed in these two Robinson poems.

Meeting at Night

            Discuss the poet’s use of imagery to develop clandestine tension in this poem.

That time of year thou may’st in me behold

            Describe three metaphors Shakespeare uses to clarify the speaker’s age.

The Double Play

            To what two non-athletic concepts does the poet compare a double play?

The Battle

            Describe how the poet uses figurative language to de-humanize the soldiers.

A Poison Tree

            What does Blake suggest about anger in this poem?

           

The Road Not Taken

            Why is this poem a nearly perfect poem for high school seniors to read?

Because I could not stop for Death

            Discuss the concept of death as developed in this poem.

The Man He Killed

            Describe the speaker in this poem. How does his social status strengthen the message of this poem?

The Universe

            What does Swenson say about human beings and our concept of the universe?

The Red Wheelbarrow

            Provide your reader with a grotesquely incorrect over-read of William Carlos Williams’ small poem.

When I heard the learn’d astronomer

            How is this poem a classically Romantic poem? Discuss.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love and The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd

            How does Raleigh’s speaker reply to Marlowe’s speaker and his offer?

The Chimney Sweeper

            Pathos has been defined as, “an emotion of sympathetic pity.” How does Blake develop pathos through Little Tom Dacre’s dream?

           

Dream Deferred

            Describe three of Hughes’ similes.

Extra Credit: Describe the most memorable moment from either the film “Darius Goes West” or the presentation itself. If you only were able to purchase a ticket rather than actually attend, simply write “Purchased Ticket” here.

Hint: Here is the soliloquy for tomorrow's MT

Spoken by  Hamlet, Hamlet Act 1 Scene 2:
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d
His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on’t! ah fie! ’tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month–
Let me not think on’t–Frailty, thy name is woman!–
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow’d my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears:–why she, even she–
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn’d longer–married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules: within a month:
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,
She married. O, most wicked speed, to post
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!
It is not nor it cannot come to good:
But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

The Mller's Tale

The Miller’s Tale Guide

After reading “The Miller’s Tale,” AP students should be able to respond to all of the following:

Describe all four characters in the tale—paying special attention to each character’s greatest desires. How does Chaucer use his descriptions to develop “character”? Which character looks the most foolish by the end of the tale? Why?

Describe Nicholas’ plot to sleep with Alyson. Why does he go to such lengths to achieve his goal? Nicholas has sometimes been described as “handy.” What does this mean?

In “The General Prologue,” Chaucer’s narrator describes the Miller as a brutish man who knows many “tavern” stories which are “filthy in the main.” Is his tale “filthy” by today’s standards? Were you shocked by it? What social class is the Miller making fun of? Why is this ironic? How does this irony relate to Chaucer’s overall satire of the middle class? How does this tale alter or relate to your preconceptions of older pieces of literature?

You are judging the story telling contest so far. Who wins? Why? Be specific.

It has been suggested in class that each pilgrim’s tale relates to his personality and/or his purpose for being on the trip to Canterbury. Is this also true for the Miller? Explain.

Chaucer assignment

Sorry for the delay! Here is a link to a website that has a good translation of the General Prologue. The assignment was to discuss (in a brief essay) how Chaucer uses his description of the Friar to satirize the Roman Catholic church of his day. Remember, whatever he says about the Friar, he is--to some degree--saying about the church.

Peace

http://pages.towson.edu/duncan/chaucer/duallang1.htm

Prompts for this Week's AP Essay

1. In some works of literature, a character who appears briefly, or does not appear at all, is a significant presence. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write an essay in which you show how such a character functions in the work. You may wish to discuss how the character affects action, theme, or the development of other characters. Avoid plot summary.

2. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Sterne wrote, "No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time."
     From a novel or play choose a character (not necessarily the protagonist) whose mind is pulled in conflicting directions by two compelling desires, ambitions, obligations, or influences. Then, in a well-organized essay, identify each of the two conflicting forces and explain how this conflict with one character illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. You may use one of the novels or plays listed below or another novel or work of similar literary quality.
3. Many works of literature not readily identified with the mystery or detective story genre nonetheless involve the investigation of a mystery. In these works, the solution to the mystery may be less important than the knowledge gained in the process of its investigation. Choose a novel or play in which one or more of the characters confront a mystery. Then write an essay in which you identify the mystery and explain how the investigation illuminates the meaning of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
4. Morally ambiguous characters - characters whose behavior discourages readers from identifying with them as purely good or purely evil - are at the heart of many works of literature.  Choose a novel or play in which a morally ambiguous character plays a pivotal role.  Then write and essay in which you explain how the character can be viewed as morally ambiguous and why his or her moral ambiguity is significant to the work as a whole.  Avoid mere plot summary.
5. Often in literature a character’s success in achieving a goal depends upon keeping a secret and divulging it only at the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that requires a character to keep a secret. In a well-organized essay, briefly explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character’s choice to reveal or keep the secret affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
6. According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power above them, more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass.  Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divine lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others.  Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
7. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures – national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character’s unique sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character’s response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole.

R and G are Dead Essays

Discuss how Stoppard uses the Players to further enhance Shakespeare's theme that life is a "play within a play."

Discuss how both the coin flipping and the question game show what Stoppard feels is the true nature of life.

Discuss how Hamlet in "The Tragedy of Hamlet" and R. and G. in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" are all caught up in a script written by someone else.

Choose one line from the play and discuss how it best sums up Stoppard's main theme.

Choose One