I. A FAREWELL TO ARMS –ERNEST HEMINGWAY

• SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE

• FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL

• “World War I”

II. POETRY

A. “PHASES” –WALLACE STEVENS

SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL“WORLD WAR I”

II. POETRY

B. “I HAVE A RENDEZVOUSWITH DEATH” –

ALAN SEEGER

SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL“WORLD WAR I”

II. POETRY

C. “BOMBARDMENT” –AMY LOWELL

SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL“WORLD WAR I”

II. POETRY

D. “WHERE IS JEHOVAH?” –MARY BORDEN

SENIOR DIVISION ENGLISH STUDY GUIDE FOR 2017-2018 SUPER BOWL“WORLD WAR I”

Two of the poems are available online through the Poetry Foundation:

• “Phases” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/12986

• “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/45077

Amy Lowell’s poem can be found through PoemHunter.com:

• “Bombardment” https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-bombardment/

Mary Borden’s poem can be found within an online collection:

• “Where Is Jehovah?” http://www.ourstory.info/library/2-ww1/Borden2/fz.html

APPROACHING THE NOVEL

HEMINGWAY’S STYLE

Modernist

• A turning away from Victorian values

• All things are relative

• Themes – alienation, loss, despair

• Focus on the individual

• Unstructured nature of life

• Open-ended symbolism

• Plain, unadorned, uncomplicated sentences

• But sometimes includes stream of consciousness

• Common, accessible diction

• Few adjective, fewer adverbs

• Concrete rather than abstract

• Paucity of conversational tags

• Repetition of images and diction

• Omission

DISCOVERING HEMINGWAY'S STYLE

•Read closely

•Read critically

•Discuss what is unusual, frustrating, attractive, real . . . about Hemingway’s style

•Describe his syntax, diction, means of characterization, themes

THE HEMINGWAY HERO

• Masculinity

• Alcohol

• Sensuous pleasure

• Reticence

• Bravery

• Individualism

• Stoicism

• Honor

• Action

• Adventurousness

• Inevitability/finality of death

THE HEMINGWAY HERO

• Frederic Henry

•Catherine Barkley

THE “NADA” PRINCIPLE

•Naturalistic world

•Devoid of purpose, order, meaning, value . . .

•An indifferent or hostile universe

RELATED MOTIFS

• DEATH – the great “nothing”

• DARKNESS – the unknowable; death; hostile world

• WAR – the pervasiveness of pain and death

• INSOMNIA – the irresistibility of the “nada”

• HOPELESSNESS – the inevitability of death

• RELIGION – avoided or denied

APPROACHING THE NOVEL

• Make a character list as you read, noting names, roles, relationships, and other interesting traits and even quotes. (It is also OK to consult summaries and commentaries after you have read a chapter or chapters. Most online resources will connect chapter by chapter.)

• Work with your teammates, reading according to a mutually agreed upon schedule (or a schedule established by your coach) and discussing when you have each reached an established set of chapters.

FIVE STEPS TO CAREFUL AND CLOSE READING OF FICTION

1. If possible, read the novel more than once.

2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it – or read near a computer and access an online dictionary.

3. Look up historical and geographical references and other allusions.

4. Keep track of characters, noting descriptions, attitudes, relationships, etc.

5. Keep a notebook, especially for the novel, noting character traits, values, and changes.

CHARACTERS: A CLOSER LOOK• Keep a running program of characters as they are

introduced. (There aren’t as many as you may think.)

• Note character relationships. (Attend to details that connect them – in positive or negative ways.)

• Note remarkable statements. (Note what characters say about themselves, about each other, and about their situations and circumstances, looking for details that develop not only their personalities but also the plot and theme.)

PLOT: A CLOSER LOOK•Note physical conflicts that are focal points of the action.

•Note mental conflicts that motivate characters.

•Note emotional conflicts that develop and define relationships.

•Note moral conflicts and resolutions that define characters and point to themes.

MOTIF

According to Holman’s Handbook to Literature, a motif may be recognized in “recurrent images, words, objects, phrases, or actions that tend to unify the work”

A motif supports or develops a theme, but is not a theme itself.

SYMBOLS IN A FAREWELL TO ARMS

According to A Handbook to Literature (Seventh Edition), a SYMBOL is “itself and also stands for something else.”

“In a literary sense a symbol combines a literal and sensuous quality with an abstract or suggestive aspect.”

The symbols in A Farewell to Arms, generally, acquire their “suggestiveness not from qualities inherent [themselves] but from the way in which [they are] used” in the novel.

EXAMPLES OF SYMBOLS IN THE NOVEL

Rain – danger, death

Snow – peace

The priest – constancy

Alcohol – escape, distraction

TONE: A CLOSER LOOK

The writer’s or speaker’s attitude toward the subject, the audience, or himself/herself

The emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TONE

Connotation

Imagery

Figurative language/allusion/symbolism

Irony

Hyperbole/Understatement

Detail

Sentence construction

Organization or structure

THE POEMS

“I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH”

• Traditional view of the glory and sacrifice of war

• Traditional verse form

• Traditional devices

“PHASES”• To what phases does the title refer?

•How are the phases developed?

•What poetic devices does Stevens employ?

•How do those devices develop tone and meaning?

“THE BOMBARDMENT”Prose poem

• “A poem printed as prose, with both margins justified.”

• Format is the distinction.

• Lowell meant it to be performed, not just read.

“WHERE IS JEHOVAH?”

• Influenced by Walt Whitman

•Her poetry is “loose, impressionistic, steeped in feeling and imagery that conveys emotion almost hysterical in its intensity.” – Janet Cameron

• Rich in imagery and biblical allusion

MAKE EACH POEM YOURS

FOUR STEPS TO CLOSE READING A POEM

1. Read a poem more than once. Know the poem – as much as possible – by heart.

2. Keep a dictionary by you and use it. Consult encyclopedic sources.

3. Read poetry aloud (or lip-read) slowly.

4. Pay careful attention to meaning. [On the first reading you should determine the subjects of the verbs and the antecedents of the pronouns.]

PRACTICE ORAL INTERPRETATION

•Read affectionately, but not affectedly.

•Read slowly enough that each word is clear and distinct and that the meaning has time to sink in.

•Read so that the rhythmical pattern is felt but not exaggerated.

I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH

I have a rendezvous with Death

At some disputed barricade,

When Spring comes back with rustling shade

And apple-blossoms fill the air—

I have a rendezvous with Death

When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION

Denotation – dictionary definition (Know the meanings of every word in every poem.)

Connotation – the force or impact carried by a term that goes beyond denotation

IMAGERY

•Visual (sight)

•Auditory (sound)

•Olfactory (smell)

•Gustatory (taste)

•Tactile (touch)

•Organic (internal sensation)

•Kinesthetic (motion)

DEVICES OF SENSE

• Simile (explicit) and metaphor (implicit) [literal and figurative elements]

•Personification [literal and figurative elements]

•Apostrophe

•Metonymy

•Paradox

•Oxymoron

•Hyperbole

•Understatement

DEVICES OF SOUND

•Alliteration

•Assonance

•Consonance

•Rhyme (perfect, internal, end, approximate (or slant)

•Blank verse

•Free verse

•Refrain

METER: STRESS• Iamb unstressed – stressed (tonight)

• Trochee stressed – unstressed (fearsome)

•Anapest unstressed - unstressed – stressed (comprehend)

•Dactyl stressed - unstressed – unstressed (surgery)

• Spondee stressed – stressed (doorway)

METER – RHYTHM

Monometer 1 foot

Dimeter 2 feet

Trimeter 3 feet

Tetrameter 4 feet

Pentameter 5 feet

Hexameter 6 feet

Heptameter 7 feet

Octameter 8 feet

POETRY

Students will need to . . .

•Research any classical, biblical, and other allusions

•Analyze rhetorical elements/literary devices

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

COACHES PRACTICE 1

In this partial sentence from Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms – “They splashed more mud than the camions even . . .” – what does the word camions mean?

A. motor cars

B. freight trucks

C. heavy artillery

D. troop transports

COACHES PRACTICE 1

In this partial sentence from Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms – “They splashed more mud than the camions even . . .” – what does the word camions mean?

B. freight trucks

COACHES PRACTICE 2

In Lowell’s “The Bombardment,” the fire is developed with each of the following EXCEPT __________

A. vivid color

B. apostrophe

C. plant imagery

D. personification

COACHES PRACTICE 2

In Lowell’s “The Bombardment,” the fire is developed with each of the following EXCEPT __________

B. apostrophe

PRACTICE QUESTION 3

In terms of form, Stevens’ “Phases” is MOST accurately described as exhibiting all of the following EXCEPT __________

A. end rhyme

B. regular meter

C. stanza divisions

D. rhetorical questions

PRACTICE QUESTION 3

In terms of form, Stevens’ “Phases” is MOST accurately described as exhibiting all of the following EXCEPT __________

B. regular meter

PRACTICE QUESTION 4

Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” is devoid of any elements evoking __________

A. passion

B. accession

C. trepidation

D. acquiescence

PRACTICE QUESTION 4Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” is devoid of any elements evoking __________

A. passion

B. accession

C. trepidation

D. acquiescence

PRACTICE 4

Seeger’s “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” is devoid of any elements evoking __________

A. passion

B. accession

C. trepidation

D. acquiescence

PRACTICE 5

Consider these lines from Borden’s “Where Is Jehovah?”: “[He] led His people out of bondage to scatter them again like dead leaves in a storm.” These words evoke the speaker’s __________

A. confusion of God and nature

B. disapproval of God’s inconstancy

C. view of the soldiers as slaves of war

D. hope that God will save the soldiers

PRACTICE 5

Consider these lines from Borden’s “Where Is Jehovah?”: “[He] led His people out of bondage to scatter them again like dead leaves in a storm.” These words evoke the speaker’s __________

B. disapproval of God’s inconstancy