rvp, week 2 blake: marriage of heaven and hell close-reading techniques: polyvalence and the oed,...
TRANSCRIPT
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RVP, Week 2Blake: Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Close-reading techniques: polyvalence and the OED, basic scansion/rhythm
Close-reading exercise: the poetry of Anna Barbauld
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Part OneWrapping up “Heaven and Hell”
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Marriage of H&H: Questions
• Why is some of the poem in verse, and some in prose? (takeaway: notice and read alternations in form and verse)• Thematic changes?• Changes in content?• Does it give the poem a progression, or even a
plot?
• Who is Rintrah?
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Close Reading Rintrah
• Why do the Rintrah lines repeat?
• Who is Rintrah, and what does this suggest about him?
• Why doesn’t the poem (not your annotations) give you more information about who he is—why withhold this information?• What does an absence do, more generally,
within literature?
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The Proverbs
• What is the rhythm of the proverbs?
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The Memorable Fancies
• Why are these sections in prose?
• Is there a rhythm to this section, nevertheless?
• If Swedenborg is such an idiot, why is he in here, and repeatedly? Why borrow the form of his fancies?
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The Memorable Fancies
Four Memorable Fancies end the poem.
1. Divide into groups of n/4, where n is the number of students in the class
2. Explain, or try to explain, a system in the poem
3. Identify at least two things that do not seem to cohere with this system
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Part TwoPoetry Reading Technique:
An Extremely Brief Guide to Scansion
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5diMImYIIA
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Scansion, very briefly
• Every poem has a base meter; every interesting poem exceeds it for emphasis
• Base meter: a line of a set number of feet
• English feet have two or (rarely) more syllables; English lines have 3-5 (rarely more) feet
• So, iambic (feet ,/) pentameter (penta-five) feet
• The takeaway: a poem has a rhythm; notice when that rhythm changes
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Scansion very briefly, two
• Almost always stress when sounds repeat (alliterative syllables (“thoughts against thoughts in groans grind”)
• Stress marks add stress (wingèd)
• Look for “wobbles” (not scientific name)• thoughts against thoughts in groans grind
/ , / / , / /• That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not
me. , / , / , / , / / /
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Scansion very briefly, three
• “Caesura” is the word “pause” gone to posh schools
• In print, dashes, semicolons, colons, exclamation marks in mid-line indicate pauses• Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things
To low ambition, and the pride of kings.
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Scansion very briefly, four
• Lines are units of information, and also imply excitement or containment
• Set, fixed, rigid, or well-understood ideas stick to their lines• Laugh where we must, be candid where we can;
But vindicate the ways of God to man.
• Excited, passionate, etc. ideas overflow their lines:• A senate, Time’s worst statute, unrepealed—
Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may
Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day.
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Part ThreePoetry Reading Technique: Polyvalence and the OED
Anna Barbauld - .pdf Poems
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Purple: polyvalence, yellow: ambiguity
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The Baurbauld .pdf.
• “A Summer’s Evening Meditation,” “Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq.,” “To Mr. S.T. Coleridge,” “The Caterpillar”• In groups (n/3), survey these poems• Bring back to us: one stanza with an unusual
stress/meter/sound effect; one moment of polyvalence, with the multiple meanings explained conceptually