The pillars of the Earth-Ken Follett
The Hobbet-J.R.R Tolkien
Cold Mountain-Charles Frazier
~Adrienne

Book Ideas

A Tenth Circle- Jodi Picoult
White Oleander- Janet Fitch
The Glass Castle-Jeannette Walls

Molly

Poem Notes

A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

First Stanza
-Valediction=fairwell
-death(start in one direction go in another)
-similie, like
-first half of comparison
-pass mildly=face death without fear(peaceful)

Second Stanza
-second half of comparison
-together(because of, as)
-real goodbye=lovers being seperated
-laity=basic terms or church congregation vs. priest
-profanation=desicrate

Third Stanza
-earthquake
-trepidation=shake in fear
-spheres=planets
-people study it, why earthquakes happened(message from God)
-universse in crtal spheres they sun different speeds and each made different sounds
-put together=song
-outside/beyond=heaven
-even though the spheres are bigger, we aremore scared of the eathquake
-good and virrtuous people can hear the song

Fourth Stanza
-sublunary=earthy
-sence=the thing that caused them to love was physical so when they where apart there was nothing
-can't allow absence

Fith Stanza
-but we are different
refined=pure
-we don't even understand it
-we have a connection in the mind( not only physical)

Sixth Stanza
-our seperation seems huge to us, but in the grand sceme of things it really isn't

Seventh Stanza
-compasses=the kind that draws circles
-"pair of pants"
-difference in the two
-one always fixed, one always moving
-futher one leads, the further one leaves, the further the other one strethces after it
-people yearn to be with each other, come back

Last two stanzas
-she keeps him connected to where she is, so he always comes back together
-full circle
*Donne wrote this poem to his wife when he had to leave

Holy Sonnet VII

-poem about last judgement day
-resurection of the dead=all souls back to body
-tone=order/commanding
-Angel Gabrial blows horn
-narrorator=average joe guy
-thinks things will go his way once he dies(heaven) he's confident
-never die, live untill judgement day
-italian sonnet= ABBA ABBA(turn line 9) last 6 lines vary
-After turn he relizes hes not ready for judgement day
-it's not good to apoligize for your sins while in front of God (dead)
-teach me how to repent while we are still on earth
-if i repent now im okay

Holy Sonnet XIV

-aggresive, angry, violent poem
-three person'd god=trinity father/son/holy ghost
-need to suffer
-if your not giving yourself over willingly i will take you anyway
-gaurd against sin
-simillie between town and heart
-faith been taken over
-God=faith
-Saten=sin
-reason should defend me
-asking for divine intervention (im willing to do anything)
-know difference between right and wrong
-reason=weak/untrue
-we second guess(our fault)
-marriage=holy
-divorse=sin
-bad things good, good things bad
-i want to be free, but when im free i fall into trap
-i want to be imprisioned
-asking to be raped by God
-in the end i will come out better if you help me
-so you will build me the right way, i am willing
-expect shoking metophor

-

Class Notes 4.19.10

The Flea

• There was a common belief that having sex took years off the end of your life.
• The addressee then kills the flea, and because she killed the flea they both should feel weaker (because the idea is that the flea represented sex and by killing the flea they have completed/killed sex and therefore should feel weaker because years have been taken off their lives).
• Since they don't feel weaker the speaker's reasoning must be wrong.
• The speaker then agrees that sex doesn't make them weaker, but the addressee (because he/she is afraid of losing honor) will only lose as much honor as life that was lost from flea.
• This is the most popular form of Cavalier poems called "Carpe Diem" for their seize the day ideology.

The Canonization

• Canonization- the process by which the church declares a person a saint.
• The poem is set up to be religious in nature from the title and the use of God in the first line.
• However, by the end of the first line love becomes the main theme? <-- may not be theme.
• First stanza starts with an argument, the speaker is yelling at the addressee. The speaker wants the addressee to stay out of his/her love life. The speaker would rather the addressee mock the speaker's shaking or joint problems, or age, or loss of fortune.
• The speaker then says that the addressee should take up the arts instead of being involved in his/her love life.

Please add anything extra that you may remember. Thanks.

-Matt

Poems

How to read and understand a poem
1. Read Poem
2. Read again
3. Read out loud
4. Look up words that you dont know or understand
5. Take notice of the stanzas (equivalent to a paragraph)
6. Poetry uses punctuation (know where a thought begins and ends)

Just thought id post this on here for the Civil War Poems


-Kara

Class Notes 3/22/10 & 3/23/10

Act 4 scene6

"The Pirate Scence"

- Claudius sent Hamlet to England, told King of England to kill him
-Hamlet is on the ship with Rosencranz and Guildinstern
-Pirates come and capture Hamlet leaving everyone else still on the boat on there way to England
- Hamlet and the Pirates become friends
- he convinces the pirates to take him back to Denmark
- Hamlet writes two letters and the pirates deliver them
-The first one is to Horatio saying, the pirate(messanger) will take Horatio to where Hamlet is, and that there are important things he needs to tell him
- the second letter is for Claudius and it basically says I'm back
-the pirates never appear and are never mentioned again

Deus ex Machina= God in machine
- God pullyed down from ceiling to save the day, fix all problems, does not fit in storyline
-Lots of people think thats what the Pirate scene is in Hamlet

Act 4 Scene 7

-Gertrude comes with the news that Ophilia "drowned"
-iconic image, Ophilia floating with flowers in her hair

Act 5

Setting- outside in church graveyard

2 clowns= poor gravediggers
Malapropism=word you mix up with another word
- the clowns tell many jokes/riddles and malapropisms
- the clowns are comic relief
- they are talknig about wheather Ophilia really did kill herself or not
- Everybody thinks she killed herself(if she really did she would go to hell, and not get a church buryial) Claudias makes sure she is properly buried so she goes to heaven, he also doesn't want Laertes mad at him(he needs Leartes for his plan to kill Hamlet)
- one of the clowns riddles:mason=brick layer, gallows=what you get hanged on, Gravediggers homes he builds last forever

- Hamlet is bothered by the clowns singing as they work, he thinks its rude/disrespectful, but then he thinks that if thats your job you must get used to it
-the clowns are disturbing the bodies throwing skulls all around and burying bodies on top of other bodies
- Hamlet asks how long it takes until the bodies decompose, the clown says 8 /9 years longer if your a tanner(joke)

- Jester=the only one who could tell the truth
- clown shows Hamlet Yurik's skull (Hamlet knew Yurik)
- we find out how old Hamlet is
- why call Hamlet and Fortanbras 'young' if they arent really young at all?

Sophia Meyers

Class Notes 3/8/10

• Hamlet and his mother may have had a sexual relationship, this has been argued in both directions.
• Freud's Psychosexual Stage Theory:

Oral Stage: infant-age 2, they want to put everything in their mouth

Anal Stage: age2-4potty training, the idea of someone being "anal" comes from this theory

Phallic Stage: age 4-6 sexual feeling occur but are then sublimated

(From then on puberty occurs and then adulthood)

• Freud's ID Ego and Superego Theory:

You are born with your ID which simply tells you what you need

Ego develops later which is basically common sense and knowing right from wrong

Superego acts as you conscience and tells you right from wrong

• Madonna Complex

A problem that can develop in young boys and follow them into adulthood. They can only view women in two ways, either the virgin mary or (for lack of a better way to describe it simply) a whore. Therefore they have issues maintaining healthy relationships because they can't have sex with the virgin mary and they see no point in treating a whore with respect and have no desire to be with her.

• All of this can be related to Hamlet's relationship with his mother and why he cannot be with Ophelia and tells her to "go to a nunnery"

Emma