Lessons, Week 1 (20-24 January) and Week 2 (27-30 January)

English 1302 Lessons Spring 2014 Week 1, 20-24 January 2014 1. Administrivia – syllabus: read it, learn it, live it, love it 2. Questionnaire – turn in week of 27-30 January 3. “Seafarer” – handout. Review ad lib for content and for poetic devices: 4-beat Anglo-Saxon line, kenning, caesura, and alliteration. 4. Reading list 5. Always employ a black or blue pen when writing in class, and, unless otherwise directed on rare occasions, write complete sentences. Week 2, 27-30 January 2014 1. Review “Seafarer” ad lib 2. Assign expository essay on topics from “Seafarer” 3. Assign test from “Seafarer” 4. Turn in questionnaire 5. Poetic techniques A. Iambs B. Iambic pentameter C. Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) D. Rhymes (most poetry does not rhyme) E. Sonnet, characteristics i. Always 14 lines ii. Always in iambic pentamer iii. Always employs a rhyme scheme, which can vary iv. 3 main sonnet forms: a. Shakespearean b. Spenserian c. Petrarchan 6. Handout – several pages of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, by Ian Droescher, © Lucasfilms. Basing an assignment on a specimen of popular culture is always risky, and, after all, Star Wars is over 35 years old. However, these few pages of imitatio in blank verse, rhymes (for scene changes), and sonnet (the epilogue) may be of some use to you. In anticipation of drama, note the concepts of dramatis personae, prologue, chorus, act and scene division, and epilogue. 7. Punctuation – note that the title of the book is William Shakespeare’s Star Wars, and so is italicized. This indicates to the reader that the book is not by W.S. himself. I have observed that in the questionnaires some among you have lapsed into punctuating titles of books with quotation marks / inverted commas. Stop it. Stop it at once. In manuscript (that is, in handwriting), indicate the title of a long work by underlining it. When typing, indicate the title of a work by italicizing it. These punctuation requirements are not your aging instructor’s peccadilloes, nor are they his armadillos; they are part of civilized (I use the word without any hint of irony) discourse among educated men and women. Note that the title of “The Seafarer” is in quotation marks / inverted commas because this is the title of a short work.