English 1 - Wednesday, November 4

Hi everyone - I know you're super bummed to miss school because of the SEPTA strike, so here are today's assignments.

Announcements and Reminders
17 journals are due Friday, November 6! Each journal must be at least 10 sentences long. If the SEPTA strike continues, I will extend the deadline.

You can email me questions or work at ajmccartney@philasd.org OR mccartneychs@gmail.com

Assignments

1. Review your vocabulary words! Make flashcards and use them! (If you show me your flashcards or study tool when you get back, I will give you McMoney - think about your learning style!)
2. Work on Study Island assignments! Finish any that you did not complete. You should answer at least 20 questions to get credit for each assignment.
   
3. Read the following two poems ("Introduction to Poetry" and "I Said to Poetry") and find examples of simile, metaphor, personification and imagery (use the Poetry Terms handout from Monday). Answer the questions following each poem.

Introduction to Poetry
Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

Questions

1. How does the speaker want readers to feel about poetry? How do readers feel about poetry?
2. What is the speaker's message about poetry? How does he use figurative language to create this message?
3. Find at least one example of a metaphor, simile, personification and imagery in this poem.
   

I Said To Poetry
by Alice Walker

I said to Poetry: 'I'm finished
with you.'
Having to almost die
before some weird light
comes creeping through
is no fun.
'No thank you, Creation,
no muse need apply.
I'm out for good times --
at the very least,
some painless convention.'

Poetry laid back
and played dead
until this morning.
I wasn't sad or anything,
only restless.

Poetry said: 'You remember
the desert, and how glad you were
that you have an eye
to see it with? You remember
that, if ever so slightly?'
I said: 'I didn't hear that.
Besides, it's five o'clock in the a.m.
I'm not getting up
in the dark
to talk to you.'

Poetry said: 'But think about the time
you saw the moon
over that small canyon
that you liked much better
than the grand one - and how surprised you were
that the moonlight was green
and you still had
one good eye
to see with it.

Think of that!'

'I'll join the church!' I said,
huffily, turning my face to the wall.
'I'll learn how to pray again!'

'Let me ask you,' said Poetry.
'When you pray, what do you think
you'll see?'

Poetry had me.

'There's no paper
in this room,' I said.
'And that new pen I bought
makes a funny noise.'

'Bulls**t,' said Poetry.
'Bulls**t,' said I.

Questions

1. This poem is a conversation between whom? How can you tell?
2. How does "Poetry" react when the speaker says it is giving up poetry?
3. What reasons and excuses does the speaker give about giving up poetry?
4. Analyze the last stanza. Do you think the speaker will really give up poetry? Explain why or why not.
5. Find at least one example of a metaphor, simile, personification and imagery in this poem.