Man

In the third stanza i'm having trouble understanding the fourth line about man's home. I think that it means that man knows that his home is with god in heaven, but they don't know how to get there, and just makes excuses about not trying to find the way.    I'm not sure if this is right so if i could get some feedback that would be great. 

             Chris C.

The Collar - George Herbert

Anyone get some of the strange vocab in this? Like "abroad"- can only seem to find an adverb form of this. Also in this poem it seems that he likes to spell words how he wants to pronounce them because he uses "winde" (win-duh) instead of "wind" and "rode" instead of road.

R.C.

April 22nd 2008

I don't know if we're still doing the order so i'll go ahead anyway...

Today we had a quiz comparing two similar stanzas one from Canonization and the other from valediction.
We dicussed the meaning of the peom. At first glance you would think it was about death and not mourn for it, but it clearly says in the title its the acceptance of saying goodbye. The first two stanzas are a similie bewtween two ways of saying good bye in the death sense. A virtuous man dies in peace, so peaceful in fact that some can't tell weather or not he has passed. The second dicussed the appropriatness of saying goodbye. Lovers should part similar to that of the deceased. We discussed the meaning of Trepidation of the Spheres. In the elizabethan times they beleived the earth was surronded by crystal spheres that vibrated giving off a sound waves/ soung of the universe. Those who were spiritually excelled could possibly hear the this song. This whole idea is showing how an earthquake's result matters less than that of the trepidation. Confusing eh?

k fahey

Monday April 21, 2008

Today in class there was a quiz on The Canonization. We also got the quizes back from thursday. Todayin disscusion we said how the first stanza is talking about how he wants to love and not be criticized for it. The second stanza is a continuation of the first. In the third Donne uses the phoenix as a symbol of eternal love. And in the fourth stanza we talked about how the italian word for room is stanza so it makes the line concerrning that make sense. Throughout the poem there are also references to the balance of opposing forces. Tomorrow there will most likely be a quiz and i am guessing it is on A Valediction Forbidding Mourning.

-Chris C.-

The Canonization- Donne

Anyone know what the 3rd Paragraph is supposed to be about?

April 17

During class today we had a quiz on John Donne's "The Flea". (we will most likely have a quiz next time on "The Canonization". Then we discussed the Flea itself. The poem itself is a metaphor for sex. When the flea bites the two people their blood is combined (marriage). When the women kills the flea, she is committing suicide, murder, and destroying the marriage. ***A concept that is well understood in this time is that sex steals a bit of your life each time and therefore one that has sex a lot will die earlier. At the end of the poem, Donne makes the point that if the flea is like sex and the flea is dead and you don't feel any worse, then let's have sex. Another thing he makes mention at the end is you may lose honor, but it is only a flea's amount of honor (very little).


Ryan

John Donne

Post any questions about John Donne or his poems here.

P.S. I figured out how to add team members so we don't have to use Laz's account to post, tell me if you want to be added.

JessO

Class Blog Entry

Hola!

Here is the entry. Everyone got their grades back. Pretty much review for a possible quiz tomorrow on ALL the Jon Donne stuff. Plus have questions on his poetry ready for tomorrow for in class discussion.

~Heather C

Extra credit paper for tables

Just wanted to remind everyone that the paper for extra credit on the table is due on monday. The quote we have to respond to is, " the unexamined life is not worth living" If you have any questions or comments just post them.

Dylan Ketchel

Class Wensday April 3

1. He started off talking about versions on Hamlet on video. He then asked for last questions for the test tomorrow. The test will count on the third marking period and to study, he said to study the themes and connections we made between them.

2. We then picked up where we left off yesterday with the year of 1649. In 1649 Oliver Cromwell took over and established a military dictatorship lasting until 1658 and in 1658 his son took over. After his son took over, the English people went to Charles II in France and asked him to come back to England to be their new king, he comes back to England and takes over from Cromwell's son.

3. He then started to talk about the Jacobean Period which was during James I rule. There were two groups of writers the Cavaliers and Puritans. They both used the metaphysical school of literature which is deep philosophical thinking on religion. The main thing in metaphysical literature was the use of the conceit which is a fanciful metaphor that is designed not just to compare things but to shock the audience. He also said that the Cavaliers did not agree with the Elizabetahen writers and their poetry was against them.

4. He then handed out a packet of readings and everything in the packet is fair game for a test. We are going to have a pop quiz when we come back and if the class average is lower than 60% then he will have a quiz everyday after that until the average goes over 60%. Once it is over 60% then we will just have regular pop quizzes on random days. But if on one of those quizzes the average is below 60% again then we keep getting quizzes everyday until we get above 60% again.

Dylan Ketchel

class march 31

so i meant to blog yesterday and completely forgot..

first he handed back out act 3 tests, there was a 14 point curve on them..

then we reviewed for the test at the end of this week. the structure is going to be just one essay question, probably from a thematic perspective.

some review topics we discussed:
- shakespeare's point in returning fortinbras in the end is the necessity of monarchy (reinforcement of social values from elizabethan perspectives), that the resumption of monarch is necessary for the well-being of the nation and its people
- fortinbras arguably "wins" because he loses the least. he gains the throne without losing too much and kept his honor
- hamlet also arguably "wins" because he accomplished his vengeance.. his life purpose was to set things right, which he does.

Meg K.

April Fools Day

In class we discussed Hamlet to prepare more for the test on friday. We discussed many themes in the play such as: appearance vs. reality, revenge, betrayal, life and death, men and women, etc.

The test on friday will be one essay most likely discussing some thematic aspect. Be sure to know characters, plot, and various themes very well.

Brittany M