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Undoubtedly there is a very high level of skill involved in following tight-knit rules. What I'd like students to consider is how those rules can be studied in certain structures of poetry, like the sonnet, and how they can then be challenged.
I envision this unit as a four phases during which we will:
1.Revisit the fun of reading by playing with rhyme and word usage
2.Focus on the two most basic sonnet formulas
3.Spend time comparing and contrasting the sonnet with free verse poems
4.Utilize our newly developed skills to analyze free verse poem
Their final project will be an argumentative essay in which they will defend a free verse poem as a legitimate artistic endeavor. This will also require students to have access to a variety of poems and critical essays.
1. Revisit the fun in reading by playing with rhyme and word usage
I would like students to stick to four reading fundamentals while reading poetry. I'm still adjusting some of these, but foundationally I want students to understand that first and foremost educated people revisit texts. Students should have built in the expectation that they will read a text and to revisit it several times – the mind gains security in going back to a text. Secondly, I don't want students getting too caught up on vocabulary. If the first expectation is that you are going to revisit a text it's understood that you will have time to go back and identify any confusing words. During a first read students should use any context clues available and on a reread be given the chance to use the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to help them along. Thirdly, the default frame of mind should be that every element in a poem has a purpose. Students should be made to realize that artistry in language isn't just a bunch of coincidences. They should be looking for patterns and how they function separately and how they inform the text as a whole. In the end, I do not want students getting caught up in looking for guaranteed right answers. We need to remind students that poems don't always provide exact meanings and that is okay.
In an effort to help them let go of their presuppositions about structure in reading I want to revisit these four expectations by reading texts like Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham. Eventually, we will work our way toward Jim Hall's "Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too", May Swenson's "Nosty Fright", and Billy Collins' "Introduction to Poetry". While we have fun playing with the language of these texts, I want to revisit those four pillars of reading that I outlined previously. I want them to know that it is okay to struggle with texts. For instance, "Nosty Fright" is at a reading level where students will struggle, but still be able to reach that a-ha moment while reading.
2. Focus on the two most basic sonnet formulas
In introducing the sonnet I want to provide some background information in addition to an in-depth discussion of the two main fixed forms: Italian and English. At first we will look at examples of both kinds of sonnets, using Shakespeare's "Sonnet 130" and Keats's "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer". Using these poems we will see what similarities and differences we can find between the two forms. Next, we will start looking more deeply at the significance of these two sonnet forms.
For example, when we discuss the Italian sonnet time will obviously be spent on the octave/sestet form with some emphasis on the variable sestet rhyme scheme. I primarily want to focus on octave/sestet shifts, or voltas, and will probably use Wordsworth's "The World Is Too Much with Us" and Keats's variation of that in "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" as examples. We will focus on the volta's shift and analyze how changes in tone occur and how that creates and/or adds meaning.
We will also spend time looking at the form of the English sonnet. This will begin with a brief overview in comparison to the Italian sonnet and continue into a discussion about its structure in reference to rhyme and how that allows room for more thematic breaks—or in some cases for no thematic break at all. I would like to focus particularly on Shakespeare's sonnets because I think they will be the most rewarding for the students. I think that struggling students can get them on a surface level, but that they also offer plenty of depth, so that as students continually practice with the same author and form they can arrive at a deeper level of understanding.
During this time we will also work on other formal elements in poetry. More specifically, this section will also focus on rhetoric, sound, structure, theme, and historical context.
3. Spend time comparing and contrasting the sonnet [with] free verse poems
I would like students to understand the break from pentameter and other regular meters and see visual spacing and economy of language as poetic devices, as in the works of the Cummings, H. Doolittle, Whitman, and Williams. I will also include poems such as Bishop's "A Visit to St. Elizabeth's" and Moore's "I Too Dislike It".
4. Utilize our newly developed skills to analyze a piece of free verse
As I stated previously, I am interested in having a student defend a piece of free verse as a legitimate artistic endeavor. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of conclusions can be reached by students when they start to analyze the point at which poems start to stray from fixed forms and start asking questions like: what properties of a sonnet does the poem still possess or what is the effect of its irregular meter?
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