Blogger #12 - Joshua Chen - Period 5 Day B - 11/19/20

 Blogger #12 - Joshua Chen - Period 5 - 11/19/20 - Cycle B

Freshman 2021

Aim: How can further implementation of our poetry skills enhance our exploration and analysis of Shakespearean Sonnets ?

*Spirit Reading is where every student has the open opportunity to read sections of a reading, passage, or instruction. You do not have to ask to read, you just start.

Notes/Discussion for the day:

The Do Now was as follow:

With your partner, consider the word “Summer”. What symbolic meanings or connotations are usually associated with this word? Why?

As a class, we were given some time to come up with symbolic meanings or connotations associated with the word “Summer”. Personally, I thought of the word summer with the connotations of heat, and vacation. After 2 minutes of thinking about the symbolic meanings and connotations for the word “Summer”, we transitioned to sharing our thoughts out. Some classmates had similar ideas as I did, stating that connotations of “Summer” would be vacation and free time. However, there were also classmates that looked at the word “Summer” as if it was very hot, and/or exhausting. With a fair amount of people sharing their thoughts, we moved on to the next slide where we discussed the structure of a Shakespearean Sonnet.

A couple of key points we learned about Shakespearean Sonnets were that they were specifically a 14 line poem, and follows the “ABAB CDCD EFEF GG” rhyming scheme format. To clarify this format, it means that each letter represents a line, and the lines that rhyme has the same letter (ex: ABAB, line 1 and line 3 have to rhyme, and line 2 and line 4 have to rhyme). For me, I understood the rhyming scheme from prior knowledge, so it was easy to understand the structure of the sonnet. We also learned that Sonnets were mainly about love and romance, and that they were written in iambic pentameter. An iambic pentameter is a metric line consisting of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables. We further discussed what iambic pentameter was in the next slide.

We started the next slide by spirit reading. The class then understood that each syllable in a word is either stressed (hard) or unstressed (soft) based on the pronunciation of the letters. To mark stressed syllables, we used a  “/” over the letters. To mark unstressed syllables, we used a “u”. We then spirit read about iambic foot which contains two syllables, having the first syllable stressed, and the second syllable unstressed. Following that, we learned the iambic measure is often called the heartbeat meter because of its similarity of the rhythm of the human heart. After learning about this, the class stood silent for a couple of seconds as no one wanted to continue spirit reading. Ms. Peterson then asked if everyone was afraid to attack this next part of the spirit read, where we looked at some examples of an iambic foot. She then read it for us with examples:
Afterwards, we continued spirit reading and talked more about iambic pentameter. We learned that an iambic pentameter is a line of five iambic feet. The line consists of ten syllables which follows the pattern of “unstressed, stressed” five times. Lastly, we were told to identify some iambic pentameter examples by marking unstressed and stressed syllables with “/” and “u”. The following two problems were what we did in class:

1) Often, a pet’s soft whine outcries the son’s

2) Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day

With that, we watched a short video about iambic pentameter to fully understand the meanings and elements of what it is.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-tayWCupD8&ab_channel=ShakespeareCoach

With fully understanding iambic pentameter, we moved on to the next slide where we discussed about the analyst of poetry, and were told to memorize a mnemonic device:

At first, I was worried because I forgot what a mnemonic device was. Ms. Peterson then clarified about mnemonic devices by giving us an example of a mnemonic device: ROYGBIV. She then told us that this mnemonic device is similar, being SIFFTS IS. I was still confused about how I was going to remember SIFFTS IS as a mnemonic device.

With the introduction to the structure of Shakespearean Sonnets, we finally took a look at “Sonnet 18”. 

As we read, I was very confused in trying to understand the theme and the meaning behind the poem. Ms. Peterson then showed us a video so we can better understand Sonnets.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42_QOaCL8uc&ab_channel=Shmoop

After watching the video, we finally began our group work activity where we were broken into breakout rooms to answer the following questions:

1) In Quatrain One: According to the speaker, how does this subject compare to summer? Which does he prefer?

As a group this question was challenging because we did not really understand what the sonnet means in the quatrain one. As we reviewed the quatrain, we came with a conclusion that the speaker compares summer to being lovely and temperate. We also said that the speaker prefers summer mainly because of the positive connotations he points out when comparing to summer.

2) In Quatrain Two: What are the problems the speaker has with summer?

1. What does line 7 mean (“and every fair from fair sometimes declines”)?

When working together to answer this question, my group understood that the speaker’s problem with summer was that summer is hot, and it would get in his eyes. After further analyzing line 7, we came up with the conclusion that line 7 simply means the beauty of something beautiful may fade.

3) In Quatrain Three: According to the speaker, what is the main difference between the subject of the sonnet and summer?

This question was tricky because we did not understand what the subject of the sonnet was. We then figured that the subject was beauty and youth. With that, our answer was that the main difference between the subject of the sonnet was that the subject is terminal, but summer is eternal and will not fade.

4) Rhyming Couplet: Look at lines 13-14. What is the speaker saying in the conclusion of the sonnet? Does this confirm the messages expressed in the rest of the sonnet or alter them in some way?
We found this question challenging as well. After members of the group gave what they thought the answer to this question was, we came up that the speaker is saying that even if he dies, as long as people could see the poem, they would be able to see the beauty of the subject.

5) What is the theme of this sonnet? 

1. What is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject?

To answer this question, we had to understand what the meaning of the Sonnet is about. Since we have already figured out the subject, answering the theme of “Sonnet 18” was not that hard. We said that the theme of this sonnet is natural beauty, and how it may fade over time. But as long as the poem remains, poetry is eternal.

After answering these questions in our group breakout rooms, we came back and discussed it with the class. We were able to earn group points from sharing our answers. After we fully discussed the 6 questions, we headed off to the next Sonnet. 

We spirit read “Sonnet 130” and I liked that Sonnet was more than “Sonnet 18”. I believed it was easier to understand, and the comparison between her mistress and things of nature were funny. After completing our spirit read, Ms. Peterson put us into breakout rooms once again where we had to answer the following questions:

1) In Quatrain One: How does the speaker describe his mistress?  What specific attributes does he reference?

At first I thought the speaker was comparing his mistress to things of nature positively, but my group helped me look at what the speaker is actually comparing his mistress to things of nature. For this question, we said “The speaker describes the mistress as not as beautiful as things in nature, as he compares her to things in nature. The specific attribute he references are the mistress’ physical features of her eyes, lips, breasts, and hair.”

2) In Quatrain Two: How does the speaker speak to: her cheeks, and her breath?
We did not have much trouble answering this question. We said that the speaker is saying that the mistress’ cheeks are not as red as the color of roses. He is also saying that her breath reeks and smells.

3) In Quatrain Three: According to the speaker, how does he address his mistress’ voice and walk?

1. How does this contrast with what most people would claim about their mistresses?

As we were thinking about how we should answer this question, I thought that the speaker saying, “tread” is positive, but discovered that it has a negative meaning behind it. With that our response was, the speaker is addressing that his mistress is an unpleasing voice, and treads on the ground when she walks. This would contrast to what most people would claim about their mistress because they would be positively claiming about the mistress’ voice and walk.

4) Rhyming Couplet: Look at lines 13-14. What is the speaker saying in the conclusion of the sonnet? Why does the poet think his love is rare?

1. How does the poet play with conventional stereotypes of love poetry?

In my group, we were trying to think of conventional stereotypes of love poetry. I told my group that the stereotypical love poetry would be describing how pretty or beautiful the lover was. However, the speaker in this poem would talk about his mistress using negative connotations. Our response for this question was, the speaker is concluding that although he is negatively describing the mistress, he still loves her. And because of this, the poet thinks love is rare because normally a person in love would describe positive traits about someone, but the speaker is describing negative traits. The poet plays with conventional stereotypes of love poetry because in love poetries, the poet would normally be positively describing someone they love, but this poet did the opposite.

5) How is the speaker's lover an inversion or parody (an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect) of the petrarchan (A Petrarchan lover is melodramatic, self-consciously suffering and has given himself up to the power of his mistress) and medieval lover? 

1. How has Shakespeare used juxtaposition, and for what purpose?

2. In what way(s) has the writer’s focus on physical beauty enhanced the emphasis and relevance on the theme for society at the time? 

3. How is this theme still relevant and prevalent today? 

Our group ran out of time to answer this question so I had to work on it individually. I had to think about what the question was asking, and finally came up with a response. My response was, The speaker’s lover is an inversion of the petrarchan and medieval lover because others would describe the positive traits of their medieval lover, but the speaker does the opposite and describes negative traits. Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to contrast between his mistress and something in nature. The writer’s focus on physical beauty enhanced the theme for society at the time by pointing out what people would look at physical traits during the medieval time period. This theme is still relevant and prevalent today as people today would still judge people by how they look physically.

Furthermore, we were asked to label the rhyming scheme for both sonnets that we did. This was particularly easy because we understood the sonnet’s rhyme scheme as “ABAB CDCD EFEF GG”.

With answering the questions, we left the breakout rooms and shared out our responses. Afterwards, Ms. Peterson reviewed the homework and told us the steps we need to do.

For our homework, we had to write our own sonnet using Shakesphere’s template. We were to think of our own subject, and create a poem with the proper sonnet rhyme scheme. Our class came to an end with that.

Enrichment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDpW1sHrBaU&feature=share&ab_channel=CrashCourse

Reflection:

What did I learn?
I learned from this lesson the structure of Shakespearean Sonnets. I also understood what the iambic pentameter was and how it is used in poetry. With Sonnets 18 and 130, I learned about actual sonnets from Shakespeare. Furthermore, this lesson taught me how to better interpret poems that may not be easy or simple to understand. Lastly, we also learned about analyzing poems with SIFFTS IS.

Why did I learn it?
I learned this lesson today mainly to understand some of the types of poem structures. Shakespeare was an important figure to literature, and so learning about this lesson helps us understand some aspects of poetry. By learning about the iambic pentameter, we can then realize and figure out types of poems with iambic pentameter. Learning about the mnemonic device SIFFTS IS will help us better analyze poems.

How will I use what I learn?
I will use what I learn about Shakespearean Sonnets and iambic pentameters in future lessons where we have to look at poetry. Furthermore, learning about identifying the theme and what the poem is saying may also help me understand poems I face in the future. Learning about the SIFFTS IS mnemonic device will also help me analyze poems in the future efficiently.