Notes - The Introduction of Literature

Week1 The Introduction of Literature

★What is literature?

Literature is a form of art which express by words. From the to time people have classified them into some genres─for example,poetry,novel,drama etc. 
☆link→ wiki

★Literary periods & history timeline

☆link: Literary Periods & History Timeline

★Fiction 

Fiction is the classification for any story or similar work derived from imagination—in other words, not based strictly on history or fact. Fiction can be expressed in a variety of formats, including writings, live performances, films, television programs, animations, video games, and role-playing games, though the term originally and most commonly refers to the narrative forms of literature (see literary fiction), including the novel, novella, short story, and play. Fiction does not refer to a specific mode or genre, unless used in its narrowest sense to mean a "literary narrative". Fiction is traditionally regarded as the opposite of non-fiction, whose creators assume responsibility for presenting only the historical and factual truth; however, the distinction between fiction and non-fiction can be blurred, for example, in postmodern literature.

A work of fiction is understood to be an act of creative invention; its total faithfulness to reality is not typically assumed by its audience, and so it is not expected to present only characters who are actual people or descriptions that are factually accurate. Instead, the context of fiction is generally open to interpretation, due to fiction's freedom from adhering exactly to the real world. Characters and events within a fictional work may even be openly set in their own context entirely separate from the known universe: a fictional universe.
☆link→ wiki

★ Names of fingers

☆link→ picture

★ Vocabulary

scarlet	(adj.) 深紅色
linger	(v.) 徘徊
linger over	仔細欣賞、慢慢進行
linger away	虛度
detain	(v.) 留住、耽擱
retrieve	(v.) 恢復、挽回
stagger	(v.) 蹣跚、吃驚
fumble	(v.) 笨拙
assent	(v.) 同意、贊成
assent to
consent	(v.) 同意、贊成
	(n.) 同意
deprecate	(v.) 反對、抨擊
deprecator	(n.) 反對者
deprecative	(adj.) 反對的
vague	(adj.) 模糊的
	(n.) 模糊
protecnus	(n.) 主角
actenus	(n.) 反角
allegory	(n.) 寓言

Week2 Cathedral

★ Cathedral

Cathedral is the third major-press collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver, published in 1983.
☆link→  wiki

▶Raymond Carver

Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. (May 25, 1938 – August 2, 1988) was an American short-story writer and poet. Carver contributed[citation needed] to the revitalization[citation needed] of the American short story in literature during the 1980s.

▶Themes

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOOKING AND SEEING
ART AS INSIGHT

▶Motifs

THE DRINKING

▶Symbols

THE CATHEDRAL

AUDIOTAPES

☆link→  Cathedral Raymond Carver

★ Roman numerals

The numeric system represented by Roman numerals originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers in this system are represented by combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet. Roman numerals, as used today, are based on seven symbols.

The numbers 1 to 10 are usually expressed in Roman numerals as follows:
I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X.


Numbers are formed by combining symbols and adding the values, so II is two (two ones) and XIII is thirteen (a ten and three ones). Because each numeral has a fixed value rather than representing multiples of ten, one hundred and so on, according to position, there is no need for "place keeping" zeros, as in numbers like 207 or 1066; those numbers are written as CCVII (two hundreds, a five and two ones) and MLXVI (a thousand, a fifty, a ten, a five and a one).
☆link→  wiki

☆link→  picture's link

★ Genre

Genre, "kind" or "sort", from Latin genus, Greek is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed upon conventions developed over time. Genre is most popularly known as a category of literature, music, or other forms of art or entertainment, whether written or spoken, audio or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria, yet genres can be aesthetic, rhetorical, communicative, or functional. Genres form by conventions that change over time as new genres are invented and the use of old ones is discontinued. Often, works fit into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. Stand alone texts, works, or pieces of communication may have individual styles, but genres are amalgams of these texts based on agreed upon or socially inferred conventions. Some genres may be rigid with strictly adhered to guidelines while others may be very flexible.

Genre began as an absolute classification system for ancient Greek literature. Poetry, prose, and performance each had a specific and calculated style that related to the theme of the story. Speech patterns for comedy would not be appropriate for tragedy, and even actors were restricted to their genre under the assumption that a type of person could tell one type of story best. In later periods genres proliferated and developed in response to changes in audiences and creators. Genre became a dynamic tool to help the public make sense out of unpredictable art. Because art is often a response to a social state, in that people write/paint/sing/dance about what they know about, the use of genre as a tool must be able to adapt to changing meanings.

Genre suffers from the same ills of any classification system. Genre is to be reassessed and scrutinized, and to weigh works on their unique merit. It has been suggested that genres resonate with people because of the familiarity, the shorthand communication, as well as the tendency of genres to shift with public mores and to reflect the zeitgeist. While the genre of storytelling has been relegated as lesser form of art because of the heavily borrowed nature of the conventions, admiration has grown. Proponents argue that the genius of an effective genre piece is in the variation, recombination, and evolution of the codes.

☆link→  wiki

★ Vocabulary

formidable	(adj.) 強大的、可畏的
rival	(n.) 對手、勁敵
ally	(n.) 同盟夥伴
withhold	(v.) 抑制、阻擋
underdog	(n.) 失敗者
initiate	(v.) 發起
initiation	(n.) 引發
catastrophe	(n.) 災難
triumph	(v.) 勝利
momentous	(adj.) 重大的
inherit	(v.) 繼承
inheritable	(adj.) 可繼承的
inheritance	(n.) 遺產
legacy	(n.) 遺產
prominent	(adj.) 傑出的
prominence	(n.) 突出、聲望、突出物
emulate	(v.) 模仿
utter	(v.) 吐露、出聲
dispensable	(adj.) 可有可無的
indispensable	(adj.) 不可或缺的

Week3 Roman Fever

★ Roman Fever

"Roman Fever" is a short story by American writer Edith Wharton. It was first published in the magazine Liberty in 1934, and was later included in Wharton's last short-story collection, The World Over.
☆link→  wiki

▶ Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton (born Edith Newbold Jones; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, short story writer, and designer. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930. Wharton combined her insider's view of America's privileged classes with a brilliant, natural wit to write humorous, incisive novels and short stories of social and psychological insight. She was well acquainted with many of her era's other literary and public figures, including Theodore Roosevelt.

★ Four Basic Types of Irony

(1) Situational Irony
     When the very last thing you expect to happen, happens, A surprise or ending.
(2) Dramatic Irony
     Theatre or novel, when audience knows something that the characters don't.
(3) Verbal Irony
     When what you say is not what you mean, is sarcasm.
(4) Cosmic Irony
     In Greek tradgedies, when what the character wants is not what the god(s) have ordained for them.
☆link→  The 4 Types of Irony You’ll Likely Encounter in Modern Life

★ Song about Ironic xD  

☆link→ Ironic-Alanis Morissette

★ Five parts of the plot Freytag's Pyramid  (P.85)

 Plot: the arrangement to the action.

(1) Exposition
The first part of the plot, called the exposition, introduces the characters, their situations, and usually, a time and place, giving us all the basic information we need to understand what is to come.

(2) Racing Action
We called it complication also. It begins with an inciting incident or destabilizing event, which introduces the new conflicts or intensifies an existing one. 

(3) Climax or Turning Point
The plot's climax is the moment of greatest emotional intensity and the action stops rising and begins to falling or reversing.

(4) Falling Action
The falling action brings a release of emotional tension and move us to the resolution of the conflict or conflicts.

(5) Conclusion

Conclusion presents us with a new and at least somewhat stable situation.

☆link→   The Elements of Fiction

★ Vocabulary

ignorant	(adj.) 愚昧的/無禮的
stereotype	(n.) 刻板印象
hostile	(adj.) 惡劣的/艱困的
illuminate	(v.) 照亮
correspondence	(n.) 通信
	(n.) 一致/相當/相似
correspondent	(adj.) 一致的/符合的
correspond with	與…通信
correspond to	相當於
open up	傾吐心聲
vigorous	(adj.) 精力充沛的
vigor	(n.) 精力
intimate	(adj.) 親密的/私人的
	(n.) 密友
	(v.) 暗示/通知
intimation	(n.) 暗示
intimacy	(n.) 親密
irreproachable	(adj.) 無可指責的
reproachable	(adj.) 可非議的
reproach	(v.) 責備/恥辱

Week4 Boys and Girls

★ Boys and Girls

"Boys and Girls" (1964 / 1968) is a short story by Alice Munro, the Canadian winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 which deals with the making of gender roles.
☆link→  wiki

▶Alice Munro

Alice Ann Munro ( born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer and Nobel Prize winner. Munro's work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time. Her stories have been said to "embed more than announce, reveal more than parade."
Munro's fiction is most often set in her native Huron County in southwestern Ontario. Her stories explore human complexities in an uncomplicated prose style. Munro's writing has established her as "one of our greatest contemporary writers of fiction," or, as Cynthia Ozick put it, "our Chekhov." Munro is the recipient of many literary accolades, including the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "master of the contemporary short story", and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work. She is also a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction and was the recipient of the Writers' Trust of Canada's 1996 Marian Engel Award, as well as the 2004 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for Runaway.

☆link→ wiki

★ Bildungsroman

In literary criticism, a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story (though it may also be known as a subset of the coming-of-age story) is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood (coming of age), in which character change is extremely important.

☆What I have read:

To Kill a Mockingbird ☆link→  link

The Kite Runner ☆link→  link

★ My Review of Boys and Girls

I like this metaphorical story, which reflects the shadow of the society. The story is about a girl who used to respect his father’s job, like to be with him, and always imagining she could be needed by him, be approved by him. On the other hand, She doesn’t like her Mom. She thought she was always busying doing something trifles. Day by days, those external housework will drive her crazy.

‚ In this story, “she” doesn’t have a name but her brother Laird has. I think it probably symbols that girls doesn’t important in this house (or you can say, this society), where “girls” are expected to do housework is usually hemmed, like kitchen, living room. Occasionally, if the girl’s mother appears in the cellar or someplace “belongs” to her Dad, she looks odd and incompetent like a stain on a spotless table.

These days go on and on until Mack was shot. It is the first time she really met the dearth, making her disgusted. At that time she knew some experiences only need to go through once a life time.

‚ The picture Mack was shot must have hovered in her mind and made her think about death. (I guess) No matter what she had thought, she had a new conception toward her Dad and Mr. Henry, which she regarded them cold blooded and cruel that she doesn’t assent at all. I think it is the time she broke the utopia of man world but it is also the time she settled herself as a “girl”.

And it comes to Flora, who will be shot if she closed the gate. She should help her Dad as he asked her this favor, but she didn’t understand why she opened the door and watched Flora rushed out instead.

At the dinner, she burst out tears and she finally accepted what her Dad said, ”She’s only a girl.”

‚ The story was written in 1964 while the feminism is rising. It’s showing us how a child identified herself to a girl. There are some thought-provoking things included. One of them is that we’re in a “general equality” society already, but there is gender schema everywhere which hindered the real equality upon genders.

To sum up, whatever gender you are, we all need other people’s acknowledge but we can give ourselves more thought that not only to gain their approves but our self-approved is also important as the former.

★ Narration and Point of view (p. 160-164)

Types of Narration

(1) First Person, where the narrator refers to him or herself as I. Usually this is the protagonist, but that’s not a requirement. Also, a story could feature multiple first-person narrators. And the narrator is virtually always a character in the story (allowances for stories told by a narrator who says that another person first relayed the story to him).

(2) Second Person, where you, the reader, or some general you, is the focus of the narrator’s story.


(3) Third person, where the narrator refers to characters as she and he, never as I. The narrator in third-person may know only the experiences of a single character or may know what happens to all characters. The narrator may be able to report what goes on in one character’s thoughts, or in the thoughts of several characters, or in the minds of all characters. Or he may have no knowledge of character thoughts at all.

★ Types of Character (p. 180-187)

Flat Character

Flat characters are minor characters in a work of fiction who do not undergo substantial change or growth in the course of a story. Learn more about flat characters and how they differ from round characters. 
☆link→  Flat Character

☆link→ picture

Static Characters

When people say that a character is "static," they're referring to the fact that a character doesn't change.

☆link→  Static Characters

Example Characters: C3PO and R2D2 (STAR WARS)

☆link→ picture

Round Characters

As a writer, your focus will be on developing your round characters. For readers, these are the characters you'll put the most effort into following and understanding. Round characters are multi-dimensional and complex. They are nuanced and often contradictory.

☆link→ Round Characters

☆link→ picture

Dynamic Characters  

The opposite of static characters, dynamic characters will undergo some kind of change in the course of the story.

☆link→ Dynamic Characters

☆link→ picture

Stock Characters

Many people think the term "stock characters" is just another way to describe static characters, but not so. Stock characters are often stereotypical. They are difficult to pull off in fiction unless you are writing satire, and even then, there must be much thought behind including a stock character in your narrative. 

☆link→ Stock Characters

Protagonists 

Protagonists are the "main" characters in your fiction. They are "round" characters which the reader often sympathizes with or roots for. However, they are not always completely moral or likable.

Protagonists should be complex and flawed. A big mistake that many beginning writers make is to worry too much about whether their protagonist is likable. Of bigger importance is whether or not the protagonist is relatable. The reader needs to believe the character, and understand their choices.

☆link→   Protagonists

☆link→ picture

Antagonist 

The antagonist is essential to many works of literature, and is also known as "the bad guy." The antagonist is the person who is preventing the protagonist from getting what he wants or needs.
An antagonist should also be a "round character." Simply making an antagonist evil is not as interesting as making him or her conflicted. Pure evil is very hard to believe in fiction: people are multi-faceted and inspired by their own situations and back stories. Therefore, putting time into describing your antagonist and showing his or her own struggles will make for a richer and more complex narrative. Just as a protagonist should not only be good (white), an antagonist should not only be bad (black)

☆link→   Antagonist

☆link→ picture

★ Comparason of Character's Type

1) Round vs. flat

In his book Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster defined two basic types of characters, their qualities, functions, and importance for the development of the novel: flat characters and round characters. Flat characters are two-dimensional, in that they are relatively uncomplicated. By contrast, round characters are complex figures with many different characteristics, that undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise the reader.

Mary Sues are characters mainly appearing in fan fiction. They are virtually devoid of flaws, and are therefore considered flat characters.

2) Dynamic vs. static

Dynamic characters are the ones that change over the course of the story, while static characters remain the same throughout.

3) Regular, recurring and guest characters

In television, a regular, main or ongoing character is a character who appears in all or a majority of episodes, or in a significant chain of episodes of the series. Regular characters may be both core and secondary ones.

A recurring character often and frequently appears from time to time during the series' run. Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main focus.

A guest character is one which acts only in a few episodes or scenes. Unlike regular characters, the guest ones do not need to be carefully incorporated into the storyline with all its ramifications: they create a piece of drama and then disappear without consequences to the narrative structure, unlike core characters, for which any significant conflict must be traced during a considerable time, which is often seen as an unjustified waste of resources. There may also be a continuing or recurring guest character. Sometimes a guest character may gain popularity and turn into a regular one.

☆link→ wiki

★ Vocabulary

evoke	(v.) 喚醒
association	(n.) 聯想、協會
associate	(v.) 聯想、結交
	(n.) 同事
arbitrary	(adj.) 任性的、多變的
varied	(adj.) 多變的
faint	(adj.) 模糊的、微弱的
remorse	(n.) 悔恨、自責
remorseful	(adj.) 懊悔的、自責的
remorseless	(adj.) 無悔的
deceive	(v.) 欺騙
splendid	(adj.) 燦爛的
profound	(adj.) 深刻的、深沉的
prolong	(v.) 拖延、延長
wither	(v.) 凋萎、使消亡
monotonous	(adj.) 毫無變化的、單調的、平板的
obstinate	(adj.) 頑強的
obstinacy	(n.) 頑固
distraction	(n.) 分心
destruction	(n.) 破壞

Week5 The Lady with the Dog

★ The Lady with the Dog

"The Lady with the Dog"  is a short story by Anton Chekhov first published in 1899. It tells the story of an adulterous affair between a Russian banker and a young lady he meets while vacationing in Yalta. The story comprises four parts: part I describes the initial meeting in Yalta, part II the consummation of the affair and the remaining time in Yalta, part III Gurov's return to Moscow and his visit to Anna's town, and part IV Anna's visits to Moscow. One of Chekhov's most famous pieces of short fiction, Vladimir Nabokov declared that it was one of the greatest short stories ever written.

☆link→  wiki

▶Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, pronounced was a Russian playwright and short story writer, who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."
Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski's Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text".
Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

☆link→ wiki

★ Sonnet 18   William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

★ On First Looking into Chapman's Homer  BY JOHN KEATS

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold, 
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; 
Round many western islands have I been 
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. 
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told 
That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne; 
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene 
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold: 
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies 
When a new planet swims into his ken; 
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes 
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men 
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise— 

Silent, upon a peak in Darien. 

★ The Face That Launch'd A Thousand Ships

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

Her lips suck forth my soul: see where it flies!

Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.

Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,

And all is dross that is not Helena.

I will be Paris, and for love of thee,

Instead of Troy, shall Wittenberg be sack'd;

And I will combat with weak Menelaus,

And wear thy colours on my plumed crest;

Yea, I will wound Achilles in the heel,

And then return to Helen for a kiss.

O, thou art fairer than the evening air

Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars;

Brighter art thou than flaming Jupiter

When he appear'd to hapless Semele;

More lovely than the monarch of the sky

In wanton Arethusa's azur'd arms;

And none but thou shalt be my paramour!

★ A Reading of The Face That Launch'd A Thousand Ships

☆link→ Was This The Face That Launched A Thousand Ships - Christopher Marlowe

★ Figurative Language (P 285-290)

You are using figurative language when your writing goes beyond the actual meanings of words so that the reader gains new insights into the objects or subjects in the work.

One of the best ways to really understand the concept of figurative language is to see it in action such as with these examples:

▶All right, the sky misses the sun at night.
▶The poorest man is the richest, and the rich are poor.
▶Hear the mellow wedding bells. - Edgar Allen Poe

★ Types of Figurative Language

There are many types of figurative language. Some include the use of a specific type of word or word meaning such as:

▶Metaphor
An implied analogy in which one thing is compared or identified with another dissimilar thing. For example, a feeling that is described in terms of "butterflies in the stomach", a "heart beating like a drum", or "just going blank".

▶Simile
A symbol signifies or stands for something else. Usually that something is concrete. It is not common for a thought or feeling to develop into a symbol as symbols are universal and represent cultures, traditions and religions of family of origin. Examples of symbols include a crucifix or a menorah, a stop sign or a door knocker. Symbols direct and organize, record and communicate large amounts of information in a quick way. Cultures rely on them to maintain order, discipline and moral ethics.

▶Personification
Personification gives human characteristics to inanimate objects, animals, or ideas. This can really affect the way the reader imagines things. This type of figurative language is often used in children’s books, poetry, and fictional literature.

▶Hyperbole
A hyperbole is an outrageous exaggeration that emphasizes a point, and can be ridiculous or funny. Hyperboles can be added to fiction to add color and depth to a character.

▶Symbolism
Symbolism occurs when a word has meaning in itself, but is used to represent something entirely different.

☆link→ Figurative Language: Understanding the Concept

★ Vocabulary

fragment	(v.) 破碎、分裂
	(n.) 碎片
fragility	(n.) 脆弱、易碎性
fragile	(adj.) 脆弱的、易碎的
vulnerable	(adj.) 脆弱的、易碎的
utopian	(n.) 烏托邦
dystopian	(n.) 反烏托邦
perilous	(adj.) 危險的
imperil	(v.) 危及、威脅
scant	(adj.) 缺少的、不足的
insufficient	(adj.) 不充分的、不足的
regulation	(n.) 規則、管理、調整
enforce	(v.) 執行、實施
expire	(v.) 到期、呼吸
embolden	(v.) 使有勇氣、給…壯膽
jeopardise	(v.) 危及、使逢險
incite	(v.) 激勵、煽動
incitement	(n.) 刺激、激勵
legislate	(v.) 立法
legislation	(n.) 立法、法規、法律

Week6 The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket

★ The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket

The theme of alienation, which characterizes Yasunari Kawabata’s work, resonates throughout this story. The narrator, the boy, and the girl are all intensely united in a brief but highly affecting encounter. Ironically, it is the narrator—that is, the observer and stranger—who, from his perspective of time and distance, feels the full impact of the moment. He is the most sensitive to the sorrow over the transience of things and, consequently, the betrayal of expectations. The story, therefore, becomes a meditation not only on love, loneliness, and loss but also on the nature of time itself, expressing the traditional Japanese sense of aware that links beauty with sadness. A feeling of incompleteness pervades life, and the narrator’s resigned sadness comes from an acceptance of human helplessness before the flow of time.

☆link→ Themes and Meanings

▶Yasunari Kawabata

Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成 Kawabata Yasunari, 11 June 1899 – 16 April 1972[2]) was a Japanese novelist and short story writer whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.

☆link→ wiki

☆link→ The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket” from Kawabata Suite (1996) 

★ Quotes from William Shakespeare 

“Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

★ Romeo and Juliet: Act 2, Scene 2, Page 8

Sweet, so would I.
Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing.
Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

★ Setting (p. 245-251)

The setting is both the time and geographic location within a narrative or within a work of fiction. A literary element, the setting helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context (especially society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and hour. Along with the plot, character, theme, and style, setting is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.

☆link→ wiki

★ The Fundamental Elements of Setting

▶Locale
planet, country, city, building, field, woods, vehicle, at sea, in space. Any place where you can put characters and action.

▶Weather
rain, snow, sunshine, fog, temperatures, hurricanes, droughts, and so forth

▶Objects
any physical items a character can touch or use or refer to (think props)

▶Era
a time period (medieval Europe) or a moment (the sixties in the U.S.)

▶Time
An age or epoch or a specific year, even a time of day or a season

▶Culture
laws, social practices, societal taboos, societal expectations, politics and government, entertainment/games, religious practices, education, war, mores, technology

▶Geography
type and/or condition of land to include mountains, plains, lowlands, islands, cloud cities, volcanoes, and so on. Terrain. Plant and animal life.

☆link→ Setting—The Place and Time of Story

★ Vocabulary

reluctant	(adj.) 勉強的
reluctation	(n.) 勉強
embank	(v.) 築堤
embankment	(n.) 堤防
exclaim	(v.) 呼喊、驚叫
exclaim with a voice	齊聲呼喊
exclaim with delight	高興呼叫
exclaim in despair	絕望吶喊
exclaim at sb.	斥責sb.
lantern	(n.) 燈籠
loiter	(v.) 閒晃
emanate	(v.) 發出、發散、散射
wrist	(n.) 手腕
mutter	(v.) 嘟噥
sheepish	(adj.) 侷促不安的、羞愧的
dangle	(v.) 懸盪、搖擺
loose	(adj.) 寬鬆的
	(n.) 解放
chagrin	(v.)/(n.) 惱恨、懊悔
wit	(n.) 智力

Week7 A Rose for Emily

★ A Rose for Emily

"A Rose for Emily" is a short story by American author William Faulkner, first published in the April 30, 1930, issue of The Forum. The story takes place in Faulkner's fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional southern town of Yoknapatawpha County. It was Faulkner's first short story published in a national magazine.

☆link→ wiki

▶William Faulkner

William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays, and screenplays. He is primarily known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he spent most of his life.
Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers in American literature generally and Southern literature specifically. Though his work was published as early as 1919, and largely during the 1920s and 1930s, Faulkner was relatively unknown until receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature, for which he became the only Mississippi-born Nobel winner. Two of his works, A Fable (1954) and his last novel The Reivers (1962), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.[2] In 1998, the Modern Library ranked his 1929 novel The Sound and the Fury sixth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century; also on the list were As I Lay Dying (1930) and Light in August (1932). Absalom, Absalom! (1936) is often included on similar lists.

☆link→ wiki

★ Themes- A Rose for Emily

"A Rose for Emily" discusses many dark themes that characterized the Old South. Death is an important theme because it thematically reflects the 1930s decaying of the South by relating it to Emily's need to cling to tradition by sleeping next to the corpse of Homer Barron. There is also a reference to the stagnant mindset of the Old South in their inability to initially accept Homer Barron, a Northerner, into their lives.

In addition, William Faulkner examines the issue of progressive change in the face of old tradition, as exemplified by the city of Jefferson's growing improvement through their new mail service, cotton gins, and garages. These new technologies replace the archaic, luxuriant houses of the antebellum past, and Emily's refusal to pay her taxes, using Colonel Sartoris' expired pardon, shows her refusal for change.

[pictured from文學一分鐘讀懂a rose for Emily]

Another theme that characterizes the story is the isolation that Emily makes for herself, juxtaposed with the interest of the town in the life of Emily. Emily is alone, yet always being watched by the townspeople. She is both isolated and a part of the community.

wiki

☆link→  wiki

☆link→ Translation- A Rose for Emily 

★ Movie-A Rose for Emily

☆link→ A Rose For Emily full movie

★ Illustrations-A Rose for Emily

☆link→  Illustrations

★ Theme  (p. 334-338)

In contemporary literary studies, a theme is the central topic a text treats.Themes can be divided into two categories: a work's thematic concept is what readers "think the work is about" and its thematic statement being "what the work says about the subject".

The most common contemporary understanding of theme is an idea or point that is central to a story, which can often be summed in a single word (e.g. love, death, betrayal). Typical examples of themes of this type are conflict between the individual and society; coming of age; humans in conflict with technology; nostalgia; and the dangers of unchecked ambition.[examples needed] A theme may be exemplified by the actions, utterances, or thoughts of a character in a novel. An example of this would be the theme loneliness in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, wherein many of the characters seem to be lonely. It may differ from the thesis—the text's or author's implied worldview.[example needed]

A story may have several themes. Themes often explore historically common or cross-culturally recognizable ideas, such as ethical questions, and are usually implied rather than stated explicitly. An example of this would be whether one should live a seemingly better life, at the price of giving up parts of one's humanity, which is a theme in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Along with plot, character, setting, and style, theme is considered one of the components of fiction.

☆link→   wiki

 ★ Vocabulary

spire	(v.) 螺旋上升、裝尖塔
	(n.) 螺旋、尖塔
scroll	(v.) 捲、成捲
august	(adj.) 有威嚴的
encroach	(v.) 侵占、侵入
encroach on	蠶食鯨吞
enclose	(v.) 圍住、圈起
envelop	(v.) 遮蓋、包圍
envelope	(n.) 信封
obligate	(v.) 使負義務、強迫
	(adj.) 有義務的、必要的
obligation	(n.) 責任、債務
obligatory	(adj.) 義務的、必須的
furnish	(v.) 布置、裝置
submerge	(v.) 沉沒、沒入水中
merge	(v.) 融合、合併
merge with	和…融合、和…合併
rejuvenate	(v.) 復興
undertake	(v.) 承擔、從事
in contrast	相反地

Week8  Spring break    Week9 Midterm

Week10  Poetry1: Reading, Responding, Writing

★ Defining poetry

Poetry (the term derives from a variant of the Greek term, poiesis, "making") is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

Poetry has a long history, dating back to the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Early poems evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing (詩經) , or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing. From the mid-20th century, poetry has sometimes been more generally regarded as a fundamental creative act employing language.

Poetry uses forms and conventions to suggest differential interpretation to words, or to evoke emotive responses. Devices such as assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia and rhythm are sometimes used to achieve musical or incantatory effects. The use of ambiguity, symbolism, irony and other stylistic elements of poetic diction often leaves a poem open to multiple interpretations.
Similarly figures of speech such as metaphor, simile and metonymy create a resonance between otherwise disparate images—a layering of meanings, forming connections previously not perceived. Kindred forms of resonance may exist, between individual verses, in their patterns of rhyme or rhythm.
Some poetry types are specific to particular cultures and genres and respond to characteristics of the language in which the poet writes. Readers accustomed to identifying poetry with Dante, Goethe, Mickiewicz and Rumi may think of it as written in lines based on rhyme and regular meter; there are, however, traditions, such as Biblical poetry, that use other means to create rhythm and euphony. Much modern poetry reflects a critique of poetic tradition, playing with and testing, among other things, the principle of euphony itself, sometimes altogether forgoing rhyme or set rhythm. In today's increasingly globalized world, poets often adapt forms, styles and techniques from diverse cultures and languages.
☆link→ wiki

★ Type of poetry

▶ Narrative poetry

Narrative poetry gives a verbal representation, in verse, of a sequence of connected events, it propels characters through a plot. It is always told by a narrator. Narrative poems might tell of a love story (like Tennyson's Maud), the story of a father and son (like Wordsworth's Michael) or the deeds of a hero or heroine (like Walter Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel).

Sub-categories of narrative poetry:
(1) Epics
Epics usually operate on a large scale, both in length and topic, such as the founding of a nation (Virgil’s Aeneid) or the beginning of world history (Milton's Paradise Lost), they tend to use an elevated style of language and supernatural beings take part in the action.




(2) Mock-epic
The mock-epic makes use of epic conventions, like the elevated style and the assumption that the topic is of great importance, to deal with completely insignificant occurrences. A famous example is Pope's The Rape of the Lock, which tells the story of a young beauty whose suitor secretly cuts off a lock of her hair.

(3) Ballad
A ballad is a song, originally transmitted orally, which tells a story. It is an important form of folk poetry which was adapted for literary uses from the sixteenth century onwards. The ballad stanza is usually a four-line stanza, alternating tetrameter and trimeter.

▶ Lyric Poetry

A lyric poem is a comparatively short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a state of mind or an emotional state. Lyric poetry retains some of the elements of song which is said to be its origin: For Greek writers the lyric was a song accompanied by the lyre.

Subcategories of the lyric are, for example elegy, ode, sonnet and dramatic monologue and most occasional poetry:
(1) Elegy
In modern usage, elegy is a formal lament for the death of a particular person (for example Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H.). More broadly defined, the term elegy is also used for solemn meditations, often on questions of death, such as Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

(2) Ode
An ode is a long lyric poem with a serious subject written in an elevated style. Famous examples are Wordsworth’s Hymn to Duty or Keats’ Ode to a Grecian Urn.

(3) Sonnet
The sonnet was originally a love poem which dealt with the lover’s sufferings and hopes. It originated in Italy and became popular in England in the Renaissance, when Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey translated and imitated the sonnets written by Petrarch (Petrarchan sonnet). From the seventeenth century onwards the sonnet was also used for other topics than love, for instance for religious experience (by Donne and Milton), reflections on art (by Keats or Shelley) or even the war experience (by Brooke or Owen). The sonnet uses a single stanza of (usually) fourteen lines and an intricate rhyme pattern (see stanza forms). Many poets wrote a series of sonnets linked by the same theme, so-called sonnet cycles (for instance Petrarch, Spenser, Shakespeare, Drayton, Barret-Browning, Meredith) which depict the various stages of a love relationship.

▶ Descriptive and Didactic Poetry

Both lyric and narrative poetry can contain lengthy and detailed descriptions (descriptive poetry) or scenes in direct speech (dramatic poetry).

The purpose of a didactic poem is primarily to teach something. This can take the form of very specific instructions, such as how to catch a fish, as in James Thomson’s The Seasons (Spring 379-442) or how to write good poetry as in Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism. But it can also be meant as instructive in a general way. Until the twentieth century all literature was expected to have a didactic purpose in a general sense, that is, to impart moral, theoretical or even practical knowledge; Horace famously demanded that poetry should combine prodesse (learning) and delectare (pleasure). The twentieth century was more reluctant to proclaim literature openly as a teaching tool.

☆link→Types of Poetry

Week11  Poetry2: Understanding the Text

★ Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe ( January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. 

He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

☆link→ wiki

★The Raven 

(By Allan Poe)

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, 

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— 

    While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, 

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 

“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— 

            Only this and nothing more.” 

    Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; 

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. 

    Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow 

    From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore— 

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore— 

            Nameless here for evermore. 

    And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain 

Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; 

    So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating 

    “’Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door— 

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;— 

            This it is and nothing more.” 

    Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, 

“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; 

    But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, 

    And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, 

That I scarce was sure I heard you”—here I opened wide the door;— 

            Darkness there and nothing more. 

    Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, 

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; 

    But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, 

    And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?” 

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”— 

            Merely this and nothing more. 

    Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, 

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before. 

    “Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice; 

      Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore— 

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;— 

            ’Tis the wind and nothing more!” 

    Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, 

In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore; 

    Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; 

    But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door— 

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door— 

            Perched, and sat, and nothing more. 

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, 

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, 

“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven, 

Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore— 

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!” 

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” 

    Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, 

Though its answer little meaning—little relevancy bore; 

    For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being 

    Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door— 

Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door, 

            With such name as “Nevermore.” 

    But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only 

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. 

    Nothing farther then he uttered—not a feather then he fluttered— 

    Till I scarcely more than muttered “Other friends have flown before— 

On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.” 

            Then the bird said “Nevermore.” 

    Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, 

“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store 

    Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster 

    Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore— 

Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore 

            Of ‘Never—nevermore’.” 

    But the Raven still beguiling all my fancy into smiling, 

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird, and bust and door; 

    Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking 

    Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore— 

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore 

            Meant in croaking “Nevermore.” 

    This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing 

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core; 

    This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining 

    On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er, 

But whose velvet-violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er, 

            She shall press, ah, nevermore! 

    Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer 

Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. 

    “Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee 

    Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore; 

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!” 

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” 

    “Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!— 

Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, 

    Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted— 

    On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore— 

Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!” 

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” 

    “Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil! 

By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore— 

    Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, 

    It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore— 

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.” 

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” 

    “Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting— 

“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore! 

    Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! 

    Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door! 

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” 

            Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” 

    And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting 

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; 

    And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming, 

    And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; 

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor 

            Shall be lifted—nevermore!

☆link→ The Raven (Christopher Lee)

☆link→ The Simpsons - Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven

★ To Helen 

(By Allan Poe)

Helen, thy beauty is to me 

   Like those Nicéan barks of yore, 

That gently, o'er a perfumed sea, 

   The weary, way-worn wanderer bore 

   To his own native shore. 

On desperate seas long wont to roam, 

   Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, 

Thy Naiad airs have brought me home 

   To the glory that was Greece,       

   And the grandeur that was Rome. 

Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche 

   How statue-like I see thee stand, 

The agate lamp within thy hand! 

   Ah, Psyche, from the regions which 

   Are Holy-Land! 

★ W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, he helped to found the Abbey Theatre, and in his later years served as an Irish Senator for two terms. Yeats was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival along with Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn and others.

☆link→ wiki

★ I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

(By WILLIAM WORDSWORTH)

I wandered lonely as a cloud 

That floats on high o'er vales and hills, 

When all at once I saw a crowd, 

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. 

Continuous as the stars that shine 

And twinkle on the milky way, 

They stretched in never-ending line 

Along the margin of a bay: 

Ten thousand saw I at a glance, 

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. 

The waves beside them danced; but they 

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: 

A poet could not but be gay, 

In such a jocund company: 

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought 

What wealth the show to me had brought: 

For oft, when on my couch I lie 

In vacant or in pensive mood, 

They flash upon that inward eye 

Which is the bliss of solitude; 

And then my heart with pleasure fills, 

And dances with the daffodils. 

 ★ Ulysses 

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

It little profits that an idle king, 

By this still hearth, among these barren crags, 

Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole 

Unequal laws unto a savage race, 

That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. 

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink 

Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy'd 

Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those 

That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when 

Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades 

Vext the dim sea: I am become a name; 

For always roaming with a hungry heart 

Much have I seen and known; cities of men 

And manners, climates, councils, governments, 

Myself not least, but honour'd of them all; 

And drunk delight of battle with my peers, 

Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. 

I am a part of all that I have met; 

Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' 

Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades 

For ever and forever when I move. 

How dull it is to pause, to make an end, 

To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! 

As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life 

Were all too little, and of one to me 

Little remains: but every hour is saved 

From that eternal silence, something more, 

A bringer of new things; and vile it were 

For some three suns to store and hoard myself, 

And this gray spirit yearning in desire 

To follow knowledge like a sinking star, 

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. 

         This is my son, mine own Telemachus, 

To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,— 

Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil 

This labour, by slow prudence to make mild 

A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees 

Subdue them to the useful and the good. 

Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere 

Of common duties, decent not to fail 

In offices of tenderness, and pay 

Meet adoration to my household gods, 

When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. 

         There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail: 

There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners, 

Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me— 

That ever with a frolic welcome took 

The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed 

Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old; 

Old age hath yet his honour and his toil; 

Death closes all: but something ere the end, 

Some work of noble note, may yet be done, 

Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. 

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks: 

The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep 

Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends, 

'T is not too late to seek a newer world. 

Push off, and sitting well in order smite 

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds 

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 

Of all the western stars, until I die. 

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: 

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, 

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. 

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' 

We are not now that strength which in old days 

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; 

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Week12  Poetry2

★ Ode on a Grecian Urn

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
       Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
       A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
       Of deities or mortals, or of both,
               In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
       What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?

What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
               What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
       Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
       Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
       Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
               Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
       She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
               For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!
Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
         Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
         For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
         For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
                For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
         That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
                A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
         To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
         And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
         Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
                Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
         Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
                Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
         Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
         Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
         When old age shall this generation waste,
                Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
         "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
                Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

★ La Belle Dame Merci (John Keats)

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, 

Alone and palely loitering? 

The sedge has withered from the lake, 

And no birds sing. 

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, 

 So haggard and so woe-begone? 

The squirrel’s granary is full, 

And the harvest’s done. 

I see a lily on thy brow, 

With anguish moist and fever-dew, 

And on thy cheeks a fading rose 

Fast withereth too. 

I met a lady in the meads, 

Full beautiful—a faery’s child, 

Her hair was long, her foot was light, 

And her eyes were wild. 

I made a garland for her head, 

And bracelets too, and fragrant zone; 

She looked at me as she did love, 

And made sweet moan 

I set her on my pacing steed, 

And nothing else saw all day long, 

For sidelong would she bend, and sing 

A faery’s song. 

She found me roots of relish sweet, 

And honey wild, and manna-dew, 

And sure in language strange she said— 

‘I love thee true’. 

She took me to her Elfin grot, 

And there she wept and sighed full sore, 

And there I shut her wild wild eyes 

With kisses four. 

And there she lullèd me asleep, 

And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!— 

The latest dream I ever dreamt 

On the cold hill side. 

I saw pale kings and princes too, 

Pale warriors, death-pale were they all; 

They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci 

Thee hath in thrall!’ 

I saw their starved lips in the gloam, 

With horrid warning gapèd wide, 

And I awoke and found me here, 

On the cold hill’s side. 

And this is why I sojourn here, 

Alone and palely loitering, 

Though the sedge is withered from the lake, 

And no birds sing.

★ The Tyger

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!

When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

★ No Man is an Island

No man is an island entire of itself; every man 

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; 

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe 

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as 

well as any manner of thy friends or of thine 

own were; any man's death diminishes me, 

because I am involved in mankind. 

And therefore never send to know for whom 

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. 

Olde English Version

No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man

is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine;

if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe

is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as

well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine

owne were; any mans death diminishes me,

because I am involved in Mankinde;

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

★ Death, be not proud (p.1083)

(By John Donne)

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow 

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, 

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, 

And soonest our best men with thee do go, 

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery. 

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men, 

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, 

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well 

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then? 

One short sleep past, we wake eternally 

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

★ conceit

In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, a conceit invites the reader into a more sophisticated understanding of an object of comparison. Extended conceits in English are part of the poetic idiom of Mannerism, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century.

The metaphysical conceit is often imaginative, exploring specific parts of an experience. John Donne's "The Flea" is a poem seemingly about fleas in a bed. When Sir Philip Sidney begins a sonnet with the conventional idiomatic expression "My true-love hath my heart and I have his". He takes the metaphor literally and teases out a number of literal possibilities in the exchange of hearts. The result is a fully formed conceit.

☆link→ wiki

★ Metaphysical

In English literature the term is generally associated with the 17th century metaphysical poets, an extension of contemporary usage. The metaphysical conceit differs from an extended analogy in the sense that it does not have a clear-cut relationship between the things being compared. Helen Gardner observed that "a conceit is a comparison whose ingenuity is more striking than its justness" and that "a comparison becomes a conceit when we are made to concede likeness while being strongly conscious of unlikeness."

The metaphysical conceit is often imaginative, exploring specific parts of an experience. John Donne's "The Flea" is a poem seemingly about fleas in a bed. When Sir Philip Sidney begins a sonnet with the conventional idiomatic expression "My true-love hath my heart and I have his". He takes the metaphor literally and teases out a number of literal possibilities in the exchange of hearts. The result is a fully formed conceit.

☆link→ wiki

Week13  Poetry3

★ Syllogism

A syllogism (syllogismos, "conclusion, inference") is a kind of logical argument that applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a conclusion based on two or more propositions that are asserted or assumed to be true.

In its earliest form, defined by Aristotle, from the combination of a general statement (the major premise) and a specific statement (the minor premise), a conclusion is deduced. For example, knowing that all men are mortal (major premise) and that Socrates is a man (minor premise), we may validly conclude that Socrates is mortal. Syllogistic arguments are usually represented in a three-line form:

All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore Socrates is mortal.

☆link→ wiki

★ The lake Isle of the Innisfree (W. B. Yeats)

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

★ Lady and the Swan

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. In the W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother (see below). According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and seduced Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris. The subject was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to Timotheos (compare illustration, below left); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing poses, in cameos and engraved gems, rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions of Ovid and Fulgentius it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with erotic overtones, in the Italian Renaissance. ☆link→wiki

Understanding Leda and the Swan

☆link→Understanding Leda and the Swan

Week14  Poetry4

★ Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues.

★ Dover Beach

BY MATTHEW ARNOLD

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

"Dover Beach" is a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. It was first published in 1867 in the collection New Poems, but surviving notes indicate its composition may have begun as early as 1849. The most likely date is 1851. The title, locale and subject of the poem's descriptive opening lines is the shore of the English ferry port of Dover, Kent, facing Calais, France, at the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part (21 miles) of the English Channel, where Arnold honeymooned in 1851. ☆link→wiki

★ To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

BY ROBERT HERRICK

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

Week15  Poetry3

★ Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. With the possible exception of Walt Whitman, Dickinson is now recognized as the most important American poet of the 19th century.

Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although part of a prominent family with strong ties to its community, Dickinson lived much of her life in reclusive isolation. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a noted penchant for white clothing and became known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, to even leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most friendships between her and others depended entirely upon correspondence. Dickinson was a recluse for the later years of her life.

While Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Although Dickinson's acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Dickinson's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of her work became apparent to the public. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, though both heavily edited the content. A complete, and mostly unaltered, collection of her poetry became available for the first time when scholar Thomas H. Johnson published The Poems of Emily Dickinson in 1955. Despite some unfavorable reception and skepticism over the late 19th and early 20th centuries regarding her literary prowess, Dickinson is now almost universally considered to be one of the most significant of all American poets.
☆link→ wiki

★ A narrow Fellow in the Grass

BY EMILY DICKINSON

A narrow Fellow in the Grass
Occasionally rides -
You may have met him? Did you not
His notice instant is -

The Grass divides as with a Comb,
A spotted Shaft is seen,
And then it closes at your Feet
And opens further on -

He likes a Boggy Acre -
A Floor too cool for Corn -
But when a Boy and Barefoot
I more than once at Noon

Have passed I thought a Whip Lash
Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled And was gone -

Several of Nature’s People
I know, and they know me
I feel for them a transport
Of Cordiality

But never met this Fellow
Attended or alone
Without a tighter Breathing

And Zero at the Bone.

★ Because I could not stop for Death 

BY EMILY DICKINSON

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess – in the Ring –
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –
We passed the Setting Sun –

Or rather – He passed Us –
The Dews drew quivering and Chill –
For only Gossamer, my Gown –
My Tippet – only Tulle –

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground –
The Roof was scarcely visible –
The Cornice – in the Ground –

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –

★ Walt Whitman

Walter "Walt" Whitman ( May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene for its overt sexuality.

☆link→ wiki

Week16  Drama 1

★ Commencement Speech

Speech of Kai- Fu-Lee in Columbia University

☆link→ Speech of Kai- Fu-Lee in Columbia Unversity in 2017

Speech of James Ryan in Harvard 

☆link→ Dean James Ryan's 5 Essential Questions In Life

5 questions in life:    1. Wait, what?    2.  I wonder why/if?    3.  Could we at least?    4.  How can I help?    5.  What truly matters?

★ Themes, Symbols, & Motifs

▶ Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

▶ Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

▶ Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

 ★ A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors (the mechanicals) who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
☆link→ wiki

☆link→ Video SparkNotes: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream summary

★ Recommend websites:

▶ VideoSparkNotes

☆link→VideoSparkNotes

▶ Quiz on Fiction

☆link→ Fiction Quiz

Week17  Drama 2

★ A Midsummer Night's Dream

▶ Characters and Relationship

▶ Introduction

🔸Puck

Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides its action between several groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the play has to a protagonist. His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are responsible for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he mistakes the young Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius, thereby causing chaos within the group of young lovers; he also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.





🔸Oberon -  The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania, because she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight. Oberon’s desire for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion flower that creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce.








🔸Titania -  The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her husband, Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s brief, potion-induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass, yields the play’s foremost example of the contrast motif.




🔸Lysander -  A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. Lysander’s relationship with Hermia invokes the theme of love’s difficulty: he cannot marry her openly because Egeus, her father, wishes her to wed Demetrius; when Lysander and Hermia run away into the forest, Lysander becomes the victim of misapplied magic and wakes up in love with Helena.

🔸Hermia -  Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and is a childhood friend of Helena. As a result of the fairies’ mischief with Oberon’s love potion, both Lysander and Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena. Self-conscious about her short stature, Hermia suspects that Helena has wooed the men with her height. By morning, however, Puck has sorted matters out with the love potion, and Lysander’s love for Hermia is restored.

🔸Demetrius -  A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in love with Helena. Demetrius’s obstinate pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the quartet of Athenian youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.

🔸Helena -  A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were once betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her and abandoned Helena. Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and Lysander are mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.

🔸Egeus -  Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to marry Demetrius. Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the forest.

🔸Theseus -  The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and order throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of the story, removed from the dreamlike events of the forest.
🔸Hippolyta -  The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she symbolizes order.




🔸Nick Bottom -  The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence but frequently makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous nonchalance about the beautiful Titania’s sudden love for him and unawareness of the fact that Puck has transformed his head into that of an ass mark the pinnacle of his foolish arrogance.



🔸Peter Quince -  A carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsmen’s attempt to put on a play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Quince is often shoved aside by the abundantly confident Bottom. During the craftsmen’s play, Quince plays the Prologue.
🔸Francis Flute -  The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Forced to play a young girl in love, the bearded craftsman determines to speak his lines in a high, squeaky voice.
🔸Robin Starveling -  The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Moonshine.
🔸Tom Snout -  The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s father in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers.
🔸Snug -  The joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Snug worries that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.
🔸Philostrate -  Theseus’s Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the entertainment for the duke’s marriage celebration.
🔸Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed -  The fairies ordered by Titania to attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him.
☆link→ Character List

★ The Bridges of County Madison

The Bridges of Madison County is a 1995 American romantic drama film based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Robert James Waller. It was produced by Amblin Entertainment and Malpaso Productions, and distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment. The film was produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with Kathleen Kennedy as co-producer and the screenplay was adapted by Richard LaGravenese. The film is about an Italian war bride, Francesca (Meryl Streep), who lives with her husband and two children on a farm in Iowa. In 1965, she meets a National Geographic photographer named Robert (Eastwood) and has a four-day extramarital affair with him that changes both their lives forever. The film earned $182 million worldwide and was well received by critics. Streep received an Academy Award for Best Actress nomination in 1996 for her performance in the film.
☆link→ wiki