To Autumn

What?

• We focus on image, theme, language, rhythm, rhyme and anything else that strikes you as important in what many consider to be THE LAST POEM I EVER WROTE
• We do this over the course of two lessons, and conclude our studies on me FOR NOW

Task One:

• Grab a partner and join me outside. (You may not have noticed, but I am dangerously obssessed with quite interested in nature.)
• Use a suitable recording device (mobile phone?) to take some photos which you feel signify signs that Autumn is with us
• You will need to post these photos (your three favourite), writing between one and two lines of poetry for each one that you feel fits MY STYLE.
• Obviously the line of poetry you write should in some way be connected to the picture
• If you can use a rhythm and meter that I use in my poetry, you are a LEGEND
• Make sure you save your work - if you do not have time to post it all today, you can do so on Friday
• DO NOT read my poem on Autumn yet. That would be cheating...

Extra Questions on Ode on Melancholy

What?

• continue with your blog work, making sure you have updated blog entries in as much detail as possible
• f you finish early, you can answer these questions on my poem for EXTRA credits

Apologies for my absence today. It was a heavy weekend: the boys came round, Byron (hate that guy) and Shelley; we went to Lethe; we did some rosary-making with yew berries; we mucked around with beetles and owls. (I know, I know, I told you guys not to do that stuff. I'm sorry!) I'm a bit ill. I will return tomorrow with a new poem for us to devour.


Extra Questions on Ode on Melancholy

1) Some critics have condemned my poem as both "decadent" and "unhealthy". How could you support such a view? Write at least a paragraph and make sure you refer to the language I use.

2) Check out the original first stanza of the poem reproduced here. Why do you think I deleted it? How would it change your reading of the poem if it were included in the final version?

3) What's up with all the metaphors of tasting, eating, and feeding? What ideas are they helping me illustrate? Make sure you quote some of them to answer this...

4) There are a lot of images and metaphors to do with change, transience and impermanence in this poem—some of them are more obvious than others. How many can you find? What do they seem to have in common?

Ode on Melancholy (Part Deux)

What?

• We think about how the STRUCTURE helps develop my ideas in the poem
• We provide some further ANALYSIS
• You present some of your blog work for the rest of the class to steal 

TUESDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS

• Many of you commented on how I use elements from the world of nature in this poem. In the first stanza, the various items that may cause or symbolize "oblivion" are all natural (fruits, plants, insects). Again, human desires are intrinsically linked to the natural world.
• The religious reference to the "rosary" was noted. Carola decided it acts as a metaphor to suggest the speaker argues we should not let death or oblivion (symbolized by the poisonous "yew berries") become our 'religion'.
• Tomas and Sofia both noted the references to ancient myths (Greek, Egyptian...). Tomas argued I use these allusions to suggest that our desire for escape (oblivion, death, that kind of thing) is a universal facet of humankind- it has been with us for centuries.
• Ana drew our attention to the simile of the "weeping cloud", which we agreed works on a number of levels to suggest the qualities of melancholy to the reader. Again, notice how I use the natural world to explore human experience and emotion. Can you find examples from previous poems?? Yeah Mr White;yeah nature!
• Tomas commented on the use of assonance and sibilance in the second stanza: "feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes." Here I manage to capture through sound something of the almost hypnotic attraction of the eyes of the "mistress".
• Many of you noted how, like my other poems, I am concerned with the transience of our lives, and the paradoxical nature of human experience: that pleasure causes pain (because it does not last), and that deep sadness is something to be embraced. Why does Keats argue we should embrace it? Can we find the answer in the last stanza??

Imagery in Ode on Melancholy

What?

• We explain briefly the conventions of lyric poetry
• We identify and explain the images I use in my second ode.
• We begin to find patterns (images, language, ideas, sounds, whatever) that connect the three poems studied so far.

Task One - THE LYRIC POEM

Firstly we need to remind ourselves about what lyric poetry is (because that´s the genre I write in!), and its conventions. Read this and this (if you want a more in-depth understanding), or this (if you just want the basics).

Be prepared to feed back what you have learnt about lyric poetry in five short minutes...








Task Two - MELANCHOLY

We are about to read what many believe to be the second poem in my classic sequence of jaw-droppingly good odes.( I wrote them all so close together that I can't remember the order.) And I'm dead so I can't tell you anyhow.

Before we do, I want you to consider how the term "melancholy" differs from "sadness. Again, be prepared to feed back what you have learnt. Two short minutes...?

(Weird image, no?)

Task Three - Reading the poem

• Look in your handouts or click this for the poem
• We read as a class
• Individually, select a short phrase or even a single word that you feel is in some way interesting, important, puzzling, connects to something you already understand about my work, connects to something you have read today, whatever...
• Jot down some notes as to why you have chosen it. We will use this as a basis for initial discussion about the poem. I expect EVERYONE to contribute. So there.

Task Four - Exploring Images

• In order to explore my use of images in this poem (synaesthetic or not), I want you to find two suitable images, OR CREATE them yourself, for EACH stanza.
• You must include for each image the line(s) from the poem that have inspired it.
• You must also include a fairly detailed explanation as to how the image works to create meaning in the poem. This is the difficult part. It is also the part I am most interested to read to ascertain your understanding of my poetry.
• You may wish to link the image to a particular concern of mine, you may connect it other poems, you may discuss the use of technical devices used in creating the image (metaphor, simile, sound patterns, etc).
• You will need to upload these to your blog (today if you have time, Friday if not).
• Work as a PAIR or ALONE. Good luck, Keatsians!

Ode on a Grecian Urn - the pyramid

Firstly, read the analysis activity we did not have time to complete last class.


After spending 30 minutes working on and discussing this - I suggest you keep a working doc of notes to upload later to your blog - we will move into pyramid groups.

THE PYRAMID
What are the most important things I understand about Ode on a Grecian Urn?

• In your groups you will take a big sheet of paper and create a 2D pyramid. Make it big
• Divide the pyramid into three sections
• At the base of the pyramid you will each add THREE post-its
• Each post-it will answer the question above (so you will each have to come up with three different answers
• After all post-its have been included, you will need to review them as a group. Which post-its seem to be similar. Can you organise them into different categories?
• In the middle of your pyramid you should write the different categories you have decided on, arranging relevant post-its under the appropriate category. Thus, you will be moving from SPECIFICS to GENERALIZATIONS
• Finally, at the top of your pyramid, decide on which category is most important out of the categories you have identified. Write it at the top. How did you agree? What criteria did you use to decide on the MOST IMPORTANT category? Be prepared to feedback to the class.

Some reflections on the Pyramid activity

• What have you learnt about the formation of generalizations?
• To what extent was a group necessary for this activity?
• What do you think you have learnt about leadership?

Synaesthesia in Ode on A Grecian Urn

We have discussed before my use of synaesthetic imagery.

What is it?

A literary term for an image that combines two or more of the senses or physical sensations normally considered as seperate (ie. sight, hearing, taste, touch, smell, temperature, weight, pressure, hunger, thirst, sexuality, and movement), that in other words attributes the traits of one sense to another.

Believe it or not, it is also a condition that around 1 in 2000 people have!

Synaesthesia in Ode on a Grecian Urn

"Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:"

The urn here is described in terms of its visual qualities ("flowery"), its ability to metaphorically speak to its audience and thus be heard ("express", "tale"), and how this appeals to taste ("sweetly").





Effects

Of course, it's no good just identifying my images. You must also explain what effects, or what functions they have in the poetry. It is your explanations of this that will truly show your understanding of my literature.

Firstly, and most obviously, this combining of sensations allows my poems to have a truly sensual flavour, appealing to the whole range of human sensations.


Secondly, consider the tenets of the Romantic movement, and how this may demonstrate them - the emphasis on unity, of a harmony involved in human experience and our perception of the world. Consider how my practice of synaesthesia may allow me to suggest this oneness of experience, the immediacy and completeness of our experiences with the world around us.
TASK

• Can you find another synaesthetic image in my poem, 
• quote it,
• explainwhat senses it refers to,
  and provide an explanation ofeffects? (Use what you have read above to help...)
• Upload it to your blog under the heading "Synaesthesia in Ode on a Grecian Urn" (including a suitable picture if you have time...

Understanding Ode on A Grecian Urn

Today's lesson will be in two parts:

1) Reflect on our work last class, what we have learnt about my poem. We will consider my USE OF LANGUAGE in more detail too.

2) Change, edit, upload video, photos, comments etc to your own blogs. In short, try to ensure your blogs are up to date, with all tasks completed.

Part One
 We will read my poem again as a class.

Keep in mind some of your thoughtful and perceptive comments last class:

• Isabel mentioned that the speaker seems to idolize the urn, but is also rather resentful of it, especially in the last stanza (the "Cold Pastoral!"). His mood changes a lot. There is AMBIVALENCE. Why?

• Rocio alluded to the PERMANENCE of the urn's art in contrast to the TRANSIENCE of our own lives. (This may have been inspired by my own life - my relationship with Fanny, which was cut short by my illness and death less than two years after writing this: with death coming ever closer, we begin to appreciate how mutable - and how FINITE - our world truly is)
• Many of you noticed my use of nature in the poem, again used to explore themes of transience (the trees shedding their leaves, for instance).

Task 1 - Reflection on your mock urns.
Take another look at those inspired pieces of art you have created. Bask in their brilliance; marvel in their miraculous form; perspire in their power; etc.

Now grab a "critical friend" - someone you may not necessarily usually work or talk to. Discuss the following for TEN MINUTES and be prepared to feed back to class. (Keep a record of your notes - I will want you to upload your comments along with your photos/video of the urns in Part 2!!)

• a) What elements of my poem do you think you understand more after completing the urn task? (This could be aspects of language, images, metaphors, similes, development of ideas, sounds, whatever...). Explain.

• b) Has the urn task raised any questions or doubts about my poem that you would want answered? What are they?

• c) What skills were important for you to use in order to complete the task successfully (which you all did, by the way. The way you worked was very impressive...)?

Task 2 - Further close analysis

Equipped with an initial understanding of the poem and some of its main concerns, we must now look deeper as to how I use LANGUAGE and STYLE to present ideas. So get your thinking hats on as we enter what lies "BETWEEN THE LINES"...

Jot down ideas as you reread the poem and think about the poem. Add your notes to your blog...


STANZA ONE
(We will look at this one together before I leave you to work unaided)

Why is the urn compared to a " still unravish'd bride"?

• "still" has two meanings - "motionless" or "remaining in time". Time and motion are two concepts that the poem explores throughout.
• "unravish'd" means unspoiled - a bride yet to lose her virginity; similarly, the urn and the scenes it represents are "unspoiled" by the passage of time.

Explain the term "sylvan historian"(l.3)

• The urn is a "Sylvan historian" because it records scenes from a culture lived long ago (ancient greeks); and because it is bordered with leaves, as well as having scenes of the countryside within.
• Is it paradoxical that the urn, a "bride of quietness", can tell its stories "more sweetly than our rhyme" (meaning the poem itself)?
• The gentleness of the term "sylvan historian" and his "flowery tale" told "sweetly" do not prepare us for the wild sexuality of lines 8-10. (Another contrast!)

What change in viewpoint occurs in lines 8-10?

• The short questions and frequent repetitions inject pace into the poem. Notice how the speaker moves from contemplative observer to emotionally-involved participant with these breathless questions. (We have another contrast - that of the participant vs the observer). You may want to think about how I develop this idea throughout, and what it might suggest about the audience's relationship with "Art" in general...

STANZA TWO

Your turn to provide some answers to these burning questions... 

In lines 1-4 I contrast the ideal (in art, love, and nature) and the real - the "heard melodies"; which does my speaker seem to prefer at this point? How can you tell?

Is the idea of unheard pipes an oxymoron?

In lines 5-10 we begin to sense a negative undercurrent to the ideal, to frozen time. How do I use language to help convey this negativity?