L1 Lang: Describing Personality ctd. job search for Mar. 5

This week we will continue working on describing personalities, particularly in the context of looking for jobs in the anglophone world. To prepare, please listen to the following report on internet job sites and answer the following questions.

http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=123534055&m=123556190

1. How many people were out of work last month according to the latest reports?

2. These internet job sites claim to play _________________?

3. How long has Michalyn Bauman been looking for a job?

4. For Ms. Bauman, applying for all those jobs has been like________________?

5. What is it that makes Ms. Bauman feel exhausted?

6. What site does Rob McGovern compare jobfox to?

7. What do jobfox users do instead of simply posting a resume?

8. Has jobfox worked for Mark Ciabattari?

9. What is the big obstacle that job search sites face even with their improved technology?

L1 Lit.: Week 6 poetry/prose

If you would like to write a preparation for this week, you can choose one of the following questions. You can also do a practice commentary following one of the models I gave in class on Tuesday, February 9th. Remember, your preparations are to be between 250 and 500 words and that you are concentrating heavily on how the poet's language creates certain effects in the poem. If at all possible, I would prefer you type your responses. Remember that this is the last week to turn in a reaction on poetry.

Until now, we have looked at poems that follow traditional patterns in their rhymes, rhythms, and stanza forms. In week 6 we will examine three writers who stretch the barriers between poetry and prose: Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and Virginia Woolf.

1. Walt Whitman's Song of Myself marks a break from traditional poetic forms. Whitman wrote this autobiographical poem in free verse which means there is no regular meter or rhyme. If you'd like to write on Whitman, discuss the use of this more open, flexible form and what it might imply to write about one's "self" in such a way.

1

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.

My tongue, every atom of my blood, form'd from this soil, this air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.

Creeds and schools in abeyance,
Retiring back a while sufficed at what they are, but never forgotten,
I harbor for good or bad, I permit to speak at every hazard,
Nature without check with original energy.

...

51

The past and present wilt--I have fill'd them, emptied them.
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I concentrate toward them that are nigh, I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day's work? who will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? will you prove already too late?


2. For Howl by Ginsberg read the following excerpts from the beginning and the end of the poem. If you would like to write on Ginsberg, analyze the way he uses free verse to talk about the "madness" that he and his friends lived through in the Beatnik culture of the 40's and 50's in the U.S.

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat
up smoking in the supernatural darkness of
cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities
contemplating jazz,
who bared their brains to Heaven under the El and
saw Mohammedan angels staggering on tenement roofs illuminated,
who passed through universities with radiant cool eyes
hallucinating Arkansas and Blake-light tragedy
among the scholars of war,
who were expelled from the academies for crazy &
publishing obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear,
burning their money in wastebaskets and listening
to the Terror through the wall,
who got busted in their pubic beards returning through
Laredo with a belt of marijuana for New York,
who ate fire in paint hotels or drank turpentine in
Paradise Alley, death, or purgatoried their
torsos night after night
with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares,
alcohol and cock and endless balls,
incomparable blind;...

Moloch! Moloch! Robot apartments! invisible suburbs!
skeleton treasuries! blind capitals! demonic
industries! spectral nations! invincible mad
houses! granite cocks! monstrous bombs!
They broke their backs lifting Moloch to Heaven! Pave-
ments, trees, radios, tons! lifting the city to
Heaven which exists and is everywhere about us!
Visions! omens! hallucinations! miracles! ecstasies!
gone down the American river!
Dreams! adorations! illuminations! religions! the whole
boatload of sensitive bullshit!
Breakthroughs! over the river! flips and crucifixions!
gone down the flood! Highs! Epiphanies! Despairs!
Ten years' animal screams and suicides!
Minds! New loves! Mad generation! down on
the rocks of Time!
Real holy laughter in the river! They saw it all! the
wild eyes! the holy yells! They bade farewell!
They jumped off the roof! to solitude! waving!
carrying flowers! Down to the river! into the street!

You can listen to Ginsberg reading the poem here.

3. Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse is a novel that incorporates a highly poetic language into the story it tells. If you would like to write on Woolf, read the passage I distributed in class on Tuesday, February 23. Then identify several elements of the language that you could consider poetic and comment on how Woolf uses them to tell a story. To give you the context, this passage comes at the end of the first section of the novel. In that first section, Woolf describes a day during vacation at the Ramsay family's summer home. Here you are inside the mind of Mrs. Ramsay as she knits, reads, and looks at her husband after a big dinner with all her guests.

L1 Lang: Describing Personality for Feb. 26

Scientists have done a lot of research on how birth order (whether a child is the 1st born, 2nd born, 3rd born...) impacts personality. Read the descriptions below. Underline the adjectives you don't know and look them up in a dictionary. Once you have a good grasp of the vocabulary try to match the descriptions with birth order position. Which passage do you think describes the first born, the second born, the youngest child, and the only child?

1. The initiators, ideas people and the challengers. This group are the creative, live-for-the moment types who can put some fun and verve into activities. While the message for one group of children is to lighten up it seems that this group need to take things more seriously sometimes. Great initiators and very impatient doers, they persevere to get something started but often are not the greatest of finishers. This group will often do anything to be noticed so make sure you pay attention to their efforts. Above all else, they will surprise you.

2. The quiet achievers, the finishers, they expect nothing less than the best. This group will raise the standard of judgement for everyone around them as nothing but the best will do. Their great strength is their ability to work for long periods of time on their own so they make great project finishers and strategic thinkers but they can be secretive and don't deal well with conflict. Recognition is important to this group. Above all else, they aim to please.

3. The leaders, the drivers and the responsible types. These people like to manage others but first they need to manage themselves. They love to feel in control and can feel uncomfortable with surprises or feeling out of their depth. They are conservative in their outlook, which is both a strength and a weakness. Their ability to focus on a goal and their propensity to organise others means they can achieve whatever they put their minds to. Their tendency toward perfectionism can mean they can be low risk-takers but they can be the strong foundation around which organisations can be built. Approval of authority is important for this group so don't expect them to break too many rules. Above all else, they want to advance.

4. The 'people' people, the compromisers, and the flexible operators. They are likely to be motivated by a cause and will enjoy working alongside people. They will often choose tasks or even a job that will give them a feeling of belonging. Friendships are important to this group so they will learn to get along and will help keep the peace in a group or organisation. They often need others to drive them but they are the glue that holds groups together. Relationships are important to this group so make sure they included in all activities. Above all else, they put people first.

.

L1 Lit: Week 5 Milton

If you would like to write a preparation for this week, you can choose one of the following questions. You can also do a practice commentary following one of the models I gave in class on Tuesday, February 9th. Remember, your preparations are to be between 250 and 500 words and that you are concentrating heavily on how the poet's language creates certain effects in the poem. If at all possible, I would prefer you type your responses.

1. Follow up question for Shakespeare: There are 154 sonnets in Shakespeare's sonnet cycle. We studied one of them in class today. If you are interested in Shakespeare, I encourage you to read several more of the sonnets to get an idea of how reading them together can create a more complex picture of Shakespeare's exploration of love. For this question, choose another sonnet that interests you and analyze how this second sonnet presents a different experience of love from the insomnia in "Sonnet 27".

E-book of Shakespeare's sonnets

2. Paradise Lost is John Milton's poetic adaptation of the story of the fall of man found in the book of Genesis.

We will concentrate on the passage where Eve hesitates and then finally eats the the forbidden fruit of knowledge. In this passage she has just heard the serpent present the merits of this fruit. Genesis describes this moment very briefly. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat" (Ch. 3).

Milton has expanded this moment considerably in his poem. If you would like to write a preparation for Milton, identify several things that Milton adds in his poetic adaptation. Once you have identified several added elements, analyze how these additions contribute to Milton's presentation of the fall of man. When Eve says "thy," "thou," and "thee," she is addressing the fruit.

Great are thy Vertues, doubtless, best of Fruits,
Though kept from Man, & worthy to be admir'd,
Whose taste, too long forborn, at first assay
Gave elocution to the mute, and taught
The Tongue not made for Speech to speak thy praise:
Thy praise hee also who forbids thy use,
Conceales not from us, naming thee the Tree
Of Knowledge, knowledge both of good and evil;
Forbids us then to taste, but his forbidding
Commends thee more, while it inferrs the good
By thee communicated, and our want:
For good unknown, sure is not had, or had
And yet unknown, is as not had at all.
In plain then, what forbids he but to know,
Forbids us good, forbids us to be wise?
Such prohibitions binde not. But if Death
Bind us with after-bands, what profits then
Our inward freedom? In the day we eate
Of this fair Fruit, our doom is, we shall die.
How dies the Serpent? hee hath eat'n and lives,
And knows, and speaks, and reasons, and discernes,
Irrational till then. For us alone
Was death invented? or to us deni'd
This intellectual food, for beasts reserv'd?
For Beasts it seems: yet that one Beast which first
Hath tasted, envies not, but brings with joy
The good befall'n him, Author unsuspect,
Friendly to man, farr from deceit or guile.
What fear I then, rather what know to feare
Under this ignorance of Good and Evil,
Of God or Death, of Law or Penaltie?
Here grows the Cure of all, this Fruit Divine,
Fair to the Eye, inviting to the Taste,
Of vertue to make wise: what hinders then
To reach, and feed at once both Bodie and Mind?
So saying, her rash hand in evil hour
Forth reaching to the Fruit, she pluck'd, she eat:
Earth felt the wound, and Nature from her seat
Sighing through all her Works gave signs of woe,
That all was lost. Back to the Thicket slunk
The guiltie Serpent, and well might, for EVE
Intent now wholly on her taste, naught else
Regarded, such delight till then, as seemd,
In Fruit she never tasted, whether true
Or fansied so, through expectation high
Of knowledg, nor was God-head from her thought.
Greedily she ingorg'd without restraint,
And knew not eating Death: Satiate at length,
And hight'nd as with Wine, jocond and boon,
Thus to her self she pleasingly began.

L1 Lang: Ideas about love for Feb 19

In honor of Valentine's Day, we will discuss different notions of love this week. To begin thinking about the topic, listen to the Magnetic Field's "Love is like a Bottle of Gin" and fill in the missing lyrics.

Love is like a Bottle of Gin


1. It has a __________ odor and a __________, __________ taste.
.
2. It makes you think you're __________ __________.

3. It makes you say things __________ the __________.

4. It's very small and made of __________.

5. And grossly __________ __________.

6. It could make you __________ your __________.

7. or turn __________ in your best __________.

8. They keep it on a __________ __________.

9. It can make you see __________.

10. A bottle of gin __________ not __________ __________.

Now invent one more line that the singer might have added to the song to compare love and a bottle of gin.

It....?

L1 Lit: Week 4 The Sonnet

If you would like to write a preparation for this week, you can choose one of the following questions. You can also do a practice commentary following one of the models I gave in class on Tuesday, February 9th. Remember, your preparations are to be between 250 and 500 words and that you are concentrating heavily on how the poet's language creates certain effects in the poem. If at all possible, I would prefer you type your responses.

1. For Petrarch: Petrarch, an Italian poet from the 14th century, is one of the major predecessors for the sonnet tradition we will be studying this week in Shakespeare and Keats. Petrarch wrote a series of sonnets addressed to a (fictitious?) lover Laura. These sonnets often describe the experience of being in love as one of suffering. The sonnet that we will read describes how love attacked through the eyes. The syntax is heavily distorted from normal spoken English. When this is the case, beginning with a translation can help you better understand the content of the poem. If you would like to do a preparation for Petrarch, translate the poem into French prose. Then identify and analyze the different ways Petrarch presents love as a visual experience in this poem.

Sonnet III

Twas on the morn, when heaven its blessed ray
In pity to its suffering master veil'd,
First did I, Lady, to your beauty yield,
Of your victorious eyes th' unguarded prey.
Ah! little reck'd I that, on such a day,
Needed against Love's arrows any shield;
And trod, securely trod, the fatal field:
Whence, with the world's, began my heart's dismay.
On every side Love found his victim bare,
And through mine eyes transfix'd my throbbing heart;
Those eyes, which now with constant sorrows flow:
But poor the triumph of his boasted art,
Who thus could pierce a naked youth, nor dare
To you in armour mail'd even to display his bow!

2. For Shakespeare: In English, we often refer to Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets. Both are composed of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The major difference between the two is in the rhyme schemes. You have a typical example of each sonnet form in the first two poems. First, based on these two poems describe the difference between Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets. Once you have identified the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet, analyze how Shakespeare uses this form to present the lover's experience of insomnia in the following poem.

SONNET 27

Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body's work's expired:
For then my thoughts, from far where I abide,
Intend a zealous pilgrimage to thee,
And keep my drooping eyelids open wide,
Looking on darkness which the blind do see
Save that my soul's imaginary sight
Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,
Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,
Makes black night beauteous and her old face new.
Lo! thus, by day my limbs, by night my mind,
For thee and for myself no quiet find.

3. For John Keats: Analyze how Keats uses images of movement, stillness, and tranquility in his presentation of love.

Bright Star

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

L1 Lang: Sport and Society for Feb 12

Read the following article from the New York Times. Come to class with written answers to the comprehension questions below.

The Sporting Mind

1. What made Prof. Rosenstock-Huessy difficult to understand for American students when he first came to the U.S.?

2. What makes the world of sport a particulary useful way of explaining a concept according to Prof. Rosenstock-Huessy?

3. What is the key element of Greek, Roman, and British sport tradition according to Prof. Gillespie?

4. What values do students learn from sports according to Gillespie?

5. What does Gillespie want to change about U.S. sports at the university level?

6. What is the author's response to Gillespie's ideas about mass sports?

7. Give your own reaction to the following description of a crowd gathering for a sporting event: "... I noticed people dressed in red walking in the same direction. At first it was a trickle, then thousands. It looked like the gathering of a happy Midwestern cult, though, of course it was the procession to a football game."

L1 Lit: Week 3 Yeats

Links to the poems

Easter 1916

Among School Children

If you would like to write a preparation for this week choose one of the following questions. Remember, your preparations are to be between 250 and 500 words and that you are concentrating heavily on how the poets language creates certain effects in the poem. If at all possible, I would prefer you type your responses.

1. For "Easter 1916:" Identify several of the different ways Yeats presents rupture and disruption in the poem. How does his presentation of rupture in the poem contribute to an understanding of the Irish Easter Uprising of 1916.

2. For "Among School Children:" First describe the stanza form. Number of lines? Number of syllables? Rhymes? Meter? Once you have described the stanza form choose one stanza and analyze the relationship between form and content. Does the stanza form reinforce, contradict, clarify... the content? Explain how.