AP English

The title of “Hero” can be defined in many ways. I believe that each person has his/her own views and expectations of what a hero should be and do. Society and the media sometimes give the wrong definition of heroes by displaying super models, singers, actors, and government officials in magazines or on t.v. and giving them the title of “Hero.” Much of the time, these people have not performed any act of heroism to deserve the honorable name.

I don’t think that the main character is being heroic at all. He turns around and runs away from the fighting. By running he is outwardly showing that he is only thinking of himself instead of thinking about what and who they are fighting for. We readers learn this also from reading his thoughts. We actually read that he thinks that the rest of the men are stupid and foolish because they don’t run away and save themselves.(pg 45) “There was the law, he said…He did not stand solidly baring his furry belly to the missile, and die with an upward glance at the sympathetic heavens. ”

Other literary works and experiences that have shaped my views of what constitutes as heroic are everyday examples of people who give everything for others. I believe that heroes are selfless and are willing to drop whatever they’re doing and to do whatever it takes to save or do certain acts for another person. Heroes don’t think about themselves…only others. Firemen, policemen, doctors, mothers,…etc are all heroes because they live their life everyday just to serve everyone else in society and the world.

The author is successful at reaching his goal of attacking the traditional heroic role because he shows how not everyone is cut out to sacrifice themselves for others. He shows how some people are cowards. Instead of making a fairytale with a brave person, he depicts what sometimes happens in real life.

…sorry this is late…my internet did not work all weekend….

The reasoning behind Realism and Naturalism is that many people try to cover up, hide, and ignore the real issues that are occurring in the world and society. Realists and Naturalists write, paint, or sing about the problems and flaws that are being covered up by Romanticists. They are similar to the “muckrakers” of the 1800s. The reason why these works of art are so effective and popular is because it causes the reader to relate to the characters in it. It also may remind the reader that they aren’t the only one(s) going through a hardship. It shows them that other people care or at least they recognize the problems or issues. The works are “down to earth” and the decisions made and outcomes that occur are probable in the world.

Major players in Realism were Honoré de Balzac, and Gustave Flaubert. Balzac attempted to “draw” a picture for the reader by using a lot of description and by trying to make the reader feel like they are inside the words and sentences of the book. He also tried to keep the characters in his books, like everyday people. Flaubert tried to keep his works realistic. Both men took events from the everyday, normal, lives of regular people. Although they did elaborate and may have strayed a little too close to Romanticism due to the extravagant and dramatic occurrences, they still mentioned things that happen in real life.

Émile Zola was also a big player. He actually promoted Naturalism when it first came about. He still followed along the same lines as the other men concerning content however, tried to incorporate the description into the actions of the characters instead of wasting time and appearing boring like Balzac.

Although there are many similarities between Realism and Naturalism, there are also big differences. Naturalists go further into the “everyday” aspect of the characters and actions by being very frank concerning sexuality and humans in general.

My own views on Realism and Naturalism are made up of mixed feelings. I enjoy a good Realistic and Naturalistic book every now and then because they do show what is really happening in the world and their plots and characters appear to be as if they are real people. Some of these books are a nice reminder of reality. I believe that the movement is a good thing because it opens some people’s eyes to other people’s lives. However, I personally am a “hopeless romantic” and I prefer to read the Romanticism novels with the “happily ever after” and “once upon a time” themes to them more often than the Realistic ones. Reality is what most of us live in…sometimes it’s nice to escape.

5 Tangible things that Henry, the main character, carries in his story are:

1.) 8 pairs of socks (page 7)
2.) his best shirt (page 7)
3.) blackberry jam (page 7)

4.) canteen (page 21)

5.) knapsack (page 20)

5 intangible things

1.) fear (He’s afraid he’s going to die or run away from the battle.)

2.) memories (He remembers when he left his mother and reflects on how he was disappointed that his mother didn’t make a big deal about his leaving.)

3.) regret (He regrets going into the army because he’s so unsure of himself and he’s afraid that he is going to be killed in battle.)

4.) low self-esteem (He’s not sure of himself…he doesn’t know if he will be able to stand and fight or run away when the time comes.)

5.) loneliness (He is trying to stay by himself because he doesn’t want to become attached to anyone in case they die or he dies…and his mother told him not to associate with the men who drink and swear.)

Tangible for myself

-I often carry my purse with me everywhere I go. The items I carry in my purse are; chapstick, cell phone, money (sometimes), newspaper clipping of my accident, license, picture of my nieces and nephew, tissues, lotion, hand sanitizer, and my car keys. I also usually carry around a sweatshirt because I never know when I’ll get cold.

Intangible for self

- I carry pride with me because I am proud of my accomplishments and I am proud of some other people’s accomplishments because I love them. Love is another thing I carry with me. People I love are very important to me and I hold them close to my heart. Including love, I carry my emotions in general. I’m a very emotional person and my moods can change with the drop of a coin. I also carry my memories around with me. I do not dwell long on them but I do like to look back at times so that I don’t repeat any mistakes. Along with all of these things I carry, there’s is many more. However, some of them are personal and I’m not comfortable listing them all.

Song

Q1.) What is the occasion of the poem? What literary device does the poet employ? Describe what you know of the speaker, the listener, and the “she” referred to in the poem.

A1.) The occasion of the poem is that the speaker is in love with this woman who he compares to a rose. Unfortunately, it sounds like the woman doesn’t know what to do with the admiration and attention the man is giving her; she’s kind of pushing him away. The literary device the poet employs is personification. The intended listener may be a friend and confidant because this man is openly revealing his feelings about the woman. **Is Rose the name of the woman?? If not, why is it capitalized??

Q2.) Paraphrase each of the four stanzas.

A2.) Stanza 1) Go beautiful Rose,

Tell her what that she’s losing time and me,

That she knows,

When I compare her to you (rose),

How nice and wonderful she appears to be.

Stanza 2) Tell her she is young,

And is timid when people point out her attributes,

You have bloomed

In deserts and dry places where no men live,

You must have been unappreciated and died without notice.

Stanza 3) The beauty of a dead light has a small worth:

Tell her to come forward,

Let herself be desired,

And not be shy of being loved.

Stanza 4) The die, so she

The common destiny of everything that is rare

May see in you,

How small a part of time they share,

That are so wonderful sweet and fair.

Q3.) Describe the prosody, including stanza form, rhyme, meter, and notable metrical substitutions (spondees), as well as the structure of the poem. How do these choices help to reinforce the poem’s content?

A3.) The stanza form is arranged in short lines and long lines that follow a rhyme scheme of abcbc. The book says that the spondees are located in the beginning of lines 1, 2, 6, 7, and 8. These words are command words and are telling the rose to “go, tell, bid, and suffer.” These choices help to reinforce the poem’s content because it keeps the poem moving by transitioning into the next topic.

Virtue

Q1.) Consider first Herbert’s use of metaphor and personification. In each case, what two unlike things are being compared, and what do they have in common?

A1.) The two unlike things that are being compared in each stanza are marriage and the earth and sky, and the dew is being personified. The two have the act of being joined or bonded in common.

Q2.) How is the poem structured, and how does this structure support its meaning? Consider parallelism, order, and the turn in the poem.

A2.) The poem contains parallelism because it is paralleling the day, the rose, the spring, and the soul. This structure supports the poem’s meaning because it these words are being described therefore, it shows how these things are nice compared to death.

Q3.) How does the prosody reinforce the poem’s meaning?

A3.) The prosody reinforces the poem’s meaning because it sets the tone and mood of the poem. It also, makes a stronger comparison between the good things and the bad things.

Q1.) Describe the subtle changes in setting and analyze how these shifts reveal Eve’s fall from grace.

A1.) The subtle changes in setting begin between stanza one and stanza two. First the author focuses on where Eve is and then he subtly switches to the snake who is in a “corner.” The snake being in the corner is kind of like someone hiding in the corner because he knows that he did or is going to do something bad. In stanza six, the setting changes again and it changes from the serpent talking and persuading Eve and then they walk to the tree. These shifts in setting show the steps in Eve’s fall from grace because they start by describing Eve’s innocence, then the serpent’s evil, and then her “path” to evil.

Q2.) How does the poem’s diction contribute to tone and meaning? Consider the use of adjectives, verbs, and participles. Look for patterns, contrasts, and surprising juxtapositions of words.

A2.) The poem’s diction contributes to the tone and meaning because they way the serpent called Eve “Eva” is more enticing; kind of like a pet name for her. This use of a different name affected the tone because it made the reader see that the serpent was being sly and it gave a mischievous feel for the poem. The word “humble” is usually used as an adjective but this time it is used as a verb. This adds to the meaning of the poem because it reveals the motive of the serpent.

Q3.) Consider the poet’s use of figurative language. How does the choice of comparisons influence tone and meaning?

A3.) The choice of comparisons influences tone and meaning because it shows the innocence and evil of both characters in the poem. However, these characteristics change because Eve is no longer innocent in the end.

Q4.) Describe the meter, line length, and pattern of enjambment. What does the rhythm contribute to the mood of the poem?

A4.) The meter of the poem is dactyllic. The sound of the meter gives the feeling of being carefree much like Eve. The line length is that each stanza is about two sentences long and this continues to make the “song and dance” continue to be carefree. The rhythm contributes to the mood of the poem because the carefree vibe that is detected gives a carefree and easy mood.

Q5.) Describe the use of repetition and rhyme. Look for patterns. What does the repetition contribute to the mood of the poem?

A5.) The poem has repetition when the author writes “down in the bells and grass,” and he repeats Eve’s name, “Eva!” There is no rhyme scheme for the poem even though there is rhyming. The repetition adds to the mood of the poem because the end rhymes are made of significant words.

Q1.) What imagery does Shapiro use in the first three lines to evoke sound and sight? How do these images become increasingly significant in the context of the entire poem?

A1.)The imagery the author uses in the first three lines to evoke sound and sight are sound, and sight imagery. These images become increasingly significant in the context of the entire poem because it is comparing the sound of the bell, and the flare to a heart. (”beating, beating” and “pulsing out red light like an artery”) This is significant because we learn from line 31 that someone’s heart stopped performing these tasks.

Q2.) On a literal level, what contextual significance do the following words and phrases have: mangled (line 9), “tolls once” (line 11), “terrible cargo” (line 12), “rocking, slightly rocking” (line 13), deranged and composed (lines 15 & 16)?

A2.) The word mangled is significant in a literal context because it is describing the way the person looks; injured and not nice looking. “Tolls once” is significant because it means that they didn’t leave the siren on and they because they weren’t in a hurry to transport the person to the hospital because they knew they were dead already therefore, the hospital couldn’t help them anyway. Terrible cargo is significant because it too is describing the “cargo” that the ambulance has to transport. The word takes the humanity away from the person because it no longer has life. “Rocking, slightly rocking” is significant because now the body is stiff, and the body just sways inanimately with the ambulance. Deranged is significant because it is describing how the other people involved in the accident feel. They feel confused and almost hysterical because someone just died and they were there and saw it happen. Composed is significant because it describes the police officers. The officers have to act composed in order to attempt to decrease the excitement and to calm everyone else down. Also, they may be composed because they’ve done this before and it’s became “just another accident.”

Q3.) Analyze the metaphors in lines 3, 18, 22, and 29-30. What pattern do they create and why is it appropriate to the poem?

A3.) The pattern they create is to casually compare the objects to someone or something bleeding. This is appropriate to the poem because that is probably what happened to the person who died.

Q4.) What is added to the theme of the poem by the metaphors in lines 20-21 and the simile in 24-27?

A4.) These lines add to the theme of the poem because they casually describe how the scene has made the people upset and confused.

Q1.) Describe the form called a rime royal: meter, rhyme scheme, stanza form.

A1.) Rime royal is a stanza with seven lines of iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc. The poem follows this form through the whole poem until the last stanza which only has 5 lines.

Q2.) What is the structure of the poem? How do the imagery and argument of each stanza develop and intensify the appeal?

A2.) The poem is structured into 4 stanzas and each stanza is another reason why he is complaining. Also, there is repetition on the last line of the first three stanzas.  The imagery and argument of each stanza develops and intensifies the appeal because they describe why he is complaining and they give clearer reasons for why he is complaining. (lines 3, 10, 11, 19)

Q3.) In exploring the extended metaphor of the poem, consider how diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody.

A3.) Diction accounts for the humor of Chaucer’s parody because the many of the words are spelled wrong and the way they are pronounced or read makes them funny. Also, he appears to be very curt and strict with his “purse”; an inanimate object that doesn’t care if it is empty or not.

Q4.) How does the envoy  continue the tone of the poem even as it addresses a specific person?

A4.) The envoy continues the tone of the poem because the author is continuing to request that something be fixed.

Spring and Fall

Q1.) Hopkin’s idiosyncratic meter, which he dubbed “sprung rhythm” uses accent marks over certain syllables. What is the dominant meter and line length? What is the rhyme scheme? Describe the poem’s structure. (HINT: The anomaly in the rhyme scheme is the key).

A1.) The dominant meter of the poem is idiosyncratic. I really don’t know and the back of the book isn’t very clear. The rhyme scheme is made up of three pairs of lines that have end rhyme, one group of three lines with end rhyme, and then another three pairs of lines with the same end rhyme.

Q2.) What is the effect of the frequent use of alliteration in the poem? Combined with assonance and consonance, what mood does this device create?

A2.) The effect of the frequent use of alliteration in the poem is that it adds to the mood. Combined with assonance and consonance, the mood is created because of the sounds of the words when spoken aloud. It is a mood of sorrow.

Q3.) Comment on the effect created by such unusual diction as Goldengrove and unleaving (line 2), fresh (line 4), wanwood and leafmeal (line 8), springs (line 11), and blight (line 14.) How do the connotations of these words create the poem’s mood?

A3.) The effect created by the unusual diction is that it makes the reader feel icky because the words wanwood, and leafmeal make the reader picture decaying wood and leaves which is gross because it not only looks bad, but it usually smells too. The connotations of the words goldengrove, fresh, and springs are good words so they create a comfortable mood. The words wanwood, leafmeal, and blight have bad connotations because of what they mean.

Q4.) Analyze the poet’s use of figurative language. How does it suggest the theme of the poem?

A4.) The poet’s use of figurative language suggests the theme of the poem because the entire poem is written in a metaphor and it suggests the theme that the ending of a season is like the dying of a season or a person.

The Oven Bird

Q1.) Frost’s poem, like Hopkins’s, borrows from the sonnet form. What is its meter, rhyme scheme, and structure?

A1.) The meter is in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is made up of an AABCBDCDEEFGFG pattern. The structure consists of a repeating of the words, “he says.” There is also alliteration with the letter “s”.

Q2.) Paraphrase the three messages of the oven bird, then analyze the meaning of the word fall as it encapsulates the theme of the poem.

A2.) 1st message: (lines 4 & 5) He says that the leaves are aging and that the flowers/are decreasing in number since mid-summer.

2nd message: (lines 6 & 7) He says that spring is past/ when the pear and cherry blossoms left the tree and blew away.

3rd message: (lines 11 & 12) The bird would stop sending his message and sing for fun like other birds/ but he knows that he sings to tell people that eventually they won’t sing anymore because they will die.

Q3.) Paraphrase the last four lines of the poem. How does the oven bird symbolize the human condition?

A3.) The bird would stop sending his message and sing for fun like other birds/ but he knows that if he stopped singing the rest of the birds wouldn’t know about the problem./ the question that he asks by strongly hinting/ Is how to address the problem.

Q1.) Describe a villanelle by explicating the stanza pattern and the rhyme scheme of this poem. How many different end rhymes are in the poem? How many times is each sound repeated? Which words are repeated exactly at the ends of lines, in what pattern? How does the last stanza use the rhyming words? Why is this appropriate at the end of the poem?

A1.) A villanelle consists of nineteen lines with five stanzas of three lines and a last stanza of four lines of any length or meter, and two rhymes only in an aba pattern that follows this pattern: line 1 is repeated as lines 6, 12, and 18 and line 3 is repeated as lines 9, 15, and 19. There are 2 different end lines in the poem. The words that are repeated at the exactly at the end of the lines are; hello, and no/know. The pattern of the repeating words is that the words are always in the “A” part of the ABA pattern. The last stanza uses the rhyming words to end the poem by repeating “We know, we know” in order to end the idea of the poem. This is appropriate at the end of the poem because it ends the poem nicely.

Q2.) Isolating the b rhymes (middle line of each tercet) gives us this list: fine, wine, nine, line, pine, sign. What is the significance of each of these words to the whole poem?

A2.) The significance of these words to the whole poem is that words relate to the steps for starting, developing, and ending a relationship.

Q3.) Incremental repetition tends to augment meaning and accumulate significance. What variations in meaning are present in the following groups of repetitions and what is their effect?

A3.) I don’t quite understand what exactly this question wants….but I think the answer is that the repetition in the first group is showing how the relationship started and developed but the next group is showing how during the relationship the author doubted the importance of the relationship of the feelings of the other person in the relationship and feared being rejected or feared the end. Then, in the third group the author is saying that her fears were true and that she knew all along. Also she is saying that everyone else knew the fate of the relationship because it is like a classic story. She is reflecting on the relationship.

Q1.) As the title tells us, this poem is written in a form called a sestina, first used by a French troubadour in the twelfth century. In describing the prosody of Alvarez’s poem, you will be describing a sestina. HINT: Instead of looking for a rhyme scheme, look for a pattern in the repetition of the last word of each line. The last three lines of the poem are called the envoy.

A1.) The prosody doesn’t really contain a specific meter. The author did however, use the same end words of each sentence in a stanza in every stanza except for the fifth stanza.

Q2.) In the first stanza, what is the effect of personification and allusion? What is the Spanish counterpart to each? Sum up the meaning of the stanza.

A2.) The effect of the personification and allusion in the first stanza is that it stereotypes the English. The Spanish counterpart to these is the author’s memories. The whole meaning of the stanza is that there are certain words that she can’t translate because it would be lost in translation and the effect or feelings of the words would be lost.

Q3.) What mood or feelings are evoked in stanza two? How does language create this mood?

A3.) The mood or feelings evoked in stanza two are those of remembrance or reflecting on the past and of relaxation. The language creates this mood because her imagery of “…warm island waters as I say your soothing names…”.

Q4.) What do we learn in stanzas two and three about the difference between names and vocabulary words? How does the example of the plant called the morivivir help illustrate this gap? What does the metaphor of the genii in the bottle tell us about the nature of language?

A4.) In stanzas two and three we learn that the difference between names and vocabulary words is that a translated name won’t give the same feeling because the translated word loses it’s significance or the memory that it invokes and then the word becomes like any other word the person is trying to learn. The example of the plant called the morivivir helps illustrate this gap because the plant closes when it is touched. Like the plant, the Spanish and English language “closed” to interpretation. The metaphor of the genii in the bottle tells us about the nature of language because the author is saying that saying the word in either language doesn’t always open your mind to a memory or a feeling.

Q5.) In stanzas four and five, why does the speaker invoke Gladys and Rosario from her childhood? How is her childhood sensitivity to words inextricably bound to Spanish, her first language? What is significant about the allusion to Adam, the first man?

A5.) In stanzas four and five, the speaker invokes Gladys and Rosario from her childhood because she’s trying to remember her life when she didn’t know English and how her connection to her Spanish words was strong. Her childhood sensitivity to words is inextricably bound to Spanish, because the names she had for her world are what she bases any words she learns in a different language to. The significance about the allusion to Adam is that she is pointing out that even though she was not the first to give the names to the things in her world, she still felt important because she felt like she was naming the things for the first time.