Focus: How can we approach older poems with confidence?
1. Warming up: Trying out the "Eolian Harp" and its accompanying questions on your own
2. Discussing the poem in a large circle
Here are a few tricks I use when approaching poetry from an older era:
Gather as much information as you can from the first stanza...unpack like it's a suitcase and you're on a tropical vacation and your swimsuit's at the bottom somewhere.
This brings me to my next point, which is to understand the extended metaphor(s) inside and out.
Flip the inverted lines back into normal, everyday English (because you just know that the multiple choice questions are going to pick on the lines with the most confusing syntax).
Find the shift (circle your buts). It's often in the final stanza or couplet, and it's often preceded by a red flag word like "but," "however," "yet," or any other words that indicates a change in attitude.
3. Working through the multiple choice questions
HW:
Continue working on your prompt, brainstorming, and outline; print what you have to turn in tomorrow for feedback.
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