Tuesday - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Tuesday, April 7Composition 6.1

Literary Analysis and Composition 2014-2015Slide2

Composition 6.1What are our lesson objectives?What will I be able to do by the end of this lesson?I will be able to:Identify and use the steps in the writing process: prewriting, writing, and revising.Respond as a writer to a literary essay.Analyze the writer's craft.Respond as a reader to a literary essay.Slide3

Keywords and Pronunciationalliteration : the repetition of consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllablesaudience : the intended readers to whom the author is writingconclusion : the final paragraph of an essayevidence : a specific detail, such as a fact or expert opinion, that supports a reasonexample : a specific instance of something, used to illustrate an ideaexplanatory passage : a statement or statements in an essay in which the writer offers an interpretation of a literary workSlide4

hook : a surprising or intriguing passage, idea, or image used to grab the reader’s attention, usually at the beginning of a workintroduction : the first paragraph of an essay, identifying the topic and stating the main ideaparaphrase : to restate information in your own wordspurpose : the reason for writingquotation : a report of the exact words uttered or written by a person; usually placed within quotation marksstyle : the words the writer chooses and the way the writer arranges the words into sentencesSlide5

supporting paragraphs (body) : a series of paragraphs that gives information to support the thesis of an essaytheme : the main message that an author wants to communicate to a readerthesis : the most important point, or main idea, of an essaythesis statement : the sentence that states the main idea of an essaytone : the writer's attitude toward the topic or subjectunity : a trait of writing achieved when all sentences in a paragraph or all paragraphs in an essay support the main ideavoice : the way a piece of writing soundsSlide6

The Rainy Day, by Henry Wadsworth LongfellowThe day is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; The vine still clings to the mouldering wall, But at every gust the dead leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and

the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the

mouldering

past,

But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,

And the days are dark and dreary. Slide7

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary.Slide8

Longfellow’s Forecast: Rain Today, Sun Tomorrow, by Emma SinclairWhat is life? For most people, life is neither a series of all good events nor a series of all bad events. In “The Rainy Day,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow looks at these two opposing sides of life, the positive and the negative, and concludes that both are necessary. The poem’s theme is that since all human lives contain both sadness and joy, true contentment comes from understanding and accepting this fact. From the very first lines of the poem, the speaker’s gloom is plain to see. “The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;/ It rains, and the wind is never weary,” the speaker says. The imagery of cold,

darkness, and

rain creates a mood of extreme unhappiness. Although the wind is “never weary,” the speaker,

in contrast

, sounds weary—weary of life. Everything he looks at reminds him of his despair. He is

looking at

a “moldering wall” to which a vine clings. The word moldering suggests decay and death. The

leaves that

fall “at every gust” in line 4 also evoke the idea of life’s ending. At the end of the first

stanza,the

speaker

repeats the observation that “the day is dark and dreary.” Longfellow’s use of

repetition emphasizes

the darkness and dreariness still further. It is as if the speaker can’t get the darkness

and dreariness

out of his mind

.Slide9

Even more repetition appears in the second stanza, and this repetition again emphasizes the sadness and gloom that the speaker feels. In fact, the first, second, and fifth lines of the first stanza are repeated almost exactly in the second stanza. This stanza describes more rain, more darkness, more “never weary” wind. However, the second stanza also gives the reader some new information. For the first time, the reader is given a glimpse of why the speaker is sad, although it is a vague glimpse. He is sad because he is no longer young, and rather than living in the present or looking forward to the future, he keeps dwelling

uselessly on bygone times. He admits this problem in line 8, in which his “thoughts still

cling to

the moldering Past.” This clinging matches line 3 in the previous stanza, where the vine clings to

the “moldering

wall.” Similarly, in line 9, the speaker’s youthful hopes “fall thick in the blast.” This

matches line

4 in the previous stanza, where the leaves fall in the wind. So the vine is like the speaker’s

thoughts, and

the falling leaves are like his hopes. The image of the vine-covered wall symbolizes the speaker’s

life. His

youth is passing, his hopes are fading, and he cannot keep from thinking about the past. Slide10

At this point in the poem, the reader might think that the speaker is hopelessly depressed. However, at that very moment, at the beginning of the third stanza, Longfellow switches moods suddenly. For an unexplained reason, the speaker finds the inner strength to face life. He tells his negative thoughts to “Be still” (11). Even though the weather in the poem does not actually change, the speaker reminds himself that “Behind the clouds the sun is still shining” (12). Then, in the poem’s final three lines, the poem expresses the idea that happiness and unhappiness come and go in human life like the weather. “Into each life some rain must fall,” line 14 says. The rain symbolizes sadness. Just as rain falls on everyone, unhappiness

comes to everyone at times. The speaker realizes that happiness and unhappiness are

both part

of what makes everyone human. “Some days must be dark and dreary,” he concludes in the

poem’s last

line. That

little

word “some” marks an important change from the previous stanza, which said, “

And the

days are dark and dreary.” Some days are dark and dreary, not all. And if only some days are dark

and dreary

, some must be sunny and clear. Now that he understands this simple, universal fact, the speaker

is cheerful

again even though it is still a rainy day.Slide11

In the end, Longfellow’s poem is one of hope, despite two stanzas that are filled with imagery of darkness, dreariness, and gloom. The poem starts out as a description of deep sadness, but it turns out to be a poem about how sadness and joy alternate in human life. It is “the common fate of all,” as line 13 says, to experience both good and bad. When you are sad, remember that everyone is sometimes sad; be patient and wait for the clouds to part and the sun to shine. That is Longfellow’s hopeful message to his readers.Slide12

Thought Question1. What characteristics of a literary essay can you notice in this sample essay?A.B.C.D.E.