See, I knew we’d be out because of snow today!
For those of you who are visiting the blog today, thank you for being dedicated and trading some of your free time to participate in class.
To get started, here are some terms I want you to learn:
Allusion - Unacknowledged quotations or citations from our cultural heritage such as religious texts, history, literature from America, Britain, and/or the rest of the world.. Authors assume that readers will recognize the original sources and relate their meaning to the new context.
Atmosphere or Mood - the emotional aura invoked by a work.
Tone - the author’s attitude toward his subject (what he’s writing about) or her reader.
Here’s a great site for literary terms:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/literature/bedlit/glossary_a.htm
Here’s our text: Eavan Boland’s poem, “Atlantis - A Lost Sonnet”
How on earth did it happen, I used to wonder
that a whole city—arches, pillars, colonnades,
not to mention vehicles and animals—had all
one fine day gone under?
I mean, I said to myself, the world was small then.
Surely a great city must have been missed?
I miss our old city —
white pepper, white pudding, you and I meeting
under fanlights and low skies to go home in it. Maybe
what really happened is
this: the old fable-makers searched hard for a word
to convey that what is gone is gone forever and
never found it. And so, in the best traditions of
where we come from, they gave their sorrow a name
and drowned it.
For today, to get things started on this site, here are some basic questions:
1.) How is it possible that the disappearance of Atlantis can be similar to the life of the person telling this poem, even though this person is living in contemporary, current day society?
2.) What is the author’s tone toward Atlantis?
3.) What is the author’s tone toward his or her so-called past life?
4.) Do you think the author appreciates a person who likes to read this kind of poem? In other words, is the author making fun of someone who would like this? What kind of reader is the author imagining as her reader?
5.) What emotions do you think the author is trying to raise?
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1.) He could have lost everything that was important & meaningful in his life.
ReplyDelete2.) He may be in disbelief, or he may be surprised.
3.) He misses it. He wishes it hadn't gone away.
4.) In a way it could sound like he was making fun of someone. But in other ways he could be writing this & not be making fun of someone.
5.) Probably sadness, loneliness, abandonment.
1.) It could be the feelings off events that have happened to him over the course of his life.
ReplyDelete2.) He was traumatized and in a lonely state of mind.
3.) He is missing the old atmosphere of his old city, Atlantis.
4.) The author may be trying to laugh at the theory of Atlantis, but at the same time be trying to relate it to his own past-life.
5.) Sadness, feeling of being the last one, and like it is the end of the world.
1.)Maybe people act as if the old things in life are nothing and have forgotten (not fully) all about it.
ReplyDelete2.)The author's tone towards this poem from my perspective is sadness because of how the present is to the past.
3.)The author's tone to his past life may be hime missing it.
4.)No i don'tbeliee that this author is making fun of people that fell this way i think he is in between and has not fully yet made a decision to the things he has written.
5.)I believe that the author is trying to raise awarness and sadness.
1)PROBALY THATS HOW THE WRITER LIFE USE TO BE WHEN HE WAS YOUNGER EVERYTHING WASNT THERE..
ReplyDelete2)HE WAS CALM.
3)HE WASNT SO HAPPY.
4)YES.NO.LIKES SHE TELLIN US BOUT HER PAST LIFE AND WHAT WE SHOULD KNOW I GUESS.
5)SAD,LONELY,FORGOTTEN..
The person probably relates that the world is so established that it seems impossible for anything to happen to it. The modern way of life with the internet full of information and the technology to do almost anything, but with the situation of Atlantis it was supposedly so modernized that it seems impossible to have something like a whole city gone forever. Such as the life of current times.
ReplyDeleteI beleive that the author's tone toward Atlantis is one of pity. He surely has sorrow for something so established to sudenly be gone and all of it destroyed. Much like the Roman empire, at the hight of power for the largest empire of those times was crippled from within. The main differece I believe is that unlike with Rome, Atlantis was so sudden.
The author appearse to have the same pity for their pass life as they did with Atlantis, but through this pity the author gets understanding for his situation as well as Atlantis's if that makes any sence.
I believe that this poem isn't one that someone would hold as something desirable. The poem is about pity, sorrow, and finally understanding. It would be sort of twisted to enjoy this pity.
I think that the author is trying to raise a sort of understanding. Like saying you can learn from tragity. Your sorrow makes you see the would more clearly. The learn from your mistakes kind of thing.
1. He lost everything important in his life
ReplyDelete2. He seemed sad
3. He misses it
4. I really dont know
5. Sadness, Forgotten, Lonely
1.because he sees how the world is changing not for the good in some ways
ReplyDelete2. his tone is in a sad tone because he misses it.
3.his tone is in sorrow tword it meaning he misses how things use to be.
4. i belive he may be talking of a romance between him and another person miss how they use to be.
5.he is trying to express how you shouldnt take things for granted. hold on to thing while you have them.
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ReplyDelete1. He makes the comment that tale tellers "gave their sorrows a name, and drowned it". Likewise, he could have "drowned" his own sorrows.
ReplyDelete2. At first, he was bewildered that a great city such as Atlantis could disappear without anyone knowing or caring, but as one reads on, one notices that bewilderment turns toward a possible solution to the question that seems bleak, yet probable.
3. He, as we all, has suffered through sorrow, whether it be self-induced, or not, and he seems quizative at first, but then somewhat sad.
4. She isn't making fun of her audience, per say, but she is having fun with those who read this. So, yes, she appreciates her readers, as at least most writers do.
5. Curiousity, then sad rememberance, those are the emotions that I felt as I read this piece.
1. Maybe in his life he has lost someone or something that means alot to him and he cant get it back.
ReplyDelete2. Sad and suprised that it is gone.
3. Painful and sad
4. I don't think the author is making fun of someone who would like this poem. I think that the author is trying to find a reader who can relate to it or someone who has also lost something important to them.
5. I think that the author is trying to raise sadness or some sort of loniness.
1. Maybe the writer was a small child that doesnt know why some things in life happen or is explaining how they might have lost something important in their life when they were young and comparing how they might have delt with it to how a small world might have delt with losing a great city.
ReplyDelete2. The Author is in disbelief as to how or why such a great, big, beautiful city could have just disappeared.
3. The Author sounds like they miss a happy life that he or she used to live but does not live anymore.
4. I think the author would appreciate somebody who likes to evaulate and understand what the author is trying to say in this poem. I think the author is targeting a reader that can think at a deeper level and compare the causes and effects of two different events.
5. I think the author is trying to raise maybe some sad emotions or maybe give the reader a sense of absence similar to what the author might have had to cope with as a child.
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ReplyDelete1.Maybe he is surprised that something so big at one point could be forgotten. He could have compared this to the way he lived his life and he could referred this to when he dies. He probably wonders if he died would people forget about him.
ReplyDelete2. He feels much sorrow and pity for Atlantis. He feels this way because atlantis was once a great city and now its almost like a legend.
3. He has a very sad tone with this poem. Its like hes asking himself why this would happen to such a great city and why no one can remember about it.
4.I think the author wrote this poem not to make fun of her readers, but to find out who can grasp what she means by this poem. I think she appreciates her readers who can relate to this poem.
5.When I read this poem, at first i felt confused but as i read it over, i realized that i felt much sorrow, pity, and a kind of depression coming from this poem.
Mr. Mckenna I am lost. um did you post the new blog i dont know how to access it i'm not good at computers just proving that i did in fact look for the homework.
ReplyDelete1-12-10
1.) He could have lost everything that meant the most to him in life and he has no idea how to get it back.
ReplyDelete2.) I personally think hes in shock or in a state of mind in disbielf.
3.) He truely misses it and is shocked that it happened this way and wish he could go back to his life when everything was good.
4.) In a way it sounds like the author is trying to make fun of her readers, but in all honesty she is writing it to the readers who can grasp the concept of what she truely means in this poem and who can relate their own life to it.
5.) Fear. Scared. Frightful. Lost.