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What We Are Going to Do in Class

First, we are going to talk about your favorite song, there is a worksheet you will have to do for tomorrow; furthermore, tomorrow I would like you to bring in a RADIO EDIT of your favorite song.

We will play everyone's favorite song, and we will discuss what makes it your favorite song.

You may bring in more than one song, but you need at least 1.

Shakespeare

Born in 1564

Wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and 2 narrative poems

The plays, like those of the Greeks, are written in verse, and are simply long poems.

He is often considered one of the best poets in our language's history.

Early English Poetry

The Canterbury Tales

The oldest written English text is the epic poem, Beowulf. This is written in Old English

Over the next several hundred years, the language changed to Middle English.

Written between 1380 and 1400

It's more of a book than an epic poem

This started the tradition of English poems being written in the vernacular. (Common language)

While Beowulf was the first poem written in English, this poem helped create poetry as we know it today.

Asian Poetry

The Greek Empire

Walt Whitman and the Beginning of American Poetry

In 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson (an American author) writes an essay called, "The Poet."

In this essay, he argues that Americans do not have a cultural voice because we do not have a poet that is uniquely American.

In New York City, a man by the name Walt Whitman decides he is going to take up this task.

His book Leaves of Grass is unlike anything anybody had seen before.

This effectively began what we now know as American poetry.

Song of Myself

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume, you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.

Modern Poetry

The Greeks

Ancient Greeks wrote poetry with epic poems and plays.

The Iliad and The Odyssey are two epic poems that have helped shape our culture. (See Achilles' Heel and the movie Troy.)

They also wrote plays in verse, meaning their plays were also poetry.

Poetry still exists in many forms.

One of the major ways poetry exists is in music.

Poems, since ancient days, were meant to be sung, or at least spoken.

American Poetry

As America became colonized, countries brought their poetic traditions along with them.

Poetry from America, especially English poetry, wasn't truly American.

East Asia, which was not ruled by the Greeks, developed its own unique forms of poetry.

When the Greeks spread out their empire, they took poetry and the theater with them.

This spread poetry throughout Europe, the Middle East, and as far east as India.

Gilgamesh

An epic poem, also the second oldest known poem.

Written in 4000 BC in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq)

An epic poem is a very long poem (usually about 30 pages) that tells a grand story. Generally speaking, these poems are about heroic people doing heroic deeds.

Before the novel was invented, these were culture's novels.

Ancient Poetry

Poetry predates the written word as a way of preserving the history of a people.

Originally, poems were memorized and sung by people for Pharaohs and other rulers.

The oldest known written poem is "The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor" written around 4500 BC

The Purpose of Poetry

Poetry allows you to look at the world in new and exciting ways.

Poetry also tells a story with a rhythm and pattern not often found in prose.

Throughout the history of the human race, poetry has existed.

Given the purposes of writing (to inform, persuade, or entertain) poetry almost always falls in the final category, although it can sometimes persuade as well.

Next Two Weeks

We are going to study several different types of poetry.

I am going to ask you to write versions of these poems.

Your grade will be based on how you follow the rules of the poem, not the quality of the poems themselves.

The History of Poetry

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