Tuesday, December 8 th

1. Tuesday, December 8th • Bellwork: Pick up Reader’s Notebook on your way in and preview pg. 271-276 (What do you notice about the poems?) • Poetry Reading Workshop • “January,” “New World,” and “For My Sister Molly Who in the Fifties” • RN pg. 270-276, pg. 277 (ELL pg. 232-240, pg. 241) • Discussion • Poetry Writing Workshop • Ways to Look at… poetry • Work on… • Ode—must be saved as Web Page to your P drive TODAY • Ways to look at poem • Studying for Poetry Terms Test (Thursday or Monday) • Finishing biography

2. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird. II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds. III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime. IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one. V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.

3. VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause. VII O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you? VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know. IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles. X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply. XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds. XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying. XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.

4. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Stanza 1--The blackbird is a tiny detail in a vast (big) world Stanza 2--A simile where the blackbird suggests the speaker’s frame of mind Stanza 3--The world is a stage act: the blackbird is a player in it Stanza 4--A metaphorical math problem Stanza 5--A meditation or philosophical proposition Stanza 6--A mystery – starring the blackbird Stanza 7--A bible quotation Stanza 8--Nature Stanza 9--A geography problem Stanza 10--A legend or myth Stanza 11--A fairy tale Stanza 12--A regular person’s point of view Stanza 13--A tiny detail again.

5. Ways to look at poetry: • What are ways to look at something? Our classroom? A desk? A computer? • Ways to Look at Poetry: • Review your heart map. Think of a person, place, or thing that you would like to look at from many points of view. • Remember the different perspectives of Dieter and Spence about the war? There is always more than one way to look at something. • Think outside the box. Want to write 8 ways of looking at a computer? Think about all players – including the computer. Bring lifeless things to life in your poem. • Remember that you need to write from at least six points of view.