2/4/08 9th

After journals, we took the Act II quiz. If you missed it, make it up as soon as possible.

We talked about learning activities and vocabulary squares today. If you are having a hard time finding word origins, synonyms and antonyms, dictionary.com is a wonderful resource. The word origins are included with each entry in brackets after the definition. You can also click on the thesaurus button to find synonyms and antonyms.

We talked a bit about The Globe Theatre today. We talked about how all sorts of people from all stations in life would attend the theatre together. The poor folks would pay a penny to stand on the ground in "the pit", and people of higher status would purchase tickets in the balconies. The Globe could house 3000 audience members. Imagine that! One student brought in an excellent paper model of The Globe. If you didn't get a chance to see, ask me in class.

We also talked about sonnets. We read these sonnets in class:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

by William Shakespeare

and

This frigid wintry wind still blows forlorn;
From blue-black north the steel-grey clouds are sent.
The mountains with white fur themselves adorn,
And with that heavy fur, the firs are bent.
Look! Lacy crystals, gossamer they seem;
Yet look again, their jagged edges found.
And sifting down from heaven? No, they teem--
Collide, cascade, conflict, contend, crash down.
Benumbed are all by endless brumal skies;
All flesh is bit with brisk and bitter breath.
Forsooth, a boundless winter -- future lies,
Hell frozen o’er, in truth’s a hellish death.
What’s this? In snow, a crocus head I see.
Thou, Winter, who deals death, soon dead shall be.

by Mrs. Cheney

A sonnet is comprised of four parts--three quatrains (four lines each) and a couplet (two lines). Each quatrains has its own subtopic that relates to the main topic of the sonnet. The couplet generally sums up the point of the poem, and sometimes adds a bit of a twist. Sonnets are written in iambic (syllables alternate between unstressed and stressed) pentameter (5 pairs of syllables--or ten syllables per line). The rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. Shakespeare loved to include words and phrases that have double meanings. *bonus* Find my examples of words and phrases with double meanings for 10 extra credit points (you must find three examples in my sonnet for the full ten points). The structure of a Shakespearean sonnet is rather rigid. If you choose to write a sonnet as one of your learning activties, please make sure it fits the requirements.

We talked so much about all these things that we didn't have time to start reading Act III. We'll do that tomorrow.