TGIF, everybody!
From today's class, please remember the following points: 1) Studying American Culture and Literature has at least five big benefits:
3) I will miss you guys over summer vacation, and I am looking forward to meeting you every Friday in Koki. ABOUT THE EXAMINATION
TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS (by July 25 at midnight)
ABOUT GRADE POINTS ETC. 1) The deadline for submitting comments is July 25 at midnight. 2) You can calculate your regular points like this.
HAVE A NICE SUMMER VACATION (AND GOOD LUCK FINISHING ALL YOUR CLASSES)!!!
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Happy Hump Day, Everybody~
Above are some videos of William Carlos Williams reading his poems (very short!) and of other people reading them, etc. Check them out! **With The Fault in Our Stars, the actress says the poem at about 2:30 into the video. Be patient until then or fast forward to then! And after she says the poem once, she then says a few of her own versions of the poem...** From today's class, please remember the following points
HOMEWORK (for July 21): 1. Read the Williams lecture handout I give you in class. 2. If you haven't posted comments on our blog, you should do it about today's class by July 18. TOPICS FOR COMMENTS (by July 18)
so much depends upon a brown cat asleep smiling mouth twitching catching flying dream birds.
TGIF, Everybody!
I put links above to two "In a Station of the Metro" videos (there are MANY versions, but most of them are bad because they don't read the title as part of the poem), so you should watch/listen to it and practice reading the poem out loud with the native speaker. **The boy James is very cute and has very clear pronunciation, but he makes ONE small mistake when reading the poem: can you hear the mistake????** Remember the following points from today's class:
**If you enjoyed hearing the Liu Sisters read the Rihaku (Li Bai) poem in class today, or if you enjoyed reading Pound's translation of the poem in Meishisen [50], read his poem in Meishisen and write some comments about it!!!** HOMEWORK (for July 21):
TOPICS FOR COMMENTS (by July 18 midnight) 1. Write any question or comment about anything in today's class. 2. Write about Ezra Pound's poem "In a Station of the Metro" (and tell what the boy James' mistake is in his video and explain some more consonance and assonance in the poem!). 3. Write about some combination of nature and human creation that you like. For example, I like Itsukushima Jinja in Hiroshima because you can see the sea (nature) through the red tori gate (human creation). I also like the top of the dome in the Pantheon in Rome because it is an open circle you can see the sky, clouds, and birds through when you look up. 4. Read Pound's translation of the Rihaku poem in Meishisen [50] The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter and write your impression of it! 4. Write your own haiku in English (a three-line poem, but 5-7-5 syllables is optional). Here's my (5-7-5) example: A brown tiger cat Leaping high above the grass Missing butterflies.
TGIF Everyone!
Above is a link to the a famous four-minute scene from Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), about the negative sides of modern city life, and a link to a three-minute scene from the Charlie Chaplin movie The Circus (1928). By the way, Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, and acted in both movies, as he did for almost all his movies (he also made all the music!). Watch them! they're easy to understand because there's very little talking, lots of gestures, and some subtitles. You can watch the WHOLE movie of The Circus on YouTube... **I can answer Ryoma and Kento's questions! How many movies did Charlie Chaplin make? 80!! His first seventy-five movies were silent, his last five movies talking (with sound), and his first sound movie was The Great Dictator (1940), that Ryoma watched in his English class in high school. Above are also two links to the French pianist and composer Erik Satie's most famous pieces, ones that you hear sometimes in movies or TV shows. Find him on youtube! Can you remember the following key points from today's class?
HOMEWORK (for July 7)
TOPICS FOR SUBMITTING COMMENTS (by July 4 at midnight) 1. Which do you prefer, a plain blue sky OR a blue sky with a red kite in it, nature only or nature with human touch??? Why? 2. Write about the scene from Charlie Chaplin's movie Modern Times. What message do you think Chaplin is trying to express about modern life??? 3. Write about the the scene from Charlie Chaplin's movie The Circus or about the whole movie (if you find and watch it on YouTube!). What does it show you about circuses and cities and entertainment and modern people, etc.? 4. Write about Erik Satie's music above. What impression does it give you?? Can you compare it to Bach or Beethoven's piano music? (Find links to their music on our blog's Day 7 After-Class Message)
TGIF, everybody!
Do you like my Emily t-shirt? I bought it at HER house in Amherst... Really that's not MY t-shirt, but one off the Internet; mine is beige and large size. And on the back of the t-shirt, Emily is WINKING at you! wow... https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/ Also above are two youtube videos of poem #359 ("a Bird came down the Walk") by Emily Dickinson. Watch them! Check them out! They only take about 60 or 90 seconds each. From today's class, remember the following points:
HOMEWORK (for July 7): Read the Modernism lecture handout, topics 1-3. Read the "A Bird came down the Walk" lecture handout. Submit any comments or questions about Emily Dickinson or her poem, if you want to! TOPICS FOR COMMENTS (by July 4 midnight) Write about anything about Emily Dickinson's life or poems. Write your impressions of #359 ("A Bird came down the Walk"). Write about your impressions of a video of "A Bird came down the Walk." Write about your experience watching birds (or a bird). Ask a question about something in my lecture about "A Bird came down the Walk." Read one of your classmate's comments in this blog post and make a comment about them! Look at the famous true picture of Emily at age 16 (found on our Website: Spring Semester > Romanticism > Romantic Writers the Emily part of it).
TGIF, everybody!
I really recommend you to read "Annabel Lee" out loud enjoying the rhythm! Above you can find a picture of Poe's wife Virginia... The artist made the picture after Virginia died--he looked at her dead body to draw the picture! Also a Poe coffee cup with a great line from "Annabel Lee." Also a great fan art picture from the MANY on the Internet showing the last stanza of "Annabel Lee." Also four very different readings and animations and songs of the poem. Which one(s) do you prefer???? Why? "Annabel Lee" is a great poem, isn't it? It's so beautiful and so sad... I love the rhymes (sea, Lee, me, we; dreams, beams; rise, eyes; tide, side; etc.) and the "down down UP" rhythm (_ _ / _ _ / _ _ /). It's so fun (and sad and moving) to say the poem out loud! Remember the following points from today's class. 1) Poe often wrote about sad and dark things, but he also wrote about beauty and love a lot. Unlike Thoreau, Poe didn't care about nature. Instead, Poe liked imagination and emotion. 2) Poe's poem "Annabel Lee" comes from his situation with his wife Virginia, who died young, but remember that the poem is a fairy tale, a story, and not real life (so it's Annabel Lee, not Virginia; and it's many and many a year ago in a kingdom by the sea, not 1847 USA). 3) The poem shows that big, deep love can be so wonderful but also so terrible! (because every night the speaker "I" sleeps by the side of inside her tomb/grave/sepulcher). 4) The poem has so much consonance (especially r and l sounds) and assonance (especially long ee sounds), and so many nice rhymes (end rhyme and internal rhyme), and a lovely _ _ / rhythm (it was MAny and MAny a YEAR ago). And the last stanza has many internal rhymes and lots of assonance and consonance and big emotion. Read the last stanza out loud!! **Because Poe wrote the poem with two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable (down down UP or _ _ /), his poem reads really fast compared to usual poem rhythms (down UP or _ /) because his poem has fewer accented syllables and more unaccented syllables, and you read unaccented syllables faster than accented ones. HOMEWORK (for June 24)
COMMENTS TOPICS (by June 20) 1. Write your impressions of or questions about "Annabel Lee" and or Edgar Allan Poe. 2. Write about your own experience with (too) big love. 3. Watch the videos of the poem I put at the top of this blog post OR that I have on our website in the Spring Semester > Romanticism > Romantic Writers page for Poe and write about one of more of them. 4. Write about the images of Virginia and "Annabel Lee" that I put on this blog. TGIF, everybody!
From today's class, please remember the following points: 1) One theme (message) of Thoreau's poem is that nature (like ants and rain) is better than human creation (like books and beds). 2) However, Thoreau liked books, read them, wrote them, put them in his poem, etc.! (He just likes nature better than books in this poem!) 3) Moreover, Thoreau's poem also has a strict and artificial pattern/form: ABAB rhyme pattern and every line with ten syllables (five unaccented syllables and five accented ones), etc., so his poem does not have a very natural pattern/form! 4) Anyway, Thoreau increases beautiful repeating sounds (rhyme, consonance, assonance) in the last half of his poem when the rain is really falling, especially stanzas 7-10, so read them out loud and hear those sounds! HOMEWORK (for June 16): 1.Read my Day 8 After-Class Message on our website’s Spring Blog. 2.Read The Summer Rain LECTURE handout. 3.Read the Romantic Culture & Literature handout, topic 6, about Edgar Allan Poe. 4.Read Meishisen poem [9] “Annabel Lee.” Read the poem in English, Japanese, and English a few times, catching the easy words and imagining the situation and finding rhyme (end rhyme, internal rhyme), assonance, and consonance. BLOG COMMENT TOPICS (by June 13)
Wow--That sure is a romantic (small r) pasta-kiss scene from Disney's The Lady and the Tramp (1955)! You can watch the whole movie for free on Youtube (for now...) at the above link (turn on the "cc" closed captions for English subtitles to help you understand the movie.) But remember that Romanticism is much more than dating and loving! Here are two videos, a Bach cello suite #1 (NOT Romantic but Baroque!) and a Beethoven symphony #5 (VERY Romantic!): Listen to them and compare them!
This painting by Thomas Cole, Distant View of Niagara Falls (1830), is Romantic (with a big R), because the painting shows BIG, wild, and beautiful American nature with small people (Indians) watching it.
TGIF, everybody! Remember the following points from today's class. 1. Romanticism (1760-1860) is the movement in Europe (first) and America (later) which valued EMOTION, IMAGINATION, NATURE, FREEDOM, INDIVIDUALITY. 2. Different Romantic writers/artists/composers etc. liked different parts of Romanticism: some liked nature best, some emotion best, some imagination best, and so on. We'll cover the poems and lives of three Romantic writers soon in class. 3. Romanticism influenced or inspired or caused or helped create etc. the USA (freedom!) and many genres (romance, horror, fantasy, science fiction, children's literature, etc.). 4. American Romanticism is especially focused on nature and freedom. 5. Native speakers of English choose words for their meanings AND for their sounds, and they often write or say words that sound catchy together, with rhyme or consonance or assonance or rhythm. And that is for ANY written or spoken communication in English! 6. You must be able to find examples of rhyme, consonance, and assonance in our poems, so I recommend you practice finding it in the native speaker lyrics of some songs you like AND in our Meishisen poems. And you could email me or post your identification of rhyme etc. in songs you like or our class poems. HOMEWORK (for June 10):
TOPICS FOR POSTING COMMENTS (by June 9) 1. You could write about any of the romantic images that I showed in class. (Hint: look at the painting by Thomas Cole above on this blog post OR go to the Romanticism > What Is Romanticism page or to the Romanticism > American Romanticism page in our website to see other paintings again!) 2. You can listen to Bach and Beethoven and compare them! 3. You could write about your favorite genres that come from Romanticism (see point to remember 3 above for examples). 4. You could watch Beauty and the Beast (all of it!) and give a little report about it. 5. You could write about any experience you have had in nature or with nature. 6. You could write about rhyme and consonance and assonance in some song you like or in one of our poems (hint: go to the Spring Semester > Rhyme page in our website OR go to the Day 6 After-Class Message of our Blog to see music videos with the lyrics on the screen). Write some examples of rhyme, consonance, and assonance!
TGIF, everybody!
Sounds in English are great fun and pleasure, aren't they? And they increase the mental and emotional pleasure of poems and songs and stories and daily conversation so much! I like practicing rhymes etc. with you. From today's class, please remember the following points: 1) Native speakers of English often choose words to say or write because of their meaning AND their sound. For example, if you miss many classes, when you finally come to class, I might say, "Hey, it's the Mystery Man!" Not "Hey, it's the Mystery Boy!" (because Mystery Man has catchy consonance in the repeating m sounds). 2) Rhyme happens at the ends of words when they end in the same vowel sound (you & blue) OR in the same vowel + consonant sound (care & hair). 3) Consonance happens anywhere in words (start, middle, end) when the same consonant sounds repeat close together, like ch ch and c q here: My love is such that rivers cannot quench. 4) Assonance happens anywhere in words (start, middle, end) when the same vowel sounds repeat close together, like I i y i here: I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold And here's some great assonance in a song I liked when I was your age, "Love My Way" by the Psychedelic Furs: In love my way It's a new road I follow where my mind goes **road, follow, and goes all have the same long oh sound, making assonance (not rhyme, because those words end with different sounds: d, oh, and z). It's catchy! 5) With rhyme, consonance, and assonance, sound is the point, not spelling! English spelling is so crazy that words may have the same letters but different pronunciation (e.g., gesture, game), or different letters but the same pronunciation (e.g., beat, meet). That's why sound is key, not spelling. 5) When rhyme, assonance, and consonance happen, they increase pleasure for your ear and make English more memorable and interesting and catchy and connect the words that have the sounds! 6) You don't need to learn how to find rhythm (the pattern of unstressed and stressed syllables) for our class or tests etc., but you should remember what it is and should not confuse it with rhyme (rhyme and rhythm are very different!) **Check the five very different music videos I have links to above and hear and enjoy the interesting rhymes and consonance and assonance etc. I put the two slides I didn't have time to explain in class for "Let It Go" and "Last Friday Night." Read the slides carefully, then listen to the videos for those songs and hear the sounds I point out in the slides!** **Yumi told me about the Green Eggs and Ham rap version--thank you Yumi!** **If you'd like to practice rhyme (and consonance and assonance), visit my office (Bunkei Center 525 on Thursday or Friday afternoon). You could bring some lyrics of a song that you like, or we could look at some Meishisen examples.** HOMEWORK: (for June 2) Read the Romantic Culture and Literature handout, topics 1 2, 3, and 4. TOPICS FOR COMMENTS (by May 30 Midnight)
HAPPY HUMP DAY, everybody! What do you think of those "To My Dear and Loving Husband" pair tattoos?!? (Many Americans have many tattoos--do YOU want a tattoo pair with your boy/girlfriend???) And watch the above video! It only takes a minute, and you can hear a great, beautiful English actress (Helen Mirren) read it. And you can read the poem in your book and say it out loud with her as you read it and match your voice to hers, to improve your pronunciation. From today's class, please remember the following points. 1) Puritans have had a big influence on American culture, still today: many Americans are very Christian and many Americans believe America is the best country; etc. 2) Usual Puritans were very strict to children, women, and criminals, and cruel to Indians and Quakers. 3) However, Anne Bradstreet, who wrote "To My Dear and Loving Husband," was a Puritan woman! So. Remember that she did not publish the poem when she was alive, that she was an unusual Puritan woman, and that in the poem she tries to combine body and spirit. 4) "To My Dear and Loving Husband" is a famous American poem because it gives so much pleasure: emotional pleasure (the great, hot, forever love between Anne and her husband) and mental pleasure (words like "dear," "repay," and "recompense" that have money meanings and non-money meanings). HOMEWORK (for May 26): 1. Read the Sounds in American Culture and Literature lecture handout, especially topics 1 and 2, and watch the YouTube video linked at the top of this page, and then re-read "To My Dear and Loving Husband" out loud so you hear your voice. Try to hear the rhymes, etc. 2. Read/watch at least one of the music videos on our Website's Spring Semester > Rhyme page and find rhyme, near rhyme, assonance, and consonance in the song: http://amcultlit.weebly.com/rhyme.html TOPICS FOR POSTING COMMENTS (by May 23 midnight) 1. Write your impressions of Anne Bradstreet's poem, or your questions about it, etc. 2. Write about your impression of Helen Mirren reading her poem in the Youtube video linked above. 3. Write about your parents--do they express their (romantic) love for each other as Anne does in her poem to her husband? How are they with each other? For example? 4. Write about YOU and your boyfriend/girlfriend: do you express your love for each other as Anne does in her poem to her husband? 5. Write any questions or comments about Puritans in general. |