There's a scene in Dead Poets Society in which Prof Keating talks about the "strength" of words in poetry.
Keating is walking to the front of the classroom filled with students.
KEATING
A man is not very tired, he is exhausted.
And don't use very sad, use-
He points to the back of the classroom.
KEATING
Come on, Mr. Overstreet, you twerp,
KNOX
Morose?
KEATING
Exactly! Morose. Now, language was
developed for one endeavor, and that is?
Mr. Anderson? Come on! Are you a man or
an amoeba?
Keating stands before Todd's desk. Todd looks up nervously but
says nothing.
NOW ITS YOUR TURN.
Use the "comments" slot to answer the questions below.
If you were asked this same question "...language was
developed for one endeavor, and that is? ",
what would you answer?
Keatings points out:
tired (neutral adjective) - exausted (strong)
sad (neutral) - morose (strong)
Provide the strong adjective for the neutral forms below.
happy; ugly; surprising; bad; silly; hungry; cold; big; afraid.
(You will get a more extensive exercise on "Neutral and Strong Adjectives and Adverbs" on your email.)
In another scene Keating is in the courtyard with his students. He is trying "...to illustrate the point of conformity: the difficulty in
maintaining your own beliefs in the face
of others."
and he goes on saying
"...Now, we all have a great need for acceptance.
But you must trust that your beliefs are
unique, your own, even though others may
think them odd or unpopular, even though
the herd may go, "That's baaaaad." Robert
Frost said, "Two roads diverged in a
wood and I, I took the one less traveled
by, and that has made all the
difference."
Have you ever read Robert Frost's poem mentioned above?
You may listen to it here.
-Search Robert Frost's poem on the Web and read it.
-What is the main point in his poem?
-What does Keatings mean to show to his students?
-Have you ever come to a fork in the road of life? Did you take "the road less traveled by"?
-Search a poem you would like to share with your classmates next class. Send them a copy by email.
Hi Claudia
ReplyDeleteTwo short poems from Emily Dickinson:
I felt a Cleaving in my Mind---
As if my Brain had split---
I tried to match it---Seam by Seam---
But could not make them fit.
The thought behind, I strove to join
Unto the thought before---
But Sequence raveled out of Sound
Like Balls---upon a Floor.
-------------------------
Our share of night to bear
Our share of morning
Our blank in bliss to fill
Our blank in scorning
Here a star, and there a star,
Some lose their way!
Here a mist, and there a mist,
Afterwards -- Day!
Cheers
Julio
And two from Sylvia Plath
ReplyDeleteWORDS
Axes
After whose stroke the wood rings,
And the echoes!
Echoes traveling
Off from the center like horses.
The sap
Wells like tears, like the
Water striving
To re-establish its mirror
Over the rock
That drops and turns,
A white skull,
Eaten by weedy greens.
Years later I
Encounter them on the road---
Words dry and riderless,
The indefatigable hoof-taps.
While
From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars
Govern a life.
--------------
RESOLVE
Day of mist: day of tarnish
with hands
unserviceable, I wait
for the milk van
the one-eared cat
laps its gray paw
and the coal fire burns
outside, the little hedge leaves are
become quite yellow
a milk-film blurs
the empty bottles on the windowsill
no glory descends
two water drops poise
on the arched green
stem of my neighbor's rose bush
o bent bow of thorns
the cat unsheathes its claws
the world turns
today
today I will not
disenchant my twelve black-gowned examiners
or bunch my fist
in the wind's sneer.
Enjoy it!
Julio