World Literature

Week Eleven Assignment

11/27/2007

1. Read and Respond:

Tuesday: In Sound and Sense, read chapters four and five. Choose two poems you particularly enjoyed in the chapters and copy them carefully onto paper. Underline any metaphors or similes that you can find. Circle instances of alliteration and assonance. Mark the rhyme schemes.

Thursday: In Sound and Sense, read chapter six. Carefully copy two of the poems you enjoyed onto paper. In each one, underline similes and metaphors. Circle instances of alliteration and assonance. Mark the rhyme schemes. Paraphrase one of the poems, explaining how the images and sound contribute to the poet’s meaning. One page. (Due December 6).

2. Vocabulary:

1. Vacuous: Lacking intelligence; stupid.

2. Vehement: Forceful or intense in expression, emotion, or conviction; fervid.

3. Vortex: A spiral motion of fluid, especially a whirling mass of water or air that sucks everything near it towards its center.

4. Winnow: To separate the chaff from the grain by means of a current of air. To examine closely in order to separate the good from the bad; sift.

5. Wrought: Put together; created. Shaped by hammering with tools.

6. Xenophobe: A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

7. Yeoman: An attendant, servant, or lesser official in a royal or noble household.

8. Ziggurat: A temple tower of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, having the form of a terraced pyramid with successively receding stories.

9. Axiom: A statement universally accepted as true; a statement that needs no proof because its truth is obvious.

10. Insouciant: Calm and unbothered; carefree; indifferent.

3. Write:

Make a Metaphor Collection. Gather metaphors from the following sources:

1. Hunt for metaphors and similes in the poems in this book. Write down at least 10 that jump out at you. What do you like about them? Can you imitate their effects by substituting different words?

2. Go to an interesting place, inside or out (the zoo, the park, the produce section at the grocery store, a theater, etc.). Look for resemblances and list at least 5 as original metaphors or similes. Be exact without being too wordy. Try writing a poem using some or all of the comparisons.

(Due Tuesday, December 4).