STARR/TEKS ESSAY ASSIGNMENT:
Part
One: Give your interpretation of the literary work/material that
is the basis of the lesson:
Bridges’
“The Evening Darkens Over” and Auden’s “Look, Stranger, at this Island Now”
W. H Auden had an intense, life-long interest in the work of fellow poet
Robert Bridges (Phillips 14). Christopher Isherwood in 1937 described Bridges’
early influence on Auden as one of the poet’s “crazes,” responsible for a poem
(“Which of You Waking Early”) “which appeared in the first Faber edition, but
was removed from later impressions” (77). But Bridges’ “The Evening Darkens
Over” is a primary source for one of Auden’s most effective early poems, “Look,
Stranger, at this Island Now” (November 1935). The parallels in wording,
rhythm, and imagery are many and striking, especially in light of the brevity
of each poem. Bridges writes, “The windswept waves discover / That wild will be the night. / There’s sound of distant
thunder” (3-5). In Auden’s poem the viewer-listener is told to see what “the
leaping light for your delight discovers” and to hear “the swaying sound of the
sea” which “may wander like a river” (2, 6-7). Bridges, with similar skill,
uses “wander” to describe how
The latest sea-birds hover
Along the cliff’s sheer height;
As in the memory
wander
Last flutterings
of delight,
White wings lost on the white. (6-10)
Auden deftly appropriates “the cliff’s
sheer height” to describe his own sea-bird: “. . . the gull lodges / A moment
on its sheer side” (13-14). Also, Bridges’ “in the memory
wander” is again echoed by Auden’s speaker as he speculates on what “may . . .
move in memory as now these clouds do” (18-19). This speaker illuminates
as “ships / Diverge on urgent voluntary errands” (15-16). But in Bridges’ poem,
“Thick clouds conspire to cover / The moon,” and
“there’s not a ship in sight” (13-14, 11). As “the evening darkens over” the
speaker is isolated from either ship or stranger: “Thou art alone, fond lover”
(15).
Isherwood, Christopher. “Some Notes on the Early Poetry.” W. H. Auden: A Tribute. Ed.
Stephen Spender. New York: Macmillan,
1975. 74-79.
Phillips, Catherine. Robert
Bridges: A Biography. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1992.
PART TWO: ASSIGNMENT/LESSON PLAN FOR CLASS
Competency 005: The teacher
understands reading skills and strategies for various types of nonliterary texts and teaches
students to apply these skills and strategies to enhance their lifelong
learning.
J. Demonstrates an understanding of the
characteristics and uses of various types of research tools and information
sources and promotes students’ understanding of and ability to use these
resources.
Competency 006: The teacher understands literary elements,
genres and movements and demonstrates knowledge of a substantial body of
literature.
A. Demonstrates knowledge of genres and their
characteristics through analysis of literary texts.
Competency 007: The teacher understands strategies for reading literary texts and
provides students with opportunities to formulate,
express and support responses to literature.
A. Demonstrates knowledge of various types of
responses to literary texts (e.g., experiential, aesthetic, pragmatic) and
encourages a variety of responses in students.
PART THREE: TEKS Objectives:
2) Reding/Vocabulary
Development. Students understand new vocabulary and use it when reading and
writing. Students are expected to:
(A) determine the meaning of
grade-level academic English words derived from Latin, Greek, or other linguistic roots and affixes;
(B) use context (within a
sentence and in larger sections of text) to determine or clarify the meaning of
unfamiliar or ambiguous words or words with novel meanings;
(E) use a dictionary, a
glossary, or a thesaurus (printed or electronic) to determine the meanings,
syllabication, pronunciations, alternate word choices, and parts of speech of
words.
PART
FOUR: The Lesson.
1.
Read
each of the poems.
2.
Which
poem had the five words you liked most?
3.
Which
poem had the five words you like least?
4.
Use
a dictionary to determine the origin of the words that you liked least and
most.
5.
Do
most of the words (liked least or most) form a pattern in their origin?
6.
Do
most of the words (liked least or most) form a pattern in their appearance in
either of the poems?
7.
What
did you learn from these patterns?
8.
Finally,
use the internet to find another poem with the word you liked most and least.
Do you still like it most or least?