Week 6 Reading Guides

2.13 Reading Guide to Astrophil and Stella
Sonnets 1, 15, 16, 20, 37, 41, 47, 71, and 91 (pp. 975-76, 978-79, 982-83, 986, 989-90)

Due before class on September 20. Five points.

1. (Sonnet 1) The key to these sonnets is realizing that each is concerned with the love of "Astrophil" (the male speaker of the poem) for Stella (a woman). One way to look at Sonnet 1 (pp. 975-76) is to say that it is about writer's block. This poem has a clear octave and sestet. How many sentences are in the octave? In the sestet? Why does the speaker say he wants to write? What sorts of things does he do, unsuccessfully, to assist him in his writing?

2. (Sonnet 15) This poem could be interpreted as advice to a rival poet. What resources does the rival poet use to improve his writing? What advice does the speaker of this poem give him?

3. (Sonnet 16) What two things did the speaker think he knew before he met Stella? To what does he compare being in love in the final lines of the poem?

4. (Sonnet 20) Here we have a tiny dramatic scene. Why does the speaker advise his friends to "Fly, fly" (that is, run) in the first line? Who is the "murth'ring boy" and how does he wound the speaker? What object in the poem is black in color?

5. (Sonnet 37) What pun and riddle are contained in the last line, "[She] Hath no misfortune, but that Rich she is." (But sure to read the note at the bottom of the page.)

6. (Sonnet 41) In this poem, the speaker tells of his success in a tournament. What do other people say was the cause of his success? What was the real cause, according to the speaker?

7. (Sonnet 47) In one sentence, what does the speaker of this poem vow to do? What prevents him from keeping his vow?

8. (Sonnet 71) Of what is Stella a perfect example? What new abstraction appears in the last line? What is your interpretation of line 14?

9. (Sonnet 91) Complete the following comparison: Stella is to other women as the skies are to a ______________.

10. This is a freebie so long as you answer at least one of the following questions. How are things going for you in English 205 so far? Which activities and materials are helping you? Which aren't? What would you like to more of in class? What, if anything, are you having trouble understanding?

2.14 Reading Guide to The Faerie Queene
(Book I, Cantos 1 and 2, pp. 719-42)
Due before class on September 22. Five points.

1. In the short introduction to his poem (pp. 719-20), Spenser asks for help. From whom is he asking help? For what does he need help? What does he say, in stanzas 1-4, will be the subject matter of his poem?

2. What is the name of the "Gentle Knight" mentioned in the first line of Canto 1? How is he dressed?

3. Name two companions who ride with the knight (p. 721).

4. Why do the travelers go into the forest? Why don't they return to their original path?

5. On pages 723-26, the knight fights his first battle. What is the allegorical name of the monster he defeats? To the disgust of the knight, what do her offspring do when the monster is killed?

6. After the battle, an old man appears and invites the knight and his companions to his home. What sort of person does the "aged Sire" appear to be on pages 726-27? What does the reader learn about him after everyone else is asleep? What is his name (p. 729)?

7. What is a Spright (p. 728)? Why does the first spright visit Morpheus, the god of sleep?

8. Name two tricks that the wicked magician plays on the knight, the first on pages 731-32 and the second on pp. 733-34. What does the knight do because of the deception?

9. Pages 735-37 tell of the knight's encounter with a Sarazin and his lady. What is written on the Sarazin's shield? What name does the Sarazin's lady use (p. 738)? What is her real name
(p. 742)?

10. On pages 739-42, we meet Fradubio. Into what has he been transformed? Where and in what form is his lady love? What is the name of the "false sorceresse" who tricked Fradubio and where is she while he tells his story?

Some Helpful Websites

Some helpful web sites for English 205:

1. Selections from Beowulf read in Old English
http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/Beowulf.Readings/Beowulf.Readings.html
Google: Beowulf audio Old English

2. Selections from Beowulf read in modern English by translator, Seamus Heaney
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/noa/audio.htm
Google: Beowulf in Modern English

3. Interlinear translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (Middle English + Modern English)
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/teachslf/tr-index.htm
Google: Canterbury Tales interlinear translation

4. Selections from The Canterbury Tales read in Middle English
http://www.vmi.edu/fswebs.aspx?tid=34099&id=34249
Google: Canterbury Tales metapage audio files

5. Biographies, works, and critical essays for all EN 205 writers
http://www.luminaria.com
Google: luminaria literature

6. Study guides from California Polytechnic on Beowulf, Chaucer, etc.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl330/330home.html#guides
Google: Study guides Chaucer

7. Modern adaptation of The Second Shepherd's Play
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/engl/215/ssp.htm
Google: The Second Shepherd's Play translation

8. Notes on Medieval Drama (For additional help with Second Shepherd's Play)
http://www.montreat.edu/dking/MiddleEnglishLit/NotesonMedievalDrama.htm
Google: Notes on Medieval Drama Second Shepherd's Play

9. Overview of Sir Thomas Wyatt and Surrey
http://faculty.goucher.edu/eng211/thomas_wyatt_and_henry_howard.htm
Google: Wyatt and Surrey Goucher

10. Sir Phillip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella (individual sonnets with commentary)
http://garts.latech.edu/bmagee/201/sidney/stella_&_notes.html
Google: Astrophil and Stella LA Tech

11. About the sonnet (A brief introduction)
http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/sonnet.htm
Google: About the sonnet
12. Shakespeare's sonnets (click on picture next to sonnet for commentary)
www.shakespeares-sonnets.com

13. Text of each Shakespearean sonnet beside modern translation www.nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets

Sample Paper Assignment

Example of a short paper assignment on a theme from English 205 readings (Spring 2010):

Choose one of the following options for your topic.

Option 1: The uses of disguise and deception
"Disguise, I see thou art a wickedness," says Viola (2.2.27). Who uses disguise and deception in Twelfth Night, and why? Does the play seem to bear out Viola's statement or not? Explain your answer using specific examples from the text.

Option 2: Olivia and the carpe diem theme
Olivia receives several verbal insults from other characters in Twelfth Night. Orsino, for example, calls her a "marble-breasted tyrant" (5.1.121), while Viola labels her "the cruell'st she alive" (1.5.228). Examine the character of Olivia in light of the play's carpe diem theme. Does the play favor "seizing the day" in matters of love or not, and how does Olivia function within the carpe diem theme? Explain your answer with specific references to the text.

Option 3: The wisdom of a fool
Your text's introduction to Twelfth Night claims that Feste, while he "does not have a major part in the comedy's plot . . . occupies a place at its imaginative center" (1079). Viola says of Feste, "This fellow is wise enough to play the fool" (3.1.59). What sort of wisdom, if any, does Feste have? In what sense does Twelfth Night display the wisdom of fools and foolishness (and the folly of the "wise")? Look especially at the songs and statements of Feste as you support your answer.

Guidelines:
1. Your paper should be 1-2 pages long, double spaced, 1 inch margins.
2. Necessary plot summary should take up no more than 2 or 3 sentences. Your goal is to answer the above questions thoughtfully in the form of a thesis sentence, which you back up with well-chosen references to the text. Your thesis states your informed opinion. Your support makes your thesis persuasive to a reader.
3. This paper does not require outside sources or a works cited page. Document references to the Norton Anthology text of Twelfth Night parenthetically (as shown above) by citing act, scene, and line numbers.
4. Notes on style: Use MLA format for your paper. Titles of plays are indicated by underlining or italicizing, not by quotation marks. Always place periods and commas inside quotation marks. Do not surround the title of your paper with quotation marks.
5. Your paper should show your familiarity with the entire play, not just a scene or two.
6. Always quote exactly. Quotations should be incorporated smoothly into your own sentences. Avoid long quotations (more than 4 lines), as the brevity of this paper leaves no room for them.

How to Write a Brief Character Analysis

How do I get enough information to write a whole page on one character?
Believe it or not, a one or two page character analysis is not long enough to permit you to say everything about a character that can be said (if such a thing could even be done). You have just enough space to make one or two points about the character and provide enough support to make your points persuasive.
We acquire information about dramatic characters in several ways:
· The author may tell us something about the character. Does the character have a symbolic or suggestive name? ("Everyman" is obviously symbolic. But calling a character "Doctor Faustus" or "Lear's Fool" also tells us something.) What is the character wearing? What does the author say about the character, in a prologue to the play or in the stage directions or cast descriptions?
· What the character says (and how he or she says it) can be very revealing. Does the character tell jokes, or is he deadly serious? Does the character tell the truth all the time? Does the character relate information important to the plot?
· What does the character do? Look for places where main characters have choices. Which choice did your character make, and why? That choice says something important about whom the character is. For minor characters, what distinctive things does each character do? That is, what does this character do that no one else does?
· What do other characters say about your character? How do they react to him or her? Their words and reactions are clues to your character's position in the play. Do other characters like your character? Why or why not?

How do I begin the planning and writing of the paper?
It's best not to make judgments about your character until you've gathered a considerable amount of data. After you have read through the play once and are confident that you understand the action, read again to take notes about your character. Make a note of every scene in which your character appears. Jot down potentially revealing actions or lines from the play, including what others say about your him or her. (Be sure to use exact words if you are quoting. Directors can change or omit lines when staging a play. Students and literary critics quote exactly.)
When you have completed your note taking, try to synthesize your material; generalize in a few sentences: What is this character like? What do I know about the character? What can I infer? What dramatic purpose does the character seem to serve in this play? (That is, why do you think the author included the character in the play? Does this character try to influence someone, or stand up for someone? Is this simply a character useful as a confidant to a more important character?) What drives the character? What does the character want to accomplish? (Characters perform actions because they are motivated by a want or need.)

What should be included in my analysis?
In your first sentence, identify the play, the author, and the character you will be discussing. You may need to summarize the character's part in the play, but give only a sentence or two to plot summary of this sort. Early in the paper you'll want make at least one assertion about your character. This is your interpretation of what the character is like and his or her purpose in the play. The remainder of your paper should consist of support for your assertion. If, for example, you assert that King Lear is a completely self-absorbed character, you will want to remind readers of the selfish acts he performs in the play, and any lines said by him or other characters that point to Lear's self-absorption. Try to have at least three pieces of support for every assertion you make.

How do I incorporate character speeches into my paper?
You can refer to scenes or page numbers and paraphrase a character's lines, thus avoiding quotations. Sometimes, though, it is helpful to have a character's exact words. In that case, enclose the lines in quotation marks and incorporate smoothly into your own sentences. Be very careful to include the exact words of the character. In a 1-2 page paper, long quotations should be avoided, as this will leave little room for your own analysis.

What if my interpretation is wrong?
Except perhaps inside a writer's head, there isn't really a "wrong" character interpretation. What we have is: (1) Interpretations that can be persuasively supported, and (2) Interpretations that can't be persuasively supported. Your interpretation can be persuasively supported if you can find evidence in the play (in the form of character actions, words or descriptions) to back up your assertions, and if there is nothing in the play that contradicts your assertions.

How to Ace an Essay Question

1. Read the question carefully, paying particular attention to the wording. What are you being asked to do? How many points does each part count?

2. Budget your time. It's fine to spend more time on whatever part you have the best answer for, but leave time to say something about each part of the essay question.

3. Make notes before you write. Read over the essay question again, and read the reference passage as well. Underline anything you remember from class discussion or homework, and jot notes in the margins. If you recognize something, there's a good chance it's important, and is something you can use in your answer. Take a minute or two to organize your notes, if possible, before you begin your answer. Taking notes insures that you remember to include important terms and points, and it also helps prevent panic over anything unfamiliar in the essay question. When you begin writing your answer, you aren't looking at a blank page. You have your notes to draw from.

4. Avoid wordiness. If you feel that you are repeating yourself, you probably are. Worse, you are wasting precious time saying the same thing several times while not answering the entire question. Long answers that say little are never impressive.

5. Plug in what you know. If you are still stumped on part of an essay question, say what you know about the passage. You may get partial credit, even if you are a little confused on some points.

Here's your essay question from Test 1. Let's look at it as an example of how to get the most possible points with what you already know.

Essay (140 points).

1366 And the mere bottom
has never been sounded by the sons of men.
On its bank, the heather-stepper halts:
the hart in flight from persuing hounds
1370 will turn to face them with firm-set horns
and die in the wood rather than dive
beneath its surface. That is no good place.

Using the above lines from Beowulf as your reference point, discuss the poetic conventions of Old English poetry. For full credit, first explain the meaning of the passage and put it in context (50 points). Next, consider at least three characteristics of Old English literature, defining each and giving examples from the above text (90 points).

What do you need to do with this passage? First, you want to try to figure out where in the poem the passage occurs. You may not know the word "mere" (a swamp). But wherever we are, there's a bottom to it, a bottom that has never been "sounded," and a bank. Sounds like water. Who do we know who lived in water? From your studying, you should remember that Beowulf fights three big battles: with Grendel, Grendel's mother, and the dragon. Dragons don't live in water. They live in caves, where they can guard all their treasure. Grendel is described not in his home, but in his entrance at the Heorot mead hall. Beowulf and his men spend the night there so they can lie in wait for Grendel to come, and this is where Beowulf attacks. So that leaves Grendel's mother. This bad place is the swamp where she lives. She is the only monster living in a wet place who is pursued by Beowulf. For confirmation, look at the line numbers. Line 1366? Clearly, we are way into the poem, far the battle with Grendel.This is major information. Explain all this in a sentence or two and you have 50 points.

Now you want to grab the remaining 90 points. Three characteristics of Old English literature, with examples from the text. If you took notes on the days we looked at Beowulf and paid attention to the passages we read in class, and if you studied the terms on the PowerPoints, you'll know the rest of the answer with no problem. If not, your brain may be swirling with some terms, although you may not know the definitions. Let's see. We talked about runes, alliteration, foreshadowing, heroes, caesura, litotes, kennings. Would any of those fit here? The word "heather-stepper" may pop out at you. You may remember the last sentence, which we read in class. All Old English literature had caesura and were written in runes. There's no hero in this passage, and no foreshadowing, but you would get a bit of credit just for mentioning that these were characteristics of Old English literature.

Why was this passage selected, anyhow? Because it contains a lot of things to talk about. There's a kenning here, an example of litotes, and alliteration. There are two clearly defined caesura. Any of those would work. Name one, define it, and give an example from the passage and you've got 30 points.

Finally, here are examples of two answers to this essay question, both of which earned the full 140 points:

In this part of the epic, the author is describing the pool that Grendel's mother resides in. This is where Beowulf must dive if he is to kill Grendel's mother, and the author wants us to know how truly terrible it is. The pool is extraordinarily deep (lines 1366-67) and fearsome. A deer would rather be hunted down and killed than to chance things in the lake. To put it bluntly, "This is no good place" (1372). A common characteristic of Old English literature is the use of litotes. A litote is a gross understatement of something. In this particular passage the author refers to the pool as being "no good place" (1372). He has already alluded to the horror of the place. It's clearly more than just a place that's "not very good"; yet the author uses a litote to describe the place instead of a long string of descriptive words. Another common device is the use of kennings. A kenning is a compound phrase like "whale-road" or "word-hoard" that is used in place of the actual noun. In this passage the kenning is in line 1368, where the author uses the phrase "heather-stepper" as opposed to saying "deer." Alliteration and assonance are additionally common in Old English literature. Alliteration is, of course, the repetition of initial letters in a phrase like "Cairo clan . . . circular" and assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within the words themselves. In this passage, the alliteration occurs on lines 1368-69 with "heather-stepper halts;/the hart . . . hounds," and the assonance occurs in these same lines with the repetition of the [ɛ] sound in "heather-stepper" and the [ǽ] sound in "halts" and "hart."
--Amber Gibson

(You gotta know your instructor is loving all these references to specific line numbers. The above example is excellent. But here's a much shorter version that also gets all the essential information in.)

The passage from Beowulf is when he is going to fight Grendel's mother. She is a monster no man wants to face. He has to dive underwater for hours to reach the bottom where she stays. This passage starts off with a caesura, which is a pause in the middle of a line. Story tellers used this technique to help remember such a long poem. The kenning "heather-stepper" is also used in the passage. A kenning is a compound word made to represent another word. An example of alliteration in the passage is "the heather-stepper halts." Alliteration is the repetition of sounds. In this case it is the repeated "h" sound.
--Ross Bosch

Ways to Look at a Sonnet

A. Put the following phrases from Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, Sonnet 1, into a bubble diagram to show the connections between ideas:

•I sought words
•That the dear She might take some pleasure of my pain,
•1.Pleasure might cause her read,
•2.reading might make her know,
•3. Knowledge might pity win,
•4. pity grace obtain,

•to paint the blackest face of woe,
•Studying inventions fine, her wits to entertain.
•Oft turning others' leaves
•to see if thence would flow/Some fresh and fruitful showers
•upon my sunburned brain.

B. Questions to ask about a sonnet:

Shakespeare's Sonnet 12 (pp. 1062-63)
Find the structure:
How many sentences?___________________

Rhyme scheme? _______________________

Divisions (octave/sestet, quatrains/couplet)? ____________________________________

Locate key or puzzling words:
Unfamiliar words? ________________________________________________________

Changed meanings? _______________________________________________________

Pronouns? _______________________________________________________________

Puns, double meanings? ____________________________________________________

Find the thought progression:
Word markers (when, then, for, but, yet, etc.)? __________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Anaphora? ______________________________________________________________

Volta? _________________________________________________________________

Note poetic devices:
Images? ________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Personification?__________________________________________________________

Metaphors?______________________________________________________________

Similes?_________________________________________________________________

State the main idea in one sentence._________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

C. Finding the structure of a sonnet: (Shakespeare's Sonnet 65, p., 1067). Complete the clauses and answer the questions after the following "structure markers."

•Lines 1-4
•Since . . .
•How ?
•Lines 5-8
•O how ?
•Lines 9-12
•Where ?
•What ?
•Who ?
•Lines 13-14
•O none, unless