Tuesday, January 31 ~ The Villanelle

Reminders

• Memorization Quiz on Block
• In Class Essay on Block
• J#20 due Friday for Bridgette's class

POETRY

If (Stanza 4)

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,   

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

• New terms for your study guide: Refrain and Villanelle.

 Mad Girl's Love Song

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary darkness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said.
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

--Sylvia Plath

• EQ: What is a Villanelle? Click here to take notes.
• Prepare for a Villanelle analysis.
• Choose a Villanelle either from the link or one you have found from another source and answer:
• How do you know what the poem means considering the devices and structure? 
• What is the effect of the refrain (repeating line) in the poem?
• Does the meaning of that refrain line change each time it is repeated?
• Submit your analysis in Google Classroom. (J#21)

Homework

• J#20 &J#21
• Memorization