Sonnet Analysis

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; (her eyes are plain)
Coral is far more red than her lips' red; (nobody's lips are as red as coral)
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight (she doesn't smell amazing, there are more pleasant smells)Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare  (shift)As any she belied with false compare.

 

This is a Shakespearean Sonnet.

 

Petrarchan:

- flawless beauty

-lovers are seen as larger than life

 

Shakespearean

-nobody is flawless

-as humans we all have flaws, she is not a perfect, larger-than-life figure

-lover has flaws

-narrator loves her because of her flaws

 

Discussion points:

-Love is knowing someone down to their core, loving them not only at their best but also at their worst

-example) at prom every look amazing, they spend time and money to look their best yet there are people who are just as beautiful in their "sunday best" (#iwokeuplikethis) when they have just woken up

-you can love someone yet you may not feel the same way after spending time with them

Lit Terms VI

Simile:  a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison.

Soliloquy: an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage.

Spiritual: a folk song, usually on a religious theme.

Speaker: a narrator, the one speaking.

Stereotype: cliché; a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story.

Stream of Consciousness: the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them.

Structure: the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization.

Style:  the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking.

Subordination: the couching of less important ideas in less important  structures of language.

Surrealism: a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the nonrational aspects of man’s existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal.

Suspension of Disbelief: suspend not believing in order to enjoy it.

Symbol: something which stands for something else, yet has a meaning of its own.

Synesthesia: the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense.

Synecdoche: another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.

Syntax: the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence.

Theme:  main idea of the story; its message(s).

Thesis: a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved
or disproved; the main idea.

Tone: the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the         
author’s perceived point of view.

Tongue in Cheek: a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; a.k.a. “dry” or “dead pan”

Tragedy: in literature: any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically (fatally) flawed

Understatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying less than you mean for emphasis

Vernacular: everyday speech

Voice:  The textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer’s or speaker’s pesona.

Zeitgeist: the feeling of a particular era in history

Lit Terms IV

interior monologue - exhibits the thoughts passing through the minds of the protagonists
inversion -  the normal order of words is reversed in order to achieve a particular effect of emphasis or meter
juxtaposition - the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect
lyric - expressing the writer’s emotions, usually briefly and in stanzas or recognized forms.
magic(al) realism - incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction
metaphor (extended, controlling, & mixed)
Extended -  comparison between two unlike things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a paragraph or lines in a poem
Controlling - metaphor that dominates or organizes an entire poem
Mixed - the use in the same expression of two or more metaphors that are incongruous or illogical when combined,
metonymy - a figure of speech consisting of the use of the name of one thing for that of another of which it is an attribute or with which it is associated
modernism - literary movement prominent after WWI
monologue - a long speech given by a character
mood - what an audience perceives in emotion from a literary work
motif - idea that is constantly presented throughout a work
myth - a traditional story that includes supernatural beings or events
narrative - a report of related events presented to the listeners or readers in words arranged in a logical sequence
narrator - the subject who narrates the story
naturalism - literary movement of extreme realism, it sought to depict everyday reality
novelette/novella - A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel
omniscient point of view - A narrator who knows everything about all the characters
onomatopoeia - the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named
oxymoron - a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
pacing - the rhythm and speed in which the story is told by the author
parable - a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson
paradox - a statement that apparently contradicts itself but is often true

Tale of Two Cities Lecture Notes

WHAT'S THE STORY?

Why did Charles Dickens write the novel you're reading/reviewing? What in your analysis of literary techniques led you to this conclusion? (Make sure to include textual support illustrating Dickens' use of at least three techniques we've studied/discussed this year.)

St. Crispin Notes

Lit Terms III

exposition
expressionism
fable
fallacy
falling action
farce
figurative language
flashback
foil
folk tale
foreshadowing
free verse
genre
gothic tale
hyperbole
imagery
implication
incongruity
inference
irony