English 11 Unit 2-1

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• Identify Romantic traits and values.

• Analyze the impact of Romantic values on literature.

• Write a compare-and-contrast essay analyzing the tone of two poems on the same topic.

• Choose and incorporate quotes that best support your purpose.

​I couldn't think of a better way to say this: 2.1 Overview

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Most of the writing from America's Revolutionary period was filled with logical arguments. But people started getting tired of all this rational thought. Enter the Romantic thinkers, who valued intuition and imagination and believed that nature was the gateway to the soul.

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Two important American Romantic poets — Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson — used nature as a means to explain life's mysteries through the art of poetry.

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​2.1.2 Read

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​Read biographical and analytical information ​about Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. They wrote new and different poetry. They were groundbreakers.

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​Don't forget to print or download your Reading Guide. Fill it out completely

​Rationalism --- the American mindset of the 18th century (1700s)

reshaped how people thought about politics and human rights.​

They felt logic and reason were more valuable than feelings,

emotion and personal experience.​

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This was the belief as the United States was formed.​

​The Romanticism that followed in the 19th century, though, was a direct reaction to the impersonal nature of Rationalism. Romanticism called for a reclaiming of the self and valued the six I's:

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Intuition Imagination Individualism

Innocence Idealism Inspiration from nature

These core values provide the foundation for much of the poetry written in the 19th century.​

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​As you read a poem... determine the SPEAKER of the poem. Speaker may or may not be the poet. The poet may adopt a PERSONA that takes on different personality traits or becomes a whole other character altogether.

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The choice of speaker or persona helps reveal a poem's TONE, which is the author's attitude toward a subject.​

​Word Choice -- Diction

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Imagery -- any description that appeals to the senses

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Simile -- comparison using like or as​

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Metaphors -- an indirect comparison.​

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Personification -- gives objects, animals and ideas human qualities​

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​Meter--- pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds

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Remember Edgar Allan Poe's haunting poem about the weather-beaten seaside kingdom? Note how the regular meter of the poem — every third syllable is stressed — mimics the rhythmic pounding of the waves.

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​Alliteration-- the use of the same consonant sound at the beginnings of words that are close together. This can create various moods depending on the sounds repeated.

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"the play of shine and shade on the trees."

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"The Wind -- tapped like a tired Man.--"​

​Remember!!!

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Poetry doesn't always rhyme.​

​The pattern of rhymes in a poem.

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Remember a b a b c d c d?

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So a poem constructed of pairs of rhyming lines would have an aabbcc rhyme scheme.​

​Go through this study carefully. It takes you by the hand and leads you through an analysis of Dickinson/Whitman's poetry.

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We need to be sure we have a thorough understanding of ​all 6 poems in our assignment.

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Very valuable for the upcoming essay.​

​You will be writing a literary analysis comparing and contrasting a Whitman poem and a Dickinson poem.

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The textbook pages of 2.1.9 offer much help.​ (transitions p. 9)

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The Writing Guide leads you through the 4 paragraph process.

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Don't forget to follow the rubric!​

​In the Chat..... write to ME



Can you list 3 of the I's that the Romantic movement embrace?