The New York School of Poets

Characteristics/Theme/Style

· The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in NYC. The poets, painters, composers, dancers, and musicians often drew inspiration from Surrealism and the contemporary avant-garde art movements.

· Concerning the New York School poets, critics argued that their work was a reaction to the Confessionalist movement in Contemporary Poetry. Their poetic subject matter was often light, violent, or observational, while their writing style was often described as cosmopolitan and world-traveled. The poets often wrote in an immediate and spontaneous manner reminiscent of stream of consciousness writing, often using vivid imagery.

Authors

· John Ashbery (wrote farm implements and rutabagas in a landscape)

· Frank O’Hara

· James Schuyler

· Kenneth Koch

· Barbara Guest

· Joe Brainard

· Ron Padgett

· Ted Berrigan

· Bill Berkson

Just Walking Around

John Ashbery

What name do I have for you?

Certainly there is not name for you

In the sense that the stars have names

That somehow fit them. Just walking around,

An object of curiosity to some,

But you are too preoccupied

By the secret smudge in the back of your soul


To say much and wander around, 


Smiling to yourself and others.


It gets to be kind of lonely


But at the same time off-putting.


Counterproductive, as you realize once again



That the longest way is the most efficient way, 


The one that looped among islands, and


You always seemed to be traveling in a circle.

And now that the end is near



The segments of the trip swing open like an orange.


There is light in there and mystery and food.


Come see it.


Come not for me but it.


But if I am still there, grant that we may see each other.

The Renaissance Movement

Characteristics

· To many writers it is used to designate merely the revival of classical art. The Renaissance was essentially an intellectual movement. It is this intellectual quality which gives it so large a place in universal history.

· Under the influence of the intellectual revival the men of Western Europe came to think and feel, to look upon life and the outer world, as the men of ancient Greece and Rome did; and this again is merely to say that they stopped thinking and feeling as mediaeval men and began to think and feel as modern men.

· The Italian Renaissance which occurred first, focused on the city-states of northern Italy and Rome. The Italian Renaissance tended to be more worldly with a great emphasis on secular pursuits, the humanities, and the arts wealth and power knowledge was the key.

· The Northern Renaissance occurred later and involved the regions of Northern Europe, England, Spain, France, Germanic regions (Holy Roman Empire), and the Netherlands.

Background of the Renaissance

· High and Late Middle Ages increased trade and commercial activity

· During the High Middle Ages there was urbanization-growth of cities, towns, commercial and business developments (banking).

· Middle class merchant elite developed.

· Decline in feudalism.

· There was a decline in the Church’s hold and control on society and government.

· Growth in vernacular literature/growing literacy. Rise of universities and the expansion of learning.

· The focus of the Renaissance in Northern Europe was more religious.

· Many sought religious reform and a return of the Church to its true mission and spirituality.

· Many were highly critical of the worldliness and corruption in the Church and papacy (Office or authority of the pope)

· Northern Renaissance figures believed that education and literacy were key to social and religious reform

· They supported incorporating the translation of the scriptures into the vernacular languages

Major Themes

· Humanism (both secular and religious)- The great intellectual movement of Renaissance Italy was humanism.

· Human potential, human progress

· Expansion of human knowledge

· Secularism -greater emphasis on non-religious values and concerns

· Individualism -focus on the unique qualities and abilities of the individual person

Authors

· Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

· Campion, Thomas (1567-1620)

· Donne, John (1572-1631)

· Jonson, Ben (1572-1637)

· Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

· Marlowe, Christopher (1564-1593)

· Milton, John (1608-1674)

· Spenser, Emund (1552-1299)

· Sir Philip Sydney (1554-1586)

· Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

· Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (1503-1542)

· Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618)

· Calvin, John (1509-1564)

· Wroth, Mary (ca. 1587- ca. 1651)

The Pheonix and The Turtle

William Shakespeare

LET the bird of loudest lay,

On the sole Arabian tree,

Herald sad and trumpet be,

To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbinger,

Foul precurrer of the fiend,

Augur of the fever's end,

To this troop come thou not near!

From this session interdict

Every fowl of tyrant wing,

Save the eagle, feather'd king:

Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,

That defunctive music can,

Be the death-divining swan,

Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou treble-dated crow,

That thy sable gender makest

With the breath thou givest and takest,

'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence:

Love and constancy is dead;

Phoenix and the turtle fled

In a mutual flame from hence.

So they loved, as love in twain

Had the essence but in one;

Two distincts, division none:

Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;

Distance, and no space was seen

'Twixt the turtle and his queen:

But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine,

That the turtle saw his right

Flaming in the phoenix' sight;

Either was the other's mine.

Property was thus appalled,

That the self was not the same;

Single nature's double name

Neither two nor one was called.

Reason, in itself confounded,

Saw division grow together,

To themselves yet either neither,

Simple were so well compounded,

That it cried, How true a twain

Seemeth this concordant one!

Love hath reason, reason none,

If what parts can so remain.

Whereupon it made this threne

To the phoenix and the dove,

Co-supremes and stars of love,

As chorus to their tragic scene.

Threnos.

Beauty, truth, and rarity,

Grace in all simplicity,

Here enclosed in cinders lie.

Death is now the phoenix' nest

And the turtle's loyal breast

To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity:

'Twas not their infirmity,

It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be:

Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;

Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair

That are either true or fair

For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

Transcendentalist Movement

Transcendentalist

Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that took off in America in the early to mid-nineteenth century. It evolved into a dominant literary expression. The followers of Transcendentalism believed that knowledge could be gained not just through the senses, but through intuition and contemplation of the internal spirit.

Definition

· The belief that truths about life and death can be reached by going outside the world of the sense

Major Beliefs

· Relationship between man and nature. Heightened awareness of this relationship would cause a “reformation” of society away from materialism and corruption.

· Feelings were a priority over reason

What promoted the movement?

· Rise of cities

· Class Systems

· War

· Freedom from the past

· Freedom from organized religion

· Greed/Manifest Destiny

Transcendental Characteristics

Nature

· Nature was divine

· Nature held the truths of life

· To communicate and be one with nature was true goodness

· Nature was innocence and an escape from the evils of society

Individualism

· Rejection of standard societal beliefs

· Inner truth is the only thing that matters

· The soul is something equally available to all people

· Fulfillment comes from knowing one’s self, not wealth, gender or education

Moral Enthusiasm

· Anti- Artistocracy

· Anti-Slavery

· Pro-Women’s Rights

· Quest for Utopia ( Brook Farm)

Literary Focus

· Because of the stress of “feelings” and “self” during this time period, literature was a very large medium that artists used to express themselves.

Authors

· Emily Dickinson

· Ralph Waldo Emerson

· Henry David Thoreau

· Edgar Allen Poe

Example of poetry

‘Tis Opposites—entice—

Deformed Men—ponder Grace—

Bright fires—the Blanketless—

The Lost—Day’s face—

The Blind—esteem it be

Enough Estate—to see—

The Captive—stranglers new—

For deeming—Beggars—play—

To lack—enamor Thee—

Tho’ the Divinity—

Be only

Me—

Their Eyes Were Watching God Review

Summary

The major conflict is during her quest for spiritual fulfillment, Janie clashes with the values that others impose upon her. Janie’s gets rid of the materialistic desires of Nanny, Logan, and Jody in her attempt to balance her love for Tea Cake; the hurricane. This progression pushes her toward the eventual conflict between her environment (including the people around her) and her need to understand herself. The confrontation between Janie and the insane Tea Cake in Chapter 19 marks the moment at which Janie finds herself in the face of the most difficult obstacle she has had to face. Janie’s decision to shoot Tea Cake demonstrates that she has the strength to save herself even though it means killing the man she loves; the white women’s support of Janie shows the importance of individuality in the sense of not living up to stereotypes.

Themes

Language as a mechanism of control

Power and conquest as a means to fulfillment

Love and relationships versus independence

Spiritual fulfillment

Materialism

Major Literary Devices

Motifs: Community, race and racism, the folklore quality of religion

Symbols: Janie’s hair, the pear tree/trees in general (My theory behind the symbolism of the tree is this. The trunk is life its self. The people are the branches and the roots are peoples purposes in life, or the reason they are there), the horizon, the hurricane.

Foreshadowing: In Chapter 1, we learn that Janie has been away from her town for a long time and that she ran off with a younger man named Tea Cake; Janie then tells Pheoby that Tea Cake is “gone.” The entire beginning, then, foreshadows the culmination of Janie’s journey.

Structure

A novel written in 1937 by Zora Neale Hurston. Though the novel is narrated in the third person, by a narrator who reveals the characters’ thoughts and motives, most of the story is framed as Janie telling a story to Pheoby. The result is a narrator who is not exactly Janie but who is abstracted from her. Janie’s character resonates in the folksy language and metaphors that the narrator sometimes uses. Also, much of the text relishes in the immediacy of dialogue. The narrator’s attitude toward Janie, which Hurston appears to share, is entirely sympathetic and affirming (Tone).

What types of question would this be good to use to answer

This would be good for any questions about self-empowerment, anything about like obeying family, because Janie gets married to Logan because Nanny tells her to because he will be good for her and that she will love him after they are married for a while, (which Janie never does and eventually leaves him for Jody, and they then go on and build up a town run by blacks). The symbol about trees is something that can be written a lot about because it deals with growth and people and you can talk about why they choose a pear tree.

Hamlet Review

Hamlet

Summary:

Hamlet is the prince of Denmark. His father’s ghost informs him that he was just murdered by his Uncle Claudius who has just married his former wife, hamlets mother, and that Hamlet must get revenge. Meanwhile, Hamlet is in a complicated relationship with a girl named Ophelia. They can never get married because she is not of royal blood. One night, Hamlet is talking with his mother when he realizes someone is spying on them and stabs the person through a hanging tapestry. He is not overly upset when he finds it to be Ophelia's father, who worked for the king and who Hamlet wasn’t fond of. Ophelia then goes mad when she finds that her true love killed her father and she now has no one controlling her life since her fathers death and she drowns in the river. Hamlet, meanwhile plots revenge against Claudius. He passes up his perfect opportunity to kill him because he believes that he is praying and doesn’t want him to go to heaven. He never gets the opportunity again. One day, he engages in a dual with Ophelia's brother Laertes. However, before he agrees his didn’t know that Laertes and the king had secretly plotted revenge against Hamlet for killing Polonius. The king poisoned a glass of wine and Laertes poisoned his sword, one of which would surely kill the Prince. Hamlet does admit that he expects that he is going to die but he goes into the dual anyway. However, things go off track when the Queen knowingly drinks the poisoned wine and dies. Laertes slices Hamlet's arm with his poisoned sword. Luckily this gives him enough time to get revenge on Claudius and after learning that the sword was poisoned he slays Laertes as well. They all end up dying in the end, except Horatio.

Themes:

Madness

Revenge

Mortality

Religion

Art and Culture

Lies and Deceit

Sex

Gender

Family

Structure:

A Shakespearean play and there are five acts in the play.

List of important characters:

Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. Spoken to by his father’s ghost and he “pretends to go mad” but then he really does go mad. Seeks revenge on Claudius for killing his father. Ends up dying in a dual by a poisoned sword.

The Ghost: the “ghost” is either in fact old king Hamlet’s ghost or it is an evil spirit trying to manipulate Hamlet.

Claudius: Hamlet’s uncle/ step father. Killed his brother with poison. Ends up being slayed by Hamlet at the end.

Gertrude: Hamlet’s Mother. She knowingly drinks poisoned wine and dies at the end of the play. She and Hamlet had a strange relationship. Hamlet thought she remarried to quickly and didn’t really care about his father.

Polonius: Ophilia and Laertes Father. He hated Hamlet and did everything in his power to keep him and Ophelia apart.

Ophelia: in a relationship with Hamlet. She has been controlled by her father and her Brother her whole life. When they are both gone she doesn’t know what to do and she ends up drowning in a river.

Laertes: he is easily persuaded by Claudius to kill Hamlet in an attempt to get revenge for his father. He ends up getting slayed himself and dies in the final dual.

Horatio: Hamlets best friend. He is the only one who survives. He is very loyal to Hamlet and he has very good common sense, which is probably the reason he lived in the end.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Hamlet’s childhood friends. They are interchangeable servants for the royal family. They betrayed Hamlet so Hamlet did the same and had them killed by the King of England’s people.

Fortinbras: He spends the whole time throughout the play building an army to avenge his father and take back some land so that he can have something to his name.

List of major literary devices:

Allusion

Alliteration

Irony

Soliloquy: Hamlet has his first soliloquy was in Act 1 scene 2. Gertrude and Claudius are trying to convince him not to go back to Wittenburg and continue his studies. He also talks about suicide and how pleasant it would be. In Act 3 scene 1 Hamlet gives probably the most famous speech in English literature, To Be or Not To Be. It is his most logical and powerful examination of the theme of the moral effects suicide in an unbearably painful world, and it touches on several of the other important themes of the play.

What type of questions would this be good to answer

Hamlet Works for All AP test questions. Yay!!!