70. UNIT FOUR : Close Reading Analysis Paper

70. UNIT FOUR: Close Read and Compare and Contrast Paper Direct Teach with guided practice

on exercises and quizzes (80% or better) and MLA Citation Lesson

Direct Teach with guided practice on exercises and quizzes (80% or better):

Default Analysis Paragraphs: Transitional Topic Sentences, Linking Sentences, Introductions to the Passage, Citing, (30-36); Default Analysis Paragraph Components: Context, Condense, Connect (37-39);

and Co-Commentary Analysis and Cause and Effect Analysis and

Inductive Paragraph Structure with Topic Sentence at the end (54-56);

Writing Process (80-82): Prewriting, Outlining

Analysis Paragraph Components: Close Reading (40-48) and Compare and Contrast Rhetorical Moves (52-53)

The Short Prose Reader Assignments: Chapter 7: Compare and Contrast and Model Student Papers on Writing Course Site: Poetry Analysis and Compare and Contrast Papers. Read Rachel Carson "A Fable for Tomorrow" (255-260) and Dave Barry "Punch and Judy" (267-272)

Short Papers: (Mixing Patterns) COMPARE AND CONTRAST 1 (1 personal/real world, 1 historical and 1 literary) …. History / English Close Read and Compare and Contrast Paragraphs with a poetic device

Rubric: 1-48, 52-53, 57-59 (+1 for semicolons, varied sentence structure, active voice )

Quiz: 40-48, 52-53

MID TERM EXAM ON WRITING GUIDE PRINCIPLES 1-48; 52-53, 57-59 Writing Process, Academic Integrity, Glossary (80% or better to pass course for Mid Term and Finals)

Close Reading Poetry Analysis Paper:

The Sycamore: Healing through nature

By, Alex Stuessi

“Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer” (J.R.R Tolkien)---------------------36------------------------.

J.R.R Tolkien believes that even when the worst has come there is always a better tomorrow; he uses nature as a metaphor because of its powerful abilities of healing itself and those who surround themselves in it. The same essence that drives Tolkien’s belief can also be seen in “The Sycamore” by Wendell Berry. EXCELLENT BRIDGE “The Sycamore” is a poem that focuses on the divine beauty of nature and how it is capable of withstanding even the toughest blows. By looking at the connotations, visual imagery, and the harsh yet cathartic cacophony in Wendell Berry’s “The Sycamore”, it becomes evident that the poem’s intended meaning is that one can heal by valuing the strength of nature and its capability of growth through the pain.

WOW! THIS IS AN EXEMPLARY INTRODUCTION!

GREAT OPENER, BRIDGE, THESIS AND PLAN.

The life of the speaker seems grueling and sorrowful towards the beginning of the poem as he describes his place in the world as similar to the old sycamore. Showing the correlation the speaker has with the natural world, in the opening of the poem Wendell Berry creates an implicit metaphor to describe the relationship between himself and the tree; he writes:

In the place that is my own place, whose earth

I am shaped in and must bear, there is an old tree growing,

a great sycamore that is a wondrous healer of itself.

Fences have been tied to it, nails driven into it,

hacks and whittles cut in it, the lightning has burned it.

(lines 1-5).

Looking up at the great old tree, the speaker gazes up at the sycamore and connects it to his existence that has been guided by the earth through struggle and pain. The man notices the nails, hacks, burns, and wire that has been strung around the tree and recognized the ability the tree has to heal itself despite its many faults. From the beginning, he knows he must bear the same weight as the old tree whose earth is his own, and whose place is his own. The visual imagery of the “hacks and whittles” evokes a sense of anguish as “hacks” has the connotations of cuts, slashes, pain, and agony. These connotations of the visual image are significant because it captures the raw emotion and sets up the poem for being one about enduring it all. While these words may be dark, the speaker also uses words such as “great” and “wondrous”. These words have the connotations of significant, inspiring, exceptional, special, and impressive. This shows that it always gets better; as the tree grows, the roots may entangle and hit obstacles, but they’ll keep traveling until the tree is stable.

BRILLIANT USE OF THE CONNOTATIONS TO SHOW THE ENDURING PERSEVERANCE OF THE TREE.

While the beginning of the poem manifests the struggles of the old sycamore, the next few lines show that through it all the tree still stands strong and beautiful. EXCELLENT TRANSITIONAL TOPIC SENTENCE! The speaker considers how it is the “scars” of the tree that “it has risen to a strange perfection”. He writes:

Over all its scars has come the seamless white

of the bark. It bears the gnarls of its history

healed over. It has risen to a strange perfection

in the warp and bending of its long growth.

It has gathered all accidents into its purpose.

(lines 10-14).

As the man continues to stare at the tree, he begins to appreciate its intricacy more, and sees the beauty in its “gnarls of its history”. When the speaker laments, “It bears the gnarls of its history...in the warp and bending of its long growth”, the harsh cacophony OF THE ALLITERATIVE “B” SOUND emphasizes the words “bears”, “gnarls” and “bending”. These words are important because they describe the unpleasant experiences that the tree has been subjected to. The cacophony allows for a cathartic release of the pain, and thus enables the speaker to move to the good. These lines also show how the tree has “healed over”; words such as “perfection”, “seamless”, and “purpose” have the connotations of beauty, strength, ability, and being unbroken. These connotations contribute to the poem’s central message that one can heal by valuing the strength that nature has in its ability to grow regardless of the pain.

The beauty of the tree emerging from such desolation not only shows its “strange perfection”, but also shows its ability to heal others. Evolving the idea that one can heal by being in nature and seeing its capability of growth through the pain, Wendell Berry writes:

It has become the intention and radiance of its dark fate.

It is a fact, sublime, mystical and unassailable.

In all the country there is no other like it.

I recognize in it a principle, an indwelling

the same as itself, and greater, that I would be ruled by.

I see that it stands in its place and feeds upon it,

and is fed upon, and is native, and maker.

(lines 15-21).

As the speaker still ponders below the sycamore, the poem transitions from being about the tree to being about the self and recognizing the tree’s “dark fate” as something to admire and heal from. The last few lines of this poem show the significance and importance the sycamore has to the speaker. Wendell Berry starts off the first two stanzas of the poem by describing this seemingly destroyed sycamore, but in this last stanza shifts to a more positive outlook; the sycamore still “stands in its place and feeds upon it” despite its many misfortunes. There are many words used in these lines that support and help the reader understand the most significant message behind the poem. Words such as “sublime”, “mystical” and “unassailable” all have powerful connotations associated with them. The connotations of “sublime” are noble, magnificent, and divine. YES! Divine is the most significant connotation because it contributes the poem’s central message that there is something almost godly in nature in its abilities to heal and produce beauty. YES! IT IS RULED BY A POWER AND PRINCIPLE THAT THE SPEAKER HOPES RULES HIM. The word “mystical” also has the connotations of fascinating and spiritual; these also lead the reader to see the grace at work in and around nature. “Unassailable” has the connotations of strength and invincibility and this is in keeping with the tree’s aptitude to stay standing. This speaker thinks that the ability to heal comes from nature, and he views this sycamore as almost a godly presence in his life that feeds him hope.

By showing the sycamore as being a symbol of hope and light, Wendell Berry’s poem’s message of looking to nature and its capability of dealing with pain to heal your own becomes evident. His use of connotations, visual imagery, and the harsh yet cathartic cacophony create a vivid image of the sycamore and convey the poem’s intended meaning. Berry reminds use that there is always going to be pain and darkness in life, but as J.R.R Tolkien says, “A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.” In Wendell Berry’s poem “The Sycamore” he reflects on the meaning of the tree’s multiple scars. He writes, “It has gathered all accidents into its purpose.” Though the tree has many scars and has suffered much, it has a purpose in life and therefore needs to grow through the pain; looking at nature’s strength to heal, one can heal with it.

OH MY! THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE POEMS. LOOKING TO NATURE AND FINDING THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE OF ENDURANCE AND MAKING “BUFFETS AND REWARDS” WORK TO ONE’S FAVOR, AS HORATIO SAYS TO HAMLET IS A WORTHY PHILOSOPHY.

YOU HAVE A STRONG THESIS THAT THE POEM ADMIRES THE ENDURING POWER OF THE SYCAMORE. YOU CONVEY HOW THIS MESSAGE IS DEVELOPED BY ADDRESSING SOUND DEVICES, IMAGERY AND CONNOTATIONS.

BRILLIANT POEM. BRILLIANT ANALYSIS!

A+ 97 / 100

Sample Poetry Analysis Essay Excerpt

(starters are in bold)

Ode To A Nightingale: Does he wake or sleep?

In John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” he asks two fundamental questions:

• 1. Why must life, beauty and joy be so impermanent?

  2. Why are humans burdened with being conscious of their mortality when the immortality of nature surrounds us every moment of our brief lives?

The speaker of “Ode to a Nightingale” is troubled by these questions. Written in 1809 John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” exemplifies the tenets of 19th century Romanticism by showing how the quest for emotional permanence is a failure. In order to better understand the meaning of “Ode to a Nightingale,” the Romantic quest for emotional permanence needs to be defined. Many Romantics wrote poetry to suspend a moment or feeling that they found to be formative. While the poems often succeed in achieving his goal, many Romantics were driven to despair as a result of their inability to sustain moments of heightened awareness in their daily lives. Downtrodden with feelings of insignificance and pettiness, the speaker in “Ode to a Nightingale” endeavors to attain the pure perception of the world that can only be seen through the eyes of a nightingale. He finds it briefly in the angelic song of a nightingale, but the speaker’s grasp of his reverie is soon lost, and he comes crashing back to the reality that is his life. By analyzing the speaker’s envy of the nightingale’s perception of nature, the nightingales song, and the speaker’s desire to transcend into the bird, it becomes apparent that these desires and goals fail. Nevertheless, the speaker resolves to accept the limits of the human condition and his failed quest for emotional permanence.

The life of the speaker is sad and unrewarding. It is replete with personal sorrow and loss and rife with observations of the pain of others. In the opening stanza, he laments, “My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains/ My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,/ Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains…” (line1-3) In these three lines, the speaker has established his poor situation. His “heart aches” and he feels a “drowsy numbness.” With the depressed tone established, the speaker hints at his desires to escape his human limitations. He considers the happiness of the nightingale of the forest and thinks:

‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

But being too happy in thine happiness

That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,

In some melodious plot

Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

(lines 7-10).

At this point of the poem, the speaker has heard the nightingale sing. He is sitting in a dark bower as the sun sets. In the above excerpt, the speaker emphasizes that the song of the nightingale comes “easily” to the “happy” nightingale. The metaphor that compares the nightingale to a “dryad,” a sort of woodland fairy, works well because “dryad” has connotations of divine joy and unqualified bliss. This is a stark contrast to the existence of the forlorn speaker. The nightingale sings in “full-throated ease”; unlike the speaker, it has no human concerns but is instead completely free to enjoy its existence, unfettered by being conscious of its mortality. This is important because the speaker’s desire to transcend into the nightingale reveals both his quest for emotional permanence and his dissatisfaction with the limits of human perception.

Adding to his desire for the free existence that the “Dryad” and the other denizens of the natural world enjoy, the speaker then pursues other means of escape from human perception. It is instructive to look closely at the second stanza because it reveals the speaker’s desire for an antidote to the human condition. The speaker pines:

O, for a draught of vintage! That hath been

Cool’d a long age in the deep delved earth,

Tasting of Flora and the country green…

O for a beaker full of the warm South,

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene…

That I might drink, and leave the world unseen,

And with thee fade away into the forest dim:

(lines 11-20).

At this moment the speaker is still seated in his ever darkening bower and is listening to the nightingale’s song. According to the second stanza, the speaker wants to become intoxicated or drink of the fountain of the muses to “fade away” from human perception. The exuberant tone in this stanza is a powerful contrast to the depressed tone of the first stanza. The speaker wants to consume the “flora and the country green” like wine. He wants to drink draughts of the “warm South” and absorb the inspiration of the muses with their sacred fountain, the “Hippocrene.” The allusion to the Hippocrene fountain, the fountain of the muses, works because the speaker desires to be as inspired to write poetry as the nightingale is to sing. The speaker wants to ingest the natural world, but he doesn’t want to consume it. He is not greedy, but rather needs to join blissfully with the world and recede into it. The speaker hopes, “That [he] might drink, and leave the world unseen/ And with thee fade away into the forest dim:” (lines 19-20). This second stanza is significant because it establishes two different ways for humans to go beyond unaltered human perception. Although this analysis is primarily concerned with this speaker’s specific desire to see as the nightingale sees, it also develops the larger Romantic concept of using the imagination to “lift the veil of familiarity from the world.”