Monday, May 1 Musee des Beaux Arts and Frome controlling idea response

Learning Targets: I can cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
I can determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text.
I can analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama.
I can determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.

Part 2: writing component as an extension of Friday's material on the poem Musee des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden.  If you were not here on Friday, complete the Musee des Beaux Arts handout first. I will collect all essays at the start of class tomorrow. This is independent (self-struggle) work. This type of controlling idea essay is exactly the type you will have on the Common Core ELA exam.

Any questions? Ask now, as I cannot take questions after we begin.

Class handout / copy below.

Important information for approaching the writing component.

First read the question carefully. Make sure you understand what is being asked. For example, if you are asked to give three examples of imagery, you must provide textual evidence and write the type of imagery.

When you are responding to a question, it must stand independently. That means that anyone reading your response would know to whom or to what you are referring. 

Make sure you have woven in textual evidence to support what you say.

Indicate line breaks. /     
 The ploughman heard might "have heard the splash.../ But for him it was not an important failure". 

Avoid contractions in formal writing.

Proof read for capitalization, punctuation and subject verb agreement.

Name_________________________________ thematic comparison between by Musée des Beaux Arts  by W. H. Auden and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton    Part 2                       Writing grade

Directions: Last Friday, we analyzed W. H. Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts poem. Today, you are connecting the theme of the poem with Ethan Frome.

 Reread the poem and then the excerpt from Ethan Frome below. In a well-developed response of one to two paragraphs, identify the unifying central idea of the poem and Frome excerpt and analyze how the author’s used one literary technique to develop the central idea. (Make sure to proof read!)

These words said by Ethan after the crash should be very familiar:  "Oh, Matt, I thought we'd fetched it," he moaned; and far off, up the hill, he heard the sorrel whinny, and thought: "I ought to be getting him his feed..."   

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Musée des Beaux Arts (1940)

W.H. Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just
walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy
life and the torturer’s horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel’s Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Name_________________________________ thematic comparison between by Musée des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden and Ethan Fromeby Edith Wharton    Part 1

Musée des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus  by Pieter Breughel

About suffering they were never wrong,

The old Masters: how well they understood

Its human position: how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth, there always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Accompanying questions for Musée des Beaux Arts. Use specific text to support your responses.

1.                 What did the “Old Masters” understand about suffering?

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  2.   What do the contrasting examples in the first stanza seem to suggest about the “human position” of suffering? Support your answer using details from the first stanza. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3   According to the speaker, how does Brueghel’s painting depict the reaction to Icarus’ disaster? Explain using specific details from the second stanza.

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4.   How does Brueghel’s The Fall of Icarus seem to reinforce speaker’s ideas about suffering? Support your answer using details from the poem and from the painting shown above.

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5.         In your opinion, why did Auden write this poem? (Do not use “I”!) In your response explain what he wishes to convey and why.

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6.         How does Auden use imagery to help convey his ideas about suffering?     Give three specific examples and identify the type of imagery. (auditory, visual, olfactory, sensory, gustatory)

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7.         Find two examples of irony and explain how they add to your understanding and appreciation of the poem.

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