Most Awesome English Class Ever

Seagren, Carly, Annie, Selim, Trevin, Non Sequitur, Julia, Presley, Matthew, Thomas, Calliope, J.B., Noopur, Ms. Fleming...

...but where is Coleman's head? Oh, there he is:

But where is John David? Stay tuned...

Let's enjamb!

Take the following paragraph and put in line breaks to make it into a poem. Be sure to enjamb at least two of your lines!

The clashes and groans from the lake continued unabated, dreadful at night, and the sound of the night wind in the mountains was like one long indrawn breath. Downstairs the flood bumped and fumbled like a blind man in a strange house, but outside it hissed and trickled, like the pressure of water against your eardrums, and like the sounds you hear in the moment before you faint.

(from Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping)

Battle of Odysseus and Cyclops Retold (adaptation)

Odes

This "ode" is funny and ironic in tone. The subject is a sweater vest. I'd say the theme is the uselessness of some fashion trends. The form is a blank verse poem. Find an ode on your own and list the link or copy and paste the ode into your comment field. Tell us the tone, subject, form, and theme of the ode. What is your ode praising?

Simile

Fill in the following sentences in your comment. Try to be creative and try to go for a comparison that is unexpected or makes us see the subject in a new way:

Don't tell my mom that her cookies taste like __________________.
Watching Katya dance is like ________________________.
The crumbs left on my plate are like _______________________.

Subject vs. Theme

In class we talked about the difference between a poem's subject and its theme. Give me an example of a work of art--poem, story, film, song--where the subject is quite different from the theme. For example, I am posting a photo by photographer, Rob Hann. The subject of the photo is simple: football uniforms. But the theme is more complicated. By looking at the photo you get a sense of loneliness or absence, you see the outline of young boys' bodies without the boys there. Perhaps the theme of the photo is adolescence or manhood, how the uniform makes the boy into a man.

You may include a link to the work of art if you have one.

Dead Poets Society--You Must Set Him Among the Dead

What does T.S. Eliot mean by the following quote? What does the quote have to do with the movie's themes and its title?

"No poet, no artist of any art, has complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation, is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead."

-from Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent"