Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Raven Poetry Elements

Dramatic Situation: The speaker is a man in an early 1800's Victorian setting.
Structure: The poem is broken up into 18 stanzas with 6 lines each.  No discernible syllable count.  always ends each stanza with "-more"
Theme: The poem has to do with life and death as does a lot of Poe's work.
Grammar and Meaning: This guy is talking to a raven, symbol for death, in a common dialect of English which makes the poem easily understood.
Important Images:  Images of the Gods, and heaven, as well as the darkness of his house and the raven.  The altar above his door and the bust of the Goddess Athena are also important.
Important single words: Heaven, Gods, Nevermore, Lenore
Tone:  very dark and ominous
Literary devices: metaphor, allusion, symbol, simile
Prosody:  implores an ABABBB rhyme pattern which creates a nice flow while reading the poem.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Micro AP Essay

I expected to be writing an essay using Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities as textual support.  I am decent at writing standardized essays, so that was easy.  It was difficult to think of textual support since the book wasn't in front of me to quote and I could merely summarize what happened.  I didn't learn anything new about the AP questions that you haven't already learned or knew.  I work fine under pressure which has never been an issue and I normally finish the multiple choice or the essays with time to spare.  The actual exam will require time and effort to pass.