Tuesday, December 4 finish Usher

We are finishing The Fall of the House of Usher in class, with individual presentations
Tomorrow: vocabulary quiz on those 10 words handed out yesterday. See below
Homework: please read Poe's The Raven

The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe……..vocabulary….quiz Wednesday

1. sojourn- (verb)- to stay somewhere temporarily

2. malady- (noun)- an unwholesome or disordered condition

3. ennuye’ (ennui)- (noun)- a feeling of utter weariness or discomfit

4. solace- (verb )- to give comfort in grief or mourning

5. catalepical- (adj)- a condition characterized by the lack of response to external stimuli

6. dirge-(noun) – a somber song, expressing grief or mourning

7. reveries- (noun) dream

8. pinion- (noun) – outer edge of a wing of a bird; small feathers

9. fortnight- (noun)- two weeks

10. prolixity- (noun)-wordy; tending to speak or write in excessive length



In class: The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. We are reviewing this material today;each of you will present your assigned question response to the the short story. Once we complete these, we'll begin looking at poetic sound sense and Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. (class handouts; copies below)



Please read The Raven for homework this evening.

Assonance The relatively close juxtaposition of the same or similar vowel sounds, but with different end consonants in a line or passage, thus a vowel rhyme, as in the words, "same day." Assonance does not occur simply by having the same vowel spelling, eg. lost and most. Say the words outloud. Tip: Assonance begins with a vowel and it governs vowels.

Examples:

Nothing Gold Can Stay: only so; ... Note: the words "nothing gold" is not assonance. Nothing is pronounced "nuth-ing" and gold is pronounced gold/old, that is with a long o. The same applies to "can stay."
Stopping by Woods: ... the sweep / Of easy wind ... (long e's)

Ghost House: black bats (a's) (alliteration and assonance)

The Black Cottage: should sugar in the natal dew. (L 122) (alliteration and assonance)

The Silken Tent: sunny summer (alliteration and assonance)

Consonance The repetition of the same consonant sounds at the end of stressed syllables, but with different vowel sounds, within or at the end of a line, such as "bad and sod", (d's) or "when furnaces burn", (n's). Tip: Consonance begins with a consonant and it governs consonants.

Examples:

Nothing Gold Can Stay: dawn goes down (n's) (alliteration and consonance)

Mowing: sound beside the wood (d's);

Tree at my Window: could be profound (d's); Mine with inner (n's) Note: here the stressed consonant sound (n) is inside the word. Although the vowel is the same as spelled, it is a different sound. The rule applies.

Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter: died of cold (d's), thought....alight, sweet and swift (t's) and more

The Vantage Point: : slope where the cattle keep, (p's);

Alliteration The repetition of the initial sounds (usually consonants) of stressed syllables in neighboring words or at short intervals within a line or passage, usually at word beginnings, as in "Jesse Jackson," who by the way, uses alliteration almost to excess. He is a very powerful orator who understands the use of all these sound devices. Again, alliteration depends on sound, not spelling, thus chime and cease are NOT alliterative. Used effectively, alliteration should create a connection or contrast between ideas.

Examples:

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Green is gold (g's) ; Her hardest hue to hold (h's) ; dawn goes down to day (d's)

Stopping by Woods: the only other sound's the sweep (o's and s's)

Storm Fear: When the wind whispers (w's) (alliteration and assonance) , the cold creeps (c's)

Mending Wall: old-stone savage
The Silken Tent: sunny summer (alliteration and assonance)

Rhyme The repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds, as in old - cold, make - wake, feign - rain.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

[First published in 1845]

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.' Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore - Nameless here for evermore. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating `'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door - Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; - This it is, and nothing more,' Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer, `Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; - Darkness there, and nothing more. Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!' This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!' Merely this and nothing more. Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before. `Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice; Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore - Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; - 'Tis the wind and nothing more!' Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore. Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door - Perched, and sat, and nothing more. Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, `Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven. Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore - Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door - Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door, With such name as `Nevermore.' But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only, That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered - Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before - On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.' Then the bird said, `Nevermore.' Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken, `Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store, Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore - Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore Of "Never-nevermore."' But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore - What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking `Nevermore.' This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er, She shall press, ah, nevermore! Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. `Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' `Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! - Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted - On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore - Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' `Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore - Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore - Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' `Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - `Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.' And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted - nevermore!