Renaissance to Modern Day: A Look a Modern Poetry

Tomorrow Mr. Wolfe will be sharing some object poetry with us. I think you all will enjoy reading some new poetry and experimenting with writing your own. You might experience some culture shock, moving from the Renaissance to modern day, but it's worth talking about the same poetic techniques and the power that poetry holds.
Come in ready to be creative!

Kudos to all of my Shakespearean dancers today! OK, the washerwoman dance may not have been very fancy, but it was authentic and of the time period! If you browse around the same site (American Ballet Theater/Library of Congress) there are hundreds of dances from all time periods. Also, our readers were wonderful. For those of you looking to get ahead, we will be discussing Act II, scenes i and ii (one and two) on Monday. These are some of the most lyrical and beautiful lines in all of Shakespearean drama.

So for now, adieu! Parting is such sweet sorrow. P.S. If you did not hand in your vocabulary today, I'll take it tomorrow for no penalty....so get it in! (It's on yesterday's post. Definitions are in the literary glossary of terms in our text starting on p. 967. Just write the definition and be able to identify.)

Do You Believe in Love at First Sight?

So...we're ready for the party, and the two young lovers finally meet. What happened to Romeo's tears for Rosaline? Wasn't it just that same morning (in fact, even earlier that evening) that he was moping around, spouting love sick oxymorons? What is it that Romeo looks for in a woman? He sure is swayed by beauty. "Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" is not a line about Rosaline, but rather he is referring to Juliet. It seems that Benvolio's advice worked!

By the way, what happened to the young girl (Juliet) who earlier that same evening said that she had never before thought of love? This doesn't seem like that same young girl, but rather a more witty, mature young woman. Of course, this is ironic because neither one of them really wanted to go to the party in the first place. Romeo went to see Rosaline, and Juliet went to view Paris.

Again, we learn more about Lord Capulet as he tells his nephew Tybalt to calm down and not to cause a scene over Romeo when he recognizes him by his voice. We also learn more about Tybalt who claims that his anger will not go away but only grow and get worse.

For a look at a dance demonstration from the American Ballet Co., click on this link to the Library of Congress which has recordings of hundreds of dance steps from various time periods.

Romeo's Friends, Queen Mab, and the Prophecy of Dreams

Act I, scene iv can be a challenge without first knowing a little about the time period. Remember that earlier in Act I, Benvolio has talked Romeo into "crashing" the Capulet party in order to look at other beautiful women, and Romeo has agreed to go in order to prove that Rosaline is indeed the most beautiful young lady. The problem is that not just anybody can go to the party; you'd have to be on the guest list, and being Montagues, Romeo and his friends are not. As scene iv opens, that's exactly what the boys are talking about: how to get into the party without being noticed. In this time period, there is a "prompter" at the entrance to the party, and this person announces the guests as they enter. It would be hard to get by without being noticed...But wait! There is one possibility. It is fashionable for young men to wear masks as sort of a whimsical and festive thing to do. Bevolio offers a suggestion through a pun, "We'll measure them a measure and be gone," (line l0), which means they'll dance and look everyone over and leave. That's the plan, but Romeo has a bad feeling about it all which he talks about from line 48 "But 'tis no wit to go."

Do the best you can in examining the scene. Mercutio makes light of dreams (beginning with line 53) in his Queen Mab speech which turns ugly at the end. Read on! I found an interesting site which details a webquest type activity about the Capulet ball. There is a lot of information here about the time period, food, music, art, costumes, and more.

Words that relate to our study so far:

Shakespearean sonnet
iambic pentameter
couplet
blank verse
dramatic irony
pun
allusion
rhyme scheme
metaphor
personification
soliloquy
aside

How Many Teeth Does the Nurse Have?

Did that get your attention? Tonight you are reading Act I, scene iii, and you get to meet Juliet and the Nurse (Juliet's nursemaid). The jokes are raunchy because the Nurse is crude and "earthy." In fact, she is very simple, and being the chatterbox that she is, she often steals the stage when she's in the scene. See how familiar and close Juliet and the Nurse are, and how formal Juliet is with her mother. This will give you an idea of the way things were between mothers and daughters, at least of upper classes.

If you did not hand in your final draft today - along with the other drafts and conference notes - you must hand it in tomorrow. Don't forget to include a reflection letter telling about the writing and revising process.

That's it for tonight. Look over your study notes for the play, and fill out what you can. We'll go over the information in class. Don't forget that you can access the modern day translation on yesterday's post. There's nothing wrong with reading that too, as long as you also read the original script, too. Adieu!

The Play Opens and Montagues Wonder: Where's Romeo?

First of all, in reading over your weekend posts, I noticed a very helpful link was provided in second block by HXC [AGR] for decifering the script. For those of you struggling with not enough side notes, you'll see this site gives a line by line translation. Way to go HXC [AGR}.

Several things are going on tomorrow. You'll be handing in your papers - final drafts, second drafts with notes, first drafts with conference notes, and a letter (hand written or typed) of reflection on the writing process. We'll read over the rest of scene 1 and scene 2 and also take some time to fill out your study notes over the play.

Some of you talked about Romeo and the fact that he's in love with being in love. It might be confusing that he's in love with a girl that we never get to meet because she's not actually in the play, just referred to as Rosaline. Romeo loves a girl who won't love him back. She has sworn off love, so he just mopes around. The fact that he's not really in love - just thinks he is - sets up a nice contrast for the audience to see when he REALLY falls in love. Aye me, sad hours seem long.