Understanding how poetic devices are used to express transcendentalism (Emerson, Whitman)

1. Activator: Be a Composer to understand
Layering, Rhythm to create effect & tone
STANDARDS: 11.RL.9, 11.RI.7. 11.RI.5
Activator: Listen to how to arrange beat
TITLE: Poet as Composer Date: Nov 11 2015
GOALS
Fast Fact: Context Learning: to define the
origins of rhetorical questions via interactice
white board whole group discussion
Group Poetry Game: create a beat for your
assigned poem
Standard: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings
TDQ: Conenct transcendentalism to how
Emerson used poetic devices

2. How essential layers create TONE & EFFECT vs. how that changes when
layers are omited
Activator: Layering in Poetry
Beats, Voice, Effect, Melody
English
11
HARMON

3. In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
The purple petals fallen in the pool
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask; I never knew;
But in my simple ignorance suppose
The self-same power that brought me there,
brought you.
Change
something:
Personification
Imagery
Shift in Tone
Rhyme
Apostrophe
Alliteration
English
11
HARMON
Read without a layer: What would
poem sound like without
alliteration?

4. 2 MIN EX of Modern
use of Rhetoric
Shift in Tone
The ancient philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) was the first to record a definition
of rhetoric: writing and speaking for the purpose of arguing in court and
celebrating great events. He invented formal logic and the argument form.
The words essay, rhetoric, and expository writing, in the context of English class
mean the same thing. College English composition classes used to be called
'rhetorical' or 'expository writing.' The word rhetoric comes from the Greek 'I say,'
or eiro. So, in an essay you are saying something about what you think or know.
Rhetoric, as defined in the dictionary, is 'the art of speaking or writing effectively.'
A 1913 definition of the word is 'the art of composition; especially, elegant
composition in prose.' Many definitions refer to ancient 'rules of composition' and
the art of persuasion. Rhetoric, in the sense of writing, is both. In college, you are
not only writing to inform, analyze, compare, argue or tell a story; you are also
trying to write with style and creativity, in your own unique writer's voice.
historical context of rhetoric:
English
11
HARMON

5. How do Poetic Devices show Emerson’s transcendenalist views
in the poem Rhodera?
English
9
Harmon

6. Layer for:
Personification
Imagery
Shift in Tone
Rhyme
Apostrophe
Alliteration
English
11
HARMON
Groups: Read to a
beat you create
In
Small
Groups,
find the right
beat for your
assigned poem

7. English
11
HARMON
Group Work: Examples of Poetic Devices
Rhyme
Scheme
Alliteration Personif-
ication
Shift
in Tone
Apos-
trophe

8. Pick a Line
English
11
Harmon Pick a poetic device
quote it
analyze it
Wrap Up: Dialetical Journal
Quote Analysis
1
2
3

9. Personification (pronounced: PER-son-if-i-kay-shun) is when a writer makes a non-
human object or idea seem like a person. How many times is personification used in
this poem?
English
11
Harmon
TIP:
pair object with
a feeling
Activator: Review on Personifictation
Examples: Your examples:
The car died.
I could hear the wind
whistling.
The frost paints the pines
in the winter time.