Daily Assignments for Honors English III
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English III Honors: NB: DATE Work Due on The Day Listed
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5 (Read Gawain over long weekend)
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Odyssey Paper: Approx. Week Two, (2-3 pages). Be very specific in answering one of the two following questions:
Antigone Paper: Due Week Three, (2-3 pages)
Does Sophocles’ Antigone qualify as a tragedy; and if so, who is the tragic
hero and why?
Job (and Genesis) Paper: Due Week Five, October 12 (2-3 pages)
Explore poetic devices used in Job or Genesis. Possible devices include (but are not limited
to) imagery, symbolism, variation, repetition, parallelism, and proverbs. In Job, how
does the Job poet's language, diction, and style support the meaning of his
work? One should ask the same question when directing a paper on Genesis.
Another topic for Genesis paper is to compare Odysseus' trials and travels with respect to the Sun God's cattle with the Israelites journey to escape from Egypt and create a new nation.
Chivalric Knight Paper: Due Week Nine, (4-6 pages)
Develop a thorough discussion of how the ideal of the chivalric knight evolves
from the warrior hero, Beowulf, to a character like Sir Gawain. Havelok, Tristan,
and Chaucer’s knight should probably all be included in your discussion
along with, perhaps, some references to contrasting figures.
Additional readings and paper topics in Genesis:
Other Paper topics:
* Reflecting upon two heroic figures from Genesis/Exodus, compare and contrast two heroic elements.
* Reflect upon a motif that is used in both the Old and New Testament. Possible motifs, but not all, are: mountains, water, test (temptations) celebration of the cunning figure, the hero's journey, God's/father's jealousy/favor/anger, the figurative language and images associated with God's blessing.
* Compare the exile and subsequent human suffering in The Odyssey where Odysseus and his men stay on Helios' island to that of the Garden of Eden in Genesis. Another approach to comparing The Odyssey to the Bible could be to compare Homer's characters to the Israelites on their journey through Egypt.
* Other ideas? Since the stories are so rich, be sure to clear all topics with your teacher so that you do not wander into an overwhelming topic.
* Click here for the AP Promts
English III Honors: NB: DATE Work Due on The Day Listed
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Read Twelth Night and Enjoy the holidays!!
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
NB: For the assignments for written questions, write and print out both (1) what you need to know to understand the play, and (2) what you think the author is trying to do and how he is achieving it. We will choose the questions that we think are most important to a discussion of the play and address those questions during student-run discussions.
For the student-run discussions, everyone will bring in written notes responding to the selected questions.
PAPER TOPICS
PAPER #1 Due Wednesday, December 12 (2 - 3 pages)
Contrast the ways in which the audience (reader) enters the world of each play in "The Second Shepherds' Pageant" and Everyman.
Note: Consider the tone of each play and the author's purpose in writing it.
PAPER #2 Due Tuesday, January 7 (2 - 3 pages)
1. How does Marlowe use the character of Wagner in Doctor Faustus?
2. If Doctor Faustus is a tragedy, how has Marlowe adapted Aristotle's definition? Note: Your discussion must include consideration of Faustus' heroic stature at the end of the play.
PAPER #3 Due Tuesday, February 4 (3 - 5 pages)
1. Discuss Shakespeare's comic treatment of the courtier figure.
2. Explain how it is situation that drives comedy forward. Note: Not every scene is comic, so choose your examples carefully.
PAPER #4 Due Tuesday, February 18 (2 - 3 pages)
1. A thorough analysis of Cassio's character and how it functions in the play.
2. A thorough analysis of MacDuff's character and how it functions in the play.
Spring English III Honors Spring Term Assignments
DUE DATE CLASS WORK TERM PAPER VOCAB/AP
Week One:
Week Two:
Week Three:
Week Four:
Week Five:
Week Six:
May 5: English Literature & Composition AP in A.M.
Week Seven:
Week Eight:
Week Nine:
PAPER AND PARAGRAPH TOPICS
PARAGRAPH #1 DUE TUESDAY, APRIL 5
Write one paragraph on some aspect of the impact of sound on the poem with reference to sonnet 29, 30, or 35. Be careful to narrow the focus to one particular aspect of the poet’s use of sound and to discuss its effect on the poem thoroughly.
PAPER #1 DUE TUESDAY, APRIL 12
Write a paper that is a thorough analysis of how the poet does what he does in any sonnet except sonnet 73. It should be obvious that to develop this paper you have to identify what the poet does with some precision.
PARAGRAPH #2 DUE TUESDAY, APRIL 19
Write one good paragraph on how one specific image in one of the Donne poems we have read affects our understanding and/or feelings about the poem.
PARAGRAPH #3 DUE TUESDAY, MAY 10
Write one good paragraph that falls under the general topic of the poet as storyteller. What you should be writing about here is some aspect of how the use of poetic form affects the quality of the story. Use either “La Belle Dame sans Merci” or “The Eve of Saint Agnes” as a frame of reference. Remember, one paragraph; narrow the focus.
PAPER #2 DUE THURSDAY, MAY 19
Write a 3 to 4 page paper on Keats as a poet who requires us to use our imaginations as a tool for understanding. Refer to at least three poems.
TERM PAPER DUE TUESDAY, MAY 24
Term Paper. See the sheets that spell this assignment out.
ADVANCED PLACEMENT TEST PREPARATION
Exercises that stimulate the various kinds of questions that appear on the AP test will be done in class on the dates indicated. You can expect that some of these will be graded.
SHAKESPEARE SONNETS ASSIGNMENTS
1. Sonnets 2, 18, & 19
2. Sonnets 29, 30, & 35
3. Sonnets 54, 55, & 65
4. Sonnets 66, 73, & 94
5. Sonnets 106, 116, & 130
JOHN DONNE ASSIGNMENTS
1. The Good-morrow, p. 23
Song p. 24
Woman’s Constancy, p. 25
These are relatively early, outrageous, hedonistic. Reflect the argumentative quality of Donne’s poetry. Note the quality of the imagery.
2. The Sunne Rising p. 26
The Flea p. 48
More of the same kind of poetry. Note use of structure, style, imagery.
3. A Valediction: forbidding mourning p. 54
Note that this is written to his wife, probably when he leaves for the continent in 1611. Thus it is not about death or dying. It’s a love poem that argues an idea.
4 & 5. The Extasie p. 55
You have two assignments on this because it is a long and carefully developed complex argument about love. This is Donne at his mature best as a secular poet, trying to force language to express what cannot be said.
6. The Autumnall p. 77
Addressed to an older woman who is a friend. What’s it doing? Does it succeed?
To his Mistris going to Bed p. 88
Probably written several years before his marriage. Is this just outrageous and selfish, or does it show concern for the woman involved? Is it worthy of being called art?
7. Holy Sonnets
Thou hast made me p. 167
I am a little world p. 167
Death be not proud p. 170
Note choice of the sonnet form. How does it impact what he can do? These are later religious poems. What is notable about the feelings as well as the ideas?
8. Holy Sonnet: Batter my heart p. 171
What kind of expression is this? How does he use the sonnet form well?
A Hymne to God the Father p. 176
One of Donne’s very last poems. He knows he is dying. Ideas? Faith? State of mind?
JOHN KEATS ASSIGNMENTS
1. Familiarize yourself with the book, particularly:
Notes, pp 555 ff.
Dictionary of Classical Names, pp. 721 ff.
Examine Table of Dates, pp. 23 - 29
Get a sense of the man’s life
Look over Further Reading, especially Biography and Criticism, pp. 29 - 33
Note the quantity and range of scholarly work that has been done.
2. ‘To one who has been long in city pent’ p. 62
‘Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art’ p. 452
Note that these are both sonnets.
What kind of sonnet? How is form used?
How do the two differ in terms of what the poet is doing?
Which is the better poem? Why?
3. On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, p. 72
What’s he doing here? Does it work?
Do classical and historical allusions add or detract? How, why?
‘When I have fears that I may cease to be’ p. 221
Note subject and youth of writer
Consider word choice and imagery
4. La Belle Dame sans Merci. A Ballad p. 334
Why does Keats call this a ballad? Is it a story poem?
What’s he doing here? What word choice works?
The form here is ancient ballad form: iambic tetrameter, rhymed ABCB
Does the choice of form help the poem? How?
The Eve of St. Agnes p. 312
This is a fantasy love adventure.
How does the poet shift moods, capture and hold interest, build suspense?
How good are sketches of people? What makes them work? Is the imagery appropriate and effective? Is the resolution of the story satisfactory?
5. To Autumn p. 434
The person addressed here is autumn itself. Autumn is process here. How does he suggest process or movement in more than one way? Note stanza structure; it is a variant of a form he uses repeatedly. Moods or feeling suggested by images. Are images clear pictures?
6. Ode on Melancholy p. 348
Shortest and simplest of what Mr. Glover sometimes calls Keats’ philosophic songs. What idea is he developing here? How does the poetic expression of this idea intensify, clarify, or enrich this idea?
7. Ode to a Nightengale p. 346
Poet uses the nightingale as a means to take us with him on an imaginative flight. Does it succeed? Do we leave our reality? Is there also a philosophic idea here?
8. Ode on a Grecian Urn p. 344
Know what an urn looks like. The “bride” in line one is the urn itself. Thoughts on this poem on life, beauty, art, and truth - relationships of these. What does poetic expression, imagery, connotation of words do for the thoughts in the poem?
EMILY DICKINSON ASSIGNMENTS = Biography and poems
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