English 8 students finished (almost) their review of text structures that we will soon begin applying to determining the main idea and supporting details of a nonfiction text.

Students in English I finished looking at the allusions to Calypso in various other forms of art. We focused on Samuel Palmer’s Departure of Ulysses

and Suzanne Vega’s song “Calypso.”

My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an island
And I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
And I brought him into me
Now today
Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night
I let him go.

My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild and hidden
Is the sweetness there that grows
My hair it blows long
As I sing into the wind
My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an island
I tell of nights
Where I could taste the salt on his skin

Salt of the waves
And of tears
And though he pulled away
I kept him here for years
I let him go

My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away
To be gone forever more
And the waves will take him in again
But he’ll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
With a clean heart

And my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
And the sky will burn
It’s a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go

We’ll be working on Homeric similies tomorrow, so students will need to read a bit more of the Odyssey (see below).

Homework

• English 8: study for the quiz on fragments.
• English I Honors: read pages 1-3 (through “The Lotus Eaters”) from the Odyssey pdf.