English 8, after going over a term in the article of the week

worked on tone some more. It’s a tricky subject that we’ll return to often. We worked on determining the tone of selected poems by following a four-step process:

1. Determine the subject of the poem.
2. Mark the text for words that convey emotion.
3. Categorize the words first into a “Positive” or “Negative” category.
4. Choose two or three words to describe that category more specifically.

The results were promising.

English I Honors continued with the examination of how the Odyssey has affected art throughout the ages, specifically standard RL-7.1 “Trace the development of a common theme in two different artistic mediums.”

We added a fifth source (and actually a third medium, outdoing the standard by 50%) to our analysis: Suzanne Vega’s “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’re working to compare all five sources to get some insight into questions of power.

Homework

• English 8: 
  • work on IXL as necessary;
  • work on Quizlet vocab for “The Tell-Tale Heart” as necessary.
• English I Honors: 
  • re-read “Kalypso” from Google Classroom;
  • consider the question of who has the power in the story: who is the victim and who is the victimizer?