Opening

1. Opening • “But when the old man left, he was suddenly aware of the old hogan: the red sand had been swept unevenly; the boxes were spilling out rags; the trunks were full of the trash an old man saves – notebooks and whisker hairs.” • Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony • What is the mood of the scene created by the images listed? Brainstorm adjectives to describe this scene. • What attitude toward the old man does final image (the trunks full of notebooks and whisker hairs) reveal? How do you think the author feels about this person (and wants us to feel)?

2. “Everyday Use” The story is on pg. 1090. How do you feel about Dee’s behavior in the story? Why? Support your answer with an example. What object does Dee want? For what purpose? In what ways do the quilts hold different meanings for Dee and her mother? What do these attitudes about the quilt say about each woman? Why does Dee seem to have come to visit her mother? Do you think her mother should have given her the quilt? Why or why not? Write a theme statement for this story. Use the format I gave you yesterday.

3. Opening “This is the time of year when almost every night the frail, illegal fire balloons appear. Climbing the mountain bright, rising toward a saint still honored in these parts, the paper chambers flush and fill with light that comes and goes, like hearts. • Elizabeth Bishop, “The Armadillo (for Robert Lowell)” • What imagery does Bishop use here? How does the imagery help you understand the poem’s meaning? • The image of the balloons rising and filling with light ends with a simile (“like hearts”). What is the effect of this simile? Does it do anything different than the other images in the poem?

4. Opening “There were some dirty plates and a glass of milk beside her on a small table near the rank, disheveled bed – Wrinkled and nearly blind she lay and snored rousing with anger in her tones to cry for food.” • William Carlos Williams, “The Last Words of My English Grandmother” • List the different types of imagery (visual, olfactory, auditory, gustatory, kinesthetic) that you find in the excerpt. • Is there a difference in tone between the first and second stanza? Does one stanza sound more positive than the other?

5. Key Vocabulary • Diction – The author’s word choice. A big part of tone. • Tone – The author’s attitude toward his or her subject. • Tone is not the same as mood (how we feel). • We do, however, use adjectives to describe tone. • Dialect – When authors attempt to write dialogue the way that people actually talk. • Authors use nonstandard, regional ways of speaking to give their dialogue an authentic feel, provide characterization, or allow us to infer the story’s setting.

6. Practicing Tone “They screw you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were screwed up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another's throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.” - “This Be the Verse,” by Philip Larkin

7. Practicing Tone “When the summer fields are mown, When the birds are fledged and flown, And the dry leaves strew the path; With the falling of the snow, With the cawing of the crow, Once again the fields we mow And gather in the aftermath. Not the sweet, new grass with flowers In this harvesting of ours; Not the upland clover bloom; But the rowen mixed with weeds, Tangled tufts from marsh and meads, Where the poppy drops its seeds In the silence and the gloom.” - “Aftermath,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

8. Practicing Tone “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another's throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.” - “This Be the Verse,” Philip Larkin