For Thursday, make three (3) annotations on Phil Levine’s poem, “They Feed They Lion.” How to make digital annotations? See my “how-to” here.
Remember some ground rules about annotation:
- avoid defining words or terms. (If you must, the important thing is not the definition but the significance of the word or term within the poem.)
- avoid paraphrase. Try not to use your annotation to rephrase the lines or language of the poem.
- focus on confusion. Annotations are a great way to focus on points or moments or words in the poem that confuse or perplex. The key thing here is not just to note your confusion but to use the annotation to explore what makes the word or phrase or turn or etc. confusing.
- don’t worry about the big meaning or total interpretations. Annotations are great tools because they help us to focus on the particulars of language (words, phrases, etc.). For now, resist the urge to “interpret” the poem, to assign some grand meaning to the whole thing, or uncover some intricate symbolic message, etc. Annotations help us track our progress through a poem or text; they give us a chance to record our experience of the words on the page (so to speak) as we work out our understanding of what is going on.
- there are no correct or incorrect annotations. Because they represent a kind of report on our experience of the poem, there can be no “correct” annotations. There can however be “good” annotations – – annotations that contain serious reflection, that expand or deepen our response, that explore the connections we are making and the questions we are posing as we read, etc.
Finish your annotations by Thursday, August 25, at midnight. And, check back in on Friday (afternoon or so) for info on our class next Tuesday morning. Questions or concerns, let me know.
Enjoy!