Remember: we won’t meet in class on Tuesday (6/18).  Instead, you’ll be digitally annotating texts.

For Thursday (6/20) when we meet in class, you’ll want to add two annotations to each of the following authors: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Edgar Lee Masters, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Gertrude Stein.  In some cases, you may be required to read more than one text by any single author (check the syllabus).  When this happens, you need only add two digital annotations total to all of these texts (i.e. not two annotations per text).   In other words, when we meet in class next Thursday, you should have made a total of 14 annotations (seven writers x 2 annotations per writer).

Here are some things to think about as you annotate the texts/writers:

• for our first flight (Robinson, Masters, Frost, Millay): can you see any patterns in content across these poems, i.e. typical topics, settings, characters, etc.?  can you see any patterns in terms of form, i.e. poetic structure – – rhyme, meter, rhythm? do you see any connections between this group of writers and the group we looked at in our last class (Adams, Du Bois, Gilman)?
• for our second flight (Pound, Williams, Stein): can you identify and explain any significant  points of confusion in these poems? in comparison to Robinson, Frost, Masters, and Millay, what kind of formal patterns do you see or not see?  what happens to the values of “sequence” and “order” – – highly valued by Adams and Gilman – – in this second set of poems?

Remember: use the annotations to track patterns and locate points of confusion in your reading process, not to paraphrase or supply facts.  The annotating process should help you focus on specific, concrete words, phrases, and lines.  And, the annotations should reflect your serious, authentic efforts to make sense of the poems.

Let’s finish up all the annotations by 9 a.m on Wed., June 19.  This should give me enough time to really dig into your commentary.  Thanks.

Questions?  Email me.