Lesson 7 and 8 and 9 (darn 2-hour delays)

OB JECTIVE: Students will determine common themes in assigned epitaphs.

Today’s Agenda – Lesson 7

1. Collect “We Real Cool” poems2. SAT – Critical Reading practice test3. “The Hill”

1. Read and annotate the poem2. Complete questions

DUE NEXT CLASS

Today’s Agenda – Lesson 8

• Check and discuss “The Hill”– Refrain– Tone

• Epitaph– Defined– Assign individual epitaphs

“The Hill”

• What is the meaning of the poem?– No matter what success or failure one experiences

during his lifetime, he will be equal to all in death.• What is the evidence?– “the boozer” is buried next to the “Major”

“The Hill”WHERE are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer,the fighter?All, all are sleeping on the hill. One passed in a fever,One was burned in a mine,One was killed in a brawl,One died in a jail,One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife-All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill. Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, thehappy one?—All, all are sleeping on the hill. One died in shameful child-birth,One of a thwarted love,One at the hands of a brute in a brothel,One of a broken pride, in the search for heart’s desire;One after life in far-away London and ParisWas brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag—All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Who are these people?

Who are these people?

Ordinary men

Unhappiness and discontent

Why NOT love????

Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily,And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton,And Major Walker who had talkedWith venerable men of the revolution?—All, all are sleeping on the hill. They brought them dead sons from the war,And daughters whom life had crushed,And their children fatherless, crying—All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill. Where is Old Fiddler JonesWho played with life all his ninety years,Braving the sleet with bared breast,Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?Lo! he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary’s Grove,Of what Abe Lincoln saidOne time at Springfield.

What is an epitaph?

EpitaphDefinition of EPITAPH1: an inscription on or at a tomb or a

grave in memory of the one buried there

2: a brief statement commemorating or epitomizing a deceased person or something past

Here are examples of some famous epitaphs

LOOKING INTO THE PORTALS OF ETERNITY TEACHES THAT

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN IS INSPIRED BY GOD'S WORD;

THEN ALL PREJUDICE OF RACE VANISHES AWAY.

- George Washington

THE BEST IS YET TO COME.

- Frank Sinatra

THAT’S ALL FOLKS

- Mel Blanc(creator of

“Looney Toons”)

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST, THANK GOD ALMIGHTY,

I’M FREE AT LAST!

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

MOTHER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS

MOVEMENT

- Rosa Parks

EXCUSE MY DUST

- Dorothy Parker(my favorite poet)

Now, here are some unusual/funny/silly

epitaphs…

"I told you I was sick!"In a Georgia cemetery

He called Bill Smith

A Liar- Cripple Creek, CO

Here lies the bodyof Jonathan Blake

Stepped on the gasInstead of the brake.

-Uniontown, Pennsylvania cemetery

Gone Underground For Good- On a Coal-miner

Jedediah GoodwinAuctioneerBorn 1828

Going!Going!!Gone!!!

1876

Today’s Agenda – Lesson 9

• Check homework– Did you annotate your assigned epitaph?

• Work with groups to come up with common themes.

• Write your own epitaphs

Spoon River Anthology• Spoon River is a book of

epitaphs by Edgar Lee Masters.

• Characters speak from the grave

• Captured the essence of people’s personal lives in rural Illinois

• Dramatic monologue – speaker addresses a silent

listener

“Amanda Barker”

Henry got me with child, Knowing that I could not bring forth life Without losing my own. In my youth therefore I entered the portals of dust. Traveler, it is believed in the village where I lived That Henry loved me with a husband's love But I proclaim from the dust That he slew me to gratify his hatred.

Assignment

1. Take turns. Share your epitaphs with your groups.

1. While one student is presenting, the rest of you should be taking notes on your own packets.

2. Discuss literary devices used by Masters in his epitaphs.

Write Your Own

• Things to Consider– Name (This would be the Title.)– Cause of Death (Usually, Masters makes his

readers INFER cause of death. You should to.)– Notable characteristics or habits– People left behind