Tuesday, 5/8: AP Prep.

* Pray

* Collect M.C. 1991

*  Card Quiz: A Tale of Two Cities

* Wednesday's Quiz: That Hideous Strength

* In Class: Passage Essay: 1991


Question 2. (Suggested time —35 minutes.)

Read the following passage from The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell. Then, in a well-organized essay, discuss the ways Boswell differentiates between the writing of Joseph Addison and that of Samuel Johnson. In your essay, analyze Boswell’s views of both writers and the devices he uses to convey those views.

It has of late been the fashion to compare the style of Addison and Johnson, and to depreciate, I think very unjustly, the style of Addison as nerveless and feeble, because it has not the strength and energy of that of Johnson…. Addison writes with the ease of a gentleman. His readers fancy that a wise and accomplished companion is talking to them; so that he insinuates his sentiments and taste into their minds by an imperceptible influence. Johnson writes like a teacher. He dictates to his readers as if from an academical chair. They attend with awe and admiration; and his precepts are impressed upon them by his commanding eloquence. Addison’s style, like a light wine, pleases everybody from the first. Johnson’s, like a liquor of more body, seems too strong at first, but, by degrees, is highly relished; and such is the melody of his periods*, so much do they captivate the ear, and seize upon the attention, that there is scarcely any writer, however inconsiderable, who does not aim, in some degree, at the same species of excellence.

         * sentences


* Return yesterday's short essay

* Return 1991

HW: Practice Essay (J43, see below); That Hideous Strength card quiz tomorrow; 

* Next Green Sheet Essay while I score your last
       a.  complete assignment and receive 100%
       b.  receive a 2010 green sheet
       c.  read both passage prompts and choose one to work from
       d.  go to focus and read the example essays
       e. J43: WRITE YOUR OWN ESSAY USING ALL YOU NOW KNOW...but don't just rewrite the 9 or 8, please.

Here is the poem prompt (you'll have to look at the green sheet if you choose the passage prompt):

2010 Poem: “The Century Quilt” (Marilyn Nelson Waniek)
Prompt: Read carefully the following poem by Marilyn Nelson Waniek. Then write an essay analyzing how Waniek uses literary techniques to develop the complex meanings that the speaker attributes to The Century Quilt. You may wish to consider such elements as structure, imagery, and tone.

The Century Quilt
for Sarah Mary Taylor, Quilter

    My sister and I were in love
    with Meema’s Indian blanket.
    We fell asleep under army green
    issued to Daddy by Supply.
5    When Meema came to live with us
    she brought her medicines, her cane,
    and the blanket I found on my sister’s bed
    the last time I visited her.
    I remembered how I’d planned to inherit
10    that blanket, how we used to wrap ourselves
    at play in its folds and be chieftains
    and princesses.

    Now I’ve found a quilt*
    I’d like to die under;
15    Six Van Dyke brown squares,
    two white ones, and one square
    the yellowbrown of Mama’s cheeks.
    Each square holds a sweet gum leaf
    whose fingers I imagine
20    would caress me into the silence.

    I think I’d have good dreams
    for a hundred years under this quilt,
    as Meema must have, under her blanket,
    dreamed she was a girl again in Kentucky
    among her yellow sisters,
    their grandfather’s white family
    nodding at them when they met.
    When their father came home from his store
    they cranked up the pianola
30    and all of the beautiful sisters
    giggled and danced.
    She must have dreamed about Mama
    when the dancing was over:
     lanky girl trailing after her father
35    through his Oklahoma field.
    Perhaps under this quilt
    I’d dream of myself,
    of my childhood of miracles,
    of my father’s burnt umber* pride,
40    my mother’s ochre* gentleness.
    Within the dream of myself
    perhaps I’d meet my son
    or my other child, as yet unconceived.
    I’d call it The Century Quilt,
45    after its pattern of leaves.

1 A quilt is a type of bedcovering often made by stitching together varied pieces of fabric.
2 Burnt umber is a shade of brown.
3 Ochre refers to a shade of yellow.