1. Literature Question
literature question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.
TOPICS for Reading Response 4 (choose ONE)
Topic 1: Reflect on Browning's “Soliloquy of the Spanish CloisterLinks to an external site.”
(poem located in this module - M2:L4). In your discussion, respond to all of the following:
Are readers given any significant clues that might explain why the speaker of the poem so
powerfully dislikes Brother Lawrence?
What is the context for the speaker’s monologue? Are these words his thoughts? Are they
spoken? Where? To whom?
How do the speaker’s diction and expressions and the form of the poem contribute to our
understanding of his character?
OR
Compare Browning’s “Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister” to Dorothy Parker’s “A Certain
LadyLinks to an external site..”
How do these two poems reveal the characters of their speakers to the reader?
In what ways are they similar and different? Is one more surprising than the other?
Topic 2: The relationship between human persons and the culture they inhabit, possess, and
pass on is a central element of “The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica” (849). In your discussion of
Ortiz Cofer's poem, respond to the following:
What is the relationship between language and culture in this poem?
Is this poem a narrative? How much of the poem is descriptive?
What is the relationship between the woman who tends the deli and the deli itself? Do they
represent different things? How do they create the culture that the poem describes?
Is it important that the shop is a deli? Would the sense of the poem change if the shop sold
something other than food? What is the “hunger” of the old man in line 31?
Topic 3: Read Tracy K. Smith's poem, “Sci-Fi” (822). Consider the poem’s final premise,
where we are told that in the future even space will be “scrutable and safe” (21). Now work
backward from that premise: According to the poem, what are the conditions of existence
that make things “safe”? (I.e., what does the world need to be like to be safe?) And does this
vision of a safe existence seem very satisfying? You might also consider the following
questions:
What is the speaker's tone (passionate and emotional? cold and detached?)
Does the future, as presented in the poem, seem positive, negative, or a mix of both? Cite
2. specific examples.
Are there elements of “Sci-Fi” that do not really seem futuristic at all, but potentially
happening right now? Consider something like “For kicks, we’ll dance for ourselves / Before
mirrors studded with golden bulbs” (11–12): is this actually a reference to how social
media, or the cult of celebrity, might work for people in the present?
What seems to happen to “history” according to the poem? How is the idea of past (or what
has come before) represented in the poem? (And does history seem to have a place in this
predicted future?) Consider too a line like, “the dinosaurs gave way / To mounds and
mounds of ice” (lines 5–6). What does the phrase “gave way” convey? (A sense of
inevitability? Passivity? The individual’s helplessness against the steady progress of time?)
Of all the possible aspects of the future that the poem might have focused on, why do you
think only these certain elements were chosen, including “women,” “sex,” and what we’ll do
“for kicks” (lines 7–11)?
What does the speaker seem to suggest about humankind's impending relationship to
technology?
Topic 4: Consider the concept of the fluidity of gender identity, that an individual's gender
exists on a vast spectrum. In “The Kind of Man I Am at the DMV” (816), Waite intentionally
obfuscates the speaker's chosen gender while clearly interrogating the male/female
dichotomy. What gender do you think the speaker identifies with? (note: there is no "right"
answer here--multiple interpretations are possible, as long as they are supported by the
text). Examine the poem closely, and remember that the speaker is separate from the poet.
Respond to all of the following: Why does the poem insist on the male/female gender
dichotomy? What do you think Waite is suggesting about that dichotomy?
Consider the way the speaker describes the boy in stanza 2. What do you think the speaker
is suggesting about masculinity?
How do you interpret the final three lines of the poem?
And/Or
Read this poem against Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” (1205). What do the two poems
suggest about gender roles and heteronormativity?
Read Judith Ortiz Cofer’s poem “The Changeling” (811). Use “The Changeling” and “The Kind
of Man I Am at the DMV” to investigate the way gender roles are constructed by society and
maintained by individuals.
Topic 5: Christopher Marlowe’s “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” (827) epitomizes
the pastoral tradition in lyric poetry. Taking on the persona of the shepherd, Marlowe
draws on imagery from rural life to paint an idealized picture of love. In “The Nymph's
Reply to the Shepherd” (828),
Sir Walter Raleigh mocks Marlowe's idealized portrait of both love and rural life, imitating
the conventions of pastoral poetry in order to make fun of it.
How does the nymph’s reply deflate the shepherd’s ideas of love?
According to Raleigh, what does the pastoral vision ignore?
After you have read Raleigh’s parody of “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,” do you find
Marlowe’s poem less effective? More effective? Discuss.
Topic 6: Choose a poem in Chapter 12 or in the Exploring Gender album. Prompt: Write a
3. “mini” essay in which you show how and why the speaker experiences a conflict between
particular ways of looking or being.
Also look at how the speaker's attitude toward--or thoughts about--something changes, or
how our vision of the speaker's character changes over the course of a poem.
Be sure to clearly identify the speaker's conflict and what changes during the poem.
Your writing will be reviewed according to the following criteria:
Write well-developed paragraphs relevant to the prompt(s) (minimum 300 words).
Be sure that your thesis is explicit and supported with one to two quotations from the
literature.
Do not write in first or second person.
Follow the rules of Standard English. Please proofread your writing before clicking the
‘submit’ button!
When you include a quotation from the literature in your mini-essay, please place an in-text
citation (also called a parenthetical citation) immediately after you close the quotation
marks and before you place a period at the end of your sentence. That way, anyone in the
class (including me!) can easily find the quotation in the literature if necessary. If you're not
sure what to place inside the parentheses, there is instruction in the textbook in Chapter 33:
Quotation, Citation, and Documentation.
When you include in-text citations, there must be a Works Cited listing at the bottom of
your post.
Be sure to follow the "Quote Sandwich" when you insert quotations.
Requirements:
