Eleanor Roosevelt High School



ASSIGNMENT

Please complete a practice close reading essay of the enclosed poem, “Shiloh.” Spend no more than 45 minutes in the actual writing of your Prompt Response Essay, as this is practice for a different 45 minute Poetry Prompt Essay you will be writing as your in school essay exam. We will also be conducting brief seminar style discussions on the poem, “Shiloh,” as participation is essential in an AP class.

In order to do your best on the practice essay and thus be prepared for both the seminar and the in-class-essay on a poem you will have never read before, I have some suggestions. Read over a basic introduction to poetry book. You can find plenty of examples on your local library shelf. Some good titles are:

Tom Furniss and Michael Bath, Reading Poetry (Prentice hall, 1996),

James Fenton, An Introduction to English Poetry (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2002),

David Bergman and Daniel Epstein, The Heath Guide to Poetry, ( D.C. Heath and Company). There’s book that is basically a poetry dictionary called A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams that some of you may like.

You might be able to borrow the Fenton book from a junior in AP class already. Just be sure to pick a book you enjoy and can spend a few hours reading and reviewing terms. Do not use outside sources i.e. internet sites such as Spark Notes or Pink Monkey, or articles that help you interpret the poem or tell you “what it means.” You must do this work yourself!!!! If you do not do the work yourself, you will be unable to support your opinions in the seminar and you will not be prepared to do your own interpretation during the in-class-essay. It is the in-class-essay as well as your seminar performance that will be graded. Of course, plagiarism will disqualify you from AP English.

YOU MUST TURN IN YOUR PRACTICE LITERARY PROMPT ESSAY ON “SHILOH” BY APRIL 28TH IN ORDER TO BE ALLOWED TO TAKE THE EXAM AND COMPLETE THE ENGLISH AP APPLICATION PROCESS.

Battle of Shiloh, a major 1862 battle of the American Civil which claimed more than 10,000 casualties on both the Union and Confederate sides

Requiem: a special mass for the repose of the soul of the dead

Please read and analyze Melville’s “Shiloh” as directed on the page below

Read the following poem by the American writer Herman Melville. In a well-organized essay, explain how Melville transforms a painful experience into something beautiful. In your analysis, consider such elements as imagery, tone alliteration, symbolism, and end rhyme. SHILOH

A Requiem.

(April, 1862.)

Skimming lightly, wheeling still,

The swallows fly low

Over the field in clouded days,

The forest-field of Shiloh--

Over the field where April rain

Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain

Through the pause of night

That followed the Sunday fight

Around the church of Shiloh--

The church so lone, the log-built one,

That echoed to many a parting groan

And natural prayer

Of dying foemen mingled there--

Foemen at morn, but friends at eve--

Fame or country least their care:

(What like a bullet can undeceive!)

But now they lie low,

While over them the swallows skim,

And all is hushed at Shiloh.

Melville

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download