Today we reviewed last day's notes on Voice, then we read quietly.
We read through Thomas Hardy's poem The Man He Killed, filling in blanks, and we discussed the terms rhyme scheme and rhythm. I had 5 pitiful prizes that I gave out; they were so poor, in fact, that two of the prizes went unclaimed. Congrats to Kris and Corbin for winning!
The exit assignment was to write, in one sentence, what the theme of the poem The Man He Killed is.
Curious Incident Test will be on Friday.
Note for Brittany Evans (who is now a top 6 national skier! Wuhoo! Way to go Britt AND Megan -- top 4!. Great results!): we also took notes last week on the concept of ambiguity in literature. Ambiguity, not to be confused with vagueness, is when there is more than one meaning or explanation for something. Ambiguity should not be seen as a weakness in literature; in fact, in many instances an ambiguous image or theme is a strength. This differs greatly from the area of math and science where ambiguity is seldom present.
An example of ambiguity: in the poem Sidewalk II both characters may in fact be a single person. That is, the young girl in the first stanza is a reflection of the old lady in the third stanza, and in this instance, the ambiguity helps to emphasize the theme that aging and maturity are not necessarily the opposites of youth. On the other hand, the poem can also accurately described as having two, separate characters. In this instance ambiguity doesn't render the poems two meanings confusing, rather it strengthens the poem's theme.
