Tone in Poetry and Art

Tone in Poetry and Art Interpreting Text Advanced Composition & Grammar 2011 Mrs. Morrell

TODAY* (Day 1): [Student directions] Work with groups of three or four. Discuss each piece and record your ideas on the chart*. We’ll do the first art piece and first poem together. Remember: Each piece needs TWO tone words (adjectives to describe tone). Use the tone words handout or poster, please. Consider which pieces “match”  In other words, align each art piece with a poem. Be able to defend your choices.

*At the end of the tunnel… Students will be able to Write coherently about tone in various texts; and Use vocabulary that displays what they know, now and in their academic futures.

1. d'Holbachie Yoko What is the subject of this art piece? List the outstanding details. How does the piece make you feel? Why? What is the tone of this art piece?

2. Edvard Munch What is the subject? What are the outstanding details? How does the piece make you feel? Why? What is the tone of this art piece?

What is the subject? List the outstanding details. How does the piece make you feel? Why? What is the tone? 3. Edgar Degas

4. Claude Monet What is the subject? Outstanding Details? How does it make you feel? Why? What is the tone?

5. Anne Julie Aubrey What is the subject? List outstanding details. How does it make you feel? Why? What is the tone?

Reminder: Details (words and phrases) reveal TONE in poetry. Pay attention to the author’s craft. Every word is a deliberate choice!

1. Hazel Tells Laverne • last night • imcleanin out my • howardjohynsons ladies room • when all of a sudden • up pops this frog • musta come from the sewer • swimming around an tryinta • climb up the sida the bowl • so I goes taflushm down • but sohelpmegod he starts talkin • bout a golden ball • an how I can be a princess • me a princess well my mouth drops all the way to the floor an he says kiss me just kiss me once on the nose well I screams ya little green pervert an I hitsm with my mop an has ta flush the toilet down three times me a princess • KatharynHowdMachan

2. The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Randall Jarrell

3. There Will Come Soft Rains There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;And frogs in the pools singing at night,And wild plum trees in tremulous white;Robins will wear their feathery fire,Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;And not one will know of the war, not oneWill care at last when it is done.Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,If mankind perished utterly;And Spring herself, when she woke at dawnWould scarcely know that we were gone. Sara Teasdale

4. An Ancient Gesture • I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron: • Penelope did this too. • And more than once: you can't keep weaving all day • And undoing it all through the night; • Your arms get tired, and the back of your neck gets tight; • And along towards morning, when you think it will never be light, • And your husband has been gone, and you don't know where, for years. • Suddenly you burst into tears; • There is simply nothing else to do. • And I thought, as I wiped my eyes on the corner of my apron: • This is an ancient gesture, authentic, antique, • In the very best tradition, classic, Greek; • Ulysses did this too. • But only as a gesture,—a gesture which implied • To the assembled throng that he was much too moved to speak. • He learned it from Penelope... • Penelope, who really cried. • Edna St. Vincent Millay

5. The Red Wheelbarrow so much dependsupon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the whitechickens. -William Carlos Williams

Day Two Read the poem you brought today to your group members . READ ALOUD. Talk to your group about why you chose this poem. Reveal the tone of the poem and the details that led you to decide on tone. Search for a work of art to “match” your poem. Create a slide show that presents each work. Include the subject, outstanding details, and tone of each work (as text on your slides). Be ready to present your slides (next class). Be ready to write! (next class)

Day 3 Using the resources you have acquired in the last two class periods, write an essay in which you address this prompt: Authors and artists use tone to reach out to their audiences. In a coherent essay, compare/contrast how two distinct works (poem and art work) employ tone to appeal to the audience. Make sure you list your sources in a Works Cited page (MLA bibliography). A draft of this work must be submitted to the instructor before the end of the class period.

Assessment (for your first draft)

Other resources for poetry and art Google Art Project: http://www.googleartproject.com/National Gallery of Art: http://www.nga.gov/onlinetours/index.shtm Poets.org: http://www.poets.org/ Poetry 180: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/

Tone in Poetry and Art