Posted by Ms. C 


Hi there 6th block ! Miss me yet?  Be nice to your sub!

 I'm working on National Boards. I'll see you tomorrow!



We are all on the path... exactly where we need to be. The labyrinth is a model of that path.
A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

A labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It is a metaphor for life's journey. It is a symbol that creates a sacred space and place and takes us out of our ego to "That Which Is Within."

First, watch this 3 minute video:  http://www.lessons4living.com/labyrinth_video.htm

Now, do some brainstorming by mapping the word labyrinth. Use a piece of paper turned horizontally.This will help you to generate ideas. Here is an example: (click to make the image larger.)

The sub will take the maps up, or I will tomorrow, so do not discard them.

Yesterday you walked the labyrinth (not sure how many of you really walked it with intention but nevertheless) now I want you to reflect upon it, write a poem about it, and later we will post it to the blog. You could write an acrostic poem:



L

A

B

Y

R

I

N

T

H



or later you could use the spiral text generator http://www.festisite.com/text-layout/

if you want to make your poem in a spiral.
Or you could write a cinquain
 go here: http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/cinquain.htm



Method:

Line 1 - a one word title (or 2 syllables)
Line 2 - a 2 word phrase that describes your title or you can just use two words (or 4 syllables)
Line 3 - a 3 word phrase that describes an action relating to your title or just actions words (or 6 syllables)
Line 4 - a 4 word phrase that describes a feeling relating to your topic or just feeling words (or 8 syllables)
Line 5 - one word that refers back to your title (or 2 syllables)

Or you can just do your own thing and write a free verse poem. Write more than one to impress me! Finished with that? Don't waste time ! Here's your next assignment:







Read two poems based on Brueghel's painting The Fall of Icarus:

Click here to view the painting again:
http://records.viu.ca/~lanes/english/icarus.htm




And here are the two poems:



Musee De Beaux Arts by Auden



About suffering they were never wrong,

The Old Masters; how well, they understood

Its human position; how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth, there always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.



and



Landscape With The Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams



According to Brueghel

when Icarus fell

it was spring



a farmer was ploughing

his field

the whole pageantry

of the year was

awake tingling

near

the edge of the sea

concerned

with itself



sweating in the sun

that melted

the wings' wax



unsignificantly

off the coast

there was



a splash quite unnoticed

this was

Icarus drowning





First, do you agree or disagree with the interpretation of the authors of these poems? Are the poets misreading the painting or do they have it right? Why?






Now write a draft of a 4 paragrah essay comparing and contrasting the two poems which were inspired by the same painting (the poems Musee des Beaux Arts by W.H. Auden and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams).






Work, work, work like busy little bees & be good! See you tomorrow.