Journals are due! Look below to see what journals you should have.

Freshmen: (50 Points)

Creative Writing:

Similarities/ Differences b/w Romeo and Juliet and Save the Last Dance.
Have R+J been making good decisions?
Response to the painting Land of the Lotus Eaters.
Where would you go if you could go anywhere in the world?

Grammar Journals: (FIrst lines/ topics listed)

My running shoes are pretty rad.
Pay up or die!
Clauses 1
Adj. clauses
Noun/ Adverb clauses
Sentence Structure

Sophomores: (55 points)

Creative Writing:

Response to the "Christmas Truce" article.
List of Power-Hungry Characters
If you could talk to Brutus, what would you say to him?
Respond to the painting Ceremony at Sunset.

Grammar Journals: (List of First Lines/ Topics)

Passive Voice
Misplaced Modifiers
Dangling Modifiers
Modals #1
Modals #2
Modals #3/ Review

link

Scroll down for Caesar prompt!

Poetry Assignment: Write a poem of at least ten lines (or four Haiku) relating in some way to Spring. They will be due the Wednesday after Spring Break.

Reference: Freshmen - p. 550-552, Sophomores - p. 588-589 in literature books.

"Driving to Rowan Oak"

I
The slow hum in the walls
Sounds louder
It’s very bad tonight
My nerves! she said
Mine too but didn’t say
And cast my eye inward
To where the green
Hangs wet with bent leaves

I find that waiting for the bang
The explosion
Makes me miss the small explosions
Everyday I lose big
Or win and then
Come to you with the news of my achievement
My small victory
Only to see you shrink away
Like plastic from a fire

At the quiet hour
The time when even spirits sleep between
The unaccompanied humming walls
I see the path, it
Takes many forms
And slips serenely southward
The clouds inflating the pine
Permeating
The Springtime sunshine warm

Morning’s a misty reprieve
Painted in dawn-lonely pastels
The underbrush rife with thrush
A passing thunderpeal
Gives way
To the twilight’s humid hush

Alone or nearly alone
The thrill of your touch still
Numbing my fingertips
My road-black nails
A long dormant voice now speaks
Of trips half taken
I leave the safety of numbers
For the mystery of the trail


II
Over the blown land
Over the hanging pines
Over the callused hand
Over the rusted signs

The talking drums, sound
Just on the edge of perception
A thunderstone
Echoes spilling on the noon flat air
Thunk of recognition
Meandering thoughts I
Slump on the splashboard
Wondering if I am only prolonging the inevitable
Or opening another door

There is sclaff then scintillation
Blinding sun on the spillway
The floodwater rising
Giving birth to interred memories
In the thickheaded evening

III
There is sclaff then scintillation
The dirt of inhumation
I saw a girl who looked like you
Leaving from the station
But the train departed early
And I was far away

IV
What’s done can not be undone
Nor what’s said unsaid
The road behind us stretches further than all that’s ahead

Alone on the roadside
Smoke on the air, rising in columns
To the clouds
The air is softer, the stiletto edge of old
Mordancy diminished with my
Easy manipulation of the past

And all the while stretching
On, the sinuous road,
The forthcoming future
Exclusive in its relevance
Slides through the sarcophagus dust
Under painted oaks
Bejeweled with moss in the sun

- Daniel Brugioni

Respond to this question (one page minimum):

A tragic hero is, by definition, a person more noble than evil, whose fortunes go from good to bad. Does Brutus fit this description, or is the tragic hero someone else, perhaps even Cassius or Caesar? Do you think, perhaps, that the play lacks a tragic hero? Defend your answer.

Can you think of any other characters (from stories we've read in this class) who fit the above description of a tragic hero? Explain.