Prepare and Plan your Final Poetry Project Due Monday April 20

I. Prepare and plan - in class this week, we will be working on planning and preparing for the final poetry project.

• Create a writing plan in your notebook: 
• What 2 poems will you include in your project?
• What do you need to do to get your project completed? 
• What are your goals for class today? 
• What do you need to bring in to class tomorrow?
• Reread revision guidelines in your packet.
• Read your poem aloud to yourself or work with a partner. Notes parts of the poem you want to revise. What changes are you going to make?
• You may sign up for a writing conference with me this week.
• Use your rubric to ensure you complete all tasks.
• Optional Extra Credit:
• Recite/perform one of your poems or your heart poem to the class
• Include an additional, original poem in your packet

• HW: 1. Bring in the poems you will definitely include. 2. Write a 1st draft of your reading response; print out and bring to class on Friday, April 17. 3. Type your final drafts. Write a brief reflection about the themes, literary devices, and inspiration for your poems.    

II. Reading Response on Heart Poem, (Carrion Comfort) by Gerard Manley Hopkins

1. My first introduction to G. M. Hopkins was at Hunter College
1. Donna Masini’s poetry class; she recited God’s Grandeur and I was awestruck
2. I chose Carrion Comfort to memorize and recite

2. The poem is about refusal, determination, and affirmation, characteristics necessary to live fully.
1. “Not, I’ll not…” (line 1): refuses to despair
2. “I can…” (line 4): chooses to live with joy (line 11)

3. There is a fierce, tempestuous spirit embodied in this poem.
1. “O in turns of tempest, me heaped there…” (line 8)
2. “I wretch lay wrestling with (my God!) my God” (line 14)

4. Reading this emboldens me, encourages me to find comfort in darkness. At the time the poem sprung into my life, my father was really ill and weak from lymphoma while I was living a free and spirited life of a college student in Manhattan. There was tension between these realities.