“All My Sons” is the title of the play you are about to read1. Arthur Miller wanted his play to have universal appeal. Even though you do not know the story yet, can you imagine how this title might connect with a message that has universal significance? In other words, “whose sons” might be “all my sons”?
Group Discussion
Answer the following questions on your own in the same post in your blog. (we’ll go back to these questions after we finish reading the play)
How would you define a responsible person?
Are you a responsible person? Why or why not? Give examples of people you know in your personal life or in the public domain who are responsible. How do these individuals support your definition?
How does one learn to become a responsible person? Who are the “teachers” and where do we find them in our lives?
Is being responsible a character trait that you value a lot? Why or why not?
The Golden Rule is “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” What does this statement mean? Can you think of a situation in your own life in which you used this statement as the guiding principle for the action that you took? If “yes,” explain.
By definition, a CALLIGRAM is a word or piece of text in which the design and layout of the letters creates a visual image related to the meaning of the words themselves.
From Songs of Ourselves Volume 1, Part 3, the following 15 poems: Maya Angelou, ‘Caged Bird’ Elizabeth Barret Browning, ‘Sonnet 43’ Sujata Bhatt, ‘Muliebrity’ Boey Kim Cheng, ‘The Planners’ Isobel Dixon, ‘Plenty’ Rosemary Dobson, ‘The Three Fates’ Robert Hayden, ‘Those Winter Sundays’ Seamus Heaney, ‘Mid-Term Break’ Mervyn Morris, ‘Little Boy Crying’ Norman Nicholson, ‘Rising Five’ Adrienne Rich, ‘Amends’ Edna St. Vincent Millay, ‘Sonnet 29’ Dennis Scott, ‘Marrysong’ Stevie Smith, ‘Not Waving But Drowning’ William Wordsworth, ‘She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways’
From Stories of Ourselves Volume 2, the following 10 stories: no. 2 Nathaniel Hawthorne, ‘Dr Heidegger’s Experiment’ no. 16 O Henry, ‘The Furnished Room’ no. 18 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, ‘The Widow’s Might’ no. 25 Henry Handel Richardson, ‘And Women Must Weep’ no. 29 Marghanita Laski, ‘The Tower’ no. 31 Janet Frame, ‘The Reservoir’ no. 32 Langston Hughes, ‘Thank You M’am’ no. 41 Anjana Appachana, ‘Sharmaji’ no. 43 Yiyun Li, ‘A Thousand Years of Good Prayers’ no. 44 Segun Afolabi, ‘Mrs Mahmood’
We are going to read and analyse 2 poems (This activity will take 3 classes)
Elizabeth Barret Browning
Task 1: She was called “the feminist Victorian writer”. Do some research and tell me why. (write answers in your folder to be discussed later)
Task 2: Poem
If Thou Must Love Me
If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love’s sake only. Do not say I love her for her smile … her look … her way Of speaking gently, … for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day’— For these things in themselves, Belovèd, may Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity’s wiping my cheeks dry,— A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love’s sake, that evermore Thou may’st love on, through love’s eternity.
Listen to the poem
Task 3:What is the poem about? Watch the video and read the webpage. Take notes of background, themes, tones, literary devices used to put meaning across and structure.
This webpage will also help you to understand the poem
Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion’s paws, And make the earth devour her own sweet brood; Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger’s jaws, And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood; Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleet’st, And do whate’er thou wilt, swift-footed Time, To the wide world and all her fading sweets; But I forbid thee one most heinous crime: O! carve not with thy hours my love’s fair brow, Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen; Him in thy course untainted do allow For beauty’s pattern to succeeding men. Yet, do thy worst old Time: despite thy wrong, My love shall in my verse ever live young.
‘Futility’ takes the form of a short elegy. An elegy, or an elegiac poem, was a form of writing that had its first depiction in the 16th century, and was considered to be a lament – a crying out for the loss of a beloved and was used primarily in the romantic sense.
Could this be a soldier speaking to his comrades? A soldier attempting to wake their fallen friend.? And as the title suggests, this attempt is futile?
Task 1: The following questions are just a guide for you to prepare a mind map on war poetry. (you don’t need to answer the questions)
What is war poetry?
Name some war poets and famous poems.
How are soldiers typically portrayed? Is there a common theme which unites the various countries? What do these representations tell us about the society which produced such an image?
What are the roles which children played in wartime propaganda” Why were children “essential victims” in the war?
What was the role played by women in war times?
What is the typical message/imagery in war poems?
Overall, what value does poetry have for the historian of war? Can poetry be used to examine the nature of the war experience, and if so, how? Are there other sources which are “better” for the study of war, and if so what/why?
