The Renaissance Period Part 2
"Reason is our soul's left hand, faith her right." John Donne
Before we leave the Renaissance we still have some very beautiful and very poetry (and a little prose) to get to. The Carpe Diem poems, the incredible metaphysics of John Donne, Christopher Marlowe (give a chance to redeem himself after the dreadful nymph poem) and one more Sonnet by Shakespeare. In Andrew Marvell's words - "I always hear Time's winged chariot hurrying near." I calculated once that by the end of my career teaching, we had 22 actual days less with the students - missing days where something had to be left behind - a poem, an author, a novel. Those literal missing days paled however compared to the reduced expectations that were forced on teachers as time went on. In seizing the day - I always wanted to use every second of every class and give students every moment of learning that I knew how to give.
There is no number in front of this lesson - it is not given as the first (though it could be) lesson when we return to the Renaissance. No, this lesson is conducted when the first beautiful and delicate flowers of the spring, the snowdrops are starting to bloom. That means you must have a place near you school where you can take your students to see them. I was lucky enough to have such a spot - though it did change three times over the 30 years that I taught this lesson. You take the students outside to see these harbingers of spring - you read "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" while out there - and you mention that these flowers they are seeing won't be there in a week - and that should get them thinking. You return to your classroom, show a video (that you - or I if you want to use the one I made) on what Carpe Diem is - and you read Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress". You end it with a story or two about what "Carpe Diem" is to you - in a very personal way. The students - you hope (and so many have told me over the years) - leave your classroom transformed (at least for a little bit, and perhaps longer).
So the overriding question that this poem asks is - does the form of a poem matter - and how does it matter? The first poem examined (the one the students read for homework is Sidney's Renaissance poem, "My true love hath my heart". Next the students will look at (and watch an Illuminated Text of) the modern poem (which was loosely based on Sidney's) "i carry your heart" by e e cummings. The structure and evolution of the poems old & modern is compared to what happened with the development of architecture. The Sidney poem with its restrictive sonnet format is likened to a Gothic Cathedral - the cummings poem - free versed and untethered is compared to a modern church - such as one built by the king of form following function - Frank Lloyd Wright. Which is the more organic? And then when the students think they've got it figured out, I throw a wrench into their collective gears: "Is it possible that a restrictive form - can, in reality, be more freeing?"
So the overriding question that this poem asks is - does the form of a poem matter - and how does it matter? The first poem examined (the one the students read for homework is Sidney's Renaissance poem, "My true love hath my heart". Next the students will look at (and watch an Illuminated Text of) the modern poem (which was loosely based on Sidney's) "i carry your heart" by e e cummings. The structure and evolution of the poems old & modern is compared to what happened with the development of architecture. The Sidney poem with its restrictive sonnet format is likened to a Gothic Cathedral - the cummings poem - free versed and untethered is compared to a modern church - such as one built by the king of form following function - Frank Lloyd Wright. Which is the more organic? And then when the students think they've got it figured out, I throw a wrench into their collective gears: "Is it possible that a restrictive form - can, in reality, be more freeing?"