Recognizing Beliefs

Here are the videos and pictures from the "Recognizing Belief PPT." As you look through these ask yourself, what do you think the person who created this is trying to show about what they believe?

"This I Believe"

"This I Believe" began in the 1950's as a radio program that featured essays from famous politicians, corporate leaders, teachers, and even high school students being read by their authors. These essays explored core beliefs about faith, life, or whatever was of utmost importance to the writer. Throughout our upcoming unit we will study these essays to determine how authors use specific narrative details and their own author's voice to create dynamic and interesting writing. Each of you will then have the opportunity to write a narrative essay of your own where you can share your most steadfast beliefs.

Continue to check this blog regularly for updates about the unit and links to various resources.

Click on any of the links below to find out more about "This I Believe" or to check out some of the essays.

This I Believe Official Site

"Finding Prosperity by Feeding Monkeys" by Harold Taw

"Be Cool to the Pizza Delivery Dude" by Sarah Adams

"A Duty to Heal" by Pius Kamau

"There is No God" by Penn Jillette

"The God Who Embraced Me When Daddy Disappeared" by John Fountain
"The Connection between Strangers" by Miles Goodwin

Romanticism Blog Class Links

Here are the links to the Romanticism blogs for all of you to check out. Feel free to explore your classmate's blogs and those of other periods. Also, if something strikes you on another blog, make a comment about it. Start a conversation and connect with each other.

The names and URL's have been taken directly from the memos submitted by each group. As you can see, some groups have the exact same name for their blogs. If this is true of your group, I would highly recommend renaming your blog to something more interesting than just the poet's name. If something has changed (blog name, URL, etc), or if your blog does not appear on this list please email me.

A1:
Coleridge Comberbache; the Man of Two Names

Time to Meet Percy Bysshe Shelley AKA Alyck.
We Love Boys, Especially William Blake
Percy Shelley
Wordzworth 4 Eva
Will Blake Blog?
The Best of Blake

Romantic Poet William Blake

A3:
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Byron's Club
Lord Byron
A Pot of Basil
Blake's Prophecies Revealed
The Blake Blog that is Better then the Best “Blake Blog”

A4:
All About Blake
Coleridge Symbolism and Meanings
William Blake and His Poetry
Different Perspectives on Samuel Coleridge's Poetry
A teenager's view on the works of William Blake

The Young Person's View on William Wordsworth

B5:
The Life and Work of John Keats
Wordsworthians
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: A Tribute to William Blake

The Poems of John Keats

The Rime of a Mariner

The Headless Boyfriend

B7:
John Keats
Lord Byron; c'est la vie
William Wordsworth's "The Thorn"
William Blake's Art and Poetry
Blake's Short Titillations
Blake is My Homie

"The Book of Urizen" - Articles

A lot has been said about this poem. Below are a couple articles about different aspects of "The Book of Urizen":

"Evil and Urizen: William Blake's Visions of a Demiurge - A fantastic article that provides a great breakdown of the poem as well as an interesting interpretation of the relationship of faith and science throughout it.

"The Book of Urizen" Commentary by Nicolas Barker - In addition to providing some great background on Blake's artistic techniques, Barker explains how the poem fits with Blake's other works. He also gets into some of the differences of the eight original copies of the poem.

"The Book of Urizen" - Art and music mashup

Check out this combination of music and Blake's plates for "The Book of Urizen."

"The Book of Urizen" - Plates

Here are several of Blake's handmade plates for "The Book of Urizen":

These images were retrieved from:

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/B/blake.html#images

http://facstaff.uww.edu/hoganj/contents.htm

http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/public/urizen.G.P5.detail.jpg

Soundtrack Ideas

Listening to music while doing a close reading of a poem or story can be either beneficial or an unnecessary distraction. The difference lies in the nature or style of the music you choose as a background. Generally, you should never listen to anything that contains words while reading or writing. This may seem strange, but in reality the words being sung around you will steal some of the focus away from the words you are trying to read or write. To test this, try writing a paper while having a spoken conversation with someone and see how easy it is to create quality work. Also, your music choice should reflect the mood of whatever it is you are working on. Listening to something incredibly poppy and happy may not mix well with gothic poetry. No matter what style of music you enjoy, I can pretty much guarantee there is a group or artist that specializes in instrumental versions of that genre. There are instrumental hip hop, rock, metal, electronica, pop groups out there, you may just need to do some research to track them down. And don't forget about the abundance of jazz and classical music out there that has no words.

Need help discovering these types of artists? Many of you already know about Pandora, a free online radio station that builds a personal playlist for you based on bands or songs that you provide it. This site is a great way to discover new music while at the same time providing a free and appropriate musical background.

Soundtrack suggestion for "The Book of Urizen": Should be dark, epic, and probably rock based.

Bands:

This Will Destroy You

Explosions in the Sky

Isis (there are background vocals but they are almost impossible to understand)