Thursday, September 19 My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

Class blog: parkerenglish3-19-20.blogspot.com

1. I can cite evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including where the text leaves matters uncertain. 

2. I can determine the meanings of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; I can use context to determine possible meanings of unfamiliar words or expressions. 
3. I can draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

Coming up: Hamlet vocabulary 1 on Tuesday, September 24. Another copy below. 

Missing a vocabulary quiz? You have 10 days after a legal absence to make this up. You may come in any time during the day or after school. Just tell me when.

In class: a little side step: Elizabeth Barret and Robert Browning, a great love story and love poem. 

Graphic organizer for My Last Duchess  by Robert Browning (class handout / copy below) There are 27 reponses to that directly connect to the text.  We will begin working on the material as a group, but you will continue independently.
You are responsible to have completed the first page by the start of class on Friday. That is is having carefully understood the questions that encompass the poem through lines 6/7.

Sonnets from the Portuguese, written ca. 1845–1846 and published first in 1850

Then back to My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

Please take out your copy from yesterday. We will listen to it one more time, before moving on.

my last duchess dramatic monologue 3;43

Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

Sonnets from the Portuguese #43 

BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

**********************************************************

Name__________________________________ My Last Duchess by Robert Browning

My Last Duchess  by Robert Browning

 Duchess (n.) – the wife or widow of a duke (the male ruler of a duchy; the sovereign of a small

state)

 Frà (n.) – a title given to an Italian monk or friar (a Catholic man who has withdrawn from the

world for religious reasons)

THAT’S my last Duchess painted on the wall,       Looking as if she were alive. I call              That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands.         Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said                    5 “Frà Pandolf” by design, for never read Strangers like you that pictured countenance,    The depth and passion of its earnest glance,       But to myself they turned (since none puts by   The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)         10 And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,             How such a glance came there; so, not the first Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not          Her husband’s presence only, called that spot    Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek: perhaps                       15 Frà Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps      Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint             Must never hope to reproduce the faint               Half-flush that dies along her throat:” such stuff                Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough          20 For calling up that spot of joy. She had   A heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad.               Too easily impressed: she liked whate’er              She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.              Sir, ’twas all one! My favor at her breast,                      25 The dropping of the daylight in the West,             The bough of cherries some officious fool            Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule      She rode with round the terrace—all and each  Would draw from her alike the approving speech,     30          Or blush, at least. She thanked men,—good! but thanked Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked   My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name          With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame         This sort of trifling? Even had you skill             35 In speech—(which I have not)—to make your will            Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this     Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,           Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let           Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set           40 Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,  —E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose         Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,     Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without              Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;   45                        Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands         As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet       The company below, then. I repeat,       The Count your master’s known munificence Is ample warrant that no just pretense          50 Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;     Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed         At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go    Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,    Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,              55 Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

1.       List the specific words that are used to describe the Duchess and what this suggests about the relationship with the narrator. 2.       What does the Duke mean by “that piece” (line 3)       3.       What words indicate Frà Pandolf’s career? 4.       To whom is the Duke speaking? 5.       Reread the first 8 lines. Who else is speaking? 6.       To what is the Duke referring when he says ‘that pictured countenance” in line 7? 7.       Explain what the stranger “read[s]” in lines 6–7, “for never read / Strangers like you that pictured countenance.” What might read mean here? 8.       What are some words that the Duke uses to describe the “glance” in line 8? 9.       Reread the poem independently 10.   This is a dramatic monologue. Drama means story; hence contains literary elements. a.       Who are the characters in the poem? b.      Write a summary of the plot? 11.   Paraphrase the lines “Strangers like you always ask me, if they dare, how the Duchess came to look that way in the portrait.” 12.   Give two reasons that the the Duke might mention Frà Pandolf twice in the first six lines of the poem? 13.   In line 11, what do the words “if they durst” suggest about the Duke’s view of himself? 14.   What does the Duke imply when he uses the word “only” in line 14? 15.   What does the phrase “that spot of joy” suggest about the Duchess? What does the Duke imply in lines 15–19 might have caused such an expression?  16.   What does the Duke imply when he remarks that, “such stuff / Was courtesy she thought, and cause enough / For calling up that spot of joy” (lines 19–21)?  17.   Reread lines 21–22: “She had a heart—how shall I say?—too soon made glad / Too easily impressed…” What is the effect of the repetition in these lines? Respond in a complete sentence. 18.   What does the Duke mean by “the dropping of daylight in the West” (line 26)? 19.   What does the Duke mean when he claims the Duchess’s “looks went everywhere”? 19. 20.   What does the Duke mean by the “gift of a nine-hundred years old name” (line 32)? And 20. From the Duke’s perspective, how does the Duchess value this gift? 21.   What might the Duke mean when he states, “I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together” in lines 45–46? 21. 22.   How does the repetition of the phrase “as if alive” in lines 2 and 47 impact the poem? 23.   The word object: a.       What does the word object mean in line 53? b.      What other meaning does the word object have? c.       What is the impact of Browning’s choice to use the word object in this line? c. 24.   What does the Duke ask the listener to “notice” as they go downstairs? 24.

*****************************************************************************

Hamlet vocabulary 1  Quiz on Tuesday, September 24

1.   auspicious (adjective)- giving a sign of future success

2.   resolute (adjective)-determined, unwavering

3.   mettle (noun)-courage; mettle (verb)- to interfere

4.   dirge (noun)- funeral song

5.   to usurp (verb)- take the place of (someone in a position of power) illegally

6.   to entreat (verb)- ask someone earnestly or anxiously to do something.

7.   to assail (verb)to attack or to criticize

8.   discretion (noun)- the quality of behaving or speaking in such a way as to avoid causing offense or revealing private information.

9.   portentous (adjective)-ominous, fateful

10.                     to ratify (verb)- sign or give formal consent to (a treaty, contract, or agreement), making it officially valid.