Get ready for confusing homework hence / Sir Shakespeare's rhyme scheme takes some time to crack!

Originally posted 11/14/11.

For the last couple of years, I've had to spend most late Fall—early Spring mornings walking nearly a mile to  TAPA, in the (typically wet/cold) Taipei Winter rain. I hate that. So gross. Maybe my least favorite moments of my time in Taiwan.

That's part of the reason I was so excited to get a scooter is that I would no longer have to make the death march in the terrible weather. A great example of that was this evening, when, in the nastiness, I was able to speed home, still drenched, but at least in less than 5 minutes. Awesome. It was this epic joy I felt in my heart that I decided to compose a Shakespearean Sonnet to this love:

  u       /      u          /            u         /        u      /      u      /
My scooter's paint job's nothing like a Benz;    [A]
  u       /           u       /        u         /             u       /       u       /
its scuffs and scratches prove that it's been used.    [B]
  u       /      u        /   u      /     u           /        u         /
The Harley of a wealthy man who spends    [A]
  u            /      u          /    u      /      u      /            u     /
looks perfect next to my machine, abused.    [B]

  u         /      u     /   u     /     u      /      u      /
The engine of a Harley Davidson    [C]
  u        /  u   /       u        /        u      /      u      /
Will easily outwork my motorbike.    [D]
  u       /          u          /   u    /      u      /        u      /
A brand new Yamaha, so fast, so fun,    [C]
  u    /      u            /      u         /        u      /      u      /
Is nowhere near to what my motor's like.    [D]

  u           /      u          /           u         /        u      /      u       /
Yet thine two-wheel'ed steed dost daily move    [E]
  u             /          u      /    u       /        u       /         u       /
Miss Webb and I betwixt our home to school.    [F]
  u            /    u          /        u         /    u     /      u          /
While other bikes more valuable may prove,    [E]
  u        /       u      /     u        /     u      /       u         /
For transportation's value, it's my jewel.    [F]

  u       /       u      /        u         /      u          /      u      /
So let's go get some money from the bank    [G]
  u       /               u            /        u     /      u      /      u      /
Because you've earned a fill-up of your tank.    [G]

OK, how about this? Is it a true Shakespearean sonnet after all? I'd go with yes:

• It's lyrical (i.e. not telling a story).
• It's 14-lines long.
• The entire thing is written in iambic pentameter.*
• It has the English (Shakespearean) rhyme scheme of ABAB / CDCD / EFEF / GG.
• It has 2 different thematic sections with a turn in the middle:
• First 8 lines: My scooter sucks in many ways.
• Last 6 lines: My scooter is awesome in many ways, and I will reward it (with gas).

Can you guess where this is going? If you guessed "HEY TEACH-AH, ARE WE GOING TO MAKE OUR OWN SONNETLAAAAAS?", then yes, you guessed right.

So here's the plan: starting today (for A-Day classes) and tomorrow (for B-Day classes), you'll be working on writing 14-line sonnets about something you have a love/hate relationship with. You'll need to write in iambic pentameter with a defined rhyme scheme (i.e. Italian ABBA/ABBA/CDECDE or Italian ABBA/ABBA/CDCDCD or English ABAB/CDCD/EFEF/GG—you pick!). Also, you'll need to make sure you label both the meter and word stresses and the rhyme scheme.

OH, and, just for an added bonus, I'll give extra points to my, let's say, top 3 favorite sonnets in both classes. You have one week to get this project done, so it'll be due at the beginning of Week of Prayer. Get started!

*One line I really had to get creative with: "two-wheel'ed." That's pronounced in 3 syllables. It's cheating, but whatever. I'm cool. I can do it.

Get a leg up on some extra credit by guessing the color

WARNING: Not necessarily
this year's bathroom slips.

A good guess on what hue Mr. Webb's bathroom slips will be this year might net you a few extra credit points before the semester even starts. Be the first to give the correct color as a comment to this post and, instead of 5 passes, you'll get 8. Only one response per student, please.

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Simple rules:

1. Guesses must be made as a comment to this post.
2. Only one guess per student.
3. If a comment has more than one color, only the first one will count as a guess. So no guessing EVERY color.
4. Must be specific (i.e. "light black", "dark white," etc.)

The best of bad poetry: check out BritLit's apostrophes!

2 weeks ago, I assigned British Lit students a project of writing apostrophes, or poems directed to an inanimate object. I was pleasantly pleased with what I got back, so I'm sharing them all with you (below). In addition to this, I announced that I'd be giving extra points to the best "worst" poetry between the two classes, so check out my two losers winners, Angela and WinWin!

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A-Day		B-Day
Andrew Angela T. [Worst] Cynthia Emily H. Emmanuel Enoch Esther Florence	Ivy Jason Kevin Y. Linda Nadia Sean Tristan	Beverly David T. Elaine Jane Justin Kotomi Michael Sky	Tim Timmy WinWin [Worst]

And the winner(s) of Best Sonnet in Brit Lit is...

I had some really hard decisions to make regarding which of your Shakespearean sonnets were my favorites. With the exception of a few, everyone did a really really great job on these, and I wanted to congratulate you on getting something down that many people struggle with! It seems like, between making the Show Me videos writing these, you have Shakespearean poetry pretty down!

I've already spilled that three of my favorite sonnets were written by Vivien, Yalisa, and Beverly, so I'm going to give them extra points for melting my brains with their work. I also want to add the sonnets of Enoch, Jason, Andrew, Tim, and WinWin to the mix. These five sonnets also really stood out as being great examples of iambic pentameter and English sonnet rhyme scheme. Please, if you haven't, go check their work and see some epic poetry! 10 point extra credit for each of them!

And for those of you who aren't happy about your sonnet grades, you can absolutely keep working on them and resubmit, and I'll gladly regrade them and give you a better score! So get working!

The Sonnet Bar = Raised.

Jackie Chan looks like he read your sonnets.

Last week, I told some of the British Lit classes that last year, we had a few pretty good examples of original Shakespearean sonnets, but also, some not-so-good examples, and I hoped that this year, students could do a bit better.

W

O

W

The assignment is not due until tomorrow morning, but I've already got 3 amazing examples of sonnets from Vivien, Yalisa, and Beverly. I literally could not believe how incredible these sonnets were. PLEASE, if you have 5 minutes, check these things out this evening. I'm completely amazed by what these 3 ladies did, and I now have faith in the rest of you doing even better than what I'd expected before!

Put Shakespeare into action: insult your friends with Elizabethan invective

invective [in-VEK-tiv] — noun

1. vehement or violent denunciation, censure, or reproach.
2. a railing accusation; vituperation.
3. an insulting or abusive word or expression.

Reason #432 that life was better in the time of Shakespeare than today: instead of naughty curse words (like @#$% or &@%#$* or whatever you kids are saying nowadays), people used to use invective to curse out their enemies. Neatorama, one of my favorite blogs, recently shared a cheat sheet on how to blast someone, Shakespeare-style. Feel free to create your own epic invective and refer to your friends as such for the rest of the day, and post your favorite combination in the comments.



I'm a huge fan of loggerheaded beef-witted strumpet, for what it's worth.

Do you pay attention to my blog?

I was just wondering that a few minutes ago, so I decided to do an experiment:

The first 5 students to leave the definition of the word "ping" (as related to computers) as a comment on this post will get extra credit.

Go.