Epistles; Summary Workshop

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Classroom:

Let's complete: "An Open Letter to Women Writers of Color" and respond to the letter.

Epistolary poems have been around since the Roman poets Horace and Ovid. Ovid wrote a series of fictional love letter poems from historical & mythological women in his cycle: Heroides. Court poets of the middle ages picked up on the idea and many Renaissance and Neoclassical poets used the form. Alexander Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot is just one example of many. The "letter" poem uses direct address and is often addressed to a named (or unnamed) audience. Read a few examples of the form:

Letter poems:

Langston Hughes: "Letter"
Dear Mama,
Time I pay rent and get my food
and laundry I don’t have much left
but here is five dollars for you
to show you I still appreciates you.
My girl-friend send her love and say
she hopes to lay eyes on you sometime in life.
Mama, it has been raining cats and dogs up
here. Well, that is all so I will close.
You son baby
Respectably as ever,
Joe
Elizabeth Bishop: "Letter to NY"
William Carlos Williams: "This is Just to Say"
Hayden Carruth: "The Afterlife: Letter to Sam Hamill"
Kevin C. Powers: "Letter Composed During a Lull In the Fighting"
Jack Spicer: "Letter to Gary Bottone"
Rebecca Lindenberg: "Letter to a Friend: Unsent"
Tupac: "Dear Mama"

Steve Martin

Here are some more epistolary poem samples from Poets.org

Write a letter poem/story. Make a list of who might write the letter and who might receive it. Think outside the box. Ex. a letter to an open box.

Summary Workshop

Review each other's The Namesake summaries. Offer ideas based on these points:
  1. Is the summary accurate and complete?
  2. Does it include all the author’s main points?
  3. Are they in the right order?
  4. Did you remember not to include details, examples, your opinions, and information that isn’t in the original selection?
  5. Did you write the summary in your own words?
  6. Did you use transitions so that it reads smoothly?
  7. If someone else read your summary, would they see and be able to understand all of the important points the author presented in the original selection? 
  8. Did you write in complete sentences, with proper syntax, sentence structure, grammar, and mechanics for college or professional writing?
Use the rubric for summaries to provide feedback and grade your peers on their work. Discuss with peers your observations and suggest ways to strengthen the summary. 

HOMEWORK: Complete Gogol's "The Overcoat." Answer 3 of the 9 questions to hand in for participation credit next class.

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