Introduction to Chile; Pablo Neruda: 20 Love Songs and a Song of Despair; Poetry Presentation Project
Our next unit will discover Central and South American writers.
Today, we'll delve into Chile with the poetry master Pablo Neruda.
Brainstorming! (5 minutes)
- Alone, write down what YOU know about Chile.
- Then working with a partner, take a couple minutes to find out what you both know about Chile.
- If you run out of things to jot down, join another group of 2, until you all run out of things you know, then join another group, etc. until there are no other options left.
Let's go to the library to pick up his book 20 Love Songs and a Song of Despair, then return, learn about Chile and read some of Neruda's poems. Please also pick up The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson while we're at the library. You may begin reading this book if you have time this week. More info on the book will follow...
First, let's learn a little about Chile (15 Things You Didn't Know About Chile) (15 min.)
and the Geography of Chile (12 min.)
Chile has had several civil wars, the first in 1829-1831, the second in 1891, and more recently, the 1973 Chilean Coup (in 3 Minutes)
Period 2:
Pablo Neruda Poetry Videos/Reading:
- I Like You to Be Still (XV)
- If you Forget Me
- Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines (XX)
- And Now You're Mine
- Bird
- Lemon
- Ode to My Socks
- Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market
- Ode to the Onion
Pablo Neruda: Romance & Revolution (5 min.)
Indeed, as the video mentions, Neruda's poetry focuses on the simple, ordinary overlooked objects of our lives, natural landscapes, the supernatural, the human problem of longing, solitude, and political strife. He spent a good portion of his life in exile, returning to Chile in 1952. He ran for President in 1970, later agreeing to be Allende's advisor.
For more information about Pablo Neruda, you may find this documentary helpful...Pablo Neruda documentary (part one, you can find the other parts online as well.)
OUR TASK (Poetry Film):
Part 1: Select one of the 20 "love" poems in the collection and create a short poetry video that you will share with our class to celebrate Neruda's work.
- You should either read the poem out loud and record your vocal reading - or -
- Print the poem's lines to be clearly read along with your poetry video.
- Your poem presentation should, like the examples above, show images and photography that visually enhance the experience of reading the poem.
Part 2: Neruda reminds us that a poet's responsibility is to speak out against injustice. Fight for the ordinary moments of human life worth fighting for! To this end, create a poem of your own (this can be included in your visual poetry project, but by no means has to...) in which you speak out against injustice by writing about an ordinary object, describe a natural landscape, or examine the human problem of longing, solitude, and political strife. Use Neruda's style to inspire your own creative work. [Your final Neruda poem draft will be required in your quarter portfolio! but is NOT due necessarily when Part 1 is due.]
HOMEWORK: Read Pablo Neruda's 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Work on your poetry presentation (and/or original poem draft). This project will be shown to the class on Tuesday, Oct. 15. We will continue working on this project next class.
It's a good idea to record your voice and save the MP3 or MP4 to use as the background soundtrack for your film. We have 2 cameras you can use Wednesday (or today) to record your voice and create an MP3 for your film project.
Film Editing Software Apps that supposedly work with Chrome* (some of these may cost a small amount of $):
- KineMaster
- MovieSlate
- Filmic
- Adobe Premiere
- And then, of course, if you have an i-Phone you can use i-Movie; or if you need a computer app, we have MovieMaker and Adobe Premiere in our lab.
- If you know of better (and free) programs, please drop me a comment in the COMMENT section so we can share that knowledge.
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