Homework Assignment for Representation Day 4

1) Diagram one of the following three poems, using the subordinate-superordinate structure we discussed in class. Note that you may need several diagrams or you may need to alter the original model (possibly with a "not"). You can draw the diagrams by hand.

2) Write a short, direct (i. e. no intro or conclusion) paragraph explaining how the metaphors in the poem work, that is, the overall strategy or strategies the poet uses in deploying them. Use correct grammar, punctuation, etc. and hand in on the due date.

While you can research these poems on the internet, that will not help you with this assignment, since it is based on specific terms I devised for our class.  Further, it will take away the fun of figuring out the poems on your own. Since there's no grade on this assignment (unless you fail to turn it in), focus on applying what we've learned in class and having fun.

 "Metaphors"

by Sylvia Plath

I'm a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,

A melon strolling on two tendrils.

O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!

This loaf's big with its yeasty rising.

Money's new-minted in this fat purse.

I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.

I've eaten a bag of green apples,

Boarded the train there's no getting off.

Sonnet  18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee

Harlem

BY LANGSTON HUGHES

What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

      Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags

      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?