Domination of Black

At night, by the fire,
The colors of the bushes
And of the fallen leaves,
Repeating themselves,
Turned in the room,
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
Yes: but the color of the heavy hemlocks
Came striding.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

The colors of their tails
Were like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
In the twilight wind.
They swept over the room,
Just as they flew from the boughs of the hemlocks
Down to the ground.
I heard them cry -- the peacocks.
Was it a cry against the twilight
Or against the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind,
Turning as the flames
Turned in the fire,
Turning as the tails of the peacocks
Turned in the loud fire,
Loud as the hemlocks
Full of the cry of the peacocks?
Or was it a cry against the hemlocks?

Out of the window,
I saw how the planets gathered
Like the leaves themselves
Turning in the wind.
I saw how the night came,
Came striding like the color of the heavy hemlocks
I felt afraid.
And I remembered the cry of the peacocks.

Wallace Stevens
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What do you think? Why is everything compared to everything else? What do you think the title means?

poems

After looking at "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman and part of "I am the Walrus" (Beatles/Lennon), what do you think? What was Whitman talking about? Why was he celebrating himself?

Term 1 Done!

Wow... you've conquered some grammar, short stories, a novel, reading & writing tasks, blog assignments, and portfolio presentations! Our next units will focus on poetry, another novel (The Pigman), and some work with writing styles. In the mean time, let's get some cross-traffic going on our blogs... post a comment on a couple of the other class blogs. Also, what do you want to get out of the second half of English 9? (opportunity for you to comment here)

The Wave Response

Wave response assignment located here is you missed it in class.

Question: What actual lesson do you think the students at Gordon High learned? Do you think it was the same lesson Mr. Ross intended? (click on comments if you'd like to respond)