Sestina Example #1

"Six Kinds of Noodles"
by Stephen Burt

You would have to have been reading John Ashbery
to have seen anything like this in a book,
and yet here it is in real life:
an almost already intelligible tangle
of verities, and an intimidating menu,
disfigured, almost, by all the things you can have

at once, though all are noodles. Have
you, too, been trying to keep up with John Ashbery?
Every time I check there's another new book,
another entry—entrée—on the menu
from which I seem to have ordered my whole life,
and been served somebody else's. Don't tangle

with waiters here is my advice; the rectangle
of mirrorlike soy sauce, the soba you have to have
and the udon you lack should suffice: the secret of life—
as you might have sought, or discovered, in Ashbery—
is what you get while you are waiting. Men, you
see, are mortal, and live to end up in a book,

though once you compiled and published such a book,
who would be left to read it? The latest angle
claims that it would be more like a menu,
an ashen, Borgesian checklist of all you could have
or have had to pay for, or suffer, or notice. Ashbery
could write that (I think it's in Flow Chart). And yet the life

we long for in all its disorder is not a life
of so many tastes, nor of fame; more like one good book,
and ginger with which to enjoy it. Jeffrey Skinner's poem entitled "John Ashbery"
and David Kellogg's "Being John Ashbery" both take the angle
that eminence is what matters. No. We have
had enough of fighting over the menu,

as if it were the main course; the omen you
seek, the bitter-lime tang of a happy life
to come, curls up amid the semolina or buckwheat you have
not chosen yet. Will it be prepared by the book?
Will it do for Kitchen Stadium? Its newfangle-
ness may be a virtue, Iron Chef Chen Kenichi, Auden, and Ashbery

all suggest, though hard to find here without help from Ashbery:
it's a problem with which I have tangled all my life,
and I'm so hungry I could eat a book, though none are listed on this menu.

Idioms from A to Z

You will be responsible for understanding the idioms listed below. To study them, look up their definitions at the following website: http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/ (you can cut and paste this URL into another window).

These are the idioms you must remember for next week:

a little bird told me
Achilles' heel
all hat, no cattle
all the tea in China
ants in your pants
apple of your eye
asleep at the wheel
ballpark figure
barfly
beat around the bush
between a rock and a hard place
Big Apple
birthday suit
blow a gasket
burn the midnight oil
cat nap
cold feet
drive [someone] up the wall
eager beaver
eat humble pie
elephant in the room
eye for an eye
face the music
fairweather friend
flash in the pan
food for thought
grab the bull by its horns
graveyard shift
heads will roll
in one ear out the other
in the doghouse
keep your eyes on the ball
kid gloves
light at the end of the tunnel
miss the boat
my hands are tied
not my cup of tea
on the tip of your tongue
once bitten, twice shy
paint the town red
put your foot in your mouth
quiet as a mouse
rack your brain
rank and file
ring a bell
sacred cow
throw in the towel
true blue
upper hand
vicious circle
wake-up call
writing on the wall
X factor
yellow press
you scratch my back and I scratch yours
zero tolerance (note: this can relate to zero tolerance for anything; not only crime)

Debate Information

Over the next few weeks, we will hold in-class debates. Students will be divided into two teams on each side. The speaking order will be as follows:

Opening Arguments
1st Proposition Speaker... 4 minutes
1st Opposition Speaker... 4 minutes
2nd Proposition... 4 minutes
2nd Opposition... 4 minutes

Summary (Rebuttal-no new arguments)
3rd Opposition... 3 minutes
3rd Proposition... 3 minutes

The proposition team will present a topic for debate. They can choose from the following list of issues, or they can choose another topic of their choice (but run it by me first...). Here are some sample topics:

-Good things come to those who wait.
-It is better to save time than money.
-Love is foolish.
-Conventionality is not morality
-Technology is killing our work ethic.
-"History" is not "her story."
-Dogs are better pets for humankind than cats.
-The students should run the school.
-Privacy is more important than security.
-There is, in this age, a dearth of heroes.
-Society today has an unhealthy obsession with sports.
-What costs little is of little worth.
-"Ex's" should not remain friends.
-Freedom of the individual is a myth.
-Art is in the eye of the beholder.

If you would like more background on academic debate, see the following article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debate.

Group Project: Fix That Song (due Nov. 2)

The words that follow are the words to an actual song. Unfortunately, the words have become a bit mixed up. Your assignment is to take these words and make a new song. It does not matter if the new song lines are similar to the old song--all that matters is that the song should be put together using correct English. Try your best to use each words once and to use only the words contained below (but you can add extra words if you absolutely have to). Work together in a group of 2 to 4 people (but no more). Bring your song lines to our next class.


don't forget
piece of gum
brought
cried
Jamaican
never
said
rum
when
then
waste
and then
deaf
everybody
leave
went back
something
then
loved
she
give
thumbs
don't
in the dirt
screamed
her
spit
waste
must
I
buttoned
just
until
and
that
waited
everyone
else
but
she
gallantly
breaking
I
and
when
face
some
for
she
said
it was
stood
my
drum
your
clear
handed
very
out
hummed
where
tried
after
did
what
words
come
that
much
covered
it
eyes
said
for
she
took
her
shoe
they
are
something
and
tapped
get
felt
hallway
better
sense
leaned
was
she
on
through
outside
lies
back
there
how
her
last
worked
crutch
my
straightened
said
and
forgotten
her
wheelchair
got
stood
you
up
suit
picture
left
I
hands
to
they
asked
don't
so
she
walked
shirt
I
get
boot
my
got
and
forced
my
threw
went
floor
cute
my
finding
until
pockets
with
she
knocked
get
it
dear
against
gum
face
drawer
thought
fell
filled
words
and
I
up
crutch
to
you
me
then
took
my
was
time
asked
don't
never
when
I
was
now
and

Poems

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?

-Langston Hughes

----------

The people upstairs all practice ballet
Their living room is a bowling alley
Their bedroom is full of conducted tours.
Their radio is louder than yours,
They celebrate week-ends all the week.
When they take a shower, your ceilings leak
They try to get their parties to mix
By supplying their guests with Pogo sticks,
And when their fun at last abates,
They go to the bathroom on roller skates.
I might love the people upstairs more
If only they lived on another floor.

-Ogden Nash

-----------

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

-Stephen Crane

--------

I make a pact with you, Walt Whitman--
I have detested you long enough.
I come to you as a grown child
Who has a pig-headed father;
I am old enough now to make friends
It was you that broke the new wood,
Now is a time for carving.
We have one sap and one root--
Let there be commerce between us.

-Ezra Pound

---------

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,

"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.

Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,

None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."


"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,

"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.

But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,

So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."


All along the watchtower, princes kept the view

While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.


Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,

Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

-Bob Dylan

--------

No labor-saving machine,
Nor discovery have I made,
Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to found a hospital or library,
Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage for America,
Nor literary success nor intellect, nor book for the book-shelf,
But a few carols vibrating through the air I leave,
For comrades and lovers.

-Walt Whitman