The agenda covers American Romantic literature topics including collecting writing assignments, a lecture on American Romantics, analyzing Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" through terms and active reading, and assigning homework on additional terms and re-reading the poem in preparation for next class.

1. Agenda for Tuesday, November 1
1. Opener: Research papers
collected & Writing Journal
Entry (20 min.)
2. Lecture: Intro to American
Romantics (20 min.)
3. “The Raven” (35 min.)
o Tier 3 Terms
o Class Read & Model Active
Reading
4. Homework (Remaining Time)

2. AP English 11 Your Name
JE? November 1, 2011
1. Identify an event in your life (or in another’s life observed
by you) during which a situation that was at first
“marginally annoying” escalated until a breaking point
was reached and it (a person, place, thing, situation)
became maddening.
2. Craft a descriptive paragraph in which you describe the
situation:
• Describe the participants (yourself and someone else)
in this exasperating exchange. What happened?
• What was annoying about the interaction?
• What contributed to raising your anxiety level?
• How did the situation resolve itself and was the
resolution satisfying to you?
o You have only a limited amount of time to write this entry
so work smart 

3. The Romantic Period of American Literature
o The "Romantic Period" refers to literary and cultural
movements in England, Europe, and America roughly from
1770 to 1860.
o Romantic writers (and artists) saw themselves as revolting
against the "Age of Reason" (1700-1770) and its values.
o They celebrated
• imagination/intuition versus reason/calculation,
• spontaneity versus control
• subjectivity and metaphysical musing versus objective fact
• revolutionary energy versus tradition
• individualism versus social conformity
• democracy versus monarchy, and so on.
o American Romantics tend to venerate Nature as a sanctum
of non-artificiality, where the Self can fulfill its potential
(the earlier Puritans tended to see nature as the fallen
"wilderness," full of "savage" Indians). American Romantics
also champion spiritual intuition or self-reliant
individualism.

4. Key Elements of Romantic American Literature
1. Belief in natural goodness of man, that man in a state of
nature would behave well but is hindered by civilization.
o The figure of the "Noble Savage" is an outgrowth of this
idea. In literature, an idealized concept of uncivilized
man, who symbolizes the innate goodness of one not
exposed to the corrupting influences of civilization
2. Sincerity, spontaneity, and faith in emotion as markers of
truth.
o Doctrine of sensibility: A thing may be considered in two
ways: as it presents itself as an object to our sensibility
(thing as it appears) and as it is apart from its relation to
sensibility (thing in itself).
3. Belief that what is special in a man is to be valued over what
is representative; delight in self-analysis.
4. Nature as a source of instruction, delight, and nourishment
for the soul; return to nature as a source of inspiration and
wisdom; celebration of man’s connection with nature; life in
nature often contrasted with the unnatural constraints of
society.
5. Affirmation of the values of democracy and the freedom of
the individual.
o Jacksonian Democracy: the political movement toward
greater democracy for the common man typified by
American politician Andrew Jackson and his supporters.

5. Key Elements of Romantic American Literature
6. High value placed on finding connection with fresh,
spontaneous in nature and self.
7. Aspiration after the sublime and the wonderful, that
which transcends mundane limits.
8. In art, the sublime, the grotesque, the picturesque,
and the beautiful with a touch of strangeness valued
above the Neoclassical principles of order, proportion,
and decorum.
o Neoclassicism is a literary movement of the 17th and
18th centuries that stressed the importance of using
ancient Greek and Roman (the Classical period)
literature as a guide for creation and criticism.
o The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century
American art movement embodied by a group of
landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was
influenced by romanticism.
9. Interest in the “antique”: medieval tales and forms,
ballads, Norse and Celtic mythology; the Gothic.
10.Belief in perfectibility of man; spiritual force
immanent not only in nature but in mind of man.
11.Belief in organicism rather than Neoclassical rules;
development of a unique form in each work.

6. Symbolism?
White Bird
Gold Sunset
Characters, settings and objects all carry symbolic value!

7. Symbolism
o Usually a symbol is something concrete – such as an
object, action, character, or scene – that represents
something more abstract. However, symbols and
symbolism can be much more complex.
a) Conventional symbols: those symbols that have
been invested with meaning by a group
b) Natural symbols: are objects and occurrences
from nature to represent ideas commonly
associated with them
c) Literary symbols: are sometimes also
conventional in the sense that they are found in a
variety of works and are generally recognized

8. Allusion
• An allusion is a figure of speech that
makes a reference to, or
representation of, a place, event,
literary work, myth, or work of art,
either directly or by implication
• An audience’s ability to identify an
allusion is dependent on the breadth
and depth of their background
knowledge
• Sword of Damocles: n. Constant
threat; imminent peril
• From this story are two morals: First,
"Uneasy rests the head that wears the
crown." Second, and perhaps more
prophetically, "The value of the sword
is not that it fall, but rather, that it
hangs."

9. “The Raven”
by Edgar Allan Poe

11. “The Raven” Assigned Activities
1. Define the following ten (10) Tier 2. Code stanzas 10—18:
2 terms in your reading journal: o Assonance
o Surcease (2) o Alliteration
o Obeisance (7) o Internal rhyme
o Mein (7) • You may use the “The
o Decorum (8) Interactive Raven” at
o Countenance (8) http://www.teachersfirst.co
m/lessons/raven/
o Ungainly (9)
3. Identify the key stanzas which
o Divining (13)
best fill the narrative role of:
o Seraphim (14)
o Exposition (initial)
o Respite (14)
o Rising action
o Pallid (18)
o Climax
o Falling action
o Resolution

12. Homework Due Next Class
1) Re-read “The Raven,” complete assigned
activities and anticipate a “book free”
comprehension check
2) Add the following Tier 3 terms to Rhetoric
Card deck: Symbolism, Conventional
symbols, Natural symbols, Literary symbols,
Assonance