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[Fanyi]

Run a literature English Corner once a week during lunch for my students here in Xiamen. Last week we went over Shakespeare's Sonnet 29, however, was stumped by one of my students who asked me to put the whole poem into meter (look online, the poem is mostly iambic pentameter but has some lines that stray from this).

Had some time tonight, did some research, and found what looks like a fantastic site for learning/teaching Shakespeare and other poets: http://prosody.lib.virginia.edu/materials/poems/sonnet-29/#reference_scansion . The site provides an interactive copy of each poem, and above each line you can mark stressed/unstressed syllables by clicking your mouse. First click= '/' (stressed), second click = 'u' (unstressed) . To check whether your stress is correct, you click the little up-down arrow next to the line.There's also a more thorough explanation of how all this works under 'Instructions', accessed from the same page.

However... I've completely failed at putting the first line of the sonnet into meter! Either I don't understand the line's meter correctly, or this website has some serious problems. Iambic pentameter should be lines split up into 10 syllables, which are further divided into 5 unstressed-stressed groups of 2 syllables (feet) (tell me if I'm wrong) . So according to my understanding (with caps indicating stress), the first line should read "when IN disGRACE with FORtune AND men's EYES" . The website gives me a yellow arrow for this, which apparently means something like 'technically right, but with interpretative errors.' Have tried different combinations for an hour for this first line, and have yet to find the right one.

Big thanks to anyone who can figure out how the site would like this line's stress to be written or who know for sure that this problem a site error. So that you know, the site does give me a green (correct) arrow for the second line (i ALL aLONE beWEEP my OUTcast STATE), so the site is definitely not completely broken.

In a similar vein, anybody else run a similar kind of English Corner/elective class?

[Non Sequitur]

I take it that your students are English majors.
If so great.
When I've taught English majors the school has shown no interest at all in involving FTs in the literature side.
In fact in my first year I didn't know that the English majors studied literature, until one student asked me about Shylock.

[cps82856]

Try this Power Point, esp. slides 10-12. (The author's main website here). Looks to me like you've scanned it correctly.

I've done The Sonnets before, starting with an intro to Bill S. class then a class or two on the elements of poetry/sonnets. (The dancing and banging on desks part went well.) Then I had a random draw and each student had to memorize one sonnet to recite. Then they were given a couple of weeks to write their own. The first time I did it was for a class of sophomores. They worked really hard on it, but I think they were a bit overwhelmed. I'm at a different uni and have juniors this year and am thinking of trying it again. Their level seems higher and they are a lot more mature.

Others may disagree, but I think, for English majors, having at least a shaking-hands acquaintance with The Bard is as vital as learning about Confucius would be for anyone studying Chinese culture. So, good on you for giving them that exposure.

[Fanyi]

Thanks for the .ppt link! Looks like a great tool, AND slide 10 clears up why the U Virginia website indicated problems with the way I scanned Lines 5 and 6. However, still trying to figure out line 1, I'm assuming that there's a reason why the U Virginia site I listed in the OP does not accept my scan of line 1?

I'm doing these poems with high school kids- have set up a literature English Corner during lunch time once a week. Teach about 600 kids in oral English classes, and usually 5-10 of the more motivated kids show up each week for literature English Corner. Some of them can handle these poems/sonnets really well (one of them has already scored a 109 on the TOEFL), but others obviously struggle with them more.

[Denim-Maniac]

[FreakingTea]