Self-Aware American Comic of the Day

Literary Devices at work in Walden Alliteration: storm as the smooth reflecting surface Assonance: how far apart/ sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me/along the stony shore of the pond Consonance: sort of space is that which separates

Alliteration the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words Example: Nature’s first green is gold

Assonance repetition of vowel sounds to create internal rhyming within phrases or sentences Example: Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.

Consonance repetitive sounds produced by consonants within a sentence or phrase Example: To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?

What makes a piece “transcendental”?

“Solitude” As we read, review the sentences you wrote down for homework. What is Thoreau saying in this excerpt? How is his message here especially transcendental?

“The Pond in Winter” As we read, review the sentences you wrote down for homework. What is Thoreau saying in this excerpt? How is his message here especially transcendental?

“Spring”

Spot the Alliteration, Assonance, or Consonance in Each:

The ice in the pond at length begins to be honey-combed, and I can see my heel in it as I walk. Fogs and rains and warmer suns are gradually melting the snow; the days have grown sensibly longer…

The change from storm and winter to serene and mild weather, from dark and sluggish hours to bright and elastic ones…

Suddenly an influx of light filled my house, though the evening was at hand, and the clouds of winter sill over hung it…

Reflecting a summer evening sky in its bosom, though none was visible overhead, as if it had intelligence with some remote horizon…

I am on the alert for the first signs of spring

The striped squirrel’s chirp, for his stores must be now nearly exhausted, or see the woodchuck venture out of his winter quarters…

Homework 1. Read the conclusion of Walden (making note of lines and phrases you especially like or think would be useful in writing your poem) 2. Complete the following journal entry: Choose any of the follow forms: A letter to Mr. Keating An introduction to a book on Thoreau A eulogy for Neil And express the grain of truth Thoreau writes on that you find most important (Make sure your work here is presentation-worthy)