Writing Your Own Conceit: February 27, 2019

Focus: How can we creatively write our way to a better understanding of conceits?

1. Warming up with a little brainstorming:

• Create a table with four columns. You may handwrite in your composition notebook or type on your laptop. Go with whichever way you write best!

• Here are the labels for your columns: People, animals, abstract nouns, and concrete objects

• Write down at least five items in each column. Here is an example:

2. Composing a poem or short piece of prose in which you extend the metaphor

• Select one item from the "People" column or the "Abstract Noun" column and turn it into a metaphor with an item from the "Animal" or the "Concrete Object" column.

• Examples:

• Bradley Cooper is gravelly-voiced lynx.
• Envy is an oversized clock.
• My mom is a Spanish guitar.

• Then, spend the next ten minutes elaborating on that metaphor by composing either a poem a short piece of prose. You metaphor can be the first line of your writing (or not--your choice).

3. Returning to "The Century Quilt"

Using the poem, how would the speaker finish complete this statement?

• My ____________________ is a century quilt.

Using your work from yesterday, break down this metaphor a bit:

• How is _________________ a century quilt? What qualities of ____________ match with the qualities of the century quilt?

• Why is ________________? In other words, how does the century quilt help us understand ___________________ better or differently?

HW:
THIS FRIDAY:

• Acquire your British Book Club novel and bring it to class.

• Complete and submit your project proposal or your essay thesis (and any outlining you've done). You can also conference with me instead of e-mailing or handing papers in.