1. Introduction：
Bliss English Club is a wonderful and cool place running since 1997
where you can learn English, make friends and have fun.
2. Venue：
TOHOHI Arts Corner at No. 13, Lane 68, Shih-ta Road, Taipei
http://imgur.com/a/uj8ta
3. Time：
Almost every Saturday 14:30~17:30
4. During the meeting：English Only !!
Hosts are the souls of BLISS meetings. Any member can host a meeting.
The topics can be various as well as the ways conducted in the meetings
We have group discussions, role plays, recitation, book reviews and so on.
Other than English learning, we also like to make friends.
We hold colorful activities such as dinner meetings,
quarterly outings, and year end parties forming friendships.
Bliss is not only an English learning group,
but also using English to explore the world.
Welcome to join with us:)
5. Topic: Any topic !!
From Astronomy, world innovation, literature to art.
Any topic that the host feels interested to share !!
6. Admission Fee：
Charged at NT$150 per person with a cup of tea or coffee
7. <Bliss Meeting Notice>
Love Cake & Poems” by Annie on 6/17
Participants: Annie (hostess), Hector, Anita, Kami, Ellen Huang, Joanne Yang, Nania, Joe
Meeting photo: https://goo.gl/photos/P6DhvkKL48Sm4DLS9
New Blisser – Joanne Yang https://goo.gl/F1qCs6
The rain poured…
That afternoon, but we still had 7 poem lovers coming to join such small study group showing how persistent our Blissers are!!! Punctually and emotionally Annie introduced us how to understand, enjoy and know more the English poems.
Ⅰ. Basics of Poem Appreciation
a. Who is the speaker? And to whom he (she) is speaking?
b. Theme: what is the poem mainly about?
c. Images: What pictures (images) does the speaker choose to be consistent with the theme?
d. Sound: What sound system does the speaker use to convey the theme?
e. Are the images and sound systems applied appropriately?
II. Sound Systems
a.No end rhymes (1. Blank verse still with internal rhymes 2. Free verse has neither of these)
b.Rhymed Poems (most of them are end-rhymed)
III. Stanzas: a poetic term as a “paragraph” in prose
a. Couplet: 2-line stanza
b. Tercet: 3-line stanza
c. Quatrain: 4-line stanza
d. Sestet: 6-line stanza
e. Octave: 8-line stanza
IV. Scan (Scansion): To identify “stressed and unstressed” in each line of a poem
V. Stress variations:
a.iamb (adj. iambic): unstressed + stressed ex. Obey, about,…oh, NO.
x / x/ x /
b.trochee(adj. trochaic): stressed +unstressed ex. Pattern
/ x
c.anapest(adj. anapestic): unstressed+ unstressed+stressed ex. Understand
x x /
V. iambic variations:
a.iambic trimeter: 3-iamb line ex. “The on/ly news I know
x / x / x /
d.iambic tetrameter: 4-iamb line (ex. “I wan/dered, lone/ly as /a cloud )
x / x / x / x /
e.Iambic pentameter: 5-iamb line (ex. When I do count the clock that tells the time)
× / × / × / × / × /
VI. Sonnets—meaning “a little song” in Italian; 14-line poems scanned with iambic pentameter, a popular poetic form of expressing love in renaissance.
a.Italian (Petrarchan ) Sonnet: firstly invented by Petrarch, the first 8 lines(namely Octave)of which are rhymed abba abba, but the last 6 lines(namely Sestet) of which are flexible forms as /cde cde /c d c d c d /c d d c d c/c d e c d e/c d e c e d/c d c e d c
b.English (Shakespearian) Sonnet: based on Italian sonnet and then invented by Shakespeare, the first 3 quatrains rhymed as /abab cdcd efef /, followedly by 1 couplet rhymed as /gg/.
c.Mixed forms: others can be as varied or identifiable as possible
VII.Heartfelt Poems:
1.“[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]” BY e. e. Cummings
2.“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop, 1911 – 1979 ~movie “Still Grace”
3. The Guitarist Tunes Up by Frances Cornford (1886-1960)
VIII. Italian Sonnets
1.Italian Sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Sonnet 14 “If thou must love me, let it be for nought”
Sonnet 28 “My letters all dead paper, “
Sonnet 43 “How do I love thee?”
IX. English Sonnets by William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
1.Sonnet 18 “Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s Day”
2.Sonnet 116 “ Let me not to the marriage of true minds”
3.Sonnet 138 “When my love swears that she is made of truth”
d.Sonnet 30 “Love is not all” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
X. Blissers’ poems:
1.“The River” by Hector
Must be somewhere, must be sometime,
Must at some point, you left my love behind.
I’d love to ask,
I’d ask to the river,
The river aren’t like you; the river doesn’t fake
The river is made by tears; the river is rolled with memory;
That hasn’t bent over.
2.“My Children” by Ellen Huang
My children are not mine;
They are the creatures of lives
They are the arrows
While I’m the bow.
I can give them Love
But not my thought.
Let the arrows fly
Till they are out of my sight.
3.“No More..” by Joe
No more, my dear, no more, kid smiles;
O, give my passions leave to run and jump.
Let for eat togeher and go to the picnic,
Let say “happy birthday”, carry your heart with me.
4.“I love to hear her song, yet well I know…” by Nania
I love to hear her song, yet well I know
Thy voice hath a far more pleasing music
I grant I never saw a goddess go
My Muse, when she dances,
Treads on the Galaxy
5.“The Only Surprising Thing I Know” by Anita
The only surprising thing I know
Is you miss me all the time
The only annoying thing I feel
Is you always care about me
What’s a bit but sweet person you are
I feel peace in my mind for anything
Because you are always staying around me
XI. Reflections
Not surprisingly, most of participants got something to say about “love” either by “writing” or “recitation”. During the break, Kami opened her self-introduction by reciting “I carry it in my heart”; Nania and Hector hoped to have “drama” or “poem recitation” classes without number restriction of participants. Their voices were heard and will be carried out soon. Let’s look forward to next Bliss “Literature” meeting in the near future!!!