Words, Words... Words

The Power of Vocabulary

"Without grammar, very little can be conveyed; 

Without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed." 

- David Wilkinson 

Wordle.com Act I :

Quizlet: 50 Vocabulary Words from Act I & II:

IN CLASS POETRY ASSIGNMENT:

1. Select a WORD from Act I or Act II.

2. And then free associate with a word map. 

Consider all the synonyms and connotations connected to your word.  

3. Search your word in the play via shakespeare.mit.edu 

For inspiration....

Try VisualThesaurus.com 

Or use Thesaurus.com

Wordle.com from Act II 

4. Now the fun part: Write a quick poem!

1. Write 6 lines - First four lines need not rhyme - but you must end with a rhyming couplet.
2. Create IMAGERY through two examples of figurative language: personification, metaphor, simile, euphemism, hyperbole, or litotes.
3. Include an allusion - classical, biblical, or even contemporary pop culture
4. Include a "Reversed word" 
5. Write a "Reversed thought"
6. Consider the sounds of the words: alliteration, consonance, or assonance.
7. Consider writing in the first person; the Speaker "I" may be any character in the play. 

But first - let's revisit Act II Scene III for examples...

FRIAR LAURENCE

The grey-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night,
Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light,
And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels
From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels:
Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye,
The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry,
I must up-fill this osier cage of ours
With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.
The earth that's nature's mother is her tomb;
What is her burying grave that is her womb,
And from her womb children of divers kind
We sucking on her natural bosom find,
Many for many virtues excellent,
None but for some and yet all different.
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give,
Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse:
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
Within the infant rind of this small flower
Poison hath residence and medicine power:
For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed kings encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;
And where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

5. In your best poetry voice, read aloud your six lines of verse.