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On American Music and Poetry

Frank Sinatra

New York New York

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today.
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York.
These vagabond shoes are longing to stray
Right through the very heart of it, New York, New York.
I wanna wake up in a city that doesn't sleep
And find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap.


These little town blues are melting away.
I'll make a brand new start of it in old New York.
If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere.
It's up to you, New York, New York.
I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps
And find I'm a number one, top of the list.

 

Michael Jackson

Man in the Mirror

 

Gotta make a change for once in my life

It's gonna feel real good,

Gonna make a difference,

Gonna make it right.

 

As I turn up the collar on

A favorite winter coat

This wind is blowin' my mind

I see the kids in the street

With not enough to eat

Who am I to be blind

Pretending not to see their needs

A summer's disregard

A broken bottle top

And a one man's soul

They follow each other

On the wind ya' know

'Cause they got nowhere to go

That's why I want you to know:

 

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change!..

 

I've been a victim of

A selfish kinda love

It's time that I realize

There are some with no home

Not a nickel to loan

Could it be really pretending that they're not alone

A willow deeply scarred

Somebody's broken heart

And a washed out dream

They follow the pattern of the wind ya' see

'Cause they got no place to be

That's why I'm starting with me.

 

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

I'm asking him to change his ways

And no message could have been any clearer

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change

You gotta get it right, while you got the time

'Cause when you close your heart

Then you close your mind…

Langston Hughes

Dream Deferred

 

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load
Or does it just explode?

 

Ogden Nash

That Reminds Me

 

Just imagine yourself seated on a shadowy terrace,

And beside you is a girl who stirs you more strangely than a heiress.

It is a summer evening at its most superb,

And the moonlight reminds you that To Love is an active verb,

And the stars are twinkling like anything,

And a distant orchestra is playing some sentimental old Vienna thing,

And your hand clasps hers, which rests there without shrinking,

And after a silence fraught with romance you ask her what she is thinking,

And she starts and returns from the moon-washed distances to the shadowy

veranda,

And says, Oh, I was wondering how many bamboo shoots a day it takes to feed

a baby Giant Panda.

Or you stand with her on a hilltop and gaze on a winter sunset,

And everything is as starkly beautiful as a page from Sigrid Unset,

And your arm goes round her waist and you make an avowal which for

masterfully marshaled emotional content might have been a page of Ouida's or

Thackeray's,

And after a silence fraught with romance she says, I forgot to, order the

limes for the Daiquiris.

Or in twilight drawing room you have just asked the most momentous of

questions,

And after a silence fraught with romance she says, I think this little table

would look better where that little table is,

but then where would that little table go, have you any suggestions?

And that's the way they go round hitting below our belts:

It isn't that nothing is sacred to them, it's just that at the Sacred Moment

they are always thinking of something else.

Robert Frost

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

1) Choose any two well-known musicians from the USA and arrange a dialog between them.

One should be a representative of the 50s-80s of the XX century, the other should belong to the generation of the XXI century.

2) Choose a song that would touch upon some social / political issues, bring it to the class and be ready to analyse its lyrics.

3) Make your own Top 10 American musicians list and be ready to explain and defend your choice. Bring the list in your class. Discuss it with your classmates and prepare 1 list of Top 10 American musicians for all. Mind, that everybody should agree on it.

4) Here is a table of top 10 American writers and their short descriptions.

First, match them together.

Second, write a 100-words review on any book by any of the writers mentioned below.

Name: Description:
1. Ernest Hemingway a. This was the pen name chosen by the great Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He penned great stories such as Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He also wrote many other works including short stories, travel works and even plays.
2. William Faulkner b. The son of a clergyman, he was one of the greatest American writers who penned important works of fiction such as The Ambassadors, The Wings of the Dove, and The Portrait of a Lady. He also wrote short stories, novellas and works of criticism. He is remembered for the famous ‘loose bags of literature’ in reference to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”.
3. Mark Twain c. Even though he died at a relatively young age, he left an indelible mark on American Literature with significant poetry collections and numerous short stories often characterised by depicting dark sides of human nature. He also contributed to literary criticism, philosophy and even politics.
4. John Steinbeck d. He was a great American poet and playwright who bagged the 1948 Nobel Prize for literature. He is best known for The Hollow Men and Ash Wednesday as well as the play, Murder in the Cathedral.
5. Nathaniel Hawthorne e. He is best known for bagging the 1949 Nobel Prize for literature and also creating the fictional Yoknapatawpha County where he based all his major works. Apart from well known novels such as Absalom, Absalom and The Hamlet, Faulkner also wrote poetry and numerous short stories.
6. Scott Fitzgerald f. America like the rest of the world is male dominated but she is up there among the greatest American authors of all time. She is best known for the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Beloved. She also penned Song of Solomon, Tar Baby and Paradise and bagged the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.
7. Edgar Allan Poe g. Like many writers of his time, he started his career as a journalist and went on to pen important works such as The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance. He also wrote numerous short story collections.
8. T.S. Eliot h. He is remembered for great novels such as This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night and the best of them all titled The Great Gatsby. Despite the prominence of The Great Gatsby, he was better known for his short story collections and work in Hollywood.
9. Toni Morrison i. Love him or hate him, he is the greatest American writer living or dead. A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea epitomized the career of one of the most flamboyant American men of letters. He bagged the 1954 Nobel Prize for literature and rightfully so. He was a journalist as well as a short story writer of no mean repute. He committed suicide on July 2nd 1961 by shooting himself with a shotgun.
10. Henry James j. He is best known for the novella, Of Mice and Men but also wrote some significant works like East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, The Forgotten Village and Bombs Away: The Story of a Bomber team. He was inducted in 2007 into the California Hall of Fame.

5) Organize a debate.

Suggested statements are:

  1. There is no art in America.
  2. American writers are just a parody on great European ones.
  3. American music is only famous for its pop stars.
  4. America has no culture of its own.

Half of the students should take a “pro”-position, supporting this statement, the other half should stick to “contra”-position, supporting the opposite viewpoint. Then, with pre-prepared arguments the sides should debate. There may be two judges to see who was more convincing and accurate in argumentations and announce the winner.

6) Write a composition named: “Things I like and things I don’t like about the US”

 

Key: 1-i; 2-e; 3-a; 4-j; 5-g; 6-h; 7-c; 8-d; 9-f;10-b.

 

 

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 706

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