Day #1 Lesson

Learning: How It Works and How to Do It Better
Believe.
Be engaged.
Stretch
yourself.
Practice.
Mistakes are
part of the
process.
Don’t give up.
Let’s take a
trip back to
ancient
Greece…
I’d love
that as
well!
Can we
meet
Aristotle?
Yes!
Can we,
please?
“Sell Me This Pen”
Hello, I am the
Aristotle—Greek
philosopher,
renown genius,
handsome hunk…
persuasive writing
exercise
“Sell Me This Pen”
persuasive writing
exercise
I will continue to
educate you about
persuasive devices
the next time
that we meet.
Vale!
Name ___________________________
Class Period_______________________
“There is something that you, as my teacher, should know about me…”
Robert Browning
alarmed his Victorian
readers with
psychological – and
sometimes psychopathic
– realism, wild formal
experiments, and harshsounding language.
These qualities, however,
are what make poems
like
"My Last Duchess" so
attractive to today’s
readers, who value the
raw power of Browning’s
writing more than some
of the feel-good flowery
Romantic poems.
rubbish
The characters and
events in this poem
are very loosely
based upon…
“Why is this ‘name’
so important to this
Renaissance
Duke?” you ask?
The time is the
Italian Renaissance,
as Browning establishes
by references to art and
the dowry, which the
Duke is negotiating with
the Count of Tyrol, as
well as by the Duke's
"thousand-year-old
name."
I am the
Count of Tyrol. Are there
any worthy and wealthy
men out there who would
like to marry my
beautiful niece?
Pick me!
Pick me!
Browning’s inspiration
for "My Last Duchess"
was the history of a
Renaissance duke,
Alfonso II of Ferrara,
whose young wife
Lucrezia died in
suspicious
circumstances in 1561.
Lucrezia was from a
Medici–like family that
was becoming one of
the most powerful and
wealthy in Europe at
the time.
Don’t look at me!
I didn’t do it.
Or did you,
husband?
During Lucrezia’s
lifetime, however, the
Medici were just
beginning to build their
power base and were
still considered upstarts
by the other nobility.
Lucrezia herself never
got to enjoy riches and
status; she was married
at 14 and dead by 17.
After her death, Alfonso
courted (and eventually
married) the niece of the
Count of Tyrol.
During Lucrezia’s
lifetime, however, the
Medici were just
beginning to build their
power base and were
still considered upstarts
by the other nobility.
Lucrezia herself never
got to enjoy riches and
status; she was married
at 14 and dead by 17.
After her death, Alfonso
courted (and eventually
married) the niece of the
Count of Tyrol.
Robert Browning takes this
brief anecdote out of the history
books and turns it into an
opportunity for readers to peek
inside the head of a psychopath.
Although Browning hints at the
real-life Renaissance back-story
by putting the word "Ferrara"
under the title of the poem as an
epigraph, he removes the
situation from most of its
historical details.
It’s important to notice that
the Duke, his previous wife,
and the woman he’s courting
aren’t named in the poem at
all.
Even though there were
historical events that
inspired the poem, the text
itself has a more generalized,
universal, nameless feel.
The Duke of Ferrara is negotiating
with a servant for the hand of a
count’s daughter in marriage. (We
don’t know anything about the
Count except that he is a count.
And that he’s not the Count
from Sesame Street – different
guy.) During the negotiations, the
Duke takes the servant upstairs
into his private art gallery and
shows him several of the objects in
his collection.
The first of these objects is a
portrait of my "last" or former
duchess, painted directly on one of
the walls of the gallery by a friar
named Pandolf. I keep this
portrait behind a curtain that
only I am allowed to draw.
Apparently, the Duchess was
easily pleased: she smiled at
everything, and seemed just as
happy when someone brought her
a branch of cherries as she
did when the Duke
decided to marry her.
She also blushed easily.
Can you
believe
it?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Would you be willing to marry the
Duke of Ferrara?
What else do you think the Duke
might have in his gallery, besides the
portrait of the Duchess and the bronze
statue of Neptune taming a seahorse?
Is it significant that the portrait of the
Duchess is painted on the wall, instead
of on a canvas? Why might a painter
work directly on the surface of the
wall, instead of on a surface that could
be moved?
Why doesn’t the Duke tell the
Duchess directly that her behavior
annoys him? What exactly does the
Duchess do that drives him so wild?
Why does the Duke tell this story
about his "last Duchess" to the servant
of the man whose daughter he hopes
to marry next?
Why are the only two named people in
the poem, Frà Pandolf and Claus of
Innsbruck, painters?
Why
should you
care?
That was the
night that I
died, and
someone else
was saved.
I’ve written a
special poem for
you…
I’m so glad you’re in my class!
I’m so glad you're here!
I’ve made some digital goodies
To help describe our year.
The eraser is to let you know
It’s OK to make mistakes,
We’ll correct them and learn from
them
No matter what it takes!
The Smarties say I know you’re smart
And really special, too.
The Lifesaver is to remind you
That I am here for you.
The pencil grip represents the work
And the learning that we will do.
The twelfth grade is very hard,
But it’s a lot of fun, too!
The Snickers says we’ll laugh a lot,
While traveling through this special
time.
The penny is to let you know
You’re valuable to me and I’m so glad
that you are mine!
Diamond
Literary Analysis
Literary Analysis
Create a hashtag in five words for
.
#mylastduchessin5words
link