Literary Parodies: Exploring a Writer’s Style through Imitation

Materials and Technology

Printouts

Websites

Preparation

 

MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY

• "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams
  
  
• "Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams" by Kenneth Koch
  
  
• Selected Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
  
  
• "Breakfast with Gerard Manley Hopkins" by Anthony Brode
  
  
• "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare
  
  
• "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" by Howard Moss
  
  
• "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold
  
  
• "Dover Bitch" by Anthony Hecht
  
  
• "Cuckoo Song" (traditional)
  
  
• "Ancient Music" by Ezra Pound
  
  
• "Baccalaureate" by David McCord

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PRINTOUTS

• "This Is Just To Say" Parody
  
  
• Literary Parodies Assessment

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WEBSITES

• Guy Noir Episode from November 30, 2002

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PREPARATION

• Choose a set of poems from the list above to explore with your class, checking the poems to ensure that they are appropriate for your students. Additional literary parodies are available in Poetry for Cats: The Definitive Anthology of Distinguished Feline Verse by Howard Beard (Villard, 1994), and in Pitiless Parodies and Other Outrageous Verse by Frank Jacobs (Dover Books, 1994).
  
  
• Make copies or overhead transparencies of the poems that you have chosen so that students will be able to see the text of the poems as you discuss them.
  
  
• If desired, make copies of the transcript of the Guy Noir Episode from November 30, 2002.
  
  
• Make copies or an overhead transparency of the "This Is Just To Say" Parody form, or create a form for the poem that you have chosen.
  
  
• Make copies or an overhead transparency of the Literary Parodies Assessment checklists. Alternately, you might copy the checklists to chart paper, or design your own checklists based on criteria that the class identifies during the sessions.
  
  
• Test the Venn Diagram interactive on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

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