Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Diane Ackerman "Love's Vocabulary"

AGENDA:

READ Ackerman essays.  Defining a word...

Love's vocabulary:
https://delatorreliterature.weebly.com/uploads/5/5/8/2/55824613/lovesvocabulary.pdf


“from Love’s Vocabulary, from “A Natural History of Love”
by Diane Ackerman

Read the selection from the essay “Love’s Vocabulary” by Diane Ackerman.  Then, reread the lines indicated with each question below. Answer each question, citing text evidence.  Post your answer on the blog.

1.       Lines 1–3: What is being compared in these lines? What connotations do the words have? What is their cumulative effect?

2.       Lines 1–7 (paragraph 1): What is the central idea Ackerman presents at the very beginning of the essay? How does she support this idea?


3.       Lines 8–15 (paragraph 2): What is the simile in the paragraph? Explain whether it has a positive or negative connotation.

4.       Lines 32-37 (from “Since all we have. . .”): What is the author’s tone in this passage? Explain how the author’s choice of words creates this tone?

5.       Lines 40-45: Explain the simile in these lines. What comparison is made? What does it say about love?

6.       Lines 43–45: Explain the tone of the description in these lines. What word choices create that tone?


WRITING: Work on Definition essay

Ackerman web page:
http://www.dianeackerman.com/

Image result for diane Ackerman

Poetry:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/diane-ackerman

Brainpickings:
https://www.brainpickings.org/tag/diane-ackerman/

10 comments:

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  4. Read the selection from the essay “Love’s Vocabulary” by Diane Ackerman. Then, reread the lines indicated with each question below. Answer each question, citing text evidence. Post your answer on the blog.

    1. Lines 1–3: What is being compared in these lines? What connotations do the words have? What is their cumulative effect?
    Hate is compared to a vicious predator; fear to a bat in a confined space; jealousy to a spider. The words stalks, dripping fangs, leather wings, and sticky webs have negative connotations. The cumulative effect is to conjure up images of the nightmarish “beasts” that Ackerman describes.

    2. Lines 1–7 (paragraph 1): What is the central idea Ackerman presents at the very beginning of the essay? How does she support this idea?
    Her central idea is “Love is the great intangible.” She calls love a “dream state” and uses contradictory adjectives to describe love’s moods, showing it is not easily defined: “Frantic and serene, vigilant and calm, wrung-out and fortified, explosive and sedate.”

    3. Lines 8–15 (paragraph 2): What is the simile in the paragraph? Explain whether it has a positive or negative connotation.
    Simile: “heavy as a heartbeat.” The word heavy suggests both a feeling of grief and a physical condition of weariness; the connotation is negative.

    4. Lines 32-37 (from “Since all we have. . .”): What is the author’s tone in this passage? Explain how the author’s choice of words creates this tone?
    The author creates a light, engaging, and affectionate tone by choosing words and phrases that have warm, comforting connotations, such as “arms wide,” “welcoming the sun and sky,” and “encompass.”

    5. Lines 40-45: Explain the simile in these lines. What comparison is made? What does it say about love?
    The simile compares love to being pierced in the chest by an arrow. It is saying that love can cause people to feel intense emotional pain.

    6. Lines 43–45: Explain the tone of the description in these lines. What word choices create that tone?

    The tone is expansive, romantic, and mysterious. Words and phrases such as “a city lost,” “pleasure,” “brocade cushions,” and “sun never sets” have positive connotations and create images of an appealing, lush place.

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  5. Lines 1–3: What is being compared in these lines? What connotations do the words have? What is their cumulative effect?
    Hate is compared to a vicious predator; fear to a bat in a confined space; jealousy to a spider. The words stalks, dripping fangs, leather wings, and sticky webs have negative connotations. The cumulative effect is to conjure up images of the nightmarish “beasts” that Ackerman describes.

    2. Lines 1–7 (paragraph 1): What is the central idea Ackerman presents at the very beginning of the essay? How does she support this idea?
    Her central idea is “Love is the great intangible.” She calls love a “dream state” and uses contradictory adjectives to describe love’s moods, showing it is not easily defined: “Frantic and serene, vigilant and calm, wrung-out and fortified, explosive and sedate.”

    3. Lines 8–15 (paragraph 2): What is the simile in the paragraph? Explain whether it has a positive or negative connotation.
    Simile: “heavy as a heartbeat.” The word heavy suggests both a feeling of grief and a physical condition of weariness; the connotation is negative.

    4. Lines 32-37 (from “Since all we have. . .”): What is the author’s tone in this passage? Explain how the author’s choice of words creates this tone?
    The author creates a light, engaging, and affectionate tone by choosing words and phrases that have warm, comforting connotations, such as “arms wide,” “welcoming the sun and sky,” and “encompass.”

    5. Lines 40-45: Explain the simile in these lines. What comparison is made? What does it say about love?
    The simile compares love to being pierced in the chest by an arrow. It is saying that love can cause people to feel intense emotional pain.

    6. Lines 43–45: Explain the tone of the description in these lines. What word choices create that tone?

    The tone is expansive, romantic, and mysterious. Words and phrases such as “a city lost,” “pleasure,” “brocade cushions,” and “sun never sets” have positive connotations and create images of an appealing, lush place.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Read the selection from the essay “Love’s Vocabulary” by Diane Ackerman. Then, reread the lines indicated with each question below. Answer each question, citing text evidence. Post your answer on the blog.

    1. Lines 1–3: What is being compared in these lines? What connotations do the words have? What is their cumulative effect?
    Hate is compared to a vicious predator; fear to a bat in a confined space; jealousy to a spider. The words stalks, dripping fangs, leather wings, and sticky webs have negative connotations. The cumulative effect is to conjure up images of the nightmarish “beasts” that Ackerman describes.

    2. Lines 1–7 (paragraph 1): What is the central idea Ackerman presents at the very beginning of the essay? How does she support this idea?
    Her central idea is “Love is the great intangible.” She calls love a “dream state” and uses contradictory adjectives to describe love’s moods, showing it is not easily defined: “Frantic and serene, vigilant and calm, wrung-out and fortified, explosive and sedate.”

    3. Lines 8–15 (paragraph 2): What is the simile in the paragraph? Explain whether it has a positive or negative connotation.
    Simile: “heavy as a heartbeat.” The word heavy suggests both a feeling of grief and a physical condition of weariness; the connotation is negative.

    4. Lines 32-37 (from “Since all we have. . .”): What is the author’s tone in this passage? Explain how the author’s choice of words creates this tone?
    The author creates a light, engaging, and affectionate tone by choosing words and phrases that have warm, comforting connotations, such as “arms wide,” “welcoming the sun and sky,” and “encompass.”

    5. Lines 40-45: Explain the simile in these lines. What comparison is made? What does it say about love?
    The simile compares love to being pierced in the chest by an arrow. It is saying that love can cause people to feel intense emotional pain.

    6. Lines 43–45: Explain the tone of the description in these lines. What word choices create that tone?

    The tone is expansive, romantic, and mysterious. Words and phrases such as “a city lost,” “pleasure,” “brocade cushions,” and “sun never sets” have positive connotations and create images of an appealing, lush place.

    ReplyDelete
  7. 1. Lines 1–3: What is being compared in these lines? What connotations do the words have? What is their cumulative effect?
    In these lines, various negative emotions are compared to detestable creatures. “Hate” is portrayed as stalking streets with “dripping fangs,” “fear” is described as flying down alleyways “on leather wings,” and “jealousy” takes the form of a spider spinning “sticky webs across the sky.” The words here have sinister and eerie connotations, which, when taken cumulatively, evoke a sense of helplessness and disgust for the named feelings.

    2. Lines 1–7 (paragraph 1): What is the central idea Ackerman presents at the very beginning of the essay? How does she support this idea?
    The central idea of the first paragraph is to assert the versatility, complexity, and abstractness of love. Ackerman supports this idea by composing an array of paradoxes-- love is both “frantic and serene,” “vigilant,” yet “calm;” “wrung-out,” but fortified; “explosive and sedate,” and lovers, while “sitting still” are “as daring as gladiators.”

    3. Lines 8–15 (paragraph 2): What is the simile in the paragraph? Explain whether it has a positive or negative connotation.
    The simile in paragraph two is: “heavy as a heartbeat.” The simile conveys negative connotations as the word “heavy” evokes feelings of sorrow and fatigue.

    4. Lines 32-37 (from “Since all we have. . .”): What is the author’s tone in this passage? Explain how the author’s choice of words creates this tone.
    Ackerman maintains a sentimental and gentle tone in that passage. Through the use of words like “unconditional parental love,” “welcoming,” “sun,” “arms wide,” and “encompass,” all of which convey warm and pleasant feelings, the aforementioned tone is achieved.

    5. Lines 40-45: Explain the simile in these lines. What comparison is made? What does it say about love?
    The simile in these lines compares love to the sensation of being “pierced in the chest” by an arrow. This suggests that love can be startling, intense, and devastating.

    6. Lines 43–45: Explain the tone of the description in these lines. What word choices create that tone?
    In these lines, the tone is mysterious, considerate, and pleasant. Words like “rare,” “surprise,” “rediscovers,” “redefines,” “reinvent,” and “a city lost” create the mysterious and considerate aspect of the tone, while words like “pleasure,” “brocade cushions,” and “sun” exhibit a pleasant tone.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 1. Hate, jealousy and fear are being compared to bad things, such as vampires and spiders, things people don’t typically like or enjoy. The words are used as metaphors to describe how people view hate, jealousy and fear.

    2. Ackerman talks about how bad or unpopular emotions are portrayed as terrible and not well liked things in nightmares. In dreams, love is shown as calm and sedate. She uses metaphors and examples to support her ideas.

    3. The simile in this paragraph is comparing light and love together. It has a somewhat positive connection because love is being compared to something beautiful, and it talks about how we shove all of these different emotions into one title called love, such as a white light is a bunch of rainbow prisms shoved together.

    4. She is talking about how we only have one word to describe love, so we will try to talk about it in big amounts. She uses a child talking to a parent as an example.

    5. She mentions Elizabeth Browning’s sonnet and how some people are embarrassed by love, like when parents make a big deal about kissing their child goodbye or something and the kids get embarrassed.

    6. The tone of these lines is somewhat anger that we are ashamed of love. The way the words are fitted together makes the author seem as if she is snapping on her audience for being embarrassed of such a great emotion.

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  10. 1. Lines 1–3: What is being compared in these lines? What connotations do the words have? What is their cumulative effect? Hatred is being compared to a predator, two a bat in a confined space jealousy to a spider. The words sticky webs and dripping fangs having a negative connotation. The cumulative effect brings up an image of a beast in the reader's mind.

    2. Lines 1–7 (paragraph 1): What is the central idea Ackerman presents at the very beginning of the essay? How does she support this idea? Her idea is love is the great intangible She had called love a dream state. She uses different words like adjectives to describe loves mood while showing it's not easily explained or defined.


    3. Lines 8–15 (paragraph 2): What is the simile in the paragraph? Explain whether it has a positive or negative connotation. “Heavy as a heartbeat” it gives out negative connotation

    4. Lines 32-37 (from “Since all we have. . .”): What is the author’s tone in this passage? Explain how the author’s choice of words creates this tone? The Authors tone in this passage is mostly welcoming the words she used are some like arms wide open and welcome.

    5. Lines 40-45: Explain the simile in these lines. What comparison is made? What does it say about love? In these lines she compares love as being shot in the heart with an arrow. What is saying about love is that it's painful and hurtful.

    6. Lines 43–45: Explain the tone of the description in these lines. What word choices create that tone? It has a mysterious tone and somewhat of a calm tone.


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