It is an extract from an essay “The Poetic Principle” by Edgar Allan Poe. Do you know anything about the author and his works?

After reading the text discuss the aim of this essay. Do you agree with the author’s opinion on poetry?

 

I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement. But all excitements are, through a psychic necessity, transient. That degree of excitement which would entitle a poem to be so called at all, cannot be sustained throughout a composition of any great length. After the lapse of half an hour, at the very utmost, it flags—fails—a revulsion ensues—and then the poem is, in effect, and in fact, no longer such. <...>

 

We shall reach, however, more immediately a distinct conception of what the true Poetry is, by mere reference to a few of the simple elements which induce in the Poet himself the true poetical effect. He recognizes the ambrosia, which nourishes his soul, in the bright orbs that shine in Heaven, in the volutes of the flower, in the clustering of low shrubberies, in the waving of the grain-fields, in the slanting of the tall, Eastern trees, in the blue distance of mountains, in the grouping of clouds, in the twinkling of half-hidden brooks, in the gleaming of silver rivers, in the repose of sequestered lakes, in the star-mirroring depths of lonely wells. He perceives it in the songs of birds, in the harp of Aeolus, in the sighing of the night-wind, in the repining voice of the forest, in the surf that complains to the shore, in the fresh breath of the woods, in the scent of the violet, in the voluptuous perfume of the hyacinth, in the suggestive odor that comes to him at eventide from far-distant, undiscovered islands, over dim oceans, illimitable and unexplored. He owns it in all noble thoughts, in all unworldly motives, in all holy impulses, in all chivalrous, generous, and self-sacrificing deeds. He feels it in the beauty of woman, in the grace of her step, in the luster of her eye, in the melody of her voice, in her soft laughter, in her sigh, in the harmony of the rustling of her robes. He deeply feels it in her winning endearments, in her burning enthusiasms, in her gentle charities, in her meek and devotional endurances; but above all—ah! far above all—he kneels to it, he worships it in the faith, in the purity, in the strength, in the altogether divine majesty of her love.

(Taken from “The Poetic Principle” by Edgar Allan Poe)

3. How does this piece of literature differ from the text by Oscar Wild? Make a list of differences about:

- the genre

- the author’s style

- language

- poetic features

Tongue twisters

1) There those thousand thinkers were thinking how did the other three thieves go through. 2) I thought a thought.But the thought I thought wasn’t the thought I thought I thought. If the thought I thought I thought had been the thought I thought, I wouldn’t have thought so much.

REVIEW

Units 5 - 6

 

1. Match the words with their definitions:

1) horseradish	a) a sour liquid made by allowing wine or cider to become acid, used for adding flavour to food
2) cabbage	b) sauce that is eaten cold with meat
3) lamb	c)the process of dividing a country, region etc. into smaller areas where the different groups of people all dislike or fight each other
4) pan	d) a round metal container used for cooking, with a handle
5) hardship	e) a situation in which life is very difficult, usually because you do not have enough money
6) prominent	f) a hard round vegetable with green or purpleleaves that can be eaten raw in salads or cooked
7) livestock	g) important and well known
8) cradle	h) a place where something began
9) vinegar	i) the meat from a young sheep
10) balkanization	j) animals such as cows, sheep, and pigs that are kept on farms

2. Choose the suitable idiom or collocation:

 

1) Don’t be stubborn and stop sitting at home. Let’ get out somewhere. You start looking like a...

a) bad egg

b) chicken

c) couch potato

2) Look at that guy! I saw him in Forbs magazine. He is...

a) one smart cookie

b) big cheese

c) couch potato

 

3)He wants to stay with his wife but still sees his girlfriend. He wants to/a...

a) have his cake and eat it too

b) cream of the crop

c) piece of cake        

 

4) What do you do? What is your...

a) butterfingers

b) one smart cookie

c) bread and butter

 

5) I think it’s very simple task, you just need to...

a) cool as a cucumber

b) use your noodle

c) go bananas

 

6) Don’t pay attention to these.... They won’t make any difference in your report.

a) butterfingers

b) small potatoes

c) big cheeses

 

3. Unscramble the following word combinations from Unit VI and give Russian equivalents:

 

a) an rioyvtwroe ______________________

b) eth veileey_________________________

c) cone in a buelomon__________________

d) ithhteramsk _______________________

e) shbtrero in masr_____________________

f) on tehmasenitrgs___________________

g) eth veileey_________________________

h) hte longderelu______________________