We Wear the Mask - Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes--

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile

And mouth with myriad subtleties,

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

We wear the mask.

We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries

To Thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

We wear the mask!

[Textbook] Ancient Rhetorics chapter on "Style, Memory and Delivery" - Notes Pt. 1

Yes, this is only the first part. I haven't had the courage to type out several more pages of notes quite yet.

Style - persuasive or extraordinary use of language, and the 3rd canon of rhetoric
Sentence composition - use of balanced phrases
      Antithesis - contrary or contradictory ideas expressed in phrases that are grammatically alike.
     Stylistic ornaments: Simile
                                  Metaphor
                                  Personification
      Schemes/figures {Greek "schemata"; Latin "figura"}
      Manifested in a good style are: correctness
                                                     clearness
                                                     appropriateness
                                                     ornament

Correctness - {Greek "hellenismos"; Latin "latinitas"; also translated 'purity'}
                     - use of words that are current and adhere to grammatical rules
Clarity - {Greek "sapheneia"; Latin "lucere" (to shine) and "perspicere" (to see through)}
            - circumlocution ~ avoiding clarity, in most cases to be polite {Greek "periphrasis" (speaking around)}
            - clarity can also be obscured by the use of obsolete, technical, new, or colloquial words
Appropriateness - {Greek "to prepon" (to say or do whatever is fitting in a given situation)}
                             - when a rhetor supplements an awareness of the audience with "a knowledge of the times for speaking and for keeping silence, and has also distinguished the favorable occasions for brief speech or pitiful speech or intensity and all the classes of speech which he has learned, then, and not till then, will his art be fully and completely finished." ~ Plato
                             - hyperbole - exaggeration of a case
                             - 3 general levels of style: grand
                                                                    middle
                                                                    plain
                             - rhetorical questions
                             - antistrophe - "turning about"; repetition of the same or similar words in successive clauses
                            - isocolon - balanced clauses
                            - apostrophe - "turning away"
                            - loose vs. periodic sentences = straightforward narrative vs. roundabout
Ornament - 3 categories:
                figures of speech {Latin "figurae verborum"}
               figures of thought {Latin "figurae sententiarum"}
               tropes {Greek "tropi" (turn)}
                 - figure - any form of expression in which "we give our language a conformation other than the obvious and ordinary"
               - trope - substitution of one word or phrase for another

Sentence Composition
period {Greek "periodos" (a way around)}
colon {Latin "membrum" (part; limb)} - any expression rhythmically complete but meaningless if detached from the rest of the sentence
comma {Latin "articulus" (part joined on)} - any set of words set apart by pauses
Four types of sentences: Period (simplest)
                                     Compound
                                     Complex
                                     Compound-complex

Paratactic and Periodic Styles
Paratactic {Greek "parataxis" (placed alongside)}
                  - "running" / "strung on" / "continuous"
                  - having "no natural stopping places"
                  - "comes to a stop only because there is no more to say of that subject"
Periodic - "a portion of speech that has in itself a beginning and end, being at the same time not too big to be taken in at a glance."

Figurative Language
 - Figures that interrupt natural word order -
{Latin "interposito"; Greek "parenthesis" (a statement alongside another)}
hyperbaton - "a sudden turn"
apposito - "putting off from" = apposition
metabasis - a summarizing transition
asyndeton -  no connectors (between colons)
polysendeton - many connectors (between colons)
- Figures of repetition - 
synonymy - "the same name"
puns - "attract the ear of the audience and excite their attention by some resemblance, equality, or contrast of words"
antanaclasis - "bending back" - using a word in two different senses
homoioteleuton - "same ending" - repetition of words with similar endings
anaphora/epanaphora - repetition of words at the beginning of phrases
epiphora - repetition of the last word in successive phrases
chiasmus - "arranged crosswise" - "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
antimetabole - "thrown over against" - "When the going gets tough, the tough get going"


               

Beginnings of a project

This week in class, we are really buckling down on working on projects, as they are due on Friday. Today we are supposed to have our exigence and audience down, and some kind of sampling/beginning of what we are going to say in said project. We have been encouraged--nay, commanded almost--to be surprising and unorthodox and non academic. Gulp. Bear with me as I attempt to crack the mold of the years of academic training/writing that has been jammed down my throat.

Stop right here and savor this moment. You’ve done it—you’ve come this far. Diapers have been traded in for pull-ups (or maybe even underpants), the car seat for a booster, the crib for a “big kid” bed. The terrible twos are perhaps not so far behind you as you’d like, but you can look back at them and laugh now. And that’s the easiest part. Come down off your cloud now and admit it—it’s looking ahead that scares you silly and makes you clutch them to yourself, making them promise they’ll never, ever, ever grow up. Because you know all too well that it only gets harder from here. And looking around at the failing economy and the failings of our government and the unfailing inflation, being scared silly doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. You’re almost paralyzed at the thought that one day your precious, innocent child will one day have to face all of this—or worse—alone.

            Scared? I’d be surprised if you weren’t. Prepared? I’d be surprised if you thought so. Looking ahead at journey of guiding your little one—your soon to be not-so-little one—through the most important years of their lives is overwhelming.

Apologies for the brevity. Inspiration has been sporadic at best lately.

Paper update 3-6-2011: it has been completed and submitted to the professor. I am a little hesitant to post it here since it is almost seven pages long (including the mandatory analysis), but I will be sure to post the grade so all 20 of my loyal readers will know how the professor received it :-)

Final update 3-21-2011: These were returned to us today, and I was ecstatic to break out of my B+ slump with an A-. yay :-)