Sheffner's Reading Blog

Due to popular request, here is a short video which teaches you how to add a link in a blog comment. It is very easy. You simply add the code for “go to this website” by hand.  Watch the video, and soon you will be adding cool-looking links like a professional.

Here is a short video with my commentary about Keat’s poem “Ode to Autumn“. It includes some photos to help the reader get an idea of what England looks like, and what Keats had in mind when he used certain words. Thanks again for all your wonderful comments. You inspire me to do more!

Ode to Autumn commentary video (click here if you cannot see the video below; this is an alternative link).

(This article reminds me that Winchester is where Jane Austen is buried, and that her home in Hampshire is 30 minutes’ drive away from Winchester. See this article for more information.)

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• Doctor’s mistakes to blame for Keats’s agonising end, says new biography (guardian.co.uk)
• Winchester: an ode to autumn (telegraph.co.uk)

As feedback has been so positive, and because these videos are quite easy to make, and because listening and reading at the same time is most effective for  language learning, here is another one.

I am also working on “commentary” videos, which will be, well, comments on the poem (!), with some pictures.

Ode to Autumn (click here if you have trouble seeing the video below. This is an alternative).

Thanks for the feedback. Here some more videos of me reading aloud the poems we read at the last session.
First, “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by the famous World War I poet, Wilfrid Owen. My grandfather fought in this war as a young man. He survived. Later, he fought in the 2nd World War, too, and survived that as well, but he never spoke to me about it.

Listen and read at the same time. The best kind of language practice, if you want to improve your speaking and listening.

Please leave a comment to help me improve this service.

Click on the links to listen to me reading the poems and read the text at the same time.

UPDATE: I have created a quiz on some of the terms related to poetry, words that we used in these 2 sessions on poetry. The quiz is online. This is an experiment (I have not used this before). If you have time, please visit the quiz, try it out, and give me your feedback.

The quiz is here: http://quizlet.com/_ra17 

Today’s session will be from 3.30 (not 3 as it usually is).

For this session, we will continue our brief study of English poetry. Please bring the same poems as last time (email me if you have not received these).

In addition, I would like to introduce you to two more poems:

1. “Ode to Autumn” by John Keats (here is the poem with an analysis) (I discovered today that there is a new movie about the poet John Keats called “Bright Star” (the title of one of Keats’ poems) (see some clips here)
2. the beginning of “Under Milk Wood” by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (here is a YouTube recording of Welsh actor Richard Burton reading the beginning of this poem)

First, we will review what we talked about last time – about metre, rhyme, rhyme schemes and different verse forms such as limericks, free verse, nonsense verse, etc.

Then, we will read a sonnet by Shakespeare and discuss its structure, then a sonnet by Wilfrid Owen, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”.

I won’t spend much time discussing the meaning of these poems. Instead, I want to talk about their power: why are these poems still so famous?

The next session (#16) will be Wednesday Oct. 28th, 3-5 pm

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• TS Eliot named the nation’s favourite poet (guardian.co.uk)
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• Tony Harrison wins inaugural PEN/Pinter prize (guardian.co.uk)