Reading and analysis of the speech "Child Labor and Women's Suffrage" by Florence Kelley. Recommended for high school. Especially of interest to AP Language and Composition classes.

Rhetorical analysis of this speech, presented to the National American Woman's Suffrage Association in 1905.

Analysis and explanation of the rhetorical triangle, the interactions between speaker, audience, and subject that shape a speaker's rhetoric.

Analysis of the speech in its context.

This is a wonderfully impressive and effective speech, which makes use of imagery and anecdote, statistics, rhetorical questions, parallelism, and various other rhetorical strategies.

Third in a series focusing on female authors and feminist themes, in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Text of the speech can be found here: 

https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/09/child-labor-womens-suffrage-july-22-1905/

Reading and analysis of the contemporary poem "The Empty Glass" by Louise Glück, 2020 Nobel Prize winner in Literature. Recommended for high school and adult listeners. 

*Language warning (one instance of profanity in the poem, repeated 2-3 times in the course of analysis)

*Subject warning: this poem is largely dark and depressing

Episode includes careful analysis of symbolism, imagery, diction, and syntax; special focus on Glück's use of enjambment and classical reference.

Poem link:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49618/the-empty-glass

Full text:

BY LOUISE GLÜCK

I asked for much; I received much.

I asked for much; I received little, I received

next to nothing.

And between? A few umbrellas opened indoors.

A pair of shoes by mistake on the kitchen table.

O wrong, wrong—it was my nature. I was

hard-hearted, remote. I was

selfish, rigid to the point of tyranny.

But I was always that person, even in early childhood.

Small, dark-haired, dreaded by the other children.

I never changed. Inside the glass, the abstract

tide of fortune turned

from high to low overnight.

Was it the sea? Responding, maybe,

to celestial force? To be safe,

I prayed. I tried to be a better person.

Soon it seemed to me that what began as terror

and matured into moral narcissism

might have become in fact

actual human growth. Maybe

this is what my friends meant, taking my hand,

telling me they understood

the abuse, the incredible shit I accepted,

implying (so I once thought) I was a little sick

to give so much for so little.

Whereas they meant I was good (clasping my hand intensely)—

a good friend and person, not a creature of pathos.

I was not pathetic! I was writ large,

like a queen or a saint.

Well, it all makes for interesting conjecture.

And it occurs to me that what is crucial is to believe

in effort, to believe some good will come of simply trying,

a good completely untainted by the corrupt initiating impulse

to persuade or seduce—

What are we without this?

Whirling in the dark universe,

alone, afraid, unable to influence fate—

What do we have really?

Sad tricks with ladders and shoes,

tricks with salt, impurely motivated recurring

attempts to build character.

What do we have to appease the great forces?

And I think in the end this was the question

that destroyed Agamemnon, there on the beach,

the Greek ships at the ready, the sea

invisible beyond the serene harbor, the future

lethal, unstable: he was a fool, thinking

it could be controlled. He should have said

I have nothing, I am at your mercy.

Rhetorical analysis of "Brown v. Board of Education in International Context" by Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Recommended for high school to adult listeners.

Inspired by and in honor of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, this is the first in a series of episodes examining the rhetoric and literary style of various women and feminist authors.

This first episode focuses on Justice Ginsburg herself, on a speech she gave at Columbia University School of Law in 2004.

*Rhetorical analysis of the speech

*Strong focus on ethos (ethical/authoritative) arguments

*Examination of diction and word choice, as well as syntax, audience, tone, and authorial perspective

Text of the speech: https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/brown-v-board-of-education-in-international-context-oct-21-2004/

Excellent resource for all things to do with women in history and politics: https://cattcenter.iastate.edu/

Their Archive of Women's Political Communication: https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/

Vocabulary:

apartheid: (in South Africa) a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.

ascendancy:  occupation of a position of dominant power or influence.

prestige: widespread respect and admiration felt for someone or something on the basis of a perception of their achievements or quality.

eulogy: a speech or piece of writing that praises someone or something highly, typically someone who has just died.

conspicuous: standing out so as to be clearly visible; attracting notice or attention.

analogy: a comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.

inexorably:  in a way that is impossible to stop or prevent.

egalitarian: relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.

ideological: based on or relating to a system of ideas and ideals, especially concerning economic or political theory and policy.

regime: a government, especially an authoritarian one.

grist: 1. grain that is ground to make flour.  2. useful material, especially to back up an argument.

adverse: preventing success or development; harmful; unfavorable.

doctrine: a stated principle of government policy, mainly in foreign or military affairs.

consul: an official appointed by a government to live in a foreign city and protect and promote the government's citizens and interests there.

skepticism: doubt as to the truth of something.

reverberate: (of a loud noise) be repeated several times as an echo.

vibrant: full of energy and enthusiasm.

ratification: the action of signing or giving formal consent to a treaty, contract, or agreement, making it officially valid.

jurisdiction: the official power to make legal decisions and judgments.

exemplary: serving as a desirable model; representing the best of its kind.

litigation: the process of taking legal action.

pernicious: having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.

allocate: distribute (resources or duties) for a particular purpose.

allegedly: used to convey that something is claimed to be the case or have taken place, although there is no proof.

Reading and analysis of the poem "Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War Is Kind" by Stephen Crane. Recommended for high school.

The poem is highly disturbing because of imagery of war, suffering, death, and grief, so this has a strong content warning. I also get pretty deep into the imagery, and so the analysis is also graphic. 

The poem is a masterpiece of irony, and in it Crane creates multiple impressions, one after another, which build to the final message; I try to trace that same thought process.

Focus on imagery, diction, tone, and irony.

Text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47650/war-is-kind-do-not-weep-maiden-for-war-is-kind

Reading and analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado." Recommended for high school.

*Close analysis of character, plot, and theme

*Analysis of diction, word choice, and tone

*Horror, murder, and death -- though no gore. 

*Me fully fangurling over Poe and this story, which is one of my favorites. 

Text: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1063/1063-h/1063-h.htm

*Reading and analysis of "The Discourager of Hesitancy" by Frank R. Stockton. Recommended for high school.

The last of the Endless Tales: THE SEQUEL TO "THE LADY OR THE TIGER"

*Analysis of plot, character, language, symbol. Careful examination of audience and author's purpose.

*I say a bad word, so be warned.

Full Text of the story is available on my website: http://users.neo.registeredsite.com/2/5/3/20780352/assets/The_Discourager_of_Hesitancy_by_Frank_R._Stockton.doc

Here is a nice .pdf reproduction of a magazine edition of the story: https://www.victorianvoices.net/ARTICLES/VT/fiction/1611-Hesitancy.pdf

Here is the HathiTrust digitized book with the story in it: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435018028597&view=1up&seq=11

Reading and analysis of "The Lady, or the Tiger?" by Frank R. Stockton. Recommended for high school. 

*Focus on theme and language

*The story is satirical, largely about justice systems and about barbarism vs. civilization.

*The story is also hilarious

Cliffhanger ending (of course)

Story text: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/25549/25549-h/25549-h.htm#tiger

Reading and analysis of "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Recommended for high school.

*Some drug references. Some sexual innuendo.

The famous unfinished fragment that came to Coleridge in an opium dream, and which he published unfinished -- and as he intended.

Analysis of theme and imagery, language and rhyme and sound devices.

Text source from Project Gutenberg here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29090/29090-h/29090-h.htm#stcvol1_Page_295

Full poem:

BY SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Or, a vision in a dream. A Fragment.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground

With walls and towers were girdled round;

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,

Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;

And here were forests ancient as the hills,

Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted

Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!

A savage place! as holy and enchanted

As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted

By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,

As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,

A mighty fountain momently was forced:

Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst

Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,

Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:

And mid these dancing rocks at once and ever

It flung up momently the sacred river.

Five miles meandering with a mazy motion

Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,

Then reached the caverns measureless to man,

And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean;

And ’mid this tumult Kubla heard from far

Ancestral voices prophesying war!

The shadow of the dome of pleasure

Floated midway on the waves;

Where was heard the mingled measure

From the fountain and the caves.

It was a miracle of rare device,

A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice!

A damsel with a dulcimer

In a vision once I saw:

It was an Abyssinian maid

And on her dulcimer she played,

Singing of Mount Abora.

Could I revive within me

Her symphony and song,

To such a deep delight ’twould win me,

That with music loud and long,

I would build that dome in air,

That sunny dome! those caves of ice!

And all who heard should see them there,

And all should cry, Beware! Beware!

His flashing eyes, his floating hair!

Weave a circle round him thrice,

And close your eyes with holy dread

For he on honey-dew hath fed,

And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Reading and analysis of "The Interlopers" by H.H. Munro, aka Saki. Recommended for high school.

Third in a series analyzing works that don't have a definite ending, this one features a heck of a cliffhanger.

Examination of theme, setting, character, plot. Some historical context and author biographical context.

Story features feuds, land rights, hunting, and reconciliation. Sort of.

Text available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1477/1477-h/1477-h.htm#page119

Reading and analysis of "Eldorado" by Edgar Allan Poe. Recommended for high school.

Second in the series of works with no ending.

Analysis of diction, image, and theme.

Some discussion of Eldorado, Age of Chivalry, religious themes, and death.

Text:

Gayly bedight,

But he grew old,

And, as his strength

"Over the Mountains