PATRONAGE OF MARY DEVELOPMENT SCHOOL

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INSTRUCTIONAL PACKET IN ENGLISH 10 – Lesson 3

Roman and Greek Poetry , Interpreting Imagery and Informal Definition

I. Objectives : At the end of this lesson, the student should be able to:
1. define unfamiliar words using informal definition,
2. identify kinds of imagery,
3. explain the values reflected in the poems,
4. interpret images in the text.
II. Preliminaries:
Watch the animated story of “Daedalus and Icarus” in this link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s2QPQnuaGk.
Read the poem:
DAEDALUS AND ICARUS
By OVID
Homesick for homeland, Daedalus hated Crete He kissed his son (Good-bye, if he had known it),
And his long exile there, but the sea held him. Rose on his wings, flew on ahead, as fearful
“Though Minos blocks As any bird launching the little nestlings
escape by land or water,” Out of high nest into thin air. Keep on,
Daedalus said, “surely the Keep on, he signals, follow me! He guides him
sky is open, In flight—O fatal art!—and the wings move
And that’s the way we’ll And the father looks back to see the son’s wings
go. Minos’ dominion moving.
Does not include the Far off, far down, some fisherman is watching
air.” He turned his As the rod dips and trembles over the water,
thinking Some shepherd rests his weight upon his crook,
Toward unknown arts, Some ploughman on the handles of his
changing the laws of ploughshare,
nature. And all look up, in absolute amazement,
He laid out feathers in At those air-borne above. They must be gods!
order, first the smallest, They were over Samos, Juno’s sacred island,
A little larger next it, and so continued, Delos and Paros toward the left, Lebinthus
The way that pan-pipes rise in gradual sequence. Visible to the right, and another island,
He fastened them with twine and wax, at middle, Calymne, rich in honey. And the boy
At bottom, so, and bent them, gently curving, Thought This is wonderful! and left his father,
So that they looked like wings of birds, most Soared higher, higher, drawn to the vast heaven,
surely. Nearer the sun, and the wax that held the wings
And Icarus, his son, stood by and watched him, Melted in that fierce heat, and the bare arms
Not knowing he was dealing with his downfall, Beat up and down in air, and lacking oarage
Stood by and watched, and raised his shiny face Took hold of nothing.
To let a feather, light as down, fall on it, Father! he cried, and
Or stuck his thumb into the yellow wax, Father!
Fooling around, the way a boy will, always, Until the blue sea hushed
Whenever a father tries to get some work done. him, the dark water
Still, it was done at last, and the father hovered, Men call the Icarian
Poised, in the moving air, and taught his son: now. And Daedalus,
“I warn you, Icarus, fly a middle course: Father no more, called
Don’t go too low, or water will weigh the wings “Icarus, where are you!
down; Where are you, Icarus?
Don’t go too high, or the sun’s fire will burn Tell me where to find
them. you!”
Keep to the middle way. And one more thing, And saw the wings on the waves, and cursed his
No fancy steering by star or constellation, talents,
Follow my lead!” That was the flying lesson, Buried the body in a tomb, and the land
And now to fit the wings to the boy’s shoulders. Was named for Icarus.
Between the work and warning the father found https://genius.com/Ovid-daedalus-and-icarus-
His cheeks were wet with tears, and his hands annotated
trembled.

Unlocking difficulties
1. dominion – territory
2. hovered – floated/ flew
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 3. steering – routing
4. air-borne – in the air/ carried by the wind
5. oarage – the use of oars in rowing; a rowing movement

III. Content:

 Roman Poetry
There were several genres that thrived in
Rome, one of which is poetry. Love elegy
ascended as well. Virgil, Ovid and several
others created grand epic poetries. Satires
were developed by the Romans, not the Greeks
which uses the verses to uncover the idiocies
of people and their personal ambitions.
Roman poetry borrowed its styles and meters
from the Greeks, at least most of them. The
meters for Greek and Latin were quantitative
which means they are dependent of the number of syllable in a line (short and
long lines). Saturnian is the only Roman meter that wad not copied from the
Greeks. The lyric verses of the Romans were anticipated to be read and sung.
An epigram, which is a short witty poem about an idea or observation, was
also used by the Romans. Catullus was the first Roman poet to use this. Topics
for this include behaviour, humor, and observations of human nature. Below is
an example of an epigram.

You ask me what I get Although you’re glad to be asked out,

Out of my country place. Whenever you go, you bitch and shout
The profit, gross or net, And bluster. You must stop being rude. You
Is never seeing your face. can’t enjoy free speech and food.
(Epigrams 2.38) (Epigrams 9.9)

 Greek Poetry

Sappho never wrote down her poem but rather, she sang her
compositions. Her poetry was celebrated in Greek world. She is
known to be one of the Greek lyrists and one of the few female
poets in ancient Greece.

Kletic Hymn – The poem of Sappho is considered to be a

kletic hymn or a calling hymn. This means that it calls the
goddesses to come where she lives. This hymn is a genre
that articulates emotions and feelings and is designed to be
sung.

Lyrical Poetry – These are poems that are closely related with sentiment,
thoughts, and with resonance to a song. This emerged during the archaic age of
Greece. This is considered to be subjective. Sappho is known to be one of the
earliest poets of lyrical poetry.

Sapphic Stanza – Named after Sappho, this consists of three lines of eleven
syllables and a fourth line of five syllables. Since a lot of Sappho’s poems are
fragments which are incomplete, these characteristics are not always present.
Several word and lines are also missing in the translations one.

In the excerpt from Sappho’s Fragment 2, Aphrodite is not just a muse but someone
who represents power and strength for women.
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 Greek poetry normally conveys the punitive beauty of conflicts and the milder beauty of families.
In the 17th century BCE Sappho, a female Greek poet wrote an example of this:
Fragment 31 (originally numbered 16)
Some say an army on horseback,
Some say on foot, and some say ships
Are the most beautiful things
On this black earth,
But I say
It is whatever you love.
This example is composed of various meters with accompaniment of a dancing chorus. Most of
Sappho’s poems focus on love, marriage, happiness with appeals to the goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Excerpt from Fragment 2

SAPPHO
Leave Crete and come to me now, to that holy temple,
where the loveliness of your apple grove
waits for you and your altars smoulder
with burning frankincense;
there, far away beyond the apple branches, cold streams
murmur, roses shade every corner
and, when the leaves rustle, you are seized
by a strange drowsiness;
there, a meadow, a pasture for horses, blooms with all
the flowers of Spring, while the breezes blow
so gently…
there… Cyprian goddess, take and pour
gracefully like wine into golden cups,
a nectar mingled with all joy
of our festivities.
 Interpreting Imagery

The use of imagery in any literary work stimulates or fuels the reader’s
imagination. It is usually associated with personal experiences. To emphasize this
literary device, writers make use of the figures of speech like simile, metaphor, an
personification.
Using imagery particularly sensory imagery enhances interaction between the
reader and the text. It makes the reader think deeply about what he or she is
reading. Sensory images are associated with the five senses, and they are the
following:

1. Visual Imagery – It appeals to one’s sense of sight.

Example: The interchanging colors of the dancing fountain amazed the spectators.
2. Auditory Imagery – It appeals to one’s sense of hearing.
Example: The deafening silence of the surroundings made me anxious the whole
night.
3. Olfactory Imagery – It appeals to one’s sense of smell.
Example: The garbage brought about by the storm surge along Roxas Boulevard
stinks.
4. Gustatory Imagery – It appeals to one’s sense of taste.
Example: The dark chocolate that you gave me melts in the mouth.
5. Tactile Imagery – It appeals to one’s sense of touch.
Example: The sacrifice they have done for you is manifested by the roughness of
the palms of their hands.
More examples:
 Visual - The night was black as ever, but bright stars lit up the sky in
beautiful and varied constellations which were sprinkled across the
astronomical landscape.
Auditory - Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began
practicing her concerto.

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 Olfactory - She smelled the scent of sweet hibiscus wafting through the air,
its tropical smell a reminder that she was on vacation in a
beautiful place.
Gustatory - The candy melted in her mouth and swirls of bittersweet
chocolate and slightly sweet but salty caramel blended together
on her tongue.
Tactile - After the long run, he collapsed in the grass with tired and burning
muscles. The grass tickled his skin and sweat cooled on his brow.
To interpret imagery in the text, here are some questions that can
serve as guide.
1. What are the images in the text?
2. Are these images related to one another? In what manner?
3. What feeling or emotion does it express? What emotion is stimulated?
4. What was the author’s purpose in choosing these images?
5. What is the theme of the literary piece?
6. How do the images used speak about the theme?
 INFORMAL DEFINITION
Read the conversation of a group of friends.
Jeam: Hey, Ace.
Ace: Yup, what’s up?
Jeam: I can’t go to your party.
Ace: Why not?
Jeam: I won’t be able to get there on time cause I’m going to visit my grandparents
this weekend
Ace: Alright then, see you around.

What do you notice about the conversation? How about the choice of words used?
Another way of giving meaning to an unfamiliar word is through informal
definition. Contrary to formal definition, the writer can make use of familiar words
that are associated with the word to be defined like synonyms and antonyms.
Examples:
1. courageous
Courageous, which is synonymous to being brave, is a word that means being not
afraid of anything.
2. Anonymous
Anonymous, the opposite of being known, refers to being unidentified.

Below are some clues that make a word informal:

 Contractions are informal such as can’t, won’t, aren’t, etc.
 Most idioms
 Majority of phrasal verbs
 Words that shortened
Informal words are normally used in casual conversation or piece of writing. This
may range from typical conversation with your friends to giving your order to a
server.
INFORMAL FORMAL
Ask for Request
Deal with Manage
Go before Precede
Put up with Tolerate
Really big Considerable
Whole Entire
Bring in Introduce
Come back Return
Hungry Famished
Tires Fatigued
Thanks Gratitude
Informal words or its definition are used depending on the situation and the
person that you are speaking with. With the conversation of the two friends, you
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 can use informal words. However, if you are going to speak to your parents,
teachers, or senior people, then you have to use formal words.
IV. Review / Enhancement Activity
4 Key points to remember:
1. The story of Icarus and Daedalus is thousands of years old. The moral of the
story is still relevant today. The moral is simple: “Aim for the middle
course and avoid extremes. In other words, be balanced.”
2. Important poets in Rome are Virgil and Ovid while in Greece is Sappho.
3. Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and other writers to create
images in the mind of the reader. Imagery has 5 types: visual, auditory,
olfactory, gustatory and tactile.
4. Aside from formal definition, other way of giving meaning to unfamiliar
words is through informal definition that is using familiar words like
synonyms and antonyms.
V. Learning Task 3
1. Answer the following exercises.
1.1. Activity 1: Read and understand each question carefully. Encircle/Click
the letter of your answer.
1.2. Activity 2: Interpret the images in Fragment 31 by Sappho using the
given guide questions. Answer the questions comprehensively.
2. For online students, please check posted google forms/document in the
classwork portal in our google classroom and answer the quiz/learning task
there. Do not forget to click submit button once done.
3. For modular students, please see and answer the attached learning task.
VI. References / Materials
Abarabar, MT. A., Estipona, MIB. P., Galvez, N. M. JR., Magbitang, VA. D., Ribo, L.M.
(2016)
Language in Literature World Literature. Vibal Group, Inc.
Bautista, M.V. (2017). Learning English Language and World Literature . CAJ Publishing
House.
Cruz, A. B., Granada, A.A., Magno, F.P. (2015). Breaking Ground through English
World Literature. Ephesians Publishing Inc.
Gonzales, C.T., Sim, A.T., Valencia, A. V., Bogornia, A.M., Yu, P.R. (2015). Essential
English Worktext in Literature and Language. Rex Book Store.
Mendez, E.L., Gabelo, N.C. (2015). Facets A Complete Integrated Worktext on
Communication Skills. Innovative Educational Materials, Inc.
Tagay, Brutas, Esteban. 2019. Journeying through Literature and Language 10. Don
Bosco Press, Inc.

Checked by:
Prepared by:

RUTH U. MALLORCA EDGARDO M. CABASE, JR., LPT

Subject Teacher Department Chair – JHS

Approved:

ROUEL A. LONGINOS, Ed. D., Ph.D.

School Director/ Principal