0:02 all right folks let's admit it reading
0:05 poetry is hard sometimes it seems like
0:07 the multiple ideas that are being
0:09 explored in any given poem are way too
0:11 complicated they often even come off as
0:13 so disparate that the poem doesn't even
0:19 and yet there are other times a poem can
0:21 seem way too concrete too simple but you
0:22 just know there has to be some
0:24 complexity in there somewhere so today
0:26 I'm going to begin guiding you on your
0:28 poetry Journey specifically as you Trek
0:30 through the process of writing your
0:32 poetry essay on your AP Lit exam right
0:34 now though I want to take a quick moment
0:36 and give a shout out to miss Franklin
0:38 and her students at PK young in Florida
0:41 I hope all of you blue Waves honestly
0:42 cherish your instruction knowing that
0:44 you have one of the best lit teachers in
0:46 the country guiding you as you study it
0:48 was also super awesome to meet Miss
0:50 Franklin when I was in California just
0:52 last month okay I want to take you back
0:55 to a Time the early 19th century to be
0:58 exact when Percy Bish Shelley and Horace
0:59 Smith agreed to write sonnets about some
1:02 ancient Egyptian ruins I've created some
1:04 prompts for both of these sonnets but
1:06 we're going to look at the first prompt
1:07 because that's going to be the one that
1:09 I'm going to trace throughout my poetry
1:11 series of course you can access these
1:13 props right down in the description now
1:15 before you ever read the poem on your
1:17 wood exam you want to actually read The
1:19 Prompt effectively you may think you
1:21 know how to read the prop because you
1:23 know what the words say but if you
1:25 really know how to read the prompt you
1:26 can typically leverage it to help you
1:28 read the poem significantly more
1:30 effectively so there are four steps to
1:32 reading the prompt well and you can
1:34 actually follow these steps for each one
1:36 of your props on your AP wood exam [Music]
1:37 [Music]
1:40 so you can make sure to own the reading
1:42 of the poems and the excerpts that
1:43 you're instructed to work with on test
1:46 day and because of this you can slay
1:48 each one of your essays as long as you
1:49 work with the prompt correctly just make
1:52 sure to complete all of these tasks
1:54 before you read the poem in front of you
1:56 so let's start with step one the first
1:58 thing you want to do when you break down
1:59 a prompt is to identify what is called
2:02 called the tagline tag just stands for
2:04 title author and genre in the case of
2:06 the prompt that we're working with we
2:08 want to identify Percy Shelley
2:10 Ozymandias and sonnet doing so will
2:12 fulfill this first step now quick note
2:14 here sometimes it may say poem in a
2:15 prompt but you may know that the
2:18 particular poem is a specific type of
2:19 poem and if you know the more precise
2:22 type of poem that is on the page show
2:24 your smarts and label that piece more
2:26 accurately notice the poem has 14 lines
2:28 then call it Asana see that the poem is
2:30 19 lines made up of five tursettes and a
2:32 quatrain well that's a villain is the
2:34 poem made of rhyming quatrain's
2:36 intelligramatic or emotional story sweet
2:38 it's a ballad you don't have to know
2:40 poetic forms for exam day but it
2:42 certainly won't hurt if you do and
2:43 that's all you need to do for step one
2:45 so let's actually move to step two step
2:47 two of breaking down a prompt is looking
2:49 for any background information in the
2:51 prompt that can help you understand why
2:53 the poem was created or what's happening
2:55 in the poem itself so in the case of
2:56 this particular Prophet we'd want to
2:58 identify information like the speaker in
3:00 the poem meets a traveler that accounts
3:02 his observations now this is an
3:04 important detail because it sets up a
3:06 frame narrative that's a story within a
3:07 story we want to note that the speaker
3:09 recounts the Traveler's observations
3:12 towards some ancient ruins and based on
3:13 the prompt we can know that this
3:15 particular poem does explore the ideas
3:18 of power pride in the passing of time
3:19 all of this initial information should
3:21 let us comprehend the poem much better
3:23 because we not only know the elements of
3:25 the narrative but also the ideas that
3:27 the poem is actually exploring so now
3:29 let's move on to step three which is
3:31 also super easy we need to find what we
3:33 are commanded to do by The Prompt and
3:35 the reason why this is so easy is
3:36 because the command element of the
3:38 prompt always starts with the word
3:41 analyze or the word analyzes so once you
3:43 find that word just underline from that
3:44 word until the end of the sentence that
3:46 it's in or if you're filling in an
3:48 organizer like I am you can copy down
3:51 the command word for word analyzes all
3:52 the way through the end of the sentence
3:54 now I have to give you a warning you may
3:55 think that this seems like a waste of
3:58 time but I promise you it's not here's
4:00 why first focusing on the word analyze
4:02 reminds you that you have to actually
4:04 analyze as you write it doesn't ask you
4:07 to summarize or describe or explain or
4:09 paraphrase so if you know what analysis
4:11 actually means and requires and focus on
4:13 this you'll be in better shape as you
4:14 write your paper and if you don't know
4:16 what analysis is well I'm going to tell
4:18 you all of its three steps right now
4:19 because it will help you when you write
4:21 your body paragraphs later analysis has
4:23 three phases the identification phase
4:25 the breakdown phase and the explanation
4:27 phase this is important for you to know
4:29 because you can actually structure your
4:31 body paragraphs in this way your topic
4:33 sentence is supposed to identify what
4:35 the author is doing and why the author
4:37 is doing it you have evidence that comes
4:38 after your topic sentence is going to
4:40 break down where the author is doing
4:42 specifically what you said the author is
4:43 doing and where it's seen in the text
4:45 and your commentary is going to explain
4:48 how the evidence actually conveys the
4:49 why you identified in your topic
4:52 sentence in my next poetry videos you'll
4:54 see how all this can be easily put
4:55 together and how every body paragraph
4:57 actually goes through the steps of
4:59 analysis every time now I do have a
5:01 second Point here finding the command
5:03 allows you to create a question that
5:04 will not only help you conquer the
5:06 reading of the poem but also conquer
5:07 writing the essay creating this question
5:08 which I like to call the conquer
5:10 question is the final step and most
5:12 important step in the whole breakdown
5:13 process because it will tell you exactly
5:15 what you need to know when you're done
5:17 reading the poem and actually generating
5:19 this question is what we call step four
5:21 in this process to generate a conquer
5:22 question you need to go into the command
5:24 that you just recorded and search for an
5:26 infinitive that's there an infinitive is
5:28 just the word two followed by a verb in
5:29 the case of the prompt that we are
5:31 working with the infinitive is to
5:33 explore once you find the infinitive you
5:36 want to look at the words only to the
5:38 right of it and ask yourself what can't
5:40 I know until I read the poem this
5:43 question that you ask must start with
5:45 the word what and this is because what
5:47 questions are much easier to answer than
5:49 why questions or how questions we're
5:51 trying to simplify the poetry reading
5:53 process so we're going to ask the
5:54 simplest question in order to do that
5:57 also remember you don't want to ask what
5:58 literary or poetic elements and
6:00 techniques am I looking for because
6:02 those phrases are to the left of the infinitive
6:03 infinitive
6:05 we only want to focus on what is to the
6:07 right of the infinitive for language so
6:09 if I were to do this correctly I want to
6:11 ask what can't I know from the word
6:14 Explorer all the way to time well let's
6:16 see do I know that Shelley is trying to
6:18 explore something because it says so in
6:20 the prompt yeah why the language is
6:22 right there do I know Shelley is
6:24 exploring the ideas of power pride in
6:27 the passing of time yeah why it also
6:29 says it right in the prompt do I know
6:31 what the complex relationship is between
6:34 power pride and the passing of time no
6:37 go not yet so this sets me up to know
6:38 that when I'm done reading the poem
6:40 that's about to follow I need to be able
6:43 to answer this question what is the
6:45 complex relationship between power pride
6:47 and the passing of time if I can answer
6:49 that even in the slightest sense I'm
6:51 going to be able to write this Essay
6:53 with significant ease so great you know
6:54 how to break down a prompt and you know
6:56 how to generate a conquer question to
6:58 help you read but that doesn't mean you
7:00 know how to translate all all this into
7:01 your writing but don't worry because
7:03 I've got you covered to learn how to
7:05 write your essays all you need to do is
7:08 Begin by checking out this video right here
7:08 here
7:12 already ah good grief these trucks are
7:16 loud tag Steve ah nope it's gotta say
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