to define is to limit

edward thomas, “lights out”: i must enter, and leave, alone, / i know not how.

gabriele d’annunzio, “the rain in the pinewood”: rain falls on your black eyelashes / so that you seem to weep / but from pleasure

evie shockley, “where you are planted”: we settle into still pools of humidity, moss- / dark, beneath live oaks

amy gerstler, “bon courage”: a forest appears / to a young girl one morning as she combs / the dreams out of   her hair. 

richard levine, “in a blue wood”: the faceless couple in van gogh’s blue wood, is walking / where there is no path

siegfried sassoon, “dream-forest”: where sunshine flecks the green, / through towering woods my way / goes winding all the day.

robert frost, “stopping by woods on a snowy evening”: and miles to go before I sleep, / and miles to go before I sleep.

mary oliver, “sleeping in the forest” and “black oaks”: and you can’t keep me from the woods, from the tonnage / of their shoulders, and their shining green hair.

john keats, “ode to psyche”: far, far around shall those dark-cluster’d trees / fledge the wild-ridged mountains steep by steep

r.s. thomas, “forest dwellers”: who called them forth to walk / in the green light, their thoughts / on darkness? 

léonie adams, “recollection of the wood”: toward that caress of the boughs a summer’s night / illimitable in fragrance and in sound.

gabriela mistral, “pine forest”: the night watches over its creatures, / except for the pine trees that never change.

kenneth rexroth, “falling leaves and early snow”: between the black pines lie narrow bands of moonlight, / glimmering with floating snow.

william carlos williams, “epitaph”

h.d., “the helmsman”: we forgot—we worshipped, / we parted green from green

cole swensen, “five landscapes”: the trees are half air. they fissure the sky;

pablo neruda, “lost in the forest”: wakening from the dreaming forest there, the hazel-sprig / sang under my tongue

primary sources:

the trial of joan of arc, which has been translated and introduced by both w. s. scott and daniel hobbins 

le ditie de jehanne d'arc by christian de pizan 

non-fiction works: 

joan of arc: heretic, mystic, shaman by anne llewellyn barstow

joan of arc by helen castor

joan of arc: the early debate & joan and the hundred years war by deborah a. fraioli 

joan of arc: the image of female heroism by marina warner

fiction:

saint joan by bernard shaw (play)

personal recollections of joan of arc by mark twain (novel)

the broken soldier and the maid of france by henry van dyke (short story)

not books but writings and articles which i think contribute a lot to our understanding of joan:

variations on the right to remain silent by anne carson

the literary image of joan of arc: prior influences by deborah a. fraioli

joan of arc and female mysticism by anne llewellyn barstow

General Plan:

Weeks 1 and 2: Purpose:

Learn the fundamentals sentence construction

Learn how to spell and count

Start building a phrase stockpile with basic greetings

The Alphabet

Numbers 1 - 100

Subject Pronouns

Common Greetings

Conjugate the Two Most Important Verbs: to be and to have

Basic Definite and Indefinite Articles

Weeks 3 and 4: Purpose:

Learn essential vocabulary for the day-to-day

Start conjugating regular verbs

Days of the Week and Months of the Year

How to tell the time

How to talk about the weather

Family Vocabulary

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 5 and 6: Purpose:

Warm up with the last of the day-to-day vocabulary

Add more complex types of sentences to your grammar

Colours

House vocabulary

How to ask questions

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Forming negatives

Weeks 7 and 8: Purpose:

Learn how to navigate basic situations in a region of your target language country

Finish memorising regular conjugation rules

Food Vocabulary and Ordering at Restaurants

Money and Shopping Phrases

Present Tense Conjugations Verbs

Weeks 9 and 10: Purpose:

Start constructing descriptive and more complex sentences

Adjectives

Reflective verbs

Places vocabulary

Weeks 11 and 12: Purpose:

Add more complex descriptions to your sentences with adverbs

Wrap up vocabulary essentials

Adverbs

Parts of the body and medical vocabulary

Tips for Learning a Foreign Language:

Learning Vocabulary:

What vocabulary should I be learning?

There are hundreds of thousands of words in every language, and the large majority of them won’t be immediately relevant to you when you’re starting out.Typically, the most frequent 3000 words make up 90% of the language that a native speaker uses on any given day. Instead try to learn the most useful words in a language, and then expand outwards from there according to your needs and interests.

Choose the words you want/need to learn.

Relate them to what you already know.

Review them until they’ve reached your long-term memory.

Record them so learning is never lost.

Use them in meaningful human conversation and communication.

How should I record the vocabulary?

Learners need to see and/or hear a new word of phrase 6 to 17 times before they really know a piece of vocabulary.

Keep a careful record of new vocabulary.

Record the vocabulary in a way that is helpful to you and will ensure that you will practice the vocabulary, e.g. flashcards.

Vocabulary should be organised so that words are easier to find, e.g. alphabetically or according to topic.

Ideally when noting vocabulary you should write down not only the meaning, but the grammatical class, and example in a sentence, and where needed information about structure.

How should I practice using the vocabulary?

Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check - Use this method for learning and remembering vocabulary. This method is really good for learning spellings.

Make flashcards. Write the vocabulary on the front with the definition and examples on the back.

Draw mind maps or make visual representations of the new vocabulary groups.

Stick labels or post it notes on corresponding objects, e.g when learning kitchen vocabulary you could label items in your house.

How often should I be practising vocabulary?

A valuable technique is ‘the principle of expanding rehearsal’. This means reviewing vocabulary shortly after first learning them then at increasingly longer intervals.

Ideally, words should be reviewed:

5-10 minutes later

24 hours later

One week later

1-2 months later

6 months later

Knowing a vocabulary item well enough to use it productively means knowing:

Its written and spoken forms (spelling and pronunciation).

Its grammatical category and other grammatical information

Related words and word families, e.g. adjective, adverb, verb, noun.

Common collocations (Words that often come before or after it).

Receptive Skills: Listening and Reading

Reading is probably one of the most effective ways of building vocabulary knowledge.

Listening is also important because it occupies a big chunk of the time we spend communicating.

Tips for reading in a foreign language:

Start basic and small.  Children’s books are great practice for beginners. Don’t try to dive into a novel or newspaper too early, since it can be discouraging and time consuming if you have to look up every other word.

Read things you’ve already read in your native language. The fact that you at least know the gist of the story will help you to pick up context clues, learn new vocabulary and grammatical constructions.

Read books with their accompanying audio books. Reading a book while listening to the accompanying audio will improve your “ear training”. It will also help you to learn the pronunciation of words.

Tips for listening in a foreign language:

Watch films in your target language.

Read a book while also listening along to the audio book version.

Listen to the radio in your target language.

Watch videos online in your target language.

Activities to do to show that you’ve understood what you’ve been listening to:

Try drawing a picture of what was said.

Ask yourself some questions about it and try to answer them.

Provide a summary of what was said.

Suggest what might come next in the “story.”

Translate what was said into another language.

“Talk back” to the speaker to engage in imaginary conversation.

Productive Skills: Speaking and Writing

Tips for speaking in a foreign language:

If you can, try to speak the language every day either out loud to yourself or chat to another native speaker whether it is a colleague, a friend, a tutor or a language exchange partner. 

Write a list of topics and think about what you could say about each one. First you could write out your thoughts and then read them out loud. Look up the words you don’t know. You could also come up with questions at the end to ask someone else.

A really good way to improve your own speaking is to listen to how native speakers talk and imitate their accent, their rhythm of speech and tone of voice. Watch how their lips move and pay attention to the stressed sounds. You could watch interviews on YouTube or online news websites and pause every so often to copy what you have just heard. You could even sing along to songs sung in the target language.

Walk around the house and describe what you say. Say what you like or dislike about the room or the furniture or the decor. Talk about what you want to change.This gets you to practise every day vocabulary.

Tips for writing in a foreign language:

Practice writing in your target language. Keep it simple to start with. Beginner vocabulary and grammar concepts are generally very descriptive and concrete.

Practice writing by hand. Here are some things you can write out by hand:

Diary entries

Shopping lists

Reminders

What could I write about?

Write about your day, an interesting event, how you’re feeling, or what you’re thinking.

Make up a conversation between two people. 

Write a letter to a friend, yourself, or a celebrity. You don’t need to send it; just writing it will be helpful.

Translate a text you’ve written in your native language into your foreign language.

Write a review or a book you’ve recently read or a film you’ve recently watched.

Write Facebook statuses, Tweets or Tumblr posts (whether you post them or not will be up to you).

Write a short story or poem.

Writing is one of the hardest things to do well as a non-native speaker of a language, because there’s no room to hide. 

There are lots of ways to improve your writing ability, but they can be essentially boiled down to three key components:

Read a lot

Write a lot

IF WE WERE VILLAINS -> screen caps

hey so this is a question i get asked quite often, so you know what? i made yall a handy chart

let’s find us a jersey devil: you’re deep in the pineys, surrounded by fog, eyes are on you in the shadows of the trees. this is the verge of discovery. you spend your free hours in cemeteries and libraries because you know there’s more. everything has led up to this. ghosts, cryptids, aliens. the fog parts- a night to dismember.

someday huh? when’s that.: all these goals are stacking up. your eyes may be dead but your mind is racing. wake up, get excited, wait for the doubt to kick in. life’s a bitch but so are you. sleep deprivation is no match for you. you have ambition. you’ve got the spirit. when you’re not spiraling, that is.

somewhere in the northwest: a tall house in a small town in the northwest. grey skies and christmas lights. everything is picturesque, everything is just fine until it’s not. an ornate living room, piano notes echoing, dust rising from worn leather couches, and a butcher knife. lighting is flashing along with the sign of the motel outside. (bates motel/psycho vibes)

one for the money: it’s the roaring 20s. you’re in a booming metropolis at the height of it all. think tommy shelby/peaky blinders. you spend your days in slightly shady business and nights in jazz clubs surrounded by rich men and women. you’ve got the money, you’ve got the power. what’s a little danger?

new age heretics: dancing around a bonfire. the euphoria is palpable. knowledge to bring nations to their knees and the means to do it. the ticking of the clock has slowed. can you feel it?

soft grunge: rain blows against your windows as you ready your next vinyl. these are the moments you dreamt of. everything is quiet, within and without you. time is fluid and you’re questioning things. you’re driving down a highway, and the flashing of headlights is blinding. this isn’t limbo, or darkness, but the feeling is infinite, and so are you.

quietly burning: your rage is your power. your anger is a gift. there is a system to tear down, and damn it if you’ll back down. sure, you’re in physics class but that doesn’t mean you cant dream of throwing a molotov cocktail at some fascists. spit out the blood and bare your teeth, this is the sounds of a revolution.

it’s a rumble: alright cats and dogs, its a turf war, ya dig? surfers vs bikers, a beach shack, and the best vibe on this side of the lighthouse. yes, this is inspired by teen beach movie. what about it.

sci-fi fantasy: 80’s synth wave is blasting and torn copies of sci-fi classics are scattered around your room. the telescope by your window is practically calling to you tonight. at least there’s no lack in the stars. there’s so much you don’t know, but you know we’re not alone. the telescope dips- that had to be a UFO above the trees.

it’s bacchanal time, baby: songs for when you infiltrate a group of classics students and you all love each other. you hold a bacchanal together and see spectacular visions of dionysus and immortality in the midst of ecstasy. when you return to your body you feel you do not know yourself and question if you ever can. the light of the fire is dying and you’re covered in blood. you’re all covered in blood.

lime green slushies & god: you’re in a gas station food mart in the middle of the night and you meet someone. you know they’re not human, but they might be. all you know is that they’re holy. and you’re not. you get a bright green slushie and want to ask them for guidance. they pay for your slushie. you’re neon now.

bottom of a hotel pool: it’s your birthday and you’re at the bottom of a hotel pool. you know you should come back up. you know you shoulld go to the candles and frosting. you stay at the bottom and listen to the muffled thunder in the the distance. you feel the water’s divine power within you and you know you can breathe.

literary liaisons: you’re following your crush in the library. you’re taking note of the books they pick up, picking up one of your own. an hour before close, you go back to the shelf they went to and pick up their book. through the shelf’s gaps, you lock eyes with them. who’s following who now? and why? There’s a metallic taste in your mouth, and you lick your lips.

pink silk & poison: the sweet smell of the rose oil you’re putting on your body hangs in the air. the doorbell rings. you wrap yourself in your pink silk robe and go down to open the door. it’s the police. your husband has died. at least he left you his will. you turn up the volume of the record player.

motel terrors and subtext: there’s a boy in a motel room on his knees with a gun to his head. there’s a girl in a motel room with her finger on the trigger. a bottle breaks. that means ‘i love you’. you shut your eyes. what a pair.

glitter pluming between us: you’re in a club where everything is washed in blue lights. there’s a boy with glitter dusting his cheekbones and he’s all you can see or want. you should be the villains in each other’s stories. but under the lights and music all you can feel is love. you’re both in the alley now and out here the glitter cuts like a knife.

season of the witch: it’s near halloween and you’re discovering a new kind of power. in the hidden section of your university library you discover grimoires. in yourself you discover magic. somehow you know your whole life’s path has led you here.

get your lyres out, boys: you’re the oracle of delphi. amidst the smoke of incense and offerings of grapes and honey you witness history. the rage of achilles, the burden of atlas, the flight of icarus. time does not exist.

raging feminist: you’re a raging feminist. you’re dismantling the patriarchy and rallying. you’re discovering the power in femininity and womanhood.

sunday morning cappuccinos: it’s sunday morning and you wake up early to the smell of breakfast. you pull on a cashmere sweater and go into the kitchen of your loft where your lover is pouring you coffee. you both have goals and are working to achieve them. it’s cold and you make plans to have a movie night together in the warmth.

(because not only rich people can be dark academics)

-thrifting with friends for old sweaters that someone’s grandfather must have worn

-getting second (or third or fourth) hand books and reading the notes that other people left in them

-making sure everything is tidy and clean, no matter what

-adopting a minimalist aesthetic

-or making your own decorations (which then makes you better at lettering and art)

-sitting in a local cafe and buying the cheapest thing so that you can study there (and making sure that you tip as much as you can)

-reading poetry online, printing your favorites, and posting them on your walls

-taking as much of your family’s clothing that they’ll let you have

-rotating the same few shirts, pants, and shoes without anyone noticing

-a lack of jewelry (because there are more important things)

-sitting outside at a park to read or write