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Poetry of Science Book Cover

on April 27, 2011

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What Is the Difference Between an Epithet and a Kenning?

Differentiating Between Epithets and Kennings Okay, let's try to differentiate between Epithets and Kennings. It's tough when this stuff is so similar! I'll provide the standard literary definitions of the two terms, give some common examples, discuss the nuanced differences, and then do an exercise myself!

What is an Epithet (in the literary sense)? Epithet (plural epithets) - the "literary" epithet definitions are as follows:
1. A term used to characterize a person or thing. The adjective "Terrible" in Ivan the Terrible.2. A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person. The Young Pretender for Charles Edward Stuart.
What is a Kenning? Kenning (plural, kennings) is similar - a kenning is a kind of epithet, like a simile is a kind of metaphor; I'd say the difference is in directness.
Kenning- use of a roundabout phrase for a common thing, eg 'whale's land' for 'sea'. It was very common in Anglo-Saxon vers…

Suggested Names for Those Who Are Not a Millennial but Not Quite Gen X

What Do You Call the People Who Are in Gen X/Millennial Label Limbo? This graphic up there puts my age group squarely in Millennial, but there are a lot who put me as a young Gen-Xer.
I don't feel like I fully belong in either! There've been some fun-to-read pieces on this "microgeneration" who sit on the cusp of either Gen X or Millennial, and interesting monikers for us, too.

"Generation Jordan Catalano" is one, in reference to the short-lived but much beloved TV series "My So-Called Life" starring Claire Danes. So beloved, I think, because it captures that time period for those who were in high school/middle school during the height of the Alternative Music Grunge Era. Gen X is the most "Existential Crisis" of Generations. To be a teenager during the hey day of such malaise among the people slightly older than you is to double down on the Existential Crisis that is Teenagerhood. MSCL captured that "ugh"-ness of the time an…

The Poetry of Science: a Poetry Unit for Young Students - The Commonplace Book, Where It All Begins

Making a Delicious Mess with Our Commonplace Books - The First of the Poetry of Science Elementary School Poetry Lessons
I start of the poetry unit by handing out blank notebooks to all the students. I tell them that these are their "Commonplace Books" and it's important that they put anything and everything in their notebooks: have cross-outs, take risks, fail, retry, re-write, go in one directins, stop, go in another, explore, in short, "make a delicious mess."

I also start addressing them as "poets" from the get-go. "Okay, poets, we're going to start the lesson." Calling them poets from the very beginning helps get them confident in their ability to be a poet -- which involves one, and only one, key ingredient: creating poems. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I say as much to the students, too.

Some are excited for the freedom. Other's are paralyzed by it. They're so used to making sure they do the right thing, they d…

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