Vocabulary #1

adumbrate: to produce a faint image or resemblance of; to outline or sketch
apotheosis: the elevation or exaltation of a person to the rank of a god
ascetic: a person who leads an austerely simple life, especially one who abstains from the normal pleasures of life or denies himself or herself material satisfaction
bauble: a showy, usually cheap, ornament; trinket; gewgaw
beguile: to influence by trickery, flattery, etc.; mislead; delude
burgeon: to grow or develop quickly; flourish:

-The town burgeoned into a city.

complement: something that completes or makes perfect
contumacious: stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient
stubbornly perverse or rebellious; willfully and obstinately disobedient:
didactic: intended for instruction; instructive
disingenuous: lacking in frankness, candor, or sincerity; falsely or hypocritically ingenuous; insincere
exculpate: to clear from a charge of guilt or fault; free from blame; vindicate
faux: artificial or imitation; fake
pas: a step or series of steps in ballet
fulminate: to explode with a loud noise; detonate
fustian: a stout fabric of cotton and flax
hauteur: haughty manner or spirit; arrogance
inhibit: to restrain, hinder, arrest, or check (an action, impulse, etc.).
jeremiadt: a prolonged lamentation or mournful complaint
opportunist: a person who practices opportunism, or the policy of adapting actions, decisions, etc., to effectiveness regardless of the sacrifice of ethical principles
unconscionable: not guided by conscience; unscrupulous

Poem Analysis "My Last Duchess"

Meaning:	The story or poem starts off with a Duke, the narrator, speaking with another man about his marriage when the happen to pass by a portrait of his late wife. The story then takes off from there and the Duke recalls the profound love he had for his dutches, but yet she truly never loved him as equally as he did her. The Duke then basically admitts he had the Dutchess killed because of her lack of love, and honor that should come when marrying a person of his standard. The two men come back to reality and they carry on discussing the Dukes new marriage and wandering down the halls pointing out other notable artworks that he has.
Antecedent Scenario	I think the narrator, the Duke, must have had the Dutchess on her mind before the emissary came to talk to him. The Duke loved her very much and having someone killed can cause severe mental damage and having very likeless of a portrait of her is probably not very healthy for his mentality either.
Structural Parts	I would say there is 5 parts the poem. The first part is sort of like an introduction, the second a reminisce, and the third back to reality. The fourth is back to the Dukes past and he kind of goes on a rant about the Dutchess, like how someone says I'm so over that person, but yet they can't stop talking about them, thats the Duke. Then theres the fifth where the two men come back to the present and continue on with there day like nothing had ever happened.
Climax	I think the Climax is when the Duke says, "This grew; i gave commands; then all smiles stopped together," which at first i thought it was him breaking up the marriage, but with later discussion with a classmate, found out that it meant that he killed his wife!
Other Parts	Theres only one part in the poem that changes. In the middle when the narrator has fully enveloped talking about the Dutchess, it goes from talking about her in the past to talking about her like she was right there in the room with them.

Skeleton	I think the skeleton of the poem falls back on the structure of it. The author builds his poem through the outward questioning and internal thoughts of the character.
Content Genre- games	Love, heartbreak, lust, the past/future, lost time, reminiscent, etc.
Tone	I found the tone of the poem to be laced with love and heart break, but not at all sappy. It has a hint of wonder and no regrets attached to it. The tone is shown through the Duke struggles when losing the woman he loves, then it falls into anger trying to fix things, and the lasting tone for me, was  when he realizes he has to end this marriage, and when I say end I mean end her life. The tone can be described as reminiscent but hopeful for a better tomorrow in the chance to find true love, maybe in the new wife he is about to marry. In short, I think the tone can best be described as a mending tone of putting the pieces of his lost love back together.
Agency
Roads Not Taken	I think the poem needed to be a lot more organized as in stanza and punctuational wise. Maybe it was the format that I had, but comas and stanzas really have an effect on me when reading and if they don't coincide then I get confused as to what i'm reading.
Speech Acts	I found that it began in a bragging act, the Duke goes on about how beautiful his wife was and that she had a lot of admires and thats where the bitter act comes along. The Duke loved her beauty, but wanted it all for himself. Then I would say it turns into an acknowledgement act. And in the last part the act is hopeful in which the Duke can now hopefully get over his late wife and move on with his new one.
Outer and Inner Structural Forms
Imagination- The author did a beautiful job with the story, At first I didn't get it, but with the help of Megan Stevens, my fellow classmate, I came from confusion to Love. Just earlier I had been complaining to Megan about how I'm not a poetry sort of girl, but yet this poem had us talking about it throughout the whole class period. Thats how good I think it was. We had determined the top layer of its context, but there was so much more meaning that we are still talking about it after we left from school.

Word of the Day

Paramnesia
(Noun)-a distortion of memory in which fact and fantasy are confused.

TOBERMORY EXPLAINED

The last sentence of the Tobermory(which is a weird name) is this, "If he was trying German irregular verbs on the poor beast," said Clovis, "he deserved all he got." Cornelius was killed because he was trying to teach elephants in the zoo how to talk and understand speech. Unforntunatley he didn't succeed as well as with Tobermory the cat, and the other characters appreciate that because they couldn't handle even one cat talking, let alone an elephant. Tobermory was amazing in that he was the first species to talk, but yet he said things with no boundaries, spoke only the truth, no matter how hurtful or bad it made someone look. I think thats the theme of the story, that people can be so astounded with something, but at the same time is so scared of it that they'll want to get rid of it, or kill it, like they did with Tobermory.