Friday, January 13, 2012

we few, we happy few!

Isn't that speech from Henry V the best ever? Gets me every time.

Okay, so business first: For next Wednesday, review chapter four in Writing and Rhetoric, as we will continue talking about ethos/pathos/logos, as well as the fallacies. (Also, just to clarify what I said in class: you don't need to complete the grammar quizzes for Wednesday, but they are due on Monday Jan. 23rd so it might be best to get a head start.)

Due on Wednesday is your first official blog post. The prompt is twofold.

  • First, I want you to identify ONE fallacy (found in chapter four) from the news, or from politics, or from Facebook, etc. I want you to quote the example in your post, tell us where it comes from, identify the fallacy committed, and explain why it's a fallacy. 
  • Second, I want you to analyze another speech from Henry V. Identify TWO examples (each) of ethos/pathos/logos. (In other words, two examples of ethos, two of pathos, and two of logos) You'll want to review the concepts in your book because, as we discussed in class, there are multiple ways to appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos. 

SCENE III. The same. Before the gates.

The Governor and some Citizens on the walls; the English forces below. Enter KING HENRY and his train
KING HENRY V
How yet resolves the governor of the town?
This is the latest parle we will admit;
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves;
Or like to men proud of destruction
Defy us to our worst: for, as I am a soldier,
A name that in my thoughts becomes me best,
If I begin the battery once again,
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur
Till in her ashes she lie buried.
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up,
And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart,
In liberty of bloody hand shall range
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass
Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants.
What is it then to me, if impious war,
Array'd in flames like to the prince of fiends,
Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats
Enlink'd to waste and desolation?
What is't to me, when you yourselves are cause,
If your pure maidens fall into the hand
Of hot and forcing violation?
What rein can hold licentious wickedness
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?
We may as bootless spend our vain command
Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil
As send precepts to the leviathan
To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,
Take pity of your town and of your people,
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace
O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds
Of heady murder, spoil and villany.
If not, why, in a moment look to see
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;
Your fathers taken by the silver beards,
And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls,
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes,
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confused
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen.
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid,
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd?

Good luck! Have a fantastic long weekend.  

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