ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS RESOURCES

DICTION, IMAGERY, AND SYNTAX IN HENRY IV, PART II

Planning Points

Approximate Time Needed: 45 minutes
Correlation to English I SCS 4.01, 5.02
Correlation to NC High School Exit Exam Competencies: C2, C3, PI10

Lesson Objectives:

Students will read selection from Heny IV, Part II and analyze the interaction and language and meaning.

Materials Needed:

poem, butcher paper, markers, syntax exercise

Description:

• Distribute copies of the attached soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II. Focus on diction, imagery, and syntax by doing the following activities. It might help to point out that Henry has reason for insomnia: Prince Hal is off carousing with Falstaff and the boys, and Henry's rightful claim to the crown is tenuous at best.
• Divide the class into three groups, give each group a big sheet of butcher paper and markers. Ask one group to draw the king in his canopied chambers, one group to draw the peasants in their cribs, and the third group to draw the ship-boy on the mast. Walk around to make sure they capture sure details as the buzzing night-flies, the "slipper" clouds, the "perfumed" (how do we draw that?!) chamber. Listen as they talk about the images and applaud their comments about all the imagery they notice. Don't let them miss all the noise!
• Give the attached exercise on syntax.
• Notice words that are particularly effective, point out that "hurly" is a noun, talk about "partial" as a pun, meaning both not impartial and that restless partly asleep state that the syntax of the poem denotes. (e.g., the short sentences ("I wish I could sleep") alternately with long meandering sentences which seem almost to drift off-only to be brought back to the short sentences, "O thou dull god," followed by another long meandering sentence.) What does "happy low" say about Henry's attitude?

Assessment:

This activity can be informally assessed through whole class discussion of the groups' interpretation or formally addressed through the 1990 AP poetry prompt. (In a well-organized essay, briefly summarize the King's thoughts and analyze how the diction, imagery, ad syntax help to convey his state of mind.)

Additional Notes:

In the following soliloquy from Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part II, King Henry laments his inability to sleep. In a well-organized essay, briefly summarize the King's thoughts and analyze how the diction, imagery, and syntax help to convey his state of mind.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle sleep!
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs*,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common Ôlarum-bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge,
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads ad hanging them
With deaf'ning clamour in the slippery clouds,
That with the hurly death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial* sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a King? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

*cribs: huts; *partial: not impartial

This activity was adapted from Becky Brown, NC School of the Arts.

Teacher's Notes:

Regarding Syntax

• Examine sentence length. Why are the short sentences effective at the beginning and the end? Why are the longer sentences effective in the middle. How does the sentence length relate to meaning?
• Examine sentence patterns. Why, for example, is the inverted sentence, "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown," more effective than "the head that wears a crown is uneasy"? Since this is an apostrophe to sleep, why are the rhetorical questions appropriate? Are there parallel structures in form as well as meaning within the two major metaphors? Why are the repetitions of "sleep" so appropriate? Put all the sentences in a natural order. Does that alter meaning in any way? ("Thou wilt seal up the ship-boy's eyes upon the high and mast...)
• Look at the juxtaposition of and choice of words? Is there a series of cacophonous sounds? Are there a lot of sibilant sounds? How are those sounds related to meaning? "Most stillest" would not normally be appropriate. Why does it work so well here?
• Complete the chart below. What do you discover?
  

  Sent. #	First Four Words	Special Features	Verbs	# Words / Sent.

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