Hello all,
I need your help! My trouble is that I have a vital assesment task coming up. I'm trying to find some stimulus material on inner journeys, but , that is a bit more obscure and, individual....not common! help is very imperative and essential I'd really appreciate all of your suggestions.

Thanks alot,
Hidden

According to one website you might explore the poetry of A. E. Housman and Emily Bronte:

"MORE INNER JOURNEYS
More travels into the astonishing hidden worlds of the human mind and heart, revealed in the works of writers such as Marcel Proust, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Virginia Woolf, A.E. Housman and Emily Bronte."

Here's some Bronte, from our Classic Poets section:

To Imagination
by Emily Jane Brontė

When weary with the long day's care,
And earthly change from pain to pain,
And lost and ready to despair,
Thy kind voice calls me back again:
Oh, my true friend! I am not lone,
While thou canst speak with such a tone!

So hopeless is the world without;
The world within I doubly prize;
Thy world, where guile, and hate, and doubt,
And cold suspicion never rise;
Where thou, and I, and Liberty,
Have undisputed sovereignty.

What matters it, that, all around,
Danger, and guilt, and darkness lie,
If but within our bosom's bound
We hold a bright, untroubled sky,
Warm with ten thousand mingled rays
Of suns that know no winter days?

Reason, indeed, may oft complain
For Nature's sad reality,
And tell the suffering heart, how vain
Its cherished dreams must always be;
And Truth may rudely trample down
The flowers of Fancy, newly-blown:

But, thou art ever there, to bring
The hovering vision back, and breathe
New glories o'er the blighted spring,
And call a lovelier Life from Death,
And whisper, with a voice divine,
Of real worlds, as bright as thine.

I trust not to thy phantom bliss,
Yet, still, in evening's quiet hour,
With never-failing thankfulness,
I welcome thee, Benignant Power;
Sure solacer of human cares,
And sweeter hope, when hope despairs!


Les



Post Edited (11-12-04 04:09)

Hidden, have you decided what you mean by an 'inner journey'?

Who is it in the Australian school system that is responsible for these assigments? Let me at them! For myself, if I never see the terms inner journey or imaginative journey again, the time frame will be much too short.

Hugh, I'm with you on this one. Let's start with these two:

[www.yourheroicjourney.com]


Les

The table of contents here will give us some ammo for future questions on this topic:

[www.pearsoned.com.au]


Les

Thank you all for your help as it is much needed. Sorry for not posting to my last topic I brought to your peep's attention, But I was bogged down with school work. I really like the first poem Les, and I am going to utilize it. Now to clarify what I need to do in regards to this assignment which is worth 40% *shreks* is find 2-6 stimulus materials on the inner journey and use the material to answer the following question.....

How does the piece of stimulus material that you have chosen add to your understanding of the inner journey? what insights into the inner journey have you gained...full langage analysis is required e.g metaphors, and if using a poem the rhyming scheme etc.... (which I'm hopeless at:P) write about 3 pages for each.

and part B is:

Choose from either Robert frost's poem " The road not taken" or Magaret Atwood's poem "journey to the interior" and Answer the following question.

How does the poet use an extended metaphor to communicate the concept of an inner journey?

Then the next part is just a visual deconstruction :)

Once again gracias (thanks) for all your peeps help .... you guys are very versed in poetry and the english language couldn't find better assitance elsewhere! :)

Cheers,
Hidden

p.s To Ian the inner journey implyed from my school is about life in a metaphorical sense through poetry, movies, reviews, etc......sorry about not clarifying that :)

If only the supposed concepts of 'inner journey' and 'interior journey' and 'imaginative journey' were given as much defined coherence as the hero's journey!

When neither the educational authorities nor the students appear interested in the need to define the subject to be discussed, let alone put forward a definition for examination, any attempt to help or comment feels to me like wrestling fog. I feel the same about those reported assignments to link poems, books, movies, reviews, radio plays, etc, as 'related texts'. Anything can be related to anything, depending on what qualities you compare, so that assignment calls for little selectivity or intellectual rigour. (Maybe it can spur creativity, in the manner advocated by Edward de Bono, but that's a totally different exercise). When a play like Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' or a poem like 'The Road Not Taken' is expected to be 'related' to a movie like 'Shrek 2' or to a review of that movie (to use a hypothetical example), it seems an implicit denial that Shakespeare had profound literary ability, or that poetry has any distinctive qualities as poetry. A sort of literary nihilism. I'm sorry for the young minds it's inflicted upon. No wonder some of them end up hating Year 12.

That book 'The Hero's Journey' cited by Les could be interesting in its own right, though may be just a reworking of the ideas in Joseph Campbell's 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces'.

That other book Les cited, 'Writing the Journey', is certainly a mine of 'texts' that could be 'related' when journeying is the subject. We can point enquirers to it. Must say though, I feel reluctant to appear a collaborator in spreading the fog!

yes it is painful upon our young minds, and having a major dislike for year 12 if not hating it should be expected from the educational system and anyone else who agrees with the beaten topics of the last year of school cirricular studies. But I appreciate your opinions and your reluctancy towards spreading or expanding the fog Ian, sorry once again if I didn't make the subject matter clear as the work that is given to me also lacks clarity regarding definition. Also it is seen by school educational boards unorthodox to see "relating texts or materials" an opportunity to compare anything to the subject at hand, which is totally contridictary to how I feel as I am in agreeance with you Ian, unfortunately through the fog there is boundaries, As I have spoken to my teacher and found out a bit more of a clearer definition as to what is expected. The related material has to be of a serious tone, modern, poetry is to be the last source as we have studied it reiteratively, since I am a lover of poetry the guidelines to me basically were condesenced to equal boring. Anyways I have had my whinging and detesting session about the course for us yr 12 students


thanks again,
hidden

the poem "to imagintion" by Emily jane bronte" what exactley is that poem talking about and how does it relate to inner journeys and what specific aspect of inner joureys, is it emotional, mental, spiritual??????
rachel

hey how r ya names EMad i think i got the same assesment LOL but a good source to choose that explains great inner JOurney is (ill give phew)

1) Poem- 'The Road Not taken by ROBER FROST
2) Poem- 'Journey to the interior' by MARGARET ATWOOD
3)Novel- 'EMPIRE OF THE SUN by J.G Ballard

hey i was wondering where can i find a simple analysis of the "inner journey" undertaken( if that even exists) in the poem The road not taken. i can figure out what it means in literal terms but that about it... thanx heaps :)

Author: Riley (---.pwrtl.sydny.dft.com.au)
Date: 12-02-04 20:07

Hey, unfortunately i am also studying imaginative journies for the hsc and if anyone is looking for sophisticated visual texts as i believe many of you are, then a great source is any leunig cartoon strip related to journies. I know already of many past hsc students who have used leunig cartoons and got in the high 90's. Another great imaginative journies text is charles dickens - the child's story, which is in itself clever and links well with both Coleridge's "Lime Tree Bower" and "Frost at Midnight". And to everybody who has an assessment task due this coming week (Dec. 6-10), all the best and wish me luck. Hope i could help

Ahhh... i am having so much trouble with this inner journey thing! stupid year 12!!! :S

Anyway, my question is, does anyone have a good source of visual texts that relate to Atwoods's poem - Journey to the Interior?

Jasm, to improve your chances of getting help from potential helpers on Emule who have not seen the syllabus material set for your Year 12 English, and who therefore find questions like yours hard to understand, please explain:

- what is classed as an 'inner journey', as distinct from any other kind of journey;

- what is classed as a 'visual text'; and

- what is meant by a visual text 'relating' to a poem.

Are these concepts defined or explained in the official syllabus material given to you, or are you relying on your teacher to explain them, or are you expected to work out for yourself what they mean?

If a visual text means a film, surely no one has made a film about Atwood's poem, or about the writing of it. So how could a film 'relate' to the poem?

Ian