THE STARKatherine Cottingham

10/24/14

[By Jane and Ann Taylor]

BIOGRAPHY – ANN TAYLOR Ann was born into an extensive literary family (her father

was an engraver and her mother wrote seven works of moral and religious advice – two of them fictionalized.

Ann never got much credit in her writings as a young poet and if her writings were published, they wouldn’t be credited.

Ann’s style of writing is strong and vivid when she, like her sister, Jane, wasn’t too preoccupied with moral and religious themes.

Ann and Jane wrote many works together in which both have shared credit in such as Original Poems for Infant Minds by several young persons(1804/1805), Hymns for Infant Minds(1808), and Rhymes For the Nursery (1806) (Authors were not identified for each poem)

She died on 20 December 1866 and was buried next to her husband in Nottingham (England) General Cemetery.

http://www.poemhunter.com/ann-taylor/biography/

BIOGRAPHY – JANE TAYLOR Jane Taylor lived with her family in London at Shilling

Grange in Shilling Street, Lavenham, Suffolk. [her house can still be seen today]

Jane has many works of writing such as her novel Display (1814), Essays in Rhyme (1816), The Family Mansion. A Tale (1819), and Rhymes for the Nursery (1806) which contains her most famous piece “The Star”, more commonly known today as “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” which is set to a French tune.

Throughout her life, she wrote many essays, plays, stories, poems, and letters which were never published.

Jane Taylor died of breast cancer at the age of 40, her mind still "teeming with unfulfilled projects“ [Buried in Ongar churchyard]

After her death, her brother, Isaac, collected many of her works, one of which included a biography of her in The Writings of Jane Taylor, In Five Volumes (1832)

http://www.npg.org.uk

*Having a rhyme scheme allows for the reader to read the poem easily and it help the flow from the beginning till the end.

*Imagery allows for the reader to picture what the writer is describing to them.

*Similes also help the reader to picture what the writing is describing by being able to compare one thing to another.

*5 Separate stanza separate smaller topics that belong under the whole topic all together [Keeps it organized].

* Having each stanza split into 4 lines assists with the organization of the poem as well.

POETIC ELEMENTS – FIRST STANZA

TWINKLE, twinkle, little star, A

How I wonder what you are! A

Up above the world so high, B

Like a diamond in the sky. B

This Rhyme Scheme Allows The Poem To Flow

*Rhyme*Simile*Imagery

Simile – It’s Comparing The Star In The Sky To A Diamond

Imagery -- It Describes How High Up The Little Star Is In The Sky

Imagery – It Describes The Size Of The Star

POETIC ELEMENTS – SECOND STANZA

When the blazing sun is gone, C

When he nothing shines upon, C

Then you show your little light, D

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. D

*Rhyme*Imagery

{The sun had set and the little’s stars light was the only thing to light up the sky during the night

time}

Imagery: describes the sun and how hot the speaker thought the sun was in comparison with it’s temperature

Imagery: describes the star’s light and the size of it compared to the other stars in the night sky

Repeated throughout the entire poem both beginning and end

POETIC ELEMENTS – THIRD STANZA

Then the trav’ller in the dark, E

Thanks you for your tiny spark, E

He could not see which way to go, F

If you did not twinkle so. F

*Rhyme*Imagery

Imagery: describes the star and helps with the mental imaging of what the narrator/voice is saying

Imagery: describes the action of the star

{The traveler had lost his way and used the light from the star as his aid} [

POETIC ELEMENTS – FOURTH STANZA

In the dark blue sky you keep, G

And often thro' my curtains peep, G

For you never shut your eye, H

Till the sun is in the sky. H

Imagery: This describes what the sky surrounding the star looked like.

Personification: The writer has given the star human-like characteristics.

Until the sun rises the star is always visible

*Personification

The writer describes the star as “peeping” through the curtains in a sense of shining through the curtains illuminating the room with its light

POETIC ELEMENTS – FIFTH STANZA

‘Tis your bright and tiny spark, I

Lights the trav’ller in the dark : I

Though I know not what you are, J

Twinkle, twinkle, little star J

This line is repeated at the end as it is originally in the beginning

Imagery: This assists the reader in mentally picturing what the speaker sees and is trying to portray

“Lights” – Guides

IMAGERY“Up above the world so high”

It Describes How High Up The Little Star Is In The Sky In Comparison To Where The Speaker Is Standing; Looking From Their Viewpoint.

www.flickr.com

“‘Tis your bright and tiny spark”

This assists the reader in mentally picturing what the speaker sees and is trying to portray as to what the star looked like.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com http://photo.accuweather.com

“When the blazing sun is gone”

This describes the sun and how hot the speaker thought the sun was in comparison with it’s temperature to picture a sun at sunset and its brilliant color-like fire hot reds and oranges.

“In the dark blue sky you keep,”

This describes what the sky surrounding the star looked like and the dark color that made the bright star stand out in the night sky.

www.Flickr.com

PERSONIFICATION “For you never shut your eye”

The writer was giving the star human like characteristics by “giving” it an eye. Eyes blink and so the writing was portraying that the star is always brilliant and bright in the sky and never disappears or weakens in its strength of light.

http://www.therapearl.com

SIMILE “Like a diamond in the sky”

The star is being compared to a diamond for the way, both a diamond and the star, twinkles and shines. The writer uses “like” which helps me to know that it is a simile.

http://www.andreadiamond.tumblr.com

FIGURATIVE MEANING How I interpreted the poem “The Star” by Jane and Ann Taylor was that this “voice” or narrator of the poem is thanking the star for guiding a lost traveler with its light.

www.worldphoto.org

LITERAL MEANING The literal meaning of “The Star” would be from the perspective of a child. To children, everything in the world is so grand and so brilliant even though it may be something as simple as a star. Because Ann and Jane were highly religious, the line “though I know not what you are” sounds like this person may be thinking it was a guardian of some sort (like an angel) to help guide this lost man back home.

http://onebigphoto.com

AUTHOR’S PURPOSEI think that Ann and Jane Taylor wrote this poem to entertain the youth of their day. Today it is still used in kindergarten classrooms and even used as a lullaby. Millions of people all over the world know this song, set with its French tune, and it is in many books for young readers.

www.onebigphoto.org