RED CLASS--Poetry Lab Assignment May 3
RED CLASS ONLY! Complete tonight and post.Let's see. You struggled to name ten poems that you read prior to this class. Maybe you can read a few today (and increase your knowledge of poetry exponentially) before you decide on one to write about for this assignment.
Check out this list of 180 poems, specially chosen for high school students by Billy Collins (yup, the same one), the former poet laureate of the United States of America.
Read through some of them, find one that you immediately like, then comment on why you like it here at Schoolsville.
As much as you may like the poem's meaning, make sure that you comment on its performance, too.
If you don't understand what I mean by a poem's "performance," then review the most recent blog post on "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
This assignment is due before class begins tomorrow: 25 BLOG LINES OR 200 WORDS.
posted by JTF @ 8:57 AM
20 comments
20 Comments:
I really enjoyed reading the poem called The Bagel written by David Ignatow. The poem does not have a rhyme scheme or a specific meter for each line, but the poem is both entertaining and light hearted. The poem has a great performance because it makes us realize that being clumsy is not just part of being a child, but being clumsy can stay with us forever. The poem provides us with a comedic image as we portray the scene in our minds. We can use the great descriptive words to picture the man running down the sidewalk chasing after his perfectly round bagel speeding viciously away. The man in the poem is not upset that he dropped the bagel or that he began tumbling down the pavement. The man found it all to be very funny. It makes us realize that life should not be so serious. Life should be loved by finding the humor in everyday things. We can all be like children in many ways including our daily routines. I also enjoyed the poem because I do like bagels and I found it funny to think about them throughout the entire poem. I would be very angry if I lost my bagel, and I think this poem is great because it shows us that losing a bagel is not the end of the world. It is actually something that we can laugh about and learn from. A bagel is replaceable, but this great poem could never be replaced.
The poem I chose to write about is called The Farewell by Edward Field. It is about a person that places their trust in others when they say that the ice is thick enough for them to walk on. As the person steps onto it the ice immediately gaps open and they become submerged in ice cold water. As they are slowly drowning, they wave farewell to those not in the water. I like this poem because it illustrates the deviance of society and how trust is not something you can place in everyone. Due to his trust in others, the person in the poem died. Sometimes in society we place our trust in others that do nothing but throw it away or betray you. They may not know the severity of it, but they are causing you pain. When all is said and done, due to the lies, there may not be, much of yourself left to carry on. It is not a happy poem but its meaning can be applied to my life and that is why I chose it.
DM Red
I chose number 100, entitled Loud Music by Stephen Dobyns. I feel as if I can easily relate to this poem because I too enjoy my music loud, as long as its music that I like. Whenever I am listening to music, unless I'm trying to fall asleep, I have it turned up pretty loud. Other people or noises only serve as distractions to my dissecting of each track. When I go to concerts I try to get as close to the speakers as I can. If I do get close enough, whenever the drummer hits the bass it feels as if my heart is being kick started. I think Dobyns is presenting loud music as a way to escape from reality, which is much like the way I use music. After a long day of school I often want nothing more then to sit at my computer and dissect of full show by one of my favorite bands. While on long rides with my family, many loud arguments or conversations can be started. When this happens, I just turn up my headphones and look out the window, and the music and landscape become one. I feel as if Dobyns and I use music in similar ways, as an escape. Live, loud music is one of the most important parts of my personality and add alot to who I am, and I'm not sure where i would be without it.
Nights
Kevin Hart
There’s nothing that I really want: The stars tonight are rich and cold Above my house that vaguely broods Upon a path soon lost in dark.
Performance –This poem is written in free verse. There is no specific traditional meter but still is rhythmical. This emphasizes the feeling that the nights make the author feel free. This stanza also has very short descriptive words like cold, rich, and dark. This explains how nights a simple but meaningful to the author.
My dinner plate is chipped all round (It tells me that I’ve changed a lot); My glass is cracked all down one side (It shows there is a path for me).
Performance – This stanza uses metaphors to create meaning. The metaphors represent the author and his journey in life. A chipped plate and cracked glass represent the author and his life, which continues the simplicity of the poem. The author explains his thoughts about the comparisons of the metaphors in parentheses to show his thought process.
My hands—I rest my head on them. My eyes—I rest my mind on them. There’s nothing that I really need Before I set out on that path.
Performance – Night is a time for rest and preparation for the next day. The author speaks of using his hands and eyes for means of rest. The phrase is repeated to emphasize the importance of rest. The author then says, “ there is nothing that I really need,” which wraps up the theme of simplicity.
Reading Kenneth Koch’s “To Stammering” reminded me of my stuttering problem when it was at it’s worst while I was in elementary and middle school. I can relate to the experiences described by the author because I too had to go through teasing, speech therapy, and coping mechanisms. I can still remember coming home in tears from the kids on the bus making fun of me, asking why do I talk this way? My grandparents and family members told me that God had a plan for me and I should be grateful for all the good things He has allowed in my life. Like Koch, I could not comprehend this as a child because I didn’t have the maturity to see the big picture and realize that stuttering is actually not the end of the world. Nevertheless, the bullies on the outside where almost as bad as the actual voice inside, almost making yourself the enemy. When I went to Kenmore Elementary, I sang in the chorus, like Koch, and it felt great because I was normally fluent in my speech I didn’t have to strain to make sentences. It was an escape from a life long burden. However, the high of singing and acting like a normal kid was short lived. Once the performance was over, I had to begin talking again, which proved to be especially hard for a very excited 5th grader. Koch describes this let down well, using personification to identify stuttering as an annoying demon that keeps on returning to make your life miserable. A speech impediment is not a sign of strength or confidence, but weakness. It was personally a set back in communication and depicted as a “hired thug” by Kenneth Koch. It took years of psychoanalysis and growing up to be partially alleviated from this problem but the “thug” still comes back from time to time to cause “unhappiness and pain.” This time however is different for Koch and I because we have acquired the skills to conquer the “oedipal love” or unhealthy connection between stuttering and us. I feel as if this poem was written as toast to stuttering because Koch tells his story of how he overcame his problem, much like I did. I sure feels great to stare your enemy in the face a bid it a final farewell.
The Summer I Was Sixteen
By: Geraldine Connolly
"The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,
its slide a silver afterthought down which
we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles.
We did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy.
Shaking water off our limbs, we lifted
up from ladder rungs across the fern-cool
lip of rim. Afternoon. Oiled and sated,
we sunbathed, rose and paraded the concrete,
danced to the low beat of "Duke of Earl".
Past cherry colas, hot-dogs, Dreamsicles,
we came to the counter where bees staggered
into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled
cotton candy torches, sweet as furtive kisses,
shared on benches beneath summer shadows.
Cherry. Elm. Sycamore. We spread our chenille
blankets across grass, pressed radios to our ears,
mouthing the old words, then loosened
thin bikini straps and rubbed baby oil with iodine
across sunburned shoulders, tossing a glance
through the chain link at an improbable world."
I chose this poem because I feel like it is the most relatable of all the poems on the website, considering it was only a short time ago i was sixteen. This poem basically describes every sixteen year old girls summertime schedule. Hanging out at the pool with friends, worrying about boys, ect. Since the poem does not rhyme it gives it an easy sort of flow, comparable to lazy summer days. In the first stanza the use of the bright color turquoise could represent youth and energy & the color silver could represent the calming mood of summer.
To Help the Monkey Cross the River
The poem really has no formal introduction. Thomas Lux jumps right into the description of the situation the monkey and the man in the tree are face. The title implies that the man is aiding the monkey, but while reading the first lines, I thought the man was hunting the monkey. The style of the writing is unique. Lux only capitalizes the first word of every line if it is a pronoun. The author says that he does the math and factors in the speed and angles of the monkey, the croc, and the anaconda, which is a humorous exaggeration. No math needs to be done to figure out that one of the predators will catch the monkey. A reader would think that the hunter would help the monkey by shooting the animals that are chasing it, but he only shoots at the monkey to make him swim faster. The hunter knows that hunting the monkey is of the nature of the anaconda and crocodile. He does not shoot them because they are doing nothing wrong. The author says that the smartest monkeys are those in cages. These monkeys are free from the fear of being hunted while crossing the river.
The poem that I chose for analysis is the poem, The Dead by Susan Mitchell. In the poem, Mitchell personifies the dead, giving them thoughts, feelings, “worries” and “fears.” She uses no particular rhyme scheme, but rather uses detailed description and simple, common language to present her thoughts that even after death, we continue to be remembered through our past words and actions. In the first three lines of the poem, Mitchell writes, “At night the dead come down to the river to drink. They unburden themselves of their fears, their worries for us. They take out the old photographs.” In these lines, one could take the poem on a literal level, thinking that Mitchell wrote a fantasy poem about how the dead are physically alive and functioning in society, but Mitchell meant much more through her lines. The meaning behind Mitchell's diction and presentation are meant to tell the reader that one does not forget their families and loved ones after death. In another line, she describes the dead as being able to read the lines of one’s hands and read their future, “which are cracked and yellow.” This is a very important imagery in the poem. Mitchell may be suggesting that, ultimately, all of our futures will end with the “cracked and yellow” that we become after we die. In another part of the poem, Mitchell writes about the dead occasionally find their way to our houses and “go to the attics” where they “read the letters they sent us.” In these lines, Mitchell is trying to say that one’s ancestors are always with them through the gifts and items that they exchanged over their life. She writes about how loud they are, and how they “make so much noise.” This does not necessarily mean that they are physically loud, but that they can greatly influence one, and that they “wake us” to new ideas and how their legacy lives on through a person. Mitchell, through this poem, ultimately teaches the reader about the cycle of life, and how one is never forgotten, even after death.
I chose to write about the poem The Moon, by Robert Bly. I initially chose it because of the fact that it was easily understandable, but still richly connotative. The poem is only five lines long with no specific meter, no rhyme scheme, and no repetition. Despite this, the poem has vivid imagery and evokes a deeper meaning. The poem reads: “After writing poems all day, I go off to see the moon in the pines. Far in the woods I sit down against a pine. The moon has her porches turned to face the light, But the deep part of her house is in the darkness.” The first line uses simple words and can easily be transformed to fit anyone’s life by assuming that it means, “after working all day.” The second line adds imagery. It can be assumed that the poet goes to the woods to look at the moon, perhaps seeking refuge. The third line also uses very simple language, and is descriptive. The fourth line can be interpreted with a deeper meaning. The language is still simple, but a metaphor is added. The moon is described as having her porches turned to face the light. Porches are generally on the front of a house where everyone can see, and the moon is faced for everyone to see. The final line continues with the simplistic language, but now there is a sense of mystery. The “deep part of her house is in the darkness,” which can be interpreted as “there is more than meets the eye.”
To a Daughter Leaving Home
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
I choose the poem “To my daughter leaving home” because it is actually relevant to my life now. I will be graduating soon and then moving down to the beach for the summer. After the summer is over, I will be going off the college at The University of South Carolina. I will be leaving home and will be on my own for most part. My parents have taught me so much and I will be able to put that knowledge into good use. They have watched me grow up into being a young adult. I feel like I have grown up so fast and I contribute my parents to the way I am today. They gave me every little push I needed in order to succeed. I am prepared to leave home with confidence and knowing that I will be able to live on my own.
For this blog I chose the first poem I read. As soon as I saw the title I knew I was going to love it. "The Summer I Was Sixteen" by Geraldine Connolly. This poem automatically jumped out at me because of the title. I love anything that has to do with summer, it is my favorite season. The poem talks about the turquoise pool rising up to meet the author which is the perfect description of a pool. Being a swimmer I always am intrigued by other people's descriptions of pools and this one may be my favorite so far. The imagery in this first stanza is enough to make anyone wish it was summer and they were outside sitting by the pool. The author states how they plunge into a mirage of bubbles which just automatically puts the image right into your head. You can just imagine jumping into that cool water. The author also talks about dancing, hotdogs, and colas which are three key aspects of summer. This poem simply describes summer. It is about teenage girls looking to have a great summer and live their lives. The poem puts you right at the side of the pool in those years where we think the most important things aren't really the biggest things in life. She says how they did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy, showing how they are only thinking about boys and not the more important things they could be focusing on. She says that they did not exist beyond the chain link at the improbable world. I think this is showing how summer really is just a fun time. In your teens you don't have to worry about school or doing homework, you can sit by the pool with your friends and tan and look at boys all day. It truely is an improbable world because once you grow up the world is nothing like those simple summers.
Schoolboys with Dog, Winter by William Matthews is a poem about a couple of boys on their way to school. This poem has on rhyme scheme. The language and sentence structure is broken. Each stanza ends in the middle of a sentence and picks up in the next stanza. The author may have done this to set the mood of a couple of typical schoolboys. If he was describing a couple of girls on their way to school, he may have made it more structured and used a clever rhyme scheme to create a more upbeat and girly mood. Matthews describes less about the boys and more about the different sights encountered on their way to the schoolhouse. Matthews focuses more on the details of the path they have taken, the dog they encounter, and the condition of the sky until ultimately the sun rises and reveals the schoolhouse. He describes the sky as being dark as they make their way to school and when they get there, the “pale sun rolls over the horizon.” Matthews describes how the boys fog up the air with their breath. The boys are said to be like pastel sausages (simile) the way they are stuffed into their puffy, winter jackets. In the fourth stanza, the author introduces a new being – the dog. Also in this stanza, Matthews uses an alliteration: “cruel to the cringing”. Except for in the title, the author never comes out and says that it is winter, but we can tell that it is from his descriptions. The boys like to crush the ice by the tracks, fogging the air with their breath, their winter coats, and the frosted windows of the schoolhouse let the reader know that it is winter.
I immediately liked "Thanks For Remembering Us" by Dana Gioia. I like this poem because it is something i can personally relate to and easily understand. It has a good rhythm and a catchy tone that grabs the readers attention. I think the main theme is mystery which keeps the reader enthralled with wondering where the flowers came from. The author leads the reader to believe that maybe someone in the couple is having an affair. The poem says that someone should be thanked for "the blunder," but no one knows who the intended recipient is. The performance in the first stanza is the mixed emotions and the suspense. The other ends the first stanza with an ironic line that states "At first we laugh, and then we wonder." This line gives the reader a sense that there is an "elephant in the room." Everyone is aware of the situation, but no one wants to flat out bring it up. The couple are both wondering if maybe the other has been unfaithful, but they just laugh it off while still wondering. The performance in the second stanza is the flower imagery. The author first uses iris imagery then moves to roses. The tone of the poem turns morbid, and the perfume of the flowers is compared to the smell of a funeral home. The poem ends with a tone of guilt. The couple says they can't "throw out a gift we've never owned." The flowers were never meant for them, as far as they know, and they could've immediately thrown them away but chose not to.
In the beginning of the poem the speaker introduces her brother, who has died. He sounded like a complete criminal, the kind of person you don’t need in the world. The way the speaker talks of their brother makes it seem that despite everything, they still care for them and obviously miss them. The speaker has no problem stating every bad thing their brother did: from drinking and drugs, to going to jail and being a bad father. The brother died because he involved himself with bad things. It was no one else’s fault, but the speaker doesn’t blame him or seem angry with him. It is almost as if they were expecting it, it did not come as a surprise. A thought crossed my mind when I was reading the stanza where the speaker explains how their brother left his two year old son alone. His son is the speaker’s nephew and I thought that it was strange that it did not bother him. None of the things his brother does seem to bother him but his bad habits are not just affecting himself. He brought his son into his problems and I thought that the speaker would frown upon this. When he is speaking he is nonchalantly naming each thing the brother did. He shrugs it of and just says “sure.” I like this poem because in the end we realize why the speaker still cares for their brother. They reminisce of the fun times spent together, before his brother began down the wrong path. Sure is used two different ways. The context of the word is the same in the first three stanzas but it differs from the way it is used in the last stanza. It used ironically in the last stanza, to emphasize how great the brother used to be.
#64 For my daughter
While I was reading through the list of poems, this one popped out at me. A father has written it for his daughter letting her know how much he loves her and how he will always be there for her. He says when he dies, there will be a star up in the sky that she can pick and then always remember. This way the father will never leave his daughter. The father also thinks back on all the times both of them have been through. Starting ever since the daughter’s birth and up until childhood. From this poem, I can clearly see that this father loves his daughter very much. He can’t stand to see her upset if he passes away. This in a way reminded me of the relationship I have with my own dad. He always tells me he love me and will be with me know matter what. I think that is what the author, David Ignatow, intended to do. Not only write a poem to his daughter, but in a way try and connect to the relationships that fathers and daughters have. Fathers have unconditional love for their daughters and never would want them hurt or forgotten. David Ignatow wrote a beautiful poem to his daughter expressing how much he loved her and would always be with her. He also was able to connect to the reader and so the relationships between fathers and daughters.
DF-Red
The poem that I chose is called The Bat and it was written by Theodore Roethke. The first two stanzas, By day the bat is cousin to the mouse, He likes the attic of an agaging house, means that during the day the bat takes on characteristics of a mouse. The bat likes to nest and to hide in old buildings. The next two stanzas His fingers make a hat about his head, His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead. Means that his fingers cover his head as he hides from the light, and his pulse is so low that he is nearly dead as has little to no movement during the day. He loops in crazy figures half the night, Among the trees that face the corner light, But when he brushes up against a screen,We are afraid of what our eyes have seen. Means that he comes out at night and gets food and sleeps during the day. We are frightened at what we see because the bat looks different. The last two stanzas,For something is amiss or out of place, When mice with wings can wear a human face. This means that it is different and out of place when what is known to look like a mouse has wings and comes out at night. This poem has the meaning that people judge one another and that we should not think things about people just because of what they look like.
The poem that stuck out to me the most was Fat is Not a Fairy Tale. I like this poem because above all, it was funny, saying things like "Snow Weight" and "Sleeping Tubby." To me, the author was trying to depict what we as a society focus on: body image. Further, society holds a stick thin body image very high. Most if not all of television shows show beautiful and thin characters, and until i read this poem, I didn't realize that most, if not all, of the characters that are portrayed in cartoons or Disney movies are beautiful and thin themselves. This surprised me because it made me realize what kids are seeing and how they are being shown what is important. I think the performance of this poem is meant to be funny because it is about kids. I read it and at first enjoyed the humor, but after thinking I realized that it may have also been performed this way to come off as sarcastic and condescending towards mainstream society.
The Bat
Theodore Roethke
By day the bat is cousin to the mouse.
He likes the attic of an aging house.
(Rhyming couplet same meter for each line, the bat lives in the attic of a house, he is like a mouse in that way and he stays hidden. The house ages but the bat never seems to get older looking, he likes the attic because it’s dark.)
His fingers make a hat about his head.
His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead.
(rhyming couplet same meter for each line, bats sleep with their wings wrapped around them, making a “hat” it keeps him safe, since the bats sleeping its heart beat is slow and appears dead.)
He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.
(rhyming couplet same meter each line, bats fly is crazy patterns because they use sonar)
But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
(rhyming couplet same meter each line, when we see a bat we get scared because they are depicted as scary dirty creatures.)
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.
(rhyming couplet same meter each line, when you look at the bat in its eyes you can see the sweet animal that it is, an almost human face, like when a dog can look human.)
For My Daughter
David Ignatow
When I die choose a star
and name it after me
that you may know
I have not abandoned
or forgotten you.
You were such a star to me,
following you through birth
and childhood, my hand
in your hand.
When I die
choose a star and name it
after me so that I may shine
down on you, until you join
me in darkness and silence
together.
To me, this poem is about a father who loves his daughter enough to make sure that she knows that he will never leave her, even when she is alone. He wants her to have a way to feel close to him until that time comes when she passes on too and they will be in heaven together. He doesn't want her to forget him because he could never forget her. He raised her and was with her through every step, helping her alone the way. When he dies, there will still be times when she will still need him so he wants her to have the star as a symbol of him. This poem doesn't rhyme but it still has a rhythmic quality. The way each line ends and the next begins creates a smooth flow that allows the reader to easily read through the poem.
I really enjoyed the poem Social Security by Terence Winch. I love the repetition and exaggeration of the word “safe” in this poem. And even though this poem is extremely exaggerated, there is a lot of truth in every single thing he says. He does this a lot in the first stanza, and mocks everything with the word safe. He makes the reader realize that nothing is ever really 100% safe, there is an insecurity and vulnerability in everything. I liked the irony in one line when he said there isn’t even safety in a safety pin, somebody could still prick their fingers. Another line where I enjoyed the irony was when he said how even if you lock your doors and windows in your house to be safe, somebody could still break in. The third verse really gives away the meaning of the poem. He compares the fears of people in the past to the fears of people today, and how today we are a lot less safe than we were many years ago. I liked this poem a lot because I could completely agree with it, I always feel hesitant to trust anything. I liked the free verse of the poem too because it helped to make it seem more realistic. This ties in with the performance of the poetry, I think people can connect to the humor in the puns, irony, and exaggeration which help them to understand the point that nothing ever really is safe.
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