YELLOW CLASS--Poetry Lab Assignment May 3
YELLOW 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 @ 8:56 AM
19 comments
19 Comments:
The poem that I chose for this assignment was poem 147 entitled Tuesday 9:00 AM. The title of this poem intrigued me as I wondered what would happen Tuesday at 9:00 AM. It is written by Denver Butson and is about “disaster strangely invading the ordinary”. What captured me about this poem was the fact that it was so negative and so unlike anything else I’ve ever read. It also creates a visual in your head of this bizarre scenario that could happen on a random Tuesday at 9:00 AM. This particular poem does not have a rhyme scheme, but it does have a nice way of flowing all throughout the poem and is an easy read. In the first stanza, you are introduced to the man who is on fire as he is reading the newspaper. He uses personification by saying; “Flames are peeking out” which really enhances the image. The next stanza you are introduced to a woman who is surrounded by water and is drowning. She wants to be the Good Samaritan by telling the man he is on fire, but she cannot speak. “A stream of water runs, steadily from her blouse” helps you envision all of the water. In the third stanza you meet another woman who is freezing to death. This stanza is my favorite in the sense that it is the most visually entertaining. “…To try to melt the icicles, that have formed on her eyelashes, and on her nostrils. To stop her teeth long enough from chattering to say something to the woman who is drowning. But the woman who is freezing to death, has trouble moving with blocks of ice on her feet.” You can’t help but to almost feel bad for the woman because it seems as if she has it worse off than the other two. The last stanza is my favorite as Butson mentions the bus driver who is experiencing surreal visions of a man being mauled by dogs. From the last stanza, I gather that the driver was “crazy” and maybe was hallucinating and sees these crazy images at each bus stop. “The driver doesn't even notice that none of them has paid because he is tortured
by visions and is wondering if the man who got off at the last stop was really being mauled to death by wild dogs.” The idea of disaster infesting the ordinary does not seem so far fetched because it happens everyday. No, you probably will not see a man on fire at the bus stop, or a woman with icicles, but the suffering we see everyday in the world is nothing new. This poem has the power to affect a person in many different ways, which is the main reason I chose it.
I decided to write about the poem "Forgotten Planet" by Doug Dorph. I like this poem for many different reason. I enjoy the fact that it reads as if the main narrator of the story is talking directly to you. She is telling the reader about how cute her daughter is and about an experience she had when she was a child. I believe that her daughter's "ignorance" is her "bliss" because in her daughters innocence in thinking that there is a planet called Plunis, the main character is taking back in her imagination to being a child herself. The way hat she describes her own experience in the beginning of the poem, and the way she desciribes what she imagining and the end of the poem shows the transition between who she has become, and what her daughter brings her back to. After hearing her daughters wonderfully wrong naming of the planets, she is able to once again act as a child and be carefree and happy by imagining that she is on planet Plunis. This poem also performs well because it has a lot of action words in it such as "poke", "spy", and "rumble." This poem's performance also helps the author connect to the reader when the narrator tells of her own experience as a child.
While skimming the list of the 180 poems, the title of Stephen Dobyns' "Loud Music" immediately caught my eye and turned out to continue keeping my attention after and throughout. The poem itself is about a man and his stepdaughter listening to loud music to the point of it becoming a physical experience and their contrasting opinions on it. The step-parent like the loud music because they can FEEL it. This is something that may be absent from the life of a parent, really feeling things, so they like having it back. The young girl does not like the loud music because she feels that in it she loses her voice or "tenuous projection of self". Developing a "self-location" is a crucial part of growing up. The adult wants to look back and regain while the child wants to look forward and grow. The poem's physical form is very cramped and fast-reading with no gaps or margins which creates a sort of streaming-consciousness feel and sensory overload that would also come about when listening to "Loud Music". The last line of the poem reads, "how clear the air becomes, how sharp the colors." lifting the heavy air the jumbled poem created before it and makes you really feel like the air has been cleared and the colors around you have been sharpened.
I chose to write about the poem “Leaving the Island” by Linda Pastan. I enjoy this poem because it is about summer and the sadness of leaving a summer home. I also enjoy reading it because it has rhyme. An example of rhyme is between words like "rote" and "boat" and also "before" and "roar". Sound words are seen in the poem when Pastan writes “The fog horn’s blast”. The poem also mentions the seasons that are coming up now that they are leaving the summer behind. I can relate to the experience of becoming sad when summer comes to an end. I also feel this way when we are packing up our summer home, and getting into the packed up car and watching the memory filled house disappear down the road. This poem uses a ferry instead of a car. On the way to the summer home the thought of the ferry ride was a delightful and exciting ride. Now on departure it is a loud, memory drowning, pleasure-less ride away from a beautiful place and from the season of summer. The poem repeats lines such as, “the ferry is no simple pleasure boat,” in the poem to emphasize the sorrow brought from boarding the ferry, leaving the island.
The poem I chose is “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver. This poem caught my attention just by its title. I love summer and it is just around the corner. The first three lines of this poem, “Who made the world?, Who made the swan and the black bear?, and Who made the grasshopper?” are rhetorical questions. The lines following describe the grasshopper using excellent imagery. One example of this is when Oliver writes “the one who has flung herself out of the grass.” This helps the reader picture the grasshopper hopping around in the grass. Another example is, “who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.” This makes it easier to picture what the grasshopper looks like. In “The Summer Day “ Oliver uses the word grass numerous times. This makes the image of summer even more clear. When I think of summer I think of sitting outside in the grass with the sun beaming down on me. This is depicted in the poem. Towards the end of the poem there are three more rhetorical questions. One of them is “Tell me, what else should I have done?” The other two are “ Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?” and “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” I really enjoyed this poem and it made me very excited for summer.
The poem I chose to read is number 100, called "Loud Music" by Stephen Dobyns. The title of this poem caught my eye because I love driving around with my music turned all the up. I especially love it in the summer when the weathers nice and I can roll my windows down. This poem shows two points of view; an adult and a four year old. The adult is talking about how she loves blasting her music, but her stepdaughter doesn't like it because she can't hear herself sing. Four year olds love to be the center of attention, and if she can't hear herself she feels like she disappears behind the music. On the other hand, the adult likes this feeling. The author loves feeling the speakers and bass throbbing. Another reason I like this poem is because it is an easy read, and you don't have to do much analyzing to figure out the meaning.
The poem I chose was #126, it is called "God Say Yes To Me" by Kaylin. It is about a girl having an imaginary conversation with God. She asks God questions about her life. Such things as what she can and cannot do in life. It is almost as she is asking God for advice like she would a parent, grandparent, or close friend. The mannerisms that Haught gave God shows Gods personality. God uses such terms of endearment like "Honey" or "Sweetcakes". She refers to God as a girl which helps you visualize this 'God' in the poem. Through the brief question and answering of God and the anonymous narrator, you see that God just wants her to do whatever she wants, whatever she feels is right. Maybe to "go with the flow". I feel as though maybe God represents her mom or grandmother rather than a friend because as a parent or grandparent you can say "no" to your child or grandchild. Like in the last line of the poem "God" says "Yes Yes Yes".
The poem does not rhyme and it is very short. In some way it tell a story but it is too brief to be one. I like the fact that it is more concrete than abstract. It was the easiest to understand from all the poems I read.
The poem “The Summer I Was Sixteen”, talks about the vivid descriptions of a regular summer day in the eyes of the poet. The poem expresses the freedom the kids have while playing outside in the pool, and eating hot-dogs and Dreamsicles. When I read each stanza in the poem, it brings me back to my childhood and the endless summer days soon to come. The summer season fills me with a warm feeling, a feeling of comfort and happiness. In my opinion, summer is a time of possibilities. Anything can happen! The poet talks about the typical possibilities in her summer day. The poet’s idea of a summer day consists of going down a slide into a pool, sunbathing outside, dancing and singing to music, eating hot-dogs and ice cream, bees that frequently fly around, and sitting beneath different types of trees. It is easy to relate to this poem. When I was younger I remember our usual summer days with my friends. We would play in our blow up pool, which didn’t have a slide but it was still fun. The neighborhood crew and I would run around in the streets and backyards playing different games like tag and hide-and-go-seek. When we got tired, we would lie out our towels and stare up at the sky, looking at the different cloud shapes if there were any. We would chase the ice cream man down with our bikes to make sure we got our ice cream. We usually shot him with water guns too, so he always stopped for us. We also would go in our tree house my dad built for us and listen to music and dance to Will Smith’s “Welcome to Miami” or “Getting’ Jiggy With It”. Summer was a joyful time, a time in which we favored. Summer was a time for the crew and I to be kids and create new adventures. To this day, I still see the summer season in the same way. I think Geraldine Connolly’s poem really brings the image of summer alive. It allows you to create a mental picture in your head of her typical summer day, and imagine how your summer days are, similar or not. Her poem paints a smile on my face.
For My Daughter
1st Stanza
When I die choose a star
and name it after me
that you may know
I have not abandoned
or forgotten you.
(highlights of the performance- no rhyme scheme, iambic tetrameter is present, the speaker is the father telling his daughter that when he passes away, she should know that he is not abandoning her, and she should always rely on him.
2nd Stanza
You were such a star to me,
following you through birth
and childhood, my hand
in your hand.
(highlights of the performance- no rhyme scheme, iambic pentameter- he's telling his daughter how much he loves her and how she is the world to him)
3rd Stanza
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.
(highlights of the performance- no rhyme scheme, there is iambic pentameter, he's telling her that when he dies she needs to find a way to always remember him and keep him close to her heart until she passes away too and they will be together in Heaven.)
I like this poem for a lot of reasons. For one, it displays a deep meaning that can't be figuring out by just reading. You need to put yourself in the poem and figure out what it is trying to say. I like what the poem is trying to say. It's trying to say that analyzing the beauty of nature and how things work is a form of prayer. The subject asks who made the swan, black bear, and grasshopper. She then talks about the grasshopper and watches what it does. She talks of how the grasshopper is eating sugar out of her hand, almost as if nature is a "sweet" and beautiful thing. Then, she talks about how she does not know exactly what a prayer is. She says she knows how to kneel and get in position to pray but does not know how to pray from her heart. Little does she know, she’s already praying by admiring nature. In the Summer Day, the language is pretty common but also is specific and descriptive. The sound is of curiosity throughout. It flows pretty well and is somewhat rhetoric. The poem asks questions to fit in with its curiosity. The person in the poem wants to know how to pray. It fits in with the mood as well.
The Bat
The title of this poem gives away exactly what the work centers upon, which is bats. The rhyme scheme of the poem is aa bb cc dd ee. It is very straight forward much like the poem itself. The rhyme scheme and structure of the verses gives the poem a very simple rhythmic tone. This simplicity is conveyed by the words, and meaning the author uses. They are not complex, but descriptive enough to create a vivid picture in one’s mind. The first stanza (By day the bat is cousin to the mouse. He likes the attic of an aging house) compares a bat to a mouse which is a similar type of animal. They both are small, ugly, night-stalking creatures. The second verse of this stanza plainly states where bats live, and what type of area they are found in. The next stanza (His fingers make a hat about his head. His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead) describes the features of a bat by comparing an object to its natural head shape. This imagery makes me picture a bat slowly stretching its wings ready to take off. The use of alliteration is also illustrated in this line: hat, his head. Also, the last verse of this stanza touches upon how lifeless these animals are and that they are always in a nocturnal state. The third stanza (He loops in crazy figures half the night. Among the trees that face the corner light) creates a clear picture of bats stealthily hiding in the trees at night. The last lines (For something is amiss or out of place. When mice with wings can wear a human face) simply states these animals just seem too mischievous and eerie. The last verse is a repetition of the first verse. Both lines are comparing a bat to a mouse, but in the last line the bat is described as “wearing a human face”. From a physical standpoint bats look like mice, however they have the deceptive qualities of human beings.
I was immediately drawn to the poem "Loyal" (#159) because I usually associate that word to a dog and I was curious if the poem was about dogs. It turns out my suspicions were correct about this poem. This poem is about the love a person can have for their dog and the heart breaking task of letting their pet go. "Loyal" breaks down a difficult challenge many people have to face if they have a dog. I know that I have struggled through that same challenge. We had to put down our dog, Bailey, after my youngest sister was born. Bailey was old and weak and my parents thought it best to put her out of her misery. At the time I didn't understand but now looking back I realize that it was the most humane thing to do. It took a long time for my family, especially my mother, to recover that loss. It was only until the end of my sophomore year that my parents agreed to get another dog. Now I am completely attached to our dog, Bantry, and can relate even more to this poem. The author of this poem discusses the conflicts of putting a dog to sleep and the deep pain he feels for losing such a loyal companion. The poet peformance in this poem is sullen. The poet uses words such as decrepit, shattered, pain, weep. Words such as these add to the painful performance the poet is trying to omit.
The poem I chose to write about was Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen. I chose this poem because I liked the way it sounded and I liked the meaning behind. Although it is a shorter poem and is straight to the point it is about a very common concern and can pretty much relate to everyone especially female teenagers. The poem is about the stereotype that the thinner the better. In today's society thin is beautiful and fat is ugly. That theme is portrayed especially through the media but the poem is saying imagine a world where fat is beautiful. Imagine a world where cinderella had pudgy fingers and beauty from beauty and the beast wasnt a twig but instead was a more realistic figure and was still beautiful. The performance aspect of the poem is great because it catches the readers attention right away because the first line of each stanza starts off as "I am thinking of a fairy tale. It captivates the readers attention to find out what fairy tale or dream the author is thinking about. I also like that the poem is an easy read and it flows well. Each stanza is only one sentence but is filled with oxymorons and rhetoric. I though this poem had great meaning and performance and was a poem that anyone could relate too and understand.
I chose Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins. When we first read the poem in class with Miss Ketterer, I really enjoyed it. The wording and language made it interesting for me to read. I liked how the poem was giving instructions through metaphors. I would never have thought of using the metaphors to describe what the author was trying to get across, but they really do make sense. The author's metaphors are also a good use of imagery. I am really able to picture them in my mind. When the author says to hold the poem up to the light, he is describing the first step of understanding poetry. You must first just look at the poem. Then through other metaphors, he explains that you should hear it and really listen to it, try to decipher it, then a light will go off in your head and things will begin to come clear, the author wants the reader to really just appreciate the beauty of the words and how they sound all together. The poet seems frustrated that people, such as students, would rather be told what the poem means instead of figuring it out for themselves. He thinks it is much more beautiful if you are the one to understand rather than being told. The poem is divided up into four segments or stanzas. Each stanza begins with "I ask", "I say", "I want", and "But all". Slide and hive are uses of slam rhyme. The word poem is used very often throughout the entire poem. "Begin beating" is alliteration. I think it is very ironic that instructions on how to understand and interpret a poem are being given through a poem.
I chose Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins. When we first read the poem in class with Miss Ketterer, I really enjoyed it. The wording and language made it interesting for me to read. I liked how the poem was giving instructions through metaphors. I would never have thought of using the metaphors to describe what the author was trying to get across, but they really do make sense. The author's metaphors are also a good use of imagery. I am really able to picture them in my mind. When the author says to hold the poem up to the light, he is describing the first step of understanding poetry. You must first just look at the poem. Then through other metaphors, he explains that you should hear it and really listen to it, try to decipher it, then a light will go off in your head and things will begin to come clear, the author wants the reader to really just appreciate the beauty of the words and how they sound all together. The poet seems frustrated that people, such as students, would rather be told what the poem means instead of figuring it out for themselves. He thinks it is much more beautiful if you are the one to understand rather than being told. The poem is divided up into four segments or stanzas. Each stanza begins with "I ask", "I say", "I want", and "But all". Slide and hive are uses of slam rhyme. The word poem is used very often throughout the entire poem. "Begin beating" is alliteration. I think it is very ironic that instructions on how to understand and interpret a poem are being given through a poem.
The poem I chose was Hate Poem. I chose this poem because I have a strong dislike towards poetry. Every year we do a section on poetry and my hatred continues to grow. Since freshman year teachers have said repeatedly that "at the end of this poetry unit you will like poetry" but every year I still hate it. I hate the words the authors use. I hate the way they use abstract. To me, if you want to get a point across make it direct so the reader has no room different interpretation. It's difficult to understand poetry. Each poem comes with it's own set of rules. Some ryhme some don't. Some use old English others don't. An author expects people to think outside the box. They expect you to know that "pressing an ear against against it's hive" means listening to what the words really say. They use phrases like "take a poem and hold it up to the light" and don't mean to actually pick up the poem and hold it up to a lamp. Thinking abstractingly is something I believe I will never be able to do. Authors should be straight forward and get their point across. Hate Poem was the poem I felt I related to the most. The title caught my attention right away and I knew it was a poem I could understand. I agree with the author when she describes her hatred towards poetry.
I read the poem My Life and immediately felt like I could relate to this poem and enjoyed reading every line of it. When I first read it, it almost seemed like a shock that I could relate so closely to the poem or the fact I even could comprehend something like that. To me this poem really stood out because it tells of a problem people face every day of their lives. I highly enjoyed this poem because to me it seemed as if it talked about either yourself or another person’s story of how they fight their demons they have inside themselves. It starts off nice, like you are nourishing yourself and its very subtle, then it tells how slowly but steadily you realize what you are doing to yourself and how you realize that it could and will kill you if you keep allowing it. It is almost telling you how you are fueling the fire of destruction upon yourself. It seems as if the poem tells of the spiral downward of a person’s life due to addiction or some type of issue they are battling. To me it seems very common and easy to fall into this rut in your life, and I feel like this poem portrays that rut very nicely.
In “How to Change a Frog Into a Prince” (176) the language is almost like instructions in case one encounters a frog that they would like to turn into a prince. The flow of the poem is almost like how one would read a recipe. The beginning even has the mood as it instructs the reader to “start with the underwear. Sit him down.” As the poem progresses, the tone changes from instructions to how to actually care for an individual. When the prince, who was once a frog, starts to realize his limbs aren’t the proportion they used to be, the mood becomes gentle and almost mother-like when it describes his actions and how “if he gets his tights on, even backwards, praise him.” These instructions are implying that not every man a woman meets in life aren’t as perfect as they may seem. They may have mannerisms as this frog prince does but do not give up on him. He could use a little work but encouragement is the best thing for him to grow into a prince. I like the way the author portrays this message through an almost fairytale poem, which every girl has probably thought of one time or another.
Out of the 180 poems number 003 "The Summer I was Sixteen", because it reminds me of my summers. The way Connolly describes the warm summer days swimming in the "turquoise pool" and eating nothing but "past cherry colas, hot-dogs, Dreamsicles." As teenagers we have no care in the summer and just relax and enjoy life. I like the authors description of the pool how we "shaking water off our limbs." Everyday in summer I am usually outside eating all the food i like and laying in the green grass under the trees. Connolly did a great job describing it. That is why I chose her poem . The poet uses great personification adn metaphors.My favorite personification of the poem is: "The turquoise pool rose up to meet us". Some similes the poet used that I enjoyed are: "sweet as furtive kisses". I enjoyed reading this poem and it gets me excited for the summer that is coming soon!
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