Purple Class--Billy Collins Poetry 180
PURPLE CLASS ONLY!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 like, then comment on "why" you like it here at Schoolsville.
As much as you may enjoy the poem's meaning, make sure that you comment on its "performance", to0--its rhyme, meter, structure, poetic figures of speech, use of sound, images, special diction, story, etc. ---in other words, whatever makes the poem "come alive."
As always write a minimum of 25 BLOG LINES OR 200 WORDS.
This assignment will be worth 15 points.
posted by JTF @ 8:18 PM
10 comments
10 Comments:
I am choosing to write about the poem 56, “Fat is not a Fairy tale.” The author uses repetition in the first two stanzas to emphasize what the stanza will be about. She starts both stanzas with” I am thinking of a fairy tale.” The author also does a lot of “play on words” for example using Disney movie titles but in the end or wherever the author can fit it, she puts in a synonym for fat. For example “Cinder Elephant, Sleeping Tubby, and Snow Weight. This makes the reader think of how those titles could work if princesses were role models of obesity. It also brings to your attention that “fat names” are ugly names, and the real names are all pretty and attractive to a person. Other then the tools the author uses in this poem like repetition and stuff, she made it blank verse so she could freely write and not clutter the underlying message from the comedy. This poem simply is saying how these fairy tales have yet to be written and nothing with these titles exist because the point she wants to make clear is the point that fat is not a fairytale and never will be because that is not “okay” or “approved” in this society. Fat is not pretty. So for her last stanza she talks about how the titles she creates are not yet written, they are not exposed to the world and never will be until obesity is accepted and normal is accepted and the world isn’t corrupted by anorexia and the image to be perfect.
I chose Cartoon Physics, part 1 by Nick Flynn. This poem appealed to me because it was all about how children should be allowed to stay innocent as long as possible rather than having to worry about the problems of the world. Yes, there are problems and at some point, they need to worry about them but right now all they need to worry about is the "rules of cartoon animation.” Flynn uses imagery to get his point across, the images he uses are well known we all have watched a cartoon at some point in our lives so the image of a person/animal running off a cliff and not falling until he realizes his mistake. It is understood that the cartoon world isn't perfect but it can be much better than the one we live in. In a cartoon, world kids can be heroes of anything they wish. The poem makes the reader feel like a kid again, which enhances the power of the message. Kids should stay kids, and leave the universe and its ever-expanding world of silence, stay silent for just a little longer.
I enjoyed reading the poem, To a Daughter Leaving Home. I like the storyline not only because it is creative but also because at this time in my life I can relate. The story is of a parent teaching their beloved daughter how to ride a bike; at the same time it is symbolizing the enactment of her leaving home. The parent explains how she is waiting to hear the crashing of the bike but when she looks all she see’s is the bike going further and further away looking more and more breakable which shows the parent’s worry as her daughter clearly shows her assistance is no longer needed. I enjoy the secret meaning/metaphor of the poem. I like the imagery and the short clear to the point wording. I like the structural build of it as well. Short sentences are an easy read and easier to understand. Overall I liked the whole meaning of the poem as well as how it was mapped out to the readers.
I chose the poem “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver for several reasons. I love summer time so the title led me to read it in the first place. It isn’t like your typical summer song or poem though;’ it’s much more specific about one event during a day. The way Oliver describes the grasshopper is so intricate and detailed it puts a clear picture in your head of what she’s trying to portray. The way she kind of jumps around in the poem randomly talking about different things is really interesting to me and held my attention. It’s not just a boring couple line poem about one thing. The format of the poem is also quite intriguing because it’s not just a simple rhyming poem. She asks questions and then describes something in depth then asks more questions, quite parallel like. It really makes you think about life and the way you live it. I love the fact that she starts and ends the poem with questions because they really make you think. Also I love the meaning behind the last question, basically saying you only have one life to live so will you do what makes you happy.
I liked this poem the best out of all the others. It’s the one that makes the most sense to me and touches me the most. It just shows that for any daughter, never forget that your father is watching over you and has never abandoned you and never will. I know that my dad will always be with me no matter what until I join him one day. This poem probably has many meanings to different people. The poem doesn’t really have a rhyme to it, in the way that it is sort of written like a story or a statement, to pick a star out of the sky when the father dies. I did like the different figures of speech in this poem, like “you were such a star to me.” This could be a metaphor in the way that the author is referring to the daughter like a star. Also, throughout the poem, I loved the use of images. When I read the poem for the first time, I just pictured exactly that. I could see myself picking a star out of the many in the night sky and knowing my dad was looking down on me and watching over me. My dad would continue to look over me until I joined him up in the sky in “darkness and silence.” It’s a great inspiring poem to me, to remind me that even though death may occur, I won’t be abandoned.
The poem I picked was To Help the Monkey Cross the River by Thomas Lux. I originally picked this poem because it had a fun title, but after reading it I realized there was a lot more to it. There are twenty seven lines in this poem so it is not a sonnet. There is no specific meter or rhyme scheme, but at line 23 (like most sonnets do at line 11), the meter changes drastically going into a pattern 7 syllables per line. I liked the story the poem told how the man with the rifle was trying to save the monkey from the natural order of life being eaten by the anaconda or crocodile just because of the monkey’s innocence. I think this is the author’s way of saying that you can’t change the natural order of things or the way life is even if it’s cruel. It is sad that the monkey will have to die in order for the crocodile or anaconda to survive, but that is just the way life is. The man didn’t want to kill the anaconda or the crocodile because they didn’t really do anything wrong so instead he just tried to find a loophole saving the monkey by speeding him up. Even though there is no specific rhyme scheme, the poem has a flow to it the way Lux wrote it. Some figures of speech used in it is rhetorical questions (How does this assist him?), repetition (repeats if and monkey twice in same sentence one after the other), simile (compares monkey’s hands to a child’s), personification (can be taught to smile making monkey human like), and alliteration (help him, algebra angles, same side, and snake speed.) I also thought it was clever how Lux said rate- of- monkey.
I chose,
Did I Miss Anything?
Tom Wayman
I chose this poem because in a way I feel I can relate to it. I think everyone has encountered an experience like this. I’ve missed class before but I haven’t had responses like either of the ones found in this poem. Most times the teacher just politely answers with the few assignments that were missed. It’s about missing a class and asking the simple question, “did I miss anything?” There are two responses to the question. One answer seems almost sarcastic and says no you didn’t miss a thing. The other response is strong and saying that everything was missed, the most important things. Either answer is lacking the real answer to the question; they both make the person feel bad. Nobody wants to hear that they missed angels descending from above, but no one wants to hear a sarcastic answer either. The sarcastic response makes it sound as if the world revolves around the absence of the person. I haven’t had teachers like that luckily. This poem may not necessarily just apply to missing school. I like that this poem isn’t rhyming and trying to have a pentameter. I like the way it alternates between two sides. This poem shows that a small question can receive any type of answer. I think this poem was sort of clever.
Heat
Michael Chitwood
A Coke bottle stopped
with a sprinkle head
sat at one end of the board.
She'd swap iron for bottle,
splash the cloth,
then go at it with the iron.
The crooked was made straight,
the wrinkled smooth,
and she'd lecture from that altar
where rumpled sheets went crisp.
"If Old Scratch gets his claws
in your thigh or neck,
you burn a thousand years
and that is the first day."
Our clothes got rigid,
seam matched seam.
Our bodies would ruin her work.
The poem “Heat” by Michael Chitwood is simply about a woman ironing and drinking a Coke. I like that Chitwood is able to make something as simple as ironing into something interesting. My favorite line is the last line when it says, “Our bodies would ruin her work”. I like this line because after all the work this woman puts into ironing just wearing the clothes will ruin all the work, and that is exactly what happens after anyone irons. Even though this poem does not rhyme it still has some rhythm to it and the words easily flow together. This poem also has a lot of very descriptive imagery. For example in the third and fourth line you can easily picture the woman putting down her Coke bottle and picking up the iron. Throughout the entire poem the reader can easily picture everything that is happening in the poem. I think that the author uses short choppy sentences to emphasize the simplicity of this poem and it helps in the understanding of the poem.
It was very hard to find all of the poems characteristics as mentioned on the home page of the blog, however I chose "Thanks For Remembering Us" by Dana Gioia. I browsed many poems on the list. I was trying to come across a poem that intrigued me and made it easy for me to find the poems characteristics because I'm certainly not a wise guy when it comes to poetry. It seems to me that no one knows who the flowers are for in the first stanza of the poem. They're wondering what the flower are for because there is no special occasion coming up. In the second stanza, the flower itself was analyzed and mentioned rather than the purpose of the flower. I recognized some rhythm, and also saw some rhyming words at the end of some of the lines. The poem had good consistent meter and flow. The second stanza created a bright picture describing the flower and the room surrounding it.
Poem number 75, “To a Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Patterson, was one of the few poems on the list that caught my eye. As a senior, I’ll be leaving home soon, but I’ll also be leaving my family. It’s hard to believe how fast the years have gone since my dad taught me how to ride my bike until now. My parents will finally have to let me off my training wheels, and let me ride along by myself to live my own life. The poem in general was pretty short overall, but it also used short phrases. This caught my attention because it was very straight forward and to the point. The words were literal, which means the poem didn’t require me to think much about the actual meaning. What I did think about was my childhood. Bringing up the subject of learning how to ride a bike made me think about the past of my life so far, as well as how much my parents have taught me and helped me through it. There was a lot of verb usage in the writing. The large amount of verbs helped me to paint a vivid picture of what was going on.
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