Creative Writing Journal #2: Due Monday-- Understanding Your "Poetry Out Loud"
To perform a proper oral interpretation of your poem you must fully understand it: the poet's choices of structure, genre (narrative or lyric, on a simple level; on a more specific--sonnet, ode, ballad, villanelle, etc. ), rhyme scheme, meter, sounds, images, poetic figures of speech, symbols,tones, etc.
Write a (250 word or more) paragraph on why you chose your poem, what it means (to you?), and more importantly, "how" it means. The "how" refers to the poet's choices that developed and complimented the meaning of the poem.
posted by JTF @ 1:47 PM
30 comments
30 Comments:
The poem I chose to recite for “Poetry Out Loud” is called “I heard a Fly buzz ¬¬– when I died” by Emily Dickinson. I chose this poem simply because I liked learning about Emily Dickinson in tenth grade and I like her writing style. Most of her poems revolve around a common theme – death. Now, it is not that I enjoy reading about the subject of death. What I enjoy is the fact that there is thematic regularity in the majority of her poems. The events of this poem are obvious. To say the least, a fly interrupts Emily Dickinson’s funeral. What is important is what the events of the poem symbolize. To me, this poem portrays death as ordinary. Typically, a fly buzzing around a room is rarely ever noticed. On the off chance that the fly is noticed, it is usually seen as a minor issue compared to whatever else is going on at the time. But this is not the case in Dickinson’s poem. The fly in the poem is treated with such great importance that it takes all attention away from what is going on in the funeral. This is Dickinson’s way of saying that death is no big deal and that there is not some big moment that must be anticipated. I think that her regularity in theme makes up for the irregularity of her sentence structure. Dickinson has her own unique way of demonstrating her themes in her poems. In this poem and many of her other poems, she uses a series of dashes and seemingly random capitalized letters to call attention to the words or phrases that will help the reader get a better understanding of her message. For example, in the title itself, the only word that begins with a capital letter is the word “Fly”. This shows that the fly is more important than the fact that someone has died. Another example is in the fact that she ends the poem with a dash. To me, this means that Dickinson does not know what comes after death. She cannot see what happens next nor does she care because death is not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.
The poem I chose to recite for “Poetry Out Loud” is called “I heard a Fly buzz ¬¬– when I died” by Emily Dickinson. I chose this poem simply because I liked learning about Emily Dickinson in tenth grade and I like her writing style. Most of her poems revolve around a common theme – death. Now, it is not that I enjoy reading about the subject of death. What I enjoy is the fact that there is thematic regularity in the majority of her poems. The events of this poem are obvious. To say the least, a fly interrupts Emily Dickinson’s funeral. What is important is what the events of the poem symbolize. To me, this poem portrays death as ordinary. Typically, a fly buzzing around a room is rarely ever noticed. On the off chance that the fly is noticed, it is usually seen as a minor issue compared to whatever else is going on at the time. But this is not the case in Dickinson’s poem. The fly in the poem is treated with such great importance that it takes all attention away from what is going on in the funeral. This is Dickinson’s way of saying that death is no big deal and that there is not some big moment that must be anticipated. I think that her regularity in theme makes up for the irregularity of her sentence structure. Dickinson has her own unique way of demonstrating her themes in her poems. In this poem and many of her other poems, she uses a series of dashes and seemingly random capitalized letters to call attention to the words or phrases that will help the reader get a better understanding of her message. For example, in the title itself, the only word that begins with a capital letter is the word “Fly”. This shows that the fly is more important than the fact that someone has died. Another example is in the fact that she ends the poem with a dash. To me, this means that Dickinson does not know what comes after death. She cannot see what happens next nor does she care because death is not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.
I chose the poem "Spring" by Gerard Manley Hopkins because of its rhythm and subject. I find it interesting how Hopkins uses a common form, Italian sonnet, for his poem but then expresses it with unique rhythm. He does not use conventional meter and instead groups stressed syllables together using sprung rhythm. Although this can make parts of his poems difficult to recite, I think it adds emphasis to important lines, such as in line nine where the poems transitions from admiring spring to begging for it to be saved. I have always liked spring for the same reasons mentioned in the poem. I enjoy seeing the new life and the plants and flowers growing again after winter. The first stanza focuses entirely on the beauty of spring with an awe-struck and adoring tone. Hopkins uses images of birds' eggs, trees blooming, and lambs playing as ideas commonly associated with spring. He chose the single word "Spring" as his title to allow each reader to relate to the notion of spring using his or her own associations with it. The entire first stanza is fairly consistent throughout regarding tone and subject, and it is full of alliteration and similes. The second stanza marks a shift in the speaker's tone to a more concerned point of view. He compares spring to Eden in its beauty but also by the fact that it will eventually decay and be lost, as Eden was. He prays to Christ, asking him to save the beauty and new life of spring before it spoils. This allusion to the Bible, direct address to Christ, and mention of heaven all reveal a Christian tone behind the entire poem. Hopkins uses other strong devices in the second stanza as well, including rhetorical question, anaphora, and alliteration. I prefer to take notice of the second stanza but focus primarily on the first. I identify more with the appreciation and praise of spring, rather that the inevitable corruption and loss of life after spring. I like how Hopkins has a lighthearted tone in the first stanza because it highlights the joy that spring has come to represent. He uses common images of spring, but he gives them extraordinary status by comparing birds' eggs to heaven and the power of their songs to that of lightning.
The poem I chose is Hunger For Something by Chase Twichell. I chose this poem because I can relate to it. The poem talks about longing to feel a deeper connection to the earth. The speaker does not just want to live, he wants to experience and become one with the earth. He has a hunger for something more, a hunger to lose himself amongst the smoke ash of a burning fire. He has a hunger for something he cannot put his finger on, something that cannot easily be satisfied. He wants to be disconnected from our monotonous reality and follow his own path for a while. I chose this poem because I believe in order to truly learn about ourselves we have to lose ourselves. We have to look beyond our immediate reality and see the world from a different perspective. Only then can we see our flaws and learn to better ourselves. We should never let our hunger for exploration and knowledge die. Twichell uses the images of “sinewy ghost of ash and air” to portray the freedom of the smoke in the air. It floats around in the air with no path or destination. This is how he wants to live, at least for a little while. He writes, “I long to be in the woodpile, cut-apart trees soon to be smoke.” Right now he is just the cut-apart tree, a boring object amongst many others all the same. He hopes to become smoke, separating himself from the rest and living life with no boundaries.
The poem I chose to recite for Poetry Out Loud is “The Days Gone By” by James Whitcomb Riley. I chose this poem because it reminisces about what it was like to be a kid. It talks about not worrying about anything and just living your life. It conveys a sense of peace and happiness that can only be linked to the idea of childhood. I think this poem really jumped out to me because, especially now, with all the college applications and how stressed and busy I’ve been lately, I could use a reminder of how things used to be or, more importantly, how things should be. I need the reminder of what it feels like to be perfectly content and essentially worry-free. Looking back at my childhood, I yearn for that peaceful feeling and complete happiness. To me, this poem means that childhood is the best part of our lives and that we should hold those memories dear forever. These memories can serve to keep us calm and, maybe even make us happier, in times of despair and misery. The author definitely conveys the feeling of childhood throughout the poem. The sing-song rhythm and the rhyming pattern remind me almost of a nursery rhyme. The images that Mr. Riley creates are ones of tranquility. The tone of the whole poem is so nostalgic that you can’t help but feel nostalgic for your own childhood while reading this poem. James Whitcomb Riley created a poem that everyone can relate to and appreciate because of that sense of serenity and the care-free nature that we all experienced as children.
All Hallow’s Eve is not just a poem I chose to recite for a school project at the last minute, it is much more than that. Since I was a little child Halloween has been a very close second to Christmas as my favorite holiday and if you know me, that means something special. Something abut the eerie foggy nights and scary monsters lurking in dark basements gets me very excited and this title attracted my eye immediately. For one night a year you get to become whoever you want to be and absorb all of the scary fantasies that you holster in your brain. Through this poem, I can relive my days when getting dressed and trick or treating was socially acceptable and that is very special. Tanning does a good job using imagery to spark your imagination with the lightning’s thousand sulfur eyes. I liked how the sentences were kept short to draw attention to them individually so every line has an effect. I can imagine this being read on Halloween night to frighten younglings. While this may not be the deepest and most intricate poem known to man, it spoke to me louder than all of the other poems served upon my platter and that says it all.
I chose the poem “Barter,” by Sara Teasdale, which describes different forms of loveliness in our world. The poem begins in an admiring and marveling tone to tell the reader of the beauty of “Blue waves whitened on a cliff” and “Soaring fire that sways and sings.” However, by the last stanza of the poem, the tone becomes ardent and zealous. The reader is told to “Spend all you have for loveliness, buy it and never count the cost.” I believe Teasdale is trying to get across the idea that simple moments of beauty are what make life worth living. The poem reads: “For one white singing hour of peace, count many a year of strife well lost.” No matter how short these moments where people experience loveliness may be, they enable people to persist through the dark moments in life. Each of the three stanzas in the poem is six lines. The second and fourth lines rhyme, and the fifth and sixth lines end each stanza in a rhyming couplet. This simple structure mimics the central theme of the poem. The simple structure mirrors the simple moments of beauty that Teasdale describes. Teasdale uses vivid imagery in the poem such as “Blue waves whitened on a cliff.” This vivid imagery enables the reader to easily imagine the beauty Teasdale describes. She also employs the use of alliteration such as in the line “Soaring fire that sways and sings.” Simile is used in the lines “And children’s faces looking up, Holding wonder like a cup,” and “Music like a curve of gold.” All these figures of speech give the poem a very pleasant cadence when read aloud and almost enables the reader to experience the poem as a “simple moment of beauty.” These poetic figures of speech enable readers to more fully absorb the poem’s central theme: that simple moments of beauty are worth everything.
The world is a beautiful place when you look at it when standing on the moon. When you get closer, however, it is a collage of mistakes and broken dreams and broken hearts glued together small joys and the few and far between happy endings. The way to survive in a world where so many tragedies are possible is to take a step away from it and learn not to rely on the world to solve your problems. In the last year, I have suffered through my parents’ divorce, my grandmother suffering a stroke, and my great-aunt passing away. It has been incredibly difficult, yet when I step away, there are little things in my life that “make amends” for the difficult times.
Linda Pastan’s "I am Learning to Abandon the World" expresses all of these ideas very well. She begins by saying that she’s learning to give up her ties to the world before the world’s ties drag her down. She tells of everything she has had to give up because of what the world has taken from her.
One of the most effective choices that Pastan made that fully explained the meaning of the poem was the choice of equating herself to a tree. She said that in the morning, the tree that was in the shadows of the dark slowly turns to light as the sun rises over the east. Twig by twig is lightened by the rays of the sun, just as when morning comes, the light releases us from the darkness. The light releases of from the troubles of life making them brighter and easier to handle.
I chose the poem “When You Are Old” by William Butler Yeats because as soon as read it, I fell in love with it. I immediately knew that I wanted to recite this poem. The rhythm flows easily, it was written with an enormous amount of passion, and the meaning behind it intrigues me. The meaning I obtained from this poem is that love is everlasting and truly wonderful. This idea of love blooming in youth and being able to remember it later on in life is incredible. I imagine the book that Yeats mentions to be a journal filled with heartwarming memories. When reading this journal, you can visualize their youth and almost go back in time. There were many people that loved being in your presence, but one stood out in particular and loved you endlessly. They loved everything about you, even your flaws. This person is someone you will never forget because of the lasting impact they made in your life. This love may be physically gone, but it will never be erased from your memory. How the poem is written enhances the reader’s understanding of the poem’s meaning. Yeats’ use of concrete language, diction, and tone help the reader gain a better understanding of the poem. The poet demonstrates powerful language and diction techniques through his expressive vocabulary and by using alliteration. Yeats also capitalizes “Love,” which adds a flare of personification to the concept. The tone of the poem is a mixture of nostalgic, reminiscing, affectionate, and regretful. This mixture of tone contributes to the deeper meaning of the poem.
I chose the poem, “The Farmer,” the authors name is W.D. Ehrhart. I knew if wanted to preform this poem from the minute I saw it. I felt a connection the first time that I read it; most people wouldn't love this poem as much as I did. Ehrhart wrote this poem to talk about how tough farmers and the working men in this world have it. About how people over look the importance of farmers and the economy’s dependence on their labor. My father is a contractor, so he's built houses and done everything possible when it comes to repairing or building a house. Every summer as a child I would be by his side, mimicking his every move, and not noticing how tough this job was on him. I feel like being a farmer relates in a way to being a contractor. In the poem Ehrhart talks of how passersby question the farmer on why he works such barren land. When I read about that I could picture people asking my dad why he works in such hot weather, or why he works when theres a foot of snow on the ground. Then I could see him responding that people are counting on him and relying on him to complete his job, just as the farmer has people relying on the crops he is growing. So overall, I felt that I almost knew the farmer in this poem, because of how much the farmer and my fathers jobs are alike.
I chose “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti for my poem because the title captured my interest. As I scrolled through the list of poems, it caught my eye because I wanted a poem that I could relate to, and birthdays are very relatable. They are also very personal, so I thought that the poem would allow me to understand it better than a more abstract poem. Once I read it over once, I knew it was the right fit. To me, it means that a birthday is full of one’s greatest desires, including love. I enjoy it because it is very uplifting, and the imagery is colorful. In only a few lines, Rossetti is able to paint pictures in my mind of birds, peacocks, trees, and flowers. The first half of the poem is similes, which contribute to the imagery. Best of all, there is just enough description to create a mental image but not too much to create the picture for you; I am able to use my own creativity for that. The diction is what allows the imagery. For example, words such as “boughs” and “water’d shoot” provide specificity. For each couplet, these words shift the mood from ambient to admiring to even excitement. Not only did Rossetti choose to use rhyming stanzas to kept the poem upbeat and energetic, but also she cleverly used repetition for emphasis. This is clearly shown in the last line of the poem: “is come, my love is come to me.” I chose this well-crafted poem because it is reminds me of my birthday, selfishly one of my favorite days, and it reads very beautifully.
Kari Wood
Honors Creative Writing – Green
Q2 Journals
Journal #1: Degas vs. Vermeer
1. Of these four paintings, I like Degas’ painting “The Star” the most. I like how the one ballerina in the bottom right-hand catches my eye. However, unlike Vermeer’s “The Girl With The Pearl Earring”, Degas’ painting has a blurred background. I think this puts a lot more emphasis on the lone ballerina. When I look at this painting, I wonder whether the images in the background are people, too. Perhaps they’re dancers just like her. Thinking this makes me believe that this lone ballerina is dancing for herself and not to impress anyone else. Maybe she wants to be different and contemporary instead of the copied-and-pasted kind of ballerinas. On the other hand, maybe this ballerina is the star of the show like the title suggests. Whether she is the star of her own show or a grand production is up to the observer. I also like how you cannot see her left leg since it is in back of her. The colors in this painting seem to go together very well. It almost looks as if the flowers on her tutu are from the strokes of yellow, orange, and brown leaves in the background. As a rather pale girl myself, I like how the ballerina has a fair complexion. It seems like she is glowing compared to the darkness around her. It makes me wonder whether it was titled “The Star” because she is the star of the show or because she is glowing bright like a star in the dark night sky. Overall, I like Degas’ “The Star” because it looks simple, but your imagination can find it to be quite complex.
Journal #2: Understanding Your “Poetry Out Loud”
I clicked on “Hedgehog” by Paul Muldoon when I went on the Poetry Out Loud website because I was curious to see what could actually be written about a hedgehog. I did not know if I would be reading about a hedgehog as a metaphor or as the literal spiny animal. I chose to recite this poem for Poetry Out Loud because I liked that it was written sort of like a folktale. I think this “Hedgehog” is a metaphorical poem about an introvert who is questioned by some extroverts. The extrovert and introvert do not fully understand one another because both of them have different views and how they perceive the world. The poet, Paul Muldoon, portrays these characters by having the hedgehog keep to itself throughout while the snail is viewed as mightier in the first stanza. I think the poet also chose to use a hedgehog rather than any other animal because hedgehogs have spiky-looking hair which can symbolize guarding itself. The last stanza mentions a “god under this crown of thorns”, which could possibly be a reference to Jesus Christ when he was crucified. Perhaps the poet was trying to compare the spine of the hedgehog to the crown of thorns. Even though I still do not completely understand this poem and what Paul Muldoon was trying to express through his folktale, I have definitely enjoyed reading “Hedgehog”.
For Poetry Out Loud, I chose to recite “Awaking in New York by Maya Angelou”. I’m a huge fan of Maya Angelou. Her poems are always so graceful and beautiful. I also love how most of her poems relate to real life situations. She writes poems about the issues in the world, about famous historical figures, and about her own personal life. The poems about her life are my favorite type of poem she writes. She came from a very difficult childhood and when she grew up her adulthood wasn’t the easiest either. In her poems she channels all of the difficult events that took place in her life. She writes with such intense emotion. I can almost picture myself in her poems and I can feel the pains she’s going through. Her happier poems are also very good too.
My poem Awakening in New York is one of the more upbeat poems she has written. In this poem, she writes about the feeling of being in the city. She writes about the awakening that flows through the city when its waking up. Lines like “stretching into dawn” or “drags itself awake” give you visual images of the city getting ready for a new day. New York is known as the “the city that never sleeps”, but Angelou talks about a different awakening that happens each day. She talks about the awakening of the people each morning. The city can never be awake if the people in it never wake up. I choose this poem because I can identify with waking up in the city. My dream is to attend college in Philadelphia. I’m excited to be live in a city that “never sleeps”. I’m exited to be in a hustle and bustle that’s much different from what I’m used to. Each day when I wake up in the city I will remember Maya Angelou’s “Awakening in New York” because I’ll be that person from the poem whose “awakening”.
At first glance, “Love Song” by Dorothy Parker did not interest me. Don’t get me wrong, I am a hopeless romantic but too often do I read stories and poems and watch movies pertaining to the subject of love. Love is a beautiful thing and it should be celebrated but sometimes the way it is depicted can be a little cliché. I just wanted to try something different. Finally after skimming the entire list of poems in the anthology, and finding nothing I really connected with, I decided to read a few lines of “Love Song.” What first attracted me was that this poem rhymes. I think poems that rhyme are more fun and when reciting them verbatim, they flow better. Dorothy Parker uses an AB rhyme scheme, with eight lines in each stanza. What kept my attention was the last line of each stanza. The seven lines preceding it are what you would expect from the title, “Love Song.” It talks about her love and the tone is gleeful, adoring, and admiring. When the eighth line hits, the tone changes to bitter, abusive, and ironic. I was confused when I read the eighth line of the first stanza but it made me want to continue reading. After reading the last line in the second stanza, I soon realized the pattern. The final line of the poem in the third stanza even made me laugh. I thought it would be the typical love song one would imagine, but the twist that the last line in each stanza adds makes for an interesting poem. I loved that it wasn’t a typical ode to love. It wasn’t too lovey-dovey, it wasn’t something you would expect, and it wasn’t cliché.
What this poem means to me is that you can adore and love someone but they can still get under your skin. Love is different to everyone and each relationship is different. Even if you love someone, it doesn’t mean that they are good for you and that they belong in your life. Sometimes, the one you love most creates the most problems for you. I think it also means that you can love someone so much that you actually end up hating him or her. You hate that you love them so much.
Can you say you’ve accomplished all that you’ve wanted to in life? Is there anything that you wish you could’ve done or wished you didn’t do? “Crossing the Bar” by Lord Tennyson is about somebody who is contemplating these vary questions while the end seems to be growing ever so close ahead. Quite literally, the poem is about the narrator getting ready to board a ship destined to go out to sea, but it becomes rather apparent in Tennyson’s wording that the subject matter transcends into something deeper. This poem is about introspection and coming to terms with how you’ve lived your life. The poet adds to this theme of life and death by painting the scene of a sunset. Light is fading and soon the narrator will be heading out into the dark. While he remains on land for the time being, the narrator’s fate soon will be unknown once he embarks on the ocean. Tennyson places his character right in the middle of the two worlds with the one innate thought that has long been planted in our minds: am I ready for this? The narrator is physically located on the cusp of juxtaposition: uncertainty combined with reassurance. As Tennyson wants, the narrator feels like he has done all that he can in the tangible world (the solid land he stands on) and feels that no one should mourn his lose. However, “I hope to see my pilot face to face” implies that deep down he still isn’t sure if he is ready. This, to me, is one of the most common human virtues and this poem serves as a prime example. When we face the end- not just our death but even just simply a small stage in our lives- we feel two emotions simultaneously. We are confident that we have completed it to the best of our abilities all the way up until we reach the next stage and its too late to change our minds and go back to fix it. This poem expresses this complex feeling and personifies it so it can be fully comprehended.
I chose the poem “The Arrow and the Song” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I admired this poem’s lighthearted tone. This poem can be interpreted different ways, but to me, this poem is referring to Cupid’s arrow and song. He shot the arrow into the air with hopes that it would strike someone who would as a result fall in love with him. He did not have a specific direction for where he shot the arrow because he was so desperate to find love. Just like the arrow went too fast for him to follow, life goes too fast for us to follow. We are too busy looking for love that we cannot even see, but instead we should just live our lives. The song can be compared to a man trying to pursue a woman through smooth talk or simply singing. He does not say it to a specific woman, but rather a large crowd in hopes that the one that he is meant to be with will hear it. However, he cannot see whose heart the words are reaching because the flight of song travels far too fast. The arrow that Cupid shot in attempts to swoon a lover was found later in an oak tree because we are called not only to love each other but also to love nature. The kind words that were spoken or sung before were found later in the heart of a friend. This means that the one that he meant to love was already in his life as a friend. Many people overlook the possibility of a relationship with a friend because they do not want to lose them. Sometimes that individual just happens to be “the one” that you’re meant to be with, but life is going by too fast for you to realize it.
The poem I chose to do for “Poetry Out Loud” is “Snowflake” by William Baer. When I chose my poem, I was thinking about the holiday season coming up. Mostly thinking about Christmas and how it is getting colder outside and it will begin to snow soon. Christmas is my favorite time of year and when it snows it makes everything seem even prettier than it already does with the lights hanging outside on trees and on houses during the winter season. When I first read my poem, it talks about two young skaters and it automatically made me think of the ice rink at Rockefeller Center in New York. The end of my poem with the couple kissing reminds me of scenes in movies with couples kissing while skating on this rink and it makes the poem easy to visualize. The poem itself is written as a conceit comparing love to a snowflake. The snowflake floats around aimlessly just like someone looking for love until they find their true destiny. Love isn’t something that is supposed to be strenuous and the way the snowflake floats around throughout the entire poem shows that you are supposed to be carefree in finding someone and not to look too hard. A snowflake never has an identical match because they are all unique and the writer is trying to display that every person is unique as well. A snowflake is beautiful and is supposed to make you happy just like the way love is supposed to make you feel and look like between two people. Overall, this poem is very light and upbeat in telling the story about how carefree the journey of a snowflake and finding love is.
Almost every book I read has at least some aspect of romance in it. I gravitate toward love stories and romances, so, naturally, I clicked on the poem "Love Song" by Dorothy Parker. I went through a lot of poems, and I really enjoyed how this particular poem was constructed. Parker made every other line rhyme and created her poem to have a rhythm, which I love to have when reading out loud. Parker describes the man that she is in love with by portraying him as somewhat of a prince. He is a stereotypical perfect man. He is brave, handsome, his eyes are lit with laugher, and his heart and words are sweet. She thinks the skies are lit just for him, and finds no flaws in this man. This depiction of the man seems very unrealistic, and makes her seem blinded by love and sees no bad part in him. After a full poem devoted to all of his perfections she ends the poem with the last line saying "And I wish somebody’d shoot him." I found this very funny because I truly think it captures the crazy side of a women in love. Never does she say that he is in love with her or that he is with her. I think that his perfections, though they seem unrealistic, are enough to make someone envious and jealous, and I love the way she ended with this line.
Our minds hold many memories of people, places, and experiences that seem to never disappear. This idea that our mind is like a sponge that absorbs everything has always fascinated me. I am always amazed when I can remember the face of someone I met when I was young or replay an event from five years ago as if it happened yesterday. This powerful idea is depicted in the powerful poem “The Cities Inside Us” by Alberto Ríos. Ríos compares our minds to secret cities in which we all live. He writes that all of the places we have visited and the people we have known do not go away, but stay in the secret cities. Ríos tells us our memories enter our minds through our senses of vision and hearing. I will admit that the last two couplets confused me at first, but then I thought about them in the context of the metaphor of the poem. The “arm” to which Ríos refers represents the infinite memories in our minds. It is amazing that the memories stored in our minds do not pour out of our mouths at all times. I think this poem touches on the reality that every moment has the potential to be never forgotten. “The Cities Inside Us” also reminded me that every memory generates various feelings according to what was felt during that particular experience. Ríos uses effective imagery and metaphors to portray the overall theme of the poem. There is no rhyme scheme, but he does write in couplets. His tone ranges from mysterious to reflective to curious throughout the poem. The poem is written on a simple level, but focuses on a complex and provoking idea. This technique helped to reinforce the meaning of the poem. Although our memories may be simple or seem to lack importance, they are still stored in our complex and unbounded secret cities that are our minds.
No surprise here but a poem that draws my attention is one that is sweet, gentle, or has an essence of love contained in it. Poems that show fondness or care of another person are the ones I enjoy the most. I think it is such a powerful sign of love if someone can sit down and write a beautiful piece of poetry for the person they deeply care for. The poem I picked is called “Under Stars” by Tess Gallagher. When I was first searching for a poem, I wanted one that had a rhyme scheme. However, none stuck out to me like this one did. The imagery in this poem was one of my favorite qualities about it. The thought of a dark, peaceful, starry night made me think of countless times I would sit out in my backyard on cool summer nights truly enjoying my surroundings. There’s something about the calmness of night that always gives me a sense of tranquility. What the author is doing at night is carrying a special letter to the mailbox, I liked how she called the mailbox a “little tin house by the roadside”. The letter is clearly for someone who is important to her. The night brings about the feelings and thoughts she has about this special person, perhaps it is her husband who has passed away and she writes letters to their old house. In the third stanza the author talks about a millworker who may have been her husband, and says “... I will think of you, you who are so far away/ you have caused me to look up at the stars.” Perhaps this significant other of hers has passed away and she is still saddened by the loss, so she imagines him looking down on her from the heavens above. The stars are comforting because even if you can’t see them some nights, you always know they are there. I think that’s why she looks up to the stars and sees her significant other, because even though he is no longer with her physically, he is always watching over her.
When I went to pick out a poem there were a lot of things that I was looking at. The first thing I looked for was a title that instantly grabbed my attention. If the poem grabbed my attention I would look at the length of the poem then I read it to see if it had any type of rhythm or pattern to it that would make it slightly easier to read/recite. I picked out two poems and them read them repeatedly to see which one I liked better with the actual meaning of the poem. I ended up choosing “The Kiss” by Robert Graves. He uses metaphors, similes, personification, and imagery in this poem. He has a sad tone. The poem is about how love is an illusion. The last two lines of the first stanza says, “and the clouds of her hair like storms go by” saying that at first everything about the person you love is perfect and beautiful when in reality it’s just an illusion, but because you love this person you are blind to see these things. There is a line in the second stanza that goes, “then the lips that you have kissed and loved turned to frost and fire,” which is saying that the person he loves is becoming cold hearted. The meaning especially pops out in the last stanza with the lines, ”Is that love? No, but death, a passion, a shout, the deep in-breath, the breath roaring out.” The meaning stands out to me in this stanza because he’s really telling you that love isn’t what it seems. You look at things blindly, but when you wake up you see how the person truly is.
“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost consists of four stanzas of five lines each. The rhyme scheme is strict with an ABAAB pattern. Frost also writes in iambic tetrameter, stressing four syllables per line. All though this poem is very well-known, it is often misunderstood. Many people believe this poem is just another cliché poem written about a fork in the road. The writer decides to be courageous and take “the road less traveled by.” This, however, is not the meaning behind the poem. If you read closely, it is actually about a person deciding to take one path versus the other for no real reason whatsoever and how neither of the roads are truly “less taken,” but rather that they “equally lay.” Furthermore, Frost says, “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence.” We all want to look back at the choices we made and tell ourselves we “took the road less traveled by” and were courageous but Frost does not say this. In these lines he is saying that although he may tell of this decision in the future, he can’t say his decision really “made all the difference” because it would be a lie. The paths were equally worn and he did not take one road because it was “less traveled by,” he took it because he couldn’t stand in the middle of the woods all day. This poem is well-known, but not often well-understood. Robert Frost was a brilliant poet and this poem displays that. He takes a something as cliché as coming to a fork in the road and making it more honest than inspirational. In life we must make choices and sometimes those choices will be very important, other times they won’t be.
For the Poetry Out Loud assignment I chose “A Barred Owl” by Richard Wilbur. I am not going to lie, when I choose this poem, I pretty much set the web site to “twenty-five lines or fewer” and started to work from there. The choice was completely random. From the A list I saw my previous year’s choice. Moving on from that, I went to the B section. One particular poem caught my eye. It was this poem. On the outward appearance it appears to be an atypical poem with no relationship with anything about the human condition or human emotions. Well this should be fun. When I actually read the poem, I found out that it was an intriguing piece that has a literal meaning and perhaps a deeper, more metaphorical meaning. On the literal level the poem paints and image of a barred owl streaking across the night sky, cooing and hunting for prey. However, I think that there is a deeper meaning. I like poems and story lines with a coherent surface plot that doesn’t require a lot of thought to understand. It makes for a more relaxing experience at first. After that, the more deeper meaning can be analyzed for fun. In this case, I personally believe this poem discusses the subconscious human fears creeping up and striking out from the darkness. How fascinating is that? The way the author personifies the owl, in my opinion, really drives this point whole. He shrouds the stanzas in mystery, and the word choice he utilizes is casually distant.
In much of his writings, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave great insight into the essence of humanity. He was able to capture in words what the rest of the world could not describe, but only feel. It is for this reason that I chose to delve into Emerson’s poem Experience. It explores the nature of life’s endeavors, but not in a specific way. Rather, it capitalizes on the emotion behind life’s successes and failures. It shows the path a human takes throughout his or her life, a path of feeling. In Experience, Emerson is able to articulate most if not all the emotions one feels in their living of life with so few words. This style of short yet pithy writing speaks to the universality of the sensations of life. It shows that not much has to be said in order for the listener to connect with Emerson’s words. You just get it.
One of the great things about this poem is Emerson’s use of antithetical ideas. The majority of his poem emphasizes opposing concepts, constantly juxtaposing all of life’s aspects. This combination however serves a great purpose: it paints a full picture for the listener. It shows them both sides of life: the good and bad, the beautiful and ugly, the strong and weak. The poem is balanced. It’s pleasing to recite and pleasing to listen to.
More interesting is the poem’s language. Experience uses sophisticated language, yet it feels very natural. Although this higher-language is used, it sounds as if the reader is talking to a friend in passing. This tone makes the poem relatable on all spectrums. It allows everyone, regardless of their standing, stature, or history, to fully appreciate the poem in its beauty and message. And wow, isn’t it a beautiful poem.
I chose the poem “The War in the Air” by Howard Nemerov. I chose this poem because events and things dealing with war have always interested me. So I thought choosing a war poem would be interesting to do. I thought I could find a nice poem about the action and drama of the war. However, I found “The War in the Air” a poem about reverence more than action. I thought that doing a poem of remembrance sounded better to read than one of action. I found it easy to pick up and recite the poem because of how Howard Nemerov set the tone. He decided to set a tone for war that was one more of the aftermath and the darker side of war instead of the action and praise. The tone he sets is like that of a fellow soldier who has seen others pass before him. A tale of regrets and sorrow for those who have been lost. A man trying to not forget those lost. He presents the poem as almost like a final goodbye and thanks to those who were left behind. Nemerov almost makes you feel truly sorry for those who were lost during the war. So I chose this poem because I was greatly entertained by the way that Howard Nemerov depicted the thoughts of war. I was expecting to find a poem of great action and the tales of those heroes that withstand the test of time, but instead I found one of remembrance for all those who were lost.
My poem is the Introduction to the Songs of Innocence by William Blake. This poem is a beginning poem for the book of poems which Blake wrote called Songs of Innocence. The poem itself has a “singsong” meter. There are five stanza’s each of which follow a similar structure. The meter and rhyme of the poem give it a musical aspect. Blake uses repletion of the word “pipe” and words with “pipe” as a root. The scene is set in the first stanza when Blake as the narrator sees a child upon a cloud. The child asks him to pipe a song, then sing the words of the song, and ultimately write a book so that everyone may appreciate the song. I feel as though this poem is an introduction to the book because Blake is trying to say that he wrote these poems for everyone to hear and to appreciate. The child is depicted as the one talking to the narrator as a symbol of innocence. I do not believe that Blake was saying that his poems were for children; rather they can be appreciated by those with a child-like heart. Besides being appealing to the ear with its fun meter and rhyme, I chose this poem because of its meaning. I chose this poem because I relate to the child-like mind which Blake writes for. As a senior in high school drowning in college applications and all the other stressors which come with it, I would love to go back to the innocence of the child described in the poem. I want to hold onto my innocence of childhood for as long as possible. This poem helps to remind me that as the real world is approaching, it’s okay to still want to be young and child-like at times.
I chose a rather eccentric poem for “Poetry Out Loud.” The poem I chose, “Happiness” by Paisley Rekdal, is a long poem that most of my classmates would not choose. However, I identify with the meaning in this poem; it is written about the narrator, who always chooses happiness even when the world around her is full of grief and even when people are criticizing her for not grieving just as they are. I also chose it because when I read it, I sense the fluidity of the articulate and carefully crafted language. Though I haven’t read much of Rekdal’s poetry, she seems to be a true artist. In this poem, Rekdal frequently refers to her garden. This garden seems to be Rekdal’s fascination and her main hobby – which she refers to as an “instinct.” Working in her garden seems to be her daily life in this poem, which may symbolize her going about her everyday life. Periodically, the narrator’s neighbors visit her in the garden. Her neighbors always seem to be grieving and wish to spread their grief to the narrator and receive comfort from her. However, the narrator continues on with her business, choosing happiness over accepting the grief from her surroundings. Her neighbors always seem offended that she didn’t share their sadness, but seems somewhat untouched by it, remaining fascinated with her extravagant garden and all of the beautiful things that occur in it. The narrator constantly switches between discussing grief and sadness and discussing how proud of and amazed she is by her garden. There may be bad things in the world, but there is always good, and one can choose that good over grief and sadness.
Being a teenager is a time of a storm of contradicting emotions. It’s the time when cynicism begins to develop, the daily struggles of day to day life begin to cause extreme frustration and anger, and the injustices of the world become more and more apparent. The teenage years are the time of harsh realizations and brutal truths that can lead to feelings of frustration and anger. But the teenage years are also a time of discovery and new experiences and adventures. This is the time when we discover who we are and make relationships and memories that last a lifetime. All of these feelings contradict one another and exist within a single person. These contradicting feelings are described in Robert Creeley’s poem, “Self-Portrait.” It tells the story of an old man that hates the world, but also loves it. Creeley uses different literary devices to create this image and describe the contradicting feelings of both loving and hating the world. He uses short lines to create a harsh and brutal tone throughout the entire poem. The repetition of the world “brutal” throughout the poem emphasizes the harshness of the world. Although the old man feels so negatively towards the world, deep down the old man loves as much as he hates. Creeley uses this image of a contradictory old man to perfectly capture the opposing feelings of love and hatred. I chose this poem because as a teenager I feel these feelings of frustration and anger, but I also love the world I love the new experiences it offers.
When scrolling through the anthology of poems, no one in particular seemed to jump out at me, until I read Retired Ballerinas, Central Park West by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Having a background in dance, any work of art that pertains to any genre of dance always catches my eye. Especially after discussing Degas masterpieces in class, I thought this poem was perfect. This poem is written in free verse, and it is ironic that I enjoy this poem because usually I gravitate toward poems with definite rhyme schemes, and this poem does not have one. Something that is very different about this poem is Ferlinghetti's use of spacing. Each stanza has levels of indentation. While this is a definite use of dramatization, I have another idea. The poem starts out by describing retired ballerinas walking through the park on a winter afternoon. When I think about this, I create a mental image of a dancer twirling and gliding through the park, although she is retired she just cannot suppress her love of dance. So with the dramatic spacing, it also reminds me of the dancer moving from place to please. Also Ferlinghetti includes two lines encased in parenthesis. When reading a sentences with parenthesis in my head, I always hear myself subconsciously lowering the tone of the words. The meaning if this poem has to do with the idea of life moving forward. The ballerinas have retired and even though they are don't dancing, the love of dance will never leave them. Everywhere they go the dance. But life moves on. The poem utilizes the many images that New York City had to offer, making it very realistic and easy to imagine. The poem ends on a nostalgic note. The old playbill programs are fading away, almost like how the seasons slowly transition into the next.
I chose the poem “ Catch a Little Rhyme” by Eve Merriam. Looking through all of the possible options, poets, styles, tones, and subjects; I felt as though this specific poem really captured me as a person. Many people chose poems that were deep and had more of a “meaning” to them, but I chose one that reminded me of myself: light hearted, happy, and fun. Catch a Little Rhyme begins with the stereotypical beginning of any story “ Once upon a time.” This line interested me because it reminded me of myself as a child telling a story and thinking that I would impress everyone by beginning with such a sentence. As the poem goes on, Eve Merriam writes about transformation: “ I grabbed it by the tale, but it stretched into a whale.” The poem ends with the sentence “ Then it grew into a kite and flew far out of sight.” The whole idea of transformation, in my eyes, symbolizes a person’s transformation from a child to an adult who is leaving to see what the world has to offer. A person who is no longer the child who began their stories with “Once upon a time.” Eve Merriam’s tone throughout the poem is very happy. She structured her poem to be constructed of 8 couplets. In order to understand a poem fully I believe that it should rhyme, so next time anyone is at a loss for words to write; they should catch a little rhyme.
Post a Comment
<< Home