Poetry
Please comment on guest bloggers. Three are due in two weeks.
Remember, poetry is about capturing the essence of an experience. The structure of a poem is one of the techniques used to communicate the purpose.
Due Monday: read 8-11 in Sound and Sense. With "Ballad" on page 14, answer page 11 questions 1,3,7,10. With "Kitchenette" on page 16, answer page 11 questions 1,5,11, 16, and 7.
For the poetry assignment, please respond to a poem in the back of Sound and Sense using either the Didls or 5-step technique. Due Tuesday.
posted by erdecker @ 1:08 PM
25 comments
25 Comments:
Five-S Strategy! WOO!
Poem: Warning - pg. 379
Key Sentences: "And make up for the sobriety of my youth." "But maybe I ought to practice a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple."
Speaker: A young adult woman
Situation: A young woman is sending out "warning" that when she grows old and has no reputation to keep up, she will do all the selfish, enjoyable things in life that she didn't get to do when she was trying to lead a proper life for a young adult.
Shifts: The third stanza, beginning with "But" (tip off), is the first and most significant shift in the poem. From fantasizing about what she will someday do, she snaps back to reality where she has all sorts of responsibilities. The following stanza shifts the entire poem back to the idea of the whole piece by suggesting maybe she should start easing into the fun way of living earlier.
Syntax:
Syntax: In the stanzas where the speaker is fantasizing about when she can do all of the fun things she mentions, the sentences are long and run on. The stanza that speaks about her current responsibilities is composed of shorter, more concise sentences. The longer, stream-of-consciousness sentences give those parts a free-feeling sense like the liberating times she speaks of having.
Five Step Strategy- Mad Girl’s Love Song (392)
Sentences- By reading the first sentence, and skimming the rest of the poem, I am able to tell that this poem will have something to do with love and dreaming.
Speaker- The poem is in first person and the speaker is a longing/dreaming girl who is in love, but of what she is not quite sure.
Situation- A girl/women is finding her lover in her dreams and then losing him over and over again.
Shifts- The poem is written in three line blocks and each block ends with “I think I made you up inside my head” or “I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead” alternating. These altering sentences show a shift from actual events to dreams and back again.
Syntax- As mentioned above, each sentence grouping ends with altering phrases. This structure emphasizes the importance of these particular lines. They show how the speaker drifts from a state of contemplation to forgetting everything and re-entering the dream world.
5-S strategy.
"Woman Work" pg. 191
Sentences: This poem is not broken into real sentences. There is a period after each stanza, but within each stanza there are many fragments and actual sentences that are not separated.
Speaker: A woman who works on a farm/ranch who is longing to be more recognized and important
Situation: The woman is listing off all of the house and farm work that she has to do that day and then she calls to nature, as she feels it is all she really owns, for help.
Shifts: The poem shifts after the first stanza from the list of things the woman has to do to her pleas to nature for help.
Syntax: Each item she has to do and each call to a part of nature gets its own line until the last stanza. This is where she intensifies her pleas and probably is more desperate. You can tell how upset the woman is by how much she packs into one line!
DIDLS I like a look of Agony p.358
Details: There are words that are capitalized purposely; Agony, Convulsion, Throe, Death, Anguish. This are the looks of Agony.
Imagery: "The Eyes glaze once", "The Beads upon the Forehead" These images help the reader visualize the look of death.
Diction: (Details section), "I like a look of Agony, because I know it's true" When you read the first part, you assume something sadistic about the author; but upon reading the second part, the feeling becomes pity.
Language: The author creates a dark feel in that the poem is about how people act honestly while dying.
Syntax: Each line up till the end restates in new words that death is not something that can be faked, driving in the author's point.
For the sake of originality I will do Didls.
Death of a Ball Turret Gunner, pp. 378
Details: wet fur froze, black flak, nightmare fighters, washing out with a hose. details like this help with imagery.
Imagery: hunched in its belly til my wet fur froze: I can just see a person squished into a plexiglass shell, freezing his butt off, drenched in condensation.
Washed me out with a hose. Such an undignified way to go. sucks to be the gunner.
Diction: the connotations of "black flak" and "nightmare fighters" conjures up images of dread and fear. even the "hunched over" phrase gives images of fear and "this isn't what i signed up for" kind of feel.
Language: the overall theme he creates is one of an inevitability of death for ball-turret gunners.
Syntax: uses short phrases until the end, when the last line is all one big long catharsis of death and washing out with a hose.
Seriously, it must have sucked to be a ball-turret gunner.
Five-S Strategy
Poem: The Whipping (p.12)
-Sentence:"The old woman across the way is whipping the boy again and shouting to the neighborhood her goodness and his wrongs."
-Speaker: The author Robert Hayden
-Situation: A woman is beating her son in front of their whole neighborhood.
-Shift: "Well, it is over now, it is over..."
This line indicates the woman abusing the boy is finished and retreat away from each other.
-Syntax: "My head gripped in bony vise of knees..."
"...the face that i no longer knew or loved..."
The beginning of the poem readers are reading of a boy and a mother but these lines indicate a switch that the little boy is the author himself.
Five-S Strategy
"The Wild Swans at Coole" pg. 420
Sentences: A quick skim shows me that this has something to do with admiration of nature
Speaker: This is told in first person, as the man nostalgically watches a flock of swans.
Situation: As a man reminisces on an old familiar spot realizes how much has changed since, and he wonders when even the swans will one day leave.
Shifts: One shift is in the 3rd stanza when he goes from admiring the scene to having a sore heart for "All's changed since..."
Syntax: One of the clearest trait of syntax is that each stanza is one sentance, while the last is the only one that is a question.
DIDLS
Poem: From the Wave pg. 368
Details: Uses a lot of detailed words to describe the wave and the surfers such as : concave wall, steep incline, fringe of white, pale feet, poise their weight, marbling bodies
Imagery: Paints the scene by describing the wave as alive "It mottles towards." The surfers seem majestic in the way they are part of the wave "Half wave, half men, Grafted it seems by feet of foam."
Diction: Words such as bearing, poise, balance, imitate make the surfers seem like additions to the wave. They "slice the face in timed procession"
Language: The author, Thom Gunn, writes in a very relaxed way. The poem slowly drifts from one moment to the other by following the waves movement.
Syntax: Uses very poetic sentences that flow from one thought to the other. It follows this pattern until the wave breaks. Then the poem switches into more of an everyday language.
Ramon F Banzon
"Spring" Gerard Manley Hopkins(1844-1889) pg. 59-60
Five-S Strategy
Sentences: When reading the first and last sentence with a quick skim in between,it showed how the poem deals with the wonderful things that happen during the season of Spring. The subject of Spring is expressed through the use of strong imagery and detailed diction of the author. The author also used rhymed couplets after the first sentence of the poem then a sudden shift of the structure of the poem which continues until the end.
Speaker: Their is only one speaker that addresses the peom in third person. The speaker is someone who is happy and appreciative of the things that surround nature during sprintime. The speaker is someone who appreciates every little living thing that surrounds the enviroment during springtime.
Situation: Many beautiful things on Earth and in nature are seen during springtime.
Shifts: The poem begins with ryhmed couplets after the first line then switches its structure on the 9th line by asking a question to the readers where all this joy comes the spring brings come from. Then the author starts stating line after line why people are happy during the sprintime until the end of the poem. The switch out of using rhymed couplets allows the author to explain why spring brings happiness and joy to everyone. It allows the author to provide support to his main idea that Spring is beautiful.
Syntax: In the beginning of the poem the author uses rhymed couplets and strong imagery, and emphasizes on using detailed words to provide the audience of a clear image of spring. Then on line 9 the author questions the readers on why spring brings joy then the author finishes off the poem to asnwer his question leaving the readers with the asnwer why Spring is beautiful and joyful.
DIDLS for "Résumé" by Dorothy Parker, p 391
Details: Razors, guns, and nooses, as well as the last line "you might as well live" are particularly important- they are the details that give away the subject of this poem, which is suicide (unless I somehow completely missed some vital part which says otherwise).
Imagery: Each... method for committing suicide is paired with a reason not to use it; the imagery in the reason is what would dissuade the subject of this poem (e.g. "Acids stain you" brings up an image of horrific acid burns. Why would you want to do that to yourself?)
Diction: None of the words Parker uses are more than two syllables long. Acids and drugs along with the stains and cramps they cause can be seen easily without her using more complex diction.
Language: The language is simple: Method, reason; culminating in "You might as well live." I don't know what word fits the tone/mood (objective?), but I could totally imagine the speaker shrugging as she said the last line.
Syntax: There are only 8 lines, the last line contains the most words out of all of them (5). The sentences are short and to the point, saying "This is why you shouldn't do it. That is all."
Five-S Strategy
Poem: One day I wrote her name upon the strand pg.405
Sentence: Through reading the first and last sentences, I get a feeling that this poem is about immortale love.
Speaker: Two lovers
Situation: The man wants to immoratlize their love in writing, but the waves wash it aways when he writes it on the beach, so he writes a poem.
Shifts: "Not so...you shall live by fame" This is the switch where he shows her how he can create something that will last forever.
Syntax: The poem is one solid block of text, with dialoge built in. the rhyme pattern is ab ab.
Five-S Strategy
Poem: Epigram from the French(395)
--Sir, I admit your general rule
That every poet is a fool;
But you yourself may serve to show it,
That every fool is not a poet.--
(Alexander Pope)
Key Sentences: "Every Poet is a fool" , "Every fool is not a poet"
Speaker: Someone responding to the comment "Every poet is a fool"
Situation: Pope is using his persona in the poem to respond to an apparent French attack on poetry.
Shifts: None really... Pope flips the statement made against poets back to make the attacker look like a fool.
Syntax: The poems short and concise sentences make the author's message clear and understandable to the reader, even a "fool" could understand it.
DIDLS to the poem "Harlem Hopscotch" by Maya Angelou on page 104
D: The entire poem is being compared to a hopscotch so it is very detailed in each jump and each comparison to hard life in Harlem
I: The images that are distinct in the poem are people playing hopscotch and the low job market for African American workers
D: The author uses strong diction to truly get her point across. The terms "Curse and cry, twist and jerk" show that it was very difficult to survive in our "Hopscotch" life.
L: The language is very "jumpy" from one depressing subject to the next, which correlates perfectly with the hopscotch theme.
S: The author uses very short sentences with periods after each statement. It is easier for the reader to easily understand the conditions with the short sentence structure and is able to go to the next subject smoothly.
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Five Step Strategy
Poem: To an Athlete Dying Young p.375
Key Sentances: "After earth has stopped the ears: Now you will not swell the rout...""And early though the laurel grows It writhers quicker than the rose."
Speaker: A narrator observing the athlete
Situation: A once skillfull athlete that was the hero of his town has now outlived his fame. Here is an example of this in the text "Of lads that wore their honors out, Runners whom renown outran And the name died before the man."
Shifts:"And early though the laurel grows It writhers quicker than the rose." at this point the poem stops talking about the athlete's success."After earth has stopped the ears: Now you will not swell the rout..." Here is where the narrator speaks of how the athlete has out lived his glory.
Syntax: The author makes use of short rhymed coupletes to help the poem flow as well as emphesise words that are key to the poem.
The Blind Man's House at the Edge of the Cliff: Didls
details: he is blind. he is not living there from not knowing, or sadness - he doesn't want to die. there's something inside him he is constantly trying to identify. being blind to him makes no difference - he understands want.
images: huge cliff with small blind man standing on the edge. goodness that's a long drop. then that picture disappears, to be replaced by a near-infinite blackness - with a silver horizon just barely visible. then back to the cliff, and he is blind again, but it doesn't matter.
to be continued...
SSSSS...
"Men at Forty" page 380, Donald Justice
key Sentences: "And deep in mirrors they rediscover" "They are more fathers than sons themselves now."
Speaker: Donald Justice and/or a middle aged father.
Situation: A middle-aged father becomes nostalgic as his son grows up before his eyes.
Shifts: Between the second and third stanzas the tone becomes a lot more nostalgic. There the poem also shifts from shorter to longer sentences. Then at the last stanzas, the poem shifts to a comparison with nature.
Syntax: The first two stanzas are each one sentence, then the final sentence is comprised of the last three stanzas. However, there is a random one line sentence stuck in there.
Here is my 5-step for the poem Netural Tones on p. 373.
Key sentences:
"We stood by the pond that winter day" - line 1
"Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove \ Over tedious riddles of years ago;" - lines 5-6
"Alive enough to have stength to die" - line 10
Speaker:
Old husband or wife (probably husband) who is reflecting on his spouse.
Situation:
Remebering a last important moment of being with spouse, near a pond in winter with dead leaves which seem to symolize age and death.
Shifts:
Line 9 "The smile on your moth was the deadest thing" - indicates significance of scene, changes the mood to a happy scene to a sad, longing one
Line 13 "Since then" changes time to present, and how the scene has affected the speaker
Syntax:
Line 1 "That winter day" - refers to the day as being the most important day, without need for further explanation what "that" refers to
Line 1 / last: "pond edged with graying leaves" similar sentences at beginning and end wrap both ends of the poem to the same time frame, even though the last stanza is talking more recently.
Fire and ice
pg 103
D- the good adjectives for fire and the negative ones for fire put the poets feelings toward the two on paper (favor, destruction)
I- i see the world ending in fire, it brings me to the images described in the Bible of burning sulfer.
D- "perish" sounds like more of an unnatural way of dying through a tramatic accident or event. (much more than passed away)
L- he is questioning what one he would rather have fire or ice, this has longer lines. The ending is more of a desision and has shorter more sure of themself sentences.
S- short and to the point like death is.
Five-S!
Poem: Oneday I wrote her name upon the strand pg. 405
Key Sentences: "But came the tide, and made me pains his prey." "For i myself shall, like to this, decay,.." "And in the heavens write your glorious name,"
Speaker: A man
Situation: Someone is trying to write a lovers name in the sand but it keeps getting washed away by the oceans waves. The woman says that it is in vain and like the sand our exictance will be forgotten. The man says that we wont be for gotten in heaven, and the love will not be forgotten.
Shifts: the shift is when the man starts to talk. The mood is lighter once he sharts talking.
Syntax: The sentences are in long run on monolongs. I feel like this makes the convo between the two people more meaningful because there is a lot of emotion within the sentences.
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the REAL Josh
5 step strategy
Poem: Tree at My Window
Sentence: “Tree at my window, window tree,” “Mine with inner, weather.” The poem is split up into four sentences created into a stanza and each of these stanzas has an end rhyme.
Speaker: Robert Frost or someone admiring nature.
Situation: Robert Frost or anybody is looking out at this tree which also can be interpreted as a vision of a person. Ranging from the human mind all the way to the body and how this tree is always watching this person.
Shift: Line 9 at the word but, “But, tree, I have seen you taken and tossed” The word but triggers this shift although the poem seems to flow very well.
Syntax: Each stanza is its own sentence and each of these stanzas is structured very well. Also each stanza creates a rhyme at the end and stanza two is the only one that doesn’t have slant rhyme.
Great, now I'm having an argument with myself.
And the link is a rickroll, not anything bad. go there yourself and see.
well done all. Impressive rick-roll, Josh.
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