ENGL 2003: Introduction to Poetry

1. Blog discussion
2. Sick Rose — final thoughts?
3. Silken Tent
4. Research questions
5. Memorizations
6. Midterm discussion

Sample website

“The Silken Tent”
cord – 1
as – 1
bondage – 5
soul – 2
loosely – 2
silken – 5
thought – 1
capriciousness – 1

cord — collaboration, not any single line; sureness of soul not swayed by any single cord. Tent won’t fall over because one line too brittle. But if multiple cords are weak, then it will collapse.

as — poem as simile – extended throughout poem. comparing a woman to a tent.

bondage — strong word – whole poem talks about a bondage that unites . what holds this tent together? loosely bound. not held down — she’s her own tent — she sways — made up of a lot of things

soul – consciousness clean not held down — soul something weighing heavily on you — keeping you down

silken – sensitive, romanticizing gesture — soft, smooth — describing a tent — think of a tent as strong – silk not something you’d build a tent

she isn’t restricted — loosely bound — free soul

first three lines — light, airy, move with ease

Before I ever thought I wanted to register for the class, I did not think anything that to do with poetry would catch my attention. Music motivated me to analyze poetry more profoundly. I was caught by people arguing whether or not the lyrics in the music genre of Hip Hop deserved to be called poetic, and whether if Rap’s legendary icon Tupac Amaru Shakur deserved to be called poet. My personal response is that some rappers do actually  fall into the category, and deserve to be called poets. In the book of Western Wind, poets such as Robert Frost mention simple moments, or ordinary events in their work. The poem Dust or Snow (pg. 85) depicts such moments.

The way a crow

shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart

a change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

This is a moment, that a poet might take into consideration. The poem shows how a little incident that was expirienced between him and the “crow”, gave some life to a lifeless day. Just like Frost wrote, rappers do the same. They mention things that go on around them and within them. Although some of the modern day “rap stars” don’t have the same quality or talent to be considered, Tupac Shakur deserves to be recognized with having poetic skills. I clearly distinguish some of his lyrics to be poetic and to sustain quality that elevates him to another level.  To name a few songs “Keep Your Head Up“, “Only fear of Death“, “Smile” all sustain different themes on what the song is intended for. “Smile” is telling to smile and keep going no matter what happens, “Only Fear of Death” goes into his state of mind, giving his reason to fear dying and being reincarnated (paradox), “Keep Your Head Up” giving reason to cheer up and encourage women. The song “Brendas got a Baby” shows a real life unfortunate event, that very few now care to mention.

It is true that hip hop may have content not suitable for all, yet anything ranging from movies, televised shows or programs, books and so on; contain material that maybe offensive to others. I guess it depends what is the main interest of a person to decide. My opinion if the person has a great quality or set an emotion with their song, with the right expressions can be seen as a poet. Does anybody think rappers should be considered poets?Why? or if Tupac is a poet to be recognized. Can anybody identify poetic terms on the videos posted?

I find it interesting the way the that vowels and consonants have their own distinct character. What I also find crazy is that I never thought about any of this while reading a poem. The differences between nasals and liquids and how they flow just seemed unreal until I really felt the change in my mouth when I started to pronounce them all. My favorite poem this week is “Not Sense” by Gail Tremblay. Since starting this class I read poetry differently. I make an attempt to analyze every  one that I read. I not only visualize a picture in my mind but I try to understand if it is a narrator or a speaker.

Before taking this course, I read and wrote poetry on my own free time. I’ve always been intrigued with the way words can illustrate a picture or perhaps a collage of emotion or even a scenario. With reading poetry, I began studying it in high school and every class/course has opened my eyes to different elements of poetry.

With this class, I got to see how other people interpret poems. Its fascinating to read a piece and think you have the general concept of the poem down packed then have someone tell you their interpretation and instantly see where they came from with that idea. As a reader, your past experience mold your perspective while reading so many people have conflicting ideas of what the poem is about. After dissecting the interpretation,  the reasons behind it become more evident. That is the beauty of poetry to me and since I began this course I get to see that up front every Tuesday. For example, the poem about rose. The ideas that came up from reading that poem really took me into another realm. Though I’ve aloways been aware that everyone has their own idea but this class aloned me to see up close. Also, I’ve been learning new technical terms.

NicaMarie

At the beginning of this poetry class I really didn’t know much about poetry. I always thought poetry was just a few lines that rhyme, have meaning and is supposed to cheer you up. My favorite chapter so far was chapter four “Double Vision” because it opened my eyes to anti-poetry which I knew nothing about.  “Beauty” by Walt Whitman was an excellent poem that displays anti-poetry because it compares one event to another to get a point across even if the imagery isn’t pleasing to the eyes. In chapter 7 the end of the first paragraph made an interesting statement, “More brain space is needed for the mouth than for all the rest of the body except the hands.” I agree with this statement because we all speak a lot and we have to think what we want to say and how to portray our words before doing so unlike other , our mouth also works our brain daily when we eat after all we only taste what we think we are tasting if that makes any sense. Maybe someone has another opinion on the above quote.

I find it amazing how one poem can have a different meaning depending on the individuals life, situations or culture. Your meaning of the poem can simply come from picking the word that stands out most to you. From sitting in class you come to realize how confusing a poem can get from listening to different points of views but at the same time it opens up your mind to think more and dig deeper into the poem, which is something I’ve never done before.

The use of objects or indirect thoughts is something that can evoke many interpretations. For example in the poem “The Sick Rose” that we did in class. The rose can be a woman or it can be a regular rose. Being sick can mean something that you want but you can’t have because its not good for you or physically feeling sick. Also we tried to establish who the narrator was but no one person can conclude or come to agreement on one thing. The narrator could be a gardener or the rose thinking to itself and the list goes on and on. This all comes to show that poetry is a piece of writing that is written in the form of lines, verses and rhyme scheme to give off different emotions and meanings depending on your way of thinking.

I believe that this class heightened my fascination with poetry and the use of words. I enjoy hearing about how poems are translated to us in a wide variety of ways. My classmates’ interpretations of poems proved to me the true power of poetry. No matter what tools were utilized in the poem or the author’s intentions of specific words used, there are indefinite possibilities of what the poem means to others. So far, my favorite poem is “The Sick Rose”. With such few lines, the poem has a strong message that can be viewed in so many different ways (as proven by our class discussion).

At the beginning of semester, I think poetry is the most boring and confusing subject. However, as the semester goes on, this class is building up my interested in poetry and encourage me to think “outside the box” when I read the poems. The class discussion is helpful to stimulates each of our creative thought of poetry. It is interested to hear classmates’ various point of view and interpretations of the poem. It has giving us different ideas to analyze the poems through the in-class discussion.