ENGL 2003: Introduction to Poetry

This chapter talks about the rhythms. According to the dictionary.com, rhythm is defined as “the movement or procedure with uniform or patterned recurrence”. It occurs in all forms of language, no matter in music or poems. Rhythm in music is the beat, which is the most important element in music. It can be even or uneven, and it drives the music forward. In poem, Rhythm acts as a tonic and is important in poetry. Rhythm in writing is like the beat in music. It could affect by emotion, the movement of your body, as well as your feelings of the outside world, such as the pulsing of waves on the shore, the alternations of day and night. The most common form of rhythm is repetition, which is the writer creates rhythm by repeating words or phrases. Moreover, we use a set of symbols or signs to divide lines of poetry into feet, which is called “scansion”

Examples of rhythms in poem:

Hiawatha’s Departure
from The Song of Hiawatha
by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goldpoetrysp2012/2012/03/20/the-dancer-and-the-dance/

1. I felt nervous when I was editing the material to the wiki page. I am afraid the material I added was not accurate enough for others to read it as references.

2. I checked the page couple times, but there is nothing changed at all. No one edit or delete any data I posted.

3. What I enjoyed about this assignment was learning the skill on editing on wiki page, which I would never do it before.

4. The challenge part is the process of researching, since there is only a little information about the poet.

5. I prefer this kind of assignment rather than the term paper, since I am not an essay person, and this assignment require less writing.

i made a few changes to this post and accidentally updated… i cant have the original shown now. should i start over with a different post?

Robert Frost’s piece, “The Silken Tent,” is one that speaks to me very well. From my perspective of it, I can agree with many of my peers’ opinions of how this looks like a topic of love and care in a relationship. It’s in this imagery that we see a well-rigged tent that can represent the consistencies of a strong relationship; one that has its balance of rested & tensioned contraints.

The tent could represent shelter, comfort, or a structured system. With proper-measured care, the tent will be harnessed to the ground with rope and supported in its center by a mast. However, some freedom advocates better adjustments to weather patterns and other natural occurrences. Therefore, the ropes are mentioned to be rather loose. My favorite line that represents this concept: “And only by one’s going slightly taut In the capriciousness of summer air”

Capriciousness, of coarse, meaning unaccountable or random changes, is referring to the reality of the fact that anything can happen around this tent. With only one cord of rope going taut, out of the several, the structure of the tent is able to be guided into its proper place; as opposed to all cords of rope clutching at the tent to stay in one rigged position. Too much force in one value could cause tension, tear, & collapse. But with gentle pushes & pulls, in and around a certain area can make all the better difference.

In conclusion, a relationship can be the strongest only with the most gentle balance of pushes and pulls.

The Wikipedia assignment was very different and challenging. Writing and posting information on the web for millions to see was very troubling. I did not find a lot of information about my stub and writing a factual article with little information is not easy. I would of preferred a class-assignment that dealt with the chapter or topic from the book. Expressing my opinion or concerns about the stub was another challenge. I found it difficult to use the Wikipedia editing page; citing and format was very different.  Overall, I learned the different techniques used to navigate the library’s research data base and Wikipedia. The assignment demonstrated the diversity within poetry.

I would like to post a link for my expansion of the Finngerplay Stub. Wikipedia did not change or edit my post so far.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerplay

This is an old assignment that I didn’t have to change to complete so I have posting about it now.

My views on Robert Frost’s ” The Silken Tent”

She is as in a field a silken tent

At midday when a sunny summer breeze

Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,

So that in guys it gently sways at ease,

And its supporting central cedar pole,

That is its pinnacle to heavenward

And signifies the sureness of the soul,

Seems to owe naught to any single cord,

But strictly held by none, is loosely bound

By countless silken ties of love and thought

To everything on earth the compass round,

And only by one’s going slightly taut

In the capriciousness of summer air

Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

The Silken tent was an interesting but confusing poem to read. Trying to interpret it was a challenge. Reading it though i started to get the Idea that he is speaking about a woman.The poem shows an idea of peace and happiness. The woman in the poem is  comfortable and She seems to be having a good day

“And its supporting central cedar pole,

That is its pinnacle to heavenward

And signifies the sureness of the soul”

.  All her burden is gone. Her soul is completely free and moving toward a higher place like heaven. This poem may be about transcendence, a higher dimension that people reach sometimes in life, a realm of peace. The woman has reached this place. It is summer, it is the middle of the day, and the weather is perfect, the woman is in a perfect environment, her soul is serene.

But one word that throws the poem of is “Bondage” the me this word is sorta negative. A form of restraint the poem started of peaceful and pleasant but the word bondage contradicts the pleasant picture. Maybe she feels free and feels as if everything is perfect but behind the scene there is something unpleasant or something holder her back.

Before this class, I always thought of poetry as a way of expressing yourself through words. just as musicians express there feeling through an instrument or an artist paints a picture. I think of poetry as something artistic, which means everybody would have a different take on it. If you’ve ever been to an art gallery you will see this, people glare at the picture and share amongst themselves there view on what it can possible mean. This class has proven that. When we read “The Sick Rose” the whole class interpreted the poem in there own way and it was so fascinating  to hear the reason why they saw it the way they did. I was amazed the see so many different points of views, each person backed up there view on it and it smarted making sense. That experience made me appreciate poetry a little more.

But what exactly is poetry?, In an online article Called “What is Poetry” by Mark Flanagan, about.com, He said “Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it’s a paint-spattered canvas – but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you. Poetic definitions of poetry kind of spiral in on themselves, however, like a dog eating itself from the tail up. Let’s get nitty. Let’s, in fact, get gritty. I believe we can render an accessible definition of poetry by simply looking at its form and its purpose:

One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page. Carefully selecting words for conciseness and clarity is standard, even for writers of prose, but poets go well beyond this, considering a word’s emotive qualities, its musical value, its spacing, and yes, even its spacial relationship to the page. The poet, through innovation in both word choice and form, seemingly rends significance from thin air.”

This is relevant to what I’m saying because he mentions in his article that “Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it’s a paint-spattered canvas – but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you” similar to my music example and the art gallery.But in my opinion I don’t think poetry can truly be defined, poetry itself is so immense that there is no true definition to poetry.

Time and time again, I’ve heard comments like ‘such an image is so lovely, it’s poetry’. Every time such a phrase has made its way to my everyday life I wondered, does that mean poetry is solely pleasant?

During some reading, I was introduced to ‘Anti-poetry’. It’s basically poetry that doesn’t pinpoint only ‘happy go lucky-rays of sunshine’ emotions that are usually associated with poetry. My favorite poet, William Shakespeare, wrote a poem called “Winter” which is a stellar example of anti-poetry. Instead of writing metaphors and similes about the fluffy snow and the cool breeze, he writes about freezing milk and raw red noses. The poem is unique because it’s a different take on a subject, I’m sure, tons of poets write about such as Francis Osgood in “Winter Fairyland in Vermont”. Shakespeare’s adjective aren’t the kind laced with enthusiasm and cheer, there are more so gritty and more realistic.  It brings more authenticity to the poem and gives it more meaning to the reader. He doesn’t focus on solely the negative but straddles the medium. Just as Walt Whitman in his piece called “Beauty. Whitman makes comparisons between the young and fruitful and the worn. Yet, he consistently chooses the worn subject. He finds beauty in the experienced objects and people such as the father, mother of many children and the rag adhering to the staff. I feel as if he’s finding beauty in what tends to others and does the dirty jobs.

When poetry comes to mind, people often accept only the pleasant ideas as a general idea of what poetry is. The gritty styles of poetry are usually overlooked. Depicting reality without using solely adjectives that portray happy emotions  is more realistic to the reader, though depicting reality while using solely negative adjectives does not give the reader a realistic image of the subject. To be a great poet, I personally feel, it’s imperative to master the skill. No great poet is remembered for painting a picture too bright or too dark to believe, well I sure don’t remember them.

-NicaMarie

Original Post

The concept of Poetry has always been seen as a form of expression. It allows an individual to release their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in any form they please. By “form” I mean any type of thing the person “believes” is poetry. There are people who seek the opinion of others regarding their expression. This fact startles me. Why is the value of that person’s poetry only seen in someone else’s opinion? Are they bored or are they just interested in the thoughts of others? What difference does it make? Those questions can be said about pretty much everything that can be thought of so why question them? I asked myself while in your class, what is the purpose and reason for poetry? Some poets are honored and criticized for giving their own perception of things. How exactly can an expression of oneself be criticized if there is no flaw in imaginary thought?

There are those who question everything. They ask themselves, What is the point for water? For air? For existence? It’s hard to just assume my questions are as important as poetry. I see the value of poetry only in yourself. The only person that can understand them. Why must a person who expresses their poetry in writing become a professional or famous? Is there something other then fame and fortune that makes poetry relevant?

I’ve come to an unsteady conclusion and realized that expression is as meaningful as the importance you give it. There may be no logic in what humans do, but that is the flaw that comes with living. Sometimes things don’t have to be understood to be.

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/goldpoetrysp2012/2012/03/17/poetry-a-waste/ (Older post)

At first, I believe that this class heightened my fascination with poetry and the use of words. I enjoyed 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).

My views of poetry remained unchanged after the completion of this class. I did enjoy hearing everyon’s different perspectives and opinions of poems. I still view poetry as a medium of expression. Whether two lines in length or over a page long, a poem can display endless variations of perceived messages and meaning. In my perspective, poetry is utilized everywhere from song lyrics to public advertisement. I enjoy when poetry is combined with music and other artistic mediums. One final thing that I will like to leave with my fellow classmates is an example of how poetry can be beautifully combined with music. This is seen in the poem “Mystery of Iniquity” by Lauryn Hill.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BswphxnAibE