zaaaAP Lit Blog 2

Suicide's Note

Okay so I know this is probably really weird, but I was really struck by Langston Hughes' poem "Suicide's Note" (on pg. 15 of Sound and Sense) First of all, it's on such a taboo topic. The word suicide usually jumps out us (no matter if it's spoken or said) and I think the gossiper in all of us just kind of jumps at the chance to know what's going and who killed themselves when we see such a word. So I think that was one of the main reasons this poem kind of caught my attention.

Secondly, after reading the poem, it kind of struck me how it is one of the (if not the) shortest poems in the book and that I've ever read, but it doesn't really need to be any longer. It perfectly sums up it's subject in just three lines and in an ingeniously non-morbid way. I mean, summing up someone's reason for drowning themselves by simply personifying the river as asking them for a kiss, I think, is both incredibly poetic and really ingenious. And although I think most people have problems much deeper that cause them to want to commit suicide than such a simple note conveys, I think Hughes does a nice job conveying the information (or lack of information) that most suicide notes would give.

I don't know, there's not really much to analyze about it, but I really found this poem to be incredibly thought provoking and striking in a way much different than some of the others in the book....did it have this effect on anyone else?

I Do, Famous.

Skimming through an ancient edition of Perrine, I stumbled upon two poems: " I Do, I Will, I Have" by Ogden Nash and "Famous" Naomi Shihab Nye. I have feared the coming of the poetry unit, for last year I struggled with understanding, what I thought I understood from the words was completely wrong, or so the teacher said. So if my interpretation is way off please by all means take a crack at it yourself!
"I Do, I Will, I Have" gave me a good laugh. It's about marriage and how even though its alliance of a man and woman, they often contradict each other.

"I am quite sure that marriage is the alliance of two people one of
whom never remembers birthdays and the other never forgetsam,
And he refuses to believe there is a leak in the water pip or
the gas pipe and she is convinced she is about to asphyxiate or drown,
And she says Quick get up and get my hairbrushes off the window
sill, it's raining in, and he replies Oh they're all right, it's
only raining straight down."

The humorous passage further goes to say,
"That is why marriage is so much more interesting than divorce,
Because it's the only known example of the happy meeting of the
immovable object and the irresistible force.
So I hope that husbands and wives continue to debate and combat
over everything debatable and combatable,
Because I believe a little incompatibility is the spice of life, par-
ticularly if he has incom and she is pattable."

A few interesting things I noticed about the point of this poem. One, the narrator is writing about how wise he is to know what marriage really is. He assures quite pompously that he knows exactly what he is talking about because he was able to recognize "there are two Hagens, Walter and Copen", or how wise he is in his organization and communication to draw about a carriage. Having established this, he begins to pour out his wisdom on marriage, and I must admit it does not take a wise man to say it, but a wise man to actually write it down. What he says about marriage I think everyone already knows. I do like how he mocks both men and women and the roles they play in this alliance.
The Man "never remembers birthdays" and insists that "it's only raining straight down".
The Woman "never forgetsam" thinks she is about "to asphyxiate or drown" and wants the hairbrushes off the window for fear of them getting wet.

I think it was a great poem, because it is very universal. Whether a marriage is going well or going down hill, both types of relationships can relate because the contradiction between the husband and wife can either be seen as something humourous or something serious that jeopardizes the relationship. The central purpose of the poem mocks and lifts up marriage simultaneously as well as praising oneself for such wisdom in coming up with such a thought. Nash uses irony to lift up how marriages function and while using a pattern in the flow of the poem as well. As Perrine would argue, this is poetry because it's a "lesson or a of moral instruction" and it "makes us feel more poignantly and more understandingly about the everyday experiences all of us have".

This is quite the large post, so I'll save "Famous" for another time.

Is My Team Plowing

In "Is my team plowing" by A. E. Houseman, a man asks his friend questions from the grave, about what life is like now that he is gone. It has an interesting call and response pattern, in which after the dead man asks his friend a question, his friend responds to him.
I really like how this poem addresses the issue of death in a bittersweet and remeniscent manner. It touches on the desire in all of us to change the world, and to make a difference in people's lives. The bitter part is that, when looking at the bigger picture, perhaps one's death doesn't shake things up as much as we would hope. He asks if the horses are still plowing, if the boys still play football, and if his girl is still weeping for him. All is the same except for the latter, for the friend divulges that

She lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep.

When the deceased man asks if is friend is doing well, the friend responds

Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man's sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.

With these last two lines we understand that he has taken the dead man's former girlfriend, and this just completes the idea that life does go on after death. It may be comforting for this man to think that his girl would weep for him forever, but in reality people must move on. It's all we can really do.
What a cheerful thought.

Pretentious Perrine

I know we're not supposed to "hate on" Perrine yet, but...well...too late. He's so pretentious. The second sentence of the book reads, "The most primitive peoples have used it, and the most civilized have cultivated it." Maybe I read it wrong, but right away this "civilized" assertion made me vomit a little in my mouth. My favorite though is when he "paraphrases" "A Study of Reading Habits." His paraphrase was practically more complex than the poem itself. I swear he right-clicked "synonyms" while writing this to find the biggest, smartest sounding words possible. "I relished vicious nocturnal adventures. I identified myself with sexual marauders whose inexhaustible potency was like a weapon wielded against women who were sweet and fragile" (26).

Maybe he shouldn't be so pretentious either since his redundancy is irritating and a waste of time. Talk about tennis a little more please. Also, don't make false generalizations like, "Poetry is written to be heard: its meanings are conveyed through sound as well as through print" (22). That in no way holds true for all poetry. Take E.E. Cummings--the structure of his poetry on paper is not really something one can convey by reciting it.

Not only is he pretentious, he sort of treats his reader like an idiot, which, needless to say, deters me from reading it (although I still do). For instance, when Perrine teaches his reader how to read a poem, he devotes a full step to paying "careful attention to what the poem is saying" (22). ...How dumb does he actually think his reader is?

The Reality of Poetry Formation

Peotry is a piece of writing that a person takes from thier personal experiences and portrays them in a way that other people can listen to and relate to or simply enjoy... Sometimes these poems are very depressing. Infact I would say that most of them are. But I can't blame the people that write them. Yes, nobody likes to feel depressed and ponderous, we all just want to have a good laugh. And sometimes poetry will give it's audiance that. But the one thing that is sure about poetry is that it is the most sincere form of writing that I have ever come across.

When an individual sits down to write poetry this poem is used to express an extreme emotion that they have experienced...sadly most of the time that experience is an extremely sad and ponderous one. Still there are other types of poetry that simply observe life, but that becomes even ponderous still (unlike a stand up comidian).

I guess my whole idea is just that: yes, I dislike depressing poetry, most of the time, but if that is the deepest expression of emotion that an individual has felt and dicided to share, please stop complaining about it!

Justa Few Q's

One...I have a question about our poetry slams. Why is the winner's poem always so depressing? I have always loved listening to poetry, even though I have never been the best at performing or writing these poems, but I still enjoy it. I just do not understand where the shame lies in making people laugh and feel good and upbeat about a poem...Not sad and depressed.
Two...I am going to my number one choice for college tomorrow: Denison University. All week I have been nervous and excited and all of the above. I just wanted to know how everyone got over all of those anxieties of a first impression.

In the Spirit of Perrine's Grand Analogies...

Everyday during fourth period, I witness something beautiful and intangible: a teacher who finds the greatest joy in the subject he teaches.  I'm not sure if I've ever met someone as excited by math as Mr. Kostal.  As he passionately shares obscure proofs and Fibonacci identities, I've found myself wondering more than once, "What the heck would we ever use this for??"

The value of number theory, however, (at least in our class) is not in the practicality.  Mr. Kostal does not spend five hours on a problem for any glaringly constructive purpose.  It's all about the way that numbers connect and how different methods can lead to the same solutions. 

I think that language is like math: it can be both practical and intricate.  Using math for a purpose (such as in physics) is like writing an expository essay.  It is straightforward and effectively communicates a point.  Poetry, as Perrine describes, uses language to create many different levels of meaning.  A poet writes for the sake of the words, just as someone may examine a series for the sake of the numbers. Just as there are ways to apply number theory to code breaking, language obviously serves an incredibly important purpose. Yet, just as there are those who do not enjoy solving math problems for kicks, there will probably be many people who don't find joy analyzing poetry.  I'm not sure where I fall on either of those spectra.  My only hope is that someday I can find something for which I am as enthusiastic as Mr. Kostal is about math.

The World Is Too Much With Us

If you haven't already, I recommend reading "The world is too much with us" by William Wordsworth. It's at the end of chapter three, pg. 49.

We read this poem in English sophomore year, and I really liked it. We also read other works by William Wordsworth, and I enjoyed his poetry a lot. I especially like this poem because of its message. Based on my interpretation, it is about how we take advantage of the world, and how we don't see its true beauty. There is not enough room for humans and the earth, or nature, and "we are out of tune" (8).

One of my favorite parts of the poem is at the beginning: "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; Little we see in nature that is ours" (2-3). I love the word choice and rhythm of these lines: they really get across their meaning in a beautiful way. And the meaning is so powerful. I mean, Wordsworth was probably writing in the early 1800s. It is amazing that this old poem still has great (and maybe even greater) significance to us now.

Some other interesting things to note: I looked up both 'sordid' and 'boon' and found that sordid means 'self-seeking' and boon means 'blessing'. I thought that it was interesting that Wordsworth described giving our hearts away as a selfish blessing.

I also think the allusions in this poem add a lot to its character, and its sort of nostalgic tone. Overall, I really like this poem, and I also want to hear what others' interpretations are.

Poetry HA

I simply do not like poetry. I never enjoyed it. Even as a kid i did not enjoy poetry. I was not a big fan of Dr. Seuse  or Shel Silverstein. I prefered regular kids books and novels; Stories that were straight foward, to the point, and EASY to understand. 

I find poetry a way of disguising what we are trying to say. Maybe I'm lazy but I do not like the idea that i have to analyze something closely to make sure what it means or if it has more than one meaning or that there is a hidden message in it.

According to Perrine's on reading poetry, she states we should read it out loud, read it more than one time and practice reading it out loud. First, if i was at a coffee shop or library, i will never, ever, read out loud.. I dont want the person next to me to think i am insane. Reading it more than once? Come on, lets be realistic. When is the last time we read anything more than once besides the Harry Potter series?

I'm very curious on what do other people think of poetry. Please if you can, enlighten me. Change my feelings towards poetry and make it a possitive one.

The Man He Killed...

Although this might seem strange, I really enjoyed The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy. It's cool because it takes an almost humorous attitude on murder. His style of writing seems nonchalant, as though this subject is really not very serious to him. He uses rhyme as a way to negate the seriousness of his topic. A few important/funny/striking lines are

"I shot him dead because-                                  Shows the silliness of war, and how there is no reason behind
Because he was my foe," (Line 10-11)            it

"Yes; quaint and curious war is!                       This is an incredibly deep line although it doesn't seem like it.
You shoot a fellow down                                      Hardy remarks on the truth behind war; the people fighting   
You'd treat, if met where any bar is                  have no conflict with one another. It's just what they're told to
Or help to half-a-crown." (Final stanza)          do.

"There's Been a Death, in the Opposite House"

I really like this poem because it seems to be simple, but there is still a lot of imagery and Dickinson is able to show her specific ideas about death. Through this poem, Dickinson is able to portray her ideas about society's reaction to death.
We are conditioned to deal with death in an impersonal, mechanical way. Dickinson shows this in line three with, "I know it, by the numb look" and then again in line 8 with "Abrupt--mechanically--." She also refers to the body of the person as "it," taking away the humanity and personality of the deaceased and leaving us with a cold and lifeless object. This shows that people try not to think too much about death and instead treat it as if it were some regular occurence rather than a life-changing or life-ending experience.
This seems to be something that people learn as children, I remember thinking as a kid that dying was just like going to sleep. Dickinson uses a boy to show this early innocence and naivity about death and how, as we mature, this naivity becomes denial and numbness to death. Because the poem really displays no emotion and seems to be a play by play of the events, it shows just how coldly people approach death.

Tonight, I Write This Poem (For You)

Tonight, I write this poem
To help us understand
A thought I had while reading
The book which we all had.

Says Perrine, Poetry makes us think
But not like a textbook would.
To appreciate poetry requires
The reader to think for themselves.

Yes, I will admit
Poetry was for me
Quite a mystery, and
yet I see there is a
way to find meaning.

But the meaning
must be mine.
For me to have it
or for it to exist at all.

The immortal philosophers
Did not remain in simple text.
Camus' Stranger
Nietzsche's Zarathustra
Sartre's No Exit

Granted, those epics
are in prose, but they are not
reasoned analyses. Do they
not achieve the same goal as poems?

They are great because
the reader must reason the lesson
Because it is not in the text
But the readers mind
That lessons can be learned.

So tonight, of this I ask,
Where is poetry really?

Is it in the words we see
Or the experience we feel
Or the logic we think
After all is said and done?

Beautiful Death

so When first hearing that we were beginning a poetry section, I have to admit I was a little bummed. To put it out there, I hate poetry; or at least I thought I did. After reading the first section of Sound and Sense I realized how inspirational and relaxing poetry can be. One poem that really made an impact on me was, Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall. This poem is going against one of the common stereotypes people think of when poetry is mentioned: Poetry DOES NOT have to be written with beautiful words. This poem contains a lot of dark images that enhances its meaning and makes it a very stong peom. It takes the reader out of their element and brings them into the scene of this emotional crisis.

                     

            The mother smiled to know her child

            Was in the sacred place,

            But that smile was the last smile

            To come upon her face.

            For when she heard the explosion,

            Her eyes grew wet and wild…

            She clawed through bits of glass and brick,

            Then lifted out a shoe.

            “O, here’s the show my baby wore,

            But, baby, where are you?”

These particular lines (lines 21-26 and 29-32) express the frightful and devestating experience of losing a loved one. The death is not at all a beautiful and enjoyable experience, but the imagery it creates spreads emotions to the reader that broadens the view of a moving moment.

I hope the rest of Sound and Sense that is assigned for us to read, is just as inspirational as this first part has been.

Not Just An Eagle

A poem that caught my eye while I was going through the first chapter of sound and Sense was the Eagle. It was putting there as an example for a poem that gives the soul of and eagle rather than the statistics. To me, it was much more.

He clasps the crag with crooked hands

Close to the sun in lonely lands

Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls*

He watches from his mountain walls

And like a thunderbolt he falls*

                                                 -Alfred, Lord Tennyson

                                               * Favorite lines

The poetic devices used in thus poem are very simple yet eloquent. While reading the poem you feel the true power the eagle has and beautifulness of the creature god created.

Though it seems like this poem incredibly simple, it must have been incredibly complex to write. It gives me hope that I can take something very simple from my life and turn it into poetry as powerful as this. (Well, almost!)

Making Sense of Sound and Sense

I've never gone out of my way to read poetry. I've always avoided performing in the poetry slams. Yet, after reading the first chapter of Sound and Sense, I suddenly have an entirely new appreciation for poetry. Perrine's explanation of the unique artform was clearer to me than it's ever been; I almost see the practical application of poetry. Just one of the author's lines that resonated with me said,

"Poetry takes all life as its province. Its primary concern is not with beauty, not with philosophical truth, not with peruasion, but with experience." (7)

This idea reinforces the idea notion that has been beaten into us as we write our college essays: it is not about the actual experience, but what you make of the experience. Poetry portrays an experience in a specific way in which literature cannot. The 'voltage' of the language conveys emotions in an unusual and intense fashion. Before I saw literary devices as contrived ways to magically add depth to a poem. Now I see that these are merely resources, defined with specific titles to describe the way a poet shares his or her emotions and senses.

I've never been more excited for a poetry unit.
Hopefully, this year I'll be able to work on tuning my radio to the right station.

I'm So Tempted to Write About "Food and Drink"...

So here's what I'll do...write a little bit about this music poetry thing, aka something that is relevant to our class, and then I will write a quick list of my favorite foods/drinks (a list that I have perfected and I love talking about) since that category might be gone soon. I need to take advantage of it while it's still here.

Real Topic:
Basically, I'm so excited about this "Music Poetry" assignment. I cannot even tell you how strongly I feel about the power of music, especially poetic music. Until last year I never really listened to music for the lyrics. But then I discovered a band , Wilco (everyone look them up. Best band in the world.), and as corny as this may sound, it literally changed my life. Their lyrics are absolutely unbelievable. There's nothing cliche about them. And if you think there is, you haven't listened hard enough. When I started listening to them I was experiencing what we'll refer to as "Fragile Times," and the lyrics to their songs opened my mind so much and made me realize so much about, well, my life and myself and the situation I was in at the time. I was basically in a state on confusion for a couple months, but when I listened to their music it just made everything clearer. It helped me put words to what I was feeling and what was going on. I'm dying, this is so corny. But I'm also dead serious. You have to dig deep to find meaning in their lyrics. It's rarely on the surface. There can be something obvious about it, but there's always something deeper and more intricate about it. That's always been the effect that I imagine poetry having on people, it just never happened to me.Their music and other music like their's has given me a whole new appreciation for poetry that I really never had.  I used to resent it, actually. But then you discover these musicians who are honest in their music and who write about things so personal, yet so universal in words that literally blow you away and give you a whole new appreciation for language and you realize how poetic it is. Especially when it's a band or artist who isn't preoccupied with fame and fortune, but just turning their poetry into music in order fully execute the meaning.

Fake Topic:
My Favorite Foods/Drinks (in random order)
-freeze pops
-gushers
-mashed potatoes
-apple cider
-raspberries
-pumpkin pie
-falafel
-ribs (until I became a vegetarian)
-chocolate milk
-chocolate ice cream
-vegetables with dip
-Culvers