Intro to Poetry

Adieu, Adieu...

2005-04-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

Well... like good old William Shakespeare once wrote, "parting is such sweet sorrow".

It has been a really fun year. By then end of this term I was really getting into the blogging, which is cool because I never heard of a "blog" before this course. I just wanted to send a little shout out to my tutorial trouble makers (uh...I think you know who you are) and partner in crime (T.B..haha...) I also wanted to thank Prof. Kuin, who made this course pretty darn great and for renewing my love of reading poetry. I have re-discovered old favourites and have discovered new ones, thank you.

hmm…that sounded like a cross between a high school year book message and an Academy Award Speech… until next year...

Modernism and the Avant-Garde: E.E Cummings and Pablo Picasso

2005-04-15T11:36:00.000-07:00

e.e Cummings has a very different style; he expieremented with words, parts of words and with punctuation symbols scattered across the page, often making little sense (He is definitely a poet that needs to be read aloud). It is Cummings’s unique style and departure from aspects of poetic tradtion that make him modern including his attraction to the avant-garde. Also, Cummings had a strong belief in individuality, “his poems are constantly exhorting us [the reader] to be original, independent, self-reliant. And he is scornful of everyone who takes refuge in received ideas and conventional standards” (Kirsch, Adam). Cummings style also showed his conscious separation from traditional poetics and style.

In the same token, Picasso was unique as an inventor of forms, as an innovator of styles and techniques, and as a master of various media. He is most known for co-founding, along with Georges Braque, cubism, which is an avant-garde movement that “revolutionized European painting and sculpture in the early 20th century." Instead of viewing subjects from a single, fixed angle, the cubist artist breaks them up into a multiplicity of facets, so that several different aspects/faces of the subject can be seen simultaneously. I think his ability to combine very abstract and multi-angled representations among his other contributions to art, attest to talent and his modernism.

Interestingly, after serving in World War II, e.e Cummings traveled between Paris and New York. In the1920s and 1930s he returned to Paris (the centre of the literary and artistic movements of the early 20th century) a number of times, and travelled throughout Europe, meeting, among others, Pablo Picasso. It is apparent from the poem below that Cummings was effected by Picasso’s work and has elements of Picasso’s very fragmented, cubist style. The following poem is by e.e Cummings that wonderfully describes Picasso’s artwork:

Picasso

Picasso
you give us things
which
bulge:grunting lungs pumped full of sharp thick mind

you make us shrill
presents always
shut in the sumptuous screech of
simplicity

(out of the
black unbunged
Something gushes vaguely a squeak of planes
or

between squeals of
Nothing grabbed with circular shrieking tightness
solid screams whispers.)
Lumberman of the Distinct

your brain's
axe only chops hugest inherent
Trees of Ego,from
whose living and biggest

bodies lopped
of every
prettiness

you hew form truly

i love you much(most beautiful darling)- e.e Cummings

2005-04-12T13:30:00.000-07:00

I saw this poem on Alessia’s blog and it really caught my attention. It is a really beautiful love poem; I like how e.e Cummings is mixing the two sonnet forms (English and Italian).

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

i love you much(most beautiful darling)

more than anyone on the earth and i
like you better than everything in the sky

-sunlight and singing welcome your coming

although winter may be everywhere
with such a silence and such a darkness
noone can quite begin to guess

except my life)the true time of year-

and if what calls itself a world should have
the luck to hear such singing(or glimpse such
sunlight as will leap higher than high
through gayer than gayest someone's heart at your each

nearness)everyone certainly would(my
most beautiful darling)believe in nothing but love

Alright, so the poem is 14 lines but it is not really physically divided into quatrains, octaves or sestets. However, it seems to rhyme abba cddc efgh gi which divides the poem a bit and makes it resemble the traditional sonnet forms a little more. (i.e. English Sonnet- 3 quatrains and a couplet, rhyming abab cdcd efef gg, Italian Sonnet – An octave and a sestet, rhyming abba abba cde,cde) So when comparing the traditional sonnet forms Cumming’s sonnet emerges as a blend between the two with some interesting divergence from both. For example, the last 6 lines have practically no rhyming pattern at all and there is a couplet, but it does not rhyme either.

I though that the volta occurred after the 8th line “and if what calls itself a world should have…” because the speaker shifts from professing his love to someone specific to speaking about love on a more general level. What was also interesting is that I noticed another possible volta (or turn) around the 13th line, “nearness)everyone certainly would(my/ most beautiful darling) believe in nothing but love.” This seemed like a volta because his profession of love and the universality of love come together in 2 lines. In way the last two lines answer the question posed after the first volta. “If the world should have…..then everyone would believe in love.” Once again, I saw this as a blending of the two forms since there is a volta in both traditional places (English Sonnet: the couplet and Italian Sonnet: the sestet).

"Madam, whatever this poem is about, it is not about the daffodils."

2005-03-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

When I commented on the poem "I Wandered as Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth on a previous post, Professor Kuin responded with the following:

“The really amusing thing is that when a lady complimented W on his poem about the daffodils, he replied, ‘Madam, whatever this poem is about, it is not about the daffodils.’ What he meant, I think, was that the poem is about the ‘inward eye’, i.e. the power and the blessing of the imagination.”

Prof. Kuin’s comment and the Wordsworth question on the exam got me thinking of this “inward eye” and the imagination.

The speaker describes the daffodils for most of the poem yet, he states at the end of the last few stanza:

“…I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”

I think that these lines allude to the value and the power of the imagination and its ability to re-create images. In the last stanza of the poem, Wordsworth articulates the power of the imagination. The speaker cannot fully comprehend the beauty he experienced when watching the daffodils for the first time. It is only when the event is re-created in his mind, that he is truly able to appreciate the past event. The remembrance brings about a pleasure that fills his heart with emotion, thus identifying the power of a memory conjured by the imagination.

The purpose or function of the imagination as Wordsworth conceived it was to “incite and support the eternal part of our nature”. The imagination transfigures truth, without transgressing it; therefore by insight and comparison, the things that seem are changed to images of things that are (Magnus, Laurie. 103). I looked up “transfigure” and “transgress” to understand how the imagination functions,

Transfigure:
To alter the outward appearance of; transform. To exalt or glorify (www.dictionary.com)

Transgress:
To go beyond or over (a limit or boundary); exceed or overstep: “to make sure that her characters didn't transgress the parameters of ordinariness” (Ron Rosenbaum).
To act in violation of (the law, for example). (www.dictionary.com)

Using these definitions, the imagination (according to Wordsworth) changes or alters truth (possibly nature or natural truths) but does not exceed its limitations. Imagination is not only a transcendental (existing outside of or not in accordance with nature faculty) it is also a creative one because the synthesis (the combining of separate elements to make a whole) gives way to a wholly new reality. Thus, the imagination for Wordsworth means the full and active operation of inward faculties, through which the mind builds up great things from least suggestions. (Rader, Melvin M. 47)

It is also important to discuss Coleridge’s notion of the imagination since he was very influential on Wordsworth’s poetry. In Biographia Literaria, Samuel Coleridge divides the idea of the imagination into primary and secondary components, he writes:

The primary imagination I hold to be the living power and prime agent of all human perception, and as a repetition in the finite of the eternal act of creation of the infinite I AM. The secondary I consider as an echo of the former, coexisting with the conscious will, yet still identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree, and in the mode of its operation. (387)

The primary imagination is a spontaneous creation of new ideas and is expressed perfectly. The secondary imagination is mitigated by the conscious act of imagination; therefore, it is hindered by not only imperfect creation, but also by imperfect expression. (Rider,Shawn.) Part of the sub-division of the imagination is fancy. With fancy there is no creation involved; it is simply a reconfiguration of existing ideas. Rather than composing a completely original concept or description, the fanciful poet simply reorders concepts. (Rider, Shawn)

Fancy:
- Mechanical,
- Combines without modifying
- Associations are forced and superficial

Imagination:
- Creative and transcendental
- Alters by fusion
- Unites objects that have real affinities for each other
(Rader, Melvin M)

Researching the imagination was no easy task; many of the concepts were rather foreign to me. I have tried my best to make this a comprehensive post; I hope it works and gave you a little insight on the Romantics, Wordsworth, Coleridge and the imagination.

Sources:

Magnus, Laurie. A Primer of Wordsworth with Crirtical Essay. New York: Haskell House Publishers Ltd, 1972.

Rader,Melvin M. Presiding Ideas In Wordsworth's Poetry. New York: Gordian Press, 1968.

Rider, Shawn. Wordsworth and Coleridge: Emotion, Imagination and Complexity. http://www.wdog.com/rider/writings/wordsworth_and_coleridge.htm , 1999.

Eliot, Carroll and Nonsense

2005-03-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

"...Much of our literature- poetry and criticim- and most of our philosophy is shaped on nonsense principles..." - Elizabeth Sewell

During tutorial last Monday, Jeremy touched upon elements of Nonsense poetry in T.S Eliot's The Waste Land; he then connected Eliot with Lewis Carroll talking about the poem "Jabberwocky". Well, as I was scanning the large (although probably not the largest) Eliot section in the Scott Library, I came across a book called T.S Eliot: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Hugh Kenner. I ran my finger down the index and *BING* I found an essay entitled "Lewis Carroll and T.S Eliot as Nonsense Poets" written by Elizabeth Sewell. The following will be a sort of summery/discussion on this essay and the topic outlined.

Nonsense found within literature and poetry functions as a game and therefore has rules. Even when writing as a Nonsense author, one must be aware of these principles. "The genre of game of Nonsense has strict rules. The aim is to construct with words a logical universe of discourse meticulously selected and controlled; within this playground the mind can then manipulate its material, consisting largely of names of things and number...all tendencies towards synthesis are taboo…" (66) Therefore, Sewell concludes that Nonsense by nature is anti-poetic. It's funny how the genre of Nonsense can find its way into poetry.

Eliot, Carroll and a French writer Mallarme are considered to be three great practitioners of Nonsense writing. Throughout the majority of her essay, Sewell compares Carroll and Eliot and their treatment of poetry and nonsense, "they begin with strict Nonsense of a high order, but then, chafing at the game's restrictions, they desire to include some or all of those elements of real life-- human relationships, the body, sex, love, religion, growth and development in the natural world-- which rule out Nonsense." (66) This seems to be the conflict of Nonsense poetry: the intermingling of human relationships, human nature and a human world with the nonsensical world and fancy. Eliot employs the use of Nonsense techniques (as seen in Carroll) such as the use of the game, card playing and chess as substitutions for “un-Nonsense entities, human relationships”. (68-69).

Carroll and Eliot are often compared specifically using Eliot’s The Waste Land and Four Quartets and Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Similarities in method and the use of poetics are drawn as well; Eliot and Carroll both use “rose” imagery. Borrowing from the Alices, Eliot uses “the rose” in the opening scene of Four Quartets and carries the image through to the of the poems. (** In the essay, Sewell goes on to describe the difficulty of using the ROSE as an image in Nonsense poetry, it is very interesting but perhaps off topic. Any interested parties can take the book out of the Library, the essay is very short)

.
However, Nonsense poetry does include elements of traditional forms of poetry (such as figurative language, metaphor) but when it is present in a text it is most often critiqued, for example when Alice talks to Humpty Dumpty or the Caterpillar. There is an example of this in Four Quartets, specifically in Part II of “East Coker”.

EAST COKER

What is the late November doing

With the disturbance of the spring

And creatures of the summer heat,

And snowdrops writhing under feet

And hollyhocks that aim too high

Red into grey and tumble down

Late roses filled with early snow?

Thunder rolled by the rolling stars

Simulates triumphal cars

Deployed in constellated wars

Scorpion fights against the Sun

Until the Sun and Moon go down

Comets weep and Leonids fly

Hunt the heavens and the plains

Whirled in a vortex that shall bring

The world to that destructive fire

Which burns before the ice-cap reigns

That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory:

A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion,

Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle

With words and meanings. The poetry does not matter.

It was not (to start again) what one had expected.

What was to be the value of the long looked forward to,

Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity

And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us

Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders,

Bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit?

The serenity only a deliberate hebetude,

The wisdom only the knowledge of dead secrets

Useless in the darkness into which they peered

Or from which they turned their eyes. There is, it seems to us,

At best, only a limited value

In the knowledge derived from experience.

The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies,

For the pattern is new in every moment

And every moment is a new and shocking

Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived

Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm.

In the middle, not only in the middle of the way

But all the way, in a dark wood, in a bramble,

On the edge of a grimpen, where is no secure foothold,

And menaced by monsters, fancy lights,

Risking enchantment. Do not let me hear

Of the wisdom of old men, but rather of their folly,

Their fear of fear and frenzy, their fear of possession,

Of belonging to another, or to others, or to God.

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire

Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

The houses are all gone under the sea.

The dancers are all gone under the hill

The second part of this section critiques the first, “That was a way of putting it—not very satisfactory:/ A periphrastic study in a worn-out poetical fashion,/ Leaving one still with the intolerable wrestle/With words and meanings. The poetry does not matter./”
After briefly reading parts of Four Quartets, which lovers of Nonsense MUST go read, I am itching to have time to read more!

“Carroll is the best point of reference we have for understanding Mr. Eliot” – Elizabeth Sewell

*** Prof. Kuin I have a question, why is T.S Eliot referred to as Mr. Eliot when all other poets, critics and authors are referred to by their last name? Is it a form of respect like Sir Anthony Hopkins?***

Modernism and Free Verse

2005-03-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

So, I am very disappointed that I missed this week's lecture on Modernism especially after reading everyone's reactions to Prof. Kuin's poetry reading. But anyhoo, the blog must go on...

So we find ourselves entering the 20th century and Modernism. It seems as though one of the major stylistic changes that emerges, with poets like Eliot and Pound, is free verse. On the website that Prof. Kuin suggested to us (http://thecriticalpoet.tripod.com/modernism.htm ), I found a little information (a starting point really) about the experimental poets already mentioned and their use of free verse. Free verse seem to be one of the major retentions of the modernist movement, many contemporary poets write in free verse and it is evident in the poems I have read by fellow classmates, that free verse is the favored poetic style. Therefore I have chosen to focus on free verse for this blog.

Free Verse: most common in the twentieth century, but by no means unique to it — has no fixed metrical foot, and often no fixed number of feet per verse. Free verse is sometimes called by its French name, vers libre. Under no circumstances should you confuse free verse with blank verse (which is unrhymed Iambic Pentameter). Free verse originated in France around the middle of the nineteenth century and has taken various forms which at times come very close to prose writing.
(http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/metre.html)
(http://thecriticalpoet.tripod.com/modernism.htm )

I also learned, from the above website, that Meter is not directly opposed to free verse, many poets write both ways. It seems to me that the choice between free verse and meter would be a matter of what the poet wants to convey. Since free verse does not “highlight and compound meaning, [and] it is often driven to expand in other directions”, using this type of style when writing poetry would elicit different reactions and meanings. Hmm… so free verse isn’t just an easier way to write poems huh? (hehe, couldn’t help myself)

This last bit is a list of advantages and disadvantages of meter found on the website entitled Poetry Magic: Metrical Shape and Free Verse. It was pretty interesting, although it seems that it is more directed to one who writes poetry rather than one who reads or studies poetry.

Traditional metre and stanza shaping confer certain advantages, and certain disadvantages.
They:

1. Please the reader by their display of skill, their variety within order, their continuity with the admired literature of the past.

2. Help the actual writing of the poem, either by invoking words from the unconscious, or by pushing the poem into new areas to escape the limitations of the form.

3. Provide a sense of completeness impossible in free verse. The author knows when the last word clicks into place.

4. Enforce dignity, emotional power and density of meaning.

5. Are more memorable.

The difficulties are equally apparent.
Strict forms are:

1. Taxing to write, requiring inordinate amounts of time, plus literary skills not given to everyone.

2. Much more likely to go wrong and expose the blundering incompetence of their author.

3. Inappropriate to the throwaway nature of much of contemporary life.

4. More difficult to place in the better literary magazines.

As the Century Turns.....

2005-03-02T19:47:00.000-08:00

After doing a little extra research on poetry at the turn of the century, I realized that this week's poets are perhaps more than a just a prelude to the 20th century (what I previous thought). These poets are part of the 20th century movements as well (I guess that was Prof. Kuins point). I was a little bit confused when I started seeing poets like Hardy and Yeats as part of "20th Century Poet" sections. It me made think... the poets discussed in lecture and tutorial carried through to the 20th century, just like the poets that write in present day most likely wrote before and will continue to write into the 21st century. *Light bulb moment* Ahh...now it makes sense.

Poetry in the 20th Century allowed for a "freer metrical movement than a strict adherence to 'the sequence of a metronome". This means that freedom of rhythm and imagery was encourage and welcomed in poetry. It was interesting to the note that there was a movement in 20th century poetry that brought poetic language and rhythms closer to regulary conversation with echos of colloquial language or slang. An example of this would be "Tommy" by Rudyard Kiplin that Prof. Kuin read in class.

Gerald Hopkins was also very influencial in the direction of poetry in the 20th century. He encouraged experimentation in language and rhythms. He combined "absolute precision of the individual image with a complex ordering of images and a new kind of metrical petterning." Many later poets in the 1930s, such as Auden, Stephen Spender, C. Day Lewis were very much influenced by Hopkins and Elliot. (Norton Anthology of English Literature)

I also noticed a trend that Prof.Kuin has mentioned: the gradual movement away from poetry to the rise of the novel. When I think of 20th Century I usually think of James Joyce (Dubliners, Ulysses, Portrait of An Artists) and Virgina Woolf (A Room of One's Own, Mrs. Dalloway). While doing some research I found more information on prose literature than poetry (in the 20th century). I did however, find the above information in the good ol' Norton Anthology of English Literature (hmm...I guess that 100 bucks paid off)

The following is a poem by Gerald Hopkins that demonstrates his use of "sprung rhythm". This peom demonstrates his technique (abrupt, single stress metrical feet) :

The Windhover

To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning's minion, king -
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding *
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding *
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding *
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding *
Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion *
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion *
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion. *

Afterthought: This is a weird/awkward poem to read aloud, maybe it's better left for Prof. Kuin to read in class. :) I am really intrigued by this peom, there is something in that last section of the poem that is really great. The alliteration works really well, and the use of commas slows down the pace and allows the images to sink in. " Stirred for a bird, - the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!/ Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here/ Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion/ Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!"

(http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/hopkins.htm)

PS. Blogger keeps changing the format of the poem, several lines are indented, marked with *)

Victorian Poetry

2005-02-17T07:38:00.000-08:00

It must have been difficult for Victorian poets to distance themselves from the Romantics; living in a time when most Romantic poets where dead but definitely not forgotten the Romantics were at times considered contemporaries of Victorian poets rather than their predecessors. For my blog on Victorian Poetry I choose a poem by Thomas Hardy, I like his poetry and I thought this poem had characteristics of Victorian Poetry.

The Voice

Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me
Saying that now you are not as you were
When you had changed from the one who was all to me,
But as at first, when our day was fair.

Can it be you that I hear? Let me view you, then,
Standing as when I drew near to the town
Where you would wait for me: yes, as I knew you then,
Even to the original air-blue gown!

Or is it only the breeze, in its listlessness
Travelling across the wet mead to me here
You being ever dissolved to wan wistlessness,
Heard no more again far or near?

Thus I; faltering forward,
Leaves around me falling,
Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward,
And the woman calling.

What stood out the most when reading this poem was how Hardy's words and lines paint a picture. The last section is an excellent example of this, "Thus I; faltering forward/ Leaves around me falling,/ Wind oozing thin through the thorn from norward/…" Hardy paints this amazing picture of the speaker stumbling through the falling leaves and hearing the call of a woman who is gone. Painting and the novel were also developing during this time so both are reflected in poetry and vice versa (poetry being reflected in visual art and novels).

Alliteration and assonance, particularly the "o" and "w" sounds, mimic the soft howling or calling of the wind. These sounds are found throughout the poem and give the poem a common mood and feeling and reaches out to the reader’s senses (since it is like you hear the howl too). Also, the repetition of "call" at the beginning and the end of the poem gives a feeling of constancy and futility, the calling which opens and closes the poem is constant and after the speaker recognizes the voice and questions its existence, the voice surfaces again.

E.E Cummings's Xaipe

2005-02-14T08:44:00.000-08:00

The following is a poem my brother suggested I read. Needless to say, I really, really liked the poem so here it is:

6

dying is fine) but Death

?o
baby
i

wouldn't like

Death if Death
were
good:for
when (instead of stopping to think) you

begin to feel of it, dying
's miraculous
why?be

cause dying is

perfectly natural; perfectly
putting
it mildly lively (but

Death

is strictly
scientific
& artificial &

evil & legal)

we thank thee
god
almighty for dying

(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death

I really like how Cummings uses the brackets throughout the poem. Read the whole poem a couple times, then try reading what is in the brackets as a seperate poem and after that read what is outside of the brackets. Then re-read the poem as a whole. It was pretty cool. I never read a lot of poems by E. E Cummings but this poem has made me want to read more. I hope you all enjoy! AND if you don't get it the first time you read it, try to read it again :)

"A Union of Opposites": Romantics, Part 1

2005-02-04T15:36:00.000-08:00

So here we are at last: The Romantics. (Insert mysterious music) In first year, I approached the Romantics with some hesitation because well, I was intimidated. But throughout the first term I have slowly ventured into my own reading and analysis of such Romantic poets as Percy Shelley and William Wordsworth and ya know what? They're not so bad! : ) Plus, Romanticism pops up EVERYWHERE, so let’s embrace it and enjoy. It was nice to have a lecture to contextualize the period, since Prof. Kuin had alluded to the Romantics several times on blogs during first term.

I have decided, for my first "Romantics" blog, to discuss some of the things I was wondering about in regards to this period, specifically the major Romantic authors and the changes made to poetic technique. I am hoping to get some more insight on the importance of this literary period.

Romantic Period: 1785-1830
Canonical Figures: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Percy Shelley, Keats, and Blake.
Important Texts: Wordsworth's Prelude, Shelley's Defense of Poetry, Coleridge and Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads and Biographia Literaria (there are more texts but these seem to the be the most mentioned)

Although many of the writers mentioned above did not call themselves "Romantics" there was a common understanding that there was something distinctive of their time; according to the Norton Anthology of English Literature they called it the "Spirit of the Age". This referred to the intellectual and imaginative climate and "experimental boldness" that led to this literary renaissance. This is what has sparked my interest the most, how and in what ways did the Romantics bring about this great change?

1) The first shift seen in Romantic poetry is an opposition to the literary standards of the 18th century. Romantics, like Wordsworth, sought to eliminate the artificial conventions imposed on poetry and literature that hindered free and natural expression (Yay!). The Norton, which is proving to be rather helpful, mentions how Wordsworth advertised his ideas on poetry in manifesto-like statements in some of his published works.

2) In Romantic poetry the essential material (subjects) were not external people and events but rather the poets' inner feelings. Romanticism was about the mind, emotion and imagination of the poet instead of outward senses, content and attributes of a poem. Thus, the lyric poem written in the first person became a major Romantic form. Many times the "I" spoken in Romantic poems is a direct reference to the poets own experiences and feelings.

3) Traditional poetic aesthetics regarded poetry as a supreme art in which rules and the deliberate use of such rules governed the writing. In a response to this notion, the Romantics felt that the immediate art of poetry must be spontaneous, "arising from impulse, and free from all rules and the artful manipulation of means to foreseen ends." (Norton Anthology of English Literature, pg 1320) However, these authors did write and re-write their poems showing some elements of self-consciousness in technique, just not in regards to poetics (like meter). I think that Coleridge put it best when discussing the process of creating poetry involved "union of opposites" or pyschological contraries "of passion and of will, of spontaneous impulse and of voluntary purpose." (Pg.1321)

An Extremely Short Blog on "Sweetie"

2005-02-03T08:53:00.000-08:00

I have noticed on many blogs, since I tend to read way more than I comment on, that a number of students have taken to referring to a loved one as "sweetie". What is particularly amusing is that everyone in the class knows where "sweetie" is coming from: Prof. Kuin! He has successfully re-introduced a previously outdated term for someone’s, well...sweetie. I know I haven't used or heard this term in quite some time, like many of you I'm sure. It was just very funny to see how much a Professors language can affect his or her students. Plus the word is rather fun to use and hear.

Sweetie, Sweetie, Sweetie...ahhh out of my system!

Satire:

2005-01-18T11:52:00.001-08:00

So, this week we talked about satire and how it is employed through poetry. I noticed that poetry in the 21st century seems to steer away from using the mode of satire. I was wondering about this and I think it has to do with irony, like Prof. Kuin has mentioned many times. Satire has been replaced by irony (or at least shadowed by it) and it dominates our world, yet I find that it is hard to define the differences between irony and satire.
So let's investigate:

Irony:

Irony is a figure of speech which involves the reader or hearer understanding from the tone of the writing or utterance (in everyday speech) that what is meant is not what is said. For example saying "How charming" to someone who has just been rude. However, such a basic use of irony may reduce the comment to mere sarcasm. Many times irony may appear as sarcasm (the Literary Encyclopedia used the following to demonstrate) for example in Swift's Gulliver's Travel, when Gulliver sings the praises of gunpowder as a way of blowing people to pieces and tyrannising one's enemies – the actual meaning is more questioning of what is said than flatly opposed to it. A great line is in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that every man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife...."

Satire:

Satire is a verbal or visual mode of expression that uses ridicule to diminish its subject in the eyes of its audience. It is a mode that can operate in any number of different formal structures. It combines two things (according to the Literary Encyclopedia) laughter and contempt. Laughter alone makes for humor and comedy, while contempt alone leads to bitterness and abusive, a satirist must find the balance between both. Laughter used for aggressive purposes promotes mockery, scorn and ridicule, the satirist's chief weapons. It is only at their extremes, however, that the comic and satiric impulses can be sharply distinguished.

- http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=984

I tend to see satire more in films and novels rather than poetry, so it was really interesting to see how poets use satire, it was pretty fun. This was one of my favorites, Dorothy Parker is my kind of woman!!

One Perfect Rose

A single flow'r he sent me, since we met.

All tenderly his messenger he chose;

Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet-

One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;

"My fragile leaves," it said, "his heart enclose."

Love long has taken for his amulet

One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet

One perfect limousine, do you suppose?

Ah no, it's always just my luck to get

One perfect rose.

I really like how Parker satirizes the universal symbol of love and affection: the rose. I especially liked the second section of the poem when she talks of the language of the flower and how the man's heart encloses the woman's "fragile" leaves. The rose almost appears as a patriarchal symbol.

To-- [My (new) Favorite Love Poem]

2005-01-12T20:31:00.000-08:00

I have been reading and re-reading this poem (To-- by Percy Shelley) since our first lecture on love poetry, deciding how exactly to tackle it and I'm still not sure how to go about it. But it is too nice a love poem for me to take the easy way out (not posting a blog on it). Shelly seems to approach writing a love poem differently than many other poets.
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To --
One word is too often profaned
For me to profane it,
One feeling too falsely disdained
For thee to disdain it;
One hope is too like despair
For prudence to smother,
And pity from thee more dear
Than that from another.

I can give not what men call love,
But wilt thou accept not
The worship the heart lifts above
And the Heavens reject not,--
The desire of the moth for the star,
Of the night for the morrow,
The devotion to something afar
From the sphere of our sorrow
-- Percy Shelley (1821)
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In the first stanza (could we call it an octave?) Shelley sets up the idea of the inadequacy of the word LOVE, and its inability to accurately express the true sentiments of the word. I also think that the first few lines of the first stanza refer to the misuse or overuse of the word love and how it lessens the meaning of it. Shelley goes on to articulate the power of love and the scariness of having intense feelings for someone else ( One hope is too like despair/ For Prudence to smother it/ And pity from thee more dear/ Than that from another) or revealing these feelings. This is a paradox that continues throughout the entire poem, the tension and fine line between love and happiness and sorrow and pain.
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What I really found interesting and beautiful about this poem was how Shelley begins with the idea of this false, misused love and then in the second half of the poem he expresses a pure, true love. The speaker mentioned a love which is not the love that other men speak of, but one that is as instinctive and overpowering as a moth's attraction to a flame or light (star).
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I also got a feeling (after reading this poem so much) that Shelley may be commenting on the power of poetry since words, feelings and hope cannot convey or express true love (the speaker cannot even name it); only through poetry is love given justice.
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This poem sparked so many thoughts and ideas within me, that I would really like some more imput from the class.

How Do I love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...

2005-01-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

Poetry has found its niche; there is no better way to woo or court the object of ones affection than with a lovely, heartfelt, romantic poem! Right? Now if only the writing/creating process was that easy!

I always found it difficult to write true love poems, the ones that celebrate and explore being in love (the bitter, unrequited 'love' pomes always come much easier). As discussed in class there any many things that hinder the writing process (motive, history, cliché, sincerity etc), I also think it is difficult to pin point what love feels like. Love is such a changing, unstable emotion that it is hard to authentically re-create. When writing I often feel pressure to depicted love as this intense emotion that is represented in every romantic comedy, romance novel or love poem I have encountered. There is pressure to not only write about love in the way the media (in all forms) has created it, but there is also a pressure to try to feel or recreate that form of love in everyday life rather than having a unique, real experience. Love is not always intense and consuming (lust perhaps), it can be secure and stable or it can bubble inside and burst out through a smile or a laugh. Unless I haven't really experienced love. But I would like to see the softer, perhaps content or uncomplicated side of being in love.

Any love poem suggestions?

Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters

2005-01-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

Prof. Kuin mentioned this book Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett way back in September. As he endorsed the novel I was very interested in seeing what this "Discworld" had to offer, and being a Shakespeare fan I was interested to see Pratchett's interpretation of the Macbeth witches. So, as any good daughter would do, I asked for the novel for Christmas. More to the point, I have begun reading the novel and have been pleasantly surprised with every sentence, hyphen, period and semicolon. The book is wonderfully funny, it is written in such a witty narrative voice that I cannot help but giggle or smirk while reading it. I still have a lot of the novel to read but so far it is really fun.

"2 thumbs up, the feel good book of the year!"

** Thanks for the Tip Prof. Kuin!

Stressed, Unstressed and Bitterness....

2004-12-06T10:38:00.000-08:00

Ahh... You have to love the stress of the November/December rush. Essays, mid-terms, exams, one hour tests that drive you nuts!

I have noticed a few very stressed out and bitter blogs this last week, and I anticipate more. I cannot seem to wrap my head around them though; this time of year is ALWAYS crazy. There is always something your Professors and T.As could have done better or could have focused on more. So get over it! Try your best with what you have, go over notes, read slowly and STUDY. And remember when all else fails..... BS can go along way, tell the teacher everything you know...some of it is bound to be right!

So don't place blame on others and do not lash out at innocent bystanders (like boyfriends and parents and the little kids you tutor [sorry guys]), take a deep breath and step forward, all will be well.

I promise.

Poetry of the Everyday

2004-11-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

When reading poetry I had never really noted how some poems were concerned with everyday, "simple" subjects. Therefore it was very interesting to see how there is a whole genre of poetry concerned with this topic. Looking over the poems listed on Prof. Kuin's blog, I was immediately drawn to the poem "I Wandered as Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth. Since I enjoy reading Wordsworth’s poems I was intrigued; however I was more attracted to the "Cloud" part of the poem. Clouds, their formations, the slow (or fast) way to they float across the sky and especially the way their colors are transformed at dusk and dawn, have always fascinated me, so this poem seems fitting to read and contemplate.

I wandered Lonely As a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company;
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Wordsworth uses a simile to beautifully paint the initial picture of an endless field of daffodils. "Continuous as the stars that shine/ And twinkle on the milky way," Personification helps Wordsworth breathe life into this simple subject, "They stretched in never-ending line/ Along the margin of the bay...Tossing their heads in sprightly dance." However what I enjoyed most about this poem was the third stanza where the waves (which are also beautiful and calming to watch), given the human quality of dance, are no match for the "innocent", carefree beauty of the daffodils. "The waves beside them danced; but they/ Outdid the sparkling waves in glee". These lines made me immediately think of the flowers in Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" movie, Wordsworth brought them to life, perhaps more vividly than the cartoon was able to.

I think that this poem demonstrates how the seemingly simple and "insignificant" things in life (which are often the things we take for granted the most- like nature) are the things which are able to bring most people happiness and serenity. This sentiment is captured in the last stanza of the poem. No matter how one feels, a simply beautiful image or moment can have an immense effect.

Heroes, Film and Poetry

2004-11-15T20:26:00.000-08:00

I have decided to separate this blog into 2 sections to make my ideas more reader friendly (which is always a good thing when blogging) So, the sections will be (1) Heroes and (2) Pictures vs. Words .

Heroes

The Geek hero is very hard to come by these days, in any art form. Perhaps it is the specific qualities that a Greek hero must possess (not commonly or easily attained) that make the Greek hero a thing of the past. Like Kristen mentioned in her Blog, Greek heroes above all were seen as supernatural or had elements of the divinity and godliness. Achilles’ mother, for example, was goddess, just like Hercules was the son of Zeus. In the lecture Prof. Kuin talked about the connections between heroicness and battle, and the honor that military strength denotes. However, I think that a very important part of being a Hero (possibly more so in the 21st century) is having human qualities, particularly faults and shortcomings. At times these larger-than-life heroes can make very mortal, human mistakes; they are victims of fate and chances as well (Oedipus). At times, these mistakes have grave consequences (death in the most honorable cases). However, it is this element of human imperfection and fate that make heroes, well, heroes. Their ability to overcome and supersede these human follies further establishes their enigma. Today, our heroes (in movies and literature) tend to encompass more of the imperfect human qualities than the divine. Most often at the end of our heroic story, the hero (perhaps protagonist is a better word) does not die with honor, respect and awe, but rather our hero comes to some kind of understanding and knowledge about the world which he was previously ignorant to. I don't necessarily think that we no longer have heroes in literature and film; I think that our view of what a hero is has changed and adjusted to a more cynical, ironic world.

Pictures vs. Words

In today's lecture, I was particularly interested in the idea of filming literature and poetry. I am firm believer in NEVER reading the book before the movie (if possible), I am always let down and disappointed. If you read the book after, you will only be pleasantly surprised. I had always attributed this annoyance with literary adaptations to the skipping of important scenes, bad casting and creative license. But Prof. Kuin made me think of the difference between the two mediums: words (literature/poetry) and pictures (movies). Words definitely have the ability to slow down images, when reading a certain passage of a novel or a poem, the image can become etched in your memory, it's crazy how word placement and word choice can create an amazing image that is so vivid and real that it is hard to forget or re-create. When reading the Iliad, this passage jumped out at me and just made me stop in my tracks:

"He finished and sat down. The son of Atreus,
ruler of the great plain, Agamemnon,
rose, furious. Round his heart resentment
welled, and his eyes shone out like licking fire.
Then, with a long boding look at Kalkhas, he growled at him:"
(pg. 15)

The commas in this passage make the reader slow down and take in the images. "Agamemnon,/ rose, furious..." After slowing down to realize the anger within Agamemnon, the passage continues (at a faster pace) with the image of resentment constricting and dominating his heart. In comparing Agamemnon's eyes with licking fire, which is uncontrolled, fierce and dangerous in nature, his rage seems to be at a boiling point. This passage builds tension and suspense, I could image (holding my breath) Agamemnon spiting out his words with the utmost anger and disdain. After reading this prelude to Agamemnon's speech, I was very anxious to see what would be spoken.

Hmm… maybe there’s something to all the Homer hype after all….hehehe

Once Upon a Time...

2004-11-06T19:18:00.000-08:00

Let's see.....my love for poetry began when I was wee, little thing (like most of us, I see). I was always really into the rhyming and rhythm of story books like the ones by Dr. Seuss or the story "Each Peach Pear Plum" by Alan and Janet Ahlberg. I was really into rhyming and even now when I'm tutoring my younger students I love reading them books with a rhyming pattern. It's just so much fun.

However, my tastes did mature (some what) and because of my fathers enthusiastic encouragement I received several volumes of "Poems that Live Forever" to slowly sift my way through. Somewhere in high school I lost my zest (?) for poetry. But after taking my first University English class, Major Authors in English Literature, I was re-introduced to all the wonderful poets out there, many who didn't make it into the volumes I received when I was younger. So, after being turned back on to poetry I decided to take this class and further expand my poetic knowledge.

Guest Lecture...a nice change!

2004-11-02T11:26:00.000-08:00

I found Jeremy’s lecture and his tutorial, in particular, really helpful. I was having a bit of trouble finding rhythm and meaning in Old and Middle English poetry. Reading it aloud and sounding out the words phonetically made a HUGE difference. When we read the poem "Alison" in class, many words (when pronounced properly) actually resembled words in modern English. It all began making sense!

Jeremy also made aspects of his lecture relevant to our lives; he used the lyrics of songs most of us knew, to help us understand the importance of finding the rhythm of a poem, which many students tend to forget when reading poetry. What really stood out for me was the idea that each line in poetry should be looked at as an individual unit. If you take each line alone and break it down (which I have been trying to do with Rudyard Kipling's "IF") and then place it in context with the rest of the stanza and then the poem, it helps make more sense of what your reading.

All in all, Jeremy's lecture was helpful and enjoyable!

In the beginning…

2004-10-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

When reading "Caedmon's Hymn" and comparing it to other poems I have read, one glaring difference emerges: religion. It was really interesting to see how the hymn did not have religion as just one aspect of the poem, rather religion was the sole purpose of it; it was completely devoted to God. And what interests me even more is the fact that there are no satirical or subversive undertones attacking religion (which appeared more frequently as Western culture became more secular). Even works such as Ovid's "Metamorphosis" included poems and scenes that demonstrate gods doing evil and ungodly things (or showing their "true" colors).

I guess historically, poems praising God would be the first written down since Monks were primarily the most literate and, besides having the job of copying out literature, were the ones who were intellectually able to be poetic.

To be honest, I had a difficult time reading "Caedmon's Hymn", not because of its language or metaphors or things like that, but because when reading it (even aloud) it sounded very choppy and it was difficult to get over that large g-a-p between sections. In COMPLETE honesty, the first time I read it as if the poem was to be read vertically (one column first and then the other)!! Needless to say, it sounded baaad!

Prose and Verse in a Midsummer Night's Dream

2004-10-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

In my Shakespeare class we are studying A Midsummer Night's Dream, my Professor discussed Shakespeare's use of verse and prose in this particular play. Certain characters speak in different kinds of verse and prose.

For example Oberon and Titania and Theseus and Hippolyta all speak in blank verse, specifically iambic pentameter.

EX. Theseus: Go, Philostrate,/ Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments./ Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth./Turn melancholy forth to funerals-/ The pale companion is not for our pomp. (1.1 11-18)

The lovers, Lysander, Hermia and Helena have rhyming couplets when they are "pillow talking".

EX. Hermia: Be it so, Lysander. Find you out a bed;/ For I upon this bank will rest my head./
Lysander: One turf shall serve as pillow for us both:/ One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and on troth./ (2.2 45-50)

It also was noted that Hermia does not speak in this matter when talking to her father or Theseus.

The fairy servants of Oberon and Titania speak in short couples, also someone mentioned that it was in a different meter that I cannot name (A little help anyone?).

EX. First Fairy: Weaving spiders, come not here;/ Hence, you long-legged spinners, hence;/ Beetles black, approach not near;/ Worn nor snail do no offence./ [Chorus] Philomel with melody,/ Sing in out sweet lullaby;/ Lulla, Lulla, Lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby... (2.2 21-30)

Now, what I thought was particularly interesting and what has most bearing on OUR poetry course, is how Shakespeare chose to write the Tradesmen (Bottom, Quince, Flute, Snout, Snug, Starveling) in PROSE.

EX. Bottom: There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and/ Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw/ a sword to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abid./ How answer you that?
Snout: By'r la'kin, a parlous Fear.
Starveling: I believe we must leave the killing out, when/all is done.
(3.1 8-14)

I find it very interesting how Shakespeare uses prose and varies his use of verse to show class distinctions. Kings, Queens and Nobles speak differently than the 'lowly' tradesmen", giving the former more sophistication and status than the latter. Prose kind of becomes the language of commoners. The fairies speak in rhyming couplets giving their words a light, airy feeling that resembles tiny, little fairies fluttering around. The lovers speak in rhyming couplets as well, to demonstrate being in a kind of love spell, they are so blinded by love that they being to speak in romantic rhymes. I also thought this might help the class see tangible examples of prose and verse in one text.

Poems that are near and dear...

2004-10-16T15:06:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd post a few poems that are near and dear to my heart, although you may not agree with all my choices, keep an open mind....

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove.

A Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love;

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

-- Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!

- William Wordsworth

** I just really really like this one. I love the way Wordsworth describes this woman, kind of like an unassuming, hidden beauty.

I read this next poem in grade 10, I think, and it has been special to me every since. A bit highschoolish, maybe, but none the less inspiring.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that had made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

Last but not least,

Hap

If but some vengeful god would call to me

From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,

Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,

That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"

Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,

Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;

Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I

Hed willed and meted me the tears I shed.

But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,

And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?

--Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,

And dicing Time from gladness casts a moan...

These purblind Doomsters had as readily stown

Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.

- Thomas Hardy

Hap really articulates the eternal struggle of finding meaning or a purpose in ones existence. I know personally that the idea of chance and the randomness of life are ideas that I have been struggling to understand and wrap my head around. Don't even get me started on the idea of how randomly all this living can be taken away because then I will just freak out the whole blogger nation!

For me, this poem touches on that raw scariness of life (Not to sound too crazy).

Bad Poetry

2004-10-11T15:07:00.000-07:00

In the world of poetry I'm pretty sure there is no shortage of bad poetry. I mean teenaged angst makes up for about half the bad poetry out there. I just never really thought bad poetry gets published. I was surprised in lecture when Prof. Kuin read some "so bad they are funny" poems in class that were actually published. I thought the publishing process was much harder and more particular when it came to choosing books to publish. Hmmm... maybe not because I've seen some pretty lame novels.

The big question is: How do these poets not pick up on the uneven meter, forced rhymes etc? Wouldn't they re-read their poems and realize that having one line that is ridiculously longer than the previous does not make for a good poem?

Any suggestions?

"ugh...I HATE poetry!"

2004-09-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

If I had a nickel for every time I heard this lovely phrase in high school, I would have A LOT of nickels and therefore be a rich, rich lady. In all honesty I have also uttered these words (Sorry Prof.Kuin L ) many times throughout my high school career, which leads me to the subject of this blog: why people hate poetry.

I think that the hatred of poetry stems from school and in particular high school. Never has poetry been so ugly, boring and bothersome than in my high school English classes. I cannot recall a teacher that read poems aloud, no one really got to hear the poem read properly, teachers did not make poems sound pleasing. Prof. Kuin mentioned a former teacher of his who helped him fall in love with poetry; high schools today are seriously lacking interactive and innovative teaching. If more concentration was put into hearing poems and enjoying all aspects of them, both technical and esthetic, poetry would have been enjoyable. Secondly, poems were not discussed in high school, they were not deconstructed- they were dissected, operated on and torn open. After reading a poem one must always locate poetic devices, which, in high school language, means you look for the most obvious devices, no matter how much they are repeated, to get the teacher off your back; “um… alliteration line 2, 3, 5….um….assonance line 1, 6…..”. However, this is not the only thing that kills poetry for the young because it is true, we all need to know how these devices function and I guess it’s something we should know when pursuing an English degree. What helps kill poetry is the assignment which asks students to produce a collection of poems in three days. I can remember the frustration very clearly, trying to churn out poem after poem…agh! The combination of the two makes the high school “poetry unit” a chore, another loathsome English assignment. Anyway, to demonstrate my point (and to cut down on the ranting) I wanted to include a poem written by my 16 year old brother in repose to an assignment asking him to write a poem (please keep in mind it was handed in 3 days late, which further proves my point!)

Enjoy:

Poem

Nothing ever seems simple,
I am sixteen born and living in Woodbridge.
I am going to school here.
I’m the only one in my class still struggling to write this poem, I’m sure.
I leap down the stairs two at a time to the isolation of my basement, sit down and write this page:

It starts with a short intro, to present myself, and my frustration.
The words have lost themselves somewhere between my mind and mouth.
The freeway from head to tongue is experiencing permafrost, during rush hour.
My hands still write, but the message isn’t clear of what goes where.
My hands, my workers, dig meaninglessly into open-ended ideas.
They make it harder for me to keep my mind clear because they’re eager to finish.
The frustration is a communal feeling; I feel it in my head, my chest, my hands and mouth.

Frustration is like the static on a television and the static on my mind.
It keeps the picture in a haze, keeps me from liking anything that comes out.
A clear mind would produce gold, but I have yet to clear mine.

***Thankfully, I was saved by my Major Author’s Professor (John Blazina), who made us read more poems than literature and brought me back from the dark side.***

What is Poetry?

2004-09-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

What is poetry? The question seems simple enough but for me it is the hardest type of question to answer. You all know those questions! The ones which are so heavily based on opinion that they generate a l-o-n-g discussion without ever really going anywhere and most of the answers given are just careful re-wordings of previous ones. The problem for me is that the answers to these questions are not all that different from my own and therefore, I find it extremely difficult to answer such broad, sweeping questions like "What is Poetry". I have to rack my brain trying to think of something not only interesting and different to say but I also have to sound at least semi-intellectual while doing it and then in reality its just ends up being a reiteration of what 10 other people have already said. Everyone who contributed in Monday's tutorial had valid and interesting answers to the daunting question at hand and I’d have to give you credit because at least you spoke up, which I have yet to do. However, I just really hate these kinds of questions and I find myself at lost when I actually have to answer them because it seems as though it has all been said.

Frist Post

2004-09-21T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hmm... lets see how this thing works!!