Daily Archives: April 8, 2022

After this week my outlook on poetry has most definitely broadened in a positive way.  I’ve always had much of an appreciation for poets and how they portray their vision and ideas, emotions and thoughts, in a way that often is beneath the surface. That being so, I often can become frustrated when I cannot grasp the main idea of a poem, and lose appreciation in that emotion.  After this week, I have a much better understanding of how to analyze and read poems in a way that will help me to avoid this frustration.  For example, in activity 2 they give examples of questions you can ask while reading to keep your understanding in check, such as, “who is the speaker in this poem?”, and “what does the title suggest about the poem?”, and others along with those.  Asking simple questions can help break down information and better your understanding of harder concepts.  “The second is assuming that the poem is a kind of code, that each detail corresponds to one, and only one, thing, and unless they can crack this code, they’ve missed the point,” (Hirsch).  I love this quote as well from activity 2 as it enhances the idea that poetry can be deemed as boring and frustrating because of a lack of “skills” used to understand the main idea of each line, every word and every punctuation has an intentional placement in poetry, and these activities helped to guide me on ways to grasp the bigger picture.

Somehow my ideas haven’t changed so much. I’m still getting difficult to understand a poem because poems are difficult to understand and try to know what kind of tone the poem is.The videos and the readings been so helpful it helps us to know how poetry works and what a poem. Activity 1: Poetry lesson presentation shows different ways to define poetry and what is not a poetry. What is a Poetry? Well, a poetry has to shows any of these following: Rhyme, Rhythm, Repetition, Sound, Imagery, or Form. From the video I learned that a poetry is a concise, shorter, and shorter in length. As I have seen the video, I feel like my thoughts hasn’t changed because in High School I have been go over the meanings of rhyme, rhythm, repetition, sound, Imagery, and form. And how to annotate each stanza from the poem. Activity 2: How to read a poem. While reading, I did know that we should ask ourselves questions when we read a poem. We should ask questions because that way, we could find the meaning of what the poem is trying to say and try to understand the poem. One idea about poetry has changed me: I didn’t know while reading a poem could lead us to mistakes. That the poems are difficult to understand. • Questions we should when we first read a poem: Who is the speaker? • What circumstances gave rise to the poem? • What situation is presented? • Who or what is the audience? And what is the tone? I like this one because we should know what tone the poem is.

By reading all these poems, my opinion of poetry has not changed.I think that the poems have all dramatism and romanticism. There are many different kinds of poems, some may be good, some bad, some that rhyme, some that don’t.I have also learned that poems have repeated lines and this is to draw more attention from the reader and is a collection of spoken or written words that expresses ideas or emotions and imaginative style.

Somehow when I think about poetry the first things that come to mind are love, ocean waves, and animals. When I was in middle school, we used to write a lot of poems. At first it was very difficult for me to write one because I always thought a poem had to rhyme. Then I learned that there are different types of poems and poems don’t always have to rhyme. My favorite type of poem is a Haiku. Haiku is my favorite type of poem because it is very creative, fun, and short. A Haiku consists of just three lines with 17 syllables in total. For example, the first line is 5 syllables, the second line is 7 syllables, and the third line is 5 syllables. The activities and readings from week 11 really made me realize how relief it was either when I used to write poems on my own or in school. After watching the short videos and participating in the activities, I learned that Italian Sonnets are interesting because it keeps the reader guessing and thought provoking. I now have a better understanding of the technical components of composing poetry, as well as how to distinguish between poetry and prose. I also discovered that understanding poetry is a journey rather than a destination.  

This weeks readings bring me back to 12th grade AP Literature, in which we dissected sonnets. The familiar terms of rhyme, rhythm, and meter really are a throwback. It was definitely a good refresher to keep in mind during the readings. Something new learned was the difference between Elizabethan and Italian sonnets, and learning all the technicalities was interesting. Poetry has always been fascinating in that it can be both structured or free-flowing, but it retains the same sense of freedom. It was also interesting learning the difference between poetry and prose; I had always associated the two with each other almost synonymously. I never really enjoyed reading poetry with which one had to puzzle out the meaning through several readings; call it impatience, but I prefer things more straightforward and clear-cut. However, there are certain things that are created for a more thorough reading, meant to be combed through several times, and there is a beauty in that too.

After this week’s readings and activities, I now know more about the technical aspects of writing poetry and how to identify what constitutes poetry versus prose. Poetry has rhyme, rhythm, repetition, sound, imagery, or form. (Tom Chester 0:31-0:35) I know the difference between an Italian and a Shakespearean sonnet. An Italian sonnet is 14 lines in length, has an octave consisting of 8 rhyming lines, and a sestet composed of 6 rhyming lines. The octave also poses a problem, and the sestet is the answer to that problem. A Shakespearean sonnet contains three quatrains comprised of four rhyming lines each and a two-line rhyming couplet. Shakespearean sonnets are also mainly written about human nature and love. I also learned that analyzing poetry is a journey, not something with a definite end. In well-written poetry, it is possible to learn something new with each new reading of the poem. Citations: Tom Chester. “Poetry Lesson” Youtube, uploaded by thisheather, Dec. 5, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLKengChb-E

The activities and readings from Week 11 have renewed my interest in poetry. I found the article “How to Read a Poem” in Activity 2 particularly interesting. I was not aware that there were so many techniques that can be applied to reading a poem. I, personally, have been guilty of dismissing a poem if I was not immediately able to decipher its meaning after reading it once. It never occurred to me that it may have been the writer’s intention to cause the reader to make an effort to understand and appreciate the poem. I have also never considered reading a poem aloud to hear the rhythms and sounds of the words. I almost feel a little guilty not having put in the effort while reading poetry in the past and I wonder how many great poems I may have overlooked. I am now eager to read more poetry with the new skills I have acquired through the readings this week.

When listening and reading the different ways and specifics of poetry I have learned there is an actual science and system behind it. I’ve never been one to properly grasp the logistics of poetry, I always thought they were just words from the heart that very talented people were able to throw together in a fashionable manner. In the video Italian and Elizabethan Sonnets: Poetry Analysis they show a breakdown of a poem that rhymes and show how the numbered lines and how the one after rhymes with the first. I never knew there was almost a mathematical way of going about it. I also learned that Shakespeare happened at the same time as Queen Elizabeth and that the two can be called the same, a term I would’ve always over looked. My favorite thing about poetry and the era is was mostly popular is the lack of shame to express love and passion for something or someone.

As a Brazillian person, poetry and prose has always been a huge part of our national literature. However, I was not aware of the differences between poetry and prose, until I’ve watched the first video on the activities this week, “Poetry Lesson” by Tom Chester. Furthermore, I’ve found it quite amazing that instead of starting the video explaining what is poetry and comparing it to prose, he decided to start by saying what is “not” considered as poetry and prose. I have always thought that by starting the lesson knowing what we should not do, it becomes easier to understand the right concept and how to do it or identify it properly. The second activity that I’ve found highly informative to help me understanding more about poetry, poems and prose was the reading “How to Read a Poem” by Edward Hirsch. The author defends that there are three false assumptions when it comes to reading poems. As one of them, he mentions “The second is assuming that the poem is a kind of code, that each detail corresponds to one, and only one, thing, and unless they can crack this code, they’ve missed the point” (Par 3). Particularly, I have always read every poem looking for a clue, a word or a saying that identifies the true meaning of the poetry, and it can become extremely frustrating at times. This week’s readings and activities was incredibly informative, and assisted me on understanding better how to identify, read and look for clues in poetry.

My ideas of poetry have changed and broadened after the week 11 readings and activities. I’ve never liked poetry because I felt like sometimes it didn’t make sense to me. In activity two’s reading, it elaborates on the idea that poetry can be difficult to understand at times but it is up to the reader to try and figure it out. The reading also mentions how a poem can be seen as a game, it makes you work a little and it can be challenging. But like most things, you need to practice in order to gain skills and succeed in understanding and completing its task. Poems are meant to be read several times and aloud, in order to get a better understanding of them. I think what makes poems difficult is that the meaning behind them aren’t always so clear and they can be interpreted in many ways. Which is why reading and understanding poetry takes practice.

My ideas of poetry have changed a lot as I got a better broader understanding to what is poetry and how people write poetry and what’s the true meaning behind it is from the video I watch about poetry I know poems should and have a lot of rhythmic and frequently metaphorical lines and each different types of poetry from what ever genres use some sort of rhyme rhythm repetition sound imagery and form. I learned poetry is a short form of art writing work of literature that doesn’t have any type of rule or writing but a way a type of person express there feelings or mood or what they want to say weather its a poetry or line that has lot of  repetition or words and rhythm. The main point from the video I learned and better understand about poetry is that each type of poetry has a mood or tone that attracts the reader and gets there attention in ways they can relate to or even be inspired by.

This week’s activities and reading helped me understand the structure of sonnets. Shakespearean sonnets, or Elizabethan sonnets, are typically 14 lines in length and follow a specific structure. They are divided into 3 quatrains and end in a couplet. Quatrain 1 would rhyme in abab, quatrain 2 in cdcd, quatrain 3 in efef and the couplet would rhyme in gg. The first 3 quatrains establish a theme or problem and then resolve it in the last 2 lines, the couplet. For example, in the first 3 quatrains of Sonnet 130, “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing like the Sun” by William Shakespeare, the speaker discusses the qualities of the woman he is in love with. The speaker compares her to the things of nature. However, the woman is unlike the beautiful things of nature, she doesn’t have any heavenly attributes. In a way, the speaker describes her in an unattractive manner. In the last 2 lines of the poem, the speakers reveal that he still loves her for who she is, not because he can compare her to beautiful things. Overall, knowing the format of a poem makes it easier to understand them. 

When I thought of poetry about love, several words that came to mind immediately were romantic, admiring and divine. Indeed, in this week’s activities, Browning used these emotions in her poem “How Do I Love Thee” to show us how love can be enormous. Although the extent of love can’t be measured by certain things, she still managed to express her overwhelming feelings to her lover. At least I feel amazed by her description of words as if her love is the strongest and purest in the world. Nonetheless, after I read “My Mistress’s Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” Shakespeare showed me a new world of love poetry that doesn’t have to be so enthusiastic. In comparison, Shakespeare applied a different style which is realism into love poems, which I think most of the poets back in those days wouldn’t use. He illustrates a vivid, though ordinary, mistress through a lot of metaphors and similes in somehow degraded words. In this way, love can be more understandable and practical by the readers. These two poems make me realize that love can be various depending on which kind of love we prefer. 

My ideas on poetry mainly have not changed, I’m fascinated by romance and tradies in a poem. I did learn how to write a poem like an Italian sonnet and through the video that I watched on “Italian and Elizabethan Sonnets: Poetry Analysis,” I got a good understanding of the elements like an octave used in the lines of a poem and the poem should also be rhythmic and frequently metaphorical. The poem like “sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare, this one for me was personally a little difficult but I then understood that the beauty of someone he loved was compared to a summer day. Poems like the mood and tone set the attention to the reader’s eye like mine (when romance is involved). The video poetry lessons were it was helpful, I don’t know much about how to write a poem I have an understanding of what a poem is or isn’t when writing a poem.   

Poetic Review of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where, and Why” This week, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s sonnet “what lips my lips have kissed and where, and why” attracted my attention. The speaker addresses their state of unhappiness and despair, which represents an intangible outcome yet plagues them with their memorial happiness as a result of innumerable unsuccessful minor affairs. The poem is structured in sonnet form, with the initial lines illustrating the abba rhyme scheme (Mannion, 2020). Nonetheless, the poet’s author maximizes sonnet usage by incorporating mood change in the poem’s ninth line, so inserting another rhyme scheme of CDE CDE, which may aid in memory formation. By combining the latter rhyme pattern with the change in mood, the speakers address their current state of romance, or more precisely, their romantic position. He confesses that males have demonstrated no major feelings worthy of securing memories in the speaker’s mind by enquiring as to which lips are being referred to, and the location of their kiss has been forgotten. Additionally, the speaker of the poem acknowledges the profound anguish of unremarkable lads who will not turn against them with a midnight cry. While the speaker conveys much anguish in their laments over their past lover birds, the speaker deduces that the love encounters between them and their lovers involved a large number of unmemorable males, as indicated by their inability to satisfy the speaker’s romantic demands (Mannion, 2020). Despite each romantic partner’s insignificance, the poem’s character references to pleasant summers and the lights that projected them. As a result, the persona experiences the universal affection and camaraderie that every being requires. Additionally, the persona accepts that they are ultimately unmemorable and unremarkable despite their former love experiences, with sufficiently lost feelings to displace an […]