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Monday, October 25, 2010

On Reading Poems to a Senior Class At South High - DC Berry

       Poetry is one of those subjects that most students stay as far away as possible from because it seems too deep and unrelateable to a young person's age and life. It's poems like these and with this kind of structure that draws students into reading poetry and even liking it. Berry's style is very conversational and loose, which makes the reader listen and feel comfortable. He uses modern day language, but still with symbolism and description to pull the reader in and create mental images.
       When he says "I noticed them sitting there as orderly as frozen fish in a package" it makes me think about my psychology class, and Mrs Langford, and how society (and the school system) teaches us to be and learn in a certain way, which is usually all the same. As the the poem reader starts to read the poetry to the class he is even surprised that it affects them until the "water" reaches his own ears. Just as they are starting to take it all in and understand and discuss the bell rang, "puncturing a hole in the door where we all leaked out." For me, there was a very vivid visual of a gymnasium where a guest speaker was reading poetry and the students were in there with the expectation that it was just a waste of time, but as he started to read to them, the room started filling up as they all started to discuss an get excited. Then, just like most of our assemblies, they forgot about it and moved on to their next class to focus on something else.
          Although this poem wasn't too hard to interpret, I still really liked the message and writing style.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Aquainted with the Night- Robert Frost

       The theme of night that runs throughout the poem is a symbol for loneliness and depression from something he may have done in the past or something he feels has ruined his life and left him feeling that it's meaningless. That dark mental image of night symbolizes the darkness and depression happening in his own life. He says he has, "outwalked the furthest city light," meaning that he is far beyond any hope for happiness or the belonging to a happy life. The light symbolizing all these ideas and is a huge contrast to all the darkness in the rest of the poem. The man has been wandering endlessly and feels that as he passes through these towns at night that nobody can understand what he is going through and not even the watchmen because he drops his eyes as he walks by. Maybe he feels like the people know what wrong he did or the reason behind why  he is depressed and doesn't want to face them or try to explain himself. It really shows his separation from the world when he says, "when far away an interrupted cry came over houses from another street, but not to call me back or say good-by." That shows that little bit of hope that maybe someone was calling for him or caring to understand him, but then realizes they are calling for another reason; leaving him in the darkness again. People who are depressed also usually lose track of time or resent time as he talks about the "luminary clock." He feels like he's just going through the motions of life and time just keeps continuing and hanging over his head in the sky, while he's wishing it would either get better or stop.
       I actually did really like the style and symbolism in this poem though. There is a steady rhythm throughout and repetition with the very first and last line which makes it seem like an endless cycle that this man is in. I loved the descriptions the author gave that created an image and connection to what was going on.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

My Fear -Lawrence Raab

      Although this poem was pretty straight forward and didn't take too much thinking to decipher it, I still thought it was interesting and written well. I liked that the author personified the idea of fear as a person, "Mr.Fear." I thought of a dark and mysterious person, kind of cliche for the grim reaper idea. I thought the 3rd stanza was interesting when he says: "Maybe he smiles when he finds the right one. Maybe he's sorry." Usually you picture the grim reaper being ready and willing to do his job, not hesitating and hoping he doesn't have to inflict that kind of pain. It reminds me of those dreams where they're so intense and scary, yet you still know it's a dream but it wakes you up eventually and stays with you. Each one of these he adds to the "list that keeps getting longer."
       I thought it was interesting that the title was singular, "My Fear," instead of the multiple fears that he talks about in the poem. I think this is because his fear is the fear of fears... if that makes sense. Mr.Fear is who he fears which includes all the other fears that he inflicts upon him.


Word Count: 164

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Little Apocalypse

         This whole poem is personifying (if that's a word...?) the life of the smaller things that we don't really notice, and then making their lives and world just as important as ours and even able to relate to. I thought it was interesting that the title and many things throughout the poem contradict each other. The most widely known definition for apocalypse is the end of the world- originating from Christianity- so obviously that's not a "little" event.This could signify that these worlds are destroyed on a daily basis by humans, the fire and clear-out could be referring to human's "bug bombs" and sprays. It's little because it's so insignificant as us, but still an apocalypse to those species. The author also says that butterflies are out on patrol, which butterflies are usually known for being a delicate non-harmful insect, and many more examples. I was confused by the last line, but when I looked up the four horses of the apocalypse I found out it was in the bible, which really pulled the poem together and I made sense of it all. The four horses are signifying conquest, war, famine, and death. Each of the butterfly, ant, dung beetle, and robin are referring to one of the horses. Without this background knowledge I didn't really find this poem that interesting, but after piecing it all together I really enjoyed it!