"The Elder" painting by Pieter Brueghel, poems by W. H Auden and William Carlos Williams

THE PAINTING COMES TO LIFE!
This was wonderful. To see a painting on a computer and then practically see the painting come to life within the words of the poets. Each poet had a different approach to how they interpret and therefore see the poem, yet each poet met my imagination. I read the poems first, then read them again....then read them again. Finally, I read them out loud. Then, I went to see the painting and voile...triumph of the language carnival of poetry. I think that now I will always associate the poems with the painting. I wonder how many other poems expand a 2-D artwork? To see the possibilities and the stealth at which these "word artists" put to pen a stroke of paint. Just marvelous. The theme is there, the rhythm now floats from the painting as the words are read, and the moral of the story is forever burnished in my memory, well, at least until Alzheimer's sets in.
Williams' "Landscape With The Fall of Icarus" cites the farmer in the painting and ends his poem with Icarus in the water. Surely the Icarus story was first relayed by words and/or by storytelling and the poet uses his "tools" of words to set the painting into language.
Auden in "Musee des Beaux Arts" quite differently describes the scene in the painting, yet his musings about life's anecdotes and how life almost ignores the tragedy of Icarus' fate...another "language fest" for the mind to devour, with the images coming forth in our minds and seeing the painting and "hearing" the story of Icarus in our heads as we read the poem.
All are masterful creations.

In-Class Discussion, 12 April 2007 Poetry

Evaluating Poetry
beyond the likes and dislikes...
"not all poems are created equally"
poems with a capital "P"!!
Comments from the class about high-quality poetry:
deeper meaning
heart
surprises
new ideas/outside the box
not clearly spelled out
language
descriptive
metaphor
Alliteration/Assonance
details
structure
unforced rhyme
flow
Then, off to groups for poem analysis...
"Ode to the Watermelon"--- CAPITAL "P", a Pulitzer-prize winning poet!Contemporary
"ode to the Oaken Bucket"--- small "p", popular in its time, but didn't stand up
"Digging"---CAPITAL "P"
"The Old Rocking Chair"--- small "p"
"Ode to the West Wind"---CAPITAL "P"
"Where the Sidewalk Ends"---CAPITAL "P", Shel Silverstein, a contemporary poet(capital might be up for debate!)

Journal Entry for "Smorgasbord of Poetry"

What is GOOD poetry?
Marianne Moore shares that when one reads a poem, one discovers the genuine quality of it. That your hair can rise and that though we may not always understand "why", that it is beautiful beyond the basic education one acquires or the job one does. Words provide "imaginary gardens...", and the raw quality of poetry is what attracts one to it.
Archibald MacLeish suggests in his poem that a poem should be "palpable" and almost edible. That the words disappear within the construction of the poem. Also, that a poem should be timeless, yet all the "rules" of poetry should not be the measuring system for what is "good" or what is "poetry". A poem just is.
John Keats suggests in his poem that if words "constrain" one while writing poetry, then let the words be woven into a pattern, complete and strong. To listen to what we write and control the sounds and rhythm to reach true poetic achievement.
Emily Dickinson dwells in "possibility" that poetry is full of opportunity to create a vision beyond the world as we know it.That she will try to "gather paradise" in her narrow hands using words with double meanings and full of multiple interpretations.
last, but not least!: Alexander Pope eloquently writes that poems are beyond judgement, right or wrong. That expected rhyming is bland and that a thoughtful twist of words with unexpected delights stimulates the mind and the soul. That "sweetness" is formed when the art if writing is employed...a gentle blow to make a point with effortless rhythm and thundering surprises of delight.

Well, if these poets can make such beautiful assertions about their craft with such wonderful descriptions...THEY are good poets and I certainly can see why they are all masters in their own right for tooling the language to create such thought-provoking works. They do seem quite humorous, too.

In-Class Discussion, April 10, 2007 POETRY...sounds and language/reviewing quiz from chapter 11

AMBIGUITY....."nice" what can "nice" mean....good, or even "nice, but not too attractive"
Precision...few words to pinpoint an idea...choosing the particular word that the poem needs at that place.
Denotation "stone"...may equal "death", with an underlying meaning...
"My Papa's Waltz", by Theodore Roethke
Literal meaning...father dancing with his son on the way to bed
Underlying meaning...drunken father barely sober enough to carry son or treat him gently....simile: "hung on like death"...
+++ an ambiguous poem....maybe just a fond childhood memory or a mildly abusive dad saying goodnight...?
The extended metaphor of "23rd Psalm" is how shepherd is used to mean "Jesus/God"
Rhythm and Meter: the flow, the "beat",
Onomatopoeia: a word that almost describes how something sounds..."buzz", "splash", & "pop"
Alliteration: similar sounds in consonants, "wild nights-wild nights!
were I with thee
wild nights should be
our luxury

Assonance: similar sounds in vowels same sentence as above...but notice the vowels..."ee"..and "Y"

Chapter 12, THE SOUNDS OF POETRY

Poems sounds are full of meanings, a poet chooses words for meaning as well as sound.
"Poetry is a vocal art", and it is hard to experience a poem unless you hear it.
"YOU MUST READ ALOUD"
"Dirge", a chant, a lament, hymn..requiem
Robert Frost said..."a poem must reach: the eye, the ear, and what we may call the heart..."
Rhythm, onomatopoeia...a copy, a mirror image, repetition, a reproduction.
A poet uses open vowels, expletives, monosyllabic words, predictable rhymes, long/slow lines....
The effects of a passage come from an interaction of many strategies perhaps.
Manipulate sound to control the rhythm.
Iambic Pentameter: when lines are written in a meter of five iambic feet.
"The baseball game was televised at nine"
"Trochee-an accented syllable followed by an unstressed one
Anapest-two unaccented syllables followed by a stressed one
dactyl-an accented syllable followed by two stresses ones
Spondee-a pair of accented syllables
Caesura-a short pause often signaled by a mark of punctuation such as a comma.
Iambic-one unstressed syllable followed by a stresses syllable
One can scan a poem to sort out its metrical pattern.
FREE VERSE- a poem which expresses without any governing rules of pattern or stresses.
"The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe
Wow...long, and beautiful. tongue-tied as I tried to read it after a day of work. Plus, trying to read it aloud as my son watched TV, quite a bad idea! But, I did see an artist work of this poem set in the shape of a raven...it was beautiful. And, Poe is/was a genius with prose and balance...a cool expression of words that seem to take a mind to air and prick the ear to beauty. After reading these wonderful creations, I take pause at even trying to write on my own!

"And the silkin sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain"
Wahoo...what a gift

"Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken"

"And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor"

This poem is so sad and yet so beautiful, I wish I could hear someone read it right now.

In-Class Notes from "Metaphor" Discussion

METAPHORS are the foundation of poetry...

Technical Writing Poetry
BARGE Jet Ski
POTATOES/RICE/BREAD Ice Cream
WORKHORSE Unicorn

No frills, no connotations, etc. for tech writing...and Poetry is the fluff...the beauty, the suggestion...

Guard Dog Lap Dog
Horse Trailer Carriage
Skim Milk Whip Cream

Sometimes when you discuss metaphors, you think of the vehicle(the word you use) and the tenor (what you want to describe with embellishment)Vehicle Tenor
Rose A beautiful girl
Noah's ark/unicorn beauty of life/things
Reviewed in class discussion:
"Marks" by Linda Pastan
the family enlists a grading scale for a mom's chores, then she uses the same system of words and "drops out"
"The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" by Francis William Bourdillon

Look for precise language, less is more,
timing, separation of words, sentences, accent to certain words, "new words", capitalization, spacing, speed, symbolism, controlling metaphors, allusions,

Poetry, Chapter 11 and reading from Debra Marquart

LANGUAGE
Precision and Ambiguity
Particular meanings and implications of individual words are what drives poetry. Using only "essential words," carefully placed and used to just barely communicate in the most "elemental signs" to tell a concentrated story with the least possible words. The word choice of the poet, the "diction" determines the "meaning and every effect the poem produces."
Sometimes, the use of a single word can create "multiple meanings or shiftiness."
"Dramatic irony": an "incongruity between what we expect to happen and what actually dies happen."
Furthermore, when a word "denotes" a meaning it goes beyond a simple dictionary description to what other meanings a specific word can mean. I.e. "Terminal"...an airport station...or a boundary, or a terminus, an extremity...and/or something that is limited, a junction, a place where a connection may be made.
Words have a "personal side" that carry "emotions and shades of suggestion."
"Connotations": suggestions of emotional coloration that imply one's attitude and invite a similar one from the reader.
"Word order": the way the words are put together, using rhyme and meter to construct sentences that allow subtlety and force of a word to create a particular emphasis.
Visual applications of words may "represent" can help the reader of poem see a specific image that lies within the poet's mind. An artist uses paint and canvas to create a visual idea...and a poet uses words to express a visual experience.
"Metaphor": when a comparison is implicit, with something described as if it were something else.I.e. "her lap was a big comfy couch.."
"Simile": when a comparison is explicit,when one thing is compared directly to something else.I.e. "his eyes were as blue as the sky."
The above are figures of speech, and figurative language uses words to communicate and insist upon the reader to see in their mind what the poet is imagining.
"Extended metaphors" are metaphors which extend over a long section of a poem.
"Controlling metaphors" are metaphors which are present for the entirety of the poem.
"Symbol" use of a word that gets "beyond what words signify and makes larger claims about meanings in the verbal world." A word that stands for something else. I.e. flag, a rose, a logo, a trademark.
"Symbolic poem" is when the symbol becomes the whole poem, written to not only use the symbol, but it becomes the symbol.
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?", by William Shakespeare
The title gives me a "heads up" that he is about to describe his love for another and compare it to a summer's day. And, then in the poem the poet makes statements about how much better his love is than summer, "thou art more lovely and more temperate." and "But thy eternal summer shall not fade" as if summer as a season comes to an end, yet his love's wonderful qualities shall always remain. And, wow...as long as this poem exists, so will his love and her fairness, "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee." So beautiful and short. Like it was a quick jot down of a poem while he sat a Starbucks drinking coffee and thinking about the one he loves. While the language denotes a more formal time and the tone of the poem is love, I think it is timeless because the way the figures of speech are used make it so easy for any reader to visualize a summer day in their own memory and then apply these good memories to how a man loved this woman and how he saw her as timeless and beyond the goodness of summer...forever. Is there a controlling metaphor of summer? And, the word order flows with his feelings and keeps the rhythm without needed the rhyme.
Excerpts from "From Sweetness", poems by Debra Marquart
"Older Sister"
I enjoyed most of her poems, and this one really struck a personal chord with me.
"Forever, she rides in front of me on the school bus,"...yes, even though the school bus may be a bus, it also symbolizes the sister's order through life...her sister will always be in front of her. "No sweaty back seats on her conscience, no cigarettes in her drawers"...as if her sister lived a "good girl" kind of life. The kind of life that makes it hard for a younger sister to live up to. The older sister word the right respectful clothes and always got a recipe right. Touche! How much we love our older sisters and yet how hard they can make it for us to meet the standards they set. The younger sister doesn't discuss what the older sister might be feeling inside, and how could she know? Maybe there is some fear for the older sister as she grows up, maybe tons of pressure to be a good role model and meet the requirements her parents expect. The older sister breaks through the barriers first, without the benefit of seeing someone else in the household do it first. And, the younger sister sees all this external accomplishment from her older sister and probably feel like "how can I live up to this or even exceed it?"
I loved the imagery the poet uses and the word order doesn't rely on rhyme, but wonderful concrete items to bring the reader into the world of what she sees of her older sister. I think the tone of the poem is love and sarcasm. The younger sister looks up to her sister, yet seems to be almost stacking a deck of all these qualities her older sister has and how "perfect" the older sister seems. Of course, the older sister has to have some skeletons, if only emotional or academic. Yet, the younger sister will always be younger and the older sister will always hold that image in the younger sister's mind of riding in front on the school bus of life.