A Critical Analysis Of Reflection In The Poetry Analysis Unit

Discuss how your investigation of the generic conventions of poetry has influenced your understanding of at least one poem that you have studied in this unit.

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

In this essay I am going to compare and contrast ‘When we two parted’ a poem of George Gordon, Lord Byron’s written in 1815 and Letitia Elizabeth Landon’s ‘Love’s last lesson’ written in c1838, both poets are British and of the romantic period.

A poet hopes that people would appreciate their poem in a way that it is not mistreating the work’s value. In the poem “Introduction to poetry” Billy Collins describes his desires on how students should connect with poems. Collins states that students try to force out meanings out of poems instead of diving in to understand its true nature. The author creates a sensitive yet aggressive tone to convey two ways of poetry appreciation through his use of diction, personification and metaphor.

Though out this class I learned a lot, I never really read much poetry and did not realize how much meaning poems can have. I am glad that we read so many different types and styles of poems and books. It really helped me get a well rounded understanding of poetry. My favorite unit was the collection unit. The other poems we read taught me a lot about the other topics we touched on as well. Before this class I never really gave poetry much thought, this class opened up my eyes to how important poetry really is.

Many authors use symbolism to help their readers grasp the concepts they are trying to convey. They take concrete items or ideas to represent something abstract.

The Vacuum by Howard Nemerov talks about a widower and his late wife, and how he uses the vacuum as a symbol for her death. The poem expresses deep sorrow and sadness that derive from the loneliness of the speaker, after his other half’s passing away. Nemerov attempts to take his readers on a grief-stricken journey, by strategically employing figurative language (mainly personification, metaphor, simile, and alliteration), fractured rhyme schemes and turns in stanza breaks in the poem.

Using symbolism can take your story to a whole new level by showing us how each character feels in additional it can make a person or even an objects stand out a whole lot more. In Eudora Welty they used symbolism in many different ways that you can even notice them right away.

When I look up the meaning of metaphors in Webster it says "a figure of speech in which a work for one idea or thing is used in place of another to suggest a likeness between them." The Hours by Michael Cunningham is enriched with many complex metaphors. While intertwining three different woman's lives, Cunningham uses a wide range of metaphors to help mean something in one story and tie into the next woman's story. Using deconstructive interpretation to investigate these strategically placed metaphors can be difficult and exciting, yet challenging.

1) Extra Credit: 15 points on poetry analysis. It helps students to develop skills, such as: to recognize the writers' voice, presence, writing skill and to discover their unique voices

Adrienne Rich and Paulo Freire have common themes on transformation and society. Both talk about the transforming of society and the relationships between people in their writing. Freire talked about the way teachers teach the students with no contradiction, as they sit there waiting to be filled with information. Rich uses a similar theory in her essay, "When We Dead Awaken," where she addresses society and the way they have been oppressed. While the two have similar theories, they have much different ways of expressing their argument. Freire used an argumental style of writing to address that change is needed in society, while Rich used poems as a way for the reader to understand her argument. Rich expresses feelings, emotions,

Another thing that makes poetry beautiful is the symbolism. They are used to show the importance of an object or

What differentiates poem from other works of writing? What makes you realize that what you read is a poem but not a short story? Bearing in mind that the answer might differ from person to person, I believe that the crucial difference is that the underlying message is generally not obvious in the poem, and it forces the readers to think about it for a while to understand its deeper meaning. The fact that the message is not apparent in the poem, is often attributed to the usage of metaphors in the poetry. According to Oxford Dictionary, metaphors are the “figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable”. Even though they are used for different reasons

“I like my baby hair with baby hairs and afros. I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils. But no. Our black boys, nah men today, they just don’t know which way to go…” The diversity of language itself. Beauty. A way of expressing not only yourself but also others around you. Using rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, art and etc. Being a poet can be one of the most eye opening things in a person’s life. In my life for example… There was a point in my life when I didn’t know what my place in the world was and i used poetry to open up and pour out my feelings and emotions in a way that I knew if I shared it out, that people could possibly relate. Telling your stories through the language of poetry itself is a beautiful experience to be awaken to.

The author Paul Laurence Dunbar wants the readers to acknowledge how he uses concrete and abstract in his poem called "Life". Throughout his poem he uses concrete to make us feel how sadness takes over happiness most of the time, the other strategy the author uses is abstract he uses it in a deep matter he makes you think something that isn't normal that you can't visualize, he uses it a lot but also combines it with concrete as well. This connects with something about my personal point of view so far because I also feel that I can’t enjoy life as much as I would want but there's always another bad side and it's the problems that make you fall in depression and other stuff that has to do with sadness. In the poem "Life" the writer expresses