Notes on Poetry

Take a minute to imagine “Men looking like they had been/attacked repeatedly by a succession /of wild animals,” “never/ ending blasted field of corpses,” and “throats half gone, /eyes bleeding, raw meat heaped/ in piles.” These are the vividly, grotesque images Edward Mayes describes to readers in his poem, “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976.” Before even reading the poem, the title gave me a preconceived idea of what the poem might be about. “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976” describes what an extreme version of what I expected the poem to be about. The images I

“’ But this is merely a negative definition of the value of education’” (23-24). Mark Halliday wrote “The Value of Education” from a first person standpoint. The introduction and the use of “I” demonstrates the poem is about the speaker. Likewise, the speaker uses imagery, self-recognition, and his own personal thoughts throughout the poem. He goes on throughout the poem stating external confrontations he is not doing because he is in the library receiving an education and reading books. With this in mind, the speaker goes on to convey images in your head to show a realization of things he could be doing if he were not in the library getting an education.

My three personal favorite poems are To a Mouse, Dover Beach, and To an Athlete Dying Young. These are all very strong poems and have a way deeper meaning to them, then expected. In to a mouse the message in that is the plow will jack you but you can always start over, the message in dover beach is that things may appear good but really there's a deeper meaning, and finally the last message in To an Athlete Dying Young is that bad things can happen to you at any age or any time.

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

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.

Reflections Within is a non-traditional stanzaic poem made up of five stanzas containing thirty-four lines that do not form a specific metrical pattern. Rather it is supported by its thematic structure. Each of the five stanzas vary in the amount of lines that each contain. The first stanza is a sestet containing six lines. The same can be observed of the second stanza. The third stanza contains eight lines or an octave. Stanzas four and five are oddly in that their number of lines which are five and nine.

There are many different structures of poetry. Sonnets, ballads, and free verses are just a few of those structures. A Couple of my favorite types of music genres are rap and hip hop. I found it really relatable when Module 1 of unit 3 used rap and hip hop as an

If one is aiming to write a poem it is useful to know by detail the basic elements of poetry to understand and control better what and how to say things, they are: voice, stanza, sound patterns, figures of speech and the poetic forms.

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.

Poetry is a reduced dialect that communicates complex emotions. To comprehend the numerous implications of a ballad, perusers must analyze its words and expressing from the points of view of beat, sound, pictures, clear importance, and suggested meaning. Perusers then need to sort out reactions to the verse into a consistent, point-by-point clarification. Poetry utilizes structures and traditions to propose differential translation to words, or to summon emotive reactions. Gadgets, for example, sound similarity, similar sounding word usage, likeness in sound and cadence are at times used to accomplish musical or incantatory impacts.

Poetry is a varied art form. Poetry is expression with words, using aesthetics and definition. Word choice in poetry is the single most important thing. Devices such as assonance, alliteration and rhythm work in a poem to convey a certain image or to facilitate understanding. Similes and metaphors can take two unlike objects, such as a potato and cinderblock, and if done the correct way use them to describe how Abraham Lincoln dealt with scoundrels. Poetry is beautiful. One of the best genres in poetry, let alone a great literary movement is Romanticism or the post-enlightenment Romantics.

When you hear the word “art,” the first thing that pops into your head is probably some sort of painting or sculpture. It would be unlikely that you would think of black words on a white page. I too, initially, think of some colorful masterpiece. However, over time, I have learned that those same feelings and colors can be replicated in my mind without the use of paint brush strokes and different color values, rather—with words. I always knew that poetry was an art form. Yet, through some further understanding of the components and elements that make up those lines and stanzas, my appreciation for poetry expanded from a two dimensional perspective to a new world that surrounds every inch of my brain. I am now able to identify different characteristics that help me navigate what I prefer in poetry so that I can seek out those works of art. My preference for poetry remained about the same throughout this course. However, I do link my deepened appreciation for poetry with what I learned.

Many critics of poetry are of the opinion to approach the poems or works of an author ignoring or disregarding their biographical features , as if did not influence at all on the design and creation of his poems . While it is true that some sepsis can help when it comes to not fall into false interpretations or twisted and complicated analogies , which amounts to combine meanings of certain verses to personal circumstances experienced by its author, it is no less true that a good biographical knowledge of vital events of the authors can greatly help clear this or that dark side that we find in a poem or a work, the reasons why the title of one form or another or even the way they were ordered poems.

To be able to explain the aspects of poetry to you all, I thought I would break the mini lesson down into two parts. It will help you understand the differences between a poem and a sonnet, and will make it easier to absorb all of the components involved.

Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.