Poetry Portfolio Analysis

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.

As the semester comes to a close, it is always interesting to look back and reflect on the events and opportunities my English class has given me throughout my first semester as a whole. At the beginning of this semester it was evident that I was feeling uncomfortable due to the adjustment that I was going through as a student moving to college. It was very difficult expressing myself through my writing since I was nervous about good impressions and my good grade. While this class was one of the most difficult courses that I have taken this far, it has become quite evident to me that I have grown a substantial amount as a writer and as a person; Especially, when it came to explaining my ideas, writing academic essays, and making arguments.

I did not receive any answer from your instructor requestin a feedback of your academic performnce inthis class. Thus, I encurage you to meet with your instrutor when you come back from your break. You need to handle a Feedback Request Form to be completed by your instructor. You need to know you current grade in this class.

In this portfolio, I have included a variety of pieces that displays my strengths and weaknesses in my work. As I come to the end of the semester and reflect on my work in your English 112 class, I can see how I improved as a writer. English 112 has taught me many things and has helped me develop more skills as a reader. I have completed several assignments this semester such as readings, journals, multiple essays, and an oral presentation. My portfolio includes “All in the Family”, “Trapped Treasures”, “A Student Is More Than a Number”, a chosen revision of “Trapped Treasures”, my journals reflection, my personal essay reflections, my annotated bibliography, and lastly my self-assessment sheet.

During the act of describing a situation, like the base runners in a baseball game, it is importuned to be clear and concise. In the “Who’s On First” clip this was not the case. The main issue is the three base runners all have names that have other meanings in the English language. Who, What, and I DONT KNOW can all be interpreted in a different way rather than names. If Costello started his story with “Here are the guys name, Who, What, and I DON’T KNOW” and then told Abbott the order of the base runners there would be no confusion. Being clear at the beginning with the names would be the best option for situations such as this, but then again it wouldn’t have been funning.

Poetry can be divided up into different forms, more easily expressing an author’s emotions and intent with their poetry. For analyzing purposes I chose the poems Self-Help by Michael Ryan, Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali, Psalm 150 by Jericho Brown, and Emergency by Michael Dylan Welch.

A poem is a piece of writing that has the characteristics of a speech and a song. Poems awaken strong emotions because of its magnificence. Alice Walker in “Without Commercials” discusses some of the ways and reasons people try to change the way they look. “Without Commercials” pinpoints at the idea of how advertisers suggest that a new pair of jeans will make one look more popular or that a new hair color will make one more stylish. “Same Song” by Pat Mora is about how a mom’s two kids either wake up early in the morning or late at night, trying to change their appearance.

As a means to express myself, I turn to spoken word, which is defined as performance poetry. I have been passionate about creative writing and performing ever since I was in elementary school, but I had not realized that I could put the two together until my freshman year of high school when I discovered the work of Shane Koyczan. From there, my interest developed, but I did not audition for Walnut High School’s Spoken Word Team until my junior year. My involvement with the team motivated me to write more as well as share my work with others during events such as Open Mic Night. Poetry is an art form that I comfortably use as an emotional outlet, and I write poems about what is currently affecting me and topics I want to explore, hoping to

Poem Evaluation Poem 1 I chose the first poem because I liked how it kept the reader interested and it explains the daily life of a blacksmith so well. I like how the poem sets the scene and tone for the following poems. The poem is about what a blacksmith does in his day to day life, it also shows how he is strong and works hard. It tells of how he works for his family and how he takes whatever kind of work is needed. It shows how he is an honest man just working his trade.

“Whoso List To Hunt” is a Petrarchan sonnet by Thomas Wyatt, which is known as an Italian sonnet, consisting of an octave and a sestet. This sonnet revolves around the themes of unrequited love, sexism, complexity, obsession and passion. Wyatt uses a collection of poetic techniques within the sonnet in order to display the power and desire the man has for the woman.

This first semester at the University of Akron has flown by. I learned many new writing concepts that helped me become a better writer. English composition was a required class that I had to take in order to get my degree. Although this class was required I still wanted to take this class to become more knowledgeable about writing. Coming into English Composition I was worried about all of the papers and the workload that I would have to complete. I knew that I was going to have to write a lot more than I previously had in highschool, but I was unsure of just how much. The works that I decided to include in my portfolio comprise of my Literacy Narrative, Image Analysis Paper, and essay titled Mayas Hardships based on Maya’s experiences in I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. I selected these works because I felt that they are the ones that require the most improvement to them. The papers i've chosen show how far I’ve came In English Composition.

Trying to write a regular poem is hard, even when the poem is the traditional and cheesy ones that professors make students do at preschool, but writing a poem like Homer did on his masterpiece Iliad is even harder. The three main things that is analyzed by Homers book is that to do his extended simile on his poem he first establishes what event is occurring and he will be talking about on his next lines, when the regular poem doesn’t need to establish that on the first moment. The second is giving extreme detail on describing the situations that happen on the poem and add some drama to the main moments of the poem. At the end he needs to remind those who are reading the book or listening back in the day about what he was talking about. On the First Time it is described a memory, where the author describes the first time he ever went to a soccer game in his life. I also decided to use this strategy on the overall poem, because it establishes the event that is occurring in the text on the first few lines, adds as much detail as possible on the situations happening on the event and adds a bit of drama on situations that could be simply explained, so that gives a sense of Homeric style that is well used by him on his extended simile.

In my preparation for this essay I thought that there was going to be very little that I would learn about the elements of poetry. This is not because I am an expert and have nothing new to learn, but rather the opposite. I have never really spent the time to break down and appreciate poetry. One of the reasons I think that I haven’t spent the time on poetry is due to my reading habits. I usually read to gather information and poetry is on the other end of the spectrum. Fredrick Gruber sums this up, “Poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.” (Gruber) Having said all of this though, I did see a couple of things that I could apply to my own writing. I will first start off with some elements of poetry that I

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.