Directions: I have been reading you a poem from Billy Collins' Poetry 180: Poem of the Day collection. Your task? I would like you to peruse his website and read some poetry. Choose a poem you feel a special connection to. Cut and paste the poem into your post and write a two paragraph response. The first paragraph will be about the technical aspects. How does the poem work? Use your knowledge of literary devices. In the second paragraph, explain how the poem captured the feelings of his/her/their subject. What experiences can you apply? If you do not finish in class, please complete this assignment for homework.
Poem of the Day Website (See List of 180 Poems)
Poetry Literary Devices (There are links to Mr. Murry's cool website for more info)
ALLITERATION - is the repetition of initial consonant sounds.
ALLUSION - is a direct or indirect reference to a familiar figure, place or event from history, literature, mythology or the Bible.
APOSTROPHE - a figure of speech in which a person not present is addressed.
ASSONANCE - is a close repetition of similar vowel sounds, usually in stressed syllables.
ATMOSPHERE / MOOD - is the prevailing feeling that is created in a story or poem.
CACOPHONY - Harsh sounds introduced for poetic effect - sometimes words that are difficult to pronounce.
CLICHE - an overused expression that has lost its intended force or novelty.
CONNOTATION - the emotional suggestions attached to words beyond their strict definitions.
CONSONANCE - the close repetition of identical consonant sounds before and after different vowels.
CONTRAST - the comparison or juxtaposition of things that are different
DENOTATION - the dictionary meaning of words.
DISSONANCE - the juxtaposition of harsh jarring sounds in one or more lines.
EUPHONY - agreeable sounds that are easy to articulate.
EXTENDED METAPHOR - an implied comparison between two things which are essentially not alike. These points of comparison are continued throughout the selection.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - Language used in such a way as to force words out of their literal meanings by emphasizing their connotations to bring new insight and feeling to the subject.
HYPERBOLE - an exaggeration in the service of truth - an overstatement.
IDIOM - is a term or phrase that cannot be understood by a literal translation, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is understood through common use.
IMAGERY - is the representation through language of sense experience. The image most often suggests a mental picture, but an image may also represent a sound, smell, taste or tactile experience.
IRONY - is a literary device which reveals concealed or contradictory meanings.
JARGON - language peculiar to a particular trade, profession or group.
JUXTAPOSITION - is the overlapping or mixing of opposite or different situations, characters, settings, moods, or points of view in order to clarify meaning, purpose, or character, or to heighten certain moods, especially humour, horror, and suspense. also Contrast
LITERAL LANGUAGE - what is said is based in reality without the comparisons used in figurative language.
LITOTES - a form of understatement in which something is said by denying the opposite.
METAPHOR - a comparison between two things which are essentially dissimilar. The comparison is implied rather than directly stated.
METER - any regular pattern of rhythm based on stressed and unstressed syllables.
METONYMY - use of a closely related idea for the idea itself.
MOOD - see atmosphere
ONOMATOPOEIA - the use of words which sound like what they mean.
OXYMORON - two words placed close together which are contradictory, yet have truth in them.
PARADOX - a statement in which there is an apparent contradiction which is actually true.
PERSONIFICATION - giving human attributes to an animal, object or idea.
RHYME - words that sound alike
RHYME SCHEME - any pattern of rhymes in poetry. Each new sound is assigned the next letter in the alphabet.
RHYTHM - a series of stressed or accented syllables in a group of words, arranged so that the reader expects a similar series to follow.
SIMILE - a comparison between two things which are essentially dissimilar. The comparison is directly stated through words such as like, as, than or resembles.
SPEAKER - the "voice" which seems to be telling the poem. Not the same as the poet; this is like a narrator.
SYMBOL - a symbol has two levels of meaning, a literal level and a figurative level. Characters, objects, events and settings can all be symbolic in that they represent something else beyond themselves.
SYNEDOCHE - the use of a part for the whole idea.
THEME - is the central idea of the story, usually implied rather than directly stated. It is the writer's idea abut life and can be implied or directly stated through the voice of the speaker. It should not be confused with moral or plot.
TONE - is the poet's attitude toward his/her subject or readers. it is similar to tone of voice but should not be confused with mood or atmosphere. An author's tone might be sarcastic, sincere, humourous.
TROPE - a figure of speech in which a word is used outside its literal meaning. Simile and metaphor are the two most common tropes.
UNDERSTATEMENT - this is saying less than what you mean in the service of truth.
VOICE - the creating and artistic intelligence that we recognize behind any speaker.
Robbie Mahlebjian
ReplyDeleteWalking Home
Everything dies, I said. How had that started?
A tree? The winter? Not me, she said.
And I said, Oh yeah? And she said, I’m reincarnating.
Ha, she said, See you in a few thousand years!
Why years, I wondered, why not minutes? Days?
She found that so funny—Ha Ha—doubled over—
Years, she said, confidently.
I think you and I have known each other a few lifetimes, I said.
She said, I have never before been a soul on this earth.
(It was cold. We were hungry.) Next time, you be the mother, I said.
No way, Jose, she said, as we turned the last windy corner.
—Marie Howe
In the poem Walking Home the poet used atmosphere to keep the mood gloomy and you confused. The poet used illusion to put a picture in your head about the topic of time and how when you look back at your life you think it was shorter than it actually was. When reading the poem it talks about time and memories which in my opinion is closely related ideas or a metonymy.
In the poem I think the main topic is about time and memories. This relates to some experiences that I had because one time I was at a sleep away camp and I was having so much fun but in a blink of an eye it was over. One time in my life my aunt died and I was mourning for her and it felt like a year.
Michael DiCenzo
ReplyDeleteDearest, note how these two are alike:
This harpsicord pavane by Purcell
And the racer's twelve-speed bike.
The machinery of grace is always simple.
This chrome trapezoid, one wheel connected
To another of concentric gears,
Which Ptolemy dreamt of and Schwinn perfected,
Is gone. The cyclist, not the cycle, steers.
And in the playing, Purcell's chords are played away.
So this talk, or touch if I were there,
Should work its effortless gadgetry of love,
Like Dante's heaven, and melt into the air.
If it doesn't, of course, I've fallen. So much is chance,
So much agility, desire, and feverish care,
As bicyclists and harpsicordists prove
Who only by moving can balance,
Only by balancing move.
The poem is about a race bike or maybe just a bike. The poem mostly describes the bike and how many gears it has or how it looks. The mood of the poem seems to be happy and graceful at times. It has alliteration and apostrophe because they only talk about the bike. I think the poem has jargon because in this quote he talks about the gears of the bike and I don't know what part of the bike that is“To another of concentric gears”.
This poem connects to me because I like machines like cars and bikes. I like to ride bikes and I'm pretty good at riding bikes. I like the way the machines operate and I also like the way he describes the poem.
Celia Hoffman
ReplyDeleteFor My Daughter
When I die choose a star
and name it after me
that you may know
I have not abandoned
or forgotten you.
You were such a star to me,
following you through birth
and childhood, my hand
in your hand.
When I die
choose a star and name it
after me so that I may shine
down on you, until you join
me in darkness and silence
together.
—David Ignatow
I choose the poem For My Daughter. The mood or atmosphere of this poem is love and caring for a loved one even after death. There are metaphors in this poem, one being when the author says “you were such a star to me.” There is also a lot of imagery, “...so that I may shine down on you, until you join me in the darkness,” that plants the image of how the author will shine down on his daughter, until she joins him. There is personification when the author talks about himself as a star, “when I die choose a star and name it after me that you may know I have not abandoned you.” There is a speaker in this story, who cares about his daughter very much.
I think that this poem is very touching and pays tribute to a beautiful relationship between a father and his daughter. I think the author really shows how much he cares about his daughter in this poem because of the metaphor he used to symbolize that he will be there for her even after death. He says that his star will always shine down on her and says that she was a star through childhood. I picked this poem because I have because my dad and I are also close and I like how this poem can apply to many family relationships, other than a father-daughter one.
Hannad Saad
ReplyDeleteTo Help the Monkey Cross the River,
which he must
cross, by swimming, for fruits and nuts,
to help him
I sit with my rifle on a platform
high in a tree, same side of the river
as the hungry monkey. How does this assist
him? When he swims for it
I look first upriver: predators move faster with
the current than against it.
If a crocodile is aimed from upriver to eat the monkey
and an anaconda from downriver burns
with the same ambition, I do
the math, algebra, angles, rate-of-monkey,
croc- and snake-speed, and if, if
it looks as though the anaconda or the croc
will reach the monkey
before he attains the river’s far bank,
I raise my rifle and fire
one, two, three, even four times into the river
just behind the monkey
to hurry him up a little.
Shoot the snake, the crocodile?
They’re just doing their jobs,
but the monkey, the monkey
has little hands like a child’s,
and the smart ones, in a cage, can be taught to smile.
—Thomas Lux
The connection I feel to the situation of the monkey and the hunter is sometimes you need a push to succeed sometimes you need to give a push to help someone. It's easier to accomplish goals with loved ones then by yourself. But with the snake, croc and river those are challenges in life that everyone will experience.
Suhani Karki
ReplyDeleteFor My Daughter
When I die choose a star
and name it after me
that you may know
I have not abandoned
or forgotten you.
You were such a star to me,
following you through birth
and childhood, my hand
in your hand.
When I die
choose a star and name it
after me so that I may shine
down on you, until you join
me in darkness and silence
together.
—David Ignatow
In this poem by David Ignatow called For My Daughter, there are no alliterations. There is an allusion in this poem which is that when you die you become stars, this concept is frequently thought of in movies and literature. In this poem, there is also an apostrophe because the parent is addressing his/her daughter but she is not present in the poem. I do not think there are any assonances in this poem, it is a compelling poem. The mood in this poem is very loving and sorrowful because the parent is talking about death to his/her daughter. This poem does not have any cacophony because the words are all easy to pronounce. The poem also does not have any cliches. There are no connotations in this poem or consonance. There are also no extended metaphors in this poem or imagery, and the tone of this poem is heartfelt and loving.
In this poem by David Ignatow called For My Daughter, it connected to me because its a poem that some kids and/or parents can relate too. When our parents die it may be very frightening and upsetting because our parents usually guided us through a lot as a kid ‘You were such a star to me, following you through birth and childhood, my hand, in your hand.”. Nevertheless, when our parents are no longer here, they would want us to know that they will always be here for us except in this story in the form of a star. For most people, death is an unsettling thing to talk about, but this story makes you reconsider what you think about death.
Jacob Moore
ReplyDeleteThe Moon
After writing poems all day,
I go off to see the moon in the pines.
Far in the woods I sit down against a pine.
The moon has her porches turned to face the light,
But the deep part of her house is in the darkness.
—Robert Bly
In the poem The Moon by robert Bly, there is atmosphere that makes the poem feel relaxing and calm because of the way it describes the moon. This poem also has an extended metaphor when comparing the moon to a house with a porch “The moon has her porches turned to face the light, But the deep part of her house is in the darkness”. Another thing this poem contains is imagery. Imagery is shown when the author goes and sits down on a pine tree you can picture the forest in the night time with the smell of pine. Lastly this poem has a mood because it feels very calm when it describes the forest in the night with the moon.
I feel like the poem captured the feelings of the author of being relaxed. I feel like these feelings are shown because the author describes how after a long day of writing poems he goes to the woods to rest on a pine tree and look up at the moon. I feel like I have a relationship with this poem specifically because the moon is actually very relaxing to me. Every night when i'm in my bed I face directly toward three windows that look out to my backyard. The windows are perfectly placed on the top of the tree line so some nights if I can't fall asleep right away I look at the moon perfectly placed above the trees. This is important to me because it is almost like my way of relaxing without anybody else around and it just feels very peaceful.
Xingyun Pan
ReplyDeleteTo a Daughter Leaving Home
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
—Linda Pastan
The sonnet has a sad and gratified mood. The author is sad because her daughter is leaving her. The author is gratified by her daughter’s progress and is surprised that her daughter gives her. “my own mouth rounding in surprise when you pulled ahead down the curved path of the park.” Most of the sonnet is written in literal language, except the last sentence uses the simile sentence which compares her daughter’s flapping hair to handkerchief which is waving at her to say goodbye. The words, “screaming with laughter” create sound for the poem and “my own mouth rounding in surprise when you pulled ahead down the curved path of the park” “the hair flapping behind you like a handkerchief waving goodbye” create images for the readers.
The author thinks of her daughter’s life by remembering she taught her to ride a bike when she was eight. She knows that there will always be some difficulties and she is always prepared to help her, “I kept waiting for the thud of your crash as I sprinted to catch up” and she also knows that her daughter will become more and more independent and she can control her life better just like she did with the bike. She feels proud and surprised every time her daughter gets better. She knows that she must let her go in the future someday, she will have a amazing life full of happiness and joy. At that time, she will stand behind her and watch her leaving, that is really hard for a mother
Yasmiin Ali
ReplyDeleteThe Dead
At night the dead come down to the river to drink.
They unburden themselves of their fears,
their worries for us. They take out the old photographs.
They pat the lines in our hands and tell our futures,
which are cracked and yellow.
Some dead find their way to our houses.
They go up to the attics.
They read the letters they sent us, insatiable
for signs of their love.
They tell each other stories.
They make so much noise
they wake us
as they did when we were children and they stayed up
drinking all night in the kitchen.
- Susan Mitchell
In this poem by Susan Mitchell, called The Dead had no alterations, allusions, or assonance. In this poem, there is an apostrophe because the dead is addressing the people in the house who sent them letters but they don't show up in the poem. The mood that I got out of this poem was resentment. This poem doesn’t have any cacophony because the words are easy to pronounce. The poem also doesn’t have any cliches, connotations, consonance, or extended metaphors. The imagery in this poem is a ghost hoping people will remember him/her.
The dead go back to their family and see what they missed and what they did wrong. They feel like they were treated unfairly and that they deserve to be alive. I chose this poem because it was interesting how the author described the way the dead feels. I’ve never experienced that feeling of death but I do know the feeling of resentment. When I was a kid I always thought that everyone hated me and I was the victim. Even though that wasn’t true, I did get a lot of timeouts because I was a naughty kid and didn't listen to my parents. So with that, I do feel for the dead feeling bad for themselves and thinking that they should be heard.
Shruthi Saravanan
ReplyDelete“Numbers” by Mary Cornish
I like the generosity of numbers.
The way, for example,
they are willing to count
anything or anyone:
two pickles, one door to the room,
eight dancers dressed as swans.
I like the domesticity of addition--
add two cups of milk and stir--
the sense of plenty: six plums
on the ground, three more
falling from the tree.
And multiplication's school
of fish times fish,
whose silver bodies breed
beneath the shadow
of a boat.
Even subtraction is never loss,
just addition somewhere else:
five sparrows take away two,
the two in someone else's
garden now.
There's an amplitude to long division,
as it opens Chinese take-out
box by paper box,
inside every folded cookie
a new fortune.
And I never fail to be surprised
by the gift of an odd remainder,
footloose at the end:
forty-seven divided by eleven equals four,
with three remaining.
Three boys beyond their mothers' call,
two Italians off to the sea,
one sock that isn't anywhere you look.
—Mary Cornish
In this poem, there isn’t any repetition of the same word but there is a lot of repetition of the main idea of math and different numbers that are shown at least once in every single stanza. Overall in this poem, there are seven stanzas in total. The atmosphere in this stays simple but looking into it with more depth you can see the slightly different emotions used when explaining the different parts of math “And I never fail to be surprised by the gift of an odd remainder”. The person feels satisfied and astonished of how all of the parts in math falls correctly into to place once you understand the concept of it thoroughly which now doesn’t surprise them due to the experience they’ve had with it. The poem doesn’t describe educationally on how to do it or what it even means but it describes it poetically, like how one would think of it more than mathematically, outside the box.
The reason why I chose this poem was because while I was reading this I automatically understood the feeling, emotion, and ideas the person was talking about. Throughout all my life math has always been my hardest subject but it was also very interestingly fun at times too. While reading this poem the person did mention how it was confusing and interesting which made me relate to this a lot. They describe the simplicity and the complication of math when it’s thought about. How somethings fit for no reason while others don’t fit for a reason. So I felt very connected to the main reason of this poem and the idea this brings out for that one of a kind subject.
Fight
ReplyDeleteThat is the difference between me and you.
You pack an umbrella, #30 sun goo
And a red flannel shirt. That's not what I do.
I put the top down as soon as we arrive.
The temperature's trying to pass fifty-five.
I'm freezing but at least I'm alive.
Nothing on earth can diminish my glee.
This is Florida, Florida, land of euphoria,
Florida in the highest degree.
You dig in the garden. I swim in the pool.
I like to wear cotton. You like to wear wool.
You're always hot. I'm usually cool.
You want to get married. I want to be free.
You don't seem to mind that we disagree.
And that is the difference between you and me.
—Laurel Blossom
In this poem they are talking about the problems in life or the fight of life. They talk about everyday problems that occur to people. Like the weather or the disagreements of people. The poem also sounds like a disagreement between two people. This is about how they act and their morals. It also sounds as if the writer is the only one that cares about the disagreement as well.
The writer is affected by this disagreement because she has a different lifestyle then her friend that she is fighting with. I relate because I have fought with a friend before as well as most people do. I have never had that big of a fight with a friend though and it seems like she is having a big one. I believe that she that this was a real life situation that was happening and she had to write about it to feel better.
Griffin Littlewood^^
DeleteDylan Brenner
ReplyDeleteThe Summer I Was Sixteen
The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,
its slide a silver afterthought down which
we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles.
We did not exist beyond the gaze of a boy.
Shaking water off our limbs, we lifted
up from ladder rungs across the fern-cool
lip of rim. Afternoon. Oiled and sated,
we sunbathed, rose and paraded the concrete,
danced to the low beat of "Duke of Earl".
Past cherry colas, hot-dogs, Dreamsicles,
we came to the counter where bees staggered
into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled
cotton candy torches, sweet as furtive kisses,
shared on benches beneath summer shadows.
Cherry. Elm. Sycamore. We spread our chenille
blankets across grass, pressed radios to our ears,
mouthing the old words, then loosened
thin bikini straps and rubbed baby oil with iodine
across sunburned shoulders, tossing a glance
through the chain link at an improbable world.
I chose the poem The Summer I was sixteen. The atmosphere in this poem is calm and a little joyful. The reason I say this is because it’s a flashback. There is some figurative language in this poem. There is some personification when in the first line of the poem the author wrote, “The turquoise pool rose up to meet us”. I think this poem is all about a flashback or a memory that the author or someone had.
As I said in the first paragraph, this poem is about a memory or a flashback that the author had. I chose this poem because I can and probably a lot of other people can relate to this poem. This poem reminds me of summer and all the enjoyable days I had. It also reminds of how fast things can go in life, one day it’s summer and your hanging out with all your friends and the next day your right back sitting at a desk in school. This whole poem is imagery, I can really paint a picture in my head of the whole poem.
Anthony Dimuzio
ReplyDeleteThe Death of Santa Claus
He's had the chest pains for weeks,
but doctors don't make house
calls to the North Pole,
he's let his Blue Cross lapse,
blood tests make him faint,
hospital gown always flap
open, waiting rooms upset
his stomach, and it's only
indigestion anyway, he thinks,
until, feeding the reindeer,
he feels as if a monster fist
has grabbed his heart and won't
stop squeezing. He can't
breathe, and the beautiful white
world he loves goes black,
and he drops on his jelly belly
in the snow and Mrs. Claus
tears out of the toy factory
wailing, and the elves wring
their little hands, and Rudolph's
nose blinks like a sad ambulance
light, and in a tract house
in Houston, Texas, I'm 8,
telling my mom that stupid
kids at school say Santa's a big
fake, and she sits with me
on our purple-flowered couch,
and takes my hand, tears
in her throat, the terrible
news rising in her eyes.
—Charles Harper Webb
This poem uses a lot of different structure in it. The mood for this poem is sad and grim. This poem is not and should not be considered as happy because it is about santa claus dying. This poem shows a lot of imagery by writing about santa claus dying and giving a lot of detail.
I think that the author is feels sad that not a lot of kids believe in santa claus anymore and that the tradition of kids believing in him is dying so santa claus is dying because nobody believes anymore and the author wants to change that because she liked to believe in santa claus.
Nick Entner
ReplyDeleteSnow
Walking through a field with my little brother Seth
I pointed to a place where kids had made angels in the snow.
For some reason, I told him that a troop of angels
had been shot and dissolved when they hit the ground.
He asked who had shot them and I said a farmer.
Then we were on the roof of the lake.
The ice looked like a photograph of water.
Why he asked. Why did he shoot them.
I didn't know where I was going with this.
They were on his property, I said.
When it's snowing, the outdoors seem like a room.
Today I traded hellos with my neighbor.
Our voices hung close in the new acoustics.
A room with the walls blasted to shreds and falling.
We returned to our shoveling, working side by side in silence.
But why were they on his property, he asked.
—David Berman
This poem does not have rhyme scheme. The author uses Ambiguity and pronouns in this poem to make it so there are many different things that you could think about throughout the poem. For example “But why were they on his property, he asked” this could mean the brother seth talking or the neighbor that he says hello to in the previous stanzas.
When I think of the ending I think that the little brother is asking many questions about why they were on his property. This is just like my little brother who asks many questions about things that I could have said that I was saying as a joke. All they want to know it what there big brother knows. They want to be just like you.
The other way you can think of that quarter as if the neighbor overheard them talking yesterday and know want to know more of the story. I would think the brother would be like aw great another person I have to tell about this story. This would be a problem because he keeps having to add onto a story that first of all had no meaning. IT would eventually become a huge thing that started as such a small thing that doesn’t even matter.
Jillian Boyer
ReplyDeleteAfter Us
I don't know if we're in the beginning
or in the final stage.
-- Tomas Tranströmer
Rain is falling through the roof.
And all that prospered under the sun,
the books that opened in the morning
and closed at night, and all day
turned their pages to the light;
the sketches of boats and strong forearms
and clever faces, and of fields
and barns, and of a bowl of eggs,
and lying across the piano
the silver stick of a flute; everything
invented and imagined,
everything whispered and sung,
all silenced by cold rain.
The sky is the color of gravestones.
The rain tastes like salt, and rises
in the streets like a ruinous tide.
We spoke of millions, of billions of years.
We talked and talked.
Then a drop of rain fell
into the sound hole of the guitar, another
onto the unmade bed. And after us,
the rain will cease or it will go on falling,
even upon itself.
—Connie Wanek
This poem has an overall atmosphere of peace or gloom, depending on how you look at it. It has the feel of a rainy day, when you are sitting inside contemplating on your life. The poem is an extended metaphor comparing a rain shower to the flow of time. This poem uses a lot of idioms in order to emphasize the specific scenes and emotions. An example is, “The sky is the color of gravestones.” This means that the sky is rain clouds, but they did not actually say that, you had to figure it out.
This poem without looking at the deeper meaning, seems to be about a person's world during a rainstorm. Everything is getting wet, and he can hear the rain falling around him. But on a deeper look, you can see the Speaker is comparing his own life to the rain storm, showing how significant or insignificant he is. He makes a point to wonder if he can do anything about the rain, or if the rain will just keep on flowing, even long after he is gone. If you imagine the same situation, but instead of rain it is time, then you can see that this might be a nostalgic poem. A poem about someone who wishes they had the ability to stop the time or the rain, and is noticing that everything goes by with time. Maybe the Speaker is also referencing what happens after he dies, does time stop? Or does it simply keep on going like he was never there.
Dowol Lee
ReplyDeleteThis poem is about a bike. It describes and helps you visualizes what the bike looks like and how it works. The tone and mood of the poem is very calm and maybe even soft. It seems to appreciate the way the machinery works. It almost describes the bike as a delicate instrument when it says “Purcell’s chords are played away”. It even includes different brands of bikes like “Ptolemy’ and “Schwinn”.
I relate to this Poem because when I was a kid I was obsessed with riding bikes. I used to just bike for fun. Also I enjoy different types of technology so I can appreciate this poem.