Blogger #1 - Jacob Berger - Period 1 - 11/04/2020 - Freshman Lit 2021 Day A

Blog #1 - Jacob Berger - Period 1 - 11/04/2020 - Freshman Lit 2020


Aim: How can we use the poem, “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams as inspiration for our own poems?


The Do Now from today’s lesson was to “Describe a time when you or someone you know did something that was “technically wrong” and you should have felt sorry for it but you didn’t?”



We started by coming up with examples of times when we did something wrong, but did not feel guilty about it later. One time I chose when I did something wrong but did not regret it was when I ate all of the bread in the kitchen because I really liked it even though I knew that others like it, too. I did not feel guilty because I knew that there would always be a chance to buy it again and that I liked it more than anyone else. After talking in a group, we all found out that everyone had a point in their life that they did something wrong but did not feel guilty because they felt that it was not a big deal.


Later, we read a poem called “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams. This poem describes a man leaving a note on his fridge apologizing for eating the plums in the fridge while also saying that they were delicious. This poem was not something one would think important, but it turned out to be one of his most famous poems. This poem's difference from other poems was that it was a free-style poem, meaning that it did not follow the rules or boundaries of standard poems such as rhyming. At the same time, this poem had a very specific meaning to it having to do with apologizing for something that you did wrong, but not actually feeling sorry about that action.


The next thing we did was learn what imagery was and why it was used:

• … Image is the root word of imagination. It’s from Latin imago, “picture,” how you see things. Images carry feelings. Saying, “I’m angry,” or “I’m sad,” has little impact. Creating images, I can make you feel how I feel.
• Writing poems using images can create an experience allowing others to feel what we feel.
• Perhaps more important, poems can put us in touch with our own often buried or unexpected feelings.

We then watched a video about imagery and the poem “My Tree”, by Jack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxASvORGoG4&ab_channel=TheRedRoomCompany

After watching this video, I realized that imagery was a device to help the poet paint an image in the reader's head of the thing that they are trying to explain to them. This gives the reader more context and a better understanding of the topic of the poem.


We then read two poems about hopefulness, joyfulness, and sadness, and the feeling of playing a fast-paced game of basketball. The first one showed three pictures along with the poem to help the reader imagine what the poem was trying to say.



the clouds collapsed,

they’re touching the ground

trying to come alive,

but they can’t.

This stanza in the poem along with a picture of a dark red sunset is trying to create a sense of hopelessness.


After talking about the meaning of these two poems, we finished by individually creating a “TWIST” chart for the second poem to show our understanding of the poem. It also helps to understand your own ideas about the poem.




T

Tone

Fast-paced action on the basketball court.


W

Word Choice

The author talks about basketball and the feeling of intensity one would feel while playing.


I

Imagery

The author describes the feeling of playing in a basketball game.


S

Style

(the result of choices in T, W, & I)

(i.e. thought-provoking, contentious, evocative, elegant, etc. )

Thought-provoking because it leads one to think about the feeling of playing the game rather than just the game itself.


T

Theme

How it feels and what experiences people get from playing a fast-paced game of basketball.

Interpretative Statement

This poem talks about the feeling that one experiences when playing basketball with their teammates. It talks about the intensity they feel and it leads the reader to ask themselves how it would feel to play rather than just thinking about the game in itself.

Reflection:

Overall, during the class we learned about what imagery is and how to use it. Imagery is one part of the “TWIST” chart that was learned about and used in the poem. We learned about the poem “Fast Break” By Edward Hirsch. We also learned about how imagery is used together with the rest of the poem, so that the pictures and words that create a picture in the reader's mind make sense according to the rest of the poem.