Blogger #16 - Emily Lin - Period 9 - 3/15/21 - Day C

 Aim: How can we define the literary value of poetry?

Class Discussion: Consider your prior experiences you’ve had when reading poetry (good and bad).

• What are some of the challenges you and/or others can experience while reading poetry?

• Consider the following question: 

• What does poetry mean to you? 

For our class discussion, we discuss some past experience and challenges we have towards poetry. For many, poetry is very difficult to understand; they usually have a deeper meaning than they described and it is very frustrating and difficult to understand the poem to a full extent.

The teacher explains how a person’s palette can change over time. She told us that she used to hate math … until she got to college. She used to hate eggs but she likes them. Ms. Peterson explains to us that in the past, she also hated poetry.  “Why don’t they just say what they mean to say?” Why does a simple object have to represent something deeper? Or, how do you know what the author meant to say? Ms. Peterson explains to us that everyone’s palette changes but try to have a growth mindset; to be open and try new things……. and maybe you’ll end up enjoying it. If you have a bad experience with poetry beforehand, be more open and maybe you will end up liking it more.

Class Notes:

What makes a poem …… a poem? (Video):

• The video gives examples of certain characteristics poems may have….

1. Poem emphasizes language’s musical qualities through rhythm, rhyme, and meter.

2. Poems use condensed literature.

3. It often features intense feelings.

• Prose Poems

• Prose poems use vivid images and wordplay but are formatted like paragraphs (no line breaks).

• “Poems have evolved over time, and perhaps more now than ever, the lines between poetry, prose, song, and visual art has blurred.”

• Poetry comes from ancient Greek poiesis, which means to create.

Free Verse:

Free Verse Poetry is…. poetry without a fixed pattern of meter and rhyme. Many believe that poems always have to rhyme. But that is not the case for free verse.

Video - Free Verse Poetry

• Free Verse has no rules around rhythming, syllable counts, and number of lines. It lets the author write however they like to express their feelings/ideas.

• It can still include……

• Alliteration, personification, rhyme, rhythm, etc.

Teamwork: 

During our group work in breakout rooms, we were to summarize what poetry means to our class, Walt Whitman, and Pablo Neruda. 

Class: 

Poetry is a form of writing and art to express feelings and ideas - it can contain rhythm or not at all. It can include figurative language and writing techniques that help visualize the story. It sometimes can be difficult to understand and analyze.

Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself, Leaves of Grass:

Stop this day and night with me, and you

shall possess the origin of all poems; 

You shall possess the good of the earth and

sun... (there are millions of sun left,)

You shall no longer take things at second or

third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, 

nor feed on the spectres in books;

You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,

You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself. 

In Walt Whitman’s poem, he explains poetry to be an author’s point of view and his/her views/opinions only without the influence of others. In the last two lines, it states, “You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself.”

Pablo Neruda’s Poetry: 

And it was at that age … poetry arrived

in search of me. I don’t know, I don’t know where

it came from, from winter or a river.

I don’t know how or when,

5 no they were not voices, they were not

words, nor silence,

but from a street I was summoned,

from the branches of night,

abruptly from the others,

10 among violent fires

or returning alone,

there I was without a face

and it touched me.

I did not know what to say, my mouth

15 had no way

with names,

my eyes were blind,

and something started in my soul,

fever or forgotten wings,

20 and I made my own way,

deciphering

that fire,

and I wrote the first faint line,

faint, without substance, pure

25 nonsense,

pure wisdom

of someone who knows nothing,

and suddenly I saw

the heavens

30 unfastened and open,

planets

palpitating plantations,

shadow perforated,

riddled

35 with arrows, fire, and flowers,

the winding night, the universe.

And I, infinitesimal being,

drunk with the great starry

void,

40 likeness, image of mystery,

felt myself a pure part

of the abyss,

I wheeled with the stars,

my heart broke loose on the wind.

In Pablo Neruda’s poem, he explains that poetry is something within oneself and feelings; he tells us that poetic inspiration came in search for him, rather than him looking for inspiration. It can be a random thought that came from nothing, can in the end be expressed limitless.

Project:

Aim: How can our knowledge and experience with poetry and poetic techniques ensure the successful creation of our Poem Anthology project?

***Anthology - a collection/album of literary works.

For the second half of our lesson, we went over the Poem Anthology project and the requirements (on this slide). 

The second slide provides us with all the requirements needed and some assistance on the third slide.

Reflection:

In today’s lesson, I learned about the basic meaning of poetry, what does poetry consist of, and what is free verse poetry. Poetry is basically a form of writing that expresses a certain feeling, idea, or anything using figurative or underlying messages. It can have rhythms, syllable counts, specific number of lines, and rhymes but that’s not always the case. Free verse poetry has no rules and the author can write freely. This lesson introduces us to the idea of poetry and today is the beginning of analyzing poems and having a better understanding of poetry.