Blogger #16- Samantha Huang- Period 7- 3/15/21- Day C

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

Do Now: Consider your prior experiences you’ve had when reading poetry (good and bad). (CLASS DISCUSSION)

—What are some challenges you and/or others can experience while reading poetry?

—Consider the following question:

    •What does poetry mean to you?

We started off with a class discussion about our past experiences with poetry and how we feel about it. A few students shared their response to the class. Tempestt started off the discussion by saying how he dislikes reading poetry because the words get mixed up in his head. However, when he did a poetry unit in 7th grade, he enjoyed writing the poetry because he got to decide what type of poetry he could write. Michelle shared that she dislikes poetry because she finds it confusing since it could have many different meanings and you can never understand which meaning is correct. It takes a lot of thinking and discussions to understand the meaning of it, in which most of the students agreed to her. Ms.Peterson shared how she use to absolutely hate poetry, beyond with a passion, to the point where she wanted to have nothing to do with it. She also said that we should keep an open mind to everything we learn since our thoughts on things might change as we grow older.

After the class discussion, Ms. Peterson showed us 2 videos about poems.

Video 1: https://youtu.be/JwhouCNq-Fc

This video talks about unique types of poems and the characteristics of poems. To achieve musical qualities, poets use rhyme, rhythm and meter. Poems don’t follow a specific pattern. Most poems use condensed language, intense feelings, and line breaks. Some poems do not have rhyme or rhythm, and others can be very short and have no line breaks.

Video 2: https://youtu.be/GnlwOn94uJs

This video tells us about free verse. Free verse is a type of poetry that has no rules about rhyming, syllable count or number of lines. Free verse poems can be long or short. It can also be about any topic. It allows the poet to express their ideas, emotions and shape their poem however they like which allows them to write freely.

After the videos, we read two poems.

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. 

- Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself, ” (Section 2) Leaves of Grass

“Poetry” by Pablo Neruda

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.

10 MINUTE TEAMWORK

After reading the poems went into breakout rooms for group work.

With your teams, create a final definition of poetry. Using the table below, summarize how Whitman and Neruda define portray along with how our class defines “poetry” according to today’s “Do Now.” Be sure to use textual evidence in your summary!

Our Class	Whitman	Neruda
Poetry is a type of writing that is often confusing and has many different meanings and can be interpreted in many different ways.	Whitman says that poetry should be looked at from all perspectives and that it doesn’t have to rhyme. Whitman also says that you shouldn’t take ideas from others.	Neruda defines poetry as something that can come to you naturally. Neruda said that they saw “the heavens unfastened and open, planets palpitating plantations, shadow perforated, riddled with arrows, fire, and flowers, the winding night, the universe.” while they were writing poetry as their poem states. Neruda used a lot of figurative language in their poem.

Class Discussion

The class gathered back together to share our answers to the chart. People from different groups raised their to participate. Some of us had similar answers. It was like a small competition between the groups to participate and earn points for their team.

Reflection

I usually get anxious when I see a poem. In this lesson I learned more about poetry and that it takes some practice to be able to find the meaning behind some poems. I also learned that I shouldn’t stick to what one person is saying about the poem and that I should also listen to what other people are saying about it. It’s nice to know the meaning behind some things since my curiosity level is very high sometimes. I might not be as anxious as I use to be when I see more poems in the future.