The spoken poem that I chose was by Ebony Stewart called “This Poem is About Joy.” This poem is about how African Americans feel and what they get to experience when they have good days where they are not discriminated against. The link to this poem is listed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dKOqdhRdhU. I think the age range for this poem should be any person who is thirteen years or older. I chose this age range because I think at the age of thirteen, children start to understand complex topics more and the topic of race and discrimination is definitely a complex topic. It is sometimes hard for children to understand the reasoning behind discrimination because children are so innocent, but I think a child at thirteen years old would be able to understand the meaning and power behind Stewart’s poem. The reason I did not have a maximum age for this poem, is because I think anybody above thirteen would be able to understand and relate to it. There is so much controversy about race that it now pertains to everybody. A person can be effected by race whether they are one year old or 100 years old. In this poem, there was a lot of criteria mentioned by the book that was covered. One of the criteria that this poem followed that really stuck out to me was the sight sensory description. Sight sensory description is when a poet “uses visual details to give us a picture and a feeling.” (Russell, 2015, p. 135). There was one line that really stuck out to me and that line was
symbolic richness, but at the same time the poem supplies the reader with a wide
Race plays a big part in this poem. He speaks on Harlem and its culture and this environment but also about mutual interest with people
The imagery used in this verse appeals to the sense sight. This helps the reader visualise what the writer is taking about. It also allows the reader to relate and connect more to the poem.
The Poem I chose to read, and write about is called, “Dreams” by, Langston Hughes. The theme of the poem is mainly about the importance of dreams and ability to sustain and strengthen an individual’s life. Langston’s tone in this poem starts off serious when trying to teach his audience about his wisdom concerning holding on to their hopes and dreams so thereby, encouraging his audience. He also expresses a vaguely optimistic tone that further expresses his desires for African Americans to hold on to their hopes and dreams and to not let their freedom die. Langston used a couple of figurative languages such as, Alliteration, and personification.
These three lines are perfect examples of the imagery within the poem because they contain an image of a river with its small peeks and waves trembling and glistening in the afternoon sun. All the while it equates the natural beauty of the river to the beauty that the young man sees in the youthful maiden.
Forde’s central claim was that no matter the age group or what type of music you liked, this song was sure to have you up dancing to the beat. Forde also makes the claim that no matter how repetitive this song is, people are still going to get up and dance or sing along to it every time it comes on. The passage states that “Happy” has gone a bit further and has pan-generational appeal.” (224) Forde also claims that because “Happy” has pulled off some of the impossible things. “But getting an audience reaction like that at the bowls—that’s proper success.” (221)
“My goal, in writing this letter, is to pass along to you the important knowledge I have accumulated in my 67 years on this Earth”. As a grandfather, Dave Barry decided to write a letter to his grandson to give him advice in a comical way. In an excerpt from “Live Right and Find Happiness” by Dave Barry, he wrote a letter to his grandson that demonstrated a high level of comedy because he used irony and hyperbole to reveal a universal truth that one should always be attentive and considerate of his or her surroundings.
Furthermore, people emotionally hide their true feelings from themselves and others to make things appear like they are all right. Written in Paul Dunbar’s poem, he implied “We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries, to thee from tortured souls arise…” explains that horrible obstacles will be thrown in your direction, but something will happen, and people will bounce back if they stay positive and keep the faith. Some individuals be experiencing financial difficulties, relationship controversies’, and family complications; therefore, they camouflage their feelings to make stuff seem like nothing is happening. Everyone cannot relate to others’ situations, and the words that they use can be extremely hurtful towards others people. This mask is
In the poem, “To this day” by Shane Koyczan in a non fictional story, he explains how how a boy grew up grafted onto a different tree. He grew up without his birth parents “ grafted onto a different family tree
The poem “First Poem for You” is a sonnet about tattoos. Two people are involved in this but the gender is unknown and the person is speaking from a first-person point of view. I would like to think it is a woman talking to a man about the tattoos on his body. The line “I like to touch your tattoos in complete darkness, when I can’t see them.” Makes me believe that she is afraid of tattoos. She says that she knows where the tattoos are by heart which means they know each other very well and it is not the first time this is happening. The way she describes the tattoo, “lines of lighting pulsing just above your nipple, the blue swirls of water on your shoulder where a serpent twists, facing a dragon” provides the reader imagery. She knows what,
Throughout the whole sonnet, the poet maintains a very mournful tone, which he mainly emphasizes by experimenting with sound. In the first line, for example, the combination of “past” and the repetition of “pitch” results in an alliteration of the strong plosive /p/ sound. The exact same phenomenon can be found in line nine with the nasal /m/ sound in “mind” and “mountains”. Because this poem is teeming with alliterations, it clearly should be read out loud. In this way the reader will also notice that Hopkins uses many mono-syllabic words to speed up the rhythm. Line one, for example, only consists of words of one syllable. Another way in which the poet affects the rhythm of his poem is the excessive use of punctuation. The octave is made
The first description given of a poem is “ A poem should be palpable and mute as a globed fruit.” The fruit, as a poem should be, palpable. We can hold it and see it. But as a globed fruit, you can hold it, but it you are not holding the fruit itself, you are holding what is coving it. This gives us the feeling of there being more to the poem than what
Carolyn Forché’s statement, "I think poetry is the voice of the soul, whispering, celebrating, singing even,” spoke to me. I strongly agree with this statement because to me, poetry is extremely similar to music in that both forms of art are a voice of the soul. With both, the artist/poet is able to convey every emotion imaginable and teleport listeners/readers into a new dimension of emotion and story telling. Music has always been a huge part in my life and one of my favorite parts of it is its ability to convey a message and make you feel. Both music and poetry are able to convert an artist’s emotions into concrete form for audiences and I believe that is what Carolyn Forché is referring to in her previous statement. One example of this comes in Claribel Alegría’s poem “Documentary” when she writes about “[her] wounded country, [her] child, [her] tears, [her] obsession” (page 2). This line, as clear as day, comes from the soul. It comes from a soul that is aching for its country but is still proud. Observing this poem and numerous other poems from Claribel Alegría, it is obvious that she adores her country. This is where Claribel Alegría uses poetry as a “voice of soul… celebrating.” She makes her love for her country no secret and even goes so far to literallt refer to “Documentary” as a “love poem for [her] country.” She uses her poetry platform to show both her love, as well as her concern, for her beloved El Salvador and I believe that’s something that more artists, whether it be poets or musicians, should do as well.
I decided to read Return to Laughter by Elenore Bowen. It was a very insightful read on how Bowen included herself in uncontacted tribe. She had entered her journey without knowing any back ground of their language. One of her fellow anthropologist friends had told her that it would be easier for her to learn the language without an interpreter (Pg. 2 Bowen). She learned names of the people and the plants first as the tribe believed the plants to be one of the most important aspects of their culture to learn first. She had two cooks guiding her through her experience for support and anything that Bowen might have needed during her time with the tribe. Bowen had learned a lot through her study and personal experience through the tribe. Food was a sign of welcome and a way to speed a guest and that rejecting food was insulting especially if it were meat (Pg. 41-42 Bowen).
Q: In some poems what is described is given a meaning beyond the immediately obvious. Explore any one of the poems where this feature is most memorable.