Let me elaborate briefly on the instructions for the presentations. The goal of this (and all) presentations is to concisely and memorably inform the class of how the assigned context can inform the analysis, interpretation, and teaching of a poem. The questions are guides to achieving such a goal, and they are not intended to be taken as a checklist for the presentation: they are more of a checklist to guide your thought and research. The presentation itself should take a holistic approach, focusing on the most relevant (that is, useful) information.
That way, when you or one of your classmates come across a poem to read or teach, the appropriate contexts and an idea of how they can be useful can quickly come to mind and the reading, analysis, and/or teaching of a given poem can be enriched by research on the most relevant contexts.
Keep up the good work, folks! See you on Wednesday.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
About Presentations
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
The poem that I chose is from Senegalese West African Poet David Diop entitled "The Time of the Martyr"
The White Man killed my father,
My father was proud.
The White Man seduced my mother,
My mother was beautiful.
The White Man burnt my brother beneath the noonday sun,
My brother was strong.
The White Man turned to me:
And in the Conqueror's voice said, "Boy! A chair, a napkin, a drink!"
It is evident that there is a conflict between the indigenous people and the foreiners. The White Man represents the injustice and subjugation which is thrusted upon the African people. The world of the black people is full of humiliation and abuse from the colonials. With the lines in the poem one can establish a series of mental image concering the events that are being described. The boy in the poem has had his father killed, his mother raped and his brother beaten by the White Man who thinks himself to be superior and to do as he pleases.
One poem that can be considered representative of the Renaissance is Shakespeare's sonnet titled "That time of year thou mayst in me behold."
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowin of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
In terms of interpreting such a poem in the light of the period in which it was written one must be familiar with certain historical aspects. During the Renaissance there was a tendency to look back at the classics. People considered Greece and Rome as the epicenters of true knowledge (in all ways possible). As a result the sonnet was reawakened by Shakespeare giving way to the English sonnet (he had based it on the Petrarchan sonnet which was Greek).
In relation to the poem itself one can interpret that it is about the unstoppable process of decay portayed through a list of winter images in nature. This remains to this day a universal issue and a sonnet about this could be written today, but through the use of surgical imagery instead.
However, the key to unlocking the poem's place in the period which it was written, is in its style. Notice that the poem is an overwhelming list or set of continous images about decay. This tendency was characteristic of Renaissance writers where a repetitious array of images is portrayed in an ornate fashion, thus showing dominion of language and rhetorics.
Gerardo Muniz
The poem that I chose to discuss in the comments section is "Beowulf" the written in the Old English period where Anglo-Saxon dialect or better described "Proto-IndoEuropean" was the dialect of the writters or in these cases the speakers from which these two poems where collected and placed on writing.
"Beowulf"
deals with the struggle of a man trying to defeat adversaries that plagued or rather disturbed the natural order of life. By being this super human and righteous being some have come to believe that this character infact was the chosen one to lead the people of the New (Old) English nation. But it is not only in the use of the heroic verse that is employed in the poem for it is also the alliterative verse and rhyming that gives the text a richness that is trully exemplary of the Old English way of writing poetry.
I have chosen two Alexander Pope poems. I have never read any of his poems until this assignment came along, and I thought they would be worth posting about. So, here they are...the first is entitled:
"Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness"
I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
-----and the second is
"You know where you did despise"
You know where you did despise
(Tother day) my little Eyes,
Little Legs, and little Thighs,
And some things, of little Size,
You know where.
You, tis true, have fine black eyes,
Taper legs, and tempting Thighs,
Yet what more than all we prize
Is a Thing of little Size,
You know where.
In attempting to analyze these poems of the Augustan Period. The reader immediately captures the sense of satire, and political/social critique written in verse. In the first poem we realize the Pope is making commentary on hierarchy.(let me leave it at that, because I could ramble on and on,) the next poem, is more personal, he is making a commenting about himself (which it is obvious what he is critiquing)and how he does it using heroic couplets, which I must state the Pope is known to have mastered this form. What these poems show is that the poetry from the Augustan period, in a sense, are commentary of the time these poets lived in. there society was changing and they needed to express what they felt.
For the Victorian Era, I chose My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. This is a poem that among other characteristics includes two elements that belong to the Victorian Era. The poem is written as a dramatic monologue, by which Browning is known, and it also touches upon topics that are of social concern. Through the poem we meet the Duke of Ferrara who is speaking to someone but we do not know who it is, although we could infer that it is a messenger. He is narrating the story of is last wife and explains that he asked someone to murder her because she did not seem to be thankful enough for everything that he was given her. She was happy with anything, regardless of its value. He was jealous because she could not see a difference between his gifts and gifts of servants, so she ended up dead. This story is apparently being told as an advice for the girl who would soon be marrying the duke, so that she does not make the same mistakes as his last wife. This poem, indeed deals with social issues such as chauvinism and power.
The poem that I chose represents the Ireland of 17th-18th century. It is:
I’ m Raftery by Anthony Raftery
I'm Raftery the poet,
Full of hope and love,
With eyes without sight,
My mind without torment.
Going west on my journey
By the light of my heart.
Weary and tired
To the end of my road
Behold me now
With my back to the wall
Playing music
To empty pockets.
In the time this poem was written the poets fell from being scholars and high society to being impoverish and oppressed culture. Most of them had to work in farms and poetry became an oral tradition. The original poem was in Gaelic and later traduced. Anthony Raftery belonged to the blind poet/musicians as he makes known with the line “With eyes without sight”; he was truly blind. Also, he demonstrates the longing with for the old order and hopes that things will be restored to how it was before. However, in the second stanza he acknowledges that time moves on and him with it. Finally, I believe that he reached complacence with his fate in the last stanza. He was proud of being a poet. It is a simple poem full of imagery.
The poem that I chose to represent the United States Colonial Period is "To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet.
IF ever two were one then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife were happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor aught but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
The puritans of New England interpreted all things and events as symbols with deeper spiritual meanings. Through this poem she explains her love for his husband almost as if he were a divine creature. This poems is a clear statement of that in terms that Bradstreet felt this deep spiritual connection with her husband and believed that even after they will be dead, they will remain together loving each other.
My topic was the 17th century restoration era and the poet that I chose to represent the era is William Walsh and his poem "Rival".
D. Poem
Rivals
William Walsh. 1663-1708
OF all the torments, all the cares,
With which our lives are curst;
Of all the plagues a lover bears,
Sure rivals are the worst!
By partners in each other kind
Afflictions easier grow;
In love alone we hate to find
Companions of our woe.
Sylvia, for all the pangs you see
Are labouring in my breast,
I beg not you would favour me,
Would you but slight the rest!
How great soe'er your rigours are,
With them alone I'll cope;
I can endure my own despair,
But not another's hope.
Walsh was an English poet who had a love lyric design which was intended to let the world view the faithful image of amorous heart.
In this poem we can see how he expresses the pain and despair a lover can feel when realized that feelings are not mutual and that a lover’s heart has to be shared. He dedicates this poem to Sylvia (unknown if she is real or just a character created by the poet).
Not quite sure if he uses iambic pentameter.
Even though the poet expresses individual sentiment (it is clear that this poem is written in the personal side), the main topic which would be infidelity is quite clear and if written during the Interregnum, this poem would have not been published.
When I searched for Caribbean Poetry I found two “nationalities” that stood out more than the others. These are Puerto Rican poetry and West Indian Poetry. Puerto Rican poetry touches the subject of identity or search of identity and patriotism, amongst others. In the poem “Tata” written by Pedro Pietri one can see both of these aspects.
Tata
Mi abuela
has been
in this dept store
called america
for the past twenty-five years
She is eighty-five years old
and does not speak
a word of English
That is intelligence
When one looks at this poem the idea of identity comes into place since maybe what define identity for the author and many of the readers is the language a person speaks and the fact that his grandmother probably refuses to learn English to him that is something to be proud of. It shows the true feelings of this lady towards her island and how much she is willing to or not to do in order to stay true to her believes.
At the same time, West Indian Poetry refers to the poetry written on those islands that were formerly possessed by the British. When this poetry started to develop poets used the tropical landscape to express their nationalism and their appreciation of folk tradition and country life. The first West Indian poet considered to be important in the development of West Indian poetry is Claude McKay. Even when McKay moved to the United States he continued to use the Jamaican landscape.
The Tropics in New York
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
Set in window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical blues skies
In benediction over nun-like hills.
My eyes dim, and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
While in New York he sees things that remind him of his country, his home and the beauty of it and he can’t help but feel nostalgic about it, but still shows appreciation for where he comes from.
As I will explain further in my presentation, poetry was divided into two major factions during the Jacobean period in English Literature. These factions were the Metaphysical and the Cavalier poets. The Metaphysics were more concerned with subtle or odd-seeming comparisons, and appealed more to the reader's intelligence rather than emotions. A prime example of this would be John Donne's poem "The Flea", where the poem's voice aspires to woo someone else by comparing love to a flea, using a conceit. The Cavalier poets were, as the name implies, much more secular and relaxed in their themes. They were also related to the Carpe Diem poets, and a prime example of the Cavalier poets would be Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress". Like Donne, the poem has to do with the voice's amorous intentions, as he basically seems to be saying, "Life is brief and we could not be here tomorrow, so let's seize the day!"
Sasarita is Wilmarie Cruz's alter ego . . . I had problems logging in
Middle English spans for various centuries starting from 1066 to 1500, a little over 400 years! Many literary works was born during those years but the pinnacle of medieval literature occurred during the 14th century with poets like Geoffrey Chaucer famous for The Canterbury Tales and the Pearl Poet who is believed to have written the narrative poem Gawain and the Green Knight. Lets not forget that during the Middle Ages the legend of Arthur was born and Sir Thomas Malory brought us Le Morte D’Arthur.
The most popular of Middle English work were all written in vernacular English and Chaucer took the vernacular even further by writing tales that represent the life of the commoner in England. Many of his writings were written in verse and few of them were in prose. Narrative verse was also the norm of Middle English literature with Medieval Romance being the most popular theme in the middle ages. Famous works that belongs to the Medieval Romance was “Gawain and the Green Knight” and Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur
One of the characteristics of Canadian Poetry is "The Viator" poem which was invented by Robin Skelton and it consists of the repetition of the first line of the first stanza through out the poem. I'll explain the first line in the first stanza is the second line of the second stanza, then it is the third line of the third stanza and so on until the poem ends. An example found is by an anonymus author which is:
Shallot Confiture
It's care in cooking slow and carefully
that turns a shallot glistening golden brown;
in salted water first you must weigh down
the scalded bulbs to meet this recipe
Boil vinegar and sugary spices;
it's care in cooking slow and carefully
the syruped shallots, gradually,
then overnight, you'll rest the shallot slices.
Then two days more, you'll slow repeat
your patient simmering, calmly, gently;
it's care in cooking slow and carefully
that yields your shallots clear and sweet.
By foruth day, time to lift them free,
to pack them in that savoury sauce
preseve that silky, golden gloss; it's care in cooking slow and carefully!
The not known poet evidently is speaking of the life in Canada, in this case the preparation of shallots, which is another characteristic of Canadian poetry.
Teaching literature to adolescents has never been an easy task. If we add to this tendency a time frame such as the study of literature of another era, the difficulties might be greater. Students will be able to cope with it eventually but the teacher will have to provide plenty of information and data regarding the time period to be studied, and the relevance for studying literature of other periods, when there is such a great variety of contemporary literature available.
The teacher could start by pointing out that books or written texts were the main source of knowledge in previous times for which reason books hold great value for understanding the social and political conditions of other time periods. Also, the teacher could direct students into critical exploration of “old texts” to see how accurate these represent the context in which it was written, and if it has any connection to the events that occur nowadays.
To teach a unit on poetry of the Age of Enlightenment a teacher would need to study the moral, social and political tendencies of the period, as well as the prevailing poetic forms in the time in order to provide students with a solid background to approach the texts. Once students understand that the era of the Enlightenment was one marked by the welcoming of changes, the appreciation of nature, and the view of human beings as capable of progress and understanding God without the need of the church; students will then be able to look at a poem written in this time and evaluate if it accurately portrays the prevailing conditions of the Eighteenth century in Europe. A good resource could be "An Essay on Man" by Alexander Pope.
Studying how the Age of the Enlightenment was a result of the traditional and monarchist views of the Middle Ages, might help students see how specific events in history and scientific discoveries such as the ones made by Galileo help shape the mentality and behavior of human beings. In order to make this unit relevant to students the teacher could assign to students the task of looking as contemporary events in science, technology and history and analyze how the behavior and mentality of the people in the 21st century reflect these events. For instance, how the invention of the Internet and wireless devices has affected the relationships of human beings, and how the use of technology has affected our relationship with the Planet as current studies present.
What are themes found in this poem
Sorry, could you help me to know the poetic devices employed by the poet in this poem?
Post a Comment