Poetry Unit Goal #2
For example: who is the speaker? where does the poem "shift" or "turn"?
Please try out the strategy - Who is the speaker and what is the situation? - from the screencast on a poem of your choice. Post your comment on the class discussion page.
For example: The speaker in “Digging” is a writer who communicates an admiration for his elders combined with a desire to pursue his own path. Although he does not want to do the same work as his relatives, he does hope to have the same work ethic. Through fond memories of his father and grandfather, he is able to see how writing is a form of digging.
I read the poem “a blurry photograph” by Martha Ronk’s. In the poem the speaker is a photographer who seems to be taking a picture of the surrounding out doors. The situation is a continues observation of everything going on around him from the small details. He uses imagery to describe the situation in more and more details until the poem goes from descriptions and imagery to metaphors about meanings.
ReplyDeleteI read the poem a blurry photograph by Martha Ronk's. I find the speaker as one who is trying to catch a glimpse of something he can not see.
ReplyDeleteFor “Turtle Came to See Me” by Margarita Engle, the speaker is now a grown woman (I presume), looking back on a moment in her past and telling the story of when she was a child in her kindergarten class. She speaks about when she drew a picture of the ‘dancing’ trees in Cuba, a reminder of her heritage, and she makes it exuberantly colored, like a small child should. A shift comes at the point in the poem when it goes from the happy and prideful lines of ”...the proud shoulders of my ruffled/Cuban rumba dancer's/fancy dress.” then on the next lines to the shifted “In my California kindergarten class,/the teacher scolds me: REAL TREES/DON'T LOOK LIKE THAT.” The teacher judged not only the speaker but also her culture and the use of putting the teacher’s words in all caps demonstrates how the speaker probably felt a little attacked, like what she drew was wrong, and the tone of the poem feels like the speaker is being put in a corner for drawing something harmless, a happy memory that reminds her of her country. Even though this memory was hurtful to her as a kid, she is able to carry her strong pride and morals to where she is today. She takes away an important lesson to learn from the moment, that not everyone, especially authority fugues, are right 100 percent of the time, especially when they are oblivious and ignorant when discussing others’ cultures like her own.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker in "The Enkindled Spring" is a person who is observing the changes in nature during the season of Spring. The reader is both amazed by the changes, but he also questions himself, "And I, what fountain of fire am I among / This leaping combustion of spring?" He reveals, he feels lost among the flames of spring, which might be connected to the advancements in technology at the time when he was alive.
ReplyDeleteI read the poem “a blurry photograph ” the speaker of this poem is a person who is taking pictures of his surroundings. As he check for the details of his surrounding, things became more clear. He was trying to find things he couldn’t see in the world, things that are detailed.
ReplyDeleteI read Elizabeth Bishop's "A Cold Spring", and I found the speaker to be the poet describing the beauty of spring and addressing someone living in an area surrounded by nature, but it doesn't get more specific than that. I think the reason for this is the poet believes that anyone can appreciate spring if they just look at the nature around them.
ReplyDeleteI read a poem by T.E. Lawrence about dreams. The poem started by saying that all people dream, then there was a shift when the word but was used. After the shift the poem transferred to talking about people who actually act on their dreams and that they are the most dangerous people to compete with.
ReplyDeleteI read “A blurry photograph” by Martha Ronk. What I noticed is that in the start of the poem, everything is blurry, and as he explains more about it, the objects became more clear and visible.
ReplyDeleteI read the poem "After Apple-Picking" By: Robert Frost. This poem utilizes symbolism to get its point across. Apple picking symbolizes life and the cross roads is comes with. Long sleep symbolizes the death approaching, its not just sleep at night but for good, for the apple picking to be over. The author describes his life as unhappy with the decisions made and his opportunities disappearing. He just no longer wants life. He no longer wants to pick his apples or live his life, he is tired and knows its coming to an end. This is his way of accepting his final sleep.
ReplyDeleteI read the poem, "This Be The Verse" by Philip Larkin. The speaker is a man who seemingly had a rough childhood, and holds some amount of bitterness towards his parents. Even so, the man doesn't completely blame his parents as he thinks that they were ruined by their own parents. The speaker strongly believes that this is a never-ending cycle; and that, "Man hands misery to man." He closes off the poem with a warning to never have kids yourself as you'll just ruin their life too.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear about the variety of poems we're reading. Just to clarify: your post here is practice with the strategy of describing a poem's speaker and situation. The screencast (linked above) has more information about who the speaker is and what the situation is.
ReplyDeleteI read “The Rose That Grew From Concrete” by Tupac. The speaker is a person who’s talking to his friend about a story. I think that he relates to the rose in the poem, and he’s trying to tell his friend about his life, and how he persisted, and eventually prevailed.
ReplyDeleteI read “Homework Machine by Shel Silverstein. The speaker in this poem is a young child who does not want to do their homework, so invents a machine. Throughout the poem the child goes on about how wonderful the machine is for doing the work for him. The shift is when the machine does not work, and the child realizes that they sometimes have to do the work themselves.
ReplyDeleteI read Turtle Came to See Me BY MARGARITA ENGLE. The speaker is a kid who drew a picture. The teacher told them that the picture wasn’t drawn correctly and the tree wasn’t a real type of tree, and knowing better than the teacher, the speaker realizes for the first time that teachers and adults don’t know everything and aren’t always right.
ReplyDeleteI read “A Blurry Photograph” by Martha Ronk. The speaker is a photographer who is trying to capture her surroundings. With more thought and effort, the things around the photographer become clearer and more detailed.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker in "A blurry photograph" seems to be someone who is remembering an experience that happened, but is not fully developed, making some parts blurry. As the speaker thinks more about doing something, it seems to become clearer to her like when the glass smashes on the floor, allowing her to see the aftermath.
ReplyDeleteI read “What It Was Like”, by Barbara Ras. The speaker is a person who is presumably from a first world country living in a part of the world that is not as fortunate. Upon further research, I learned that Barbara Ras is from Massachusetts, but lived in Costa Rica and Colombia for a little while. The situation seems to be when people ask her what it was like living in these places, and she describes the good and the bad parts of the less developed world.
ReplyDeleteI read “A blurry Photograph” by Martha Ronk and it was apparent to me that there was a shift from blurry and unknown to much clearer. When more effort was used the shift occurred.
ReplyDeleteI read "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. The speaker in this poem is describing a time they caught a fish. The speaker realizes how weak the fish was, and how much it has gone through. Although the mood of the poem is very depressing, there is a sudden shift in the last couple of lines where the speaker is happy again, leading up to them letting the fish go.
ReplyDeleteThe speaker in “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost is a confused yet impulsive person. They spend so long contemplating one path then at the last minute chose the other. Whatever design this is for the person it’s obviously an important one and at the end where the poem states, “ I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference” gives me a sense that there was no regret regarding the decision. Something that confused me was the tone of the poem, it was unclear wether the decision was a positive or negative one.
ReplyDeleteI read “A Blurry Photograph” by Martha Ronk and the way I interpreted it was that the speaker was someone taking pictures and as the poem went on those pictures became clearer.
ReplyDeleteI read "The Fish", and the speaker is a fisherman, who seems very attentive to details about the fish that s/he catches. S/he describes the fish as being gloomy and almost giving up on it's life, as a usually fish start going crazy when they are outside water, but this specific fish didn't give any fight. S/he then put the fish back in the water at the end, which shows she has sympathy for animals and wildlife.
ReplyDeleteI read “The Drum” by Nikki Giovanni.” This poem is describing the world and how everybody chooses to live. The poem starts out with the dad saying to the little girl that a lot of people in the world choose to live the same way. But, then she tells the dad that she wants to create her own path in choosing what she wants to do. It goes from the dad to the daughter, and that is the shift I noticed.
ReplyDeleteI read Heroic Simile by Akira Kurosawa. The poem describes two men as they chop down trees, and how tired they get, and it describes how pleasant their rest was after their day of work. The shift I noticed is how they went from working hard in forests to relaxing in their cabin.
ReplyDeleteI read the poem "In Perpetual Spring" by amy Gerstler, which has a clear shift in perspective. The poem begins with the phrase "Gardens are also good places/to sulk" which sets a dark mood, the speaker seems to be describing to you a place where you can feel angry and upset, but in the second stanza the mood shifts to "desire for peace/with every other species/wells up in you" which amkes the garden seem more like a peaceful place where you can let go of your emotions, and have peace.
ReplyDeleteI read "More Dangerous Air" by Margarita Engle. From the poem, it is easy to tell that it is written from her point of view, as a child. She seems very afraid at the beginning, but as the poem goes on, it seems like she has had past experiences like this. It is interesting to see how these have affected her and what a child was thinking at this time.
ReplyDeleteI read “A Blurry Photograph” by Martha Ronk and in the beginning the speakers photos where blurry and as the poem went on they became clearer. -Angelica
ReplyDeleteI read Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech from Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. I hope this counts as a poem; I think it’s in iambic pentameter. I noticed a shift in I.iv.80, when the poem mentions ladies’ lips, saying, “Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues...” This is where the poem switches from generally innocuous descriptions to a darker theme. It shows how deceptive the first impressions of Queen Mab are, and relates to a real life lesson that things aren’t always as they seem.
ReplyDelete- Anya C.
The speaker in “The Fish” is a fisherman who is describing their latest catch. They are closely observing the fish and in the end deciding to set it free.
ReplyDeleteI read "The Sweetness of Dogs" by Mary Oliver. To me the speaker is the author herself, and the turning point comes when she realizes how much her dog cares for her and how her dog sees her.
ReplyDeleteI read “The Drum” by Nikki Giovanni and in the beginning it’s explaining that the world can be hard and difficult, but at the end it shifts to more positive and the daughter is saying that she’s going to “beat out my own rhythm” meaning she’s going to find her way in this difficult world that her father is explaining to her.
ReplyDeleteI read “the drum” by Nikki Giovanni and I found that the speaker was a child who has the spirit to counter the father’s grim description of the world with their own optimistic take. This brings an inspirational tone and shows the determination that can come with innocence.
ReplyDeleteI read Tulips by A.E. Stallings, where the writer is a person looking at a bed of tulips. At Forest they see the beauty but become ambivalent because of how ephemeral the tulips are. They appreciate them more for this.
ReplyDeleteI read "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" again. In this poem, the speaker is a weary traveller on his way home who has stopped to admire the pure beauty of the woods before eventually continuing home. The shift in the poem is in the final stanza, when the speaker realizes that despite the beauty of the woods, he still has a long ways to go to get home, and he has to continue on his journey home.
ReplyDeleteI read the poem, "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver. In the poem, she compares human life and curiosity to geese, saying how we do not have to be perfect, we just have to be ourselves. It sends a message that you have to find your own path, and whoever you want to be in the world is up to your imagination.
ReplyDeleteI read “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, and the speaker is a soldier who is caught in a gas attack, disillusioned with war and its promised glory. The shift occurs in the last lines, from a reporting narrative to addressing a “friend”, calling them out for the lies they’re telling about war to make it sound more noble than it is.
ReplyDeleteIn Elizabeth Bishop's “The Fish”, the writer catches a big fish and finds it very interesting. While she is studying the fish, she realizes that the fish has gone through a lot of hardships, and eventually lets it go. The mood changes from sad to happy. This is shown when she says "rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!" near the end.
ReplyDeleteI read “the drum” by Nikki Giovanni. The speaker in this poem is a child talking about their fathers metaphor of the world comparing the world to a drum. And the speaker responds that they are going to live their life their own unique way.
ReplyDeleteI read “Equality” by Maya Angelou. The speaker is being treated unfairly, but makes sure to stand her ground and do what she believes in. At the end it says “confess you've heard me crying,
ReplyDeleteand admit you've seen my tears“ and I think it shows that she will continue to fight for equality despite the challenges and ignorance she will have to face from others.
I read "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth. The speaker is a poet who spends a lot of his time appreciating nature. He thinks about his time in nature in order to make himself happy, and uses his imagination to pretend that he's with the flowers that he enjoys.
ReplyDeleteI read "The Landlord's Tale. Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The speaker of the poem is based on the title a landlord who is telling a story (one made famous by this very poem) about american history. The speaker has a somewhat patriotic tone and seems to be trying to spread American ideas to the next generation.
ReplyDeleteI read, “To be of use” by Marge Piercy. The speaker in this poem is a person who surrounds them self with people who work hard. Claiming that those who work hard create, “A shape that satisfies, clean and evident.” Almost, writing in a seroius tone as the author tries to display the outcomes of hard work and what is created .
ReplyDeleteI read “A blurry photograph” by Martha Ronk. Though in the beginning of the poem the said photo was described as blurry and rather undetailed, the more the speaker thought of it, the clearer the photo became. The speaker began noticing things they had not noticed at the first glance.
ReplyDeleteI read "The Drum" by Nikki Giovanni. The speaker is a child or young person who's father says that the world is a difficult place to be ("tight and hard"), indicating that the speaker should fall in line. The speaker replies that they will "beat / out [their] own rhythm," indicating that they will be themselves and follow their own path.
ReplyDeleteI read "Don't Quit" by John Greenleaf Whittier. To me, the speaker is a mentor giving advice to someone who's struggling. The tone is one of understanding and wisdom. This poem makes the reader feel as though the speaker has been through the same things as them; Personally, I think this poem's purpose is to have the speaker act as a mentor when no one else seems to understand the reader.
ReplyDeleteI read "A Blurry Photograph", and I interpreted the speaker as someone looking at a photograph, though they don't quite understand and see it clearly. It gradually shifts as they can see better, and more refined, talking about how we understand other people and ourselves, understanding more and more as time goes on.
ReplyDeleteI read “No use to say” by Wendy Chen. It’s from her perspective of what her early life was like. It’s similar to other Americans but the poem itself says briefly how despite the similar experience she isn’t perceived as American.
ReplyDeleteIn “A person, A paper, A promise” the speaker to me is boy who it is talking about telling his story. The shift really comes in the third stanza when his life becomes worse and he no longer lives an innocent and care free life. The tone of the poem turns from happy to remorseful.
ReplyDeleteI read “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” by William Wordsworth. The speaker someone out wandering and he sees a big field of daffodils. He is out looking at and appreciating nature and it’s beauty.
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