The second poem I chose was "Forgotten Planet" by Doug Dorph. In this poem, flashback, hyperbole, simile, and repetition are used to explore a child's imagination. The first stanza, starts in the present and then flashes back to her own childhood. There are many enjambed lines here which give the poem a narrative feel. He is telling us the story of his childhood. There is then a simile; comparing her father's bulk to that of gravity. The last line of stanza two is a hyperbole saying that she can reach out and poke the sky with her finger it seems so close. He then goes onto say that he has lost this imagination as he has aged and enjoys seeing it through his daughter. His daughter reminds him of this imagination which is why he uses the simile at the end of stanza three that says he spies like a voyeur through his daughter's eyes. In stanza four, he repeats the phrase "On Plunis" making Plunis the place of his imagination. He can go there to be happy and to escape the stresses of his real life. On Plunis, he can be a child again and everything can be ok.
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Contemporary Poetry
I chose "Coloring" by Ronald Koertge because I thought the juxtaposition within the poem was a very different technique. In this poem, Koertge contrasts the childish art of coloring with all of these terrible things like gangrene, sores, nausea, and the Ku Klux Klan. Each color is made to represent a different one of these terrible things. In doing this Koertge employs color imagery so that the diseases and groups he talks about fit the colors; sores are red, the Klan's outfits are white. The use of this juxtaposition bridges two stages of life. As one grows older, the colors one puts on the paper begin to mean more than just random choices. This is why in the third stanza, Koertge stresses that no one has ever majored in coloring in college or won any prizes as an adult. These sort of phrases are hyperbolic in the sense that they take this childish activity to a highly adult level. At the end of the third stanza, the phrase can't see you now is repeated three times in order to stress the point that this idea is so ridiculous of regressing to childish behavior and we would never hear these sort of excuses. In the fourth stanza, he then goes on to explain the cause of this loss of innocence. He blames the whole thing on puberty. He says that this stage in life opens up our view of the world for what it truly is.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Q and A by Ronald Koertge
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this poem because it was entirely new to me and it’s different than all the poems we’ve been reading in class. What really caught my attention are the structure and the form of the poem. It’s written in free verse, and there are five questions that propel the reader throughout the poem. The poet begins with a broad question about a thesaurus in general, and then progresses to posing questions that are more specific and focused on words, such as whether or not they have feelings and if words can “die.” The tone of the poem is didactic, mainly in the stanzas, which present the reader with detailed answers to each of the poet’s five questions. However, the questions take on their own, separate tone that is one of uncertainty and curiousness. Because the poem follows in blank verse, in which each of the five questions separate the different stanzas, the poem’s meaning is revealed through the poet’s tone as well as the poetical devices that he employs. The language is highly descriptive and alliterative from the beginning to the end, which serves to effectively animate the poet’s words that culminate in revealing the tone as well as the meaning of the poem. In the first stanza, the poet employs an interesting simile that turns into a paradox. He compares a thesaurus to a thousand reunions in a hotel, and contrasts it to a dictionary, which he compares to an orderly army. Both similes are paradoxical and highly effective in conveying the meaning to the reader. In the next shorter stanza, he presents the personification of words to a picture that are “burdened with low self-esteem.” This is effective in keeping with the tone and overall meaning of the piece, which revolves around the animation of language- more specifically, words. In the third stanza, the poet’s didactic tone is truly exemplified. He uses asyndeton and specific punctuation to create pauses in his narrative, which forces the reader to stop and reflect on his previous points. Because the entire poem is infused with a unique humor, the poem becomes very entertaining to the reader. The fourth stanza contains another example of personification, which serves to further the animation of words and advance the poet’s humor on the subject. The poet successfully concludes with a humorous and didactic metaphor that effectively resonates with any reader and answers the question on how to remember the parts of speech.
Forgotten Planet by Doug Dorph
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed this prose poem because of the sentimental message that the poet seeks to convey to the reader. Dorph begins the poem in the first person, in which he clearly introduces himself as the speaker of the poem, as well as the father figure. He asks his daughter a question that evokes in him nostalgic memories of his past, in which he remembers a special memory with his own father. In his reminiscence of the memory, he utilizes assonance and consonance that bring music into the piece. For example, the musical repetitions in the first and second stanzas are pleasing for their own sake as well as effective in intensifying the poet’s emotions in reminiscing on the memory. Because this is a prose poem, Dorph utilizes the poetic elements of connotation, imagery, figurative language, and evocative language in order to encapsulate the meaning of the memory and the overall meaning of the poem. The breaks between stanzas represent the poet’s distinction between present events and the past; He begins in the present, then moves back to the past memory, before coming back to the present and ruminating on the future. As imagery pervades the poem, it is highly effective in the second stanza, in which Dorph uses evocative language that generates visual and auditory images in the mind of the reader. This resonates with the reader because now, he or she can mentally form and imagine the vivid and concrete images that he describes. In the third stanza, Dorph comes back to the present. He utilizes hyperbole and simile, which serve to startle the reader as well as convey the intensity of his emotions and ultimate realization. In the final stanza, Dorph employs anaphora, in which he repeats and concludes the poem with, “On Plunis.” This effectively captures his childlike mentality that he develops throughout the memory- first with his daughter, and finally after reminiscing on the memory with his father. Because the punctuation and form of the poem contribute to its easy flow and progression, Dorph is successful in introducing his particular memory that requires the reader’s participation in the act of reminiscence.
My two favorite poems in the packet were "Sidekicks" and "Fat Is Not a Fairytale" because both addressed unique perspectives regarding fairytales and myths, which were reinforced by literary devices. In "Sidekicks," the enjambment of the lines gave off the flowing feeling of reading a storybook. The sidekicks are not formally addressed until line 4, stanza 2 (unless you decipher the title); the ambiguous "they" gives the effect that, like a fairytale, you must get to know the characters to formally describe them and understand them. The caesura in the onset of the second stanza ("But each was brave") reinforces the virtue of a sidekick, despite his disproportionate looks. In the alliteration "bullet or blow," you can hear the bang of a gun or fist directed at the hero. Next, I believe the "perfect face and body" is a metonymy (otherwise simply a description) representing the hero, which is ironic because although everyone reveres the allegedly "perfect" hero, the ugly sidekick is the one with the virtuous, compassionate personality, as he is willing to risk his own life to save his friend's. The reference to "Gabby or Pat, Pancho or Andy" makes the character seem familiar and relatable to the reader. Finally, Koertge makes the sidekick in myths a metaphor for the righteous, dependent part of each of us: the loyal, humble, loving side filled with empathy. The idea of empathy is exemplified in the imagery of the last stanza, in which the sidekick cries in a dark movie theater. Although the auditory and visual imagery in the last stanza is emotion, Koertge demonstrates his comical tone by breaking the sentimentality of the last stanza with the image of the character's enormous nose. I also liked this poem because the narrator is confident; by using never ("They were never handsome" and "heroes never die"), the author establishes creditability for the subject. By using pronouns like "our" and "us," he relates to the reader and puts himself on the same level as all of us.
ReplyDelete"Fat Is Not a Fairytale" is an effective, likable poem with its anaphora, allusions, and euphemisms. First, the author addresses an interesting, relatable topic in a comical, honest voice. Many people agree that all-too-often, skinny woman are the ones perceived as beautiful, popular, and prosperous: there is a need to praise those that are heavy in order to increase their self-esteem and self-respect. In Yolen's poem, the play on words with the allusions of famous fairy-tale princesses is creative and witty. The comical tone is reinforced by euphemisms for fat, such as "tubby," "wasp-waisted," and "round." Also, the imagery within the poem makes the reader laugh, such as when the princess "[flings herself] down the stairs" or when the narrator uses the simile of "fingers as plump as sausages." The repetition of "I am thinking of a fairytale" and the enjambed lines engage the reader and parallel the repetitive nature of the beginning of fairytales (similar to "Once Upon a Time"). The comical voice is again reinforced by the hyperbolic parallelism of the last stanza, where the narrator exclaims that the story of a fat princess is a "world not yet known." The analogy of a round princess with the sun, wheels, and (fittingly) cookies is the icing on the cake to a light-hearted, fun poem handling weighty issues.
I chose "Forgotten Planet" and "The Death of Santa Claus" because they were two poems that dealt with disillusionment and coming of age. In "Forgotten Planet" explores a father who after hearing his daughter incorrectly identify Pluto as Plunis, realizes how "knowledge erodes wonder." The poet uses an anecdote of the narrator as a child, when his father took him to watch a meteor shower, to express the different perspectives of an adult vs. a child. Through the poem, the narrator comes to realize how much wonder and enjoyment is lost over the years once we have explanations for the interesting things in life. Doug Dorph, the author, also employs similes and metaphors to give more of a child's perspective of Plunis. The entirety of the last stanza is a metaphor, using Plunis to express childhood, saying that in his childhood mindset, the narrator is happy. By using this consistent metaphor of Plunis meaning the mindset of a child, it allows the reader to understand the longing for a simpler time.
ReplyDelete"The Death of Santa Claus" takes an experience that every child has to go through (the realization that Santa Claus isn't real) and mournfully describes the literal death of Santa. Much like "Forgotten Planet" metaphor is the prominent literary device throughout the poem. Throughout the poem, a child has come to the conclusion that Santa is not real, and as this idea of Santa Claus dies, as does the literal figure. Once the idea is planted in the child's head that Santa does not exist, then he proceeds to die. The tone of the poem is also very important because it is very mournful until the point in which the narrator begins to place himself in the story, with the words "stupid kids" and "big fake," a childlike voice begins to intrude on the formerly solemn poem, but after the two stanzas of the narrators tale, the final stanza retreats to the solemn tone again as Santa's "death" (aka the death of the idea of Santa) has to be told by the mother.
The first poem I chose was "The Death of Santa Claus" by Charles Webb. Obviously, one of the first things I noticed was the title, which was extremely depressing (even though I guess we all do realize that Santa Claus is a fictional character). This title contrasted with the humorous nature of the first several stanzas of the poem. Although these stanzas were detailing Santa's growing illness, I couldn't help but laugh at lines like "but doctor's don't make house/calls to the North Pole" and "he's let his Blue Cross lapse." If these lines were applied to a different fictional character, one with a different connotation that that associated with Santa, these lines may have been read more seriously. But I read them as being kind of ridiculous. So humor, emphasized through the use of catalog, is definitely one of the central features of this poem. Another important device in Webb's poem is point of view. In the middle of the eighth stanza, an 8-year-old first person narrator is introduced, and suddenly the poem is much less funny. Like Jordan mentioned, the "death" of Santa is something that every child experiences, even if it is only a metaphorical death. The beginning of the poem presents like a narrative, but the first person point of view shift makes the subject much more real. The very last image of the kid's mother with "tears/in her throat" arises much more sympathy in the reader - not because Santa is dying but because the mother is the bearer of the bad news. This shift in POV is extremely effective in arising emotions in the reader.
ReplyDeleteThe next poem I chose was "How to Change a Frog Into a Prince" by Anna Denise because it also had a distinct child-like element that I liked in "The Death of Santa Claus." The subject matter of Denise's poem pokes fun at the childhood fairytale where a princess kisses a frog and transforms him into a prince. However, in this poem, the frog doesn't instantaneously adapt to his prince role, but instead the speaker begs the princess - or whoever is helping the frog - to have patience and understand the transition the frog/prince is undergoing. This presents a different side, much more serious, side to a childish issue, much like "The Death of Santa Claus" did. The tone of Denise's poem is almost somber, but it is mostly didactic, instructing the reader exactly how to treat this frog/prince. In a way, the poem is a metaphor for any child undergoing a transition, in which he or she experiences an "awkward" or "gawky" phase. I liked how both Denise and Webb applied deeper messages to child-like topics in their poems.
My two favorite poems were “Lazarus” and “The Death of Santa Clause.”
ReplyDeleteIn “Lazarus,” the author employs the literary devices of allusion, hyperbole, and irony to convey the humorous tone of this poem. The most central feature of this poem is the allusion to the biblical story of Lazarus, whom Jesus brings back from the dead. This biblical story is supposed to be an example of the power of Christianity and illicit faith, but the way in which this poem is written – the author is expressing the opposite. The hyperbole and irony are used to give the poem an unexpected twist and make it comical. The exaggerated physical state of Lazarus as someone who is actually just brought back from the dead – meaning he is still a rooting corpse – and the subsequent isolation from his friends and family because of his stench and appearance – makes the poem ironic. A reader would expect Lazarus to be grateful for being brought back to life, but instead he takes “God’s name in vain on his cracked and loamy lips.” These literary devices create a comical mockery of a powerful biblical story.
In “The Death of Santa Clause,” I will echo the observations of Becca and Jordan – and agree with them in terms of the central literary devices of this poem being a metaphor, point of view, and allusion. The allusion is to the myth of Santa Clause and everything associated with his seemingly “happy and innocent” tale – living at the North Pole, having a “jelly belly,” working in a “toy factory,” and flying reindeer like Rudolph and his red nose that “blinks like a sad ambulance.” The metaphor, as Jordan aptly pointed out, is one that detracts from the “merry” spirit and humor, as Becca said, of this poem. The illness and impending “death of Santa Clause” is a metaphor for the loss of innocence of a child in terms of still believing in fairytales like that of Santa Cause. The tone of this poem becomes depressing as soon as a little boy begins to narrate. The author of this poem further reinforces this sad realization for the reader with the last stanza that describes the sadness this boy’s mother feels that her son is beginning to leave the ignorant bliss and imagination of childhood – her tears are supposed to be the feeling that a mature reader has by the end of this poem.
I really enjoyed “Cartoon Physics,” even if it was just part 1. It captures the innocence of childhood and was pretty humorous to me. However, I noticed the transition from more innocent unrealistic situations to more serious ones as the poem progresses. Such a transition is not at first obvious, but it is when you read it the second time through. Enjambments are used throughout. The situations often contain hyperbole, which should be expected from the unrealistic conclusions children draw. Catalogue is used to list the various serious matters the narrator thinks should be kept from children, such as “burning houses, car wrecks, ships going down…” The imagery of the situations contributes to the emotion from reading the poem, the humor as well as a sort of nostalgia. Visual imagery predominates with descriptions such as those of the school bus or the sharks. This is not a surprise because the narrator is describing cartoons. The narrator doesn’t have a dominant tone. It can be seen as a bit cynical, or it can also be seen as sarcastic. However, I think the author’s tone is sympathetic, for there is emphasis that children have their own stage of mental development, and as parents or teachers, they should not push them past that stage until they are ready or until it is time. By the end of the poem, he acknowledges that minimizing the seriousness of such situations is ridiculous. However, children have their own world, and there should be a time when they are left to their own wonderful reality.
ReplyDelete“The Hand” was also very enjoyable because I could relate to the subject matter, especially when I look back at younger years, although I was less distracted than described in the poem. There are just so many things that can distract you, whether you’re in school or anywhere else. In this situation, the child is stuck in class when beautiful spring is outside. The teacher calls on you and you know the answer but you’re simply distracted by something more appealing or interesting. “You are the only one in the classroom who knows the answer, because the person in question is yourself… but you don’t raise your hand.” Such a simple act of raising your hand to answer a question that you certainly know is forgone for the even simpler pleasure of embracing a brilliant world elsewhere. That the poem is in second person left me feeling even more relatable to the child in the poem. The visual imagery in the poem wonderfully describes the serene world the child includes, leaving out the world of the classroom which the child excludes. Mary Ruefle’s tone is one of dreaminess. She describes a pleasant world where your hand is lying peacefully on the table and your eyes are looking out towards a wonderful landscape. Ruefle’s poem encapsulates the daydreaming we often used to find ourselves in and that we occasionally still do.
I also liked “Death of Santa Claus” by Charles Webb. It describes a very familiar experience in a unique, clever way. The poet uses many devices to describe the “death” of Santa Claus. Structure, for example, is one effective device. The poem is divided into ten stanzas, each containing three lines that have approximately the same length. This orderliness creates a solemn beat, as if mimicking the inevitability of death. The use of enjambment also contributes to this underlying tone. Examples such as “hospital gown always flap / open” (6-7) and “has grabbed his heart and won’t / stop squeezing” (12-13) force the reader to continue reading without pause, strengthening the theme of fate, specifically death. The speaker also uses a combination of visual imagery and metaphor, which help describe the event of Santa’s death. Memorable examples include: “he feels as if a monster fist / has grabbed his heart and won’t / stop squeezing” (11-13) and “the beautiful white / world he loves goes black” (14-15). These lines create vivid mental pictures for the readers, allowing them to fully experience this event. Overall, the speaker uses many devices to portray this “death.”
ReplyDeleteAnother poem I enjoyed is “Fat is Not a Fairy Tale” by Jane Yolen. While the experience the speaker describes it not something all of us necessarily go through, it is certainly something we can all understand; the obsession with our bodies is prominent in our society. The speaker uses many devices to create a distinct voice describing this situation. As seen in the previous poem, structure is again an important device. Specifically, the speaker often uses repetition; for example, each stanza begins with the line “I am thinking of a fairy tale” (1) and the phrase “for a” (17) is repeated for three consecutive lines in the final stanza. The use of structure helps create a declarative, confident voice that is explaining the troubling situation and a wish for change. Another device, allusion, shows how society tends to portray only thin women as beautiful; for instance, the speaker describes princesses from fairly tales who are “anorexic, wasp-waisted” (6). Thus, allusion helps reinforce the speaker’s descriptions. The speaker also uses metaphors, like the simile “fingers plump as sausage” (14), to demonstrate the contrast between idealized and realistic women. Hence, the speaker uses many devices that contribute to the overarching message of the poem.
I like that everyone above picked the same poems lol I actually liked all the poems in this packet, except maybe The Bagel. I loved that each poem dealt with childhood which is totally relatable (a lot of the other poems we've read i.e. the ones with fish are not relatable at all). Anyway, one of my favorites was "Do you have any advice for those of Us Just Starting Out" (from now on referred to as "Do You"). Koertge breaks the poem up into 7 stanzas. The first and last ones being the shortest ones (first - 2 lines, last - 1 line), which adds to the importance of each line. The first stanza is 3, topographic sentences. The next stanza is 3 lines but composed of one sentence. He uses mostly command verbs to begin his sentences: avoid, give up, leave, go out etc which add to the demanding/educational tone of the poem. By the second stanza, we already know the poem will allude to childhood: "on the front a kitten or a space ship". Koertge tries to express the need to go back to our roots, not take ourselves so seriously. The third stanza also lends itself to this joking mood - Koertge gives examples of 'fake' people or people trying too hard: the image of three people in an enclosed space wearing turtlenecks lends itself to the stereotypical idea of snobby, old men, drinking cognac and the chalet with deer tracks across a tennis courts also lends itself to an image of pretend/falseness - a bunch of people who pretend that they're outdoors, experiencing nature when they're just rich couples. Both the second and third stanzas provide the readers with clear imagery and tone of the poem. The next stanza juxtaposes the living and the dead: the child playing, having fun, while the mother tries to pick a book – but the author’s are all dead. Koertge doesn’t try to say that these author’s are important – more that the living, (the young child) unclouded by what we think or assume is important, is a better guide. The child in the fourth and fifth stanza serves as a metaphor for life: we shouldn’t take our cues from the dead, the old, the ‘fake’, rather the young, the innocent with vision (where the covers or colors of a book don’t mean anything). The final stanzas are meant to really emphasize the final points of the poem. The last line is topographic and separated from the rest of the stanzas, occupying its own line. The second to last lines are also emphasized. There’s a caesura with the semi colon so we really do have to listen. And the use of end stop lines rather than run on lines adds to the dialogue the reader has with Koertge.
ReplyDelete(sorry two posts - the blog got mad at me when i tried to post it all together)
ReplyDeleteThe other poem I really liked was “Knowledge”. The structure first is interesting. There’s 12 stanzas, the first 11 with two lines and the last one with one line. The last stanza seems to lend itself to being broken into two lines. Instead though, Memmer purposefully puts “what darkness does.” with “Another what? I ask.” I’m not really sure why he does this, though I do think that the period adds a nice emphasis as a caesura. The first line opens with consonance: friend and again. He also uses a lot of imagery: trickle, wet, hissing, black, gray, red, burn. This adds to the concepts in the poem, lends the readers to question what we actually feel. And then, it seems as if the entire poem is a metaphor – the barbeque with the friend actually representing humanity’s silliness. The tone of the poem is one of bored tolerance: the friend’s been repeating this same philosophy over and over, the narrator doesn’t subscribe to it, rather mocking it. Lending to this ambiguous philosophy are the last lines: “as the darkness begins to do what darkness does.” It’s a very vague line, just like what the philosopher friend is describing. “Another What” in the last line could represent the actual confusion of the narrator but also the speaker’s boredom. Or, it could also imply the hole in the philosopher’s theory: if we don’t feel the coals, what else do we have? What’s the other alternative?
The first poem I picked was "The Bagel". This was one of my favorites because it was amusing, and yet, surprisingly relatable. David Ignatow did a good job of using visual imagery to describe the motion of the bagel, and his frustration after he chases after it. This is exemplified through his repetitive use of the word "faster" which makes the motion of the bagel seem ceaseless and continuous. I also liked how he described how he "gritted [his] teeth" because I could really picture his frustration and anger. At the end of the poem it was clear how he progressively became more exaggerated in his description. Once he got to the part where he "doubles over and rolls down the street" I began to question the validity of his poem, and if it actually happened. Thus, he makes use of hyperboles to describe his own motion as he rolls down the street like the bagel.
ReplyDeleteThe other poem I liked was "Sidekicks". This poem makes use of enjambment, as seen by the breaks in sentences. Koertge also makes use of similes. For instance, when he describes the ears of the sidekick, he describes them to be "as big as kidneys". Overall, I liked this poem because in a way, it was relatable because I knew exactly what the author was talking about. I also like the fact that the author gives credence to a figure/archetype that is often cast aside, and never gets to be in the spotlight.
The first poem I selected was "The Death of Santa Clause" by Charles Webb. The reason I liked this poem was mainly because of its tone. It was innocent and naive, and reminded me of my childhood. The author uses specific literary devices to convey this tone. The most prevalent device used is enjambment. Every line is unfinished and the reader is forced to continue. There is one exception in the center of a line where a cesura occurs. Furthermore, incorrect capitalization, punctuation, and the use of run on sentences contributes to the tone of the poem. Similes such as "he feels as if a monster fist has grabbed his heart" and internal rhymes add to the piece as a whole.
ReplyDeleteThe second poem I chose was "The Hand" by Mary Ruefle. This poem, although still rather innocent, had a different tone in that it was conceited and egotistical. The narrator is self-assured and feels as if he is the center of his world. This is further proven by the literary devices used throughout the piece. Most prevalent once again is enjambment, but only in the beginning of the poem. By the end of the poem, end stopped lines are used frequently; perhaps this is indicative of the growing confidence of the narrator. Metaphors and hyperbole is used as well.
The first poem that I chose was "Fat Is Not a Fairytale" by Jane Yolen. The poem conveys a consistent humorous tone as she plays off of the titles of so many fairytales of our pasts. It is clear that the primary literary device that Yolen uses is allusions. All of these allusions are used as a means of satire to our conception of fairytales, where all women are unflawed and uncommonly thin. She uses similes such as "fingers plump as sausage" to convey images of the type of women she is envisioning for this future fairytale. I really liked reading this poem because in addition to its humorous tone, it provided me with a perspective of my childhood fairytales which I had never really before considered.
ReplyDeleteThe second poem I chose was "The Bagel" by David Ignatow. Again, the humorous tone is present (I like funny poems) and I felt as if I could personally relate because I know the struggles of chasing after things rolling down hills and looking like a complete fool. One literary device used is emjambment as you are forced to read onto the next line to see where the story may take you with the rolling bagel. It almost feels as if the structure mimics the text as you roll down the lines, turn after turn, line after line. When he makes the metaphor of comparing himself to a bagel I realized that Ignatow did not mind the struggle of chasing the bagel because once he rolled as the bagel did, he was perfectly content.