Saturday, May 25, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Poetry Essay prompt #2
I didn't want to complicate my life very much so I used one of the first prompts...
Devices: anaphora (of "and"), repetition of "my", and tone of melancholy
Essay Response:
To work so closely with someone, one can't help but develop a bond that transcends the boundary between teacher and loved one. In Theodore Roethke's "Elegy to Jane" depicts a speaker who laments the death of a student and the tone indicates that her absence has caused him great grief. With the repetition of "my", the speaker conveys that that he deeply cares about her. Finally, anaphora is used in the first stanza to indicate a list of her characteristics as he personifies branches and objects and compares them to her natural beauty.
The tone can be seen throughout the poem as the speaker conveys melancholy as he laments her absence. He wishes deeply to bring her back, to see her one last time and feel her presence but he can't and she can't hear as he talks over her grave. He laments not being able to tell her his feelings. He misses her and this elegy is meant to convey his feelings of sorrow.
The repetition of "my" shows the audience that the speaker cares deeply about Jane. This can be seen with the phrase "my love" that he wishes to tell her but he wasn't her lover or her father, but I'm sure he was a bit of both as a teacher figure in her life. "My" is also a form of ownership as he clings to her in a possessive manner and clings to her memory.
Finally, the speaker uses anaphora of "and" to describe her characteristics and compare them to nature. The speaker gives describes her beauty in detail as he is in awe of her. He uses personification of things in nature, such as branches, to juxtaposition her natural beauty with nature. This conveys that Jane's beauty is as natural and graceful and nature yet still in a different category entirely. He finds her to be his world, her beauty engulfed his spirit beguiled.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Roethke found Jane to be more than just beautiful. Her death was unexpected he never got the chance to tell her his feelings. Because of that, this poem is filled with lament and the tone is gloomy and filled with melancholy as he mourns her unexpected passing. Her beauty beguiled him and this can be seen with the use of personification and anaphora. The repetition of my conveys his possessive and yet sincere feelings for her.
.
Poem reminded me of Wuthering heights. The speaker laments the death of a loved one as he stands over her grave whispering "I love you"
1970 Poem: “Elegy for Jane” (Theodore Roethke)
Prompt: Write an essay in which you describe the speaker's attitude toward his former student, Jane.
Elegy for Jane
(My student, thrown by a horse)
(My student, thrown by a horse)
I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils;
And her quick look, a sidelong pickerel smile;
And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her,
And she balanced in the delight of her thought,
A wren, happy, tail into the wind,
Her song trembling the twigs and small branches.
The shade sang with her;
The leaves, their whispers turned to kissing,
And the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose.
Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a pure depth,
Even a father could not find her:
Scraping her cheek against straw,
Stirring the clearest water.
My sparrow, you are not here,
Waiting like a fern, making a spiney shadow.
The sides of wet stones cannot console me,
Nor the moss, wound with the last light.
If only I could nudge you from this sleep,
My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon.
Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love:
I, with no rights in this matter,
Neither father nor lover.
Pre-writeAnd her quick look, a sidelong pickerel smile;
And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her,
And she balanced in the delight of her thought,
A wren, happy, tail into the wind,
Her song trembling the twigs and small branches.
The shade sang with her;
The leaves, their whispers turned to kissing,
And the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose.
Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a pure depth,
Even a father could not find her:
Scraping her cheek against straw,
Stirring the clearest water.
My sparrow, you are not here,
Waiting like a fern, making a spiney shadow.
The sides of wet stones cannot console me,
Nor the moss, wound with the last light.
If only I could nudge you from this sleep,
My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon.
Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love:
I, with no rights in this matter,
Neither father nor lover.
Devices: anaphora (of "and"), repetition of "my", and tone of melancholy
Essay Response:
To work so closely with someone, one can't help but develop a bond that transcends the boundary between teacher and loved one. In Theodore Roethke's "Elegy to Jane" depicts a speaker who laments the death of a student and the tone indicates that her absence has caused him great grief. With the repetition of "my", the speaker conveys that that he deeply cares about her. Finally, anaphora is used in the first stanza to indicate a list of her characteristics as he personifies branches and objects and compares them to her natural beauty.
The tone can be seen throughout the poem as the speaker conveys melancholy as he laments her absence. He wishes deeply to bring her back, to see her one last time and feel her presence but he can't and she can't hear as he talks over her grave. He laments not being able to tell her his feelings. He misses her and this elegy is meant to convey his feelings of sorrow.
The repetition of "my" shows the audience that the speaker cares deeply about Jane. This can be seen with the phrase "my love" that he wishes to tell her but he wasn't her lover or her father, but I'm sure he was a bit of both as a teacher figure in her life. "My" is also a form of ownership as he clings to her in a possessive manner and clings to her memory.
Finally, the speaker uses anaphora of "and" to describe her characteristics and compare them to nature. The speaker gives describes her beauty in detail as he is in awe of her. He uses personification of things in nature, such as branches, to juxtaposition her natural beauty with nature. This conveys that Jane's beauty is as natural and graceful and nature yet still in a different category entirely. He finds her to be his world, her beauty engulfed his spirit beguiled.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Roethke found Jane to be more than just beautiful. Her death was unexpected he never got the chance to tell her his feelings. Because of that, this poem is filled with lament and the tone is gloomy and filled with melancholy as he mourns her unexpected passing. Her beauty beguiled him and this can be seen with the use of personification and anaphora. The repetition of my conveys his possessive and yet sincere feelings for her.
.
POETRY ESSAY PROMPT #1
Prompt: The following two poems are about Helen of Troy. Renowned in the ancient world for her beauty, Helen was the wife of Menelaus, a Greek King. She was carried off to Troy by the Trojan prince Paris, and her abduction was the immediate cause of the Trojan War. Read the two poems carefully. Considering such elements as speaker, diction, imagery, form, and tone, write a well-organized essay in which you contrast the speakers’ views of Helen.
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!
Prewrite:
Poe devices: simile, alliteration, imagery, ab ab poem meter
H.D. devices: aa bb meter, simile, imagery, anaphora
Essay Response 1
Although H.D. and Edgar Allan Poe each wrote a poem with the same name of "Helen," their views couldn't be more divergent. Poe conveys Helen's beauty and delicacy through the use of alliteration and imagery. H.D. conveys the opposite view and downsizes Helen's beauty with the use of simile and imagery. The commonality between these two authors is that they use her beauty as a tool to persuade the readers to either revere her or abhor through the use of literary devices.
With a tone of revere and imagery, Poe portrays Helen like a goddess. Poe uses the simile and alliteration to show compare Helen beauty's to the emotions of a log that is traveling back to its homeland to be reunited. With the use of ab ab meter, he conveys a tone of respect because he is awe-struck by her beauty and she is his definition of beauty.
H.D. contrasts with a tone of abhorrence and imagery that paints the picture of a monster. H.D. uses paralellism in the first two stanzas and anaphora to convey his attitude toward Helen is that of hatred and bitterness towards her beauty. The image that H.D. paints the image of Helen being on a funeral cypres and insinuates that that will bring peace and happiness to Greece.
H.D. and Poe have different views about Helen's beauty but they are similar in that they use her beauty to convey their opinions. Poe uses alliteration and tone to convey her in a prestigious light. While H.D. uses tone, parallelism and imagery to convey Helen in a not very flattering light.
A more H.D.-like Helen (portrayed by Sienna Guillroy)
A more Poe-like Helen (portrayed by Diane Kruger)
Helen
All Greece hates
the still eyes in the white face,
the lustre as of olives
where she stands,
and the white hands.
All Greece reviles
the wan face when she smiles,
hating it deeper still
when it grows wan and white,
remembering past enchantments
and past ills.
Greece sees unmoved,
God’s daughter, born of love,
the beauty of cool feet
and slenderest knees,
could love indeed the maid,
only if she were laid,
white ash amid funereal cypresses.
To Helen
By Edgar Allan Poe
Like those Nicean barks of yore
That gently, o'er a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer bore
To his own native shore.
On desperate seas long wont to roam,
Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face,
Thy Naiad airs have brought me home
To the glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo, in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand,
Ah! Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy Land!
Prewrite:
Poe devices: simile, alliteration, imagery, ab ab poem meter
H.D. devices: aa bb meter, simile, imagery, anaphora
Essay Response 1
Although H.D. and Edgar Allan Poe each wrote a poem with the same name of "Helen," their views couldn't be more divergent. Poe conveys Helen's beauty and delicacy through the use of alliteration and imagery. H.D. conveys the opposite view and downsizes Helen's beauty with the use of simile and imagery. The commonality between these two authors is that they use her beauty as a tool to persuade the readers to either revere her or abhor through the use of literary devices.
With a tone of revere and imagery, Poe portrays Helen like a goddess. Poe uses the simile and alliteration to show compare Helen beauty's to the emotions of a log that is traveling back to its homeland to be reunited. With the use of ab ab meter, he conveys a tone of respect because he is awe-struck by her beauty and she is his definition of beauty.
H.D. contrasts with a tone of abhorrence and imagery that paints the picture of a monster. H.D. uses paralellism in the first two stanzas and anaphora to convey his attitude toward Helen is that of hatred and bitterness towards her beauty. The image that H.D. paints the image of Helen being on a funeral cypres and insinuates that that will bring peace and happiness to Greece.
H.D. and Poe have different views about Helen's beauty but they are similar in that they use her beauty to convey their opinions. Poe uses alliteration and tone to convey her in a prestigious light. While H.D. uses tone, parallelism and imagery to convey Helen in a not very flattering light.
Groupthink...
We were supposed to meet on Thursday but due to circumstances I wasn't able to attend the session... If I had, I'm sure there would have been different interpretations of the various poems that we managed to assign to each other.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)