"You know, I dream sometimes about flying. It starts out like I’m running really, really fast. I’m like, superhuman. And the terrain starts to get really rocky and steep. And then I’m running so fast that my feet aren’t touching the ground. And I’m floating, and it’s like this amazing, amazing realness. I’m free. I’m safe. Then I realize… I’m completely alone... And then I wake up." -- 500 Days of Summer
Dreams are made of desires, fears, and everyday occurances. As said in psychology, dreams are the place where the subconcious can speak, so when I first read this poem by Lucille Clifton, this is what initially came to mind.
I imagined a person dreaming, haunted by this lady with wild hair, talking about regret.
"And she twisted her wild hair
and sparked her wild eyes
and screamed as long as
I could hear her..."
What I realized however, is that I don't think the person was literally dreaming but day-dreaming. She feels regret on how she handled a situation. Everybody always wonders how a situation could have potentially gone different, what could have been said, what could have been done -- this idea infects your mind until it's hard to concentrate on anything else.
"what
i pleaded with her, could I do,
oh what could I have done?"
This is her talking to her subconcious, recollecting what she could have done differently.
"This. This. This."
The poem ends with her subconcious telling her "this, this this," is what you could've done differently.
The emphasis of the whole poem is centered around the last line. Clifton makes the tone of the poem to be that of desapair -- and almost with some hope in it. By ending the poem with "This. This. This" (emphasis on the periods) the despair is put to an end, and the person begins to accept the fact that he/she cannot change what has happened. This whole poem is one stanza long, which I think is a way to emphasise the imagery in the poem. Her despair is the tone of the poem by using phrases like "pleaded" and "what my days had come to." I think the poem is a little too sad for my taste, but I kind of like it. :)
P.S. I asked my dad what he thought of the poem, and he said that he thought it was a man that was the main person of the poem -- I thought it was a woman. Maybe we realte ourselves to people in the poem?
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
My list ... so far :]
This is my bucket list, per se, I've gotten ideas from everywhere, but I hope that this list grows. :]
P.S I tried to be sneaky and put in really easy ones so it would disguise the difficult ones, and maybe seeing the easy ones, my mind would automatically stumble upon the hard ones and say, "the other ones were so easy, I'm sure these are cake too!" So then maybe I might actually do them, and then I would win. ...And winning is always fun.
Here goes nothing ...
1. Meet Zooey Deschanel (One of my more ridiculous ones :))
2. Grow my hair out long
3. Jump out of a plane
4. Get published in the newspaper
5. Run in a fancy dress for charity
6. Plant a tree and carve my name in it7. Go on a vacation with no luggage
8. Blow one month's wages on shoes
9. Meditate for 3 hours in one sitting
10. Ride a giant rollercoaster
11. Surf and Snowboard in the same day
12. Build a tree house
13. View a house I can't afford
14. Leave a love note on a windshield
15. Wear a fancy dress for the whole day
17. Take a vow of silence for one day
18. Send a message in a bottle
19. Kick a nasty habit20. Send my parents on a trip
21. Buy jewelery from Tiffany and Co.
22. Sew an outfit and wear it
23. Sing on a subway with my headphones in
24. Go without a cell phone for a week.
25. Be a vegetarian for 21 days
26. Get a Master's Degree27. Take a picture of myself everyday for a year
28. Travel to Greece
29. Intake nothing but water for 48 hours
30. Take a chance.
Rock bottom is a beautiful start.
I totally recommend doing a list. It was lots of fun, and it doesn't hurt to have goals and dreams :)
P.S. Mrs White, I'm so glad you had us do blogs -- it's quite possibly one of my favorite things to do.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
The Cat by Miroslav Holub
Sorry this poetry response is late; I haven't had lots of time and I didn't want to throw something together and do a bad response. Anyways, this week, I decided to do a response on The Cat by Miroslav Holub. :)
The first time I read through it, I immediately knew that this was a poem that had to be read out loud.
So I did.
I noticed that there were many pauses in the poem. The words are separated and indented that it causes the reader to take some unnecessary pauses.
For example the first stanza:
Outside it was night
like a book without letters.
And the eternal dark
dripped to the stars through the sieve of the
city.
'Dripped' and 'city' are interrupted by the spacing. I feel like Holub wrote it this way to be more poetic. By spacing it this way, the pauses almost make the poem seem more eloquent. It also seems that with every new line of a word, it's a new comparison. The eternal dark is dripped to the stars, through the city.
This whole poem is about a black cat that leaves, but the person doesn't want it to. I don't think it's a literal interpretation of an actual cat, but perhaps a lost friend.
"I said to her
do not go
why want
nothing?"
I feel like this is the moment when someone is about to go, that you use any excuse to stop them. It's too painful to let them leave like that without trying to at least stop them, so you resort to any option that you possibly can -- even if it sounds ridiculous.
The tone of the poem is extremely pensive and gloomy. I don't think it's necessarily a sad, depressed tone, but a "what's-the-meaning-of-life" tone -- which don't get me wrong, can be depressing. There are 6 stanzas that have no particular pattern. I think the reason why some stanzas are shorter than others is the poet doesn't have anything to say to the person leaving, and for the effect. Something with meaning hits a person harder when the line is shorter.
In the end, the person leaves. And both people are left feeling empty. "The cat" may feel resent for leaving and the person sorrow. The last stanza is what really gives the feeling of gloom and sound. Holub mentions how sometimes, when you try and listen for the cat, you hear your own self.
"a black cat into the black night,
she dissolved
a black cat in the black night,
she just dissolved
and no one ever saw her again.
Not even she herself."
Beautiful.
The first time I read through it, I immediately knew that this was a poem that had to be read out loud.
So I did.
I noticed that there were many pauses in the poem. The words are separated and indented that it causes the reader to take some unnecessary pauses.
For example the first stanza:
Outside it was night
like a book without letters.
And the eternal dark
dripped to the stars through the sieve of the
city.
'Dripped' and 'city' are interrupted by the spacing. I feel like Holub wrote it this way to be more poetic. By spacing it this way, the pauses almost make the poem seem more eloquent. It also seems that with every new line of a word, it's a new comparison. The eternal dark is dripped to the stars, through the city.
This whole poem is about a black cat that leaves, but the person doesn't want it to. I don't think it's a literal interpretation of an actual cat, but perhaps a lost friend.
"I said to her
do not go
why want
nothing?"
I feel like this is the moment when someone is about to go, that you use any excuse to stop them. It's too painful to let them leave like that without trying to at least stop them, so you resort to any option that you possibly can -- even if it sounds ridiculous.
The tone of the poem is extremely pensive and gloomy. I don't think it's necessarily a sad, depressed tone, but a "what's-the-meaning-of-life" tone -- which don't get me wrong, can be depressing. There are 6 stanzas that have no particular pattern. I think the reason why some stanzas are shorter than others is the poet doesn't have anything to say to the person leaving, and for the effect. Something with meaning hits a person harder when the line is shorter.
In the end, the person leaves. And both people are left feeling empty. "The cat" may feel resent for leaving and the person sorrow. The last stanza is what really gives the feeling of gloom and sound. Holub mentions how sometimes, when you try and listen for the cat, you hear your own self.
...Maybe it wasn't a friend. Maybe you lost a bit of yourself.
"a black cat into the black night,
she dissolved
a black cat in the black night,
she just dissolved
and no one ever saw her again.
Not even she herself."
Beautiful.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Introduction to Poetry
The poem we totally read at the beginning of the year. :) I think this poem is a very nice representation of where we all were at the beginning of the year, and our understanding of the poem was pretty accurate except now we have more experience. We were once at the point that this poem represents: trying to "beat" the meaning out of a poem or asking it to confess.
"I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with a rope
and torture a confession out of it."
I think the speaker of the poem is a teacher trying to teach his/her students how to read a poem. The teacher is trying to convince the students that a poem is beauty that can be percieved in many different ways. But eager, the students rip open the poem and try to get the one meaning out of it.
The poet set up his poem in 7 stanzas, with no set line numbers in each one. He has on line that is left by itself:
"or press an ear against its hive."
I think he did this since it's the only imagery that requires sound. By leaving this line by itself, it's almost as if it's quiet before you read this line, and then you hear the buzzing.
Although billy Collins doesn't use a rhyme scheme, I loved the imagery and personification he put into this poem. Waterskiing, feeling for a light switch, watching a mouse find it's way out -- it's so vivid and fun. :) I thoroughly enjoyed this poem; even more so now that it's the second time I've looked at it.
"I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore
But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with a rope
and torture a confession out of it."
I think the speaker of the poem is a teacher trying to teach his/her students how to read a poem. The teacher is trying to convince the students that a poem is beauty that can be percieved in many different ways. But eager, the students rip open the poem and try to get the one meaning out of it.
The poet set up his poem in 7 stanzas, with no set line numbers in each one. He has on line that is left by itself:
"or press an ear against its hive."
I think he did this since it's the only imagery that requires sound. By leaving this line by itself, it's almost as if it's quiet before you read this line, and then you hear the buzzing.
Although billy Collins doesn't use a rhyme scheme, I loved the imagery and personification he put into this poem. Waterskiing, feeling for a light switch, watching a mouse find it's way out -- it's so vivid and fun. :) I thoroughly enjoyed this poem; even more so now that it's the second time I've looked at it.
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