Blog #3

Poem Number One:

The Pool Players

Seven at the Golden Shovel

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

The poem We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks has an interesting, yet seemingly simple form to it. Firstly, the poem is broken int four separate stanzas, equaling eight lines in total. The poem is also split into eight sentences, however the first word of all of them, except the first sentence, is on the line above it. Because of this, every line has only three words in it, minus the first, which has four, and then eventually the last that only has two words. So it goes 4 words, 3 words, and then finally 2 words. Moving onto the rhythm of the poem, every stanza has a word that rhymes. However because of the addition of 'We' to the end of each line, the rhythm is not actually at the end, but before.  Another point to note is that, though all the lines appear to rhyme, only the first and third stanza actually do. "Cool' and "school', 'Late' and "Straight". "Sin' and 'Gin' , and finally "June" and 'Soon.".

In the italics is a little stanza that helps develop the setting of the poem. We can derive that takes place in a club/bar named "the Golden Shovel' and the we in this poem are actually a group of pool players. The addition of the 'we' at the end of every line, making it the most frequent word, shows how connected these boys are. The positioning of the word also subconsciously makes the reader need to keep reading, and have to look back to remember what is going on, keeping them hooked to the poem. Because of this, it also puts the actions at the beginning of the line, putting emphasis on the idea, that maybe these seven pool players do not take pride in the actions they take, and are trying to remove them as far as they can from them.

Poem Number Two:

    alongthehorizongrewanunbrokenlineoftrees

_____________________________________________

The form of the poem, takes place in one single sentence and then a straight line directly underneath it. There is also no punctuation or grammar in the poem. The meaning of the poem, however is describing a line of unbroken treas somewhere,  on the horizon.

What makes this poem so interesting, is that the way it is set up, is like a visual depiction of what the author is talking about. The line of words with no spaces, depicting the line of treats, unbroken and growing. And the line underneath the poem, describing the horizon, in which the trees grow. It is also interesting to note, that the author used 'grew' instead of 'grow'. Because of this, the author may be attempting to preserve the look of the trees, that no longer grow, and will eventually fade and disappear.

Entry #2

In today's society, the most common form of poetry people deal with on a day to day basis, isn't out of a book, but instead  lyrics to a song. While many songs today have lost much meaning, there are still thousands of artists who write lyrics with a meaning that can be interpreted through one of the several several critical approaches, in this case psychoanalysis (Understanding the authors feelings, or feelings they are trying to present).  An example would be the song Safe Upon The Shore by Great Big Sea. (Which actually does not use any music, just the singers voices)

The song, in basic terms is about a woman whose lover died out to see, and his body drifted back towards land. The artists used imagery to help convey the heartbreak felt by the woman, and the pure misery. Through lyrics like:

"As she drew near, she felt the fear that something was astray.
His mouth was slack and his blue eyes stared blindly at the day.
And in a daze, she turned her gaze from the corpse the driftwood bore,
and the cold cold sea pushed ruthlessly, safe upon the shore'

 The poem overall gives a very depressing and love sick feeling to it. And it does this by the effective word choice and chilling story. It reads very simply, but words like 'ruthlessly','corpse' and the final line of "Someone weeps as her loves sleeps, safe upon the shore' evoke very strong reactions from the audience of sadness.

First Blog Entry

           In the textbook " Literature and the Writing Process (Canadian Edition)" McMahan explains there are several critical approaches to interpreting literature. Out of these 8 approaches, the 'Reader Response' approach is the most appealing to myself. In this approach, a person is thought to bring their own personal experiences and thoughts to the text being presented. From this, a text can bring a different and unique meaning to every different person who reads it. This approach is most appealing to me, because it allows a unique viewpoint to each person. Although there can be several common themes among every reader,  every reader can give their own viewpoints that many people can relate or disagree to. It is less of a professional view, in the sense that it does not need outside work, and is not interpreted purely on facts, but what the article means to an individual.  A good example of this is on page 823 of the text stating:

                            "For example, when J. Alfred Prufrock asks, 'Do I dare to eat a peach?' one reader may think that Prufrock is worried about the embarrassing messiness of consuming a ripe peach, another may think that he fears looking greedy, and another may decide that the peach is a feminine symbol and Prufrock fears the sex act. All of these thoughts are defensible using other evidence within the poem, and all are probably projections of the reader's own fears."

This approach relies on the readers own interpretation along with the text prescribed. It lets a new viewpoint in that is not only just facts and universal meanings.



       "Literature and the Writing Process (Canadian Edition)" has many poems, all of which can be analyzed through the above approach of Reader Response.  The poem "Home Is So Sad" by Phillip Larkin is a good example for a Reader Response interpretation.  The poem is about the author who has had a trauma happen in their house, and they cannot put aside what has happened, a sexual assault , and the figurative 'theft' of innocence. The author has been unable to move anything from its position such as the pictures, cutlery, and a vase, that was used to hurt the author and by keeping everything in the same position they force themselves to relive it, stuck in a house that is not a home. "That vase." is the last line in the poem, was something close to the author that the assailant used against them, to hurt them mentally.