Blog Assignment #2
1) Many emotions come to mind when I got done reading the poems. One was the feeling of hopelessness and the feeling that I was alone. A nasty dark feeling that can only be described as having complete darkness take over me.
2) The images that I picked are dark just like the poems themselves.
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/darkness.html
We Real Cool
Sun hidden behind clouds in dark sky at sunset
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Portrait of a Young Woman in a Dark Tropical Landscape
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
Old boot in Dark Railway Tunnels
Monday, October 5, 2009
Blog Assignment #1:
1) Poetry is the feeling that you get when you express your deep thoughts and feeling in writing or lyrical versus.
2) To me if you’re going to write a poem you need to have a reason or a statement that can be expressed in your poem. A poem has to have passion behind it. Something that is not a poem would be something that is dry and has no real meaning behind it. It wouldn’t make you think or even make you want to express yourself.
3) Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917 and raised in Chicago. She is the author of more than twenty books of poetry. In 1968 she was named Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois, and from 1985-86 she was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She also received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Frost Medal, a National Endowment for the Arts award, the Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Foundation. She lived in Chicago until her death on December 3, 2000.
Gary Soto Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in April, 1952, to working-class Mexican-American parents. He studied poetry at the University of California, Irvine, where he earned his MFA in 1976. Influenced by a variety of poets, including Pablo Neruda and Edward Field, Soto writes poems that focus on daily experiences, often reflecting on his life as a Chicano. "Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a life."
These poems to me express deep thought that to me are some of the key essentials when it comes to poetry.
1) Poetry is the feeling that you get when you express your deep thoughts and feeling in writing or lyrical versus.
2) To me if you’re going to write a poem you need to have a reason or a statement that can be expressed in your poem. A poem has to have passion behind it. Something that is not a poem would be something that is dry and has no real meaning behind it. It wouldn’t make you think or even make you want to express yourself.
3) Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917 and raised in Chicago. She is the author of more than twenty books of poetry. In 1968 she was named Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois, and from 1985-86 she was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She also received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, the Frost Medal, a National Endowment for the Arts award, the Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from The Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Foundation. She lived in Chicago until her death on December 3, 2000.
Gary Soto Gary Soto was born in Fresno, California, in April, 1952, to working-class Mexican-American parents. He studied poetry at the University of California, Irvine, where he earned his MFA in 1976. Influenced by a variety of poets, including Pablo Neruda and Edward Field, Soto writes poems that focus on daily experiences, often reflecting on his life as a Chicano. "Gary Soto's poems are fast, funny, heartening, and achingly believable, like Polaroid love letters, or snatches of music heard out of a passing car; patches of beauty like patches of sunlight; the very pulse of a life."
These poems to me express deep thought that to me are some of the key essentials when it comes to poetry.
the sonnet-ballad
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
They took my lover's tallness off to war,
Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guess
What I can use an empty heart-cup for.
He won't be coming back here any more.
Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew
When he went walking grandly out that door
That my sweet love would have to be untrue.
Would have to be untrue. Would have to court
Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange
Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)
Can make a hard man hesitate--and change.
And he will be the one to stammer, "Yes."
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
by Gwendolyn Brooks
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
They took my lover's tallness off to war,
Left me lamenting. Now I cannot guess
What I can use an empty heart-cup for.
He won't be coming back here any more.
Some day the war will end, but, oh, I knew
When he went walking grandly out that door
That my sweet love would have to be untrue.
Would have to be untrue. Would have to court
Coquettish death, whose impudent and strange
Possessive arms and beauty (of a sort)
Can make a hard man hesitate--and change.
And he will be the one to stammer, "Yes."
Oh mother, mother, where is happiness?
Who Will Know Us?
by Gary Soto
for Jaroslav Seifert
It is cold, bitter as a penny.
I'm on a train, rocking toward the cemetery
To visit the dead who now
Breathe through the grass, through me,
Through relatives who will come
And ask, Where are you?
Cold. The train with its cargo
Of icy coal, the conductor
With his loose buttons like heads of crucified saints,
His mad puncher biting zeros through tickets.
The window that looks onto its slate of old snow.
Cows. The barbed fences throat-deep in white.
Farm houses dark, one wagon
With a shivering horse.
This is my country, white with no words,
House of silence, horse that won't budge
To cast a new shadow. Fence posts
That are the people, spotted cows the machinery
That feed Officials. I have nothing
Good to say. I love Paris
And write, "Long Live Paris!"
I love Athens and write,
"The great book is still in her lap."
Bats have intrigued me,
The pink vein in a lilac.
I've longed to open an umbrella
In an English rain, smoke
And not give myself away,
Drink and call a friend across the room,
Stomp my feet at the smallest joke.
But this is my country.
I walk a lot, sleep.
I eat in my room, read in my room,
And make up women in my head —
Nostalgia, the cigarette lighter from before the war,
Beauty, tears that flow inward to feed its roots.
The train. Red coal of evil.
We are its passengers, the old and young alike.
Who will know us when we breathe through the grass?
by Gary Soto
for Jaroslav Seifert
It is cold, bitter as a penny.
I'm on a train, rocking toward the cemetery
To visit the dead who now
Breathe through the grass, through me,
Through relatives who will come
And ask, Where are you?
Cold. The train with its cargo
Of icy coal, the conductor
With his loose buttons like heads of crucified saints,
His mad puncher biting zeros through tickets.
The window that looks onto its slate of old snow.
Cows. The barbed fences throat-deep in white.
Farm houses dark, one wagon
With a shivering horse.
This is my country, white with no words,
House of silence, horse that won't budge
To cast a new shadow. Fence posts
That are the people, spotted cows the machinery
That feed Officials. I have nothing
Good to say. I love Paris
And write, "Long Live Paris!"
I love Athens and write,
"The great book is still in her lap."
Bats have intrigued me,
The pink vein in a lilac.
I've longed to open an umbrella
In an English rain, smoke
And not give myself away,
Drink and call a friend across the room,
Stomp my feet at the smallest joke.
But this is my country.
I walk a lot, sleep.
I eat in my room, read in my room,
And make up women in my head —
Nostalgia, the cigarette lighter from before the war,
Beauty, tears that flow inward to feed its roots.
The train. Red coal of evil.
We are its passengers, the old and young alike.
Who will know us when we breathe through the grass?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Terrance Love
#1 the setting is dark and lonely. It is grief stricken and full of blind despair. The idea of a well lighted place is significant because the old man seems to always be casted in shadows and gloomy darkness. The café is something that sticks out and is bright with hope for the old man. It may even symbolize hope, maybe even relief from pain.
#2 the characters are nameless because the author wanted to really focus on the story not the characters.
#3 the connection between the old man and the older waiter in the story is clear to me because they have more of an understanding. The older waiter knows that the old man sees the café as a place where he can come to escape the darkness, even if it is just for a couple of hours. The purpose of the younger waiter is too contradict the older waiter and the man. His purpose to me is to not see or understand what they do in the light of the café.
#4 the plot is the fact that the old man is lonely and that leads to him drinking. This cast shadows through his life and makes him want to commit suicide. The rising action would be the waiters talking about why they think he is there drinking all of the time. The complication would be that the old man continues to keep getting drunk and by doing that the waiters seem to think that he is even more depressed. The conflict would be that the old man is lonely and comes to drink the darkness away and keep from killing himself. The climax would be that they found out that the old man tried to kill himself but failed thanks to his niece. The falling action would be that they tell the old man that he needs to leave because the café is closing.
#5 the theme is that even from the darkest places you can always find a well lighted area of hope.
Biographical Summary
Ernest Hemingway used a gun to kill himself. He describes lots of violence in his short stories and lots of people never really knew that this was an expression of trials and emotions that he as a man was really going through. His writing was one of the only things keeping him stable, but he didn’t seem to handle it as well as the characters did in his short stories.
#1 the setting is dark and lonely. It is grief stricken and full of blind despair. The idea of a well lighted place is significant because the old man seems to always be casted in shadows and gloomy darkness. The café is something that sticks out and is bright with hope for the old man. It may even symbolize hope, maybe even relief from pain.
#2 the characters are nameless because the author wanted to really focus on the story not the characters.
#3 the connection between the old man and the older waiter in the story is clear to me because they have more of an understanding. The older waiter knows that the old man sees the café as a place where he can come to escape the darkness, even if it is just for a couple of hours. The purpose of the younger waiter is too contradict the older waiter and the man. His purpose to me is to not see or understand what they do in the light of the café.
#4 the plot is the fact that the old man is lonely and that leads to him drinking. This cast shadows through his life and makes him want to commit suicide. The rising action would be the waiters talking about why they think he is there drinking all of the time. The complication would be that the old man continues to keep getting drunk and by doing that the waiters seem to think that he is even more depressed. The conflict would be that the old man is lonely and comes to drink the darkness away and keep from killing himself. The climax would be that they found out that the old man tried to kill himself but failed thanks to his niece. The falling action would be that they tell the old man that he needs to leave because the café is closing.
#5 the theme is that even from the darkest places you can always find a well lighted area of hope.
Biographical Summary
Ernest Hemingway used a gun to kill himself. He describes lots of violence in his short stories and lots of people never really knew that this was an expression of trials and emotions that he as a man was really going through. His writing was one of the only things keeping him stable, but he didn’t seem to handle it as well as the characters did in his short stories.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
class work
Terrance Love
#1 - Research the setting of “Sonny’s Blues” – Harlem, NYC.
Harlem is a neighborhood in Manhattan that for a long time in the 1990s was a place that hand a high crime rate and the majority of the housing apartments were rented out to colored people. White people could rent a apartment for 40 dollars for the whites to rent, and 100-125 for anybody else. Small groups of black people lived in Harlem as early as the 1880s. For a lot of people when they hear the word Harlem they think of the slums. Well Harlem was also known for it fantastic dance clubs and one in particular was the Apollo Theater that opened on 125st in 1934. Harlem was a place of great innovation in music and in dance. (http://newyorkcity-realestate.com)
2 – How does the setting affect/shape Sonny’s character and create conflict/complications in the story?
Sonny is affected by going back to Harlem and seeing the same thing, the smelly trash and the dark gloomy conditions of the streets. It affects him by keeping him in the same state of mind. He starts to mimic his surrounding and becomes dark himself. He starts to smell the same stink on him that once reminded him of the streets. This leads him to more self destruction because he kicks the habit of being on drugs only to come back to the same place that inspired him to do it.
#2 Research the history of African-American men in the military – Pre-Civil Rights movement.
The African American men that served in the military were treated just as harshly as they were when they were slave. Yes they fought bravely when they were told to but most of the time, the black units were not directed to fight because they white soldiers didn’t want to use them. When the black soldiers were caught by the confederate soldiers at Fort Pillow, TN 1864 they were shot to death and no one did anything about it. ( Freeman, Elsie, Wynell Burroughs Schamel, and Jean West). "The Fight for Equal Rights: A Recruiting Poster for Black Soldiers in the Civil War." Social Education 56, 2 (February 1992): 118-120. [Revised and updated in 1999 by Budge Weidman.]
2 – Why is it ironic that Sonny wants to enlist?
It was ironic because his brother was in the military and he was just trying to make a better life for himself just like his brother did. Even though Sonny’s brother knew how it was he tried to talk him into staying in school.
#3 Research song lyrics by Billie Holiday. Find a song or verse that you feel best represents the suffering of Sonny – his blues. Include song title and lyrics here.
“A FOGGY DAY”
A foggy day, in London town it had me low it had me down. I viewed the morning with much alarm, the British museum had lost its charm. How long I wondered could this thing last, but the age of miracles it hasn’t past and suddenly I saw you standing right there and in foggy London town the sun was shining everywhere.
2 - Explain why. This song represents Sonny’s because at first in his life there was a lot of turmoil and confusion going through his mind. He didn’t know what was going on; he didn’t know what he was doing. He left himself in clouds that know body could penetrate. Then at the end he started to see what he really wanted and what he really wanted to do. Everything started to clear up, not just for him but his brother too.
#4 – Research Bebop.
Bebop was a form of jazz that came to be in the 1940s. It was more of an expression of sound rather than a big band playing a lot of music. There were less people and it offered more time to the musicians to express what they were feeling in a solo piece. 2 – Bebop is the music that Sonny favors. What does the music represent politically and socially to Sonny? What does the music represent to Sonny’s brother?
To Sonny the music was about being herd and the expression of freedom. To Sonny the music was new and different so he could better relate to how it felt and how to play it just right so people could relate to him. Socially it made him feel like somebody, people loved his music and he was admired for it. It was the complete opposite of his past life. Sonny’s bother was moved by the fact that sonny could play something that was so relaxing to him. It was smooth and it was easy to understand. It also represented that sonny was also one of the people that made it through the slums of Harlem and now he could start to be proud of Sonny.
#1 - Research the setting of “Sonny’s Blues” – Harlem, NYC.
Harlem is a neighborhood in Manhattan that for a long time in the 1990s was a place that hand a high crime rate and the majority of the housing apartments were rented out to colored people. White people could rent a apartment for 40 dollars for the whites to rent, and 100-125 for anybody else. Small groups of black people lived in Harlem as early as the 1880s. For a lot of people when they hear the word Harlem they think of the slums. Well Harlem was also known for it fantastic dance clubs and one in particular was the Apollo Theater that opened on 125st in 1934. Harlem was a place of great innovation in music and in dance. (http://newyorkcity-realestate.com)
2 – How does the setting affect/shape Sonny’s character and create conflict/complications in the story?
Sonny is affected by going back to Harlem and seeing the same thing, the smelly trash and the dark gloomy conditions of the streets. It affects him by keeping him in the same state of mind. He starts to mimic his surrounding and becomes dark himself. He starts to smell the same stink on him that once reminded him of the streets. This leads him to more self destruction because he kicks the habit of being on drugs only to come back to the same place that inspired him to do it.
#2 Research the history of African-American men in the military – Pre-Civil Rights movement.
The African American men that served in the military were treated just as harshly as they were when they were slave. Yes they fought bravely when they were told to but most of the time, the black units were not directed to fight because they white soldiers didn’t want to use them. When the black soldiers were caught by the confederate soldiers at Fort Pillow, TN 1864 they were shot to death and no one did anything about it. ( Freeman, Elsie, Wynell Burroughs Schamel, and Jean West). "The Fight for Equal Rights: A Recruiting Poster for Black Soldiers in the Civil War." Social Education 56, 2 (February 1992): 118-120. [Revised and updated in 1999 by Budge Weidman.]
2 – Why is it ironic that Sonny wants to enlist?
It was ironic because his brother was in the military and he was just trying to make a better life for himself just like his brother did. Even though Sonny’s brother knew how it was he tried to talk him into staying in school.
#3 Research song lyrics by Billie Holiday. Find a song or verse that you feel best represents the suffering of Sonny – his blues. Include song title and lyrics here.
“A FOGGY DAY”
A foggy day, in London town it had me low it had me down. I viewed the morning with much alarm, the British museum had lost its charm. How long I wondered could this thing last, but the age of miracles it hasn’t past and suddenly I saw you standing right there and in foggy London town the sun was shining everywhere.
2 - Explain why. This song represents Sonny’s because at first in his life there was a lot of turmoil and confusion going through his mind. He didn’t know what was going on; he didn’t know what he was doing. He left himself in clouds that know body could penetrate. Then at the end he started to see what he really wanted and what he really wanted to do. Everything started to clear up, not just for him but his brother too.
#4 – Research Bebop.
Bebop was a form of jazz that came to be in the 1940s. It was more of an expression of sound rather than a big band playing a lot of music. There were less people and it offered more time to the musicians to express what they were feeling in a solo piece. 2 – Bebop is the music that Sonny favors. What does the music represent politically and socially to Sonny? What does the music represent to Sonny’s brother?
To Sonny the music was about being herd and the expression of freedom. To Sonny the music was new and different so he could better relate to how it felt and how to play it just right so people could relate to him. Socially it made him feel like somebody, people loved his music and he was admired for it. It was the complete opposite of his past life. Sonny’s bother was moved by the fact that sonny could play something that was so relaxing to him. It was smooth and it was easy to understand. It also represented that sonny was also one of the people that made it through the slums of Harlem and now he could start to be proud of Sonny.
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