After the lecture by Harryette Mullen, I had different interpretations of the poems “Bilingual Instructions,” “Elliptical,” and “Why You and I.” Mullen’s poetry truly caught my eye more than any other poets poetry in this short amount of time because she is rule breaking and different. Before the lecture, I read these two poems multiple times, which allowed me to come up with my own thoughts and ideas of what the poems meant but when Mullen spoke out about the true meaning of her poems I found that my thoughts and ideas were not exactly correct. When I first read “Bilingual Instructions,” I automatically knew that the poem was talking about people who are bilingual, but I could not figure out what the poem actually stood for, which made me …show more content…
re-read it until I had a better understanding. As I continued my reading, I started to believe that it was about the Latinos that do yard work because they are usually bilingual and the entire poem was talking about pulling the waste receptacles to the curb the correct way and doing yard clippings. From my understanding of the poem, I began to believe that “Bilingual Instructions” was an anti-races poem because of the dividing. Before Mullen read the poem out loud, she explained that she was inspired to write this by what was going on politically in California when she moved there.
This made her unsure of how the move to California was going to go. I never once thought about where this poem focused, but it made sense because Mexico is directly under California, which is where most of the Latinos come from. So while I was thinking that this poem was about racism, it was actually about politics. She continued on to explain that in Los Angeles all yard work is done by Latinos and the people of the city want the Latinos there, but then again don’t, and this is where the poem was being political. In the first four lines of “Bilingual Instructions” it says, “Californians say No to bilingual instruction in schools; Californians say No to bilingual instructions on ballots…” Mullen made it clear that the people of California want the Latinos there so they can eat their food and have their lawn mowed, but don’t want their children going to the schools. I found this poem to be very inspiring because it is completely true. This happens all over the United States, not just in …show more content…
California. When I began reading “Elliptical,” I was extremely confused by all the dots because I have never seen that in poetry.
I realized that the three dots between each unfinished sentence didn’t have meaning. I felt like this poem was very powerful and had a lot to do with religion, gender, nationality, and race. It seemed almost political and that the powerless is speaking back. After Mullen’s lecture, I learned that this poem was about something lacking or about something imperfect. She wanted this poem to be opened to everyone, which is why she said it could be about black people, white people, parents, or children. There is a lot of the us and them, and we and they language in the poem. Every time she said “they” in the poem, I was trying to figure out who she was speaking towards and why she felt they didn’t deserve a title or a label, but that was just Mullen’s language in “Elliptical.” The context was also always changing and switching sides. “Elliptical” was a deep and interesting
poem. When I finished reading the poem “Why You and I,” my first thought was that this poem was written because Mullen couldn’t come up with individual poems for these letters, which was true. Mullen explained that once she determined that this book of poems was a dictionary she realized some of the alphabet was missing so she wrote this specific poem to fill in the missing letters. Moreover, “Why You and I” is about forgetting. Mullen has several different interpretations about this poem. Sometimes she thinks this poem could be about a love story, about being left out, or just about the letters being forgotten. Furthermore, I realized that the you and I is different in each line but she made it clear that she carries the sentences in poetry by creating patterns. How much repetition she needs in a poem finds herself. Most of Mullen’s poems are pro poems, although some are free verse as well. “Why You and I” is one of her poems that has rhyme. Mullen explained that if she thinks of a poem in a visual way, it is going to be free verse but that pro poems don’t behave that way; that is how she composes poetry. Furthermore, she tries to write her poems about her feelings, although it doesn’t always work out that way. Some poems are more personal to her. She doesn’t want to tell the reader what to think while reading her poems because she doesn’t even know. Mullen is a very interesting and inspiring poet.
“Watch your tone young lady” a phrase known all too well to the American culture, whether it be from mom giving her children a lecture or on a television screen being spoken out by an actor. The tone of voice that one uses while speaking plays an extremely significant role in what the spoken words actually mean. Many times one can say one thing and mean another just from placing emphasis on a particular word. With tone of voice plays such a vital role in the meaning of a sentence it becomes clear that poetry, although often times found in books as written work, is meant to be read aloud; this was not all that clear to me until I attended my very first poetry reading. On November 10th Ramapo College welcomed the marvelous poet Mark Doty to its campus. Through Mark Doty’s reading of “House of Beauty” and “Theory of Marriage” it became clear that the use of emphasis and tone are vital characteristics that allows for the poet to challenge poetic traditions and conventions.
Through imagery, diction, and the personification of poetry, Ruth Forman reveals her personal connection and love for poetry and how poetry represents human need in “Poetry Should Ride the Bus”. The images of young girl cartwheeling and a woman dropping off a sweet potato pie bring you closer to the story, while the diction creates a connection between you and the people, this poem is a girl growing up realizing and seeking different things in her life and you realize that as Forman personifies the poem.
It is a way to crucially engage oneself in setting the stage for new interventions and connections. She also emphasized that she personally viewed poetry as the embodiment of one’s personal experiences, and she challenged what the white, European males have imbued in society, as she declared, “I speak here of poetry as the revelation or distillation of experience, not the sterile word play that, too often, the white fathers distorted the word poetry to mean — in order to cover their desperate wish for imagination without insight.”
Poems are forms of communication that give an applicable view of the past, present and future events. Reading the poem titled “America”, written by Richard Blanco brought me memories from my childhood in my parent’s house and also what is happening now in my house as a parent. The poem explains how one person doesn’t have all the knowledge about something. It also, describes the daily life struggles I experienced during my childhood, when my parent 's and I moved from our hometown to live in another town becuase of their work and it brings to light the conflict of cultures I and my children are going through since we moved to United State of America .
Sociologists often employ intersectionality theory to describe and explain facets of human interactions. This particular methodology operates on the notion that sociologically defining characteristics, such as that of race, gender, and class, are not independent of one another but function simultaneously to determine our individual social experiences. This is evident in poetry as well. The combination of one poet’s work that expresses issues on class with another poet’s work that voices issues on race, and so forth, can be analyzed through a literary lens, and collectively embody the sociological intersectionality theory.
In the poem “Mexican is Not a Noun”, it seems as if the author, Francisco Alarcon, is letting the readers know that the word “Mexican” depicts an action word instead of a person, place, or thing. The structure of the poem is parallel. Up under the title of the poem, there is information regarding how some Mexican women were arrested for showing solidarity. I perceived this information as a reason why the poem contained short lines as if Alarcon’s view of the cannery workers were short and to the point. It seems very obvious that the writer is upset and wrote just what his thoughts were about the strike at the cannery. The Mexicans do not seem to be treated fairly. It seems as if Alarcon writes the poem to tell how Mexicans had to live a life
Naomi Shihab Nye’s poem “A Valentine for Ernest Mann” tells the reader: “You can’t order a poem like you order a taco. / Walk up to the counter, say, ‘I’ll take two’.” This shows that poems cannot be written or interpreted perfectly on the first try or on demand; you have to dig a little deeper to discover them. Naomi Shihab Nye also shows readers that poems hide in everyday things that we might not think to notice. She also tells about a serious man who gave his wife two skunks for Valentine’s Day because he thought they had beautiful eyes. His wife was upset about the gift because she did not see the skunks the way her husband did. Through voice, figurative language, and theme, Naomi Shihab Nye shows us that if we try hard enough, we can see things from a different perspective, thus allowing us to find poems in the most simple, everyday objects.
The speakers and audience in poem are crucial elements of the poem and is also the case in these poems. In the poem Untitled, it can be argued that the poem is being written by Peter based on what his father might say to him...
“Billy Collins' “Introduction to Poetry” isn’t an ars poetica poem about writing poetry, but about reading poetry. The speaker is a teacher who tells his students that they should experience a poem, rather than dissect it. The f...
...new right away I could relate it since English is my second language. In this poem there is a combination of the two languages I know, English and Spanish, which then converts into a new language Spanglish. Many Latino teenagers and children, like me, speak English at work and school and speak Spanish mostly when they are at home. Therefore, the way we Latino people speak is almost like the way Ms. Valdez wrote this poem. This poem is also a reality in the lives of those who migrate to the United States. Many immigrants see that everything is different and new. They also see that they have to slowly adapt to the new environment. Through Gina’s choice of words and imagery, she makes the Latino audience feel more serene with the American Language and culture. All of the humor, imagery, and similes used in this poem made this poem much more enjoyable and relatable.
As a reader I felt that the poem had a combination of both a cultural and social framework. Our society
The poem opens a thought of the American Dream, about what he wants America to be, and his hope for the country. The beginning line of the poem entails that America has to be the same America it once was, to me it’s a lie. America back then practiced slavery and oppression, it destroyed the lands of people to build their own homes. The ideal of an “America” was all a dream. It’s what they wanted for their America to be. We as people should be able to rise up and redefine the American equality and take back our land. The poem serves a powerful message of equality. The theme of this poem is against injustice and inequalities that exist in America and that can corrupt the American dream. All characters in the novels we read for the semester i.e. The African, Quick skills, and Tucker, have a lot of similarities with the poem, “Let America Be America Again”. They led their people to freedom by fighting against slavery and restrictions. The African escaped from his master. The African vowed to be free and never be enslaved again. Quickskill came to liberate the fellow slaves, who were enslaved in his master 's plantation. Tucker realized that he had some worth, and wanted freedom for his family. All three of these characters laid their lives on the line for their fellow men. They would rather prefer to die with dignity rather than become a white man’s property. They wanted
Poetry is a literary form of art in which poets express their emotions and opinions about the world. There are many forms of poetry and goals that poems wish to achieve. Some poems exist merely for the reason of entertainment and release of emotions, but poems should exist as a form of art that is trying to achieve something or get a point across. Poems typically have an overreaching theme and can “speak to each other” or in other words can relate to one another. For one to understand these themes and connections among poems one must use a method of closing read. Among the many poems that have been explored in my jazz literature course, two poems standout “Black Art” by Amiri Baraka and “A/Coltrane/Poem” by Sonia Sanchez. Both poems “speak
I think that Alarcon chose to structure his poem in a distinct way with line breaks placing the word "Mexican" line by itself. Alarcon's word choice and word order to draw attention to illustrate that this minority doesn't have any control over what happens in their lives. In the beginning of the poem Alarcon says that "Mexican is not a noun or adjective but it is a lifelong low-paying job" (Alarcon,1985). Alarcon uses these phrases to show that Mexican's low paying jobs are for their entire lives due to the fact they have hard time getting
Maintenance or Heritage Language programs serve the purpose of preserving the ethnic identity, culture and language of minority group members. Immigrant communities in particular have a need to maintain communication channels with first generation immigrants and people in their country of origin. Through bilingual education their children can cope with the majority