In The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (1997), Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux determine that the “workshop should be considered a starting point for revision, a place where you can begin to gather ideas about what you need to do to make the poem what it wants to be” (187). My observance of and participation in ENG 407/507 taught me how a typical poetry workshop is structured. At the beginning of class, students would turn in poems to be workshopped, then either the professor would give a brief lecture and/or lesson, or the class would immediately begin workshopping poems. Students were not given a schedule or signup sheet for when they had to turn in work, which resulted in some students having more poems workshopped …show more content…
This is an important aspect of the workshop because when a writer reads their work out loud, they often notice aspects in it that they may miss during silent reading. Reading out loud also, Elbow writes, “gives you a better idea of the effect of your words on an audience” (82). Many students often commented on the poet’s reading because, when they read it themselves, they were unsure of how the poem was meant to sound. Students’ reactions to a reading remind the poet to have a sense of audience, and to notice which parts of their work are strong and which are …show more content…
Afterwards, the student can speak about their work and answer any questions. The student must never quarrel with someone’s reaction to their work, but rather listen to another’s advice and try to share their experience. While listening to others it is, Elbow writes, “more important to learn what actually got through to a real reader than what might get through to an ideal reader” (83). With this process, the listener will become better at recognizing if and how their words affected their reader, and then, eventually, they will be able to decide for themselves if their words are any
Currently in the United States, many of us are afraid of the future. There have been many recent events that have stirred up fear in this country, especially tensions regarding human rights. In Carolyn Forché’s “The Colonel,” the speaker tells us her story of when she had to deal with the mistreatment of others. The speaker is telling us her story of meeting the colonel to show us the horrible things that have happened in the fight for justice and to encourage us to speak up. She tells us this story because she does not want others to end up the way that the ears did. The speaker wants us to stay strong and fight for justice when we begin to live in a state of constant fear.
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
While most of us think back to memories of our childhood and our relationships with our parents, we all have what he would call defining moments in our views of motherhood or fatherhood. It is clearly evident that both Theodore Roethke and Robert Hayden have much to say about the roles of fathers in their two poems as well. While the relationships with their fathers differ somewhat, both men are thinking back to a defining moment in their childhood and remembering it with a poem. "My Papa's Waltz" and "Those Winter Sundays" both give the reader a snapshot view of one defining moment in their childhood, and these moments speak about the way these children view their fathers. Told now years later, they understand even more about these moments.
Lucy Calkins described the writing workshop as a deliberate predictable environment with three basic components: teaching time, writing time and sharing time (Rog 2). Children need structure
This darkly satiric poem is about cultural imperialism. Dawe uses an extended metaphor: the mother is America and the child represents a younger, developing nation, which is slowly being imbued with American value systems. The figure of a mother becomes synonymous with the United States. Even this most basic of human relationships has been perverted by the consumer culture. The poem begins with the seemingly positive statement of fact 'She loves him ...’. The punctuation however creates a feeling of unease, that all is not as it seems, that there is a subtext that qualifies this apparently natural emotional attachment. From the outset it is established that the child has no real choice, that he must accept the 'beneficence of that motherhood', that the nature of relationships will always be one where the more powerful figure exerts control over the less developed, weaker being. The verb 'beamed' suggests powerful sunlight, the emotional power of the dominant person: the mother. The stanza concludes with a rhetorical question, as if undeniably the child must accept the mother's gift of love. Dawe then moves on to examine the nature of that form of maternal love. The second stanza deals with the way that the mother comforts the child, 'Shoosh ... shoosh ... whenever a vague passing spasm of loss troubles him'. The alliterative description of her 'fat friendly features' suggests comfort and warmth. In this world pain is repressed, real emotion pacified, in order to maintain the illusion that the world is perfect. One must not question the wisdom of the omnipotent mother figure. The phrase 'She loves him...' is repeated. This action of loving is seen as protecting, insulating the child. In much the same way our consumer cultur...
Although the greater picture is that reading is fundamental, the two authors have a few different messages that they seek to communicate to their audiences. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” depicts how reading serves as a mechanism to escape the preconceived notions that constrain several groups of people from establishing themselves and achieving success in their lifetimes. “Reading to Write,” on the other hand, offers a valuable advice to aspiring writers. The author suggests that one has to read, read, and read before he or she can become a writer. Moreover, he holds an interesting opinion concerning mediocre writing. He says, “Every book you pick has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones” (p.221). Although these two essays differ in their contents and messages, the authors use the same rhetorical mode to write their essays. Both are process analyses, meaning that they develop their main argument and provide justification for it step by step. By employing this technique, the two authors create essays that are thoughtful, well supported, and easy to understand. In addition, Alexie and King both add a little personal touch to their writings as they include personal anecdotes. This has the effect of providing support for their arguments. Although the two essays have fairly different messages, the authors make use of anecdotes and structure their writing in a somewhat similar
According to Murray, our approach while reading for appreciation is to discover the “how” of the writing. This case required us to pay particular attention to a multitude of details, like “[...] the rhythm, the pace, and the change in pace, the intensity.[...]”. (Murray, 8) Such procedures appeal us to listen carefully to the text as we are reading it. We need to try different frequencies while reading it. We need to put ourselves into different shoes to see how it sound. We then have to understand the characteristics of the type of reading we are interacting with. Also, we have to be aware of our likes and dislikes, but still be open to new insights in our
This poem Coffee Coloured fall under the category of being a sensory poem, as it is all about how people are seen for their skin and not actually how people are. this poem is from the point of view of an Aboriginal person who is complaining about how they are only seen for their sin and nothing other than it. This poem only had only stanza, has rhyming but is not constant throughout the poem and doesn’t have a clear pattern making this poem free verse. This poem uses rhyming and rhymes the last words on most of the sentences.
In his poem, Introduction to Poetry, Billy Collins uses imagery to present a philosophy on how to experience poetry. His choice of words appeal to the readers senses by creating an emotional experience. In the first stanza, the speaker says “I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide.” When holding up a color slide to the light you can see any colorful image, unlike having a dark square in your hand. The speaker is appealing to the readers visual senses and wants his readers to examine poetry closely and view it as if it was seen through light, to fully visualize the vast meaning of the poem. In the third stanza , “I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out.” When a mouse is in a maze it is
...onal connection and response, questioning, considering author perspective were evident throughout the lesson and even though might be a slightly different line of questioning and thought than A was used to in her reading sessions, she grasped the purpose of the lesson and confidently set out to achieve the goals.
The poem “Always Something More Beautiful” by Stephen Dunn is certainly about running a race, but the speaker is also arguing that pursuing something beautiful can help guide us through life. Through the title, we can see that we should constantly look for more beautiful things in life. The poem begins with the speaker describing his experience before a race. He uses words like “best” and “love.” The tone is extremely enthusiastic. In the first line, he talks about coming to the starting place. This can be a metaphor for beginning our lifelong journey. The speaker also implies that we need to approach it with a positive attitude. In the next few lines, the speaker indicates being tested in excellence
Did I Miss Anything? is a poem written by a Canadian poet and academic Tom Wayman. Being a teacher, he creates a piece of literature, where he considers the answers given by a teacher on one and the same question asked by a student, who frequently misses a class. So, there are two speakers present in it – a teacher and a student. The first one is fully presented in the poem and the second one exists only in the title of it. The speakers immediately place the reader in the appropriate setting, where the actions of a poem take place – a regular classroom. Moreover, the speakers unfolds the main theme of the poem – a hardship of being a teacher, the importance of education and laziness, indifference and careless attitudes of a student towards studying.
“The Spring and the Fall” is written by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The poem is about two people, the poet and her significant other that she once had love for. The poem integrates the use of spring and fall to show how the poet stresses her relationship. Of course it starts off briefly by having a happy beginning of love, but the relationship soon took a shift for the worst, and there was foreshadow that there would be an unhappy ending. “I walked the road beside my dear. / The trees were black where the bark was wet” (2-3). After the seasons changed, the poet begins to explain why the relationship was dying, and all of the bad things she endured during the relationship. So, to what extend did the poet’s heart become broken, and did she ever
People have conveyed messages through pieces of art, writing, music, media, and other means of communication. In writing, poems are a powerful vehicle for expressing ideas and theories. Poets use literary devices to support their message and communicate their emotions toward a specific topic to the reader. Using poetic elements appropriately enables the poet to be more successful in reaching the audience and changing their perspective. Shu Ting, a Chinese poet, uses her poem, “Assembly Line”, to explain her hardships as a factory worker during the Cultural Revolution in China. In “Assembly Line”, Shu Ting utilizes various literary devices to prove that conformity eliminates variety in life.