Blog Post 3: Poetry Presentation Reflection

My group did well with trying to come up with things that both “L’Art” and “The Garden” had in common. It was a little hard to interpret both poems and come up with several ways that the poems could be compared but we ended up figuring it out. I am proud of interpreting the poem the best I could and making the presentation in such a short amount of time. I put a lot more time into this compared to my group members but that just taught me that you can’t always rely on other people to do their part. I learned a few things throughout the project. I definitely learned that this English class was going to be way harder than any I’ve had in the past. I also learned I am going to need to try and set aside some time for this class, as I really haven’t had to in the past. For future presentations I would try and get my group members to do their work, so I wouldn’t have to. I would also hope that I could find time in my schedule to fit time in for it, instead of doing it at 1 in the morning. The presentation for the poem “Poem” was nicely done. I loved the way they compared poetry to music which I thought was really smart and helpful. Both have deeper meaning that sometimes isn’t always obvious to everyone. “Poem” used symbolism, nature images, and repetition to convey the message that even though sometimes she doesn’t like poetry, there is always a beauty to it. Even though people might not be able to understand it, the reader always has a deeper meaning that goes with it and that is one of the beautiful things about poetry. The poem “Red Slippers” is an interesting poem that could be interpreted in a couple different ways. It used similes, imagery, and polyphonic prose to convey her meaning. The way the people who presented it interpreted it in a way that was a little different than what I think. I think that Amy Lowell depicts the red slippers as something new and exciting until everyone started “wearing” them. She was trying to say that people wanted to be unique. When something new came along the slippers were abandoned. In “Ars Poetica” Archibald MacLeish uses imagery, metaphors, and couplets to get his point across. I learned from the presentation that a couplet is a stanza with two lines that rhyme. He is trying to say that a poem should flow and should be something you don’t have to think about. He believes poetry should be simple and obvious. Poems need to be seen as if they were effortless. In “Somewhere I Have Never Traveled” E.E. Cummings uses nature images and concrete metaphors to portray the power this woman has over him. Concrete metaphors are things conceived in the mind. Cummings describes a women who he loves and explains the power that has over him. He lives for her and the poem is a very sweet romantic poem. He compares her to nature, saying he is a flower and she is nature. This meaning, that she controls whether he blooms and that before her, he kept his heart guarded. In “Helen” Hilda Doolittle uses imagery, rhyme, repetition, and allusions to bring her message across. Her message was that even though Helen was beautiful, no one could appreciate that because she tore Greece apart with it. Helen was very beautiful but when the war broke out because of her, her beauty was tainted. Both sides saw her in some way as a traitor. It wasn’t until she died and war wasn’t looming, that everyone could finally appreciate her beauty. William Carlos Williams uses simple imagery to convey his messages. He has a simplistic, direct tone to his short poems. He also is consistent in his focus of his surroundings during the poems. He doesn’t stray too far while writing, and tries to use simple adjectives to get his simplistic point across. The simple words just shows how much of an abstract writer he is and how he wants for there to be different messages for different people.