Creative 4-27-12

Revised:

Take a walk, holding daddy’s hand

To the park we’d go

Where we would spend the day

On the jungle gym and swings

He would tell me jokes that made me laugh

Could get me out of any tree I climbed

Sat next to me while I picked flowers

We would talk about the butterflies

Watching them from the beginning

When they were just little caterpillars

Until the day they would come out of their cocoons

Into the beautiful thing they are

Once they were ready to go

We would watch them fly into the sun

Daddy knew how to make the day fun

Picking me up from school to go on the run

Museums, parks, movies and possibly to the aquarium

When I was with him there was nowhere I’d rather be

Now I am grown up and on my own

There are times when I look back

And remember how simple it was

When there was nothing to worry about

Except where the next adventure would take us

Original:
Once Upon a Time

Take a walk, holding daddy's hand
To the park we would go
Where we would spend the day
On the jungle gym and swings

He always knew how to make me laugh
Could coax me out of any tree I climbed
We would talk about the butterflies
They were my favorite to see

We would lay there talking and
He told stories that he had memorized

Daddy knew how to make the day fun
Picking me up from school to go on the run
Museums, parks, movies and more
When I was with him I would soar

Now I am grown up and on my own
I look back and remember all the days
We would pick up and go somewhere fun
I wish I could go back to once upon a time.

Cricital 4-27-12

In Terrance Hayes’ book “Lighthead” a reoccurring theme thatI noticed was language. In several of the poems there was talk about specific languageas well as the big picture of language. Language in Terrance Hayes’ “Lighthead”includes the changes in structure and tone, the use of repetition and thehistory of language.

The first poem I want to talk about is “Lighthead’s Guide tothe Galaxy”. In this poem Hayes writes “I know all words come from preexistingwords and divide until our pronouncements develop selves”. This was a greatline that talks about the uses of words and how they all come from other words.He is making an announcement to the people and stating that language divides upuntil it can develop itself in the present. I took this to mean that eventhough there are some words that are used now from the past they may not havethe same meanings now. I also liked the lines “Not what you see, but what youperceive: that’s poetry”. This summed up what we are doing in our class when wediscuss the poems we’ve read. It’s not just the words on the page |(not whatyou see) but it is the meaning behind what is written (what you perceive) that makes a piece of writing poetry.

The language in “Support the Troops” is a little strange butI really liked the line about “And I admit my awe looking on the marine with atalent for making the eagle tattooed across his back rear his talons”. To me, thedescription paints a picture in your mind of what this would actually look like.|I think that is what language does. When you use descriptive language, youpaint a picture for the reader.

I also wanted to talk about the repetition used in “Lighthead’sGuide to Addiction”. The writer states “I am addicted to repetition which is aform of history”. In this poem he uses the repetition of being addicted to onething then there is this solution, but once you’re addicted to the solution thenyou have to find another solution. This form of repetition that he uses in thispoem is very powerful and shows the vicious cycle of addiction. When he statesthat repetition is a form of history it brings up another good point about language.Language has been around a long time and the interpretations of it havechanged. We interpret these poems in a certain way because of how we werebrought up and in the time period we were brought up in. In the future thesepoems might be interpreted differently, especially the poems about certain eventsthat happened in our history. The poem about Katrina is something that weremember very clearly because it didn’t happen that long ago and we know howdifficult it was for those families. If someone were to read this poem in thefuture it might not have the same affect on them because they are not as familiarwith the story.

The changes in tone in the poems from the beginning section to the end section are very noticeable. In the first section the language was more abstract and was not really talkingabout specifics. In the second section it seemed to have a more dramatic tone.These were the poems that seemed to talk about specific events and tragedies. Overall,language was proven to be a major theme in “Lighthead”. Language was usedthrough the changes in tone, the history and the use of repetition.

Attempted Villanelle

Revised: 

There is the house of childhood dreams

A beauty inside and out, broken at the seams

No longer a place that can be called home

Half a life was spent there

So much has happened to bear

There is the house of childhood dreams

People come to see

What a great place it could be

No longer a place that can be called home

Always somewhere to fall back on

Now all that’s left is the pond

There is the house of childhood dreams

Nothing will ever be the same

But there is no one to blame

No longer a place that can be called home

Now it stands only as a memory

It wasn’t a place that I wanted to leave

There is the house of childhood dreams

No longer a place that can be called home

Original:
 Villanelle

There stood the house of childhood dreams
A beauty inside and out but broken at the seams
No longer a place that can be called home

Half a life was spent there
So much has happened to bare
There stood the house of childhood dreams

People come to look and see
What a great place that it could be
No longer a place that can be called home

Always somewhere to fall back on
Now all that's left is the pond
There stood the house of childhood dreams

Nothing will ever be the same
But there is no one to blame
No longer a place that can be called home

Now it will only be a sweet memory
That is what it has come to be
There stood the house of childhood dreams
No longer a place that can be called home

Revised Critical 4-20-12

Larkin’s An Arundel Tomb shows what Auden is talking about when he says that “everything that we remember no matter how trivial…are equally the subject of poetry”. Larkin’s poem is talking about a visit to a tomb of a man and a woman. You wouldn’t normally think to write about something like this. But with what Auden is saying in Poetry as Memorable Speech poetry can be about anything “the mark on the wall, the joke at luncheon, word games…” When I read this from Auden, I thought it was really interesting. I had never thought about any subject to be considered a poem. This point opened my own eyes when thinking about what I could write about to make a poem. I thought this was a pretty usual point.

When reading Larkin’s poems, I am not quite sure what his tone is. Every poem he writes seems different. In An Arundel Tomb I think the tone is kind of gleeful-mournful. He talks about how the tomb looks and that the couple is holding hands, this to me is gleeful. Then it goes on to talk about how nobody knows who these people are they are just there to see the tomb and this couple holding hands. This part is more sad and mournful because when this couple died they never could have imagined that people would come to see their tomb and not even know who they were in life. 

Auden states that "Similes, metaphors of image or idea, and auditory metaphors such as rhyme, assonance, and alliteration help further to clarify and strengthen the pattern and internal relations of the experiences described." In An Arundel Tomb, Larkin’s rhyme scheme is very unique and it almost doesn’t sound as if the lines rhyme with each other but I think it’s this subtle way in which he does, clarifies and strengthens the poem.

If talking about Larkin’s poem and why I would consider it as memorable speech, I would have to say that it is original and that it puts recognizable emotions in a different way. In this poem I had a feeling of sorrow and sadness for this couple. They were only recognized by them holding hands, not for what they did in their time on earth. I did a little digging after reading this poem and found out that Larkin was writing about the tomb of 13^th Earl of Arundel and his wife. But over time no one identifies this and that seems to be what Larkin is conveying in this poem. He makes you almost feel sorry for this deceased couple.

In this poem of Larkin’s, there is a certain emotion talking about the eternal love of the couple that lay in the tomb. Auden says that “it must move our emotions”, which I believe this poem does. The couple was together in life and now will forever be together in afterlife. The first time I read the poem I took the last two lines of this poem “Our almost-instinct almost true: What will survive of us is love” to mean that their love will be immortalized. When reading it over again I see that maybe Larkin is saying that this is what is left to define them and maybe that wasn’t what they had intended at all.

Critical 4-20-12

Larkin’s An Arundel Tomb shows what Auden is talking about when he says that “everything that we remember no matter how trivial…are equally the subject of poetry”. Larkin’s poem is talking about a visit to a tomb of a man and a woman. You wouldn’t normally think to write about something like this. But with what Auden is saying in Poetry as Memorable Speech poetry can be about anything “the mark on the wall, the joke at luncheon, word games…” When I read this from Auden, I thought it was really interesting. I had never thought about any subject to be considered a poem. 

When reading Larkin’s poems, I am not quite sure what his tone is. Every poem he writes seems different. In An Arundel Tomb I think the tone is kind of gleeful-mournful. He talks about how the tomb looks and that the couple is holding hands, this to me is kind of gleeful. Then it goes on to talk about how nobody knows who these people are they are just there to see the tomb and this couple holding hands. This part is more sad and mournful because when this couple died they never could have imagined that people would come to see their tomb and not even know who they were in life. 

Auden states that "Similes, metaphors of image or idea, and auditory metaphors such as rhyme, assonance, and alliteration help further to clarify and strengthen the pattern and internal relations of the experiences described." In An Arundel Tomb, Larkin’s rhyme scheme is very unique and it almost doesn’t sound as if he is rhyming the lines but I think it’s this subtle way in which he does clarifies and strengthens the poem. 

In this poem of Larkin’s, there is a certain emotion talking about the eternal love of the couple that lay in the tomb. Auden says that “it must move our emotions”, which this I believe this poem does. The couple was together in life and now will forever be together in afterlife.

Creative 4-13-12

Revised:

I cannot remember the time or place

Where I first learned to read on my own

All I remember is when my dad read to me.

Every night before I went to sleep

While lying in my big girl bed

My dad would read me a story

He took on the characters voices

Making each of the stories come alive

I had my favorites, and he would read them often

So one day I thought I could impress him

I picked up one of the books and started reading

He found out real quick that I was only reciting

Because the book was upside down

Original:
I cannot remember a time or place
Where I first learned to read
All I remember is that I could not do it
Every night before I went to sleep,
my dad would read me a story
I had my favorites, and he read them often
So one day I thought I would impress him
I picked up the book and starting reading
He found out real quick that I was only reciting
because the book was upside down.