Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Modernist Assignment Options

Here is an outline of your options for your upcoming assignment on the modern poetry. We will talk about these options at some length on Thursday, at which point we will discuss some dos and don'ts, deadlines, expectation, etc.

Option 1: Close Reading of ONE Poem: Writen Response (900-1000 words)

Option 2: Close Reading of ONE Poem: Spoken Response (20 minute lecture)

Option 3: Comparative Analysis Between TWO POEMS BY THE SAME POET: Written Response (900-1000 words)

Option 4: Comparative Analysis Between TWO POEMS BY THE SAME POET: Spoken Response (20 minute lecture)

Option 5: Comparative Analysis Between TWO POEMS BY DIFFERENT POETS: Written Response (900-1000 words)

Option 6: Comparative Analysis Between TWO POEMS BY DIFFERENT POETS: Spoken Response (20 minute lecture)

Option 7: Comparative Analysis Between ONE POEM AND ONE PIECE OF MODERN ART: Written Response (900-1000 words)

Option 8: Comparative Analysis Between ONE POEM AND ONE PIECE OF MODERN ART: Spoken Response (20 minute lecture)

Option 9: Emulative Analysis of ONE POEM: Written Response (400-500 words, not including emulation)

Option 10: Emulative Analysis of ONE POEM: Spoken Response (Recital and 10 minute lecture)

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

“Forgetfulness” and “Interior” by Hart Crane differ in terms of subject, form, purpose, and use of a metaphor.

Anonymous said...

In Jean Toomer's "Cotton Song," it dicscusses some of the hardships slaves have to go through. One of the few things slaves have to look forward to is Judgement Day, whatever it may be, and they work hard to be held above the rest upon this day.

Anonymous said...

In Louise Bogans poem "Women" she displays the women as prisoners in their own homes not knowing anything about the outside world. These women all look for a comfortable state of being even if that means marrying someone they do not love and staying at home because that is what they're suppose to do. They put aside their own thoughts and dreams and make themselves believe that they are supposed to be stay at home wifes and the man is the one that makes all the choices.

Anonymous said...

e e Cummings wrote "r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r" so that the form of the poem would mimic a grasshopper's jump. The slightly more condensed letters in the beginning mirrors the coiling of the grasshopper before its jump. The explosion of letters in the middle reflects a sense of flying freely. Then the poem condenses once again to echo the landing. Cummings' choice of the form follows the realities of nature.

Anonymous said...

Jean Toomer uses a different stream of consciousness in his poem People than Robert Frost does in his poem Acceptance. Toomer speaks like he is a person in modern day America that is opening his eyes to see how closed minded people really are when it comes to seeing and accepting new and different ideas. Frost on the other hand is addressing Acceptance and speaks like he is a bird, during the setting of the sun he leans to accept the fact that it is becoming dark and it will soon be time for him to sleep. Even though he can’t do anything about the sunset he learns to accept it, just like Toomer says that people need to do.

Anonymous said...

This is a bitter poem full of injury and violence. The water is a solid mass where nothing can move as it pleases, but struggles. The poem represents an event that is unavoidable and destructive.

Anonymous said...

Marianne Moore's poem, "Rosemary" shows off her use of juxtaposition as she compares Beauty to Beauty's son, and the christmas season to rosemary. She includes visual imagery to show off her comparisons when she says, "with lancelike leaf, green but silver underneath." Many states of being are shown throughout her poem and expresses it as stream of consciousness. If you observe closely you can see many points of view expressed.

Anonymous said...

Countee Cullen was an African-American poet writing during the Modernist movement in America, although his particular tendencies lean towards the Romantic mode. Cullen writes in a sing-song with clearly defined rhyme schemes, in opposition (and tacit protest) to the open Modernist forms that are present in large degrees in his contemporaries. In "Heritage", Cullen veils his appreciation of Africa with a seeming betrayal of his mother culture. On the contrary, "Incident" is blatantly protesting racism in a plea for African-American respect.

Anonymous said...

Gertrude Stein's "A Long Dress" uses disillusionment to question previous acceptances and how and why things happen. At the beginning of each paragraph, Stein's use of stream of consciousness is illustrated in the form of an idea or ponderance, which then leads to a necessary conclusion.

Anonymous said...

With Langston Hughes' poems, "Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "Freedom's Plow", one can clearly see the cultural roots and deep sorrow of the African-American's unfair past. Hughes, being an African-American in the Modernist movement era, natually includes the heritage of his people throughout his poems. He does this in an attempt to convey the hardworking virtue embedded in most of the previously enslaved individuals. He expains how the souls of his people have tired over time by endlessly searching for a change in society. Hughes, however, finds a newfound hope within the Modernist movement due to the era's unprecedented acceptance of age-old issues. He wanted equality and as both of these poems present, he went about doing so in a fashion that was just honest and out-right enough to promote change.

Anonymous said...

"Carmen de Boheme" by Hart Crane describes a night as a gypsie. I found that none of the leanings or tendencies apply to it. There must be a reason for this, because some of his other poems did have to do with the leanings and tendencies. He was possibly just having fun and decided to throw all the rules of the time out the window. Or maybe its just a poem.

Anonymous said...

The poetry written by Amy Lowell and Hilda Doolittle compared in style and content. Lowell and Doolittle both were great poets of the modernist age for a lot of the same reasons. The poem The Petals written by Lowell and the poem Sea Rose written by Doolittle show the significant similarities between the two poet's styles.

Anonymous said...

In his poem, "Wars", Carl Sandburg wrote with great vivacity of his disgust of man's natural hate of one another. Sandburg made connections of how the brutality and the devastation that comes from war is still present in our time and that man hasn't learned from their mistakes. In order to emulate his work, anaphora, extended metaphors, and hyperboles are necessary. His use of these poetry styles also bring out two themes that he wants readers to realize and interpret for themselves. Carlsburg writes in the final stanza: "In the wars to come kings kicked under the dust and millions of men following great causes not yet dreamed out in the heads of men." It represents Carlsburg's anger at how Man won't learn from their conflicts and ruin the future of the human race. This is also a time where 20th century technology is advancing and making wars that much more devastating.

Anonymous said...

Amy Lowell's The Errant Fool is about self worth. Amy lowell portrays the Fool by using a new form of poetry emerging during this era, that being stream of conciousness, the errant fool must battle what others think of him, he does so by following his stream of conciousness

Anonymous said...

Poems "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and "Dreams" are both written by Langston Hughes although you wouldn’t guess it by the tone or even the overall feeling of these poems. Both poems suggest that the despairing individual deserve valorization and recognize the disillusionment that results when it isn’t realized socially, both tendencies are presented in entirely different ways. "In Negro Speaks of Rivers" Hughes notes that every major civilization was built with the blood of slaves. Conversely, in "Dreams", the main focus of the poem is to “hold fast to dreams.” Here Hughes is insinuating that redemption and salvation are only attainable through hops and dreams.

Anonymous said...

Valorization of the despairing individual in the face of an unmanageable future is reflected in the poem, "If We Must Die" because author Claude McKay knows he is going to die at some point. He stands up for his right and proves his heroism, in no way ready to accept disrespect.

Anonymous said...

T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” and Pablo Picasso’s painting “Kahnweil” are both examinations of despairing artists in denial of the detachment between themselves and their creations. In both works, the artist hides behind the notion that meaning and logical sense are distorted in translation between the artist and his art.

Anonymous said...

"A Virginal" and "Before Sleep" by Ezra Pound are metaphorically similar in terms of women. In the first poem (A Virginal) he claims the lady in his thoughts is sweet and mystical, yet strong and she is compared to natural things and expressed with ancient ideals. The 2nd poem "Before Sleep". He explains how she is a "palace" a goddess. Again he gives her strength and also makes her the centroid of his poem. these poems have much in common by the metaphorical ways he speaks of women.

Anonymous said...

E.E. Cummings uses varying forms of free verse to further accent his poems, which have a strong sense of disillusionment throughout.

Anonymous said...

Hart Crane wrote in a sort of way that the meaning in the poem is not right in your face. Instead when you read it, it catches the corner of the reader’s eye with a slanted but truthful meaning. Emily Dickinson did this also very often, but they both shared familiar traits. Hart Crane felt that Emily was a genius and that her poetry was very beautiful, even to a certain extent it seemed he was jealous. Comparing these two poems really shows how they wrote alike. Explaining how Hart saw Emily as an influence.

Anonymous said...

Ezra Pound's two poems "The Garret" and "The Garden" have classical allusions such as borrowings from Albert Samain's "Au Jardin de I'Infante" and reference to other cultures such as reference to the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. However, "The Garret" uses allusions that suggest the beauty and wonder of compainionship, even if(or especially if) one is poor, while "The Garden" uses them to show the despair and loathing in society.