Although, technically, you have 74 hours to work on the final (from 3 pm Friday to 5 pm on Monday, it would be a mistake to say, "Well, I can manage 600-1000 words in 2 or 3 hours, so I'll start Monday at 2 pm." If you do that, you may have a disturbance in your environment that either gives you only 30 minutes to write the essay, or you might not get it in by the deadline at all, which will give you an Incomplete in the course and a final in July or August with different questions.
Therefore, I think the best idea is to start it as early as possible, and if you happen to finish it by Saturday evening and send it to me, I'll probably have it graded by Sunday evening.
Taking the whole time span may seem like a good idea, but it is probably not-- for 2 big reasons. I do not want you to surf internet interpretations of the poem, and I will fail any essay (which would not fail the student in the course, but still. . . .) that plagiarizes--that quotes from sources without quotation marks " " and identification of the source. And also, even if you do proper quotation and citation, that will probably lower your grade if it takes away from YOUR OWN interpretation. This is not a research paper in any way. If you take the whole time, you may be tempted to write more than 1,000 words. I really insist that the essays be between 600 and 1000 words. You can do a close reading of any of these poems within that limit. Doing more than 1000 words will, in all likelihood, hurt your grade rather than help it.
Some students will be able to complete the final in 3 hours, others may take 5 hours, and still others will take longer to go over the grammatical components very carefully. But no one should take more than 8 hours to write these 5 or 6 paragraphs.
Please use a Word doc to submit the final, and double space as you normally do. You do not need a Work Cited, but if the poem has a page-number in the book that I found it-- for example, (Alvarez 81), you can do a ( ) citation.
Remember to answer my thesis-question and supporting question DIRECTLY in the course of the essay, and use what I've taught you about topic sentences in body paragraphs including a portion of your overall argument and not just saying what is happening at a particular stage in the poem.
Don't worry about organization. Just do this if you are writing six paragraphs:
- Divide the poem into 4 fairly even parts to deal with one part at a time.
- The first paragraph is an introduction
- the second paragraph is about the first part of the poem, with direct quotation of that first part (either within your paragraph or as a block quotation)
- the third is about the second part of the poem, with direct quotation of that part (either within your paragraph or as a block quotation)
- the fourth is about the third part of the poem, with direct quotation of that part (either within your paragraph or as a block quotation)
- the fifth is about the fourth part of the poem, with direct quotation of that part (either within your paragraph or as a block quotation)
- the sixth paragraph is a brief conclusion reinforcing your thesis through summary of your main support
PROMPT-GUESSING: LOW STAKES
Pleasure by A.K Ramanujan
In your opinion why do u think Ramanujan wrote this poem? Did he want to catch the reader's attention and then surprise them with a plot twist?
TF comments: Well, u know i wouldn't use "u"--ha, ha! But seriously, a broad question about intention without specifics would not be in a prompt of mine. However, the question about surprising the reader with a twist could be used, not as a thesis question but as a followup.]
TF comments: Well, u know i wouldn't use "u"--ha, ha! But seriously, a broad question about intention without specifics would not be in a prompt of mine. However, the question about surprising the reader with a twist could be used, not as a thesis question but as a followup.]
Down By The Station, Early In The Morning By John Ashbery
How can you relate to this poem? Do you like the little things that bring back memories or do focus on the future only?
Asakusa by Natsuko Hirata
Underground is a place in the present with characteristics of the past Tokyo. Can the underground be inferred as a place in the present that we like to go because it brings joyful past memories? What is yours and how would to format the poem?
[Although I'm not exactly using the first question, it would probably help you think about the poem very well before you actually get my questions.]
[Although I'm not exactly using the first question, it would probably help you think about the poem very well before you actually get my questions.]
********
Poem 1 (Pleasure)
How can we achieve spiritualism?
He went above and beyond our expectations and understandings.
What is pleasure?
[This is not bad, but you need some rephrasing for specificity: In Ramanujan's "Pleasure," how does the poet indicate ways in which spiritual fulfillment can be achieved?
How does Ramanujan's "Pleasure" provide a definition/definitions of pleasure? I'm not sure about how to deal with the middle sentence.]
How does Ramanujan's "Pleasure" provide a definition/definitions of pleasure? I'm not sure about how to deal with the middle sentence.]
Poem 2 (The Therapist)
Is she, in any way, upset about his strategies?
Is she scared of portraying a different, or true, perspective of herself in the presence of the therapist?
She is very aware of what goes on in the clinic.
The therapist seems superior and dominant.
Are all problems critical problems?
[The first question could be rephrased: In Alvarez's "The Therapist," is the speaker upset about the therapist's strategies. I partially know what you mean by the last question, but this goes well beyond the poem, so I'm not sure it's useful; in any case, I won't be using a version of it.]
**********
- Down by the station, early in the morning by John Ashbery. What seems to be the tone of this poetry? Do you believe it is positive or negative? Give support to your answer using literary term for poetry. [TF: A question about tone is possible. It wouldn't be the main (thesis) question and would probably be the supporting question.]
- Down by the station, early in the morning by John Ashbery. IQA 3 literary terms for poetry. At least 5 times. [ Preferred terms would include: trope (unless you are comfortable with metaphor, simile, irony, personification--for the Dickinson poem), image, free verse or meter (in the case of Alvarez, syllabic count or count of ten syllables).]
- 574 by Emily Dickinson. How does the author's background influence her writing style? Give 3 examples using literary terms. [This would require research, and the final exam must not have research. It's a great question, but I can't include anything like that. You have to use mostly the evidence in the poem and not biographical data.]
- 574 by Emily Dickinson. Dickinson posed a question "My loss, by sickness - was it Loss?" Answer that question. IQA [This is a good one for thinking about the poem.]
#1. The Therapist
The poem “Pleasure” by Juilia Alvarez speaks on Alvarez’ personal experience with therapy. She speaks on how a regular day at the therapist would go. She goes in and reveals what goes in there and sort of shows how it’s very secretive. For example, she explains how a mother tries to silence her child when it comes to the older brother being “mean” which most likely means he has anger issues or is abusive. She also mentions her therapist pretends to not know. He pretends he doesn’t have the answers and only has suggestions. It could be debated she’s saying this to show that he keeps them coming. Additionally she speaks on the dark conversations going on in each room as she goes down the long, silent hall like family troubles and love issues. She describes it as the sad wide scope of humanity. Again, she ends it with him holding back what he knows about us.
[I really think that the summary is quite good, but I don't use summaries leading up to the questions in a prompt. In rare cases, I'll use one sentence or part of a sentence that is somewhat like a summary.
[I really think that the summary is quite good, but I don't use summaries leading up to the questions in a prompt. In rare cases, I'll use one sentence or part of a sentence that is somewhat like a summary.
1 question I have when it comes to this poem is; why is the narrator there? I wonder why she’s there considering that she talks about the other problems she hears through the walls that don’t seem to concern her. Such as about love, family/ children, and abuse. [Does she really hear through the walls? I think that she is imagining what people are "confessing." Your basic question is: Why is the speaker of Alvarez's "The Therapist" (not narrator--that's for fiction) in therapy? It's a decent question to prepare for the final]
2. Because she seems to be so familiar with the office/therapy place she goes to, i wonder how long she has been going there For and if for a long time, it makes me wonder more for what reason she is there. [Length of time cannot be understood through the poem; therefore, I would not ask this question. It's pure speculation.]
#2.The Prowling Bee [This is a title given by an editor who is not fulfilling the poet's intention of not giving titles. Refer to the poem by the number, please.]
The idea of the story here is that Dickinson has just gotten better after falling ill to a sickness. It’s been a long time and she wants to take in the sunshine. The line “A’blossom just - when I went in” basically tells us it was spring when she first fell ill. She followed the line saying she was uncertain whether or not pain will get the best of her. Afterwards she saw as Summer passed by and “put some flowers away” in exchange for the “redder” autumn leaves. Additionally, she states that “summer” does this exchange of colors to sort of “cheat” herself as a way to comfort herself from only seeing it’s inevitable death (fall), but also knows that “tomorrow” awaits a beautiful rainbow. Towards the end when Summer has covered the land in autumn colors and has left her seeds, she puts up her “hands of haze” to “hide her parting grace”. At this point, you realize the author’s illness ended at the start of fall and she wonders if missing out on summer was really a loss or an ethereal gain. She realizes that after her battle, she appreciates the sun a lot more.
Q1: I wonder if the narrators experience of staying in during warm weather in which people go out the most, had changed her perspective of the seasons she missed out in? Does she appreciate them more, or is she neutral about it (by not having an unpleasant experience). [This is a good question to think about. It could be close to a supporting or secondary question on the final.]
-Write an essay on how does the word choice in the poem affect the overall tone of the poem ? Is it effective in better interpreting what the speaker is saying ?
[I mentioned earlier that tone (which by the way, is acceptable as a literary term!) is a very valid consideration in analysis, and yes, tone is tied to word choice.]
[I mentioned earlier that tone (which by the way, is acceptable as a literary term!) is a very valid consideration in analysis, and yes, tone is tied to word choice.]
-Write an essay in which you describe the speaker’s attitude toward therapy. Using specific references from the text, show how the use of language reveals the speaker’s attitude. [This is good.]
-Read the following poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you discuss how such elements as language, imagery, structure, and point of view convey meaning in the poem. [I'm going to be more specific and won't mention most of those nouns.]
When it comes time to prepare for the final, it's good for members of the class to compare and contrast the points of view raised about whichever of the 5 poems you will choose to discuss on the final--and figure out which perspective seems to be justified by the actual progression of words in the poem itself (and not just in your own subjective ideas about the philosophical or social or psychological content of the poem). I will not "summarize" the points of view in the 2 comments sections (Poetry A and Poetry B) in a neat package for any of the poems, because when you do this yourself, you develop the mental "muscles" necessary to come up with your own interpretation.
This post is for the poems by Dickinson, Ashbery, and Hirata.
DICKINSON
After reading the commentary below the link, please click on this link in order to watch my YouTube video on Dickinson’s Poem 574:
Please read the following before you watch the YouTube video, which talks about meter and rhyme a little too quickly:
Dickinson was influenced by the meter and stanza pattern of the Protestant hymns she sang in her youth in church in Amherst, Massachusetts (before she stopped attending).
Let’s review iambic meter, which we encountered in Macbeth. An iamb has an unstressed syllable and a stressed syllable.
Dickinson’s Poem 274 has 7 quatrains (4 line stanzas) consisting of alternating meters:
iambic tetrameter (8 syllables: 4 (“tetra”) units (iambs)
My FIRST well DAY since MA ny ILL
I have capitalized the stronger syllables in this first line of the poem. (But some people would say that Dickinson has one foot (unit of 2 syllables that substitutes a strong syllable where a weak one is supposed to be: WELL DAY, rather than well DAY. I guess I agree.) To create a little variety and avoid monotony, a good poet using iambic meter might sometimes substitute another pattern for an iamb, but not frequently, and not more than once in a line.
iambic trimeter (6 syllables: 3 (“tetra”) units (iambs)
I (unstressed) ASKED to GO aBROAD
The stronger syllables in this second line of the poem are capitalized but “I” is always capitalized, though in this case, it’s unstressed
The first and third lines of each quatrain do not rhyme, but the second and fourth do—as rime croisee (crossed rhymes—rhymes with one interval):
ill
abroad
hands
Pod
Obviously, “ill” and “hands” do not rhyme. You might not consider “abroad” and “Pod” to be a rhyme, but Dickinson and, a little later, William Butler Yeats, were famous for the innovation of slant rhyme—something that isn’t a perfect sameness of sound but is very close.
ASHBERY
Please click on this link in order to watch my YouTube video on Ashbery’s poem “Down by the Station, Early in the Morning”:
HIRATA
Please click on this link in order to watch my YouTube video on Hirata’s poem “Asakusa”
Good Morning Professor,
ReplyDeleteAfter watching your video of 574 by Dickinson, I see the question at first line of the last stanza as how some people might see the time being sick as "Lost Time". How that time could have been spent enjoying life.
Would the last 2 lines of this stanza represent the balance of life and death? Almost as if someone leans to far to one side it creates an imbalance? I pictured Icarus flying too close to the sun in this instance.
Freddy, your interpretation of that question can certainly be supported, but it could also be a rhetorical question: you need sickness to appreciate health. And Dickinson's trope of "measuring" can imply the notion of balance as a good thing; a typical reading is that you need the fact of death to make the most of life. But you should support YOUR reading, not the typical one, if yours differs.
DeleteI agree with you Freddy, the last part of the poem, Dickinson uses “loss” but also has a question mark next to it which is him asking himself what loss means to which he answers with “grave” meaning death and having nothing anymore.
DeleteGood morning Professor,
ReplyDeleteWhen you mentioned the rhyme Dickinson uses in 574, can it also be seen as him giving another message.
Edona Berisha
For example when he says “Ill” and “hands“, he was probably sick of where he was and what he had for himself that he just wanted to leave. Another would be “hands” and “grace”, grace is usually used in Christianity, is the love and mercy given to us by God and he connects it with hands to show that’s what he wants and needs In his life.
DeleteEdona, Since Dickinson is a woman, let's call the speaker "she" and "her." It is important that you associate "Grace" with the Christian connotation, as Dickinson had a life-long dialogue with the Protestant Christianity that she grew up with. "Her Hands of Haze" refers to the personified season of summer, and so does "Grace," so it is not the "I" of the poem that is being referred to. We know that summer has to leave--well, at least in Dickinson's time, before global warming! So summer uses a "haze" to show as you say "love and mercy" to the people who don't want it to leave by leaving gradually and not suddenly.
DeleteThe trope of personification--in this case, of summer--gives human characteristics to whatever is not human. Literally, according to typical human perceptions, summer is a season with particular characteristics (like warmth and sunniness) but it is not an entity that can think and make plans, but that is what Dickinson is having summer "do" here. Personification is strange, and in a poem like this, it might take some getting used to!
DeleteMy apologies on her gender professor, Can we also say Dickinson is aware of what is surrounded by her but also appreciates it at some points since she also uses religion
DeleteYes, Edona. Summer can be seen as part of the Christian design of God. So even if summer is "doing" the action, she may see it as God who is having summer use its "haze."
DeleteAs for John Ashbery poem, it uses a lot of imagery, but I don’t get the full meaning of it
ReplyDeleteEdona, Ashbery is famous for being a "difficult" poem. Let's wait on the Ashbery poem until next class. If you watched my video on the Ashbery poem, perhaps there was something I said that wasn't clear. If so, I can try to explain it more fully next time.
DeleteMorning Professor,
ReplyDeleteI do think life can be very appreciate if we measure 'the grave'. Even Dickinson seemed to marvel at, and appreciate, the season's beauty, because of how she describes them.
Yes, Gabriela. and example of her appreciation of the transition from summer to fall is the image of "Brazilian Threads." If you google image that phrase, you'll experience the richness of color that she is pointing to. Brazilian red and orange colors are famous now and were also in Dickinson's time.
DeleteI feel like that last part of the poem is deep. There is a gain that one earns by measuring the grave. You never know when it is your time to go but you do know it is coming. This makes a person enjoy life much more.
ReplyDeleteElvin, your interpretation of the poem connects with other Dickinson poems about how contrasts create meaning in life. Another contrast-oriented poem of hers begins, "Success is counted sweetest/By those who ne'er succeed."
DeleteHello professor,
ReplyDeleteLooking at the poem, one note you made on the capitalization is that it is very strange. I've noticed throughout different classes in the past that Old English has very different and seemingly weird capitalization, such as during colonial times where we would look at first hand documents. Or maybe the capitalization denotes things Dickinson would like readers to pay attention to or focus on.
Is this Kaniya posting or someone else? As for the capitalization, it's not about nineteenth century English or colonial times, because it's unique to Dickinson, and I think your point about "things Dickinson would like readers to pay attention to" is probably right. I've read a lot of critics on her work and no one explains it more convincingly than you just did. If people write on this poem for the final, you don't have to deal with the capitalization unless you really want to. I wouldn't.
DeleteAh sorry, I wasn't logged into the right Google account when I commented.
DeleteI am a little confused on why summer was a use of personification in trying to hide it.
ReplyDeleteSummer is personified as trying to hide the fact that it needs to leave and let in autumn. Summer regards people like the speaker as children who get depressed so it doesn't want the "children" to be unhappy because it's suddenly going away, so it makes the move gradually, using a "haze." In reality, "summer" has no conscious intention to go away; it just goes away.
DeleteI think that people usually when they know death is close by or had a near death experience, they have a new appreciation to the world. They breathe in the air around them as if it were their last enjoying it while they can. This poem is a little dark but in sense true to the way people act when they know they are lying on their deathbeds.
ReplyDeleteYes, Jaimy, perhaps the poem balances dark and light.
ReplyDeleteDuring today's class, you are welcome to comment more on Dickinson's poem in this section, "Essay 3: Poetry B" and/or comment on Ashbery's poem, again in this section. As you comment, also think about how you would write about the poem in the final, which is an essay of 600 to 1000 words, not as long as previous papers. Finally, aside from general comments about the poem, it would be good if you focus on particular phrases, clauses, sentences, or lines--either to comment or to ask questions that would make me elaborate on the passages more than I did in the videos. Remember that, to write a good final exam, you need to be specific in analyzing most and sometimes all of the lines of the poem you choose.
ReplyDeleteWe will not be depositing anything in ePortfolio this semester. Are you sad? I'm sorry!
DeleteSince the 1970s, many people have found Ashbery's poetry difficult; on the other hand, in the recent past, some of my students immediately relate to Ashbery's themes in similar poems to this one and don't find the text difficult. If you've heard my video on it, what do you think? Is the Dickinson poem or the Ashbery poem more "difficult"? Why? (I suspect that most of you will find that both the Alvarez and Ramanujan poems are "easier" than Dickinson and Ashbery's.)
DeleteI believe that Ashbery poem is more difficult to understand because even though he uses imagery, I do not know what he is trying to say in his poem (the meaning behind it). Dickinson poem was not as difficult as Ashbery’s poem. The words in the poem were connected to each other , which made it easy to analyze and see what she is trying to say her poem.
ReplyDeleteEdona, I think you make an interesting point: in Ashbery's poem, it is not immediately apparent how one sentence is connected to the next sentence. I do think, as I noted in the video, that the first 3 sentences are connected, and maybe even the first 5, but the personification of "things" believing the speaker that "it all wears out" is a little strange! After that, the speaker talks about "the rasp of silk" and "gargl[ing] with Listerine," and you may wonder: what is the relationship between those images? But actually, you can see them as examples of "It all wears out." the Speaker remembers the sound of a "rasp of silk" as the wearer moves, but maybe he's having more trouble remembering it than he used to. Maybe that "rasp" was very strange or memorable at one point, or it was connected to an important event in the speaker's life, so he's not happy that the memory is "wearing out" and may get lost.
DeleteAshbery's poem is difficult to understand because it is abstract.
ReplyDeleteI agree. You can see the choice of words he uses in his poem and how we can visualize what’s going on at the moment. It is abstract, which is difficult to understand what point he’s trying to get across.
DeleteWell, Ethiel and Edona, it is both abstract and concrete at the same time, and maybe that's the difficulty. Ashbery uses abstract words like "perceptual dysfunction" but he also uses a lot of images that are examples of what "wears out" and examples of how people's memory tends to fade with time.
DeleteAshbery poem:I agree that it is trying to protect of memories fading away, cause we would have moments in the past that we are like "yes, I will remember this forever", and now we have made new memories and that we sort of forget those until something you see or hear makes you remember.
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly, Giselle.
DeleteOn the basis of what Giselle just said, I think we can discuss the specifics of the last strophe (out of the 3) of the Ashbery poem between now and the end of class on Monday, June 1.
ReplyDeleteIf you have questions about doing the low stakes reflection between now and then, you can email me, as I will check that more often than I will the "low stakes reflection" post comments section on this blog. I think it's pretty easy: you just pick 4 areas of writing from the list and write 2-3 sentences about your progress or desired progress with each.
My question is
ReplyDeleteWhat is this poem really about? I’m still having difficulties understanding.
Edona, the poem can be read as being about what Giselle said a few posts ago.
DeleteAshbery's poem does not come off as difficult to understand
ReplyDeletei speak for myself ...
Annie, I'm glad to hear that. If people choose to write about it, they may not cover every sentence, but they can give a sense of the movement from one idea to another.
DeleteProfessor to me the poem has both a light and dark tone in its stanzas. It went from speaking about the sunshine of the day to describing a chance of pain. Changes of tone are present.
ReplyDeleteDarry Lopez
Darry, that's a good general assessment of Dickinson's poem that could be used to guide a close reading.
DeleteThis is Madelin's comment on Dickinson's poem:
ReplyDeleteAs for Dickisons poem even after I watched your YouTube video I still couldn’t make out what she was talking about, her poetry is definitely very different. Does it have to do with her personal life, I remembered you mentioned her not being married or having kids. I do have one question though why is it titled 574?
TF's answer: We should never assume that a poet is writing about their life unless it's obvious or if they say so. Poets make up fictions. She wasn't married and didn't have kids. 574 means that it is the 574th poem that she wrote because Dickinson didn't put titles on her poems.
This is Frances' comment on Ashbery's poem:
ReplyDeleteJohn Ashbery's poem struck a chord with me on many levels. The essence of the poem resonated (my interpretation) of "modern" Buddhist philosophy. The speaker is attempting (vocalizing) to be at the present moment despite his/desires to "touch base" with past memories. It resonated a melancholy vibe, quite similar to a person diagnosed with Alzheimer's describing his/her "perceptual dysfunction." The new reality the speaker depicts is their way of trying to cope with "fear of death," of both physical and the mental.
This is Frances' comment on Hirata's poem:
ReplyDeleteASAKUSA by Natsuko Hirata is visually structured in the actual shape of a "Z." The sentences gracefully descend into the "underground" of Tokyo's old markets. The allusion of Asakusa is evident in the actual structure of the poem as the speaker paints a picture/directs a movie for the reader to experience.
Good Morning Professor,
ReplyDeleteRegarding Ashbery's poem, everything is clear.
I really liked the poem though. I agree with Frances on the "melancholy vibe" the poem projects.
"Asakusa":
DeleteFor me it was kind of difficult to understand the poem at first. After watching the video it's clearer. So, I don't have any questions.
Gabriela and Frances, I've read most of Ashbery's work and would say that a "melancholy vibe" is often present. At the beginning of the last strophe, "wrecking ball" adds a sense of violence to the melancholy, or does it? Is this trope/image serious or a bit comic?
DeleteI, personally, find it serious and it adds to the melancholy.
DeleteI have a question about the last low stakes assignment. What does a "prompt" mean?
When you receive my topics, they will consist of a prompt for each of the 5 poems--instructions for what to put in the essay--i.e. a thesis-question and a followup question to support the thesis more specifically.
DeleteThe purpose of this exercise is for you to be a mind-reader: guess what I'm going to ask you to do and try to approximate the language I'm going to use. (It's a very good exercise for preparing for an essay with limited time.)
In this case, you are doing 2 or 3 sentence prompts for 2 different poems, not just the 1 you've decided on.
ReplyDeleteI want to ask one more question before we move to Hirata's poem: The "wrecking ball" performs the action of "scattering" knowledge (as indicated by the trope of books), and to "scatter" books may be to dismember them, to make them lose their power, the way memories in the poem's earlier 2 strophes are getting dimmer and maybe eventually evaporating. But I wonder if people feel that the speaker's idea of "letting in space" by getting rid of the space taken up by all of those books (memories?) is a good thing, a bad thing, or mixed? Note that the poet uses the term, "hollow core," and the verb "protects" AND "pushes us away."
ReplyDeleteI liked Ashbery's poem, it was clear for me professor after I watched the video.
ReplyDeleteEthiel, I'm glad it's clear to you.. And I find it clear that you can read the ending as either positive or negative or a combination. That's ambiguity: some people think that ambiguity (double meaning) is not clear, but I think someone can clearly understand two meanings to one sentence or passage.
DeleteOn Ashbery's poem, I feel it carries a very somber, attempting to cheer oneself up sort of feeling to it. From this quote where they say "It all wears out. I keep telling myself this, but/I can never believe me" and "And so each day/Culminates in merriment as well as a deep shock like an electric one" gives very juxtaposing feelings of trying to stave away sadness such as not believing their sad thoughts and the happy feelings of a day, clashing with the melancholy of the rest of the poem.
ReplyDeleteAlso, on May 26, I wrote a post about Dickinson's poem and the capitalization, but I wasn't signed in on the correct account. I replied to you on the post so you could know which one.
TJ, I think you have a strong idea of how you can interpret what's going on in Ashbery's poem--especially in the concept of "staving away sadness."
DeleteThanks for the clarification on the Dickinson post.
It was interesting how Ashbery formated their poem and it looked like a spiral staircase lending to the underground.
ReplyDeleteSo is the poem is like stating how when its hard they escape to the past? since you mentioned that the underground was based on old tokyo?
DeleteHirata not Ashbery, sorry.
DeleteGiselle, the poem reflects the charm of the old Tokyo, and it might be considered an escape to the past or just an escape within the present with SOME (not all) elements of the past. It's up to you as interpreter to make a case for either with the details of the poem.
DeleteFor the low stake assignment, we chose 2 poems and make a prompt for each, as if we were to use to write an essay, right?
DeleteWe should ponder Giselle's idea of a spiral staircase; that would explain a lot, because the poem ends in the underground mall. Frances had mentioned a Z-shape, and that kind of shape can be considered pretty close to a spiral staircase.
DeleteAshberry's poem was is in a way deep it definitely interprets the way people refuse to acknowledge that everything wears out. It could be a pair of shoes, clothes, a fruit, and us. Nothing lasts forever. This is what we try to push away from our knowledge that nothing lasts including us; it may be fear or they just want to live in the moment as long as they can.
ReplyDeleteSo, Jaimy, I assume then that you are interpreting "the hollow core" at the end of the poem as the impermanence of all things.
DeleteHey i have read the post and i have also send you my low stake writing for today.
ReplyDeleteThank You
Professor for Ashberry's poem it seems like it is in a sequence as the more we read, the more everything is purposely happening. In the poem it has a sense of everything coming together til the end.
ReplyDeleteDarry Lopez
You could definitely make that argument, Darry.
DeleteI'm writing some comments on the prompts in the main section, but you can write them in the comments section here.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we are going to need to use the literary terms, also for the poem Therapist the older brother being "mean" it never crossed my mind that it they meant he had anger issues. I also do wonder why she was in therapy, one theory thati have is because she doesnt
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Deleteone theory I have is because she doesn't focus on her conflicts, neglects thats why she probably observes others
ReplyDeleteGiselle, if the prompt asks for it, you can certainly speculate in the paper on the possibility that she avoids thinking about her own conflicts, and that's why she focus on the environment (other patients) in the waiting room and going down the corridor to the therapist's office. However, if the prompt doesn't concern that, you shouldn't focus on this.
Deleteokay, got it
Deletewhen will receive the prompt by email
I have 3 pm on Friday as the time, but it might be a little earlier in the day.
DeleteMorning Professor,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the feedback.
Gabriela, my idea is that if all the students can get a sense of the kinds of questions that I might ask and the kinds I won't, they will be thinking--either consciously or unconsciously--of the right sorts of responses before they get the actual questions.
DeleteThe second question for 574 by Emily Dickinson, I also like, its like answering with your interpetation and could be backed up with the poem.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Emily Dickinson's poem is trying to bring awareness or a sense of losing something valuable. The poem is a little confusing to me.
ReplyDeleteJenny Lin.