My 6th event I attended was at SFCC for Marie Howe who is acclaimed poet and has published several books. The reason we are able to have incredible guest speakers like her is because 12 years ago a group of SFCC English faculty decided that other area colleges regularly bring authors to their campuses, so SFCC wanted to provide these experiences for their students as well, so they began raising money from things like bake sales, and donations to create an endowment. While they were raising this money Gonzaga University partnered with them to help them bring some incredible poets to the campus. Fun fact that I thought you would like to know! Because of the English faculty starting such a great event, I was able to experience a poet as good as Marie Howe. Marie Howe is the author of Magdalene which was long listed for the National book award, as well as Kingdom Of Ordinary time, which was a finalist in the LA time’s book prize, What the Living Do, and The Good Thief. …show more content…
She mentioned that the poems in that book focus on deceptively simple moments, and how they work together to tell a powerful story of what it means to be human. As she went on to read some of these poems you understood what she was doing and how powerful the poem was. For example, one of her poems she talks about is called “The Attic” which centers on abuse by her father, while her brother cares for her afterwards helplessly. One line that sticks with me from that poem was “I don’t know if he knows he’s building a world that I can one day love a man”. Talk about a powerful line! I honestly went home and thought about that line probably all night. That line had so much meaning and impact, just for it being a simple line. Marie Howe Does this a lot in her poems. I have not technically read any of her books but from the poems she did read, it has me intrigued and wanting to go out and buy all her
After a first reading of Marie Howe’s What the Living Do, many complicated feelings come out of my mind. In her poem, Marie Howe captures the human behavior that makes people obsessed with trivial issues until they overlook the important things that they could do to make their lives more enjoyable. Those situations actually have happened on most of us today. In most cases, people will procrastinate over simple chores and tasks instead of taking action and accomplishing these tasks. While many people will sulk over how unfortunate they are, they don't realize that they are in a better off than many other people. As technology affects every aspect of our lives in the modern world, it becomes extremely difficult to get off from the technological
The poem explains her hardships. Reading poetry is different from reading prose because you really have to dig deeper and study harder. A poem is not always straight forward like many other writings. You have to use context clues and understand imagery, tone, and sense. Summarizing a poem becomes difficult if you do not re-read several times. I learned that figurative language and lifestyle really tells a great story. Language especially helps you understand what is going on between the lines. Overall, family is always there at the end of the day. Sometimes situations get tough, but there is always a light at the end of the
Marie Howe’s book, “What the living Do” is a book about death, loss, grief, and life. Howe expresses these deep emotional issues using plain language, simple line breaks, and imagery that reminds the reader of an ordinary home. The poem, “Faulkner”, is an exemplary example of how effective Howe’s methods are for conveying a moody and mournful tone.
She gets to the point and proves that in our current world we tend to say more than we should, when just a couple of words can do the same. In her writing, it is evident that the little sentences and words are what make the poem overall that perfect dream she wishes she were part of.
What is unusual about Pastan?s poem is the way she effectively conveys these sentiments by the
"What lips have I kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay While reading "What lips my lips have kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, I realized many things about myself. The first thing was that I, after thinking I would never be able to decipher one word of poetry, actually could. I also found that I was able to enjoy it. Another thing was that the narrator (whom I felt was a woman- no man could portray these feelings like a woman) and I had strikingly similar feelings. There happened to be many other amazing findings, but these two were the first and most important to me.
During the poem he writes of “loops of her hair”, and all I can think about is when I make loops with my own hair and play with it. Other than a very relatable imagery in the poem, it is also about love, which is almost always captivating to read about. While I read this poem I felt as though a man is not sure if he is ready to love, but he is being told that if not yet in love then he is wasting his time. The poem makes it feel like there is never a wrong time to begin love, and that it is all up to the
Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiographical Living History does exactly what an autobiography is supposed to do. Keeping in mind that this book is not a substitute for history itself but merely the memoirs of the 42nd First Lady, Living History becomes a fascinating read marked by well-mannered eloquence and genuine emotion. This is not another feeble attempt to salvage Bill Clinton's reputation; this is the story about a woman of achievement; a story of an independent, strong-willed individual whose courage, strength, and intellect is truly admirable. This is Hillary's story.
"Love Calls Us to the Things of This World" sets up, in the first stanza, the feeling that something otherworldly is going to be in the picture. "The morning air is all awash with angels" brings in the image (or concept) of heaven, which Wilbur refers to again later in the poem. In the 2nd stanza, again the concept of not-of-this-world is brought into play with the mention of the halcyon, which is a mythical bird. One literary device that Wilbur seems to draw upon heavily in this poem is the use of oxymorons, contradictory terms together. The angels are rising together in "calm swells." When I think of swells, calm is not necessarily the word that comes to mind. He also states that the angels are "flying in place...moving/ And staying like white water." Flying implies movement, so "flying in place" is not a phrase that is commonly heard. Later in the poem he uses the term bitter love, and while I understand that this concept does in fact exist, it is still two words which are somewhat contradictory. In the last stanza he mentions the "heaviest nuns" trying hard to keep their "difficult balance." This reminded me of that concept of funambilism that we discussed in class. This work seems to utilize the idea of balance (indirectly) in many aspects. The use of the contradictory terms that I discussed earlier could be thought of as balancing each other out. This poem overall was very well put together, with sentences that caught your attention, and my favorite sentence was "The soul shrinks/ From all that it is about to remember."
...s expectations. The second poem which had been compared to the novel was ‘Quickdraw’. Although, it is a couple based relationship it can be compared to some of the characters in the text as the key idea of ‘words hurting’ is also applied in the novel. The final poem which I had compared to the novel was ‘Brothers’ this poem reflects on the relationship between George and Lennie from ‘Of Mice and Men’. Although George and Lennie are just friends, the way they look out for each other gives them the opportunity to have a brotherly bond. Just like most siblings think of their younger brother or sister as a pain as well as a burden, that’s just the way George thinks Lennie is to him.
The verbose use of imagery in this poem is really what makes everything flow in this poem. As this poem is written in open form, the imagery of this writing is what makes this poem poetic and stand out to you. Marisa de los Santos begins her poem with “Its here in a student’s journal, a blue confession in smudged, erasable ink: ‘I can’t stop hoping/ I’ll wake up, suddenly beautiful’” (1-3). Even from the first lines of this story you can already picture this young girl sitting at her desk, doodling on her college ruled paper. It automatically hooks you into the poem, delving deeper and deeper as she goes along. She entices you into reading more as she writes, daring you to imagine the most perfect woman in the world, “cobalt-eyed, hair puddling/ like cognac,” (5-6). This may not be the ideal image of every person, but from the inten...
Thomas Higginson said that “the main quality of her poems is that of extraordinary grasp and insight, uttered with an uneven vigor, which was all her own'; (78).
Form and meaning are what readers need to analyze to understand the poem that they are evaluating. In “Mother to Son”, his form of writing that is used frequently, is free verse. There is no set “form”, but he gets his point across in a very dramatic way. The poem is told by a mother who is trying to let her son know that in her life, she too has gone through many frustrations just like what her son is going through. The tone of this poem is very dramatic and tense because she illustrates the hardships that she had to go through in order to get where she is today. She explains that the hardships that she has gone through in her life have helped her become the person that she has come to be. Instead of Hughes being ironic, like he does in some of his poems, he is giving the reader true background on the mother’s life. By introducing the background, this helps get his point across to the reader in a very effective way. In this poem there are many key words which help portray the struggles that the mother is trying to express to her son. The poem is conveyed in a very “down to earth” manner. An example of this is, “Life for me ain’t been a crystal stair (462).” This quote shows the reader that the mom is trying to teach the son a lesson with out sugar coating it. She wants her son to know that throughout her life has had many obstacles to overcome, and that he too is going to have to get through his own obstacles no matter how frustrating it is. Her tone throughout the poem is stern telling the boy, “So boy, don’t turn your back (462).” The poems tone almost makes the reader believe that the mother is talking to them, almost as if I am being taught a valuable lesson.
Stanzas one and two of the poem are full of imagery. The first stanza sets the scene for the poem “in a kingdom by the sea” (Poe 609) which makes you feel as if the story is going to have a “romantic” (Overview) feel to it. Then Annabel Lee comes into the story with “no other thought than to love and be loved by me” (Poe 609); This sentence is full of imagery in the sense that it makes you feel the immense capacity of love Annabel Lee had for the speaker if that was her only thought. In the second stanza the imagery takes a turn that shifts from loving and inviting to pain; The love between Annabel and the speaker was so strong that
The story and the imagery is this poem is very chilling in a good way. It makes you want to read more and I want to do that with my poetry. This is one of the reasons I have chosen to include poetry in my thesis. A lot of the challenges that I have done for my fiction are the same as the ones that I made for my poetry. Another poet / playwright that I have read is Shakespeare. The way his works just flow is amazing. One of my favorite works that I love to read is A Midsummer’s Night Dream. I have always loved the fairy realm and magical realism in stories.