Poetry for dummies #1

Part 1) Reading and Understanding Poetry
Chapter 1) Poetry 101

What is Poetry and Why do People write it?

"Poetry is the practice of creating artworks using language." (P. 10)

Unique elements make poetry special are
1) Attentiveness, 2) Concentration, 3) Experiment, 4) Originality, 5) Form

Poets: exploring experience through the written words, every kind of experiences, and the emotions and feelings, into art through the way he uses language.

- Creating an intense emotional experience
- Drawing attention to something that is true

Bringing Poetry into Your Life

- Checking out libraries
- Browsing through bookstore
- Attending readings
- Seeking cyber-poetry

Terms:
Metaphor: unspoken comparison
Similes: comparison using "like" and "as"
Anthology: collections of poems from different poets

Reading Poetry Aloud

- Why you should read poems aloud
1) Poets design their poems to be read aloud
2) You'll experience the whole poem if you read it aloud: sound and rhythm
3) You'll understand and remember more if you read aloud.

- The basic steps to good reading
1) Have the right tools handy: a dictionary, a book about the history and forms of poetry
2) Read silently first: Scope out the poem, get some background information> Read the poem silently, to yourself> Take notes as your read silently, if you want-it becomes a sort of journal for them, a history of their reading and their thought processes over time.

Terms:
Stanzas: groups of lines
Allusions: references to persons, places, things, or history

- Note surprise and unfamiliar words
***** "Stop, repeat, go back, dwell." If you really like certain lines, reread and enjoy them again. If the poem is in a book you own, underline the part you like or note it in the margin. And keep your dictionary by your side so that you can look up words you're not familiar with.

- Find an engaged, conversational tone
- Don't rush

Terms:
Alliteration: the repetition of initial consonant sounds

- Pause for power: 1) Any punctuated pause, including dashes, commas, semicolons, or periods. 2) Any surprise. 3) The end of one stanza (or group of lines) and the beginning of another. 4) The ends of lines

- Pay attention to line endings
- Treat white space as time
- Do it more than once

Writing Poetry

- Becoming a poet
1) Discover as much as you can about the poetic craft, 2) Become as sensitive as you can, both of life and to language, 3) Think divergently, 4) Make time for yourself to write, 5) Be disciplined

- Keeping a poetic journal

Terms:
Journal: a repository containing ideas, images, subjects for poems, drafts of poems, other people's poetry
Found Objects: things you pick up that inspire you or that could become the basis for poems, such as someone else's grocery list

- Trying your hand at a writing exercise
1) Write down a very mundane, straightforward prose statement about the outside world
2) Now pay closer attention to the thing you just wrote about: brainstorm
3) Concentrate on your subject and come up with a few new ways of presenting or describing the thing your original statement was about: reject anything that seems familiar or secondhand
4) Write at least two passages of poetry on the subject, experimenting with different forms
5) Now rewrite one of the passage in as few words as you can.

Poetry for dummies
Wiley Publishing Inc., 2001
The poetry center, John Timpane, Ph. D, Maureen Watts
Chapter 1: Poetry 101, p. 7-30

On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA, Phillis Wheatley

On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA

Phillis  Wheatley

 'TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

"Their colour is a diabolic die."

Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,

May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

 On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA written by Phillis Wheatley was publish 1773. While America was still an England colony, Phillis Wheatley was an "enslaved black female" poet owned by John Wheatley. What did she want to tell the audience since she was a total minor in the society; slave, woman, and black? This poem is brave. As I kept saying, she was a slave, and especially on the eighteenth century, there was a strict bias to African American, although she was settled on North, where was weaker racism than South. However, in this poem, she "bravely" tells that her thought toward the redemption for the black. It might be really hard for her to speak out her thoughts and to be sarcastic about the white. she did not directly make a satire at the white, but what she wants to tell was pretty straightforward; being brought from Africa to America, being taught Christianity and redemption, but not being able to go to heaven because of her skin color, which the white said "cursed." The tone of this poem could be strong, as well as soft. The words like "diabolic," "die," "scornful," and "Cain" sound strong, but the words like "May," "angelic," "mercy," and "redemption" make the sound soft. I love this ambiguous tone, and last two lines, my favorite lines, "Remember, Christian, Negros, Black as Cain./ May be refin'd and  joined th' angelic train," rule the ambiguousness in  the poem. Last two lines deliver the message she wants to tell; however, it is not clear enough to say straight forward because there are two ways to read the lines.

1) Remember,/ Christian, Negros,/ Black as Cain.

2) Remember, Christian,/ Negros, Black as Cain.

 I like second one more than first one because the voice is more connected from the beginning. However, there are no correct answers for the poem since what you feel is right. In addition, I like the metaphors, Cain for the cursed people, angelic train for heaven, and pagan land for Africa. It is pretty direct and simple metaphors letting people easily get the ideas. 

 Although there are controversial opinion between Phillis Wheatey's poetical quality, If I read only this poem, I'd like to say she was the poet, because for me, poems are all about feeling of life and thoughts of religion. Although all her collections did not have a specific theme, such as death, life, redemption, or so on, she still has her own theme, "Phillis Wheatley's life." She delivered her life as slave, black, woman, christian, and made the audience "feel" the messages. The most important thing for poets and writers is emotional connection with readers, and she did. 

"Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but not poetry. Love is the peculiar oestrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Wheatley; but it could not produce a poet." - Thomas Jefferson