Browse some poetry sites online. Find a poem that you find interesting. Copy and paste that poem onto the blog (don't forget to include the title and poet's name!). Then, write a brief paragraph explaining who the speaker is, what's going on in the poem, and what you find unusual about the poem. Finally, pose a question to the rest of the class about the poem you found.
Not sure where to start looking? Check out these websites!
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/
http://www.poetry-online.org/
http://www.poetry.org/
http://www.poetrysoup.com/
Shall I Compare Thee To A Summers Day?
ReplyDeleteby William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summersday?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a day:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimm'd:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor loose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long as men can breath or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Michelangelo--
ReplyDeleteThis is a beautiful sonnet! Don't forget to post the second part of the assignment. I would love to see what you think about it.
Fire And Ice
ReplyDeleteby Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
This is a beautiful poem that talks about how the world will end up using only two options: fire or ice. From these two words we can say that the main theme is nature. For the speaker, both of the two possibilities may be the perfect ways to end the world. He/she thinks this because he/she is convinced that both the two possibilities are a bad way to end the world. Thus, it has a negative side by the speaker who claims that the world will end in a bad way necessarily. We don’t know who is the speaker, it can be a female but at the same time a man, but it is easy to understand that it is an adult because a boy would never think at these questions, but only to live his life. Reading the poem i found something very unusual, the author in fact wrote "I hold with these who favor fire" usually people don’t say “hold” but “I’m on the side of these who favor fire”.
What do you think is the most important thing of this poem?
Valentina,
ReplyDeleteYou chose an interesting poem. At first it seems simple, but can be read rather deeply.
For a poem with such a negative theme (destruction) I, first of all find the rhyme scheme to be a bit strange. It makes it so lyrical!
I would disagree that nature is a major THEME, but I would say that the author uses images of nature to help communicate how opposite desire and hate are. I think what this poem really calls into question is the power of desire and the power of hate. This speaker, being a first person speaker and giving a personal opinion (as you pointed out with the line "I hold with these who favor fire"), clearly knows and understands both desire and hate. Yet in the end concludes that they are equally powerful. So, in response to your question, I think the most important thing to notice about this poem is that desire and hate may be as opposite as fire and ice, but that they are equally powerful and can be equally terrible.
Friends
ReplyDeleteby William Butler Yeats
Now must I these three praise
Three women that have wrought
What joy is in my days:
One because no thought,
Nor those unpassing cares,
No, not in these fifteen
Many-times-troubled years,
Could ever come between
Mind and delighted mind;
And one because her hand
Had strength that could unbind
What none can understand,
What none can have and thrive,
Youth's dreamy load, till she
So changed me that I live
Labouring in ecstasy.
And what of her that took
All till my youth was gone
With scarce a pitying look?
How could I praise that one?
When day begins to break
I count my good and bad,
Being wakeful for her sake,
Remembering what she had,
What eagle look still shows,
While up from my heart's root
So great a sweetness flows
I shake from head to foot
i think this poem is from funny to sad.
Remember
ReplyDeleteby Christina Rosetti
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
The speaker of the poem might be the writer and the poem is addressing to someone that she loved. It is a sad and sorrowful poem which is about the seperation of a couple . From first few line we can know that the narrator is asking the person who she is addressing to remember her as she is going to the “silent land.” But on the second part of the poem the mood is changed , it seems that the speaker knows that remembering her will cause a “grieve”to the person. Therefore she writes “ Better by far you should forget and smile “- she tells him to forget her and live a better life. The things that I find very unusual about the poem are the words “silent land “ and the moods of the poem since it has changed so differently, at the beginning she is asking to remember her but then she suddently changed her mind.
Q: Is there a story behind the poem ?
Wind and window flower by Robert Frost
ReplyDeleteLover's forget ur love
and listen to the love of these
she a window Flower,
and he a Winter breeze
when the frosty window
was melted down at noon
and the caged yellow bird
hung over her in tune
he marked her through the pane
he could not help but mark
and only passed her by
to come again at dark
he was a winter wind
concerned with ice and snow
dead weeds and unmated birds
and litle of love could know
but he sighed upon the sill
he gave the sash a shake
as witness all within
who lay that night awake
perchance he half prevailed
to win her for the flight
from the firelit looking glass
and warm stove window light
but the flower leaned aside
and thought of naught to sasy
and morning found the breeze
a hundred miles away
This is an example of unrequited love. The winter breeze the one in love) loves the window flower (the beloved). They are of two different worlds; fated to never be together. The winter breeze "little of love could know" (cold and barren) is the opposite of the window flower who lives in a world of "warm stove-window light" 9warmth and light).
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California. His father William Frost, a journalist and an ardent Democrat, died when Frost was about eleven years old. His Scottish mother, the former Isabelle Moody, resumed her career as a schoolteacher to support her family. The family lived in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with Frost's paternal grandfather, William Prescott Frost, who gave his grandson a good schooling.
While everyone has chosen interesting poems, not everyone has posted the response correctly! Please look to Aini and Valentina, who both earned full credit.
ReplyDeleteValentina's question
ReplyDelete1.What do you think is the most important thing of this poem?
I think the most important thing of this poem is the poet's feeling towards the world.In his oppinion that no matter the world will end in fire or ice , since he knows " enough of hate " from reality , he thinks that the world
would not have a good ending.
To Leibin
Since you know that the mood of the poem changes from the beginning to the end. How did you realize this ? (is there any specific word or phrase helped you?)
Valentina's question
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think is the most important thing of this poem?
I think the most important thing of this poem is the feeling that Robert Frost has towards the ending of the world.