Tocqueville was not the kind of book I was expecting it to be. I was expecting a more novel type book than these poems, but I was still mind struck once again. The poem "Ecclesiastes" was the one that stuck out to me the most. I really enjoyed the set up of this writing and I noticed I was on the edge of my seat the whole way through. The double lined writing set up was very appealing to me, and the simple yet clear writing style painted a solid image in my head.
The words "trick" and "rule" played a very big role throughout this writing. This led me to begin to think of my own personal definition of the words to try and better understand the writing. I perceived "trick" as something deceiving, or a way of not abiding by the rules, and I saw "rule" and this sort of set way of doing something or expected routine to follow. "The rule is to make them feel they've come too late. The trick is that you're willing to make exceptions." So if I used my own person understandings of these words than to me this would mean that no matter what happens you need to make them feel this certain way. At the same time, I need to sort of deceive that rule and regardless make an exception for them anyway.
Even after reading this over a few times, I am still not sure what to make of it. My mind wants to put a stamp on this poem and declare that I know what point they are trying to make but I'm stuck in this cluster of different meanings. One meaning I will get is that the author is a therapist and trying to help someone, but at the same time is also tricking them behind their back. They are portraying the illusion of helping but in reality they do not care about the other person at all. I really get this feeling from the lines "The rule is to create a commission system. The trick is to get their number." I find this to be a very greedy and not caring description of the author. The bigger hint to me was to pair this line up next to "The trick is to make it personal: No one in the world suffers like you." I feel that these two were placed next to each other on purpose to display this idea of false rescue.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Langston Hughes - Children's Rhymes
Langston Hughes was a very respected poet and he was mentioned in just about every literature class I have ever taken since high school. After looking at some of his poems in class, his poem "Children's Rhymes" caught my attention the most. The reason this poem stuck out to me was the fact that it involved children. The racial discrimination of the of the early 1900's had a huge impact on all children and imprinted certain ideas in their heads at the time. "By what sends the white kids I ain't sent: I know I can't be President." this was in the minds of many young teens that they were inferior to white children and could not achieve the same dreams.
Hughes also portrays the idea that the worries of different races would also be very different from one another. "What don't bug them white kids sure bugs me: We knows everybody ain't free" This was to me the most powerful line in the poem. I think he is trying to say that the law will protect white people and black people know that there will always be discrimination, and they wont get the same treatment as white people. This is why they have more things to be worried about than white people because they don't have the same rights. I also found it very interesting that Hughes added the extra "s" to the end of "know" even though he was very educated in writing, but makes this error to possibly portray some kind connection to his community of people and culture.
However, despite how much I liked this poem, there was also a few aspects I did not. Hughes says "When I was a chile we used to play, "One-two-buckle my shoe!" and things like that. But now, Lord, listen at them little varmints!" and he goes on to state the other two quotes in this post. I was obviously not in his shoes and did not experience the same events as he did in his life, but I have experienced a high amount of racial discrimination where people have been killed, and the kids did not act the way he is portraying them to act. To me, kids are kids no matter the circumstance they are in and find ways to have fun. They don't fully understand the situation and are not singing the blues day and night about racial discrimination. This is a very powerful and sometimes truthful image, but I feel Hughes overplayed the depression of the children to create a better image for the reader.
Hughes also portrays the idea that the worries of different races would also be very different from one another. "What don't bug them white kids sure bugs me: We knows everybody ain't free" This was to me the most powerful line in the poem. I think he is trying to say that the law will protect white people and black people know that there will always be discrimination, and they wont get the same treatment as white people. This is why they have more things to be worried about than white people because they don't have the same rights. I also found it very interesting that Hughes added the extra "s" to the end of "know" even though he was very educated in writing, but makes this error to possibly portray some kind connection to his community of people and culture.
However, despite how much I liked this poem, there was also a few aspects I did not. Hughes says "When I was a chile we used to play, "One-two-buckle my shoe!" and things like that. But now, Lord, listen at them little varmints!" and he goes on to state the other two quotes in this post. I was obviously not in his shoes and did not experience the same events as he did in his life, but I have experienced a high amount of racial discrimination where people have been killed, and the kids did not act the way he is portraying them to act. To me, kids are kids no matter the circumstance they are in and find ways to have fun. They don't fully understand the situation and are not singing the blues day and night about racial discrimination. This is a very powerful and sometimes truthful image, but I feel Hughes overplayed the depression of the children to create a better image for the reader.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Ted Berrigan's Sonnets
A collage is a mixture of various pictures, objects, or words put together to express either some type of emotion, idea, or tell a story. I chose to read Sonnet XV by Ted Berrigan and not only do you get a poem but a collage as well. This poem has easily become my favorite I've read thus far in class and will be for a long time. The way this poem is set up was mind blowing to me. I had always heard about poets talking about "breaking the rules of writing" and having your own style, but this took the cake for me.
After reading this sonnet for the first time I did not have the same feelings toward it that I do now. I was very confused and didn't see what was so great about it at all. I didn't understand the pop culture references, the sentences did not flow, the ideas were jumping around and I couldn't get a grasp of the poem as a whole. I assumed it must of been special in some way or I would not be reading it in my class right now, but I thought it was just out of my time and I had nothing to gain from it... And thankfully I was incredibly wrong.
After another student mentioned that if you read the sonnet in a certain way it would make much more sense, I had to see for myself. I began matching up certain lines with their counterparts or continuations and it started making some sense and I felt as if I was solving a puzzle. I thought it was just for about four lines of the poem but then soon after I realized that the entire poem was setup in a certain order to where the first line would match up with the last line and second with second from last and so on. I truly got excited because I had never seen something like this in poetry before. Once I had read the entire poem the "correct way" everything had made sense! (except for the pop culture references haha) This was the first time I had ever seen a poet really step out of the box and I was happy we got to read this in class.
After reading this sonnet for the first time I did not have the same feelings toward it that I do now. I was very confused and didn't see what was so great about it at all. I didn't understand the pop culture references, the sentences did not flow, the ideas were jumping around and I couldn't get a grasp of the poem as a whole. I assumed it must of been special in some way or I would not be reading it in my class right now, but I thought it was just out of my time and I had nothing to gain from it... And thankfully I was incredibly wrong.
After another student mentioned that if you read the sonnet in a certain way it would make much more sense, I had to see for myself. I began matching up certain lines with their counterparts or continuations and it started making some sense and I felt as if I was solving a puzzle. I thought it was just for about four lines of the poem but then soon after I realized that the entire poem was setup in a certain order to where the first line would match up with the last line and second with second from last and so on. I truly got excited because I had never seen something like this in poetry before. Once I had read the entire poem the "correct way" everything had made sense! (except for the pop culture references haha) This was the first time I had ever seen a poet really step out of the box and I was happy we got to read this in class.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
First Poem Reading - Geology of Water
Water is a common symbol used by many writers to grasp the imagination of their readers. The poem I chose to write about is "Geology of Water" by Marianne Moore (Not sure if this is the correct author, the paper did not print well). This was the first poem read by the class and it grabbed my attention from the beginning. The vivid images and use of detail had me hooked and really gave me a good vision of what the author was attempting to describe. Out of the first couple poems assigned to the class this was my favorite one.
"If I bend closer I can hear him drown, a man made out of water whose words arise like bubbles to the surface: something survives in every carbonaceous molecule" (Lines 14-18). This means to me that when we are dying, we make the most of our last breathes and the meaning behind our words will survive even after we are gone. This also sparked a question to myself as I was reading this poem because how can a man drown if he is made out of water? I loved this small passage and really enjoyed thinking about the meaning behind it.
"Evolution croons its single song, come out of the sea, my love, to me, and never adds, and drown knee-deep in air." (Lines 24-27). This was by far my favorite line in the entire poem because it has so many meanings and just sounds awesome at the same time. One interpretation was that humans in a way evolved to get out of the water, but still drown and die in the air. It also has a darker feeling to the way it is portrayed. As if "Evolution" is tricking the human race to come to this glorious place and evolve, but when they get there they see it is not what they expected.
"If I bend closer I can hear him drown, a man made out of water whose words arise like bubbles to the surface: something survives in every carbonaceous molecule" (Lines 14-18). This means to me that when we are dying, we make the most of our last breathes and the meaning behind our words will survive even after we are gone. This also sparked a question to myself as I was reading this poem because how can a man drown if he is made out of water? I loved this small passage and really enjoyed thinking about the meaning behind it.
"Evolution croons its single song, come out of the sea, my love, to me, and never adds, and drown knee-deep in air." (Lines 24-27). This was by far my favorite line in the entire poem because it has so many meanings and just sounds awesome at the same time. One interpretation was that humans in a way evolved to get out of the water, but still drown and die in the air. It also has a darker feeling to the way it is portrayed. As if "Evolution" is tricking the human race to come to this glorious place and evolve, but when they get there they see it is not what they expected.
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Introduction Blog
Hi everyone, my name is Anwar Alqurneh. I am 19 years old and a sophomore here at Eastern Michigan University. I am a transfer student from Michigan State University and was also apart of the football team here at EMU. I live in Farmington Hills, MI which is about 30 minutes north of here, but I am originally from Westland, MI. I am also a proud brother of the Fraternity Phi Gamma Delta at Michigan State, but I am enjoying my time here at Eastern Michigan.
I am not a big reader but I love to write my thoughts on topics and just express myself through writing. I was still not sure about signing up for this class but that changed last semester. My Literature professor Tony Spicer had opened me up to dig deeper into my writing and reading abilities so I decided this class would be a good fit for me. I am looking forward to getting feedback from my peers and hopefully developing as a reader and writer in the next few months.
I am not sure what to expect from this class just yet. I am hoping to meet some of the other students and build some friendships, but at the same time I am interested to see if the class will react well together, or this will be a class where everybody just sticks to themselves. I am a big fan of open discussions of readings during class so that will be an interesting part of the course for me and others too. I'm sure I'll look back at this first post at the end of the semester and it will put a smile on my face because this is my first blog post ever.
I am not a big reader but I love to write my thoughts on topics and just express myself through writing. I was still not sure about signing up for this class but that changed last semester. My Literature professor Tony Spicer had opened me up to dig deeper into my writing and reading abilities so I decided this class would be a good fit for me. I am looking forward to getting feedback from my peers and hopefully developing as a reader and writer in the next few months.
I am not sure what to expect from this class just yet. I am hoping to meet some of the other students and build some friendships, but at the same time I am interested to see if the class will react well together, or this will be a class where everybody just sticks to themselves. I am a big fan of open discussions of readings during class so that will be an interesting part of the course for me and others too. I'm sure I'll look back at this first post at the end of the semester and it will put a smile on my face because this is my first blog post ever.
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