Poetry Selections (blog by Monday)

I was just wondering when you are going to post the poetry selections because I would like to get started.

I'll have those up in a few hours. The deadline for the poetry readings and the academic article will be pushed back to noon on Monday.

Since the blog entry isn't due till Monday for the poetry and the academic article, should we have reflections for both ready to turn in during class Monday. Also, if reflections for the poetry are due, how many should we have?

Yes, please do bring in the reflections for the poetry and the academic article on Monday.

Other than the first day of class, this is the only other class that focuses this strongly on poetry, so I would welcome a longer-than-usual reflection for the poetry selection -- something that could also count for the "depth" component of your portfolio. However, a single reflection paper that makes insightful comments that reflect the breadth of your reading and the depth of your analytical ability will be fine.

If you feel you need to write more than one reflection paper to reflect the depth of your reading, or if you want demonstrate greater-than-average class participation for this week, I would welcome more than one reflection paper. (Just be sure to call my attention to this fact in your next portfolio.)

"It has recently been suggested, by reputable researchers, that there may well be a link between certain disturbances and creative achievement and that artists are unusually susceptible to major depressions."
I think I need to join an artist support group.
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MatthewHenderson/2009/03/uh_ohim_in_trouble.html

In the line “the paper chambers flush and fill with light/ that comes and goes, like hearts” we can see what is happening in our mind’s eye and feel the excitement as if we were really there. She employs the same simple yet effective description in “Filling Station.”

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AlyssaSanow/2009/03/description_the_key_to_connect.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/CarlosPeredo/2009/03/the_southern_cross_reference.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AjaHannah/2009/03/look_before_you_leap.html

"The turtle had come a long walk, / 200 millennia understudy to dinosaurs, / then their survivors. A god for the out-of-power . . . . / Faster gods come to Castine, flush yachtsmen who see hell as a city very much like New York, / these gods give a bad past and worse future to men who never bother to set a spinnaker; / culture without cash isn't worth their spit."
~lines 3-10

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JenniferPrex/2009/03/turtle_better_than_yacht_owner.html

"Weeks hitting the road, one fasting in the bathtub,
raw hamburger mossing in the watery stoppage,
the room drenched with musk like kerosene -
no one shaved, and only the turtle washed.
He was so beautiful when we flipped him over:
greens, reds, yellows, fringe of faded savage..."
-Robert Lowell, Returning Turtle
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/RosalindBlair/2009/03/absorbed_by_nature.html

"and he's well brought up. See, he answers
nicely when spoken to.
Man or beast, that's good manners.
Be sure that you both always do" (Bishop 49).

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/ChelsieBitner/2009/03/manners.html

"The eight poets represented here, though they share certain traits and subjects, have voices that are distinctive. They all learned from others-in some cases from one another-but each one gradually transmuted those various sources into a unique style." introduction-xv

"Last night another big one fell.
It splattered like an egg of fire
against the cliff behind the house.
The flame ran down. We saw the pair

of owls who nest there flying up
and up, their whirling black-and-white
stained bright pink underneath, until
they shrieked out of sight."
-page 47, The Armadillo

"When we came to Hustler Hill,
he said that the mare was tired,
so we all got down and walked,
as our good manners required."

Bishop, page 49

Perhaps the world could use more of the lesson taught to this child of 1918.

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/ChristopherDufalla/2009/03/humility.html

Two Roberts playing devil's advocate

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AndrewAdams/2009/03/devils_advocate.html

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/NikitaMcClellan/2009/03/with_out_manners.html

manners have changed so much over the years.

"My grandfather said to me
as we sat on the wagon seat,
'Be sure to remember to always
speak to everyone you meet.'" (Bishop 48)

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/JulianneBanda/2009/03/mind_your_ps_and_qs.html

"When automobiles went by,/the dust hid the people's faces,/but we shouted 'Good day! Good day!/Fine day!' at the top of our voices."
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AliciaCampbell/2009/03/chivalry_is_dead.html

Manners

http://blogs.setonhill.edu/RebeccaMarrie/2009/03/manners_in_1918.html

Is the fire balloon in Bishop's "The Armadillo" an asteroid?
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/MarieVanMaanen/2009/03/from_fire_balloons_to_armadill.html

On a Lighter Note
http://blogs.setonhill.edu/AprilMinerd/2009/03/on_a_lighter_note.html

And he, "When I am too full of joy, I think
how little good my health did anyone near me."

In reading Elizabeth Bishop's poems it is obvious that she was, as indicated, very meticulous in her writing. The fact that they stated she wrote "plainspoken" and " an unmannered originality of simplicity" just seems strange that she, even with poor health, wasn't about writing of misery.

In reading Robert Lowell's poems you can see the evidence of his past, his often absent father and unassertive mother and was born in "this planned /Babel of Boston where our money talks" often shows his candor and hostility.