Digging Questions
EXPOS 20.172: IS POETRY NECESSARY?
Class assignment for Thursday 12 September
Part I
Poetry - writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm
Merriam-Webster:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poetry
- literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm
Oxford Dictionaries: http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/poetry?q=poetry
Poet - one who is gifted in the perception and expression of the beautiful or lyrical
The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/poet - a person who has the gift of poetic thought, imagination, and creation, together with the eloquence of expression
Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poet
Part II
The Planet On The Table
By Wallace Stevens
“It was not important that they survive.
What mattered was that they should bear
Some lineament or character,
Some affluence, if only half-perceived,
In the poverty of their words,
Of the planet of which they were part.
Observation: This resonates with me because, though the “planet” can be interpreted in several different ways, my first thought was that “Ariel” wanted his poems to show some sort of characteristic that would have them accepted by the world of poetry and poets, a world I have difficulty connecting with.
“Ariel was glad he had written his poems.”
Question: Why did Stevens choose the name Ariel?
Digging
By Seamus Heaney Observation: There are no women present in the poem. This indicates that the poem reveals the poet’s struggle with masculinity as he diverts from the paths that his father and grandfather chose to follow.
“Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”
…
“Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll
Class assignment for Thursday 12 September
Part I
Poetry - writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm
Merriam-Webster:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poetry
- literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm
Oxford Dictionaries: http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/poetry?q=poetry
Poet - one who is gifted in the perception and expression of the beautiful or lyrical
The Free Dictionary: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/poet - a person who has the gift of poetic thought, imagination, and creation, together with the eloquence of expression
Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/poet
Part II
The Planet On The Table
By Wallace Stevens
“It was not important that they survive.
What mattered was that they should bear
Some lineament or character,
Some affluence, if only half-perceived,
In the poverty of their words,
Of the planet of which they were part.
Observation: This resonates with me because, though the “planet” can be interpreted in several different ways, my first thought was that “Ariel” wanted his poems to show some sort of characteristic that would have them accepted by the world of poetry and poets, a world I have difficulty connecting with.
“Ariel was glad he had written his poems.”
Question: Why did Stevens choose the name Ariel?
Digging
By Seamus Heaney Observation: There are no women present in the poem. This indicates that the poem reveals the poet’s struggle with masculinity as he diverts from the paths that his father and grandfather chose to follow.
“Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.”
…
“Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I’ll