Poetry Packet - Shakespear, Mullen, and Berrigan

In Wednesday's class, we focused the lecture on sonnets, particularly love sonnets. After reading a handful of sonnets, I gained a better understanding of the many ways a sonnet can vary. Both the structure and content of the sonnets were all somewhat different. Yet all very fascinating / intriguing. 

I liked comparing my ideas of what a sonnet is with the other members of the class. Before the discussion, when thinking of a sonnet  I thought of 'love, poetic, short, rhyme scheme, etc'. After hearing the other classmates' opinions, I began to stray away from the stereotype I have given sonnets. Which is good, I love broadening my perspective to other people's. The idea that I had in my mind was that sonnets must always rhyme and must follow a particular structure (Shakespearean Sonnets). Further into the lecture, we began to list words such as 'song like, painting a picture, passionate, compare/contrast specific things, etc' Then we began to analyze the different styles and contents each writer exhibited in their poems.

        Language and text was a significant element in our discussion. After reading the handful of Shakespeare's work, I saw a certain trend in the language he used. I started to notice it containing very romantic, passionate, well written language. He kept the same rhyme scheme in most of his sonnets, and he included couplets at the end while using iambic pentameter. The sonnet that gained most of my attention was Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130. I really loved how he used a sense of sarcasm in his language. He strayed away from the cliché expressions of love that we usually see in poetry and is old news by now. The typical love poems I have read before this class focused on looks and physical attraction, which makes up the ideal beauty. Shakespeare expresses his love for a mistress (which had a different meaning at the time he wrote this), yet he describes her as being not so attractive. For example, he writes about her breath being horrible in the morning, basically describing a 'real' and 'natural' woman. In the 7^th line of Sonnet 130, Shakespeare says, “and in some perfumes there is more delight than in the breath that is from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak-yet I well know that music hath a far more pleasing sound'. This creates a more realistic expression of love, which contradicts the typical style that is much more superficial I enjoyed how Shakespeare was realistic with this expression of love, it's far beyond looks or beauty to the eye, it's what a person has within them. That's real beauty. And I love Shakespeare's realness in this particular sonnet.  

    Harryette Mullen's 'Dim Lady' was quite similar to Shakespeare's Sonnet 130, as we discussed. The content was related to Sonnet 130 in the sense that it contradicts the stereotypical focus on an 'ideal' beauty, and focuses more on realistic love. Her work basically makes fun of the cliché beauty, saying it is fake. This contemporary work differs from Shakespeare's style and structure. She wrote the sonnet in a paragraph form. The language also has a different style because Mullen uses funny words and slang that you would not find in Shakespeare's work. More relate-able and contemporary work for sure. My favorite line in this was 'my scrumptious Twinkie has as much sex appeal for me as any lanky model or platinum movie idol who's hyped beyond belief'. This extremely amusing and it was real. I love how Mullen basically describes this 'ideal' beauty as being a joke and that no one is really like that. It seems she was looking at Shakespeare's work yet making it her own and up to date work. Really fantastic work! 

I'm excited to write my own sonnets for class this week, my goal is to avoid using the cliché poem words and begin to broaden my vocabulary. I have learned that sonnets aren't always written in the traditional Shakespeare way, and I am excited to break away from that and explore new styles of writing a sonnet - paint my own picture for the world to see!!!

Goldberg and Cameron readings...

After reading Golberg's 'Writing Down The Bones' I have a new profound perspective as to how I look at writing in general. I never would have thought that it mattered what tools you use when writing for one. The smooth stroke of a pen on a piece of paper absorbs not only the ink, but your emotion from your heart as well. I learned that your tools you use when writing can be very beneficial to you. I'm well aware that everyone has a different writing style and choices within the tools you choose to use are going to be different. Me personally, I have always preferred using a computer when I write. There is one thing that stood out from the tools one can utilize. I found the idea of recording yourself speaking your thoughts to be extremely useful. That way you can here exactly how the flow of the words sound.
One thing that really caught my attention was the line "Like grating a carrot, give the paper the colorful coleslaw of your consciousness". That's one thing that I really needed to here to make this class more enjoyable. All throughout my college career I have had limitations of my writing style that pertained certain strict guidelines. But I realized to become a better writer, one must flow free and not let the ego slow your thoughts down, because first thoughts have extremely powerful energy. Your first thoughts are your consciousness exploding into the universe. That is, if you don't second-guess yourself..

After reading the right to write I have yet another fabulous profound new perspective on writing. I learned that one's writing will never be perfect. Sitting and staring at a blank page wondering if you are writing to the best of your ability will only cause one to freeze up. I think a major problem that I do possess is attempting to write to carefully. I hope to improve my writing skills through out the course of this semester. A line from the reading that I've grown to love is 'When we just let ourselves write, we get it "right".' This article really taught me a lot of how I'm going to approach writing from now on. It states that 'writing is about getting something down, not thinking something up. Essentially one must go off of intuition, follow your heart, and completely loose the ego. I have to realize that I'm not perfect and either is anyone else in this universe. This article slightly reminds me of the Goldberg reading. I need to teach writing as an act of listening from now on, not speech. Listen to my own thoughts and follow my heart. Something I found interesting was the fact that you have to give up a sense of control and power when writing. For the sake of real creative writing one must surrender those voices in their head telling that they 'might be doing something wrong'. I look forward to improving my writing skills this semester, I'm excited to have complete freedom and to be able to think outside the box, better yet, there will be no box.    
     

A little about me

Hello my name is Jason Travis. I'm a senior here at Eastern Michigan University. My major is communications and my minor is sociology. I'm not quite sure what I want to do with my degree but I know it's the right one for me. When I first came to college I enrolled in business, that wasn't for me. Then continued on to criminal justice, that was a poor decision as well. So far I love all my communication courses and have excelled in them. I grew up in Redford, MI. Once I started college I haven't left Ypsilanti since. I have my own apartment, but no car. In my free time I enjoy listening to music and watching movies and TV show's. A few of my favorite shows are Breaking Bad and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.