Blog #7: Reflecting Upon, "Ozymandias" by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

    During my initial reading of Ozymandias, I had started to think that this conversation was post-battle. I think that it was, "sneer of cold command", that had me believing that. When I think about wars and battles, I assume there to be a leader, a commander. When I saw that Ozymandias was actually a king, a king of kings, I thought that this poem, if it were to have a time period, would be more so medieval. Considering the fact that we do not really have Kings anymore, I figured it was definitely not a modern poem. I hadn't had any other thoughts about the poem following my initial reading. I guess perhaps I wasn't paying that great attention.

    During my second reading of Ozymandias, I realized how sad the poem actually is. To be honest, I believe many poems to be extremely sad. "Nothing beside remains Round the decay, Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away." This part of the poem contains very strong imagery. What I can see, in my head at least, is a dry and barren field or platform of land, bits of wreckage here and there. The land goes on for a grand distance, all looking the same. 

    For as long as we have been reviewing and analyzing poems in class, I have come to notice that reading things more than once makes all the difference. Reading things twice has broadened my imaginative perspective of poems. Though, I do not believe reading a third or fourth time would make any difference at all. 

Blog #5: Reflecting Upon, "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks

When I first saw even the title of this poem, it annoyed me. "We Real Cool", annoyed me because I feel like it's supposed to be 'we're really cool', or something of that sort. But once I got over the title, I began to read the actual poem. At first I enjoyed the childish aspect it had to it, they're young and trying to have fun. They're listening to music, cutting class, having a good old time. But the moment I reached the last line, I was quite upset. The last line hit me like a falling brick, I felt extremely upset that these fun-loving people would say, "We die soon." Like, it may be true, which is also sad, but nevertheless, I felt bad. I had a lot of sympathy towards the unknown characters that believed themselves to have an early death. But also, I felt like I could relate. I think that I believed that I was one of them, it was truly upsetting though. In my head, I felt like maybe, well not that I wrote it, but that maybe I could have written it. I don't know, I just felt like I had a strong connection to this poem, and to me, that was very strange.
The progression of the poem was very strange, in a way. Things were happy and slightly mischievous, then everything kind of goes down hill. They're going out, hanging out, and then they say they're going to die soon. Like what is that?? Why would you say that? But, I get it. I understand that. I still feel like there's a lot missing. But how much could a short poem say, apparently a lot actually.

Blog #4: Reflecting Upon "Since there's no help" by Michael Drayton

The first time I read "Since there's no help", I quite enjoyed it. I could tell that there was a great deal of sadness in the poem, and it felt like it was just a short and sad story. Though it was only 14 lines, I feel like there was a lot of information put into it. After the first reading, I didn't think too much about it other than what I just mentioned. But following the second reading, I got a better sense of what I believed it to be about. I felt like the poem was just a poetic way of talking about a breakup. I'd say what made me believe it to be about a breakup was certain words Drayton used, or the order that he put them in. "Former love", "cancel all our vows", "and when we meet at any time again", it all seems like a big farewell to love and unity.
As far as the questions go, the first question I felt was the easiest. It seems similar to a question asked recently in class concerning the subject of a sentence or line. While the word, "Love" is a representation of a human emotion, within the poem it also serves as a being. He is love. He is also "Passion", and "Faith", and he is "Innocence". I think that the questions could help someone understand the poem better, but for me they didn't change my perspective of it. But, I appreciate their existence and their purpose.

How To Analyze Literature....

25 March 2015

"How To Analyze Literature"

Three things I learned from reading HTAL:

• When taking the AP exam, your personal opinion is practically irrelevant 
• Concerning the AP Literature & Composition test, plot does not mean the story, but it is how the writer arranges the story
• Theme relates to: the readers relationship to the universe, with others, and our conceptions of ourselves our place in our world

Questions I had after reading:

• What if there were no Bibles, myths, Shakespeare etc., then what could poets write poetry about?
• Does tone produce a large contribution to the sophistication in writing?

What I think I could teach others about:

• Tone