Single Solitaire

I am rewriting Dorothy Parkers "One Perfect Rose"

One single band, diamond solitaire lay on my finger

As your knee gracefully meets the floor,

One single moment that seemed to forever linger

Foreseeing our future our vows we did swore

I see that moment, that confident look in your eyes

That forever smile on your face, seeing us husband and wife

True love solitaire; represent and symbolize

Everything dead and unliving at this moment suddenly comes to life

But wait! Violins cease, sleeping beauty wakes and uncrown thee prince charming

No sky banner? No white horse? No big gesture? Not like it mattered

It’s me Cinderella I can put on my own shoe, I know! So alarming!

Just like a mirror, just like glass, I see through it, easily shattered

I chose to do this poem because I, myself, am very cynical and do not care or over analyze "romantic gestures" from the opposite sex. I believe a flower is just a flower, a ring just a ring, etc. I tried to make my poem the same tone in the first two stanzas as in the "One Perfect Rose" and then showing my true feelings on the situation in the last stanza. I feel the ulitmate tone, like Dorothy Parkers poem, is cynical and bitter with a bit of humor. I hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed Parkers poem:)

Comfortably Numb

"Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd is created within eleven stanzas, starting with the one word line, "Hello". The songs lines are short in the first three stanzas and then get longer in the next two stanzas. As you continue through the lyrics you see that the stanzas switch from short lines to long lines back to short. There is no particular format to the rhyme scheme of this song, but is consistent.
What is literally happening in this poem is the conversation between two people, the doctor and one of the members of the band which is evident through the stanza that reads:
"Relax
I need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?"
While the doctor is giving the member medicine, he reminisces about the same feeling he had as a child, the feeling of being comfortably numb, being the same feeling as a child just another experience.
There are various types of figurative language used in this song. Onomatopoeia is used in the line “There’ll be no more aaaaaaaah!” imitating the sound of screaming. The use of repetition, “I…have become comfortably numb” shows the extent of the poet’s feelings at the time.  This song uses a great deal of similes and metaphors, “My hands just felt like two balloons”, and “I caught a fleeting glimpse Out of the corner of my eye”, being two examples. Symbolism being another piece of figurative language used, a conversation happening between two people, symbolizing the struggle between childhood and adulthood, innocence and naïve versus experienced and immune adulthood. Not knowing where and what point of his life that everything changed, hope he coped and how he dealt with the struggles because they always existed, but the moment that how he dealt with it changed. Referencing the ship smoking in the horizon is an example of the use of imagery. “Just a little pin prick”, being the image of a needle and symbolizing “the cure” for ones “sickness” which symbolizes ones pain.  The entire song is a form of imagery and symbolism, we picture a very sick man being medicated by a doctor and having the conversation with each other, as well as the flashbacks to childhood, when really the entire song symbolizes childhood to adulthood, and how we become numb to life’s miseries and heartache, our innocence is lost and cynicism and numbness is found.
One's first reaction to interpretation to this song would be drug use, specifically heroin. Personally, I do not believe this to be true. This song is about feeling and emotion and the initial pain we feel as a child that grows to be a more emotional pain throughout life’s constant struggles and overcoming those obstacles by becoming immune to the pain life brings on, becoming comfortably numb, meaning without feeling and accepting that. Making reference to the line "your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying" meaning the world continues to grow round, the people of the world continue to talk and go about their lives, but after years of life’s pains and struggles and the worlds bullshit, you become immune and cynical. People automatically become detached, a defense mechanism that helps them cope, withdrawing emotionally, mentally and physically and maintaining the constant need for numbness, to not feel or react to life’s turmoil.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1htZFVGsBMw

A Sonnet For You - "Mind Ever Burning"

A vision, a beauty, the light of my life

Remembering that day on the beach when our eyes first met

Dreams of our hearts dedicated, as my husband and your wife

As that first day in the sand under a fine sunset

The naïve, the impatient, returns little girl

Independence grows slow with each passing day

Round and round my life in awhirl

Never thinking that you’d be the one to go astray

I let you in completely; you broke down my guard,

Let my world fall out, lying gently at your feet

Letting go and departing, leaving me scarred

Broken promises, empty hands, in definition bittersweet

Actions speak louder than words, I am what I am no regrets, no misgivings

A journey, I still love you always will and always forgiving

 I started this poem with the thrid stanza and went from there, the form of this sonnet definitly impacted the content of the poem itself. Once I started and I knew what I wanted to write my sonnet about I had to reflect back which created the first two stanzas of the poem. As I told my story through the words in the poem my feeling of confusion and being lost was found at the very end lines by saying I discovered myself and that he will always be apart of me, no regrets and always forgiving, meaning after everything that has happened it has made me who I am today and I will always hold a place in my heart for him and for us.

Not So Cool Clique

"We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks -CRITICAL

After reading this poem several times I felt the need to look in the back of the book at the biographical notes on the author and it did not surprise me in the least. Gwendolyn was an African-American who lived the "ghetto life".
When first reading this poem I interpreted it to mean pure rebel behavior. The confidence and swagger that only the "cool" kids possess. From reading the poem you see the lifestyle that she and her crowd was leading, dropping out of school, out all night,screaming profanities, drinking, basically living like there would be no consequences.
Theres a real sense of irony in this poem, she refers to her and her friends as "cool" but in actual fact she is telling us how "uncool" they really were. Referencing the "golden shovel" and at the end of the poem saying "die soon" basically explaining that no good has or will come of that lifestyle, what she felt was cool at the time brings on a darker more unfufilling future.
The style of the poem is short. and jagged, almost like she was speaking and writing this drunk. There is pauses in sentences that show hesitation and though process, which is delayed when you are intoxicated. She also starts off the poem saying how cool her and her friends were and ends saying die soon, I see her being intoxicated and saying this and almost hearing how foolish she sounds, the idea of her and her clique changed very quickly, she's embaressed.

The form in the poem "landscape:1" is quite similiar in the fact that there is no complete sentences, there is no flow to the poem, smooth being the complete opposite and both being very awkward in appearance as well as style. But with that being said they are both very appealing for those very reasons as well, being both haiku poems, they are very appealing to the eye as well as for interpretation. Both being very short and also holding such powerful messages.

Cynacism At Its FInest

1. Write a brief paragraph (about 4-6 sentences) explaining which of the approaches McMahan mentions is the most appealing to you.

I know I had said earlier in class that the most appealing critical approach in reading literature was deconstrustion because it can go beyond the words in the poem and mean something completly different, because I am such an over analytical person but reading over my notes again I think that the gender focus approach is most appealing to me. I say this because most pieces of writing are based on feeling, primary feelings being happy and sad and the primary focus being the relationships between people, whether is be a partner, family,friends, mostly being from the opposite sex who can make you happy or sad, which then inspires one to write.

2. Put your favourite approach into practice in one brief paragraph analysing any of the poems in our text.

The poem I chose was was "One Perfect Rose" by Dorothy Parker on page 357. When first reading the poem you believe it to be romantic and that she was overwhelmed by the thought and love put into this one "gesture", this one "perfect" rose, but as you read on into the second stanza you begin to sense her sarcasm and bitter tone. She has seen it and heard it all before, her cynacism beams. As you read into the third stanza her sarcastic comment of the "unrealistic larger gesture" that she knows she will never recieve shows that it will take a lot more to win over her heart. She has obviously been hurt before and she feels that she is unappreciated, she will be a challange and no one has yet to take part and live up to the expectations.