The Patterns of Poetry- Practice Essay II~Notes

QUESTION:

Patterns, aimed at the mind, the heart or the ear of the reader, are used by poets to

achieve their purposes. In the work of at least two poets you have studied, examine various

patterns and their effects.

Notes:

Poems used:

Emily Dickinson’s “Nature is what we see”:

"Nature" is what we see—                             A    5

The Hill—the Afternoon—                           B    4

Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—        A    5

Nay—Nature is Heaven—                            C    4

Nature is what we hear—                              D    5

The Bobolink —the Sea—                           A    4

Thunder—the Cricket—                               E    3

Nay—Nature is Harmony—                        A    4

Nature is what we know—                          F    5

Yet have no art to say—                              G    6

So impotent Our Wisdom is                        H    5

To her Simplicity.                                        A    3

• poem is contained of only one stanza
• rhyme scheme: ABACDAEAFGHA
• repetition of the rhyme A such as in: see, bee, sea, Harmony, and Simplicity
• underlines the poem’s last word ‘simplicity’
• litle periods used common for Emily Dickinson
• lines alternate between containing 5 and 4 words
• trait is first broken by the Line ‘Thunder-the Cricket’ →  only contains 3 words and thus acts as a break in the text
• pattern is completely broken, the last three lines being 6, 5 and 3 words
• makes the end of the poem stand out
• amount of words in the last three lines decrease
• each word in the line seem more significant.
• “Nature” is repeated five times→ clearly significant
• thought the poem is only made of on stanza there are some lines that act as breaks
• start with the word ‘Nay’ and as there is two of the the (poem is divided in three sections)
• Author capitalises certain words to make the stand out.

Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Blood”

• Rhyme scheme: free verse
• more of a story
• Two stanzas
• Ends in question → thought provoking
• Begins with Arab being peaceful (cups the fly rather than kills it) but ends with war
• Who is a true Arab to which the author keeps on referring too? What makes one Arab truer than another one?
• Pattern peace vs war

the Thing with Feathers

The poem “Hope is the Thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson is a typical example of a poem in which the meaning is open to the reader's interpretation. The poem is ambiguous as it can have a positive and hopeful meaning, as well as a depressing one. It can be seen as full of hope, which  can be found anywhere in the world, however one can also see it as dark and sinister like other poems by the author, where hope may exist but doesn’t reveal itself to the author. It is up to the reader, his thinking and reading, to interpret the poem.

The poems positive interpretation tends to be the first one to come to mind. Here the poem described hope as the “thing with feathers” which “sings the tune without the words and never stops at all”. Hope is compared to a bird, which symbolizes freedom. This bird of hope sings a tune without words, which could be whatever anyone who hears needs it to be in order to feel hopeful. The most significant part of this is the last line: “And never stops-at all”. This gives the idea that hope never dies Emily Dickinson used the format of the dash in the last sentence to empathise the “at all”. Also there is a sort of repetition in this sentence as it first says “never stops” which is a strong point on its own, but is then reinforced with “at all”. This is just one example of the ways that the poem could be interpreted positively.

The last stanza of the poem is the most ambiguous. It says:

“I’ve heard it in the chillest land-

And on the strangest Sea-

Yet-never- in Extremity,

It asked a crumb -of me.

The is a positive and a negative interpretation to this. The positive one is that hope can be found even in the darkest places, and even in the worst cases it is free. However there is a different meaning to this as well. This meaning is linked to the author's life. Emily Dickinson stayed at home for most of her life. This must have been hard for her and it could be why she gave so many of her poems a second more sinister meaning. The one in this poem is that she may have heard of hope being in the darkest places, however even in her worst moments the bird of hope did not come to her. The last line is ambiguous; One: it could mean that the bird of hope was never asking for a crumb as reward thus hope is free, but Two: as feeding a bird with crumbs is a pleasant thing, one could see this that hope never came to her to let her feed it and thus have a part of it. Meaning that Emily Dickinson never found the hope that others told her about. It is up to the reader to chose one of the two interpretations for this poem.

The Curious Incident of the BLOG in the Nighttime

The Broadway play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” is based on a novel by the British writer Mark Haddon. It tells the story of a fifteen year old boy named Christopher who suffers from Asperger Syndrome. The book is written from his perspective and how he sees the world.

The Broadway show “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” is similar to the book. While the book is the Diary that Christopher writes while doing his detective work to find the murderer of his neighbor's dog, the play is that diary acted out. Christopher's teacher Siobhan reads parts of the diary out loud while they are acted on stage, while other parts are directly portrayed by the actors.

What I liked most about the play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime” was the stage. It  looked like a box, its walls divided into equal squares. There were a great amount of special effects involved in the play. This included digital projection and a sort a drawing technique in which certain edges of the squares-that made up the walls and floor of the stage- were lit up to create shapes which could resemble buildings or other things such as furniture. There seemed to be no part of the stage that did not have a certain purpose to it. If it wasn’t a small table that could ascend from the floor, than it was a door that if opened would reveal a compartment filled with props.

As the play was performed from Christopher's perspective I felt like the stage allowed us as audience to view the world through his lines. When he imagined something, such as the red line that would tell him where to go, it would appear on stage for the audience to see. When Christopher enters the train station he soon gets overwhelmed by all the people and noise. To show this there was commercials projected on the back wall, the more overwhelmed Christopher got the more commercial was seen. It was read out loud and sound many were read at the same time making them incomprehensible.

The main flaw that I could see in the performance was that it was, just like a novel, a bit lengthy. Especially towards the end when Christopher arrives in London and then goes back to Swinden, it could have been shortened. Also they play didn’t seem to have the typical structure of plays with a climax, thought there were some scenes that had more action than others, the play overall was relatively steady. Thought this worked with the idea of it being told from Christopher's mind it nevertheless added to the play's partial lack of agitation.

Nature is What we See

"Nature" is what we see—                          A    5

The Hill—the Afternoon—                        B    4

Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—     A    5

Nay—Nature is Heaven—                         C    4

Nature is what we hear—                           D    5

The Bobolink —the Sea—                         A    4

Thunder—the Cricket—                            E    3

Nay—Nature is Harmony—                      A    4

Nature is what we know—                        F    5

Yet have no art to say—                            G    6

So impotent Our Wisdom is                      H    5

To her Simplicity.                                     A    3

1. Structure:

The poem is contained of only one stanza. The rhyme scheme is: ABACDAEAFGHA. It is hereby important to note the repetition of the rhyme A such as in: see, bee, sea, Harmony, and Simplicity. The repetition of this rhyme ultimately underlines the poem’s last word ‘simplicity’. Like it is common for Emily Dickinson, there are barely any periods used (only one at the end making the poem seem like on long sentence), however if one were to enter more periods and count the sentences there would be about seven sentences. For the most part of the poem the lines alternate between containing five and four words. This trait is first broken by the Line ‘Thunder-the Cricket’. This line only contains three words and thus acts as a break in the text. The next two line again have the the pattern of four and five words, and then the pattern is completely broken, the last three lines being six, five and three words.  This makes the end of the poem stand out to the reader. It is also important to note that the amount of words in the last three lines decrease, the last line containing only three words. This makes each word in the line seem more significant. The word Nature is repeated five times and is so clearly significant. Also thought the poem is only made of on stanza there are some lines that act as breaks. These lines start with the word ‘Nay’ and as there is two of the the poem is divided in three sections. A final thing that I noticed was the author's choice of capitalizing certain words to make the stand out.

2. Content

The poem describes the simplicity of Nature which can be found and seen everywhere but is difficult to describe in it beauty. Nature is described as ‘Heaven” and “Harmony”. Something that is there and is beautiful, but without our influence. In the last line it uses an objection, when first saying that one’s wisdom is too “incompetent” to describe the “simplicity” of Nature. Here the words incompetent and simplicity object each other.

Themes in Poetry

Theme 1: Religion
In the first poem the fig seems to represent the richness of nature provided by God

Theme 2: Loss
The poem “My Grandmother in the Stars” loss and memory plays a role

Theme 3: Hope
In the second poem people seemed to have little, however with the coffee represents their content as they live together, each of them having their own place.

Stage Layout Diorama

    Diagram 1:

This first diagram shows a sketch of just the stage with a pattern showing the different areas of the stage.

   

Diagram 2:

The second diagram shows the stage for one of the songs which I already described in my blog entry. The stage is split in half. Stage right is the setting of Jeff's house in Australia and stage left shows Whangara where Kahu grows up. At the end of the song Rawiri decides to go back to his family. The action on Stage right would show Rawiri’s experience in Australia and on stage left shows Nanny Flowers and Kahu, who is growing up continuously struggling to gain Koro’s attention and affection.

   

Diagram 3:

Diagram 3 shows the stage but only stage right, where Rawiri is, is light, while Stage left lies in the dark. The lighting will be accordingly whenever Rawiri sings solo and the events concentrate on his actions.

Diagram 4:

Diagram 4 shows the stage but only stage left which shows Whangara, is light, while Stage left lies in the dark. The lighting will be accordingly whenever Nanny Flowers has a solo and the events concentrate on the actions in Whangara.

Diagram 5:

In diagram 5 both sides of the stage are equally light. This will be the case in the refrain when there is singing and action on both sides.

    Diagram 6:

Diagram 6 shows both sides of the stage light slightly with a spotlight on each side. These spotlights are for Kahu and Rawiri who will sing a duet solo at the end of the song.

Diagram 7:
I would use the digital projection of waves as a backdrop for the scenes with the whales. In addition I would use blue lighting. The whales I would merely show as big shadows on the digital projection backdrop. There would be one actor who narrates all the scenes that involve just the whales and the Gods.