week 5 #2 Critical

Since we have to write sonnets for class I decided to do a little more research on the difference between the Italian Sonnets and the shakespearean sonnets.

The Italian sonnet can be also known as the Petrarchan Sonnet. Its named after Francesco Petrarch he is recognized as the person that developed this style of sonnet. Sonnets were very popular and were used by poets who wanted to impress nobility.

Sonnets kept most of the original themes that the Italian sonnets included, but other writers created their own form of sonnets. This is why we have the Shakespearean, and the Spenserian sonnet. Toward the 16th century sonnets were now as popular, and the were use mainly to poke fun of things or to show a poets cleverness in his writing.

We know the general rules in each sonnet

The Italian Sonnet (Petrarchan) has 14 lines. they are grouped in a 8 line unit and 6 line unit.

In the English Sonnet ( Shakespearean) there is 14 lines and they are grouped in 3 quatrains. Which a couplet at the end to emphasis the main point of the sonnet.

The Spenserian is similar to the english, but the rhymes scheme is alot harder for example.

ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.

Here is an example of an Italian poem with the rhyme schemes

Oh His Blindness

When I consider how my light is spent (a)
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, (b)
And that one talent which is death to hide, (b)
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent (a)
To serve therewith my Maker, and present (a)
My true account, lest he returning chide; (b)
"Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?" (b)
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent (a)
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need (c)
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best (d)
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state (e)
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed (c)
And post o'er land and ocean without rest; (d)
They also serve who only stand and wait." (e)

By: John Milton

Shakespearean Sonnet

et me not to the marriage of true minds (a)
Admit impediments, love is not love (b)*
Which alters when it alteration finds, (a)
Or bends with the remover to remove. (b)*
O no, it is an ever fixed mark (c)**
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; (d)***
It is the star to every wand'ring bark, (c)
Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken. (d)***
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks (e)
Within his bending sickle's compass come, (f)*
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, (e)
But bears it out even to the edge of doom: (f)*

If this be error and upon me proved, (g)*

I never writ, nor no man ever loved. (g)*

William Shakespeare

And the Spenserian sonnet

Happy ye leaves! whenas those lily hands, (a)
Which hold my life in their dead doing might, (b)
Shall handle you, and hold in love's soft hands, (a)
Like captives trembling at the victor's sight. (b)
And happy lines on which, with starry light, (b)
Those lamping eyes will deign sometimes to look,(c)
And read the sorrows of my dying sprite, (b)
Written with tears in heart's close bleeding book. (c)
And happy rhymes! bathed in the sacred brook (c)
Of Helicon, whence she derived is, (d)
When ye behold that angel's blessed look, (c)
My soul's long lacked food, my heaven's bliss. (d)
Leaves, lines, and rhymes seek her to please alone, (e)
Whom if ye please, I care for other none. (e)

websites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet#Italian_.28Petrarchan.29_sonnet

http://www.lima.ohio-state.edu/dburks/201sonnet.htm

Week 5 free entry #1

This is the sonnet that we did in class on tuesday. I though it was a very fun activity. It caused us to think on the spot, and also it was exciting to hear how the poem turned out in the end. This was the result of the project.

Collaborated force

(Orginal)

Created by the pressure of the Earth

Broken under the weight

An aggressive force holds us together

But still small atoms tear us apart

Apart like the orange from the healthy white

But still similar to the green from a plant

The fire, the nonsense will quickly bring down

The frighten but fearless woman above

Who knows courage has fear but in spite of

All that I still wanted to try for you

Uncomfortable and new, but why not?

Maybe I will turn blue like the ocean.

As I hold my breath and wait for release

(Revised)

Created by the pressure of the Earth

Broken under the weight

An aggressive force holds us together

Yet, still small atoms tear us apart,

Apart like the orange from the healthy white

Similar like the greenness on a plant

Like fire, nonsense will quickly burn down,

the frighten but fearless woman above

Who knows courage, can have fears, In spite of

All that I wanted to try for with you. Yes,

uncomfortable and new, but why not?

Maybe I will turn blue like the ocean.

As I hold my breath and wait for release

Critical (Week #4) #3

My Haiku

A festering sore

left to heal on its own

Time's the only cure.

By: Sherita Bolden

I read about the Haiku poem in this weeks packet. I learned that Its is a popular form used in Japan. I tried to write my own haiku. I used the rules for the 5, 7, 5 syllables.

My favorite Haiku from this week packet is

Making jazz swing in

Seventeen syllables ain't

No square poet's job

by: Etherigde Wright

Week 4 #2 ( free entry)

I wanted to do a spotlight on one of my favorite poets

Dr. Maya Angelou

Dr. Maya Angelou was born April 4th 1928, in Saint Louis , Missouri. She was always a fan of the arts. At 14 she won a scholarship for dance and drama at San Francisco's Labor school. She dropped out and became a female car cable. She later

went back and finished high school after having her first son Guy. Maya kept Dancing, and toured with Alvin Ailey Dance troupe. She performed on television and varies stages plays. Maya Angelou Traveled the world, and from that she learned how to speak various languages. She was an activist in the civil Rights Movement and she has written and directed many movies.

I believe people love her poetry so much because it is so heart felt and came from a real place. She has gone through so many experiences, from being sexually abused as a child, to being a single mother. To even participating in the struggle for civil rights. Her poems come from a real place and are so eloquently put together that people have no choice but to fall in love with them.

Of course I had to look up her poetry style, according to Lyman B. Hagen " "Most lines of her three stanza poems are trimeter; others, particularly those in unstructured poems, are from two to four syllables long" (119). He also says that her rhythmical awareness comes from the the influences of the King James Bible, Edgar Allan poe, William Shakespere, and Langston Hughes.

http://www.biography.com/articles/Maya-Angelou-9185388 website links

http://mayaangelou.com/bio/

http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/angelou.htm

Week 4 #1 Critical

No matter how many times I try I can't stop my father
from walking into my sister's room

and I can't see any better, leaning from here to look
in his eyes. It's dark in the hall

and everyone's sleeping. This is the past
where everything is perfect already and nothing changes,

where the water glass falls to the bathroom floor
and bounces once before breaking.

Nothing. Not the small sound my sister makes, turning
over, not the thump of the dog's tail

when he opens one eye to see him stumbling back to bed
still drunk, a little bewildered.

This is exactly as I knew it would be.
And if I whisper her name, hissing a warning,

I've been doing that for years now, and still the dog
startles and growls until he sees

it's our father, and still the door opens, and she
makes that small oh turning over.

Maire Howe.

I really enjoyed reading this poem. It carries the weight felt when someone is sexually abused. The scene is painted when the poem begins. The first line " no matter how hard I try I cant stop my father from coming into my sister's room." This sets the whole tone for the poem. Howe does a great job with sitting up the setting wit her words. Stanza "and everyone 's sleeping. This is past where everything is perfect already and nothing changes," It shows the peacefulness before the father enters the house. that peacefulness is destroyed and filled with the a troublesome feeling. The dog is also confused, he is trained to protect the family from harm, yet the father is part of the family. My favorite line was "where the water glass falls to the bathroom floor and bounces once before breaking" It was so cinematic... I saw the scene playing out, the glass was falling in slow motion to the ground slowly breaking. With all these feeling going through the poem it simply ends with how her sister said oh. And the reader is left to imagine how she feels.

# 3 (week 3) Five line stanza

So I decided to do more research on the five line stanza. I remeber saying that this form was the easiest, but site corrected me and let me know that because people think it is so easy they often misuse it. There were eight different types (forms) of Five line stanzas.

Cinquain which has 5 lines progressing, 2 syl's, 4 syl's, 6 syl's, 8 syl's then bach to two syl's
rhyme or meter not required. This is a common form of the Five line stanza. Adelaide Crpasey is credited to discovering the form.

English Quintain which has rhyme scheme a. b. a. b. b. This has no set measure or foot

Envelope Quintet which has Rhyme Scheme a. b. b. b. a. or

a, b, c, b, a

Limerick which has rhyme scheme a. a. b. b. a. Limericks are suppose o have some humor to them. But these can be kind of hard to write. usually the first and the last line end in the the same word.

Monchielle Stanza which has rhyme scheme A. x. b. x. b.

Pentastich which is a free verse. This form comes from Jim T Henriksen a Norwegain poet.

Sicilian Quintain Rhyme Scheme a. b. a. b. a. The original form had no set meter

Spanish Quintain which has rhyme scheme a. a. b. b. a.

or.. a. b. b. a.a.

Information sites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinquain

http://thepoetsgarret.com/quintet/qintel.html

Week Three #2 ( free entry)

In a deep deep slumber

I often wonder

Were there noises was in the air?

Then one night

I new I was right

When my bed talked back to me.

Scared and Confused,

But I could not refuse,

an opportunity for this discussion.

The Bed asked me,

Why was I lonely,

For didn’t I have a husband?

My heart got heavy

And the tears were ready

to flow down my face.

We No longer together

He left me for Heather

The neighbor across the street

Susprisely so

My Bed didn’t know

And she got more mad than me.

I think I know why

He left us high and dry

She must have had a Sealy Posturepedic.

I wanted this poem to be funny. I felt that if we can personify a human then we need to give him all the characteristics that human have. Feelings and emotions Jealousy. I tried to you a three line stanza and have a rhyme scheme of a a b. So i hope it Kept a consistent pattern.