Week 4

1.)
There once livd a fish named Jim
Oh how he loved to swim
But then one day
Jim got dragged away
And made a tasty dish of codagratin

2.)

This poem is a limerick. It has five lines and a rhyme scheme of aabba. This limerick is a funny poem about a fish that gets caught and cooked for dinner; it gives death a comical tone. This poem has three feet in lines 1, 2, and 5 then only two feet in line 3 and 4. The rhythm pattern is two unstressed syllables followed by an accented syllable. The skipping sound the rhythm creates, empathises this poems funny tone.

Week 3

1.)

I had never seen the stars so bright

They glistened down upon the sand and sea

Never had I been so warm at night

This land was so foreign to me you see

As I sat there amongst the sand

A wild breeze blew through my hair

Quiet tunes drifted over from the band

There was freshness in the air

The earth beneath me was so alive

I felt invincible for a while

I ventured towards the shore then toke a dive

As the warm sea surrounded me I felt I could swim for a mile

Then I rolled over so unexpectedly, how could it be?

Just another wishful dream

2.)

                The form of this sonnet strongly influenced the content. Firstly the rhyme scheme a b a b c d c d e f e f g g gave me no choice but to use words at the end of my lines that were reasonably easy to rhyme. I saved my more complex language for the internal section of the poem. Secondly writing in iambic pentameter gave my poem a nice skipping rhythm even though every line in a sonnet does not rhyme. Also due to the particular form of a sonnet my poem had to be 12 lines giving me enough lines to create a nice image of a place I have once visited. I don’t feel like the form of this poem influenced the mood, tone or language to any great degree because the form of a sonnet is not extremely strict leaving room for the writer to express whatever mood they may be experiencing.

Week 2

For this weeks blog I chose the creative choice.

            1.) Limerick

There once lived a cat named Sam

Who’s thoughts always consisted of jam

So he ate and he ate

Then it lead to his fate

There was no longer a cat named Sam

2.) Haiku

The snow crunched beneath

Many metal horse shoes

Galloping down the path

3.)The content of both the haiku and the limerick poem I constructed were both strongly influenced by the unique forms that each of these two individual types of poetry have. In the haiku I wrote I was limited to the amount of descriptive syllables I could add to create the right amount of imagery, feelings and meaning haiku's usually have. Due to their short structure and lack of rhythm their stressed and unstressed syllables suggest feelings and meanings making my choice of rhythm crucial for portraying the right mood. I used a reference to snow to suggest winter as the time of year when my haiku toke place, I felt this conveyed a strong sensory experience for the reader. The two couplets that exist in a limerick poem made me chose a simple common name for my cat so it wouldn’t be too difficult to rhyme. Also the unique rhyme scheme (a a b b a) made the words I chose seem happy and have sort of a skipping sound when read aloud.

Week one

1.) After studying McMahan’s variety of critical approaches for interpreting literature I have concluded that the physiological approach is definitely the one I exercise the most. The psychological approach is the most appealing to me because human behavior and mental processes in literature is what fascinates me the most. The setting, language, structure, imagery and character development alone are not overly interesting to me, I like thinking out of the box and into the minds of the characters unlocking the mysteries behind their thoughts and actions.

2.) William Carlos's poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" may not consist of many words however it creates an impressive amount of imagery. This farm-like setting he has created sparked my curiosity. I predict that William himself must have spent time living on a farm or perhaps working on one. The line "so much depends upon the red wheel barrow" demonstrates that William understood the importance to the chickens that one simplistic object like a wheel barrow has. Someone who has not spent time around a farm could not have the experiences or appreciation William expresses towards the red, glazed wheelbarrow in this poem.