poetry out loud #2

The poem I picked for my poetry out loud competition is called The Donkey by G.K. Chesterton. I picked it because it was dramatic, cleverly worded, and only 16 lines. This poem jumped out at me because it’s dramatic and dark but also whimsical and satirical. That “not too seriousness” really jumped out at me. I’ve memorized it and am as confident as I will ever be about performing it.

The poem is about a donkey. That’s the easiest fact to come up with since the poem is called “the donkey” but you can never be sure, poets are tricky. So the donkey that the poem is about is born from a blood red moon, it’s the first donkey to be born. It is a monstrous thing created by the devil himself. It is so evil looking that the people of the villages actually fear and worship it.    

Since the poem is sort of dramatic, I’ll use a lot of voice fluctuation and dramatic voice transitions for the different stanzas. I’m going to try to minimize acting the story out with my hands, which just sounds like a bad idea. I have no idea what to do with my hands, I guess that why we have pockets.

Poetry Out Loud

Part 1. Poem surfing

Poems I read:

·         Garden

·         Good People

·         The Donkey

·         Poem

·         The Hill

·         Pride

Part 2. What I think

The donkey was my favorite poem because it’s a cool poem and it wasn’t too complex but not too simple. I didn’t like the others because they were simple but long. The other ones where about actual people and that gets sort of boring… Also The Donkey sort of reminds me of The Jabberwocky which is a cool but long poem. I’m going to read it for POL.

Part 3. Scoring criteria and me

Dramatic appropriateness and level of understanding will be the easiest categories for me. Recitation is about conveying a poem’s sense primarily with one’s voice. In this way, recitation is closer to the art of oral interpretation than theatrical performance. This is fine with me because I don’t like to act.

Physical presence and poem difficulty might be hard. The competitor will appear at ease and comfortable with the audience. That’s not going to happen. A poem with difficult content conveys complex, sophisticated ideas, which the student will be challenged to grasp and express. Mine is about a donkey, so that might be tough also.

Part 4. Watching videos

The movies I watched:

Writ on the Steps of Puerto Rican Harlem

-this dude picked a hard poem. He’s also an actor. He’s very dramatic.

Forgetfulness

- He’s funny and has a good voice. He knows the poem.

Part 5. Summary

In general I don’t like to read poetry. But the poetry out loud program seems pretty cool. Too bad it’s mandatory. Great way to ruin a good idea. But there are a lot of fun poems on there. I’m going to read The Donkey, I think I’ll do ok but there’s no way I’ll win. Poetry: not my thing.

interesting things

We’ve done four fishbowl discussions in class so they all sort of blend together. But one of the more interesting subjects brought up was the parallels between the lobsters’ and our existences. I thought this was a good thought. How everyone is just trying to live their lives and get ahead. We get so wrapped up in life that we forget about death. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing. The poem is defiantly stuffed with meaning, but most people thought it was about death, and how we are all slowly dying but not aware of it.

I think the poem is just making fun of us. We are going to die, but won’t for a long time. However most of us aren’t very self aware. I guess it’s easy to go through life without living it.  I don’t like the poem. It’s sort of depressing and although you can get any amount of meaning out of a poem. That doesn’t make the meaning deliberate. That’s what I don’t like about poetry, people can get whatever they want out of a poem, even if it’s not there.

five part paragraph reflection... finally

I am so glad we don’t have to read any more of those stupid paragraphs ….L..I never want to write another one in my life…

We’ve been reading the five part paragraphs for about three weeks. I was sick of them after the first week… I’m sure everyone else was too. One thing I noticed that most people had good topic and conclusion sentences. This is probably because it was the simplest part. About half of all readers had their quotes embedded wrong. Many people either didn’t set out to prove a point or just forgot to stick with it. Many people’s quotes were also too long. Most people didn’t have a problem getting quotes or generating commentary for them.

Focusing on my paragraph, I agree with my 89%. I had a few typos that I found and I think I could’ve made it read smoother. My second quote’s commentary was kind of short, although they were all well imbedded. My conclusion was excellent, like the 29 other papers that were read. My topic sentence was not bad. I did alright, but not great… next time I think I will be able to do a better job. But I won’t like it.  You, Mrs. Gilman have made me passionately hate five-part paragraphs.

It's ma diction blog peeps

Y’all git ready for dis…

I was walk’in down the hall when dis guy near tripped me. He was go’in real quick, inna big hurry. He was a big dude, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a two hundred pound dude. He was like barrelin’ through everbody walkin’ to class. He didn’t go to school here. That’s for sure. He looked around twenty five. Like a big football player or somthin’. I don’t know. But he was in a hurry, that’s for sure. I don’t think I’ll ever know more about that..

Anyway I was on my way to lunch, so I didn’t really care. But my mood was blown when I saw the menu.

           -I would like to take this time ta draw your notice to the lunch menu.

             I would think it wouldn’t be hard but it seems like we have nachos twice a week…. This is not ok. . They suck…

But yeah so there’re nachos for  lunch for like the third time that week. I think I might want to start bringing my own lunch cuz I can’t eat those things. 

Informal diction is really hard. It makes you appreciate Huck Fin and The Catcher in the Rye.

extra credit blog

So …. Extra credit… okay

One thing anyone should know about me is I can’t pick a favorite piece of writing easily. That’s because I don’t exactly like any of my reports, essays, and of course blogs. I’m just really critical of my writing. In any case there was this one assignment in eighth grade…I think…that we did about this poem Edger Allen Poe did where there was a guy with a creepy eye that weirded another guy out enough that he snuck into his room at night. He then killed him, cut him up, and hid him in the floor. We were supposed to write several descriptive paragraphs about his house. Sad right?

                So I liked my paper, that’s why I chose to write about it. Other people did too. My teacher wanted to know if I got my parents help. I didn’t. I felt pretty good about that paper. The funny thing was I didn’t like the poem I thought it was kind of dull. That’s why I spent more than just a half hour on my paper, because I was making it good. But please don’t make me read bad poems and expect me to write a brilliant paper about it…

my outside reading book

Alright……….so I think this is blog post four… I think

            So I’m reading The Catcher in the Rye and I like it. Everyone said it was good; it’s also like one of those classics that everyone has heard of, not unlike To Kill a Mockingbird. Any way I really am enjoying it… I’m going to read ahead in it this weekend and I’m already half way through. I also like all the characters which is rare for me. The settings are beautifully described and the book draws you into it, even when not much is happening.

So at this point I’m thinking about doing my project about the setting of the book. I was just going to do a poster with the city or something on it.  I picked it because the actual setting is a lot more inspired than my project idea. I know like big cities are like and the book reflects them. A lot of the descriptions are of a drab, depressing place, which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the book.

            The book reminds me of the Pendragon series. Both books are about sixteen year olds setting out on their own without any instruction. The main difference is that Caulfield is a lot more mature than “Bobby”. And bobby is determined to prove to you that he is the whiniest little jerk* you have seen.

            Also going back to the “one of those classics that everyone has heard of” thing if you can put “Holden Caulfield” into word and it accepts it as a name, then that just shows how widely known the book is.

                        *censored version  

    

how tkam spoke to me

*sigh* okay so here comes the next installment of my blog…. Cuz you can never spend too much time on theme… right? …Maybe?

So the first way the novel spoke to me as a reader was as a statement about the prejudice and racism at that time. Boo Radley was unfairly persecuted and faced an overwhelming stigma just because he kept to himself. The second instance of this is Tom Robinson. He faced incredible racism as a black and was unfairly accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Even after Atticus presented a very strong case, white society had convicted him before court even started.

            Also it’s a story of growing up. You sense how much Scout and Jem mature over the course of the story. Scout starts as a naive pre-schooler, she reminded me of my friend’s younger sister when she was like five: very energetic, curious, and annoying. As the story progresses she matures. She also starts school and moves through several grades and classes. She slowly loses her childhood innocence and becomes more judgmental.

-I think it would be better if we were all less judgmental… I hate criticism that’s not my own-

            Also it kind of reminds me about how great patience and perseverance. This was only sort of related to the plot of T.K.A.M. The first fifty or so pages are a giant inward grown, a tribute to all the horribly dull books that you’ve had to read in the past and ponder the prospect of doing a lengthy book report on later. It actually surprised me when later it decided to become good. I had heard it was a entertaining book, but I sort of figured there was a difference of interest, attitude, and attention span going on there. However I found the story got better as I went along. So that’s kind of a theme in its self, ironically…         

My Boo Radley

                My Boo Radley would probably be my neighbor Doug. While not reclusive or the victim of general stigma, I was totally intimidated by him. Him and his riding lawn mower. He has a giant riding lawnmower, which even considering the size of his yard seemed unreasonable. So he had this mower and he would mow the lawn every week or so and it was like the loudest thing ever when I was five. I would always how many people got run over by that thing.

                So any way we would go over to his house sometimes for parties or Halloween or Halloween parties. But I never really got to know him well. As I grew up I saw him less and less. But then I got a job from him to watch his cats while he and his wife were on vacation. So I did and he paid me a lot and I got to know him. He was actually pretty nice.

                My Boo Radley story was similar to To Kill a Mockingbird because I was afraid of a guy and now I’m not. However he did not save my life or anything. It dose mature you to learn the truth of things and conquer your fears. =)

I like to read but only when I find a book that I enjoy. However I don’t like to write unless I have to. I like to think of myself as a good student; however I don’t like to read my writing to people, which is unfortunate because in English I have to.  I can get assignments in on time and do homework consistently which is good because I’ll have to for this English class.

If anyone actually decides to follow my blog they can expect to find weekly posts but I doubt I’ll be posting anything extra besides assignments. However I may have unique views on certain topics, and I could bring new meaning to an old book. I guess we’ll find out.

I think English is important because it is basically communication. Like words and thoughts and opinions and stories. And I think of English as writing all those things down and talking about them. This is important because it’s basically the foundation for all the other types of learning. That’s why it’s required for graduation and college. English also includes communication skills, which are essential wherever you go. And that’s why you have to take so much English in school.