Reflection

The process I used was to check out some YouTube videos that explained finding meter and how to hear the stressed unstressed sounds. After reading the poem out loud a handful of times, and watching youtube I realized you can't read it without hearing the stressed sounds. It was a neat realization that the whole time it was right in front of me. I selected the option I did because it was words I understood and it was easy for me to read. I selected to do the voice because I really hate hearing my voice. I thought maybe if I forced myself to listen to me read it over and over I wouldn't be so self conscious about my voice. My biggest challenges were really just letting the poem flow out of my mouth and listening to what I am saying. I tried to be lazy and read it in my head over and over, but it wasn't until I said it out loud that I could really scan it and hear the stressed syllables/words. An insight I gained by doing this exercise is that once you scan the poem, find the meter, or feet, the poems are that much easier to read. You don't have to worry about it once you have it figured out. The words just flow out and you can focus on the speaker and meaning of the poem instead of how I was supposed to read it. 

Project Poem

The poem I chose was [There was a young girl from St. Paul] by Anonymous. This poem is a limerick meaning a short funny verse of, usually, five lines. Like I stated it is meant to be funny. You can tell when the speaker talks about her "newspaper dress" starting on fire and burning the "sporting section and all." I enjoy these kind of verse poems because they are light hearted. Maybe I just don't get into poetry and I didn't challenge myself, but every once in a while you have to sit back and enjoy a short poem for what it is.

Anonymous' "The Twenty-third Psalm"

The controlling metaphor in this psalm is God is our shepherd. Saying that, like a shepherd, god will lead us to food and water. Through God we will not want. We will not want because he will give us what we need. I will not have to fear evil because God will guide me through the darkness. Just like a shepherd will guide his flock. It restates the metaphor when it says "thy rod and thy staff they comfort me". The green pastures that a shepherds flock need is saying to us that the lord will lead us to a land that has what we will need. I think it's interesting toward the end it says "surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life". It implies that we will have imperfections and we will screw up. But as long as we allow the lord to lead us we will make it through and be forgiven. Just like a sheep may go astray but with the help of a shepherd he will lead us back to the right path.

Marge Piercy's "Barbie Doll"

The speaker in "Barbie Doll" is a narrator telling us a story. There is no specific speaker and it could be left to anyone who the speaker is. I came to this conclusion because it is always speaking of someone specific but never engages with the storyteller exactly. It starts with "This Girlchild was born as usual" in line 1 and lines 7 and 12 is starts with "she" and uses "she" throughout the poem.

The situation of the poem is a girl who grew up playing with barbies. As she grew older barbies were no longer toys and instead were a means of physical beauty. She was teased for not looking like a barbie by classmates in school as she hit puberty. The situation turned into turmoil over her looks and ended up taking her own life trying to fix what others saw as imperfections.

The tone of the poem is matter-of-fact when it starts in line 1 with "this girlchild was born as usual". The tone stays the same even when it gets to line 5 and says, "Then in the magic of puberty". It really maintains the same tone throughout the whole poem. Even in the end when it takes it's most dramatic turn and says, "so she cut off her nose and her legs". It doesn't darken or anything just telling us a nonjudgmental story of a girl who took her life because she didn't possess the external beauty.

Women often have to change their appearance and who they are to become what society wants them to become to fit in.

Robert Frost's "Home Burial"

The two speakers in the poem are a mother and father who have just lost a child. The child is buried within view of a window on top of the stairs. The husband and wife both handle the death differently.

The wife does not handle the loss of the child very well, and resents the husband for being so composed. Her reasoning and thoughts are clear when she talks about the anger she feels about the death, and how she will not accept it. From lines 102-106 she talks about how people eventually move on and go back to what they know. She has no intention of doing that, and instead will live in grief and think the world is evil. 

The husband follows the path that the wife see's as everyone else is follows after death. He accepts the death, but he has grieved. The husband handles the grief inside himself, and the wife resents that. He handles death how I do. He is able to reason it, accept it, and move on but never forget. The wife knows how much she is grieving, and wants to see him grieve like her. 

I know how they both feel. We are all different in the grieving process. It's unfortunate, but it happens. I don't know what it is like to lose a child, and I hope I never have to lose a child in my time alive. 

Dorothy Parker's "A Certain Lady"

It took me a time or two of reading the poem to figure out who I believe is talking and who they are talking to. The speaker seems to be talking to a man that she adores, but he is busy talking about the other woman he is with. He seems be a a womanizer. Always talking about his experiences and exploits with other woman. I feel like he is a boy still basing his success on things that aren't important in life. I don't like how he brags about his conquest and being with multiple of females. I am not a fan of arrogant and cocky people and that is how I see him. I can tell in line seven when the speaker says, "and you laugh back, nor can you ever see the thousand little deaths my heart has died." I would read the first 22 lines in a candid voice. I would want the person spoken to understand the effects of his stories and unmatched feelings have. The last two lines I would read with an uncertainty. The speaker is a very candid and emotionally distraught person. She seems caring, but wants him to know how she feels. The speaker is also very generous in that she is willing to listen to his stories even though she feels hurt by them. The way she moves and responds to his stories and then describes her feelings that are opposite of those mannerisms.