proposal

Sali Bunny

English 103A

11/15/11

Learning Poetry

In my narrative, I will be talking about the very first time I was introduced to poetry till the way I read and write poem today.

I was introduced to poetry when I was in kindergarten. My teacher would read us a book every day. One day she read us the book One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. That book became my favorite; I loved the way words rhymed. Throughout my early years of elementary, I would always check out the Dr. Seuss books because I found them the most entertaining.

            In the third grade, I was assigned to write a poem. I thought poems were all about making the words rhyme. The poem I wrote was a few lines long and it was about my last name because a lot of words rhyme with bunny. The poem I wrote didn’t make much sense but it was funny.

            I have learned more and more throughout all my years of going to school. Once I started high school, poems got more serious, and they weren’t all about rhyming anymore. They actually have a meaning to them now, even though the meaning could be hidden and you have to dig it out. 

Exercise 1 in Progression 2

Sali Bunny 

Mary Marca
English 113A

10/11/2011

Exercise 1

Everyone experiences tough times in his or her lives and they wonder how they are going to get through it. I can relate to the poem "Footprints in the Sand" by Mary Stevenson, and I find it very inspirational because it brings me to realize that throughout those tough times, I am not alone since I have God walking me through it all.

In the poem the speaker has a dream that she is walking on the beach with the Lord.  She looks back at scenes from her life and notices that there were two set of footprints on the sand, a pair that belonged to her and the other pair belonged to God. In the last scene, she only saw one set of footprints along the path and that happened to be the lowest and saddest time of her life. She asked God why he had left her alone through those difficult times and he answered that he never left her, instead he carried her through those times of suffering and trial and that's why there was only one set of footprints. 

Worrying about things is a problem almost everyone faces. We all know that worrying doesn’t get us anywhere but it’s a bad habit. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and stressed over certain difficulties I approach, and I start to worry about how I will over come it when instead I should be putting my full trust in God; He is the only one that can get me through it all. God promised that if you believe and follow him He will never leave you, He will carry you through those difficulties that life brings. So we have to stop wasting our time worrying and instead we should start believing. 

It's a Woman's World Summary

“It’s a Woman’s World” by Eavan Boland focuses on how woman are viewed and underestimated from when civilization began till now.  The poet encourages all women to stand up for their rights.

            In the first stanza of “It’s a Woman’s World” is understood that the way woman are living has not changed throughout history. “Since a wheel first whetted a knife”, this problem has been going on since the wheel was invented. In the second stanza Boland goes on talking about how woman’s lives haven’t changed. “Well, maybe flame burns more greedily and wheels are steadier but we’re the same” portrays the men working in the factories and dealing with the fire. The wheel is the second stanza is more advanced than the wheel mentioned in the first stanza, however the life of a woman is still the same.

“…Who milestone our lives with oversights- living by the lights of the loaf left by the cash register, the washing powder paid for and wrapped, the wash left wet. Like most historic people we are defined by what we forget...” “Milestone” is an event that changes something in your life, in the poem the life of a woman never changes because she never gets any big tasks to do. Woman’s duties in the world are only chores like cleaning and cooking, duties that don’t make history. Woman do their job well but they are only remembered when they forget the loaf of bread, the washing powder, and the laundry left wet. “…by what we will never be: star- gazers, fire- eaters.” A star-gazer is someone that sets up goals for themselves and a fire-eater is someone that takes chances.

In lines 24-36, it shows that has far as history goes woman are at home cooking and cleaning while the men are out fighting the war. “It’s our alibi”, a woman can say that because she wasn’t on the scene of the crime so she cannot get blamed for anything. “When the king’s head gored its basket—“ is the war that’s going on that the men are fighting. Boland puts woman down by saying that all they can do is gossip in lines 35 and 36.

Lines 37-41, illustrates that children are attracted to the fire place just like moth are attracted to flame. Also the hearth is the woman, she brings warmth and love to the house. The illustration in these lines could be understood that the men are making history and they are the role models to the children.

Boland concludes the poem by reassuring men that they do not have to worry, the woman is looking for more she’s just getting a breath of fresh air and she’s not a fire eater, she’s just the friendly neighbor going home. 

Dear Eavan Boland,

I have had the pleasure of reading and discussing your poem with my fellow classmates. I find your piece of work “It’s a Woman’s World” very intriguing. I can relate my mom's life to the different examples you used about how woman are portrayed in life.

In lines 18-20, “Like most historic peoples we are defined by what we forget,” the woman works hard for her family, but they never praise her about it, they only remember when she forget to do things. Like my mom, she is a typical hard-working housewife always cooking, cleaning, and driving me and my siblings around. She puts the family’s needs before herself, yet no one acknowledges the work she does. I speak for myself, that most of the time rather than thanking my mom for always doing things for me, I tend to get upset at my her instead when she has those days where she puts onion in the food, forgets to buy me something I need, or is five minutes late while picking me up from places.

My mom’s role in the family is to keep the house clean and filled with food and to neuter her kids while my dad takes care of the decisions that have to be made and bills that have to be paid. My mom has set goals for herself and has had dreams when she was younger. She wanted to be a nurse, she made an effort, went to school and started working, but once she had her first kid, she put her dreams aside and decided to take care of her children. And now it seems like she forgot about those dreams she once had because she has given up on them. “By what we never will be: star- gazers, fire eaters” everyone has dreams, including woman. Society makes it harder for woman to have a voice and accomplish big dreams they set up for themselves. Although society has a blame in this, I believe woman should take a little blame too, because after watching the speech “Why we have too few women leaders” by Sheryl Sandberg, I realized that woman have to really be devoted to their work in-order to want to keep on going and earning those higher positions and wages.

When you wrote “And it’s still the same: By night our windows moth our children to the flame of hearth not history” in lines 37-41, I pictured the children being excited to come home to a warm house in the middle of the winter when it’s snowing outside.  I can relate that to my mom too, because she is the hearth to the fire place. She brings the love and warmth to the house that we appreciate, while my dad is out making “history” or money to provide for the family.

I thank you for speaking up for woman and after reading your work, I came to conclusion that I will not let others underestimate a woman’s ability. Just like my mom, I have set goals I want to achieve in my life, but unlike my her, I WILL achieve those goals.

Sincerely,

Sali Bunny

poem questions

 - Examples of poetry are song lyrics, psalms,  and poems.  Poetry is a form of art in which you could express your attitudes and emotions.  You have to look deep into the words used in poetry, because it could have multiple meanings. If i were to explain to my friend that I'm reading poetry in my English class, I would tell him/her that I'm reading a text that has a deep meaning to it that I have to really look into and figure out by plugging everything in.
- I would disagree with the statement that poetry is  not popular because everyone has read or used poetry at least once in their lifetime. There are a forms of poetry that are not recognizable, such as songs.
-I don't remember exactly what the first poem I read was, but I remember it was from the book called "A Light in the Attic" by Shel Silverstein . It was a big white book that had a lot of poems from different writers in it. It was back when I was in the first grade, my teacher would take the class to the library and read to us different poem from the book. When I read poetry nowadays the memory of "the big white book." The book doesn't really affect my reading on the poetry I read now though.
-Terms I have learned from my teachers about poetry are meter, rhyme scheme, sonits, limmerick, haiku, stanza, ect. I've learned to take each line and figure out what it means in order to figure out what the poet is writing about.
-Everything I have learned about poetry outside the classroom has been taught inside the classroom as well.
-I have written a few poems for school and a couple for my own reasons. The ones I wrote outside of class were more like song lyrics, people found them funny and creative. Writing a poem is different than reading a poem because when you're reading it, you are trying to feel what others are writing about as when you are writing poems, you write your feelings so you know what you're talking about.