"Barbie Doll" for Boys - Ken Doll - by Leah Siewert

Not a very original title to change it too but this writer is exhausted from the past week.

One could change this poem into one regarding young men physical and intellectual ideas may still be utilized. To liven it up even more one could change the state of a young gay man which would even fill in with the current writing.

In order to change it to a young man's poem one would look at the toys young boys play with. The trucks, guns, cowboys and Indian type games they played. They too may test intelligent. There are instances of young men who have issues with their looks just as young woman have. A male though may have an issue with being shorter than others his age or may have had a comment he could not let go regarding his masculinity.

This is a horribly written blog. Overall it is a sad poem in the fact that the young girl let the thoughts and ideas of others intrude upon her life in such a way. The same could happen to a young man and in all reality has done so over the years.

"My Last Duchess" by Leah Siewert

The speaker in "My Last Duchess" is a man who is speaking about a portrait of his wife who has passed on. In the fact that she is on the wall and in the first sentence is explained, "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall," gives the reader the belief that he has money. At first one believes he is explaining and reliving the love he had for her. When one reads, "My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name," if you haven't already, you begin to think he is more about his money, title, and one should be so lucky to be with him.

His tone seems rather condescending at times and makes it hard to like him.

It is a difficult poem to understand. The love of his Duchess is apparent throughout the reading, though is it true love he speaks of for her or having her hang on the wall only for himself to see?

Reading the poem and the information preceding it is given away that he is speaking to an emissary who is there to arrange the second marriage of the speaker of the poem.

Ozymandias

In Ozymandias the speaker directly says in line 12 that nothing remains, in other words nothing lasts, which is how he develops the theme that nothing does last. The imagrey in this poem reinforces the theme because they say alot about where they are like how "they are on antique land" and on sand, it really helps with imaging it in your head to see what it looks like. Ozymandias outlasts himself in this poem.

"Ozymandias"

One major theme of Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" is that nothing lasts. The diction and irony of this poem each help to develop the theme that all earthly things shall decay.
The speakers' word choices portray Ozymandias as a once great, now forgotten, ruler. The traveler initially describes the statue of Ozymandias as "Half sunk," shattered," (line 4) "wrinkled," and "cold" (line 5), as though he were describing a corpse. It is eventually revealed that Ozymandias was once thought to be the "king of kings," so the use of such diction implies a great change in the esteem of this leader.
The words on the pedestal present such an irony from the initial description of the statue. One is led to believe from the first five lines of the poem that the statue was worthless, discarded without care. However, the inscription tells the reader that at one point, the mightiest of rulers feared this man. Yet at his death, all of his power was stripped away, and he is now but a forgotten statue, broken on the "lone and level sands" (line 14).
Thus, both the diction and irony used within the poem help the speaker to support the theme that nothing lasts on this earth.

My Last Duchess

The speaker in “My Last Duchess” is a very narcissistic man. He rants and raves about his last Duchess “as if she were alive” (line 2), but he is merely talking up his painting and the fact that some well know artist has painted it. He is more proud of his painting than of his beloved dead wife. He is a controlling man, and an even more controlling husband. He states that his wife had “A heart – to soon made glad” (line 22), this represents his self centeredness. This man saw his wife as an object and not a woman who was just a naturally happy person. She seemed to like everybody and this drove him insane. He also appears to be of a higher social status, as he clearly lets whomever he is talking to know. He makes sure to let them know that he gets only the finest things in life, and that he is the one calling all the shots. The more he talks about his late wife the more he sounds like a self centered little man; he doesn’t have any confidence in his wife or himself. He thinks because he is giving her his “nine-hundred-years-old-name” (line 33) she should just succumb to the life being his eye candy. His grossness is proven when he has his wife killed; he obviously is more concerned with his social standing than finding true love.

Barbie Doll

If this poem were to be written from the perspective of this man, it would probably be a protest against the emasculating post-feminism mindset wrought in corporate America. I would probably call the poem "Neo-Masculine" , or even "Nice Guy." There are pressures on man to conform by society, but none as strong as the threat of androgyny. It's as if women are being asked to be more masculine and men, more feminine. I have seldom been condoned in attending a corporate meeting while donning a beard, much less, an untrimmed beard. It is sad that a natural beard is seen as unsterile and threatening to the impotent environment that is the corporate boardroom. The untrimmed beard is likened to an unwashed body. We are asked to be politically correct, and generally accepting of all things we inherently would like to fight, but are discouraged by society from doing so. We want to hire men we can relate to, but our frivolously judicial society threatens that if we don't hire enough women, we will have no rebuttal in corporate sexual harassment cases. We are then discouraged from bravery, as our society tells our men that they need to act like their women. When our banks get robbed, our men lose their jobs for being men, and fighting threats to our women and our friends. Men want to self-sacrifice, but we are told that we can only fight for what the company wants us to fight for. Our safe society has killed chivalry and caused the repression of our natural masculine aggression. Stigmas and labels have been placed on aggression, as if it were all negative. Our reality has been constructed for us by the all-powerful media, controlled by the big corporations, who finance their political candidates. There is no fight left in man, no chance of protection against tyranny, we all do as we are told. The repression of aggression, as caused the only manifestations to be unnatural, when they explode to the surface, only reinforcing the negative stigmas surrounding this and other defining male characteristics. These are the ideas that I would like to convey. Through working, I would attempt to paint the picture of a figuratively neutered man, who has to fight who he is all of his life, in order to be considered acceptable... to be considered a "nice guy."

My Last Duchess

The speaker in "My Last Duchess" is a Duke who thinks quite highly of himself. The Duke may not necessarily think of himself as chronically unique in greatness, but he certainly believes that his family name is something that she be revered. The Duke believes that his late Duchess may have "ranked my gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name with anybody's gift." (Browning, 32-34) The Duke is a man of his time and a product of his upbringing. The Duke could have confronted the Duchess about her lack of appreciation for this gift, but there is no evidence of this. There is also no evidence of wrongdoing on her part either. It would seem that the Duke believed that his "munificence" (Browning, 49) should warrant the Duchess's affection alone. The Duke has been raised to believe nothing else, but status and name, bring affection and praise. He didn't want to mention his contention as claims it would require stooping (to her level), and he "choose(s) never to stoop." (Browning, 42-43) He believes that she should have come to him properly trained and so he is trying to express to the company of a possible suitor, what is required of his name. He wants to convey that the woman should treat him with special regard, and her, a piece of property. The poem ends sounding as if the Duke has moved on to his next piece of art nonchalantly.

The only previous experience I have with poetry would be when I was in high school. I enjoy it because each individual one is so different. It had been a long time since I had read poems so I was not sure what to expect. I think my beliefs about poetry did not change at all. It was very interesting learning more about the smaller details of poetry.

Updates

All blogs posted below have been graded.

My Poetry Experiences....

In the past I have not had many experiences with poetry. In high school, which was a good 6 years ago, I took an English course which had some poetry in it. But I do not remember those poems from so long ago, as I have a short memory. I know I didnt like how long some of them were and the confusing words that I would have to write down to look up later, and then re- read the poem. I find it very intimidating due to that fact, as I think that some poets are alot smarter and know their dictionaries, which made me feel less intelligent.
For this unit and units to come, I will try to take on the poetry world and understand some of the hidden meanings in those writings. I will not look at them negatively, well at least until i see how long they are, although I will give them all a good try.
-Nicole Kunz

Poetry Experiences

I have never thought too highly of poetry. I remember vaguely having read some in high school, but that has been several years ago. The poetry we read, everything seem to rhyme. I remember writing love poems, but that's when I was a teenager. Trying to understand poetry is not one of my strong points. Some poems I need to read several times, so I can really understand what they are trying to say and even then I'm not sure if I'm right. People might see the poem to mean one thing and another person might have a total other meaning of the poem.

When I seen we would be reading poetry in this class, I did not see this as being very pleasing. I must say the poems I have read so far, have not been that bad. So my previous experience with poetry has not changed much with how I think of poetry today. I am hoping over the next couple of weeks, I come to enjoy it and understand more about it.

Poetry Experiences

I can honestly say that I have had very little interaction with poetry. I did take a poetry class back in high school but that was a long time ago and remember very little. Some of the readings sound familiar but are still very new to me. I like how poetry can literally be interpreted differently by everyone. I also like how it's able to make a strong statement with very few words. This may however be very challenging because I find myself already having to read each poem several times to try and understand what the writing is meaning. I do believe that music is also poetry, more sometimes than just a story but left open for interpretations. I am looking forward to just "biting in," as Eve Merriam had said.

Past Experience with Poetry

My experience with poetry is as far from academia as can be. Poems are much more than words on a page, and the spirit of poetry is not something that can be taught. Our- the student's- indoctrination with interpretation of poetry falls short in that it seems to be stale. Though I can't truly speak for everyone, I think that most would agree that poetry's presentation is about as archaic-seeming as liturgy (no offense intended). In this I am drawing a parallel to religious enlightenment, in that we can be taught how we are supposed to interpret a religious text or a poem. My problem with poetry, like too much of the bible, has been my inability to internalize it. Without internalization, our interpretation is superficial and of little value. Of course there is benefit to being taught how to read and interpret, but at what cost is it if our heart isn't in it? Here I would have to say that there is an important difference in the mode of presentation between the poetry of music, and the poetry we read on paper. In music we can hear the tone of the speaker's/singer's voice and understand the message the music is supposed to convey as the sound waves convert to brain waves in an electrical brain storm that stimulates to our deepest emotions. The physics of poetry in music is real. Without this mode, I have a hard time internalizing poetry. The exception to the rule is if it's from someone I know, including myself. I believe that the more we know someone, or why they are trying to convey what they are trying to convey, the more layers we explore and appreciate. Poetry as an art of academia is like poetry for the sake of poetry, and it doesn't strike the right chord in me. Poetry for the sake of spiritual awakening, as an art of the heart, is something I can appreciate.

I do like that poetry is creative and that it has the potential to awake your inner workings. I do find the idea of internalizing something I find dark, a bit detractive, almost intimidating. Because of my past experiences, I need to try to let the reading become more personal for me. It helps me to look at poetry as "ying and yang," in that poetry is both a word art and an art of the heart. It does bother me to think that someone may have written a poem solely to impress the critics that be, as opposed to a form of expression. I need to believe that poetry is an expression of the soul and I don't intend to let the readings detract from this. The readings haven't changed a thing, though I appreciate that we aren't necessarily told what the poems should mean to us.

Poetry - Past Experiences

I have really enjoyed most of the poetry that I have read in the past. I remember in high school having to write our own poetry and I loved doing that. I also remember in high school digging deep into poetry on what the poem actually means, and thinking critically about the poems. Most of the poetry that I enjoy reading is about relationships and life experiences. I also like to look at the lyrics in songs. Lyrics are truly a form of poetry. I think poetry is a beautiful form of writing, because one can interpret it in many different ways. By knowing this basic information I think I was well prepared for the readings for this unit. I also know that when reading poetry you want to read it over a few times to get the full understanding of the poem. Even the smallest element in poetry can make a huge difference in what the author is trying to convey. When reading the reading assignments for this unit, I was a little intimated. I forgot how many different types and styles of poetry there was! I also have not written nor read much of poetry lately. My only recent readings of poetry would be song lyrics. Having said that, I am excited to start this unit!

Poetry

I have always enjoyed reading poetry, but for some reason I have not read any for a long time. I like that they are full of emotion, and a lot of poems that I have enjoyed the most relaxed me when I read them. Some I have read, did not made any sense. I did not enjoy reading those kind of poems. I just hoped that I do not have to read the type that I don't enjoy, for this class. So far they have been good, and I had not heard any of them before. As a teenager, I did read a lot of poetry and I had always thought that music seemed like poetry because it is so expressive and has a rhythm, just like poetry does. So far I have not learned anything new about it , but I am curios to see if I do.

Of the poems that I have read so far for this class, I enjoyed reading "So Mexicans are Taking Jobs from Americans" by Jimmy Santiago Baca. I found it interesting to find a subject like this written as a poem because it seemed like it would have made a great article in a magazine or newspaper. But then I figured it would have lost some of it power. It was a very emotional poem and obviously the speaker had strong feelings about this subject. I related to the speaker because I don't think that it is fair to say someone can not come to America to work. America is a mixture of people from all over that came here to find a better life, or work, when they could not find it where they were from. Mexicans may have jobs here, but they also spend money here which creates the need for business, and business creates more jobs. I am glad to see someone find a creative way to express their feelings on a subject like this.

Poetry Experiences

I have had some experience with poetry, but not a whole lot. I went to a small high school and there wasn't much emphasis on poetry. I had one class that had anything to do with poetry and we didn't spend a whole lot of time on it. That class was my sophmore year so there isn't a whole lot that I remember about it. I like simple poems that are easy to read and understand and I like poems that rhyme because I find them easier to read and understand. I like to find the rhythm in a poem too. I find poetry intimidating because it's not all laid out for the reader. The reader of poetry has to actually think and try to find meaning behind it. I ended up reading through a few of the poems from this unit more than once because I didn't get a whole lot out of them after reading them only once. Based on my past experiences with poetry, I have mixed feelings about it. Some of the longer poems I found tougher than the shorter ones so that part was confirmed, but because of the poem "Jump Cabling," I was reminded that not all poetry is hard to interpret. I have mixed feelings about the rest of the units on poetry, but I am going to give it my best shot!

Poetry

I have not had as much experince in poetry as other things. I do, however, think it is very interesting and I am excited to be reading and doing poetry. I am not very good at writing poems, I do like to read them though. I always feel that poetry should rhyme, eventhough I know that it does not necessarly have to rhyme. Agian I am very excited about this unit!

Poetry and Me

I am very excited about entering the poetry section of this class as I find poetry extremely interesting. Unfortunately I don’t have that much experience writing poems other than recently writing my son a poem on his Valentines card, although it was the classic Roses are Red, Violets are Blue... he loved it. Reading it, on the other hand, I do have some experience with. When I was pregnant with my first child, my husband would read poems to my belly each night so I got familiar and started to enjoy poetry. I do find some poems intimidating due to the deeper meaning that I sometimes don’t get. I went in to this unit with an open mind and just started reading; I remembered a lot of what I read but also learned new things as well. Growing up, I had always thought of poetry as this romantic thing, only to have found out that it can be a platform for people to express their opinions on many other things besides love: politics, war, culture, and the environment. It can be pretty powerful.

My Relationship With Poetry

What do I think of poetry? I started thinking how reading poetry is kind of like a relationship with a guy. To put it simply, sometimes you love them and totally get it, and sometimes you just don't know what their point is or why you waste your time. My feelings towards poetry are very similar. In the past, I have found poems that really moved me and stirred a longing within to have same ability to capture such incomprehensible things, such as thoughts and feelings, in lines of black and white words. Other times, I have become frustrated with the vagueness or my own inability to find any meaning in a certain line or the entire work. But, I've learned it's the same with guys and poetry, you can always appreciate them for their unique ability to distract and entertain you, whether or not you fully understand their message. Keeping an open mind also helps!

Poetry and Me

I am really going to enjoy this portion of our class. Poetry has always held a special place in my heart. I took 2 poetry classes in high school--reading and writing poetry. I have written several poems, one of which was published when I was very young in our church bulletin and I won $5.00 for it at the time. I have not written poetry for quite awhile so that may be difficult for me now but I am a collector of poems and I have kept all of my favorite poems throughout the years and have even started a "scrapbook" with designer pages. I love applying poems to every day life and sometimes they make me sad, sometimes they cheer me up. We recently had to have our beloved cat of 14 years, Tuffy, put to sleep and it was very difficult for all of us. I read the poem, "Four Feet in Heaven" by Alice Chase and it was very comforting to me to know that Tuffy is being taken care of in Heaven.