Rosen Journal 5

Journal 5

Robert Frost

Robert Frost was born in San Fransisco in 1874, dubbing him one of the 19th and 20th century poets. He was raised in Lawrence, MA and attended Dartmouth for about two months, but in that time was accepted into the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Yes, Robert Frost was a frat boy. Robert Frost worked many mundane jobs such as factory worker, farmer, delivery boy, and he knew that he hated them all and just wanted to write. In 1894 he sold his first poem "My Butterfly. An Elegy" for a whole $15, which in modern times would be $415. Later on he traveled with his family to England where he published multiple books such as A Boys Will and North of Boston, his most notable works. Frost later on went to earn four pulitzer prizes for New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes (1924) , Collected Poems (1931) , A Furthur Range (1937), and A Witness Tree (1943). The year before his death JFK awarded Robert Frost with the Congressional Gold Medal for his poetry.

Nothing Gold Can Say

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can say.

This poem depicts Frost's simplistic AABB rhyme scheme that he loved to put in so many of his poems. This poem is one of the shortest of Frost's poems because he tended to write long lengthy poems as well. I just love the simple message that Frost loved to share with the world because for so many of his poems he was trying to just get people to see the actual beauty in life - not the riches or the wealth, not the lust or the power, he wanted people to see the beauty of the Earth, the gift that we get to call home.

Journal 5 from Britnee

My poet is Dorothy Parker. She was an American poet and was born in 1893 and died in 1967. Her mother died when she was five. She hated her father and stepmother. She had a job as a theater critic and developed a reputation as a wit. She was later fired for offending too many big producers. She published over 300 poems in the 1920s. This was the greatest period of success for her. She married in 1917 and had many affairs. One resulted in a pregnancy. She got an abortion and fell into a depression. She soon attempted suicide. She was also a civil rights advocate.She died of a heart attack at age 73.

This poem is called "Observation". It shows her sort of attitude of how she rejects what people believe she should act and change herself to become more or better.

Observation

If I don't drive around the park,
I'm pretty sure to make my mark.
If I'm in bed each night by ten,
I may get back my looks again,
If I abstain from fun and such,
I'll probably amount to much,
But I shall stay the way I am,
Because I do not give a damn.

Journal Five: Amanda Gifford

E.E. Cummings was the pen name for Edward Estlin. He was born in 1894 and was raised in Massachusetts. His father was a Harvard professor which seemed to influence his style of modern poetry. The inspiration to write was a childhood passion developing into his unconventional style. His legacy was based on 2,900 poems, as well as art, novels, plays and essays. Religion was more of a transcendental bias of controversial issues between spiritual and intellectual beliefs. His views later developing into a deeper spiritual connection.

l(a

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l 

iness

Cummings piece l(a is representative of his unique style breaking traditional poetic format. This descriptive piece offers a simplistic metaphor of a falling leaf and comparing it to the loneliness one can experience.  Upon ones first attempt to read this poem is a desire to find meaning in each line as it trails and spirals the reader downward to discover his illustration and intended meaning.

Journal 5 from Jake

Poet: James Wright

Contemporary Poet
December 13, 1927 – March 25, 1980)
From: Martins Ferry Ohio
Depression, mood disorders, nervous breakdowns, alcoholism.
Known for exploring language and different styles of poetry.
Writes about simplistic rural life by capturing these ideas with strong imagery.
Wright has a reoccurring theme of loneliness and the outcasted.


Poem:

Lying In A Hammock At William Duffy's Farm In Pine Island, Minnesota by James Wright

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.

This poem clearly displays many of the qualities of James Wright's typical works. The poem takes place on a farm in a first person point of view and it is about a man who is not integrated with normal society. The end of the poem contains a unique line that really sticks with the reader because it feels so misplaced. This line is more of a message from the poet to the reader about how he feels the way he has lived his life. The majority of the poem is about James Wright's journey through life and how he is now 'leaning' back and looking on his past and seeing that he has wasted his life chasing material things. The line 'blowing like a leaf in green shadow' portrays a metaphor about how a butterfly's beauty is being hindered like a leaf in green shadow, which colors would then be plain. The green shadow may resemble the darkness the need and longing for money brings to people, when the can be just as happy Lying In A Hammock. 

Journal Five - Brooke Voisard

1.  Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1830. After reaching adulthood she chose to remain in her family home, and very seldom left. She was a writer of the Romanticism era, and most of her poems were not published until after her death in 1886. Interestingly, she chose not to read the poetry of Walt Whitman after hearing it was "disgraceful".
2. Attached is the most popular photos of Emily Dickinson.
3. The poem "The Soul Selects Her Own Society" is very representative of Dickinson's voice as it values true love and sympathy. It also describes being very selective of who you surround yourself with, and that is very representative of Dickinson as she only accepted visitors on rare occasions, and never left the house. 
4. The Soul Selects Her Own Society

The Soul selects her own Society

Then- Shuts the Door-

To her divine Majority-

Present no more-

Unmoved- she notes the chariots- pausing-

At her low gate-

Unmoved- an Emperor be kneeling

Upon her mat-

I've known her- from an ample nation- 

Choose One-

Then- close the valves of her attention-

Like Stone-.

Journal Five from Dathan

Langston Hughes was an African-American poet, play writer, and novelist, among other things. His themes of racial disparity made him one of the main contributors for the 1920s Harlem Resonance. He spent some of his time listening to jazz, and later incorporated jazz into his poetry. The video at the end of this is of him reciting his poem called "The Weary Blues" where he is accompanied by jazz musicians.

His "Poet to Bigot" might not be the best poem to show what he stood for, but it's close. Skip to the poem now it you don't want me to ruin it for you. Basically, he is talking about how some people, the rich, white America, has excessive time on their hands but don't do anything with it, it is spoiled. But, then there are people who have very little time, and struggle and sweat and come out of it accomplished.

Poet to Bigot

I have do so little
For you,
And you have done so little
For me,
That we have good reason
Never to agree.

I, however, Have such meagre
Power,
Clutching at a
Moment,
While you control
An hour.

But your hour is
A stone.

My moment is
A flower.

"The Weary Blues"

Journal 5- Aziz Hamid

Lucille Clifton

1936–2010

Lucille Clifton was an African-American poet, writer, and educator from Buffalo, New York.

Clifton was awarded a scholarship to Howard University. She was the first person in her family to attend college. She decided to major in drama. After two years she lost her scholarship due to poor grades. At that time, she told her father, "I don't need that stuff. I'm going to write poems. I can do what I want to do!" It was at this point when Clifton journey to writing poems began. Lucille Clifton's work emphasizes endurance and strength through adversity, focusing particularly on African-American experience and family life.

Her first complete book of poems, Good Times, was published in 1969. Her first children's book, Some of the Days of Everett Anderson in 1970 launched her into writing children's stories. Many of her children's books, were written expressly for an African American audience.

Lucille's poetry is straightforward. Her poems contain compassion and a high level of emotion. Her African roots and her personal history have become the basis of her writing. Other common themes include family life, racism, gender issues death, birth, and religion.

The Photograph: A Lynching

is it the cut glass

of their eyes

looking up toward

the new gnarled branch

of the black man

hanging from a tree?

is it the white milk pleated

collar of the woman

smiling toward the camera,

her fingers loose around

a christian cross drooping

against her breast?

is it all of us

captured by history into an

accurate album? will we be

required to view it together

under a gathering sky?

Lucille Clifton