Poetry Day

I enjoyed poetry day.  My favorite part was when we had to write poetry in class without any preparation.  That was enjoyable until my love poem turned into a "dirty" poem.  But overall, it was one of my favorite classes of all times.

Lumen

When I went to the Lumen unveiling, I had just gotten out of class and got there in time for some open mic.  I enjoyed listening to other people's poetry, especially people I see everyday.  It brought the pieces closer home than some of the writers.  My favorite piece was the one dedicated to Dr. Schiff, the one about Egan Cafeteria.  I know all too well that hunger, especially when no one is there to let you in.  But I greatly enjoyed the whole experience.

William Butler Yeats

"The Second Coming" is a great piece to have along with Achebe's Things Fall Apart.  This is simply because Achebe pulls the title from Yeats' "The Second Coming".  To focus on "The Second Coming", it seems as if the last few lines are really focusing on the Second Coming of Jesus.  The last 2 lines, "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"  The question lies in, what if it is about the anti-Christ rather than the Second Coming of Jesus?

Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart is an interesting piece of literature.  It has all the qualities of an epic story but also an old fashioned, oral tradition, legend.  This story has some qualities that it is more of a story with a moral.  I'm not quite sure how I feel about this piece but I enjoyed it overall.  I think part of the reason I like it is because the main character tries to be nothing like his father, which is exactly how I feel all the time.

Bernard Dadie

Of the two stories Dadie wrote, I liked "The Hunter and the Boa" the most.  The story was very well written and it even had a moral question asked at the end.  I prefer when a story poses a question for the reader to ponder and answer their self.  If I were in that position, I would give back the other gourd to save my life because life is more important than material goods.

Wole Soyinka

Soyinka's play was an interesting piece to read.  I like to act and I was an actor so I understand the script play kind of writing and I will say that character development and plot development were extremely good.  At the same time, there were sections where the women would be talking with the one character and his "band".  It was a confusing section because the dialogue was so close together, sometimes it was hard to tell who is speaking.  Overall, i enjoyed it and it was a well written piece.

Richard Wright

My first impression was a bit of shock.  It occurs in the first three lines where Richard Wright writes the word "niggers".  As can be guessed, shock would be the first word to come to mind, simply because I do not usually use that word everyday.  After I continued to read, I got a sense that this was very realistic of southern America.  I am not sure what to make of it but it is interesting.

Alfonsina Storni

I decided to focus on the poem Squares and Angles because at first glance, this one stuck out to me. I noticed a lot of repetition within the opening lines and wondered why. Only turning the page and finishing the poem did I have an idea, and understanding, I'm not sure of what. But it starts with an idea of conformity with the line, "Squares, squares, squares/Houses in a row./ People now have square souls,/ Ideas in a row". This idea of conformity seems almost too true when it comes to any sense of how conformity works. You want everyone to be the same, respond the same, even look the same. It is an odd little poem, Squares and Angles, but it seems as if the speaker of the poem is the one trying to rebel against this. The speaker could even possibly resemble Storni herself, as she was the first woman writer excepted in Argentina.

Yehuda Amichai

In Of Three of Four in a Room, it seems very insightful of people who are thinkers. Amichai explains how of three or four people in a room, one will stand by a window and is a great thinker. This one seems to be able to see the evils of the world and see the people who are kind and those who are evil. This one knows most things and understands how things work in the world. I enjoyed this piece particularly because it seemed to fit me more than the other pieces.

Dario

At first reading, I just enjoyed the readings.  But upon further reading, I noticed that the image of a swan appeared in all but one piece. I did some quick research online and found from Answers.com that a swan symbolizes balance, commitment, festive, grace, loyalty, majesty, and protectiveness. In Sonatina, it would seem that the swan would symbolize majesty and protectiveness exclusively. The sadness felt from the Princess seemed to call out for her prince to come and save her from misery. The protectiveness would be coming from the prince who is symbolically present in the swan. The majesty is more of her own, as for the fact that she is royalty.