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.