Author: figuerog1

Mad Lib Exercise

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I found the exercise pretty helpful. At first, I was looking at the poem on a surface level and looking at the exercise on a surface level. But as we started shuffling the words that  the poem had I realized that I was noticing aspects of form that I hadn’t before. Rhythm is preserved if it’s done right and the Mad Libs reveal what kind of words are not included in the original poem. Poets are often hyper aware of form and rhythm so to note these things is important. It can preserve the “mass”(number/kind of words) of a poem while reforming the words around a base “skeleton”(form).

I would love to do this with “Do not go gentle into that Goodnight”, partially because I think it’s great comedy fodder. I think longer or extremely short poems have a better chance of accidentally forming coherent ideas. I don’t think that finding “meaning” in the mad libs isn’t the point but I would be fun and interesting see what ideas come up from the word shuffle.

I think one of the limiting factors of mad libs falls into trying to force meaning on the nonsense that you can create. It’s really fun to laugh at what comes up but getting too hung up on “the meaning” tends to hold us back from noticing what we find as we peel back the words of the poem.

A. E. Housman’s “The Sage to the Young Man”

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Housman’s Poem is steeped in religious imagery. Most notably, speaking in terms of heaven and assuming the “young man” of the poem that he will enter heaven despite some misgivings he seems to be having about his immortal soul. It is heavily implied that this this the younger man’s fear of how being attracted to men will affect his transfer to heaven/the immortal plain. We can see this in the very first line, “O youth whose heart is right”(1). We can also assume that this Sage is a sage because he too has struggled with reconciling his attractions and his religious upbringing.

The speaker, The Sage, is assuring the young man that so long as he a kind and good in life he does not need to worry about the afterlife,”Endure, be strong and strive;/But think not, O my son,//To save thy soul alive./Wilt thou be true and just/And clean and kind and brave?” He tells the young man that he will not be rejected for his love and that he will be welcomed into heaven on merit and should not worry.

Contextually, Housman was a gay man with documented feelings for his college roommate. He may have been moved to create this based on his own feelings and the desire for an older teacher to have guided him through difficult times reconciling his sexuality. Especially in terms of religion and being soothed in his possible anxieties surrounding that. I was very surprised to see such an outright poem about Housman and being gay in a poem at his time. It makes me curious to see how far poets could go with these themes before really putting themselves at risk.

Bagpipe music: Assignment #6

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As I read the poem silently I somewhat heard the sound of the bagpipes as Macneice was attempting. I knew that there was some kind of sound being repeated but the bagpipe was difficult to emulate in my head. But the pace that I read it at didn’t quite achieve the desired effect. Even reading it out loud I found it hard to re-create the sound well enough to really hear the intent. I found myself imagining a somewhat more melancholy rhythm that took quite a bit longer. I also found that I paused more just reading it. With the number of periods and end stopped lines, I was much more slow in the reading than Macneice in the performance.

When Macneice performs the most noticeable aspect is the speed. He is very quick and the slight modulation of his voice definitely brings to mind the instrument he’s trying to emulate. The pace almost trips over itself, despite all of the end stopped lines. Honestly, in something line this I would expect enjambment. If I hadn’t seen the text first I would have assumed it was one. Now tone is strange because the pace would almost suggest humor but I feel as if my initial feeling of melancholy is still correct. Or potentially nostalgia. There is a tumbling, unstable feeling to the performance. Like nothing can quite remain for very long, not even the words in the poem.

Assignment#4 “cuz he’s black”

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Javon Johnson’s performance of ‘cus he’s black’ is an emotional powerhouse. We start with light-hearted humor that quickly shifts into horror. I have listened to this poem at least half a dozen times since finding it and I tear up every single time. The subject matter is charged to begin with but this poem screams to be read aloud and Johnson delivers with a roller-coaster ride of complex emotion. We can probably grasp the fear if reading the piece quietly to ourselves, however will we pick up on the feelings of guilt as Johnson describes lying to his nephew? You can hear his voice catch and quaver as he wrestles, in ‘real time’, with wanting to protect his nephew and wanting him to remain an inquisitive, innocent child. Will we pick up on the true desperation of his internal monologue just by reading it? Maybe, but pace rockets to a pained tumble and you can feel the fear as if if were your own.

There is a certain detachment that occurs when you read something someone else has wrote when they are not in the room. Through your own bias (which isn’t necessarily bad) you interpret what you are reading through your own perspective. Johnson slices through that issue and gives you his perspective but gives you a peek into his brain, in his own voice, in a moment of helplessness. Johnson gut punches us int eh way he makes us hear his fear and come to feel protective of his nephew too. He creates not just a narrative, but a literal voice to his nephew. We get to look into his eyes and hear the fondness in his voice as he talks about this young boy in his life. We get to listen to Johnson personalize and make his audience care about this boy they have never met before.

Link to performance: cus he’s black