Thursday, September 27, 2012

Reflections for 9/27

Isn't this an adorable picture? I could resist :)

You were right today. "Traveling Through the Dark" and "Seventeen" were sad poems about experiences I'm not sure any of us would wish to have. Yet the poets felt the need to convey these experiences to an audience. Why? What understanding or question or realization does each author want you, the reader, to walk away with? These are questions you need to explore before you begin writing about the speaker and theme of each poem. In fact, they are questions you need to ponder when reading any piece of literature. Why do we, the audience, need to know about this? Why should we care? What realizations do I have about life or myself that connect me to the experience of this text?

These questions are what help me sort through difficult texts and keep my feet firmly planted in the text (that's a weird metaphor, but go with it).

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