Preview

Summary Of How I Discovered Poetry By Marilyn Nelson

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
630 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of How I Discovered Poetry By Marilyn Nelson
The poem “How I Discovered Poetry” by Marilyn Nelson presents the theme of finding an interest or passion for something. Also another theme that can be wrapped around this poem is the power of words. The speaker is Nelson who is in the classroom while her teacher, Mrs. Purdy is reading from her desk. Mrs. Purdy becomes one of the main influence of her finding her passion for poetry. Mrs. Purdy seems to be a very genuine and loving teacher who cares about her students. This is shown when she brings in a poem specifically for the speaker and asks the speaker to read it in front of her classmates. The speaker also seemed to be different than her classmates in a way where she is more attentive and studious than them. This is portrayed when the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sandra Lim: Poem Analysis
    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page

    Sandra Lim: Poem Analysis

    Stanford and University of California alumni Sandra Lim reads from The Wilderness on April 7, 2015, at Prairie Lights. As an alumna from the International Writing Program Lim was making her return back to Iowa City after 11 years. In The Wilderness Lim reads a collection of poems about love, spring and one poem that caught my attention was about the individual struggle of one's body within one’s mind. The poems are open to many interpretations but that is the way that I chose to interpret that poetry in particular. The interesting thing about Lim’s poem is how describes the body parts in some of her poems. It is very vague. It almost makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable but at the same time, I really like her style. The way she describes…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary Of Tina Jones's Poem Tracks
    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page

    Summary Of Tina Jones's Poem Tracks

    "Tracks" by Tina Jones made me think about my insecurities and problems I deal with as a woman and a person of color. In her poem she mentioned different levels of discrimination, insecurities and segregation that I could all relate to, but a quote that I related to the most was, "A generation of beautiful black women. Born and bred to believe that beauty belongs to everyone but them, so they dye and fry and try to fit in." Unfortunately, these insecurities that the media and society forces on us are reasons why black women damage their hair and wear weaves to disguise themselves to endeavor the impossible definition of perfection and respect. Without her saying it, I believe she didn't like school and was somewhat scared to go for many reasons.…

    • 198 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Poetry Explication "First Poem for You" by Kim Addonizio
    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Poetry Explication "First Poem for You" by Kim Addonizio

    Just as poetry is a permanent mark of feelings that last forever on paper, tattoos are permanent symbols that last forever on the skin. Tattoos and poetry can easily be combined such as in Kim Addonizio’s sonnet, “First Poem for You,” the speaker admires her partner’s nature themed tattoos in a darkened room. This may seem to be a simple poem, but by utilizing tattoos as symbols, including tactile and visual imagery in her poem, and using the sonnet as her structure, Addonizio laments about the true meaning of relationships and their longevity.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Edward Hirsch's How To Read A Poem And Fall In Love It Poetry
    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page

    Edward Hirsch's How To Read A Poem And Fall In Love It Poetry

    After scrolling through Edward Hirsch’s chapters of “How to Read a Poem (and Fall in Love it Poetry,” the section that resonated with me the most was “The Immense Intimacy, The Intimate Immensity.” The way in which Hirsch describes the experience of reading poetry felt like poetry itself. Hirsch’s introduction reads, “The physical life wants the spirit. I know this because I hear it in the words, because when I liberate the message in the bottle a physical—a spiritual—urgency pulses through the arranged text. It is as if the spirit grows in my hands. Or the words rise in the air” (1). Immediately, I thought of Maya Angelou’s poem “Still Like Air I Rise.” Angelou’s poem has always been one of my favorites. I have always said it is my favorite…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Poetry Explication
    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Poetry Explication

    “Slaveship,” by Lucille Clifton, is a free verse poem from the perspective of slaves that the white men capture and trade in the slave trade, forcing them to travel on the Middle Passage. Ironically, the ships bear the names of religious symbols and figures such as Jesus, Angel of God, and Grace of God (lines 14-15) even though the act of slavery is one of the most sinful systems in the eyes of these slaves and in the eyes of all decent human beings.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Billy Collins Use Literary Devices Used In Introduction To Poetry
    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How Does Billy Collins Use Literary Devices Used In Introduction To Poetry

    In the poem, Introduction to Poetry, Collins chooses to use a personal experience of his own to form the topic. The poem describes…

    • 1090 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Maxine Kumin Poetry Analysis
    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Maxine Kumin Poetry Analysis

    Maxine Kumin definitely has a very shocking way of portraying her poetry. It can easily be seen that she has a deep love for nature and animals. However, it goes to a much further distance than your average person. In the poem “Morning Swim” and “To Swim, to Believe” she describes swimming, as obviously mentioned in the title. In “Morning Swim” she describes becoming one with the body of water as she travels through it. In “To Swim, to Believe” she describes Jesus walking on the water, as described in the Bible. She states about how Peter had doubt about what Jesus told him to do, and thus as a result fell into the water. This poem demonstrates the importance of believing. “Heaven as Anus” is a very strong poem. It describes the multiple horrors and atrocities that animals face while they are facing testing and experiments. The poem really stabs at you and expresses its opinion with feeling. For example, “The whitewall labs fill up with the feces of fear.” (Kumin) “Requiem on I-89” describes the carcasses of animals being devoured on the road. She shirks in no details at all. The putrid, split carcasses strewn across the road are explained in vivid detail. For example, “lies on its side, bust open.” (Kumin)…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Subjects You Exell at
    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Subjects You Exell at

    “Tom’ “ my teacher called. It was my turn to read my the poem aloud. My heart was racing and I was prepared to read what I thought to be a mediocre poem to the class. I did not comprehend any of the poems we went over in class so I felt terribly uncomfortable explaining it to the class. It seemed as if everyone was able to interpret the poem except me. How was I to know what the poet really meant? I was not there when he wrote the poem. That day left a bad taste in my mouth, and that was the beginning of difficulty in language arts. Whenever a language arts teacher asked me to interpret a poem or analyze a story, my head would ache. I told myself that language arts and literature were for “deep thinkers,” and I convinced myself that I I was no that type of thinker. My teacher explained that knowing about the periods in literature and knowing facts about the writers were the keys to unlocking the meaning to literary works, but I convinced myself that it was not for me.…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Poetry Research
    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Poetry Research

    In the past, human nature has deprived humans of reaching their goal of equality. Human nature makes people prejudice and tend to judge people as something that they are not. One example is the inhumane treatment of the Jews, especially during the Holocaust. Between 1939 and 1945, nearly six million Jews were killed (McCarthy). During this period of time and even after, many adults and children wrote books and poetry about the sufferings they witnessed and endured as they forced to undergo horrific conditions. One poem written about this horrendous time period is "Remembrance" by Tawnysha Lynch. This poem was written after an obviously heartbreaking visit to the remains of the deserted Auschwitz. In her poem, Lynch expresses her thoughts as she witnessed the setting where millions of people were killed for being Jewish, homosexual, and even handicapped (Soudakoff).…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Frank O Hara's Why I Am Not A Poet
    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Frank O Hara's Why I Am Not A Poet

    Although it may initially appear to discuss the differences between painting and poetry, Frank O’Hara’s poem “Why I am not a painter” rather serves as a manifestation of the similarities between the two arts. What struck me during the reading of “Why I am not a painter” is that it bears an elusive similarity to ekphrastic poetry, the type of poetry wherein the poet discusses a work of art (a painting, a poem) and thereby tries to extract a concluding truth or principle. But instead of using poetical aesthetics to produce a cryptic succession of words and result in a memorable declaration, O’Hara takes the New York school approach and urges the reader to find meaning in their own reading of his work, not in the end result. To achieve this , he…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Poetry Explication
    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Poetry Explication

    This poem dramatizes the conflict between appearance and reality, particularly as this conflict relates to the central symbol of the poem, the goose fish. The speaker relates the tale of two lovers who encounter a dead fish on the beach after sharing their affection with one another. While looking at the fish, the couple ponders the meaning of this fish. Taken figuratively, the goose fish occupies many roles. As the speaker overlooks the events taking place between two lovers on a beach, he introduces the goose fish as playing the part of an intruder: “Until they saw… / As though the whole world had found them out, / The goose fish…” (15-17). Shortly after the lovers witness the goose fish, they ponder over what the fish’s big toothy grin “would express, / So finished a comedian” (30-31). The speaker then expresses the lovers’ thoughts that delegate the fish as an emblem of their passionate love and an optimist of their relationship. Finally, after conveying the numerous roles that the lovers attribute to the fish, the speaker expresses the lovers’ final decision to call the goose fish their patriarch who blesses their union. In reality, the fish can not realistically satisfy these roles because it has died. In this way, the speaker communicates the several roles that the lovers ascribe to the goose fish.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Robert Frost and E.E. Cumings
    • 1536 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Robert Frost and E.E. Cumings

    Poetry is considered to be a representational text in which one explores ideas by using symbols. Poetry can be interpreted many different ways and is even harder to interpret when the original author has come and gone. Poetry is an incredible form of literature because the way it has the ability to use the reader as part of its own power. In other words, poetry uses the feelings and past experiences of the reader to interpret things differently from one to another, sometimes not even by choice of the author. Two famous poets come to mind to anybody who has ever been in an English class, Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings. Both of these poets have had numerous famous pieces due to the fact that they both captivate the readers attention and can even keep them intrigued in a piece long after their first time reading it. A line such as one of the most memorable lines from Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1). Many recognize this line and many may have their own opinions on how to look at his poem ‘The Road Not Taken’. Another poem with a shared theme is E.E. Cummings poem “Anyone lived in a pretty how town” these two poems are very different in delivery and literary devises, but both have a common theme, a theme of how time goes on and the choices one makes, shapes who they become. This reoccurring theme is important because live doesn’t stop going it is a clock that will never stop ticking and every time the clock ticks we make a choice that shapes who we are and who we will be in the future.…

    • 1536 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Lucille Clifton's Poetry
    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Essay On Lucille Clifton's Poetry

    “Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.” By Lucille Clifton. Poets, Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou wrote poetry based on their experiences in life and during their own time period. Langston Hughes was a social activist and a poet, he wrote about his personal experiences and is the author of “Dreams” and “Mother to Son.” Maya Angelou, the author of “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and “Still I rise” was a civil rights activist and her poetry was mainly about autobiography, in connection with her life story. “Still I rise” , “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”, “Mother to Son”, and “Dreams” are being analyzed, showing similarities and differences between the poems. Each poem is trying to tell us about how racial segregation…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    1.02 Poetry
    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1.02 Poetry

    The word or phrase that was powerful to me was “She walks in beauty, like the night”…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Introduction to Poetry
    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Introduction to Poetry

    In “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins, the major theme portrayed is that, poetry is something to be experienced. Very often, readers will just go through the poem once and will then assume to figure out the underlying meaning. However, this is not true in Collins’ eyes. Collins believes that you need to be patient with poetry and he tells you this through a series of metaphors.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More