Seize the Day Analysis

          At the last analysis of Seize the Day, I especially discussed two rhetorical devices: personification and metaphor.  Then, after varied amazing adaptations, I found out the theme is also a good topic to discuss.
       
          The poem is about passing time.  The poem is written in chronological order, and because of the performance of Aaron, David, Jacob's group, they speed up reading the poem to show how the time is passing quickly, so people should seize the day.  It is reasonable to feel the passing time in the poem because the poet wrote a day in the short duration from morning to the night.  She picked few major events people do to represent certain times.  For example, the third stanza, taking shower, represent the new beginning of a day.  We might take a long time to shower, but for the showering in the poem, only two sentences expressed the event, which is short.  For the day, the major event happened is working.  She did not describe the work.  Instead, she asked us to love work and enjoy the play.  For the night, reading a poem is the major event.  She put so few words in the description of things that we did, so it causes an illusion that the time is passing quickly, and we should seize the day.

          The poem is about nature and love.  Even though the poet wrote the poem in chronological order, she put a lot of description in the poem that it is not relevant with time, such as nature and love.  In the first stanza, when she described a new beginning of the day, she did not mention how people do in the morning.  She used the sense of hearing, the birds' singing, to imply it is a nice morning.  Then, in the fifth stanza, she emphasized that nature plays an extremely important role in people's lives.  Especially in the first sentence, "be surprised by nature that shares your world of giant steps," she clearly pointed out nature is way more splendid than we expect, and because nature is beyond our imagination, we will be surprised.  Then, she provided details about how beautiful nature is.  She told the readers to love nature.  Therefore, love is another topic.  Love is shown in so many aspects.  Love is one of the aspects, and loving work, loving living is another aspect.  In stanza six and seven, she did not write how hard people should work and how hard people should live, but she pointed out what jobs people have, they should love and enjoy and concentrate on it.  The reason is that people are spending time on it.  If people do not want to waste lives on it, they should better to love and concentrate on their jobs.  "Without love/ your spirit will be a flower/ picked without purpose/ and thrown on the ground/ to be trampled by anyone."  From the sentence above, the poet clearly demonstrated that people living without love is unworthy, and once it is unworthy, the others will not respect them and disguise their lives even more than they feel about their lives.  Therefore, because of these many "small revelations", we should seize the day and enjoy every moment with love.  Sometimes, people should treat lives with slow speed and with detailed observation.

          The poem is about appreciation and tolerance.  In the last stanza, the poet wrote, "you must imagine and learn to embrace each and every day."  The word "embrace" represent tolerance.  Particularly, the night and good sleep will release "the fires of worry and anger".  It shows that the lives are not always happy and lucky; sometimes there are so many negative feelings that trouble people all the time.  Therefore, as the poet wrote, she hoped the good sleep, nature would heal people's anger and worries.  Therefore, people should not only loving nature but also know how to use nature and the love to embrace all the troubles.

Poem Adaptation

          To revitalize the poem, people adapted them into more modern, popular forms, such as music, dancing, and drama.  Yesterday, we adapted a poem, Seize the Day, written by Judith Ortiz Cofer.  Generally, we all did a good job.  Especially when the time is not too abundant to prepare for the performance, all the idea we brought, and the style the performance we had are wonderful and amazing.  To be honest, for our group, we did not think too much.  We organized the poem and revised it.  Compare to the original version, we want to emphasize more about appreciation.  An appreciation of yourself, and appreciation of nature.  From the original piece, we could tell that the poem is written in a time sequence, but we blurred this sequence.  Even though it is clearer for the readers to read and to understand the context, I want to change the feelings more impressionistic.  Therefore words of the poem are more free and slower, and then, with the relaxing music that it was provided from Yun, we could slow down our living speed, taking rest and enjoying a poem.  This is a strength of our performance.  The only one weakness I found out is that during the person change, we waited too long to let the people walk down the bridge and then walk up.  Now I prefer that when the person almost finished reading, the person that he or she is going to read should step out early when the last person did not finish his or her part.  

          For other groups, they also did really well, some of them surprised me because of the ideas, the props, and courage.  Firstly, I would like to appreciate the other two groups in A periods.  For Aaron's group, they emphasized the time by circling on the stage.  Their reading and action are both quick, and it makes people feel like the time is running quick in a day, so they should precious each moment and seize the day.  It is totally different theme with us, but it is so great!  I like it so much because it is so amazing that we can feel the opposite emotion in same words and same poem.  One weakness is that sometimes one person should keep up other teammates' speed, so he started running, and then once the person ran, he could not make his voice steady and clear.  Therefore, I suggested for the people who are really tall and have a pair of beautiful long legs, please slow down and wait for others.  If I were in this group, I was definitely going to panic because of the speed.  Stella, Cassidy, and Danny's group had a knowledgeable performance.  The reason is that at the end of the performance, I heard different words in another language which surprised me.  I speculated the language is French, right? One weakness is that they should add more actions.  

          For the groups in B period, the most excellent job they did is that they added the props into the performance, which is what we did not do in A period.  Nan's group is fantastic.  She edited lyrics and put them into the music, and the song is unbelievably beautiful.  I think Nan's pretty voice add more extra points on it.  Ivan rapped well.  He was exactly on the rhythm, and he also got the feeling of swaying just like other rappers do.  He is cool, but I think it is better for him to stand up to rap.  I saw great rappers always rapping while walking or jumping.  For Helen's group, I appreciated their courage because they chose a difficult perform style.  In fact, I was also thinking about whether we should dance or perform along with the reading.  Since the reader cannot interact with the dancers, they usually seem disconnected.  On the other hand, they cannot get an equal attention.  Sometimes, readers are fully passionate, so that few audiences notice the dancers; sometimes, maybe because of dancers'  delicate dancing skill and their pretty faces, no one wants to listen to the readers.  Therefore, whatever the reason is, they somehow perform exaggeratedly, and that is so awkward.  Even the audiences feel embarrassed for the performers.  As a result, if audiences could not see the performance more than once, they probably do not appreciate the performance.  However, it does not mean this performance is not good.  On the contrary, I love their performance.  In addition, maybe some people will think they should prevent some awkward dancing movement, but my suggestion is that it is better for them to exaggerate the dancing movement even more.  Especially for the stepping flower part, I highly recommend stepping on the follower more arrogantly, brutally, so that audiences could get the visual impact and then understand why the poet write those words.          

The Poem I Chose for Performance

Shades

D. H. Lawrence, 1885 - 1930

Shall I tell you, then, how it is?—
There came a cloven gleam
Like a tongue of darkened flame
To flicker in me.

And so I seem
To have you still the same
In one world with me.

In the flicker of a flower,
In a worm that is blind, yet strives,
In a mouse that pauses to listen

Glimmers our
Shadow; yet it deprives
Them none of their glisten.

In every shaken morsel
I see our shadow tremble
As if it rippled from out of us hand in hand.

As if it were part and parcel,
One shadow, 【stand and walk】
【walk back】 One shadow and we need not dissemble
Our darkness: do you understand?

For I have told you plainly how it is.
(music ends, light out)

Seize the Day Poem

Remember to wake early and take your time rising.

Enter the world refreshed by the hope

emitted by each atom of light,

by the bird who must sing at the sight

of the sun. Does he pity us humans,

who can choose not to break into song

at dawn?

Look for small revelations all day.

Let water heal your body. Think of bathing

as a ritual of new beginnings.

Step outside and breathe deeply.

Take in the smells

of life good and foul. Remember

this day is a gift.

Be surprised by nature

that shares your world of giant steps.

The bug that irks you, the yellow butterfly

that catches your eye,

and the furred thing with sharp teeth

that repels you- are all in our moment

of history.

Concentrate on living hour by hour as if

you were feeding coins into a meter

measuring your life.

Here is this hour,

and you have already paid for it.

Love your work, and enjoy your play. Remember

there is little lasting joy in things done

only for gold or fame. Without love

your spirit will be a flower

picked without purpose

and thrown on the ground

to be trampled by anyone.

Have a place and a time

to sit with your thoughts.

Pray before sleep, or read a great poem.

Sacred words will clear your crowded mind.

Remind yourself to speak in Spanish

before you go into the dark.

Greet your ancestors

in our native tongue, let them guide you

to the place of your origin, an island in the sun,

our home now only in our dreams. Say noche,

say amor, say suenos.

Welcome the night. Good sleep

is your body’s mending time. In its sweet release,

the fires of worry and anger will be subdued;

and in dreams you may learn to fly above any blaze

and let your secret self-float free

above a new world

you must imagine and learn to embrace

each and every day.

This Is Just to Say

I have eaten      4
the plums          2
that were in       3
the icebox         3

and which                      2
you were probably         5
saving                            2
for breakfast                  3

Forgive me                       3
they were delicious          5
so sweet                            2
and so cold                        3

I heard lots of "o" sound, and it would normally be a sound of appreciation or a sound of astonishing.  In the first stanza, the lines also contain "th" at the beginning of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th line, and many "i:" wound in the last stanza, such as "me" "delicious" "sweet".  Additionally, "s" is applied to almost every line.  It rhymed.  There are also many plosive letters, such as "p" "b", so the feeling of the sound is short and good.  When I read the poem, the picture is quite bright and funny.  It is like a young boy who is easy to be persuaded.  He wanted the plum so hard that he could not stop himself to not eat it, even though he knew it is a not right thing to do.

The poem is like a note, which is simple and informal.  It could be "written" after the boy ate the plum, and he just felt a little bit sorry for the plum owner who could not enjoy the plum in the morning.  It could also be written before the boy ate the plum to show that the boy was ready to eat it, and then "forgive me" is more like a comfort to the plum owner which does not necessarily means the narrative is sorry.  I love this poem because it is lively and vivid.  I could feel the naughtiness of the narrative.  There is a hesitation in the second stanza because the narrative thought of the plum owner, but the struggle only lives for one second.  He was like he felt sorry for the owner but whatever, he just wanted the plum. 

Seize the Day

 The first impression of the poem I get is that it is like a life handbook, a guide of how you can enjoy your day and be a good man.  The theme is straightforward, positive, bright, and clear.  The way the poem is written follow the time of a day, which can match the title, Seize The Day.  However, it is good not only because of the good theme or the clear structure, it is also great at the technique.

Technically, this poem has two rhetorical devices: personification and metaphor.  Personification is from line 5 to line 7 in stanza 1: "Does he pity us humans, who can choose not to break into song at dawn?"  Firstly, the poet started the poem with early in the morning.  When people get up, the birds will sing with the sunrise.  Then, she queried whether birds pity us humans, who can not have to sing in the morning.  It can be true, but as so far as I know, the bird cannot have such a high intelligence to have the complicated thought and emotion.  Therefore, I regard the words as a personification.  These words add more interests into the stanza and grab readers' attention immediately at the beginning of the poem to let them continue reading.  Metaphor appears from line 4 to line 7 in stanza 7:  "Without love/ your spirit will be a flower/ picked without purpose/ and thrown on the ground/ to be trampled by anyone"  Personally, I really love the sentence so much because of its ruthlessness.  The sentence is so cruel that I cannot imagine what else is worse than that.  Back to the sentence, the poet compares the person with a flower.  Once he or she loses his or her love, he/she will be like a flower, which he/she will be bullied by anyone so easily and so badly.  It emphasizes the importance of having love.

These two examples are two complete sentences, but they are broke down into lines.  It is called enjambment.  It gives me a short pause, which it makes me feel that the sentence is more fascinating.  The metaphor, for example, it breaks the sentence into five lines.  When I read it, I cannot stop to pay attention and stress on the first few words of each line, even though I know it is a sentence.  Then, after I stressed each word, "Without love", "Your spirit", "Picked", "And thrown", "to be trampled".  The first two words, "without love" and "your spirit", point our the object and a purpose of writing it, then the last three words are verbs, which give me a huge visual impact.  I can depict the picture of the process even more clearly because of these stresses, and it made me feel upset and uncomfortable.  It is one of the advantages of enjambment.

The theme brings a simple joy to me.  As the poem write, wake up with a lightful heart, take a good breath and enjoy the light of the sun, work hard and then clear mind when sleep, life can be much simpler.  Close to nature, find a way to appreciate your life and enjoy every day can make us live happily. 

Hip Hop Poetry

I think I am going to forget you

So I started to remember the shadow

The higher heat

The careful touch

The pure smile

The bright eyes under the thick eyebrow

The sweat when you play basketball

The song you sang

The joke you made

And all the tolerance and patience

And a hug under the dark green leaves

And then I successfully dreamed of you

In a long sunset corridor

You hugged me and whisper

Let me go, 

please

Silence, I nodded in your arm

Said yes

4/7 Notes

The Line

1. Prose:  It is printed or written within the confines of margins.
2. Poetry: It is written in lines that do not necessarily pay any attention to the margin.
3. In metrical verse, each line of the poem can be divided into feet, and each foot into stresses, to reveal the overall rhythmic pattern.
4. Scansion: The process of dividing a line into its metrical feet and each foot into its individual parts.
5. Metrical Lines
1. Monometer: A one-foot line (\/ /)
2. Dimeter:  A two-foot line  (\/ / \/ /)
3. Trimeter: A three-foot line
4. Tetrameter: A four-foot line
5. Pentameter: A five-foot line
6. Hexameter: A six-foot line.  When it is a pure iambic line, it may be called an alexandrine
7. Heptameter: A seven-foot line.
8. Octameter: A eight-foot line
6. Metrical Feet and Symbols
1. Iamb: a light stress followed by a heavy stress. (\/ /)
2. Trochee: a heavy stress followed by a light stress. (/ \/)
3. Dactyl: a heavy stress followed by two light stresses. (/ \/ \/)
4. Anapest: two light stresses followed by a heavy stress. (\/ \/ /)
5. Spondee: two equal stresses. - -
7. In the tetrameter lines, there is a sense of quickness, spareness, even a little agitation, which is not evoked in the five-foot lines.  It can release a felt agitation or restlessness, or gaiety, more easily and "naturally" than pentameter and so on. The trimeter line can evoke an even more intense sense of agitation and celerity.
8. The longer line suggests a greater-than-human power.  It can also indicate abundance, richness, a sense of joy.
9. Language is a living material, full of shadow and sudden moments of up-leap and endless nuance. Nothing with language, including rhythmic patterns, should be or can be entirely exact and repetitious, nor would we like it if it were.
10. Within the poem, irregularities may occur for the sake of variation; they may also occur because of stresses required by the words themselves.
11. Nursery rhymes are full of "impure" anapestic and dactylic lines-- they use the metric patterns, but tend to end each line with a single heavy stress, as in "Hickory | dickory | dock. | The | mouse | ran up | the clock." 
12. Caesura: It can break into the established tempo of the line, thereby indicating-- almost announcing-- an important or revelatory moment.  It is a structural and logical pause within and only within the line, and usually, but not always, within a metrical foot itself.  It is useful not only where emotion is amassed, but in such lines as these, which set a conversational tone.
13. When a poem does begin with a heavy stress, it immediately signals to the reader that something dramatic is at hand.  The similarity of sound ar the end of two or more lines create cohesion, order, and gives pleasure.  
14. True rhyme (Masculine rhyme): on a single stressed syllable
15. Off rhyme (Slant rhyme): The words are not true rhyming words but almost rhyme.
16. Feminine rhyme: uses words of more than one syllable that end with a light stress, as in "buckle" and "knuckle" 
17. Feminine endings tend to blur the end rhyme.  So does slant rhyme.  Masculine and true rhyme endings are forthright.
18. A self-enclosed line may be an entire sentence, or it may be a phrase that is complete in terms of grammar and logic, though it is only a part of a sentence.  
19. enjambs the line runs the line so that a logical phrase is interrupted.  It speeds the line for two reasons: curiosity about the missing part of the phrase impels the reader to hurry on, and the reader will hurry twice as fast over the obstacle of a pause.
20. Evert poem has a basic measure, and a continual counterpoint of differences playing against that measure.  On the other hand, the poem needs to be reliable.

Some Given Forms

1. Rhyming patterns include everything from simple rhyming couplets (line 1 rhymes with line 2, line 3 rhymes with line 4, and so forth) to the terse rim and the Spenserian stanza.
1. Couplet:  aa bb cc dd
2. Tercet, or Triplet:  aaa bbb ccc ddd
3. Quatrain:  abab cdcd
4. Terza Rima: aba bcb cdc deu
5. Spenserian Stanza:  abab bcbc
2. The sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines: traditionally it uses the iambic pentameter line.
3. The Italian sonnet: abba abba cdd cee
4. The English sonnet divides into three quatrains and a final couplet.
5. Blank verse:  Poems written in iambic pentameter without end rhyme.
6. Stanza break will inevitably result in either a felt hesitation or a felt acceleration. Running a sentence through a final line of one stanza and on into the first line of the next stanza hastens the tempo.  Additionally, it can create a feeling of creative power over mere neatness.
7. With the use of separate sections, however, the poet may change the landscape, the narrative, the tone of the writing, line length-- in fact, anything and everything.
8. In syllabic verse, a pattern is set  up and rigorously followed, in which the number of syllables in each of the lines of the first stanza is exactly repeated in the following stanzas

Verse That Is Free

1. Free verse (fluid poem, organic poem): Implies that this kind of poetry rose out of a desire for release from the restraints of meter, the measured line, and strict rhyming patterns.  It is free from formal metrical design, but it certainly isn't free from some kind of design.
2. The initial premise is made up of everything the old metrical premise is composed of-- sound, line length, and rhythm patterns, but in this case they are not strict, they are not metrical.
3. The free verse poem, when finished, must feel like a poem -- it must be an intended and an effective presentation.  In term of the sound of the poem, it is quickly apparent that the poem makes brilliant use of dark, heavy mutes.
4. Enjambment gives the writer an ability to restrain or to spur on the pace of the poem.  It can be serious, disruptive, almost painful.

4/6 note

More Devices of Sound

1. Alliteration: repetition of the initial sound of words in a line or lines of verse.  Sometimes alliteration includes the repetition of both initial sounds and interior sounds of words.  It is known as consonance.  ("blue-berry")
2. Assonance: repetition of vowel sounds within words in a line or lines of verse.
3. Onomatopoeia: It is the use of a word that, through its sense, represents what it defines.
4. The change or the interconnectedness of sound is an important matter.

Language is rich, and malleable.  It is a living, vibrant material, and every part of a poem works in conjunction with every part of a poem works in conjunction with every other part--the content, the pace, the diction, the rhythm, the tone--as well as the very sliding, floating, thumping, rapping sounds of it. 

4/5 Note

1. Onomatopoeia: individual sounds-tied-to-sense
2. The alphabet--Families of Sound:  two classes-- vowels and consonants
       a. Vowel:  forms a perfect sound when uttered alone. 
       b. Consonant:  It cannot be perfectly uttered till joined to a vowel. (Semivowels, mutes)
               I. A semivowel is a consonant that can be imperfectly sounded without a vowel so that at the end of a syllable its sound may be protracted.  Four of the semivowels--l, m, n, and r--are termed liquids, on account of the fluency of their sounds.  Four others--v, w, y, and z--are likewise more vocal than the aspirates
               II. A mute is a consonant that cannot be sounded at all withour a vowel, and which at the end of a syllable suddenly stops the breath, as k, p, t, in ak, ap, at. (b, d, k, p, q, t, and c and g)

3.  Poets select words for their sound as well as their meaning--and that good poets make a good initial selection.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
1.  Hard g first appear in stanza 3 line 1, "gives", and then "go" in stanza 4 line 3 and line 4.
2.  In stanza 2, "queer", "near", "year" rhymed.
3.  In stanza 3, "shake", "mistake", "flake" rhymed
4.  In stanza 4, Line 2 to Line 4 have mutes in first and last words.