Study

So I was thinking that maybe we could do some form of class colaborative study for the mid-term.
I know I have a hard time with vocabulary so I thought we could so a vocabulary catch all kind of thing.
It is just an idea, if you don't want to- that is fine.
Here is the link to the Google Docs that has the vocabulary I have defined so far. Anyone is able to edit this if they have a link. Please feel free to edit as you see fit.


-Angie

In translation

I’ve recognized the value of reading different translations of a work before because each person will interpret a word a little differently but I sometimes wonder how much is lost in the translation. Are we being fair to the poem and its message by translating it and changing it to conform to our cultural references, language and metaphors or are we cheating ourselves by taking it from its originality and its identity. Should to poem be the thing to change and be recreated in translation or should we be the ones to change, should we be the ones who should study a language and culture to fully and more thoroughly understand a work. That is the truest question of translational value in my opinion.

John Felstiner’s translation read:

“You'll have a grave then in the clouds there you won't lie too cramped”

in Jerome Rothenberg's it was translated as:

“then scoop out a grave in the clouds where it’s roomy to lie”

Personally I like the Felstiner translation more. To me the phrase “lie too cramped” is more powerful and resignation personally then “it’s roomy to lie.” Perhaps this is because in my house we tend to use the word cramped over roomy. Felstiener is still giving this negatively connoted word pulling in the dark emotion of the camps that is a major part of this poem where as Rothenberg uses roomy. A word more associated with spaciousness and being well off or having. If you have room and something of yours is roomy it’s large and to own large spaces means wealth. Rothenberg’s motivation may have been that looking forward and associating the roominess to heaven whereas Felstiner was focused on the Earthly condition.

September 1st 1939

This is my analysis and response to stanza seven of  "September 1, 1939."

From the conservative dark
Into dense commuters come,
Repeating their moaning view
I will be true to the wife
I’ll concentrate more on my work’,
And helpless governors wake
To resume their compulsory game:
Who can release them now,
Who can reach the deaf,
Who can speak for the dumb?

The seventh stanza of Auden’s poem takes on a philosophical tone that works to critique not just his life but more so the political injustices of the time period. In the first line he draws a mark between liberal and conservative, assuming political parties; then takes it a step further referring to the dark as conservative implying that conservative beliefs would be dark or unenlightened, unknowing. T second line beings into mention “ethical life” drawing implications back to the word dark and its meaning toward corruption in the political context and the morals and ethics that are neglected in political roles.

Crossing Crosses

Crossing Crosses

Warm sinshine brushes cross a cheek
leaves crunch and crackle – underfoot. Trees
surround and protect,

Chilled processed air is stagnant,
seas of gray tombstone chairs stare –
awaiting a sermon,

The clearing ahead, bullfrogs and crickets
practice their choir. Old wooden benches
lined face forward,

Specked dull blue carpet leads
to the stage, a low rise platform
void of color.

A small wooden fence to mark the end
of the hilltop, rocks and rushing water --
below. To the right, a cross-

The baptismal lays a drowning pool of insects
the back wall towering over, the overseer of the tombstones.
no adornments, save a cross,

Its splintering logs held together by rope and nail
no robe, no crown, no dignity
just wood – a symbol

With smooth dark stain finish
held tight by screws and steel
purple rich robe flowing

The hilltop cross and mountain top high-
Faith. The manufactured cross hung low
on the wall of a church-
a Formality—

What is Poetry?

Poetry is nothing more than words spread across a page. Poetry is the use of language in means of rhetoric and syntax to present an idea in a new creative or abstract manner. The literary style that is poetry is less about what is being said and more about how it is said, in other words a poem is a performance; because of this the interpretation of each poem becomes dependent on each member of the audience. 

A performance piece is hollow until the, in this instance, reader gives it breath. Each person to encounter a poem may have a different opinion of interpretation of its meaning. This is due to each individual’s point of reference, or experiences, cultural expectations and personal acceptance or beliefs of ideas presented in the poem or a combination of all of the above.

The idea of a poem as a performance piece stems past just the poem and reader situation; it goes back to before the reader to the poet and his thoughts. Until one understands the mindset and point of approach of the poet the reader is creating a new performance and not working from the base set forth by the poet. It often helps to change the titles of roles in a situation to divulge greater comprehension. So, the poet is the director, the poem the play and each reader is an actor cast in a new performance of the same production. One actor may view it as Broadway and another as Vaudeville, while both are different, neither is wrong nor right. That is the beauty and freedom of poetry: it is the act of participation in reading.

A strong example of the poet’s role in the process is found in “Who is a Poet” by Tadeusz Rosewicz. He uses an ironic approach to discuss who he is and that he is creating or presenting to the audience. There is no fluff or filler abut who it is behind the proverbial “smoke and screen.” Rosewicz makes a point to balance what a poet is as well as is not without ever giving a true answer. He makes a point to bring difference characteristics and personality’s traits as well as life experience to the poet to allow the audience to believe that the poet is someone who is relatable to themselves, creating another way for the poet to give direction to the “actor” without spelling it out.

In a general upshot, poetry is less about the expectations and implied requirements set forth by critiques and other interpreters. Instead it brings focus to the value of self-fulfillment and personal values placed on a text by an individual reader that allows connection or reliability. In other terms, poetry is not about others or even the poem but about what each “audience member” brings to and takes from the art.