The poems we read the last couple meetings have completely threw me into a state of confusion. I never enjoy poems much but reading the ones that we discussed made me not like them more at all. All of them had some form of death/life situation in them and a bunch of them talked about naughty topics.
We read one poem about a sheep boy. I really did not like that poem at all. It basically is a little story about how a sheep boy was born and was much more descriptive then I would have liked. I am pretty sure people would agree with me that it wasn't the best poem they have read.
Another poem we read was about a stewardess who fell out of an airplane. The whole format of this poem threw me into a loop. It just kept going and going and going. I agree it was an effective way to describe the person’s feelings while falling but it was just far too long. It felt more like a short story to me. The whole ending was a little odd as well with her stripping her clothes off mid-air to die more "naturally."
Monday, April 23, 2007
poems
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7 comments:
So I really like your perspective Roger about the poems. I especially liked your little input in class about the whole "beastiality" subject. I have to agree that Dickey's writing is quite different than any that i have read. I did enjoy his poem Falling. I think it had a unique twist although the odd forms of sexuality thrown in were a little weird. I did however enjoy the description in the poem. I have to admit when i first read it i didn't see as far into it as when we read it in class, so there was a lot i missed. Now for the sheep boy....yea this is just weird. It's an interesting topic to be written about as a poem i guess. I don't know i think i enjoyed fallen a little bit better.
I agree that poetry can be confusing, but after reading these poems I recognized that if I read them with an open mind I have an easier time understanding what is happening. I don’t understand all of them, and often read too far into what is happening, but I now understand a little better that many of these poems can be easily read if I read the descriptive words a little more closely, and try not to analyze the lines too deeply. When reading these poems for the first time I did not understand most of them, but when we went over them in class I felt as though I should have. It obviously varies with each poem, but I feel as though if I did not analyze the poems as much I would have had more success understanding exactly what was happening.
I agree that the topics or themes behind many of Dickey's poems were quite strange or dark. Several had to do with death which I am not really a big fan of reading a lot about. I especially agree with the poem about the stewardess. This was probably one of my least favorite poems because all I could think about while reading is that all this is happening and any secong shes going to hit the ground and be dead. I really hated the story and the theme bu tI have to say that if that is what you have to write about than Dickey did a good job, especially with the style he used. All the thoughts were from the woman's point of view. They are all choppy like her mind is moving faster than her brain can actually process.
You have a really interesting perspective. I really liked the fact that Dickey was not trying to hide anything. He was just putting all of these instincts and the cycle of life and death out there for everyone to read.
"Falling" was actually my favorite poem in this group. I think that it really gave me a feeling of falling to my death. If you think about it, I think that the length was really appropriate. If I was falling to my death, I would imagine that it would be a really long process. I think that when we are anticipating something, it takes forever. The girl is anticipating her death and she is trying to preoccupy herself with other things like flying instead of awaiting her fateful fall to her death.
Poems always confuse me too, and I really don't enjoy reading them because you usually have to try to make sense out of each line. But I have to say, I did enjoy the poems that we went over in class together because Dickey had a very interesting way of writing. I thought his poems were creative, but I do agree with you about the sheep boy poem being disturbing.
I have to say that my favorite poem was Falling. After reading the blurb that supposedly inspired Dickey I was interested as well. I would be wondering what thoughts were going through a persons mind as they're falling to a death they have no control over. Maybe realisticly a person would die immediately after going into the high altitude or whatever, but it's still an interesting topic. I don't agree with the perspective of not liking to read about death. Death is a part of life, it's what is going to happen to all of us eventually, some sooner then others. While I wouldn't want to sit around day after day talking about dying, one or two poems isn't really a big deal.
I had a sneaking suspicion that you would comment on SheepChild. In class you didn't seem to enjoy that poem whatsoever. It was an interesting poem to say the least. It's a story within another story. It's interesting the thoughts that go through the boys heads. All of us at one point or another have made up stories, but I'm sure it wasn't anything like this one.
I think children often make up stories to fantasize about their lives or to explain something in simpler terms. But this poem goes a little too far. I understand how hormones rage at that age (for both girls and boys) but to have such a thought is beyond me. What's even more odd to me is what made Dickey think of this whole idea. Since he grew up in a suburban town, he probably didn't have the chance to experience a farm life. Perhaps this poem exemplifies how he perceived "rednecks."
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