Forache & Hamill v. my poem

Image retrieved from inside.nikebasketball.com

The aspects of Forache that I could relate to with my poem were the political and personal poetry of witnesses. Forache said that the political poetry of witness focuses on “public partisanship that is considered divisive” and personal with “love and emotional loss.” (Forache “Witness”). My poem seemed to be a mix of both the political and personal because there was some sort of a connection between the woman and the witness, because she knew her background. However, it could also be political because of the witness devising a plan to show the woman’s background and give her a choice.
Sam Hamill does a great job seeing the victims and not the witnesses. He has helped teach men and women in prisons among other places. He says that witnesses, “can’t bear much reality” (Hamill “Necessity”) therefore they just stay frozen to the spot when they see events. This is very relative to my poem, because the witness and the people below just stood and watched, or cheered the woman to jump off. This also relates to my poem because he says that “writing creates emotion in the audience, the writer’s responsibility is enormous” (Hamill “Necessity”). This helps prove my thesis because of the poetry of witnesses have a purpose in their writing.
Sam views poetry from the point of the pain that the person goes through from the poet side. Forache viewed it from the witness side. However, they are alike because they sympathize with the writers in poetry.
I agree with the parts about how poetry of witnesses can be trying to accomplish different things with being a personal or political witness. However, I disagree with how they can’t be both. I could see how the political witness could still be connected to the event or the person involved. The witness could just be taking a political standpoint. I agree with Hamill about people can not bear much reality. That is why watching the news is about as much as people can handle of war or natural disasters.
To learn more about Sam Hamill's life, try this website: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/733

Blog Post #3

While reading the poems for this blog assignment, the only title that caught my attention was “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window,” because it is intriguing. While reading this poem, I really enjoyed how it is telling a story, without many phrases that are up to interpretation. However, the line, “They could be a halo, or a storm of glass waiting to crush her” (Harjo, “Woman”) is very interesting because of the word “halo.” The word halo gives off a meaning of an angel or holy, but it is used in the sense to “crush” her, which seems like an oxy moron. As the poem goes along, the speaker in the poem is listing all of the people that care about the woman, almost trying to talk her out of her predicament. The speaker also talks about the woman’s past, and how far she has come from “ate wild rice on scraped down plates in warm wood rooms” (Harjo, “Woman”). The part of the poem I really like is the ending. “She thinks she remembers listening to her own life break loose, as she falls from the 13th floor window on the east side of Chicago, or as she climbs back up to claim herself again” (Harjo, “Woman”). This reveals that she has not jumped yet, but is deciding her fate. She is probably standing out of the window, as people watch her from below. The ending is left mysterious, because we will never know if she jumped or not. However, because the poem says the woman is “hanging,” perhaps she did jump.
The other poem that I registered emotion with is the war poem, “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting.” The reason I liked this poem is because I am beginning to read our assigned book, The Things They Carried. In the story, one of the soldiers is really in love with a woman that is far away, while he is in Vietnam. In this poem, a soldier, during a break in the fighting, quickly writes to a loved one. Even though the language is difficult to interpret, the reader can sense the pain that the soldier is going through. “I tell her in a letter that will stink, when she opens it” (Powers, “Letter”). I interpret this as him wishing that he could send a clean note to her, but he is stuck in the war, without any means of cleanliness. This must irritate him, because he says “I tell her I love her like not killing,” (Powers, “Letter”) therefore he would much rather be home with her than killing people.

Retrieved from: www.arminsaysno.us

For help with interpreting poetry, view
http://www.webster.edu/~armbruka/engl1030/handouts/interpretpoem.htm

Summary v. Analysis!

Vladimir Nabokov was a Russian-born American novelist and critic. His document, Good Readers and Good Writers highlighted a few very important points about readers. “Notice and fondle details” (Nabokov 613). Those words, written by Vladimir Nabokov in Good Readers and Good Writers, is an important point. Noticing details is needed in reading because little details become metaphors or symbols for the entire novel. A good reader will catch on to those and will dive deeper into the symbolism of the novel, and not just the superficial meaning. Another quality that Nabokov views good readers should have is an “impersonal imagination and artistic delight” (Nabokov 616). Nabokov calls these authentic instruments, in which there is a balance between the reader’s mind and the author’s.
The last interesting point that Nabokov makes is this quote: “Study the new world as closely as possible, approaching it as something brand new, having no connections with the worlds we already know” (Nabokov 613). This quote means the world is a metaphor for the new book a reader is approaching, and they should focus only on its meanings. Once they fully understand it, a reader can compare it to other avenues of literature.
I agree with Nabokov’s statements because he was a very accomplished novelist and when I read, I do attempt to seek out details and fully understand the book I am reading. I believe the characteristic of a good reader is someone who can pay attention to the novel and not get easily distracted. However, the author’s goal should be to create a book that is enrapturing and exciting to read. I am a good reader, however I sometimes do not catch on to the metaphors or little details as much as I probably could; however I enjoy an exciting action novel.

If interested about the background of Vladimir Nabokov, this site could prove helpful: http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nabokov.htm

Works Cited:
Nabokov,Vladimir. “Good Readers and Good Writers.” The Norton Reader An Anthology of Nonfiction. Ed.Linda H. Peterson, John C. Brereton. Shorter 11th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company. 613-617. Print.

YouTube Video