- Jan 2, 2006
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I have to write a poem for English. I hate the class. For Reference
Here's what we have to do:
Write a poem following one of the three following topic guidelines, make 26 copies of it, bring it to class for commentary/interpretations/workshopping, and then revise it. The final assignment consists of the original poem, the revised version, and a 1-2 page writer's memo describing the premise of your poem, its purpose and aesthetic, what you found helpful during class workshop, and how you chose to revise it.
The topic that I chose:
3. The Ideal State. Examples include James Dickey's imagined heaven for animals and Anne Sexton's series of "advice for a special person". Picture an emotionally ideal state of being in a certain situation or for a certain person (or non-person) and encapsulate it in a poem.
This is probably what I'm going to turn in:
**********************
How Smucker?s© Makes Their Strawberry Jams
Floatingks in thee candy smell of the patch,
I ams hunting strawberries?
Hoppity hoppity hoppity POUNCE!
I?m sorry Sir Berry, but you shall pereeeeshe,
under all two of my fearful buck teeths.
Such is thee fate of the tasty.
Hoppity hoppity hoppity POUNCE!
My my, Ms. Berry, you?re the size of my head.
No baby, you don?t look fat.
Give me a smoochie smoochie! Ahhh?
I ams exactly where I wants to be darling. With you,
my deeleecious seedy lump of happy happies.
Yes baby. Oh, notsofastbaby. Let?s take it slow.
You are my peach and I am your James.
Mmm? you were great baby.
Perhaps we shall meet again in another life,
when we are both people.
Warp pounce! Engage!
I ams Captain of the starship U. S. S.
Strawberry-prise, my mission, to eat tasty
new worlds, to seek out new foods and new civili-
burp
To go where no? where no?
Oh My God I have eaten too moishe
strawberries. Strawberries haf takens me
over...
burp
From my tippity tip
pawsies to my tippity tip earsies I?s
have become strawberry-fied.
But I needs my fix! Give me more!
No, wait, no or I shall esplode,
into a sweet but sad but happy pile of strawberry jam.
********************
Poem Version Beta:
OMG I have eaten too moishe
strawberries. Strawberries takens me
over ahhhh burp. From my tippity tip
pawsies to my tippity tip earsies I?s
have become strawberry-fied. I ams
Captain of the starship U. S. S. Strawberry-prise,
to explore tasty new worlds,
to seek out new lifes and new civiliza ? burp,
to go where no OMG STRAWBERRIES!!!
****************
UPDATE
Basically it was a workshop kind of thing. I had to bring in 26 copies of the poem for the class, read the poem, and then just sit there in silence as others dissect it or comment on it. There were three people that day, and I went last.
The first one was a poem about the author leaving her parents for the first time when she went to college. Her structure was basically:
Do you remember when [time of anxiety]?
Do you remember when [time of anxiety]?
[repeat]
.
.
I do.
[Describes when she left for college]
The second one was about sex. I'd seen this style WAY too many times, so I just sat there as everyone SOMEHOW came up with the idea that it was about rowing. The structure was basically something like this:
Faster
Slower
Blood
Tears
Sweat
Pleasure
End
By this time the class was almost dead. Then it came to mine. I had my teacher read it aloud
Normally after the reading we go through a structured list of questions eg. What was the poet trying to convey, how did the poet go about doing this? And then a free for all.
Well, mine went straight to the free for all. About 50% of the people thought my poem was about sex, which is understandable. My teacher was just shocked because it wasn't just left field. It was like swinging and then having the baseball turn into Mr. Roger taking off his shoes in The Neighborhood. Most of the people didn't get the Star Trek reference, but almost all got the James and the Giant Peach one, and with a collective "Ohhhhhhhhh!!!!" to boot.
All in all, it was good. My philosophy is that my writing, which needed to be shared to a bored and suffering English 112 class, should break the boredom and offer something different in a different style. So whatever.
******************
Here's what we have to do:
Write a poem following one of the three following topic guidelines, make 26 copies of it, bring it to class for commentary/interpretations/workshopping, and then revise it. The final assignment consists of the original poem, the revised version, and a 1-2 page writer's memo describing the premise of your poem, its purpose and aesthetic, what you found helpful during class workshop, and how you chose to revise it.
The topic that I chose:
3. The Ideal State. Examples include James Dickey's imagined heaven for animals and Anne Sexton's series of "advice for a special person". Picture an emotionally ideal state of being in a certain situation or for a certain person (or non-person) and encapsulate it in a poem.
This is probably what I'm going to turn in:
**********************
How Smucker?s© Makes Their Strawberry Jams
Floatingks in thee candy smell of the patch,
I ams hunting strawberries?
Hoppity hoppity hoppity POUNCE!
I?m sorry Sir Berry, but you shall pereeeeshe,
under all two of my fearful buck teeths.
Such is thee fate of the tasty.
Hoppity hoppity hoppity POUNCE!
My my, Ms. Berry, you?re the size of my head.
No baby, you don?t look fat.
Give me a smoochie smoochie! Ahhh?
I ams exactly where I wants to be darling. With you,
my deeleecious seedy lump of happy happies.
Yes baby. Oh, notsofastbaby. Let?s take it slow.
You are my peach and I am your James.
Mmm? you were great baby.
Perhaps we shall meet again in another life,
when we are both people.
Warp pounce! Engage!
I ams Captain of the starship U. S. S.
Strawberry-prise, my mission, to eat tasty
new worlds, to seek out new foods and new civili-
burp
To go where no? where no?
Oh My God I have eaten too moishe
strawberries. Strawberries haf takens me
over...
burp
From my tippity tip
pawsies to my tippity tip earsies I?s
have become strawberry-fied.
But I needs my fix! Give me more!
No, wait, no or I shall esplode,
into a sweet but sad but happy pile of strawberry jam.
********************
Poem Version Beta:
OMG I have eaten too moishe
strawberries. Strawberries takens me
over ahhhh burp. From my tippity tip
pawsies to my tippity tip earsies I?s
have become strawberry-fied. I ams
Captain of the starship U. S. S. Strawberry-prise,
to explore tasty new worlds,
to seek out new lifes and new civiliza ? burp,
to go where no OMG STRAWBERRIES!!!
****************
UPDATE
Basically it was a workshop kind of thing. I had to bring in 26 copies of the poem for the class, read the poem, and then just sit there in silence as others dissect it or comment on it. There were three people that day, and I went last.
The first one was a poem about the author leaving her parents for the first time when she went to college. Her structure was basically:
Do you remember when [time of anxiety]?
Do you remember when [time of anxiety]?
[repeat]
.
.
I do.
[Describes when she left for college]
The second one was about sex. I'd seen this style WAY too many times, so I just sat there as everyone SOMEHOW came up with the idea that it was about rowing. The structure was basically something like this:
Faster
Slower
Blood
Tears
Sweat
Pleasure
End
By this time the class was almost dead. Then it came to mine. I had my teacher read it aloud
Normally after the reading we go through a structured list of questions eg. What was the poet trying to convey, how did the poet go about doing this? And then a free for all.
Well, mine went straight to the free for all. About 50% of the people thought my poem was about sex, which is understandable. My teacher was just shocked because it wasn't just left field. It was like swinging and then having the baseball turn into Mr. Roger taking off his shoes in The Neighborhood. Most of the people didn't get the Star Trek reference, but almost all got the James and the Giant Peach one, and with a collective "Ohhhhhhhhh!!!!" to boot.
All in all, it was good. My philosophy is that my writing, which needed to be shared to a bored and suffering English 112 class, should break the boredom and offer something different in a different style. So whatever.
******************
