discussion-3

Running Head: POETRY WRITING ANALYSIS 1

POETRY WRITING ANALYSIS 7

Poetry Writing Analysis

Nikhil Vasani

D40312400

LTRE-421-21313, Studies in Literature

Professor James Hartman

DeVry University

February 7, 2015

Poetry Writing Analysis

This poem I choose from textbook:

Harlem [2]

LANGSTON HUGHES

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore—

And then run?     5

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over—

Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

Like a heavy load.     10

Or does it explode?

My poem I imitate

Life’s Race

Life is a rat race

Everyone wants to ace

Pressure so much there is no breathing space

Some people end up looking for a hiding place,

While others work their way to first base

Thinking little of the worst case

Those are the ones gifted with grace.

I push for my American dream

Put aside the grim

And do whatever it takes

To win this rate race.

1. My selected poem is varying from the poem which is imitated by me. Langston Hughes talks about the possible outcomes of procrastination of one’s dreams while my poem essentially the difference among people’s ways of striving towards their life’s goals. Hughes is asking the reader what happens to dreams when they are deferred and not acted upon immediately. ‘Do they dry up, fester like a sore, stink like rotten meat or sag like a heavy load?” The poet basically tries to show the potential side effects and negative outcomes of putting aside dreams for the unknown and undetermined future. ‘Life’s Race’ is however a poem about the struggle of life and how people take different paths towards their pursuit of life’s splendor. The imitate poem that I wrote does not simply show the procrastination of dreams but the underlying perception of individuals in regards to the efforts put towards their dreams. This therefore means that the imitate poem may be construed to imply that people tend to be the designers of their own success or failure in respective ventures while the imitated poem’s deeper meaning is the consequential outcome of not reaching for one’s dreams at the moment.

2. The primary poem does not have any relationship to historical context. Based on a personal understanding of the Hughes’ work in the ‘Harlem’ poem, the content is basically posed in a rather generalized form without any specific historical inclination. As a matter of fact, it may be inferred that the key topic of the poem is one that has been of relevance and existence since time immemorial. Dreams are intrinsically linked with mankind; where people from all races, generations and geological locations have dared to dream. But what happens when dreams are deferred? This is a question that would have been asked two centuries ago or two days ago and still evoke a similar response. This element of dreams’ existence since time immemorial therefore makes it a bit hard to pinpoint a particular historical context to which the poem’s theme relates. Again, the lack of a singled out historical context of the poem’s theme is due to the universality and consistency of dreams and their deferment. People from the 20th century have dreams which they defer just the same way that people in the 12th century had dreams that they deferred. The consequence however, may differ with each different dream.

3. My imitate poem on the other hand has a rather direct historical implication. Life for a long time had been lived in a relatively harmonious manner with man having a collective way of striving towards different ideas. In the recent past however, things took a turn of events and the communal perspective of life’s ventures was set aside. My poem depicts the current state of life due to the constant pressure to push for the pleasures and goals of life that the society has come to depict as being important. The larger historical attribute that this poem may be linked to, is that of life’s change from a society’s collective approach to the advent of individualism among the people. The part ‘I push for my American dream,’ can relate to the 1930s when the idea of the American dream was deeply entrenched in the minds of most-if not all, the American people alongside their immigrant counterparts. The poem depicts how spirit of individualism propels much of man’s undertakings in the society today. Long gone are the days when communities would strive towards a common goal, or have share whatever they had equally among themselves. Today’s life race demands that each man fight for himself and do whatever it takes to win this rat race that life has become.

4. Indeed the reader plays a vital in the conception and creation of the poem’s meaning. The reader essentially plays a standardization role; where he or she contributes in the determination of just how well the poem’s message could be depicted. This is however a role that is not openly and directly played, but rather through the consideration that a writer has to give to the potential writer. In my case, it was imperative that I consider whether the poem was constructed in a manner that any reader would start reading and quickly get the gist of its theme. The choice of words and general complexity of the poem is also factored in such standardization as determined by the readers by de factor. I have to compose the poem with proper knowledge of the readers’ intellectual capacity and ability to decipher the meaning of the message in the poem. The chosen words should enable the reader to understand what they imply while the poem itself should be able to understand by readers of any educational capacity.

5. While William Wordsworth holds that all good poetry is due to a poet’s spontaneous overflow of feelings and emotions, T.S Eliot believes that emotions are gravely misplaced as the guiding factor in poetry composition. . To Wordsworth, purpose forms the core of any created poem even though such a purpose may not have been present at the onset of a particular poem’s creation. The scholar held that “all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;” adding that such poems that could be regarded as highly valuable were produced by men who had thought long and hard about them; having been possessed with more than the usual sensibility. Wordsworth points out that the reasons for humble and rustic life being the generally chosen topics of poetic literature were in relation to the conditions’ suitability to better soil the heart’s passion so as to attain maturity. This is because a poet’s feelings in such conditions coexist in a state of better simplicity, more forcibly communicated and accurately contemplated.

According to Eliot however, there lies a distinction between a mature and immature writer, where the former is the kind who can properly decipher what to and what not to incorporate in his work. This difference in maturity is not exactly in regards to a poet’s age and years in the field, but capacity to strike a balance between the vital determinant variables in any single work of poetry. This is to mean that the mature poets are those who are able to factor in the right issues when creating their poems, such that they are not overly inspired by emotions in their poetic creation, but the emotions of the actual topic being wrote about.

Reference

Eliot. T.S. (1921).Tradition and the Individual Talent.Retrieved on 7th Feb 2015 from http://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html

Wordsworth. W. (1909).Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Retrieved on 7th Feb from http://www.bartleby.com/39/36.html