Friday, May 15, 2009

Nature Walk, Nature Poems, & Homework

Please enjoy our nature walk today.

From this exercise, it is hopeful that you create a few nature poems (or confessional/political poems, or love poems, or poem-poems). Whenever you get antsy, go take a walk in nature. You will find your mind clearing and the urge to create rising from an uncluttered, unworried mind.

And now the stress:

Homework: please read the packet on Robert Frost. Select one poem from the collection and analyze it. Answer the question posed to you on the handout. Turn in Tuesday, May 19. Come to class with the work done, as we will be on to something else.

Also, please read T.S. Eliot's Old Possum Book of Cats. Nature doesn't always have to be outside in the rain or snow looking at flowers. Nature poetry includes observing animals or natural beings in our artificial human environments. Usually there is conflict here, but not always. Animals make us human, and aware of our place in nature. It's good to enjoy their company. Enjoy the collection.

As you read Eliot, recall the musical Cats, if you can, and also count those syllables. Notice how meter and rhyme give these poems a sing-song quality. Meter and rhyme is difficult to do well in poetry (hence our advice about avoiding it), but can be a lot of fun, too. As you read, pay attention to craft elements and literary devices utilized by Eliot. Yes, you can write your own ode to an animal poem in a similar style, if you'd like.

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About this course!

This course stresses understanding the characteristics & techniques in the literary genres of fiction, poetry, and dramatic writing. This course will continue to build on students’ reading and writing skills begun in previous creative writing classes. Readings and discussions of works by major writers in the field will be examined as inspiration and models of fine writing. This educational blog is designed for the use of the students at the School of the Arts in Rochester, NY.