Project #37: Poetry

Project:#37 Poetry

l(a

le
af
fa
ll
s)

one
l
iness

Explain how the above poem is a metaphor.

Now read the next one.

| { , , SYSTEM HALTED

Try this translation: (other translations exist: instead of "star," "splat" is used)

Waka waka bang star tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang star equal at dollar under-score,
Percent star waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Pipes curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

The above poem appeared in the May/June 1990 issue of Infocus Magazine and has since been floating around the net. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
A poll conducted among Infocus readers had established "waka" as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies." (source unknown)

I've been using this poem since I started CyberEnglish in 1993,
The WayBack machine has it as of May 07, 1998 on my page.

Codes to write your own.
More Computer inspired poetry

Essay on Nonsense
Further nonsense from Lewis Carroll and examples of portmanteau words.
EXERCISES

Lewis Carroll Home Page

Why do we read and write poetry? Let's find out!

Compare and Contrast Exercises

muchly inspired by peggy smith and ncte-talkers

Road Not Taken by Robert Frost with To be, or not to be: that is the question Hamlet.
What Shall He Tell That Son? by Carl Sandburg with Mother To Son by Langston Hughes
C&C Shakespeare's Sonnet I with Donne's The Flea
Dover Beach Matthew Arnold & Dover Bitch by Anthony Hecht
My Papa's Waltz by Theodore Roethke with Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead by Andrew Hudgins
Dirge Without Music by Edna St. Vincent Millay with Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
Choices by Nikki Giovanni with The Waking by Theodore Roethke
The Victims by Sharon Olds with Mrs. Charles Bliss by Edgar Lee Masters
Hangman and a quote from Niemoller.
Feed and poems.
Sonnets: "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..." & Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Richard Cory
Sonnet 1 Wm Shakespeare
Write your own Sonnet
In Silence by Thomas Merton

Poetry Opinion essay

You will now give your impression of poetry. What is it? Why do we write it? read it? What is the power of poetry? Use the pair you chose from above with l(a, and <>!*"#(waka waka bang star tick tick hash) to illustrate your point. Be sure to also include a few quotes from secondary resources about poetry to support your own ideas. Conclude with a poem of your own which reflects your thinking.

HOW TO EXPLICATE A POEM

Hypertext Eliot & some Chaucer

Prufrock:
Take a look at this poem by TS Eliot, Prufrock and see how it is illustrated. Select a poem, yours or someone else's, to illustrate in a similar manner.
Wasteland

Canterbury Tales ELF

Passion of Pieces

Passion in Pieces Modern film renditions of sonnets: 15, 138, 29, 145, 94

Class Project:
Kinds of poetry. Poetry is a universal language. You will be delving into the characteristics of poetry. The following links below will get you started. You will be creating a Poetry Web which defines these types of poetry listed below (and goes beyond what is already stated in links below) and you will provide examples from the masters and of your own. Perhaps a place to start might be the dictionary.

Introduction
Verse Forms
Ballad
Dramatic Poem
Lyric
Epigram
Sonnet