Poetry

I am almost 100% the person who gets shivers down their back at the thought of reading poetry, to be honest I'm not really sure why as i love reading and have a wide range of interest's in the type of literature i do read. Since i was young and was given poetry to read in school i always had the tendency to lose patients with it, looking for the hidden meanings, am i interrupting this as the author intended? Why am i not getting this?
I think what has always bothered me the most is the vagueness to it all, why not just say what you mean ? I know, i know that's not the point and i am going to try my hardest this week to focus on these poems and hopefully with the help of all you guys the concept may finally click in this head of mine.
My daughters are big fans of Shel Silverstein, i used to read the poems to them when they were small and they giggled at most of them, i find it amazing that he can connect so well to children through his poems maybe because kids have no preconceived notations on poetry at that age.One poem i do "get" so to speak and i am sure it is just because this is an area of interest i will be studying is a poem by Emily Dickinson called "One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted", i have posted it below but this deals with the hidden fascination that everyone has about the socially unacceptable(murder & death), in our minds we have all contemplated and imagined the unimaginable, but in this poem Dickinson is able to express in words what most people could never say out load.

 "One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted"

One need not be a Chamber-to be Haunted-
One need not be a House-
The Brain has Corridors-surpassing
Material Place-Far safer, of a Midnight Meeting
External Ghost
Than its interior Confronting-
That Cooler Host.Far safer, through an Abbey gallop,
The Stones a'chase-
Than Unarmed, one's a'self encounter-
In lonesome Place-Ourself behind ourself, concealed-
Should startle most-
Assassin hid in our Apartment
Be Horror's least.The Body-borrows a Revolver-
He bolts the Door-
O'erlooking a superior spectre-
Or More-



But here is my daughters favorite poem by Shel Silverstein, after reading this may be you will understand why they giggle all the time at them :)

Standing Is Stupid by Shel Silverstein
Standing is stupid,
Crawling's a curse,
Skipping is silly,
Walking is worse.
Hopping is hopeless,
Jumping's a chore,
Sitting is senseless,
Leaning's a bore.
Running's ridiculous,
Jogging's insane-
Guess I'll go upstairs and
Lie down again.

Here's a link to more of his poems, great fun if you have kids or are a big kid at heart

.shelsilverstein poems

Nabokov, "Good Readers and Good Writers

I found Nabokov’s opinion on what makes a good reader to be fairly accurate, one of the more important points  raised is that generalization is just that and should be appreciated in context with what the author is trying to portray in their writing. I agree reading with an open mind and not a pre-conceived notion of what to expect, just judge, reflect and take from it what you will after reading the work in its entirety. A good writer like Nabokov describes is someone who can deceive and mesmerize you with their storytelling, and the ability they have to draw you into the story has always amazed me.

                A novel is just that, a story; you should not take what you read as “gospel”, just appreciate the way it was wrote and how wonderfully descriptive the author may have been, so you can then yourself imagine and fantasize what it would be like if what the author was describing was the case in real life.  One aspect Nabokov brought up when discussing what a reader should be to be a good reader in which I did not agree with was that novels that are made into movies; his students had suggested that a good reader should see the movie of the novel read, in my opinion very rarely are the movies as good as the book, the story and characters seem to lose something in translation and I don’t seem to embrace the story as I do when I read it. I find myself thinking while watching the movie “that’s not what I pictured they looked like” or “I pictured the scenery different”. The movie is someone else’s interpretation of the story not yours and can and always seems to be in my case a disappointment.

                I do consider myself a good reader and enjoy a story that can give me a release from reality and can keep be thinking long after I have finished the book. I try to read many styles of writing, I enjoy some more than others, epically crime novels I find myself guessing along with the characters as to “who did it?”, but one novel I found always has been debating to myself and questioning reality after reading is “The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell, this borders on science fiction but raises so many questions about religion, morality and the unknown which are relevant in reality. I have attached a link below to a review of the novel for you to check out, enjoy.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

Hello -- my video for Eng 102

Paris & Charli

Hi Eng 102, after much confusion on my part alone, i got this blogger concept under control i think lol

Here's my welcome video enjoy or laugh, either or.

The pic above is of my girls.
Sarah