The Magic of Cinema in the Classroom

One of the best things about the digital age is that films may be accessed easily by a classroom. Our last two classes required us to present group projects using film as not only in analysis, and work cited, but also as presentational material to promote class discussion. After years of sharing ideas with other students in the form of verbal book reports, I can tell you that nothing brings a deeper, all inclusive conversation in a class like film. The doors open; visual, auditory, psychological, political, aesthetic, religious and mythological analysis all were revealed instantly, and I believe create a classroom environment rich in connections between all these subjects. When I grew up in the 80s, education like this was not as fluid. Ideas were categorized, separated and more black and white. Today, with technology and film analysis brought into the classroom, we are not only exposed to the content and form, but may also explore how the film became available to us in the first place, and how this affects the world around us. Using films in the classroom gives information, stimulation and teaches us practical presentation skills we can build when we tackle the real world.

Film and Engaging Cinema

Why are so many people fascinated with film? This is what the book Engaging Cinema by Bill Nichols tries to answer. In the chapter "Storytelling and Narrative Fiction Film" we can see how telling a story not just is about beginning, middle and end. Perspective, subliminal messages, manipulating emotions and creating open ending questions for the audience to answer are just some areas this book tackles. In the film Forrest Gump,  the protagonist represents the archetype of the innocent. This is unusual in storytelling because the main character is usually the everyman, but in this film, Forret is an outcast, due to his lower than average I.Q. This film however, does take advantage of the narration aspect, keeping him as a bystander, with life events, history and time passing him. The analysis done on this film during class covered key narrative elements, plot, style and interpretation. But there is so much more to this film on a deeper level. I plan to explore the topics of history, mythology and political influence on this film in our next class. Note: Group work by those presenting this film was enlightening!

POETRY SLAM

Poetry is meant to be read out-loud. At least this is what I discovered during our class last week. As each student read their poem, ideas, opinions and emotions lifted off the page and transcended written word. I never realized how powerful free form poetry can be. Students actually got teary-eyed, angry and heartfelt in their recitations. It was also wonderful to hear so many different style of poetry. Some used elevated vocabulary, some vulgar, some verbose and others trite. Yet, none of it came out of ego. It came out of each writers' soul. It was if we could listen to their heart talking. I believe such openness and vulnerability brought us together as a class. We bonded because all of the experiences that were written about , no matter how personal or unique, were universal to us in emotion. We are all connected as humans. Reading poetry aloud, likes us to our common core: humanity. 

What is a Poem?

I have never been into poetry, not because I do not like it as a form. I was just never introduced to it well in my youth. But today I cannot believe this form was not explored more in my high school classes. There are so many ways a poem can be looked it is the perfect vehicle to understand so many aspects of writing. In class we were asked to write our own poems, which were judged on form only. Not content. I think this is one of the most important aspects about poetry. You cannot judge what a person deems important to write about. You can only look at meter, metaphors, similes, rhyme etc. Is the poem too literal, as Diane Keaton's poetry reading in Sleeper illustrates. Or is it too childlike, simplistic, without deeper thought. I have grown a deeper appreciation for poems, since I have studied several in class. It has caused me to slow down in my reading with them and focus on why the poet might choose that word, as well as take in the whole poem as a whole to find the overall message. Either way, poem are worth investigating. I have found writing  poetry yourself, demands several things. A knowledge of topic, having something to say, being open, vulnerable and brave to say your thoughts, and a creative mind to invent, compare and contrast ones thoughts to make them universally embraced, yet uniquely told. A good vocabulary doesn't hurt either ;)

Poems

September 25, 2016

My Love

Old now, to some people

Not great to look at,

But if you saw my journey 

you’d see my beauty.

I’ve held many kids

Carried the load when no one else could.

Made friends feel safe and secure.

Let animals lick me.

Didn’t mind getting dirty.

Had fun times, did some racy things

But never hurt anyone.

Sure, I had my ups and downs

Broke down every once in a while,

But I kept things moving, even when others stopped.

I may not be in great shape now,

You may not want to show me off.

But I’m here for you

Till the day I die.

Sincerely,

2004 Honda Odyssey.

My Gift

Text. Meet me at Hugos.

Rub my feet, hugs and smiles.

Americana, Trader Joes dark chocolate,

Tears and laughing tears.

Bass serenades, Colburn, Tanglewood,

Green juice, driving to school.

UCLA, exercise, dorm,

ComedySportz, Barely Legal, After Dark.

Mahler, Bach, practice,

Staircase, Mondos, surfing,

and a bright vintage grapefruit shirt.

Violet Hair, movie making.

Clean room, messy room,

Kind to animals, Family hug,

Talk, talk, talk, stream of consciousness.

My children are my gift.

Why Poetry is an Indispensable form of Literature to Study

At first glance, a poem may be seen as a melodramatic, narcissistic, disjointed, pretentious piece that is just plain boring to study. Yet, the most amazing thing occurs when you start to analyze it. Each poem actually becomes a life force to be reckoned with! Last week I learned that Poetry really is the perfect tool to learn  history, language, ethics, logos, ethos, perspective, humanity and creativity. As an educator their is no better gift than to pass on this information to students, so I find poetry to be an indispensable tool to use as educators. Here's why:.
Students learn about history through the time it is written, what current events were going on during the time and the authors history.
Students learn about the importance of language by word choice, order of words, repetition, rhymes and combination of words.
Students learn the ethical values of the time based on what is written, the logic that is being used to form the poem, in addition the logic that was thought during the creation of the poem: essentially how one thinks, and the emotion that can be expressed in passion, message through content and form.
Students learn how to examine a poem from different perspectives. Can it be misunderstood? Is it bias or insulting? Does it focus form the perspective of many or few. And can we as students still read it without judgment or resistance?
Students learn poetry teaches humanity. That we are all human and share similar emotions, experiences and thoughts that we can relate to and bond us.
Finally, students can learn to be creative in their own expression. Free to create without judgment. Free to express deep emotion, without fear.
This to me is the greatest gift of all, and this is why we need to keep teaching poetry in school.

Game of Poetry

Diane DeLaurentis

Professor Wexler

September 16, 2016

ENG ESM423

Game of Poetry

According to Linda Gregerson of The Atlantic online, sonnets follow a certain structure, “…(fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, a fixed rhyme scheme) and, of equal importance, a set of thematic and rhetorical conventions” (Anthology).

While sonnets are usually structured in this way, by examining form through word choices, rhyme and meter, we can see how playwright, William Shakespeare manipulates and enhances the meaning of his love sonnet, Sonnet CXVI, to show that love is a fickle and an unpredictable game.

One way, Shakespeare uses form to illustrate the love as a game, is through the double meaning of words and word repetition, such as in the line, “Love is not love/ Which alters when it alteration finds,” (2-3). Using the word “love” twice in one sentence causes the reader to repeat the subject of the poem, which in terms of expressing love is a bold feeling to admit. Readers then experience the bravery of their claim by the sheer utterance of the word. By doing so, Shakespeare gets the chance to play with his reader’s emotion. Repeating these words also demands the reader to think twice, as in the phrase “Or bends with the remover to remove:” (4).  “This mirroring of words is suggestive of a loving couple” (BBC), yet because this reads as a whole as a contradictory statement. Shakespeare appears to be playing a trick on the reader revealing the mischief of love, which backs the poems meaning that “[t]he story was of love—love unrequited, love requited but unfulfilled, love so fleeting fulfilled as merely to make suffering keener, love thwarted by the beloved’s absence, or aloofness, or prior possession of another. Impediment was as central to the sonnet as was love” (Auditory). By manipulating the words themselves, Shakespeare proves that the form of a love poem can be as teasing as a game.

Another way Shakespeare parallels the experience of love with poetic form is by manipulating his rhythm and meter.

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark.

Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. (5-8)

Shakespeare plays with rhyme and meter, by surprising the reader with an extra beat in the sixth and eighth measure of each stanza. The reader is now forced to rush the words shaken and taken if they are to fit into the rhythm and meter of the poem, thus illustrating a playful surprise in form. The off rhythm of reading the sonnet then, reflects the unstable nature of experiencing love. Shakespeare also shows fickleness in love by using words that parallel nature’s ever-changing pattern.

Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle’s compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom. (9-12)

Love, being seen as a natural experience is associated with nature, and in nature things bloom and die. Just like the seasons love blooms and then fades. Shakespeare chooses words to express the imagery of nature and then expresses how fickle love is. Words like “rosy” to express the bloom of love, and the use of “sickle”, as used by the grim reaper, as a symbol of death. In addition, Shakespeare uses the couplet, “If this be error and upon me proved, / I never writ, nor no man ever loved.” (13-14), at the end of his sonnet to express the idea that love is fickle. The readers’ natural rhythm of A/B/A/B schema is broken abruptly by E/E. Although, this is the conventional structure for sonnets during this time, it is still jarring in the readers’ experience of reading the poem. It is as if the poet anticipated the comfortable rhythm of its audience and purposely tried to shake things up a bit at the end. In addition, couplets are usually indented to the right, away from the rest of the poems position. It’s as if to say in layout form, love is not fixed. You can’t hold or tie down love.

William Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXVI is a wonderful example of how form lifts content. His sonnets are playful, teasing, tricking, testing and unpredictable and by reading the poetry one can experience what it feels like to be playing the game of love.

Work Cited

Anthology, Audible, and Linda Gregerson. "William Shakespeare. Sonnet 116." The

            Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 12 Sept. 2016. Web. 20 Sept. 2016.

"English Literature William Shakespeare: Sonnet 116." BBC-GCSE Bitesize: Structure

            and Language. Bbc.co.uk, n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2016.

Smith, Philip. 100 Best-loved Poems. Dover Thrift Editions ed. NewYork: Dover, 1995.

            Print.