Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Poetry That Grabs Your Attention
I agree with you that poetry, by virtue of its compressed form, needs to grab the reader's attention immediately in the way that prose does not. While readers of a novel might be willing to read a book for thirty or so pages if they are assured that the action will eventually 'pick up,' a poem needs to use intense images and arresting language from the first line onward. Every word must be special, and perhaps this is even truer of poems like Dorianne Laux's poem "The Laundromat" which is about an apparently mundane subject. I agree with you that the Laux poem brings out the apparently animalistic, tumultuous side of this ordinary environment, and as a result of reading the poem, I will never look at the Laundromat in the same way.
I also agree with you that what is so wonderful about this poem is that it takes aspects of life that the reader can identify with, such as 'checking people out' in a public space like the Laundromat and makes them the subject of great poetry. Modern poetry does not have to be about epic subjects such as fights between the gods and great men and women: it can be about ordinary people like you and me. It does not even have to be about the natural world, but also about human nature and common aspects of industrialized city life. The poet understands that the humble Laundromat can be like ancient jungle 'watering holes' where everyone crowds in, looking for some sort of a connection with other beings despite their wariness of strangers. She also is very clever in her use of humor, not-so-subtly bringing up that Laundromats are frequently pick-up scenes with her use of Amazon metaphors: "I want to lie down in the dry dung/and dust and twist to scratch my back. I want to / stretch and prowl and grow lazy in the shade," she writes, even though of course, just like everyone else the Laundromat, she is likely to leave unfulfilled, with her clothes clean and little else to show for her adventure in the wilderness of the Laundromat.
Greenblatt also provides us with some thought into what be hidden in Shakespeare's strange epitaph. Perspective is also gleaned on many of Shakespeare's works, including the Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear IV. He also goes into how Shakespeare only had one rival, Christopher Marlowe until 1957, when Ben Johnson emerged. The two men were similarly in age and envy. The two men "circled warily, watching with intense
Popular entertainment is overly influenced by commercial interest. Superficiality, obscenity, and violence characterize films and television today because those qualities are commercially successful. Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with this opinion. To support your position, use reasons and/or examples from your reading, your observations, or your experiences as a consumer of popular entertainment. This assertion seems unusually pertinent to a current obsession of the media at this
Tshcinag and Groddeck What drew me to the poem? I am always curious and fascinated at poetic mysteries. That is, what is the poet really talking about? What line or lines offers a clue (or clues) to the purpose of the poem? The post itself is somewhat confusing and even vague. "The only thing that comes to mind is that it's about abuse between a father and a boy," the post
Collaboration Work With John Cage John Cage was a revolutionary artist that transcended his time and his generation. He was a man that refused to limit himself or his work in any way. Being a musician myself, I was certainly very appreciative of his radical and uncompromising musical style and his unique willingness to take great chances in his work. However, after further research I have realized that I had only
As we have already mentioned, the mood and tone for moral corruption in New York City was prime in the 1920s and while it may seem there are the rich and the poor, class distinction among the rich plays an important role in the novel. Gatsby's success will only carry him so far because of a dividing line that exists between the new wealth and the old wealth. This
But while it is true that he loved the funny side of life, he was also quite genuine and sincere in his purpose to expose the superficialities of social roles. "If we look at the whole corpus of his work, we see his tragic poems all interrupted, unfinished, or transfigured into celestial comedy" (Garbaty173). Chaucer unlike some tragedy masters of his time was not too concerned with gloom and sadness