Don’t forget that the extra credit poetry assignment is due Tuesday!

Submit a collection of no less than 10 poems – all 10 must be your own original work. You may write in any style, but narrative poems must include character, plot, and setting. Free Verse and Blank Verse poetry must be at least 10 lines long. You may only include up to 2 haiku (if you want to) in your collection. If you want to write in quatrains, each poem must contain at least 3 quatrains.

Read “The Raven“ while listening to a reading by Christopher Walken of the 1845 poem by Edgar Allan Poe. (If the previous site does not open in a new tab or window, right click the link and select “Open in New Window.”

“The Raven” – read by Christopher Walken

Read “The Highwayman” while listening to the musical rendition of the 1906 poem by Alfred Noyes. If the link to the poem does not open in a new tab or window, right click the link and select “Open in New Window.”

“The Highwayman“ -  musical interpretation by Loreena McKennit

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Poe also said:          (click here to read original article)

“He who shall simply sing, with however glowing enthusiasm, or with however vivid a truth of description, of the sights, and sounds, and odors, and colors, and sentiments which greet him in common with all mankind — he, I say, has yet failed to prove his divine title.”

Poe agrees that there are many beautiful things in nature. However, simply telling people about these beautiful things is not enough. He believes it is more important, in poetry, to help readers experience the beauty of all these things on an emotional level. Poe thought that the effect of a poem on its readers was one of its most important characteristics. Poetry should speak to people’s hearts, minds, and souls.

Do you agree? – A good poem connects emotion with the beauty in the reader’s world. Why do you think an emotional connection is important in a good poem?

Do you disagree? – A good poem paints an accurate and unemotional picture of the beauty in the world around it. Why do you think a good poem does not connect beauty with emotion in the reader, but simply tells the reader of the beauty all around him without having to be emotional?

Poe also said:          (click here to read original article)

“It by no means follows, however, that the incitements of Passion’ or the precepts of Duty, or even the lessons of Truth, may not be introduced into a poem, and with advantage; for they may sub-serve incidentally, in various ways, the general purposes of the work: but the true artist will always contrive to tone them down in proper subjection to that Beauty which is the atmosphere and the real essence of the poem.” 

Poe admitted that, sometimes, poems could include elements of instruction about morality or perhaps lead the reader toward the principles people should live by. However, he felt these elements had to be secondary in the poem to its elements of beauty, which should be the real essence of the poem. He believed that the emotional experience of a poem was the most important thing.

Do you agree? – A good poem can teach lessons about values and principles to live by – as long as these lessons are secondary, or less important, than the emotional experience of the poem. Give an example of a poem you have read (or written) that may have taught a lesson, but was mainly an emotional piece. Explain why you think the poem is a “good poem.”

Do you disagree? – A good poem can teach lessons about values and principles to live by, or it can give an emotional experience to the reader – one or the other. A good poem does not have to do both. Give an example of a poem you have read (or written) that had the single purpose of teaching a lesson. Explain why you think the poem is a “good poem.”

Poe also said:          (click here to read original article)

“It has been assumed, tacitly and avowedly, directly and indirectly, that the ultimate object of all Poetry is Truth. Every poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral and by this moral is the poetical merit of the work to be adjudged. We Americans especially have patronized this happy idea, and we Bostonians very especially have developed it in full. We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem’s sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true poetic dignity and force: — but the simple fact is that would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble, than this very poem, this poem per se, this poem which is a poem and nothing more, this poem written solely for the poem’s sake.”

Poe thought that poetry should not be written to teach values and show people how to live moral lives. He said that if a poem does teach a moral lesson, it is not this lesson which gives the poem its merit or worth. He believed that the true value of a poem is in its emotional and artistic elements. He said the most noble of poetry is the poem written just for the poem’s sake – not to teach a lesson.

Do you agree? – A good poem gives the reader an emotional experience. It can teach a life lesson, but it does not need to – its true value is in its beauty and emotion. Why do you feel this way?

Do you disagree? – A good poem can teach valuable life lessons and be a beautiful and emotional experience at the same time. Why do you feel this way?

Poe also said:        (click here to read original article)

“On the other hand, it is clear that a poem may be improperly brief. Undue brevity degenerates into mere epigrammatism. A very short poem, while now and then producing a brilliant or vivid, never produces a profound or enduring effect. There must be the steady pressing down of the stamp upon the wax.”

Poe thought that if a poem was too brief, it would not leave any lasting effect on the reader. To Poe, the emotional experience or effect is the most important part of the poem.

Do you agree? – A poem can be too brief. A poem should not be so short that the reader is not able to experience it emotionally. Why do you agree with what Poe said?

Do you disagree? – The length of a poem does not matter; a good poem can be one which contains no more than a few words. Why do you disagree with Poe on this point?