Assignment 3 - Poetry - Image Writing Exercise

Good Day Reader(s)

Today's blog post is about 3 different poems by 3 different poets.

Poems (located in textbook):

1 – Dylan Thomas – "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"

2 – Gwendolyn Brooks – "We Real Cool"

3 – Emily Dickinson – "I felt a Funeral, in my Brain"

1) What emotions/feelings do you have after reading the poem?

2) How does your chosen image reflect the emotions conjured by the poem? Compose a one paragraph response for each poem.

1 - "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" - Dylan Thomas

Photo from: http://www.adobenerds.com/tutorial/photoshop-animated-moon-light-sky-tree/Animeted-Moon-Light.gif

After reading "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", I felt a sense of warning or caution. The 'speaker' in the poem sounded like he feared something in the night and was warning someone to be careful and telling why the night or darkness is not good. Therefore the emotions I feel are 'fear','cautious' and 'hatred' towards the night. The picture I chose looks like a sun in the night, as the moon is so bright. The clouds in the background adds a sense of 'eerie-ness' which brings a sense of fear because it looks spooky.

2- "We Real Cool" - Gwendolyn Brooks

Photo from: http://cdn.costumesupercenter.com/csc_inc/images/items/343x432/CC01002.jpg

"We Real Cool", despite its length, compelled a sense of rebellion. To me, it sounds like girls at a strict school are rebelling against uniformity and the system. It also made me feel fearless and free. "We Jazz June" makes me think of swing dancing or a laid back club scene, and "We Die Soon" sounded fearless as they knew they would die soon maybe because of their lifestyle, but they accepted that and didn't care. I chose the image of the school girl wearing a leather jacket and boots, etc. because I think it is an accurate example of the 'rebel school girl' look, she put her spin on the school uniform which is probably prohibited and wore something a 'biker chick' would wear, which shows she has no concern to abide by the rules.

3- "I Felt a Funeral in my Brain" - Emily Dickenson

Photo from: http://www.indianetzone.com/photos_gallery/1/120_Migraine_Headache.jpg

When I read this poem, it makes me feel that Emily Dickenson had a terrible headache or migrane. When I get a headache, it feels like there is constant throbbing - kind of like the beating of a drum. And when I feel like that, its as if I cannot think or do anything "My Mind was going numb" (line 8). Also it was as if this pain was taking over her whole body, like the headache brought on other bodily aches "And I dropped down, and down" (line 18) - the pain was so bad she could not walk. Usually when I get a headache, I feel disabled and paralized as I cannot think straight or do anything that involves any concentrating, even driving is a struggle. A feeling of mourning my health comes to mind when I think of funeral in my brain.

From another view, it sounded like she had multiple personalities -schezophrenic- and that one of them 'died' for some reason. In this case, "mental case" or "psyco" comes to mind.

I chose the image of a woman rubbing her temples because it represent both someone having a terrible headache or someone trying to understand what was going on in their head.

- The End -