The text I'm thinking of using is a poem that I wrote on September 23rd, 2009 called "Scarce Harvest."
It is sort of a negative view of myself (which is representative of the time period, although unrepresentative of me generally), but it is also (in my opinion) very well written and it has a ton of aspects worth analyzing.
The poem is in first person and it describes a time in my life in which I was completely devoid of emotion (good or bad) using the extended metaphor of a farmer realizing that his/her crops (presumably) were all gone. The narrator of the poem remembers that he/she had moved his/her crops to another location and consequently lost them. After this realization, the narrator wonders if it was necessarily a bad thing that he/she had no crops left.
My poem is difficult to relate to any particular text from class because the format, purpose, and mood are all so different. Arbitrarily, I will attempt to compare it to Tapahonso's memoir, "What I Am."
Similarities between my poem and Tapahonso's memoir include: a distinct break between sections (creating a sense of time lapse), the sense of reflection upon oneself through describing events of the past, both texts are stated in a sort of matter-of-fact tone, and both allude to a bigger and implied concept.
Regarding the differences, I will start from a broad view and move in from there. First of all, my text is a poem, and so a lot of the literary and analytical devices are in a different format (for example, line breaks, rhyme, meter, and context implications). Also, my text is nearly 100% extended metaphor, while Tapahonso's is considerably more literal. The third main difference is that my poem (although abstract) stays within a single topic in a single time period and attempts to explain the main concept from the same viewpoint throughout the text.
Hopefully the poem that I intend to use will satisfy the requirements of the assignment and also of the readers, who know nothing of the context in which this poem was originally written.
Sounds like a great idea. I look forward to reading your poem, as well as your analysis of it!
ReplyDeleteI like that you're doing something different and using a poem as your text. I also think it is good that you're aware of what writing techniques you used because I think that will make your depiction of your language a lot more detailed. Usually analyzing a poems can be difficult because there's so many aspects to pick from but since you're the author you have an insight to what was done on purpose and what its meaning is. Your poem sounds very interesting and I like that you used a metaphor to convey your message. Good luck on your paper.
ReplyDeleteYour poem sounds like a very interesting and deep piece to be analyzing, are the crops a representation of your emotion? Because a farmer without his crops is nothing, much like a human devoid of emotion is nothing less than a hollow shell? Also, what is the meaning behind the farmer realizing that he had moved his crops to a different location?
ReplyDeleteYour poem seems like it would be a very good piece of writing especially since it has to do with your emotion at the time. I really like the metaphor you used with the farmer and his crops. I've always thought that poems were very interesting, especially ones with a deeper meaning than just reading the text for what it is. I would really enjoy to read your piece, and I think it will be an excellent piece to analyze!
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