In my English class, we just finished reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. To wrap up the book, we had a final project. For my project, I wrote two poems using ballad meter (there are 14 syllables per line; 7 syllables were stressed and 7 were unstressed). They were written from the perspective of Huck and Jim and revolved around the plot of the novel. Here are the poems I ended up writing (the first is from Huck's perspective and the other is from Jim's): The Adventures of a Child with No HomeHeaded out alone onto the open Mississippi Leaving behind a tortured man with a bottle in hand Floating along the winding river into the unknown Days and nights go by when I recognize a face from home Together we drift as we get further from our troubles A runaway slave and a child with no home slowly sail Creating and meeting new personas as we travel The Grangerfords, Shepherdsons, then a duke and a dauphin A farm and some futile attempts at freedom for a friend A bullet in bone and back to the beginning we go Adventure gone wrong turned into liberation prolonged Father’s deceased and I proceed out West where I am free For the Sake of Family and FreedomEscaping for the sake of my family and freedom Running away from the cruelty that has been planned for me I am intercepted by the ghost of a boy I knew Traveling along together we drift farther downstream On our own little raft the two of us soon were at ease Slowly he became the son and friend I truly did need Long nights of quiet laughter and looking at starry skies Telling all sorts of tall tales and teaming up with two thieves Then I’m captured and all glimpses of freedom are fleeting While two young boys plan my escape, I ponder my own fate Will I be freed so I can return to my family ? Or will I be sold to those who could care less about me? At last I am relieved from the thoughts that had worried me Fate was in my favor and the chains on me were undone In the end as I recall the memories of what happened, I’ll always remember the boy who saw the best in me Reflection When we first were introduced to the final project for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, I thought I would pick one of the essay topics and write about one of them. This was because I didn’t like any of the ideas for the projects. I didn’t feel passionate about any of them so I figured I would take the easy way out and just write an essay as usual. I realized I wasn’t really thrilled with the topics of the essays either. That’s when I was told I could come up with my own project idea if I wasn’t pleased with what I had been presented. This lead to the creation of my project. What I had decided to do was write two poems about the story. One would be told through Huck’s perspective while the other would be told through Jim’s perspective. I was then instructed to make it a bit more difficult by writing it using a technique known as ballad meter. This set a limit of fourteen syllables to each line with seven stressed syllables and seven unstressed syllables. This added another layer to my project and challenged me even more. The reason I chose this project specifically was that I don’t attempt poetry often. I have never seen myself as an extremely creative person so poetry has always been a challenge for me. I always figured that I would only write a poem when it was assigned to me. When I was presented the chance to create my own project, I decided to give poetry a shot. Going into it, I knew it would be difficult, but I wanted to push myself to see if I could create a poem I was proud of. As for the process of writing these poems, it was definitely an uphill battle. The limitation on the number of syllables was major cause of frustration for me. There would be times where I had a line that I really liked but it had either too many syllables or not enough. When this happened I had to either add to a line or take words away and I would end up with something that I didn’t like. Also, I don’t think I actually have seven stressed syllables and seven unstressed syllables in all of my lines. That was something I didn’t really focus on as I was more focused on the syllable count. This likely means I didn’t follow the ballad meter rules completely, but I did the best that I could. Writing Huck’s poem was a breeze for me. Since I already knew how he felt about certain situations, it was much easier for me to write. It was when I got to Jim’s poem that I had difficulty. There were times I had to try and create what I thought would be his internal monologue. I had to use what I knew about his character to try and come up with something. I feel like if Twain had given more insight to Jim’s thoughts, this would have been much easier. Looking back at the work I have done, I have mixed feelings about the end result. I feel proud of myself for trying to push myself and going outside of my comfort zone. However, I am not completely happy with how Jim’s poem came out. I feel like it was a bit bland at times and is nowhere near as good as my poem from Huck’s perspective. I feel like it just doesn’t do the character and novel justice. If I could go back in time and I did not have the limits of ballad meter, I feel like I could have improved that poem.
0 Comments
When someone hears the term “carpe diem”, it can sound like a cliche and it is often accompanied by a rolling of eyes. I remember hearing it at different points in my life and doing just that. For example, when I was first told in my 10th grade English class that we would be studying carpe diem, I let out an audible sigh. I thought to myself, “What’s the point of learning about this if I already know?” I thought this because the phrase was used so often that I thought I didn’t have anything new to learn. In my mind, it was just a cliche that I had heard by whole life that was about seizing the day and living extraordinarily. Looking back, I realize I actually didn’t understand the true meaning of the phrase. But what really is the true essence of carpe diem? And does it even have a purpose in modern times? Before one can determine whether or not carpe diem has a purpose, carpe diem needs to be defined. Is it living life extravagantly or being grateful for the simple things in life? Video creator John Spencer gave his perspective on this in his video What if the small life is actually the Epic Life. He suggested that carpe diem is about appreciating the small moments of life that give a person joy. A person does not need to do extreme and risky things in order to seize the day. Seizing the day can be a ordinary as being grateful for spending time with the ones you love and sharing experiences with them. As he explains, the “epic life” is formed by the small details of our lives more than the large ones. From personal experience, Spencer has realized that carpe diem comes from being grateful for the small moments that give us joy. In addition, Billy Collins, a poet, gave a similar perspective. When talking to students at a college he spoke to them about carpe diem. In his speech he states,“And the corollary to carpe diem- a vein that runs deeply through the rock of poetry- is gratitude, gratitude for simply being alive, for having a day to seize”(Collins). He goes on to say how we also need to be grateful for the beauty of the world and nature (Collins).This explains how carpe diem can even be on a smaller scale. People can be fulfilled knowing that they are alive and recognizing the beauty around them. This also proves how we can seize the day by simply being grateful for what is constantly around us and occurring. We can be grateful for the everyday events and don’t need live recklessly in order to seize the day. In spite of the numerous people who share that viewpoint, many believe that carpe diem is based on the big events of your life and taking risks. How can we live our lives to the fullest if we don’t take risks and take chances? Some claim that by taking risks we open ourselves to opportunities and experiences that we might not have experienced before and therefore are making better use of the day. On the other hand, how much risk-taking is too much? This is addressed in the movie Dead Poets Society by the character John Keating. He was the teacher of the students and often referenced carpe diem when teaching. In one scene, Keating warns his students, “Sucking on the marrow of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone” (Dead Poets Society, 1989). To explain, Keating is suggesting that taking too large of risks is not a part of carpe diem. Eventually, a risk too large can be too dangerous and will no longer be part of seizing the day. It would just be considered reckless. Perhaps carpe diem could be a mix of playing it safe and taking risks. It could be up to each individual’s preferences. One can decide for themselves what carpe diem means and how they want to follow it. It is possible that there is no standard for seizing the day and it is all subjective.
Carpe diem can have a positive impact on a person. By simply being grateful for what we have and our everyday experiences, we can learn to seize the time that we have. Even though the phrase itself it a cliche, the message behind it stands true. Seizing the day can make the time we have more meaningful as we learn to appreciate the many aspects and experiences in our lives. For my project, my group created an Instagram page as if we were Salman Rushdie to talk about the different examples of allegories in the novel. We chose to do this because it was a unique way of showing our information and allowed us to be more creative. My group wanted to try something we knew would stand out from the rest of the class and try something we hadn't done in class before. Looking back, I have never done a project like this. My projects are usually less motivated by creativity and more focused on just showing information. I think the way my group set up this project, we allowed ourselves to think outside of the box and see what we could accomplish. As I just mentioned, I really enjoyed the creative aspect of our project. I think it was interesting to set up this page and write as if we were the author explaining our novel. It was a format I have never seen before. However, I was frustrated with our content. I think that because we were focused on the creativity, we did not cover all of the necessary information. We could have done a better job at really explaining our topic.
If I were a teacher, and I used the design specs rubric (see above), I would say that we did a very nice job. We were able to create a unique project as well as present the necessary information. Our group created a project that has many intriguing aspects through our posts and our captions. If I were the teacher and I had to take off any points, it would be in the relevance category. I feel as if our purpose for the project may have been overshadowed by the setup of the page and the other aspects of our posts.
In the future, I would improve the quality of the information that we provided and I would continue to be more creative. I hope to find a balance between meeting both the requirements for the information and the beauty and uniqueness of the project. I believe that if I am able to do this, I will be much more successful. |
AuthorArchives
April 2017
Categories |