Reflection on ekphrasis poems

It was easy for me to write ekphasis poems in class because I could relate to a lot of them. For example,  "Twilight In The Wilderness" reminded me of the time I saw a similar sunset so I just whote about what I felt when I saw it. My poem:

Go back to the day
Of scarlett skies
Singing eulogies
To the fading Sun
Go back to the day
Of scarlett rivers
Reflecting the accolade
Of the Greatest Star
Go back to the day
Of gentle breeze
That kissed your shoulders
When you went to sleep
Listening to the whole great nothing
Of transcendentalism.

I felt like I could also relate to "Crows In The Wheat Field" in a similar way. Generally, I think it's easier to relate to images/paintings of nature because we've all seen beautiful fields and sunsets. No matter when it was or who we spent those moments with, each and every one of us probably has some kind of memory related to nature.

Ekphrasis poem analysis

American Gothic poem analysis

My ekphrasis poem

https://www.google.com.sg/search?q=the+joyous+leaping+of+uncanned+salmon&biw=1223&bih=573&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=M38qVKvXEMfguQSNo4G4Aw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=BkMS4JqCDuSBxM%253A%3BB9hSiVRrwp_CpM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftvhgallery.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252FH14894.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Ftvhgallery.com%252Fshop%252Fjoyous-leaping-of-uncanned-salmon%252F%3B1500%3B1207

I wonder if some sunny afternoon

You spilt a can of yellow paint 

On white as snow 

Twelve by eighteen

New canvas paper

I wonder if you said “Oh no!”

And left if it there to sit 

Promising to clean up later.

You probably came back and saw

A whimsical design 

Of drying paint 

In rush 

You splattered red and purple 

On the floor 

It was a game

Three hours later 

It was dark outside 

The clumsy spilt

Turned into rainbow full of colors

And those drop-looking things

Of purple, red, and blue

You called them salmon 

And yourself-an artist.

Exaggerated Perspective

Peer comments:
- good shapes
- quality shading
- vibrant color scheme (gives it mood)
- fine line quality
- background not overdone (can still focus on the center of the painting)

I like my exaggerated perspective piece because I stepped away from my usual style and took a new approach to working with acrylic. It wasn't easy for me because I'm so used to making my pieces realistic. However, I'm really glad that I decided to experiment because now I know that I'm able to branch out within a medium as opposed to just sticking to my usual style. I also used a completely different color scheme this time, stepping away from the greys, dark blues, and blacks. In fact, I used almost no dark/cool colors in my painting. One thing I would change is skin color of the hand. The colors I used to paint it are a bit different from those I used on the face. To be honest, I ran out of the needed colors paint when I was working on the hand so I had to improvize a little. Even though the hand colors and the face colors don't match, I'm still glad I experimented so much with the painting.

Line Breaks (Sept 19 HW)

“Introduction to Poetry”

This poem feels conversational due to the logical line breaks that follow commas and periods. Each stanza contains a unique idea that is separated from the other stanzas/ideas with a punctuation mark. The only exception to this pattern is the break after ‘slide’ that leads directly on to the single line that makes up the second stanza. This line, however, is a stand alone thought, even though it is not separated from the first stanza by a punctuation mark. After listing five examples of what to do with a poem, the author presents the reader with two examples of what not do. The mood changes for the last two stanzas, each one completed with a full stop, therefore slightly breaking the flow of the poem similarly to how students want to “break” and “beat” one. The overall pattern of “one stanza-one idea” is, however, preserved in the last two stanzas. 

A Girl by Ezra Pound

The tree has entered my hands, 

The sap has ascended my arms, 

The tree has grown in my breast- 

Downward, 

The branches grow out of me, like arms. 

Tree you are, 

Moss you are, 

You are violets with wind above them. 

A child - so high - you are, 

And all this is folly to the world.

The free verse form makes this poem effective; the lack of rigid structure allows the reader to picture the poem as a conversation between the two narrators- a girl and an adult. 

The first stanza is told by a girl who is consumed by fantasies. Each line is a step in this process of imagination- it goes from the tree entering her hands to the child’s oneness with the tree. Here, imagination is like a process of coming up with an idea and then following it until one is completely consumed by the idea. 

“Downward”, a one-word line, is meant to catch the reader’s attention to clarify that the tree is growing downwards. By making it a separate line, Ezra Pound made the reader pause and visualize the arm-like branches. This is an important line break because just a few seconds ago those branches were human arms. 

The second stanza portrays an adult’s point of view. He/she has clear, defined thoughts which is shown by the conciseness of the lines. Each line breaks where new idea begins, therefore emphasizing each and every one of those ideas and making them easy for a girl to understand. In each line, Pound says what the girl can be, except for the very last line. The last line is a conclusion; it is the moral of the story. It also makes sense to use a line break here because the author wants to emphasize this universal idea of a child’s imagination. After listing what the girl can be, he says that it’s okay to be all those things despite the world’s standards. 

Beautiful Sentences

It was a fine cry—loud and long—but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.
—Toni Morrison, “Sula”

I love this sentence mostly because I can relate to it. I can relate to pain so deep and so universal that it seems to have no top and no bottom. "Circles and circles" points at the endlessness of sorrow which is what a lot of us feel when something terrible happens. When I am hurt, it often seems like the pain will never go away but instead swallow me whole. 

My sentence: "Millions of microscopic grains of sand were running through my fingers like through an elegant hourglass that quickly absorbed rays of the scarlett sun."