As I was looking at ways in which poetry is presented differently now that we have all of these technological tools with which to experiment with, I found a poem that was presented as a Prezi (like Dr. Burton's poem):
Click to go to the Prezi!
"Stop Drilling" by Natasa Bosic Grojic, a blogger who was experimenting with Prezi, showed me a new way in which to convey poetry that I had never known about before! I think that the visual way in which poetry can be presented through this medium is exciting because it really opens a new creative window into poetry. As you can see from the Prezi, the zooming in and out allows focus on a specific line of a poem. This is nice because it really helps the reader to isolate that line and perhaps ponder it with greater significance in their minds. There is then, of course, the positioning of the lines, which in of itself offers further meaning along with aesthetic quality. For instance, in "Stop Drilling," the path of the text follows a pattern around the blown up title as it moves from the left to the right, instead of a random order. This aids the reader into following the poem's story visually. One can also comment upon the design used. This specific author used a very simple template. I thought that this was effective for their poem because the words themselves, aided by the effects of the zooming, are the forced as the focus, and they begin to weigh upon the reader as they go through the poem.
I enjoyed this Prezi Poem so much that I am thinking of making one myself!
I was introduced to this poem but my best friend growing up, Megan. It meant a lot to her, so much so that she decided to have a rendition of the last two lines tattooed on her wrist.
A paragraph symbol inside parenthesis
In those growing up, teenage years you learn so much about who you are from your peers and Megan was a huge influence on my life. Her taste in literature and poetry shaped mine which is how E. E. Cummings became one of my favorite poets.
So to better illustrate this poem, here's a spoken rendition.
Before you listen to it, read the poem. Then notice the different meaning you get from listening to it.
since feeling is first
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world
my blood approves,
and kisses are better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
And death i think is no parenthesis
Compare this to my friend, Megan's reading below:
I love this poem so much because it contradicts what every poet strives to do which is capture the tiny details of life in the beauty of poetry. But Cummings is so correct in stating that you can never really capture life in a poem or a book or a movie because life is no paragraph, feeling comes first.
So I think it’s cool to hear Cummings' poem read aloud. It lets you get a different aspect of it. The whole point of Cummings' poem is that paragraphs and syntax and written things can't give the true feeling of life. Feeling itself comes first. So listening to this poem almost makes more sense, to be able to ignore the syntax of it.
The part that stands out the most to me when listening to it is:
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
It has an intonation that I didn't get reading it in my head. And yet by listening to it, you miss the dash. But if you're ignoring the syntax, like Cummings suggests, does that dash even matter?
Like I've mentioned before, poetry is not my strong suit by any means. I prefer the idea of feeling the poem instead murdering to dissect (i.e. analyzing the heck out of it).
But check out my amazing analyzing skills. The whole written poem shows enjambment. But once again you miss that feature when you hear it read aloud. So what does that mean about that written poem, does the enjambment mean something? I'm inclined to believe that specific literary techniques in this poem are negligible based on the theme of the poem.
What do you think?
What differences were you able to take from the recorded version vs the written version?
YouTube is one of the most widely-visited sites on the Internet. From music to comedy videos - you can find it all. It's also provided a great outlet for interpretation of poetry. The video below is a great example for a modern interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18.
People can set poetry to rap, pictures, or music. The great thing about YouTube videos is that it accommodates different learning styles. Videos apply to both audio and visual learners, while reading a poem will only accommodate that learning style. I think this makes poetry more accessible and understandable to those who otherwise may not be interested.
