Hi ASTU class!
I hope all of you are having a good time during reading break <3. The blogs during this week focused from lyric poetry to language poetry…from Collins to Spahr…from September 1, 1939 to September 11,2001. Since I am one of the class bloggers this week I will try my best to mention the main themes…Let’s do this!
First I would like to start with “September 1, 1939” by W.H. Auden. Therese begins with an interesting point of view about how this poem relates to Saal’s trauma transfer because “is seeing your own suffering from someone else’s perspective.” I found really fascinating how she mentions that people’s traumas are connected. For example, WWII and 9/11 victims probably experienced similar type of emotions because of the traumatic events they had to passed through. This is a reason to why people should consider all types of victims, as she mentions “‘habit-forming pain, mismanagement and grief’.” On the other hand,Gabriel’s post mentions how this poem can be adapted and interpreted in different ways. He also points out how “the last line of the eighth stanza was changed from: We must love one another and die” to “We must love one another or die.” Hint: If you are thinking about a future comment you might want to consider the question he wrote at the end of his blog.
Other poems that came out while I was reading the blogs were “The Names” by Billy Collins and ““Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa Szymborska. Even though both were written after 9/11, they represent it in a different way, as Alex’s post says “Szymborska can be seen as writing in the moment where as Collins’ poem can be seen as a reflection.” When I read the word “reflection” it made me think about Kate’s blog since she mentions how for her “The Names” made her think about the 9/11 memorial and the engraved names on it. Olivea also mentions how “there is certain imagery that we have just learned to associate with 9/11.” For example, from a post by Humans of New York the idea of “bodies falling outside” made her associate this event with 9/11. Going back to Kate’s blog, she brings an interesting point regarding “Photograph from September 11” which is how the author manages to bring a little piece of hope as seen in the lines “There’s enough time” and “They’re still within the air’s reach.”
Even though we focused on different lyric poems, an important piece we were discussing the past weeks is This Connection of Everyone with Lungs by Juliana Spahr. Clara discusses how there are links that bind humans no matter what and how the role of a global citizen is to recreate these connections to be able to understand our differences in this globalized world. On the other hand, Jackson presents to us the question: “Is it the contributions made upon world peace represent the spirit of a “Global Citizen?” Even though they connected the poetry with the theme of global citizen, others decided to take a look at the symbol of “bed” on Spahr’s poetry. For Isaiah it is seen as an equalizer and he mentions “What follows our wake up is what distinguishes us.” Seen from a different perspective, Erin thinks “the change that needs to be brought about is less ignorance regarding what is happening outside of our own comfortable countries.” In this setting she relates “bed” with the idea of comfortable.
After taking a look at the different poems during ASTU class we were able to learn the difference between lyric and language poetry as seen on Sandra’s post. I find it interesting how Inneke mentions similarities between song lyrics and lyric poetry. Maybe you would like to discuss more on “Can you call a song writer a poet then?”
Thank you for your time and see you next week!
Maria Jose Zegarra