Transcription
Salam alaikum. Salam ah him. Again, today we continue doing our English poetry course at the Islamic University of Gaza. Last time, we had a discussion on the nature of poetry and what to do with poetry in order to understand and approach poetry. I spoke about my image or objectives in this course. We also spoke about, like, techniques in order to approach poetry. I'm going to be repeating some of these issues in today's class as we define poetry and continue to take examples of poetry from English. And today, we'll have an example from Arabic poetry.
If you remember, last time we concluded with one significant fact, which is, if there is something in a text, in a, in a, in a literary text, especially in a poem, it's almost always there for a reason. There's a purpose behind it. Poets select carefully the words, the images, the metaphors, are the sounds, given their rhymes, what to say and what not to say. This is a quote that I like very much about poetry. It says, "In poetry, every word and every sound and everything counts. It has a purpose. It impacts the way, the direction of the poem, and it impacts the reception of the poem by, by the reader. Everything has its function and makes a difference." And we should always ask why certain words or sounds or phrases or images or metaphors are used instead of, of another.
I try to, I claim sometimes that creative writing, poetry, fiction writing, is a process of making choices. What to write and what not, what not. This applies actually to writing, to speaking. But because we speak involuntarily, when we write, with academically or any kind of writing, especially creative writing, we try to carefully and choose what to say and what not to say. And then, last time, I kind of drew the iceberg. This is an iceberg. Maybe that tip here is a lot bigger than the one I drew last time. But usually, what we see is the tip. There's also an idiom in English, it said, "It's only the tip of the iceberg," because what's hidden, what's beneath, is almost always more, sometimes more important, more significant. So, any person, any text, any poem, shows us this tiny thing in the tip. Our job is to use what we see, the tab, and to dive deeper and make connections and try to understand the implied meanings, the things that are hidden beneath that can tell us anything, not only actually beliefs and values and ideas and themes, but also things related to the form and the structure and the sounds, all of the power.
So, before I ask you to give me your own definition of poetry, I want to repeat something I also said last time. A poem shouldn't shouldn't mean, but be. Last time I said, "Don't let a poem be engaged." This could be contradictory, like leave the poem as it is. And I don't want you to misunderstand me here. It means that no explanation, no summary, no interpretation of a poem can do any poem justice, because if you want to explain a poem, you need to rewrite it, to say it in other words. And saying a poem, a text, in other words, usually takes away the beauty of the text. And this happens to us all the time. Like, you read a poem or you memorize a line or two lines of verse, and you got someone and say, "Hey, today I read these beautiful lines. Beautiful. What are they about?" Like, he is saying, "If because you courageous, you can, you beat everybody, even the heroes." Okay. This idea, I get this idea all the time. People say it all the time. No, no, no. But in the poetry and the lines, it's really fascinating. The imagery, the sounds, the choice, that choice of words. So many people, I'm one of those people, I'm against summarizing poetry. If you want to say, I'll to talk about poetry to people, show them the poem. But because this is a poetry class, we need to try to understand and analyze and interpret poetry. What should we do? We need to follow particular techniques. I'm not going to say scientific techniques of understanding poetry, but some techniques, some methods and strategies in order to make, to appreciate poetry even, even, even, even more.
Okay, and here, this is a significant point also, that the only meaning of poetry that really matters is its effect on you as you read it or hear it. The impact of the poem on you as, as a reader. And again, don't let the poem be engaged. So, there are two things here. We need to engage. We need to make the influence on, like, to feel the influence of the poem, the impact, the poem. But at the same time, we don't want to look at poetry as just a story that I can rephrase and paraphrase. Because I have just said it said that every word, every image, every sound, every phrase, every meter for is carefully and meticulously selected by the poet.
Now, remember last time we came up with this list when we spoke about poetry: rhyme, rhythm, sounds, lines, ellipsis, repetition, sometimes both. It doesn't follow the rules of grammar. Now, I want you look again here, please, at this with the, you know, imagery and literary devices and everything. Look at the list. I'm sure you remember most of them. And I'll give you two minutes to try to come up with your own definition of poetry in the light, in the light of these words, or if you don't want to use them, it's up to you. But when we say, then it spoke of the nature, Porter, the last time we said, we when we talk about Porter, we talk about these things, more or less. So, what is poetry? What is poetry? You don't have to be, you know, Shakespeare to define it. Just tell me what you feel. Tell me what you think of poetry, the nature of poetry. If you want to define part of somebody in a taxi, in a bus, fuel mom, says poetry, what is poetry? Why is there a course for poetry in particular? Because there are other courses you study for. I know, short story, a novel, drama. Mm-hmm. Do you think there is one correct definition of poetry? Okay, thank you. This is not mathematics or physics, God forbid. So, poetry is now, I want to give you one more minute to share your definition with your classmate. Show her your definition and see her definition of poetry and try to see where you meet and where you differ. Could you please share your definition with your friend? Yeah. Say, yeah, yeah. I'll ask you two questions in a minute. How you define poetry and then whether you agree or disagree with your classmate. Did you focus on the same thing? Are you jealous because your friend's definition is better than yours? Are you proud because yours is better than hers? You proud? Excellent. This is the spirit. This is the spirit I want. Okay, you're proud of each other because you both did well. Good. That's the spirit. Okay, somebody please share you the finishing. Oh, that's big definition. It's also beautiful. Can you say it again? So, there are words, definitely. There are words, and in words, we can find images, actions, okay, and feelings. Wow. I live in a word. Thank you for coining this, if it's not a word already. Rhythmically arranged. Okay, so there is a purpose here. You want to influence, to impact the readers. That's, that's a definition. I think we that sent it to me. I added to the book. It's beautiful. Please, over there. Okay, so poetry. Second group. Words designed. Design. Okay, I like also the word design because it shows intention, you know, that to reach others. So, to reach out, express feelings and emotion. Fantastic. Please. So, deep thoughts necessarily. Okay, shared using metaphors and and music, different types of of musics or thoughts that are deep. This is all a shared in a particular way. More this way, please. And in an organized way, using rhythm. Okay, very good. Also, yeah, I mean, speak up. Organized in, in a musical way, following particular forms. Can, can somebody tell me something about your friend's definition of poetry? What did you like about your friend's definition of poetry? Did you find something that you didn't mention? Okay, what did you find? Okay, she said she used the simile to talk about poetry. We're painting and pictures could be connected in a way. How, how can you connect pictures? And how can you bring pictures and poetry together? Because pictures, colors, but pictures use colors, paints, a canvas, and poetry, you, most of you just said this, poetry uses words. Like Hamlet, J's words, words, words. Please. That's, that's an excellent connection. The imagination, the visualization. Poetry brings things to life. Okay, do you have to feel this all the time? Because there are some poems that are very abstract, intentionally done so. Okay, thank you very much. Like, do you mean a story with characters and so you're focusing on the narrative? As with here, not this is not all poetry is narrative. Okay, so the act of inspiration, the source of inspiration, the revelation here is, is different. Although we can find inspiration sometimes when you write your research paper or, um, a thesis or be a graduation project. More. [Music] [Music] [Music] Again, knowledge that were not all literature or poetry is rooted in, in reality. He's based on reality, sometimes on, you know, science fiction, on the future and imagination, on things that, things that could have been, things that should have been, things that might have been in the future. It's not necessarily things related to life or deeply rooted in life. Everyone, of course, of course. But again, the influence varies from one person to, to the other. Okay, so the means here is different. The means, the medium here is words, language, or than painting. Difference. One more. Someone who wants to say their definition. Okay, you're enjoying a whole picture in your mind. Maybe it's just the whole idea of making your mind work and not only being confused by the unknown complexity. So, yeah, of course, this again, it depends on how, like, the different schools of poetry, the different background, different philosophy, different age, different time. We see there is a movement in the 20th century. I'll give you an example for that. It's called Imagism, where the whole poem is one image, concrete image that brings, like, expresses a particular. It could be an abstract experience in an image. Is there a parent? Is Elliott that's called Imagism, a modernist movement, early 20th centuries. We can't imagine this poem. If you can't imagine, visualize, either the poem failed, or you have your hungry, your imagination isn't triggered yet. Okay, definition. No, no. How's that? Can you explain the bet? Because this is something good to say. The best words in the best organization. This way, not this way. Fronting this word instead of that word. Okay, I think I like all your definitions. Okay, Johnson. They asked, they asked him about what is poetry, and he said, "Oh, I think it's easier to say, well, it's not what it's not." Yeah. Okay. Someone just triggers me actually because he hates John Donne. And I wouldn't take him seriously. No offense to if you like someone. John's son. And because he was involved actually in a job, he he said that John Donne doesn't write poetry. It doesn't necessarily listen. In this course, we need to learn that there are no authorities that we need to follow 100%. Even TS Eliot is the best poet in the phone system. John, the best critics. But sometimes even TS Eliot, sorry, two years earlier, I see another way. He's different. And again, this is what I try to do to encourage you to think outside the, the stupid cliché box. Thank you for yourselves. Please. Who's she? Who's she? Okay, smart one. That's, that's Asma. Wordsworth. Okay, is Wordsworth a relative? William? Do you know him? Is he a friend? Facebook friend? Because this is closely taken from what Wordsworth says, one of the definitions that we will be seeing in a bit. So, thank you very much, all of you. Okay, so I have six definitions here of poetry. Could you read number one, please? Someone, please. Poetry is like painting. That's Horace. That's over a thousand to set, like, almost a lot more than two thousand years ago. Poetry is like painting. Number two. If you notice, this is all by though. This is five hundred years ago or so. Painting picture, almost the same. This guy is Sydney, Sir Philip Sidney. Okay, with the end, most of you spoke about influencing others, impacting others, reaching out. Waters in this classical definition. Now, your classical definition of poetry, poetry has to teach, poetry has to delight. There is an end to poetry. They don't, they didn't believe in art for art's sake, writing poetry just for the sake of writing poetry. Number three. Okay, maybe as much. She's familiar with this. Okay, this is William Wordsworth, a Romantic poet. Now, look at this. Many people will just stop here at feelings. This is 50% of the definition. The spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. With an overflow and at the same time spontaneous. It's not intentional. Okay, now I want to write a poem. I want to make a poem. You're just inspired by a natural scene, a scenery. The second part, we'll see how significant the second part is. Recollected in tranquility. Recollected in tranquility. There's, there's something related to memory here. Recalling something, recalling something that happened in the past. In Romanticism, there is a difference between reacting instantly to an event and then absorbing it, bearing it in your mind and heart, and then when in vacant or a pensive mood, data on recording this experience. So, feelings. We move from painting, from picture, to teaching and delighting, to feelings, internal self-expression that is recollected in tranquility. Four, please. Okay, this is something interesting from some will tell. Another Romantic poet and critic. Prose is words in their best order. Because we don't want to trash prose here. When we write prose, we also deliberate the issues. What, what to say or not, not to say. But because sometimes we write a lot of prose, like you write a book, a novel, a long research paper, sometimes it's really demanding. It's really not easy to choose and pick carefully everything you do in the text. But when you write a short poem, half a page, at one page, two pages, basically, it's easier. So, poetry is the best word in there, based order. Because the way you order things matters. Four, five, please. Poetry, again, this is another Romantic poet and critic, Shelley. Personally, poetry makes familiar objects be as if they we're not familiar, unfamiliar. Again, in Romanticism, there's something called defamiliarization. Is it Van Gogh? The guy, Van Gogh, the guy who draws the sunflower, you know, keeps drawing the same thing again and again and again. Every time you see the pictures, like, "Wow, as if you've never seen this." Again, in the Matteson, we call this the, the childlike experience. Kids always, almost always react to things as if they have just seen them, unlike adults. So, when we grow up, there is a veil, you know, of familiarity over our hearts and minds. We don't enjoy the beauty of things. And Israel asked this question to the students, "When was the last time you looked at up at the monitor? What a beautiful scene." We don't have the time. We can't see because of the concrete, because we're busy, because we're spending 24/7 of our time online, on Facebook, social media. When was the last time you stopped to, I don't know, to feed the cat, yeah, around camp, to look at the artificial kind of nature, the trees, the flowers, the roses? But look at the kid. The kids, when they see things again and again, it just, okay, you know, when they start talking, and they see the light, though, though, every time they look up, the DAO, right, the light, the light is just keep saying the same word and again. And when you see the moon on the sea, a donkey and the sea is like, "Ma, ma," right? Even if they see it like every minute or so. This is a romantic concept. That's why childhood is significant in Romanticism. It's called defamiliarization, the familiarization thing, the familiarizing things in order for you to see them, and you to see them afresh. And personally, it's one of the most fascinating poets of all time. Is a revolutionary poet. Number six, please. Okay, Edgar Allan Poe also has a definition of poetry. There is Michael creation of beauty. Like, you turn beauty, which is abstract, into something rhythmical, musical. You turn beauty into music. No matter what it is. Which one do you like the most, please? Okay, why's that? Aha. So, the words themselves are poetry. Okay, that's nice. A nice way of putting it. I like the sound. The words, please. Yeah, nice. But here, he's turning abstract ideas of beauty and touka into music, into words, and to forms, into small forms, like babies, worker babies, and how beautiful they are. More, please. Okay, what about the first one? Okay, well, but he doesn't say anything about Horace. Doesn't say anything about. Okay, the second one, to teach. Underline. There are many people who always, always have a theme, have a, you know, a moral lesson at the end of their power. Could be artificial sometimes. But then you, they usually end their poems, you know, they issue, what's that, into your agenda, iron up, will with a lab, where the Gazette, Elam is magical moment, all has like some people feel that this is, this is childish. If you end your poem, you text with a glaring moral lesson, you're treating me as a child. Let me get to that conclusion. Let me feel it. Experiences, perhaps. But this is the classical definition of poetry, to teach, to delight. You have to be entertained at the same time. You have to be instructed, taught new morals, new manners, new techniques, perhaps, new words, new language. Okay, I have six more definitions. I know there are many, but because we have so many poet for poetry movements, we'll have different definitions of poetry. Number, number one, again. So, six more definitions. Total is criticism of life. That's Matthew Arnold. That's almost like, you know, 150 years ago. Poetry is criticism of life. This is a Victorian. I'll give you a chance to comment on their definitions. A Victorian, a Victorian poet and critic. Number two, please. Yes. [Music] You know, Emily Dickinson. She's a real study of couple of point. For Emily Dickinson, an American prolific poet, you know, prolific, she writes a lot. Somebody who writes a lot. You're thousands of poems. Emily Dickinson. Three. The poem that makes my whole fire, it, my whole poem, you know, like shudder and shake and cold. No fire can warm me. I know this is poetry. Hmm. Beautiful expression. I, I'm not sure what Nadia is going to like this or not, because again, this is about the influence of poetry on others, on people, on readers. I'm a three, please. [Music] Throat. Robert Frost. Poetry is a way of taking line by the throat. Slide. This is not only criticism of life, just active, like in actively standing by and saying, "This is not what it should be." This is just even, you know, more violent. With the four eclipses, peeking, taking life by the throat, because life sometimes doesn't obey us, doesn't listen to us. It's just, it just goes the way it wants to go, doesn't fool our wishes and hope. So, probably in a poem, you can come here. Four, please. Okay, French. The French. It's interesting that he's a novel. Not sure if he's a poet also. Got a full pair. Poetry's as exact as science, as geometries, like mathematics. Is it five, please? So, this is not words and expressions. This is a step even or to further syntax, grammar, grammar. The way you arrange words, the way you put words, the fronting, the organization of words. How sometimes you break the rules of syntax. We just said that the challenge is to make it do what you want it, invisibly, invisibly. You feel that there's something here, and the poem begins nicely. It's so smooth at the beginning, but I can't, I don't know, why this here is about this class is about trying to understand these, you know, invisible impacts. Never saw Salaam be good in the middle by endless a hell. Sometimes people like, I cannot, like, they be with us kind of literally, sometimes with their rhetoric, with their words, with their poetry, with your writing, with what they say, and how they say it. Like, we stand amazed sometimes, even stunned. And usually, we don't know why. We know this is because of the beautiful poetry or stuff they're reading. So, let's try to dig deeper here and try to make connections in order to understand this invisible act of dazzling us. Finally, please. Unconscious. So, there's threaten the beats, double down, you know, mistress, the music, the internal music, rhythm is the unconscious engine of poetry. This is a contemporary poet. She's still alive. And Stevenson, I don't know her. And also Susan Wicks is also alive. So, which one of these definitions do you like the most or dislike the most? Which one, please? So, that the emphasis here on how poetry reaches us, gets to us, is something you like, please. But isn't sometimes releasing anger or emotions? Isn't it sometimes violence? Isn't it violent? I want you to imagine different situations. Like, okay, when you, when you, when you're expressing your actions and feelings and experiences to your family members, teachers, or friends, probably you, you peacefully, you're calm, you're nonviolent. But some, I remember we said poetry is a means of resistance. We say this. Okay, Ahmed, are we saying damage or to oculomotor sleepy? This is violent. And yes, this is some kind of incitement because inside minutes, sometimes good. This is not an invitation for violence, but sometimes you need to react to violence by violence. Poetry teaches us to do both. Number one here, taking light weather. So, I think I don't mean here. I'm not sure what exactly he means, to be honest. But poetry helps us make sense out of the nonsense around us. We suffocate, we die, we suffer, we are humiliated sometimes. And when you write a poem, you just attacking back. You like holding life, controlling life, and saying, "Hey, what the hell? Why is this happening to me? Why all with me? Or why always us?" So, he tried to make sense out of, of this thing, because life is uncontrollable. Does upon help us control life? Probably creating a better reality. I think, in a way. Ah, huh. I like your different opinions. Don't feel bad if you have a different opinion. Always say it. I am in charge. I'm the boss. Thank you. [Music] And this is not an easy thing to do. You need to struggle with yourself, with life, then science. Once, okay, but can we pick and choose? Can we just make, you know, the perfect definition of poetry, selecting and choosing from? Because even when you talk about rhythm and meter, they basically go under mathematics or geometry, because things like engineering, a poem, the rhyme scheme, the, the beats, the feet, the stressed, unstressed, but not in the literal meaning, definitely. Yeah, definitely. Okay, we'll see. Okay, or here. [Music] It's very personal. But, but I think William and the Romantics wrote in order also to be read. So, why would you? It's not criticism. It's not silent. You think it's good to them directly? That's true. It doesn't have to be like criticism of life, saying, "Okay, like, I'm writing a poem. Today's, today's pizza was horrible, and the cafeteria should be shut down." Today is something. Doesn't have to be literally this way. And sometimes we read the stupidest poems about the stupidest things, but the most beautiful thing. We'll see some of these poems, that poems that could sound stupid and uncynical. Oh, they did because they are true. They address, they reach us to our, to us somewhere deeper. Please. Yeah. So, somebody here is finding connection between criticizing life and releasing your, your thoughts. Okay, I like it when we have very different opinions, especially from friends. So, I want you, when you finish this class, in the break, fight with each other, argue, try to convince each other, or try to make your point clear. And this is how we have, we have fun. We don't have, sorry, we don't have much time. But somebody, somebody wants to say something that is significant, that if she doesn't say it, this course is not what it should be. Okay, what is constructive in literature? When you take criticism, little, this is not like saying the bad things about the text. It's about appreciating. It's about trying to see how it says what it says. But again, even in Arabic, we still have constructive criticism. In recent years, we have seen they criticize live true. That could be also true. We can't take this discussion on the Facebook group. I'll post these questions, and probably we can continue this on Facebook.
Okay, now I'll tell you about an experience. Writing one of the most famous, hike, 20th century form is by Ezra Pound. Ezra Pound is TS Eliot's friend. He's an early 20th century modernist and poet and critic. He writes about his own experiencing. He was somewhere in France, in a metro station, and he said he suddenly saw a beautiful face. You know, poets always see beauty in the midst of tragedy and stuff, or vice versa. And then another, and then yet another, and then a beautiful child's face, and then another beautiful woman. And he says, "Yeah, I tried all day to find the words or the medium here, to find the words so the emotions, the feelings, the is there." And this is Ezra Pound. "To find any words that seemed to me worthy to describe this beautiful scenery or as lovely as the sudden emotion." He was taken aback. Like Emerson, we see this all the time. You a kid does something, you see a rose flower, somebody does something, an old man, I hope, homeless, a person does something, a taxi driver says something, pizza tastes a particular way. And then you like, "This should be in a poem." And this is little Pound. He said he failed the whole day to try to find the right words to express himself, to express what he just experienced. A sudden beautiful face, and beautiful face, and one more beautiful face. And then in his writing, he said he tells us about the hike. Another hike. Oh, it's a small Japanese poem. This is basically the essence of Imagism, the movement of how poetry should be focused on concrete images. And then he again uses the Japanese haiku in order to tell us about his particular poem. He wrote here. He said, "A long ago said, if a man can't say what he has to say in 12 lines, in 12 lines, he had better keep silent." You know, people say crazy stuff all the time. You don't have to follow this, but this is, you know, significant importer here, saying so many things, so much in so little space. Also, few words. The Japanese have evolved this still into a shorter form, the hukou of the haiku, which is a type of Japanese poem with three lines, consisting of five, seven, and five syllables. So, the haiku is Japanese kind of poem, three lines, five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables, and that's the whole thing. But it's so cool qui that you can see, you can feel and touch the power. He gives an example. The fallen, you know, the fallen blossom. You know, the blossom, the tree, the little flowers, the, you know, the buds, the fallen blossom flies back to its brand. Shh. A butterfly. Of course, this is an adaptation of the haiku, because the haiku was basically three lines, 5/7/5 myself. Now, those who like the painting picture definition can easily, if you have the skills, you can easily draw this. So, trees in fall, when you know, leaves, the branches, the buds fall down, that's the beautiful image. You know, the cherry blossom, if you've been to America, in this is in Japan, fascinating scenery of how trees blossom, and sometimes when they fall down. But this is the, it's actually something from underground going up. I don't know why he's doing this, but I love this scenery. When everything is falling down, falling down, one thing, one particular thing is rising up, is flying back to its branch, a butterfly. I mean, there's so many things are missing here that you keep. And I love this. I love the haiku. I usually go online to turn and just keep looking up haiku because they make me. Wordsworth says in one of his poems, "The music in my heart I bore." And this is beautiful because you don't bear music. Music is abstract. So, you bear something. Sometimes you feel there is, you know, a burden on your shoulders and hit and hard because you read something, because somebody said something to you. So, here, I, I like usually haiku haunt me for, for a lot of time. So, he says, "Okay, there is this haiku thing that he knows." And he gives another example that again, I love very much. He talks about a guy. I don't know this guy. Victor Flower tells me that once when he was walking over snow with a Japanese naval officer, they came to a place across a place where I can imagine the scene. It's snow. It, no, it's white all over the place. They came to this place where a cat had crossed up the path. So, this is the snow, and then there is this cat. If you have a cat, probably you'll feel this more than anyone else. That's it. If you look at it from afar, from a distance, it's beautiful, especially with, you know, the tiny paws, the, you know, because it's going to sound something like this, probably. I don't know. And then the Japanese man, and this is what I like about this story. He said, "Stop. I am making a poem." It's like, "Stop. I am being inspired." Because people who you mentioned, I have much. Okay, the Egyptian poet, not the Palestinian, told Ahmed Chaudhry had his beautiful way of writing poetry. He just gets the inspiration and he stops talking to people and he keeps walking to and fro around the place and he holds a pen and he writes wherever he, on his hand, on the pack of cigarette, he writes the poem. The inspiration. If he doesn't write it back, probably it's going to, he's going to forget it. But this guy says, "Stop. I am making a poem." And active, because poetry in its root, originally, poetry means to make something, to make something, to create something, to build up something, to construct something. She says, "Stop. I am making a poem." We usually make up a story. We make cake or pizza. Okay. So, and the poem goes roughly like this. Look at this. How easy, but difficult at the same time. "The footsteps of the cat upon the snow." It's usually the second part that surprises us, catches us by surprise. Usually these powers don't have the linking verb. So, add more to the poet Kelly, to the poem. Plum blossoms, you know, the plum frozen plum. Satu roses in the plaza. They have these trees have these beautiful flowers when they blossom. So, "The footsteps of the cat upon the snow." A like plum. So, our friend is reported. He was inspired by these things. Again, he failed. He was inspired. But look at how is it apparent as a Western European guy, how he's appropriating Eastern Japanese things. Because if the haiku is originally three lines, five syllables, seven syllables, and then five syllables, look at how he is distorting this and appropriating and changing it, as if saying that, "Okay, it's nice, but there's always but." And that's why they would be appropriating this. So, finally, he wrote that the famous poem. But he says, "I wrote like months later, two months later, I wrote a 30-line poem about that particular experience and destroyed it because it was what we call our second intensity. It's artificial in a sense. It's not what he wanted, not what he felt, wasn't genuine." Six months later, I made a poem, half that length, still destroyed it, still second intensity. A year later, I made the following haiku. On one of the most famous poems, this is a poem. The operation, you know, operation. It's like the ghost, apparition, ghost. The operation of these faces in the crowd. Look at a year later. "The beauty of the faces in that particular time, place turned into an apparition." Probably something spooky. "Bleak petals on a wet black bough." You know, the petals, you know, this is, yeah, in Arabic, they sailed, but Allah. So, this is a petal. This is a petal. This is a petal. This is a filter. Look at the choice of words. Like, if this is, if, if every petal is a human being, it's going to be like petals on a wet, not just wet, also black. It's beautiful, but it's also haunting. Okay, whoa. Okay, don't you think the world? What do you think the word "apparition" is key here? Apparition. What doesn't he say? The faces. Anything that the pictures of these faces in the crowd. He says apparition. They just blurry image. But look at this experience. Like so many things. Imagine writing 30 lines and 50 lines and then a year later, okay, I want to appropriate Japan and then say what I want to say and look cool. I love this poem. It's okay. Not necessarily. Sometimes when you are a poet, you are a poet. Just keep writing. It depends. You're right. You're definitely right. But what is challenging about this is the fact that the unsaid is a lot more than what he says. There is a lot. Excavate the hidden meanings, the, the stuff between, between. Even he doesn't even use here the verb. Is it? Is it? Was? Will be? So, he's he's talking about now, the past, the present. Makes you think. So, I'll ask you to think about trying to write a haiku. Listen, that Japanese haiku. You will love them. You just Google Japanese haiku, famous Japanese haiku. Try to read them. You will feel, probably, no offense to Ezra Pound, he's a great poet. But if you don't like Ezra Pound's haiku, probably can read somebody else's. That beautiful. Again, the challenging thing is that you need to put so many things, so many feelings and emotions in just two lines. Please. Possible. Yeah, possible. Let's say this in the same with Wordsworth. What, what didn't write his poems instant? Wordsworth also believed that second intensity, reacting to a particular scene, is not good. As my poets, not romantic enough. So, he would take it and do it later. Okay, thank you. So, we conclude with Ezra Pound saying, "All politic language is language of exploration." It's like kids exploring things. The kid, a one-year-old kid would say, "Open the light." If the head bow, huh? Right, right. They don't know the proper collocation here, but they would say this word. And the word here, "open," if the head thou, is a word of acceleration. The kid is still exploring. But sadly, when we grow up, when we got school, we learn to limit our imagination. Something. So, Ezra Pound is saying, "Yeah, you need to explore. You need to break all these barriers because poetry is basically a metaphor to avoid the thoughts that have been already thought out by others." The thoughts. If you don't explore, you will end up repeating and saying, "Well, I think antherus is Helga to Wobba." I mean, what about the minimal after thought about the Rahman antara, the Arab poet, 2,000 years ago, almost 2,000 years ago, says that poets have said everything I want to say. But why did he still write poetry? Because he was exploring. And the other era poet will mention is later on. So many times he said, "Marin and Hulu Ilana are on 'madam in love dynamic program." I'm quoting other poets. I am imitating other poets. Cooing other poets. We repeat poets, repeat each other. In order to avoid this, you need to explore with image, with experiment, with imagery, with language, everything.
Okay, now I'll conclude. I expect it to do more, but we'll see here. So, there are four ways, for phases to approaching a poem. One, two, three. Like, you'll find different people saying different things, different box, those different sources. But I like to follow this kind of system that you don't have to follow it as, you know, like literally. Number one, will you read the poem? Try to notice things about it. When you have to, when you have to do a poem to understand it, to read it, to analyze it, first, don't read it. Just look. Notice things. A size, four, a shape, the repetition. Deal with the text as if it is in a language you don't understand. Because I don't want you to read this short poem. Is it a long poem? Are the lines the same size? The front size? Is it? Can you find the repeated words, repeated phrases? Does it begin in the same way? Does it end in the same way? Step number two. Read the poem and read it aloud. Poetry is meant to be read aloud. You don't read the poem aloud, you still miss a lot. You're lucky. Most of the poems we have here are already available on YouTube and sometimes recited hundreds of times by people around the world. You can do your own recitations, by the way. Upload them to YouTube. That would be fun. So, read aloud. And this helps with the music, basically, the resin, and also the tone. Is it a sad poem? Is it a bleak poem? Dark poem? Hopeful? Optimistic? Pessimistic? And then try to understand the meaning, the direct meanings, the meanings of the words. And at this phase here, you need to check the dictionary for words you don't. Please, don't come to class. Examine. You know, in one of the groups, I was explaining how "sigh" what "sigh" indicates in Auden's poem. And I realized a couple of students don't know what the word "sigh" means. You, we're not native speakers here. The words are not difficult, but you need to check the dictionary. You don't have to prepare before class, but before you come here, please open the poem, highlight the three difficult words, find their meaning. This is the only thing I want you to do. You could do more, of course, but this is enough. So, the difficult words. Come to class. The next class, we'll see. We study a poem by Nathan even Parvati. I was planning to do it today. And a poem by Sir Thomas Wyatt, who's always to hunt. Who so, this is a new word. What should you do? Go to dictionary. Number four. And this is where we do our business here. Read between the lines. Connect between the form and the meaning, in the shape and the idea and the words. Analyze the sounds. Answer the question, "Why?" So, what? Why is this repeated? Why does this sound like this? Why is the rhyme different, regular, irregular? So, link the form and the meaning. Aim for the implied, for the things between the lines. This is close reading. We mentioned before. And again, the metaphors, the literary devices, and the imagery. What I usually do, remember Ali Oppenheimer's poem? We noticed things, and then we try to see. Read it aloud. And then to see what new words. Probably sometimes. But number three, by the way, sometimes you will not be able to understand what the poet means, because poets say stuff. Even for words themselves, sometimes don't know what it means. Honey, I never closed the new-born desert. I don't know. But this is the beautif. It doesn't mean I don't know. Means, means I'm not 100% sure, but I can still guess. I can give an idea. We'll see how things go when we comment on a poem. Finally, on a text, whatever you do, base your opinions and thoughts on the text, on ideas, on evidence. I could claim here that there could be two types of evidence. Number one, textual evidence. The poet repeats the word "nor," "nor," "nor" three times. The poet ends with the same rhyme scheme, "iii" sound. The poet begins with "I" and ends with "I." To support your argument. Okay, always do this in exams, in your discussions. Most of you forget to do this. This is, to me, more important than anything else. Get used to saying, "The poet is doing this. The poem is saying this, because in the text, for example, in the text, it goes like this." Number two, evidence based on souls. Again, going back to our lab enamels poem. We said the question, replying the question, without the poet, the speaker will change or not. Some of you said, "I think he is going to change because the very act of writing the poem is an act of change." This is evidence, still not based on something in the text, based on logic, on my understanding of life, thoughts, connecting things, connecting the dots. Not, not necessarily, not necessarily. I, I usually don't like to go to the background or something. So, I don't want to go and call Ali, "What did you do when you, when you write this poem? What did you change in your life?" I don't care about this. But this is it. Because second, even if it is about two, still something around the text. Writing the poem itself. When you say, for example, "I take this as evidence." This is what I'm saying. So, if I ask you a question, your exam is Alabama going to change? Give evidence from the text. You could say, "I think he's going to change because the very act of writing the poem is evidence of change." Writing, speaking, releasing the thoughts. Someone else might say, "Yes, because in the text, he uses the word regrets, and regrets is plural, so he's not regretting one thing, user creating many things." In the text, he uses the past simple tense, "I never felt." And then there were other verbs, "felt," "closed," "couldn't." The use of the past simple tense here indicates, this is evidence, textual evidence, indicates something that happened in the past, and there's a promise here that this will happen, will happen no more. For next class, ladies, we're going to examine Tamim and Bar, what is poem? Part only, just the first part of it. Again, this is in Arabic. I know. We'll comment on it in English, but we'll study the Arabic text and see how everything we said so far can be applied to, to this poem. If you have a question, at something to say, please go on. Okay, so you're saying in Porter, you have to have this, this moment of identifying with the text, which is a challenge. But in, in prose, in novels, we find this all the time, basically. Possible. This is for you and about you. Nice. That's, that's so true. But also sometimes we still like and identify with text because, as human beings, we identify with people around the world. The struggle of black people in America, that struggle of South Africans against apartheid. Okay, yeah. I see. I see your point. I see a poor. Thank you very much. I will stop here and see you next time. Shala. Article are Thea Sir Malcolm.