Monday, 7-15

Posted on: Sun, 07/14/2019 - 21:38 By: Daniel Anderson

Today, we will spend the first 20 minutes or so of class doing some clean up on our audio captures from last week's podcasts. We will complete these steps:

  • Quick trimming to cut off extra audio
  • An initial amplification to increase volume
  • By-hand amplification/reduction to smooth out volume levels
  • Replacement and fading of any audio samples
  • A final Normalization of Audio
  • A noise removal filter
  • Exporting the edited recording as a wav file
  • Uploading the final product to our class web site

Once we have completed these steps, we will turn to our final unit of the class--the humanities. To get started, we will review the three main components of our final unit: a bibliography, a poetry adaptation video, and poetry analysis and research essay.

After we have reviewed the assignments, we will discuss some poems. I will hand out a packet. We may be interested in the performance of "We Real Cool."

Once we have discussed some of these poems, we will turn toward our homework, which is to do some initial research and pick our poem for the unit. For poems that are likely to have scholarship associated with them, you may want to explore:

You can also look broadly on the internet for poems.

Before picking a poem, you will want to check that you can find a sufficient amount of scholarship associated with it. For this task, you will want to start with library resources like those on the English and Comparative Literature guide page, particularly the MLA bibliography or the Literature Resource Center.

After we have looked over some of the paths you can take to find poems and scholarship, you can use the rest of class time to begin researching and identifying a poem for our work.

For homework, there are several items:

1) download and install Adobe Premier Rush. You will first need to install the Adobe Creative Cloud software using Student Order option from UNC. Once you have the software order fulfilled, install Creative Cloud using the instructions and web page from UNC.

2) read over the poems in the packet that I give you in class.

3) conduct research and explore potential poems so that you can identify the poem you want to work with. Once you have your poem picked out, respond to this posting with a comment. In your comment, list the author and the name of the poem, and any initial thoughts or questions you have about the work. 

Comments

I can't help but resonate with Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. Although I only know it from face value, I'm drawn to the narrative of the protagonist in an isolated wooded area in the middle of winter. The poem has a sense of darkness and mystery to it that draws me in and makes me want to understand it more. The last two lines repeat the same words, 'and miles to go before I sleep,' which I assume has been interpreted in many ways. The poem has a sort of "melody" to it that I find beautiful, or even whimsical. I look forward to reading more into the poem, literary analyses on it, and Robert Frost. It will be interesting to uncover all of the hidden gems Frost wove through his work and placed between the lines. 

This poem is short and doesn't seem like its saying very much. This author likes to test what a poem is. I feel like plum is more than just a fruit in this poem. I picked this poem because I feel as if there is a much deeper meaning and I wanted to challenge myself. 

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen is a poem that talks about the horrors of World War I. The poem really interested me because of it's use of imagery. World War I is an interesting topic to me because it's something that I really don't know much about due to WWII overshadowing it. Something that I also liked was how the title and the actual poem contradict each other. The title means that it is sweet and proper to die for ones country, while the poem talks about the pity of war and how bad it really was. 

I was first drawn to the poem because I wanted the topic of the poem to be related to water/boating/rowing and this poem incorporates that. I also appreciate Walt Whitman as a writer/poet and a fellow DC native. What figuratively drew me to the poem is the rythme because it sounds like you are telling a story when you read it. I am interested to discover more of the background and inspiration for this poem and who could possibly represent the "captain."

This was a poem I got to briefly read my senior year and really enjoyed it, so I chose it to have a chance to analyze it in more depth.  The poem is about a little boy who has an alcoholic father.  Although the speaker alludes to abuse as well, the little boy still idolizes his father.  The title suggests that the "waltz" is a regular thing for the father and is unique to him.  A waltz is also a dance with two people, which represents the boys relationship with his father.  I also feel like this is a poem that will be interesting to create a video for.

jdestro

Mon, 07/15/2019 - 23:49

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The author of the poem is stating how no matter what happens to her, she will rise. This is a great poem for me because what she says in the poem I can relate to. She is demonstrating being relentless and never giving up. This poem is great for me to work with.

This poem is about Angelou's life as a woman. She recognizes all of the complications that occurred during the time she was becoming as successful as she was. Truly, she was not treated the way she should have been, and takes a huge stand for women everywhere in hopes of reminding them to always stay strong. I chose this poem because it is very powerful, especially throughout the tone and type of words that were used. Overall, this poem has a very strong meaning and purpose.

I was initially drawn to this poem because I once read the poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes, talking about a dream deferred. "I, Too" tells the story of the American experience through the lens of a young African American in the early 20th century during the Jim Crow era. The poem's plot is of the African-American moving from out of sight, eating in the kitchen, when “company” is dining. What specifically struck me was, in the first stanza, it opens with "I, too, sing America" but at the end to verb is changed to "I, too, am America."


 

I've always really liked the message of this poem. I have particular interest in the villanelle because it's such a restrictive form yet it carries so much emotion. I'm excited to bring this poem to life. I already have a good idea of what music and recitation I'd like to use because I've thought about this poem a lot before. 

Dominique Monteon

Tue, 07/16/2019 - 02:32

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I was drawn to this poem when I saw it was about love and death. I believe that this about a young couple who were deeply in love. One day the women dies and the man becomes devastated. He says that this death only brings them closer and makes their love stronger. I also believe that this poem is a tribute to both Poe and Poe's wife whom both had recently just passed.

 

This poem says to remember where you came from and everything that has helped you throughout your life, whether it's in nature or within relationships. While just briefly reading over the poem, I really liked the message of it. 

An Army Corps on the March by Walt Whitman is about union soldiers during the civil war. This poem interests me because I enjoy American history especially when it relates to wars and military endeavors. Also, the poems seems somewhat simple when first read but really has a lot of beneath the surface material which interests me as well.   

This poem interested me a lot because just by glancing over it you imagine a group staying out late in a pool hall, having fun and living life to the fullest. Although in the end Brooks states "We Die soon" I feel that if this wasn't included there wouldn't be a deeper meaning to the poem and it would just be about having fun. I have a lot of ideas to bring this poem to life and Im looking forward to finding the deeper meanings and metaphors to this poem.

I really enjoyed this poem because Shakespeare compares the different stages in our life to a play. He takes us through the seven stages a man goes through in his life from, birth to old age, and I want to delve deeper into this text and see what he has to say about each stage. I also like the figurative language he uses throughout the poem.

I really enjoyed this poem because it is very relatable in this day and age. It is about a man who has lost who he really is while still recognizing who he used to be. It is interesting to see how this ties into a lot of teenagers lives as they are constantly trying to fit in with other people that they end up losing themselves. At the end of the poem Merwin describes how he can't grasp onto who he was before in the past because he is so changed, but he still has memories of it and will never forget it. This poem will be interesting to uncover deeper meanings and explore the figurative language throughout it. 

I was really interested in John Donne as I did a presentation about him before but I never read one of his poems. This one really sparked my attention as it has been critically acclaimed and talks about the perception of death. Death is an event that will affect everyone meaning that everyone can relate to it and able to interpret the work in their own way. After reading the poem, I was shocked as it shows human triumph over death and that death is just a lowly figure. This was a fresh idea as death has been idealized as an evil figure that humans should be afraid of

In Flanders Fields talks about the aftermaths of World War 1. The author, John McCrae was a military doctor who witnessed the horrors of war firsthand. He wrote this poem as a reaction to his experiences. I believe that this poem will be interesting to dissect because the story behind the poem is interesting. Hopefully there will be something to uncover from the language and format.