Poetry Out Loud: Solitude

   So, at first when my english teacher told us to choose a poem from the website poetryoutloud.org, I was clueless on which poem I should recite and remember. There were so many poems that I just randomly picked the ones that had a pretty good tittle. As I looked at the ones that I picked, I saw that they were the ones that I didn't like or didn't make sense to me. Then I scroll down the page and thought about the meaning of the title and found " Solitude" by: Ella Wheeler Wilcox. When I looked at the poem I was freaked out if I could remember any poem by memory at all. Tonight, I took a look at the poem and tried to memorize it by memory and it didn't work really well. But, then I could recite from memory.

   I don't think I have to do many gestures for my poem. Probably I would do gestures sometime in the stanza to show the meaning of that line. But, what I 'm afraid is that I would tense up when I am in front of my classmates and forget my lines. For example, I can put my hand out when the at the part " Sing, and the hills will answer". Also, I can change the pitch or type of voice that I'm using to recite the poem. That is because for every positive thing there's a negative thing that is said about the subject.

   In the poem " Solitude" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, I feel that she explains the negative and positive things about life and the reaction that we will get if this is the emotion that we show. I really like this poem, because I really agree with the opinions that are stated in the poem. What ever attitude and emotion that you produce on the outside will determine the reaction that you will get from people around. However, there are some people that actually get the opposite reaction of what they expect. For example, there could be a student that wants to get along with her/his classmates. In order to do that they try to be kind to them, but the reaction from their classmates could turn out to be a good or bad one. It varies because of how each person's mind process the emotion or feelings that is given to them.

FIve Part Paragraph Extra Credit

   So far one fourth of the school year has passed during my time at school in my English class, I found that I have developed a little bit on the things I needed to work on. There was one major thing that I needed to work on. That was to stay on topic, looking back on what I said about improvements, I saw that I need to work on my commentaries. I feel that I have improved throughout the year as I got to understand more in depth of a commentary about a concrete detail. Then, there was the transitions that I needed to improve on. I feel that I didn't really improve that much on this skill. But, I think that I should expand my vocabulary more than it is now to help pick transitions. Lastly, the flow of my writing, because to me it flows but when other people read it they say that it doesn't really flow. I think that I have seen why that is, by looking at the essay in another person's eye. Although, I haven't polish my writing skills much, I hope to make more improvements as the school year goes on.

Poetry Out Loud Activites

Part I: Website Cruising

1. "The Metal and The Flower" By: P.K. Page

2. " A Dream Within A Dream" By: Edgar Allan Poe

3. " Fairy Tale Logic" A.E. Stall

4. "Solitude" By: Ella Wheeler Wilcox; "The City of Sleep" By: Rudyard Kipling

Part II:What Do You Think?

Out of the five poems that I read, I thought that the poem that I liked best was Solitude. That is because inside everyone of us, there is a part of our soul that is in solitude. Although most humans don't admit, they are lonely somewhere within themselves. Only one's self can tell, not other people unless you show that on a very large scale. I didn't like the poem called " Fairy- Tale Logic" because I didn't really understand the poem and it seemed so confusing. I would probably study " Solitude" because Wilcox tells the positive side of things but then she also tells the negative side of it too. I don't know if in the eyes of others I connect with the poem, but I feel like I myself do connect with the poem. That is because, usually I would be more interested sitting in the sidelines and watch and if I do join in then I wouldn't want to join in so much. Opinion wise I would feel relax if I were alone, but I would also feel weird having no one near me. In big crowds I would rather be with someone rather than alone. But, if I needed to do something, I would do the task alone since it will be faster.

Part III:Scoring Criteria

I think that based on the " Evaluation Criteria and Tips" PDF document, I think that the two things that will be the easiest would be the ability to not act out the poem and showing that I can connect with the poem. That is because I think that I am more of a still person unless I am bored then I will move around a lot. The two things that I think will be more difficult will be the ability to not only look at the judge but at other people too. Also, the ability to speak loud because to me I already sound like I am yelling when I try to talk loud. But, people end up saying that they can barely hear me.Plus I would be worried about my accuracy when saying the words. For Example, they say that words sometimes get marked down because the recitation is wrong. For me, I feel like I have a Chinese accent so some people don't really understand what I am saying. Because to them it sounds different from what I hear myself say.

Part VI: Videos

Stanley Andrew Jackson: I thought that this poem was successful, because I could feel from his voice the tone of the poem. Also, if I were to just read the poem off something, I wouldn't understand a clue that the poem is about. But when someone actually puts emotions and feelings into the words that it give the audience a sense of what is being said.

Allison Strong: I think that Allison Strong was successful because of the way she recited the poem. Although she was a female you could hear that she was reciting off the poem as a male. It wasn't just the pitch of the voice she is using.But, the feeling that she sent out with the words she said.

Part V:Summary

After spending some time on Poetry Out Loud, I didn't think that the website would have that less. From what I imagined, I thought that there were more selections. I looked at a poem judged by the tittle and when I click to read the poem, it wasn't as good as I thought it was. Maybe it was because I didn't look deep enough to find the meaning of the poem but I didn't really like most of the poems that I looked at. I'm really nervous about the competition, because I'd get embarrassed reciting a poem in front of everyone and my voice isn't very loud. I am planning to memorize " Solitude" because I think that I can remember something better if I can relate to what it means.

Something Interesting

In our discussion "Lobsters" by Howard Nemerov, I heard some interesting ideas and insights that I didn't notice about the poem. For example, when someone mentioned " As he crawls over the shell of a dream resembling himself." At first, I didn't pay much attention to what the poem meant and what that line meant. But, when someone mentioned that part, I started to think what did that line meant. The first thought was that the lobster was just crawling over a rock or something. As we started discussing about that line, we go our heads together and figured out that it means that the lobster is walking over another lobster that is like himself. So it's like a bunch of lobsters just crawling over each other. 

I admit, I'm not much of a person to look deep into a poem. After we had our discussion, I felt that the poem "Lobsters" was the poet's way of explaining how beautiful the lobster is in a somber tone. But, the poet also compares humans to lobsters as if humans weren't as beautiful. Although the poet was describing the lobsters as if they are at a much higher beauty scale than us humans, they are somewhat similar to humans. Like humans they are waiting wonder when their time will come to an end. Usually we humans don't think about these things. But, when in the last two lines " Thinking: There's something underneath the world. The fame beneath the pot that boils the water". It sparks our thoughts about when will our time end? Is there more than what we see and experience right?

5 part paragraph

During the last few weeks that I listened to my peer's paper read aloud, I found that many of the papers had the same things to work on. For example,I found that some of the papers had plot summary in them before or after their quote. Then there were people who had a little bit of problem with one or two mistakes on conventions. Other than that, I don't seem to find anything that my peers needed to work on. Although I thought that there could be a better hook in the topic sentences. On the other hand few people had to work on their concrete details and commentary. There were some commentaries that were kind of plot summaries and not their own thought about the concrete details. Also, the commentaries didn't really tie in with the concrete details.


On my own five part paragraph essay, I found that I had many things to work on. What hit me the worst was how my paper didn't flow easily. I could polish how I worded my sentences and how my sentences were structured. Also,  I can go back and choose better transitions for each point that I was making. My commentaries seemed to waver from what my concrete detail was trying to prove. Maybe I can find better concrete details to support my idea so that I could write more about the topic and I can go deeper on what I was discussing about in my essay.

Formal vs. Informal Diction

   As of my report about this week, there wasn't much exciting things that I thought was exciting. All through out the whole week, I felt that there was an abundant load of homework on Thursday. Plus the fact that "we" the Orchestra people had a concert that very same night. Although I made sure that I did all my homework before preparing for the concert, I found later when I came home that I  still had some homework left to do. I finished my other homework but then I forgot that I had to do my "Tone Worksheet". Before going to bed, I tried to finish the homework; but then a thought occurred to me that I have a Japanese test the following day. So I studied my vocabulary for Japanese. Along the way as I was finishing studying, I remember that I also have a Word Power quiz on the same day as my Japanese test. Instead of doing my homework, I studied for the Word Power quiz and when I finished it was already 11:00 PM. I was thinking, since it's only 11:00PM I still can do my homework instead of doing it in the morning. Sure, I finished my Tone worksheet homework but then when I got to school and Mrs. Gilman said " Let's collect your homework from last night." I was thinking am I smart or what? I finished my homework. But then when I tried to look for my homework it wasn't there. I remember then that I forgot to put the homework in my backpack before going to school. Doomed thought I, I am going to get a F for the assignment! 

  

   Well, lets drop that thought; my mind went floating back to what I have that is due on Monday. Shocking I didn't finish my novel for my honors English class do I have to somehow cram the book in and finish my project by Saturday. On top I still have to make my brochure about a scientist, so far my research is finished; but I still need one more source. I wonder how am I going to fit all these things in during the weekend. Finishing blow, I am to bring the fake baby from health home this weekend and have to care for the baby. If I can finish all this assignments and projects, I am indeed proud of myself.

Writing about Wrighting

   One of my proudest writing would be when I was in 8th grade writing a book review. The book was called Stravaganza: City of Flowers, by: Mary Hoffman. In eight grade, we had to write a book review on the book that we read about once every one or two months. Usually I am really worried about my grammar, punctuation and other things when I write essays. But in that particular one, I think I did the best on.Also, most of the books that I read for essays, I didn't know what to write and I end up rambling on about the book. In my best writing, I actually made a pretty balance of my opinion about the book and the book's plots.


   I was really into the book because the book was mainly full of fantasy, romance, action, and history throughout the whole novel. The novel would be what I call a perfect combination of my favorite type of novel. Also, the plot was very exciting that I couldn't stop reading the book. The setting would go back and forth between the present and the past with a item called a talisman. The talisman would be something that is from the past and when you sleep you can drift off into the past. But as exciting as it is for the characters, it was dangerous; one could be lost forever between time space if they were to somehow end up in the wrong time space. There is all this action with all kinds of people across the whole plot; but the most I was interested in was the events that happened with the royalty. There are almost other people that are from the present world that go back in time to help solve mysteries.


   I don't remember what I got for the score of that one particular essay, but I was really glad that I read the novel. At first I hesitated because when I saw how the novel was when I was randomly looking at novels. But, I thought why not I give this a try? If I didn't like the novel then I would return the novel and get another one. Other than that essay about City of Flowers, I don't really remember what other essays that I was proud of.