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.