Choose one of the poems for this week's reading. I want you to:
1) Find an example of metaphor (or some other figurative language)
2) Point out use of sound
3) Describe the spacing and configuration of stanzas. What does the poem's organization do for the reading experience?
Bonus question: "tendril" is used in both "Porn" and "Trouble in Mind." Is this just a coincidence or is "tendril" a particularly poetic word?
A metaphor used in Trouble in Mind is characters of granite schist. It is pointing out how she is relating other people to granite. It's spacing, and stanzas point out other things that are going on throughout the story, as she is speaking things are happeneing.
ReplyDelete"Trouble in Mind":
ReplyDelete"mumblecored" is a great big metaphor. Mumblecore movies are about slackers who mumble and the films are low-budget w/ amateur actors. To me it captures the type of person that the narrator is--an Asian woman who believes that she suffers racism even though others deny it. She "meeps" a great verb and a nice sound after "mumblecored." (Also mumblecored sounds like cored out or gored--it sounds both violent and like something that would happen to a slacker.)
I like the weird indents inserted in the poem, but I'm not exactly sure what she's doing. I don't really get indents.
Tendril is a gross word and both poems use it grossly. So, yes, I guess it's poetic. Plus the double-T in "Trouble in Mind" sounds really violent.
In the poem "Trouble in Mind", line 15 the poet uses a strong sentence of alliteration, "...torn like tendrils of bloody tenderloin..." the sound that comes from this line when you read it out loud made it stand out to me. Personally, I wasn't really sure what a tendril was so I had to look that up, and they're the little curly vines that form around plants, which surprised me because tendril was also in the poem "Porn". When Dorothea Lasky uses "tendril" in her poem, I feel like it's being used to really describe motion, like the spiral of a tendril, rather than the stringy-ness that Cathy Park Hong might be using in "Trouble in the Mind". It was really interesting that these poems were so different in structure and overall substance, but shared a common word.
ReplyDeleteUse of sound that is used here is minor key, when " Her lyric's needed when they need a backup". It means that she needs music to describe what she is saying.
ReplyDeletetrouble in mind
ReplyDelete1) the simile: "torn like tendrils of bloody tenderloin.
2) the sound of the poem is resonance as the poem was rich in the variety of the text
3) the spacing and configuration of the poems helps the reader take in every line. with all of the figurative language
bonus:tendril was used in 2 different ways in the poems i think it was just a coincidence that it was used in both poems
In the second stanza of "Trouble in Mind", the line "With characters of granite schist" displays a metaphor. While the line in its literal meaning can mean people made of granite, what the line is actually about is about posting something to social media. Twitter, maybe, or something along those lines since she's "hashtagging".
ReplyDeleteOne metaphor I found in the poem "Porn" was in the second stanza when mentioning her half-brother and boss leaving her in a dark room possibly her state of mind was darkened by them at one point or another and she feels as if they was wronged her on multiple occasions.
ReplyDeleteThe poem gives the readers a flow, first she describes her horrific experience watching porn then it goes into some scenes to give the reader a picture to understand where her emotions are coming into play. She then goes on to inform the readers how the reasoning behind porn and the fascination of capturing the audience is the same as us engaging in her writing. This flow helped me understand the strange connection.
I like your interpretation of this metaphor. I wanted to analyze this poem due to it being so different from everything else we read but it was very hard for me to interpret. I also agree with what you said about the scenes such as imagery the writer used to visualize everything that was being said as well as making them into horrific experiences. The flow and spacing helped separate tiny thoughts on a whole topic.
DeleteThe word tendril is used as a metaphor in the both poem, most of the time poet writes poem using different metaphor for describing whatever the want to describe. The word tendril really define a plant and with all its vines twisting and turning.
ReplyDeleteThe poem "smalltown Lift" uses onomatopoeia. In the last line where it says" I have my arm around you. Click, Click, Click" The sound of clicks makes me think that the arm around is squeezing more and more with each click.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem Trouble in Mind a metaphor used is "you're so post you're silicon, it sounds like her friends are calling her fake for speaking out on something she might never speak up about before.
ReplyDeleteIn "Porn" by Dorothea Lasky, she uses metaphors to deliver her thoughts about porn. She writes, "because the man looks like an ex-boyfriend...a monster" comparing the man she is watching in the porn to different men in her life that she conclusively says are monsters. She also writes, "vomit sex" which are two things that usually don't go together but she uses vomit to describe one of the foreplay she has seen in porn because to her it's disgusting and sick but despite that she still watches it. There really isn't much sounds in this poem but actions that do bring out sound. Lasky writes that she is "crying" after seeing a man in a porn that brings back dark memories of her past. At that, I imagined the narrator crying as they speak about "someone who darkened me a million times over." How Lasky breaks the lines in her stanzas brings more attention to the things the narrator is listing and it brings more emotion to it.
ReplyDeleteOne example of a metaphor would be in the poem "Porn" where the poet says "someone who has darkened me, a million times over" I say this because some one can't actually make you dark physically, emotionally they can but you cant actually see it being done. I don't believe there's any sound in this poem. The spacing, structure, and stanzas helps the author express their message better.
ReplyDeleteIn "Porn" by Dorothea Lasky, in second stanza she stated " Someone who left me in the dark" and "Someone who darkened me", these two lines gives some dramatic expressions. It illustrates her ill relationship with this person.
ReplyDeleteTrouble in Mind
ReplyDeleteThe metaphor I choose is You're Post, you're Silicon, meaning everything is at standstill not moving or going anywhere its remain the same. Its is written in stanza form. The sound of the poem is like someone only talking and is not doing anything to solve the problem.
Theres a metaphor used in Hong's "Trouble In Mind" that says "with characters of granite schist". Schist meaning (and had to google this) a metamorphic rough surfaced rock with inconsistent layers. Near the end of the poem, the author has Kerry-san repeatedly meep as to signify some sort of complacent surrender to her daily routine of her role as the sidekick chum. Each stanza ascribes a part of the thought process kerry-san goes through whenever under the duress of conflict between her true self and interests and the role she plays in her friend group. From the initial anger she feels from being made consistently a joke to her friends then the dismissal of these feelings. Retaking her assumed place, role, and behaviors among-st them , questioning/judging their boring values along the way and turning inwards questioning her own in the same light. Then finally returning to the safety of darkness to portray her true self through her work and adopting the same "meeping" stance the next day, per the usual.
ReplyDeletetendrils are essentially plants reaching for life. In "porn" the motion of tendrils is ascribed to sexual acts demonstrated in porn films while in "trouble in mind" the tendril is used in visceral imagery to identify the tearing of ones being to fit into a social construct. In both poems tendril is used in a scenario that is a defection of ones true self, being for the purpose of entertainment or social inclusion. Each poem utilizes the tendril to convey meaning subjective to its content yet when conceptualizing a tendril as an instinctual striving for life and seeing it used in modes that disregard peoples nature's to fulfill some external purpose, i feel an appreciation begin to form for some objective natural state and a loss of that through various circumstances and decision made.
In "Porn" an example of metaphor would be "I've got you in my grasp. I've got you right here in my room". An example of sound would be when she begins to cry. This is really the only use of sound I found in this poem. The organization of the stanzas help the readers follow the poem better. It makes us interpret certain things more clearly rather than them being clustered. In my opinion, its a coincidence that tendril is being used as a metaphor in both poems.
ReplyDelete1.A metaphor Dorothea Lasky uses in her poem Porn, is when she compares the man in the movie as if he is a monster. She took the stranger of the movie and made him a person she actually knew.
ReplyDelete2. in this poem sound is something not much used or found, but when the author states, "and now I'm crying...someone who left me in the dark" can work as the overall sound of the second stanza.
3. I would describe the spacing of this poem with no specific requirement. It starts by giving more extended lines in the beginning and as it goes on, it narrows down. This structure helps the reader know when to speed and when to slow down as you read. It also helps the reader not get tired of reading.
*Bonus: I think the word "Tendril" could be a coincidence but it could also be a word that could be used in poetry in many different ways when wanting to compare or describe an object, a person, an idea. example, " The pain Tendrils in my life".
A metaphor used in the 'porn' was in the sixth stanza when the poet stated that, " I've got you right here in my room". This is a metaphor not only of its cliche of trying to grab the attention of the reader, but the fact of the poet did not and can not have all of her readers inside of her room. There is no exact sound coming from the poem, but there is quite a few lines that scream visual imagery. In lines 3&4 of the first stanza for example it states that, "I just watched a woman fuck a hired hand In her marble kitchen while her friends looked on". It is not exactly the most descriptive, but as you read those lines an image of this happening poops up in your head as if you were on of her friends looking along. As far as the spacing and the configuration of the stanzas goes, it allows there to be a surprise at the beginning of each stanza.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “ Porn “ it uses the literary term of Alliteration, for example “ Shall thy youthful heat restore ( suck kind showers in autumn fall, And a second spring recall ) “. The stanzas are short but meaningful in ways; it’s self explains itself after it confuses your mind on its first lines of the stanza. The organization that I experienced from this reading was that the writer was giving a lot of emotions on how she felt about the sex, such as “ In our sex would be counted shame “ which meant she felt some type of way about what was happening during her actions
ReplyDelete"Porn"
ReplyDeleteIn the fifth stanza, the author creates a great connection between the reader and her by saying that she watches porn because she will never be in love but she will be in love with the reader. So this makes me think that she loves the person that reads this poem and then the next person who reads it. So this may be the reason why she will never be in love.
In "Trouble in Mind" I found the poem rather interesting especially the way that the stanzas were made. Theres long pauses in between sentences which gives me the illusion of actual trouble in the mind. A metaphor I found within the poem is "her lyrics needed when they need a backup minor key" to me this is a metaphor because it's stating her words need back up and they're comparing her words to a song.
ReplyDeleteIn "Porn" I felt a sense of feeling dirty or like the author was trying to arouse the reader. The words used start of being really dirty then it gives this sense of a mutual connection between the reader and author. A metaphor I found was "someone who darkened me a million times over." They author doesn't mean the literally but rather that someone has hurt her and broken her heart which I feel is a very relatable sentence to many people and it has that comparison between someone being cold hearted and getting their heart broken.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea that the author is trying to make us feel "dirty," Jailene. I think you're exactly right, that porn simultaneously makes its audience aroused and "dirty" and that's what the author is bragging that she can do in her poetry.
Delete