I think one of the most important elements that I want to focus on is the genre. This is considered lyric poetry and lyric poetry is meant to express emotion. Both of these poems convey a lot of emotion, each in their own way. Lyric poetry is meant to express the thoughts or emotions of the narrators/author. In one of these poems the narrator is talking about himself, while in the other he is describing another couple's situation, but in both poems the narrator expresses his own emotions about the situation. I also think the narrator is an important element in each of these poems. In "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" the narrator is more involved in the poem, and in "The Extasie" the narrator seems to be very involved. I also think the tone of each poems plays an important role in expressing the ideas, and the diction contributes to setting this tone.
1/18 1:34 PM
I noticed in listening to the poems that the rhyming and rhythm are fairly consistent but not completely. It seemed to me that the poem would flow really well and rhyme for a few lines and then, every one in a while, there would be a few lines that would not have the same flow. This seems to be more true for "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" than for "The Extasie." The Extasie seemed very lyrical, almost as if it were a song when read by Richard Burton. It flowed really easily, and it even seemed to have a climax about 2/3 of the way in, similar to most songs.
1/18 9:01 PM
1/20 11:32
I finished writing my paper last night. I think it took me about an hour and a half, maybe a little less. The hardest part for me was not really knowing exactly what a formal literary analysis is suppose to sound like. I struggled to come up with a thesis because I lacked clarity on exactly what that was supposed to sound like. I knew it was important to identify the formal elements and then explain their function, but I wasn't sure to what end. So I just ended up writing about the formal elements and how they contribute to the ideas Donne is trying to express in each poem.
I liked your comments about how lyrical The Extasie was. When I read it aloud to myself it seemed a little jarring at places but listening to Richard Burton read it was really relaxing!
ReplyDeleteI agree that it was hard to write an analysis because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing either! But I learned that it's really about the effort and once you do come up with a thesis, get that first paragraph done, somehow the rest of it falls into place.. mostly haha I also liked how you pointed out the inconsistencies within certain parts of the poem reading, those definitely stuck out to me too
ReplyDeleteI noticed your self-observation of not "knowing that a formal analysis is supposed to sound like." I write papers a lot and I still struggle with this. I'm constantly questioning, "Is this getting too personal? Am I adding to many emotions?" And honestly...it depends on who's reading it. I've had some professors declare my work "not the assignment" because I used a personal pronoun one time. I've had other professors say that they love how I can connect with texts, and that that actually helps me to analyze it. Truth be told, it's difficult to say whether there even IS a way that formal analyses are "supposed" to sound--given they follow the basic guidelines of a formal analysis, which is what we've been given in Dr. Burton's really helpful presentation on formal aspects of writing. To my knowledge, follow those aspects and you got yourself a formal analysis. The rest is all subjective. Wooo this was long winded.
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