Writing Plan and Record: Nicole Anne Ratliff

The beautiful thing I find about poetry, as well as all other forms of literature, is its ability to be read and re-read it thousands of times with new meanings created each time. Although it took me longer to start this assignment, once I was immersed in the literature I felt at home. Taking into consideration what was discussed in class as well as in the last blog posts, I found it completely mind blowing how these pieces seemed to change right before my eyes.

 Unfortunately this time around I lent my whiteboard to a friend and so my scatterbrained thoughts were written directly on the poem and in my handy dandy notebook. Not as much fun as using different colored expo markers, but it does the job just fine!

1/19/2016- 10:53am 

I realized that while reading these poems, there were a few points that really stuck out for comparison. Those included the differences between genres- lyric and ballad- as well as how these genres influenced my expectations of what was written as well as how it was given. As well as the language used, such as the repetition in both poems of the words "two" and "one," "souls," as well as the point of a "refin'd" love. I also noticed how each poem brought in the metaphysical concept of how a temporal love turns eternal and where those lines meet.

1/19/2016- 12:46pm

Listening to the audio, brought a whole new experience to the poetry. It's so interesting to notice how different the words sounded in my head, in my own voice, compared to another's. For A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, the speaker brought the poem to life. I felt almost a reverence while listening to his soft but firm words and could imagine Donne speaking the same way. It was smooth and gentle but portrayed a certain level of passion and firmness that he really meant what he was speaking. For The Ecstasy, Burton spoke as if he was still in the moment, as if the poem were a dream like moment. His voice was smooth and had a musical, almost lulling like quality. As the explanation of the metaphysical world comes about in the poem, his voice rises and one can hear as the passion increases. He is articulate in his pronunciations which adds to the delicate but also unyielding tone of the poem.

1/20/2016- 11:30am
Well that was a lot harder than I thought... I had an idea of what I wanted to do but this time around I really felt as if though I couldn't put my thoughts on paper! Maybe it was the topic of sappy love poetry or maybe it was because I didn't really know what I was supposed to be saying, but I couldn't help but be reluctant while writing this #thereasonwhyIprocrastinated... On a more serious note, it took me about 2 hours to write, but I have never felt so unsure and lacked so much confidence in a paper before. While writing though, I did realize that it was nice to talk to my coworkers and roommates about my ideas and sort a few of the things out in the jumbled mess I call my thoughts.