Sometimes strokes almost touch

Sometimes strokes almost touch,

On the edge of my canvas, they sway,

Like shy colors, they ask for much,

But vanish when I try to obtain.

I chase them through my mixed paint,

In my palette, they play hide and seek,

Each stroke tells a story, without restraint,

Yet the perfect one remains meek.

I blend and dab, I layer and trace,

But art has its mysterious scheme,

Like fleeting visions in a sacred space,

They slip away, leaving me to dream.

I felt inspired to imitate Julia Alvarez’s “Sometimes the Words Are So Close” for my creative project. For my piece, “Sometimes the Strokes Are So Close”, I wanted to incorporate a series of her writing into mine. For instance, in the poem, Alvarez has a poem written in a first-person view, giving the readers insight into her thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Having a first-person view creates a sense of intimacy and can help the readers understand the struggles. I also enjoyed reading Alvarez’s work as I liked the creative aspect and understanding her thought process through her drafts. 

I decided to take some of the aspects that I talked about above into my poem, except my poem explores the frustration that occurs in the creative process. As well as talking about the need to have the painting be so perfect and the idea that the “speaker” struggles with bringing their artistic vision to life. I decided to start the poem off by rewording Alvarez’s first line, “Sometimes the words are so close,” to “Sometimes strokes almost touch”. I noticed that the structure of Alvarez’s poem was free verse so I decided to stick with the same style, so the poem has less of a rhyming scheme and the lines vary with the length. Something else that I noticed within Alvarez’s writing was the self-discovery that she was learning and how she was trying to express herself. This is something that I felt was a key element within her writing and was something very personal yet private at the same time. To incorporate this into my writing I thought of what I felt passionate about and what is something that I’ve personally struggled with and that other people may or may not understand. Another significant piece of Alvarez’s writing that I noticed (and talked a bit about before) and incorporated into my poem was the use of personal pronouns as it creates a more personal relationship and bond.

“I chase them through my mixed paint, In my palette, they play hide and seek,” (Line 5-6), I incorporated the feeling of the palette playing hide and seek to create a more relevant or familiar experience to “chasing” ideas or inspiration. A lot of people are artists whether they acknowledge or realize it, for instance, writing this project! I personally always struggle to begin any sort of project whether that be for academics or just for fun, I felt that the overall topic would create something relatable for the audience. Additionally, I decided to adjust the wordplay as I felt that it was much needed especially when describing painting as there are different senses and imagery that occur. For instance, “shy colors” and “fleeting visions”. Painting is a universal activity that typically occurred when people were younger and the description of painting brings the memories of how simple and complicated it is. It ideally makes the audience feel some sort of deja vu as they remember their childhood. 

Yue Wu-Jamison

An Artwork’s Response to the Artist

Within Claude McKay’s two sonnets, “Poetry” and “To A Poet,” the two sonnets, although thematically linked, share some differences throughout their body. The most obvious difference is that “To A Poet” lacks the rhyming couplet at the end of the sonnet form, which “Poetry” retains the normal Shakespearean sonnet form with the standard 14 lines, with a rhyming couplet at the end. Further, the speakers in the two sonnets are speaking to each other– thus they are two different speakers, one being a poet, and one being a poem. This is made evident in “Poetry” through “my truly human heart,” revealing the speaker, while in “To A Poet,” readers can infer that the sonnet is speaking back to the poet through the usage of the word “spirit,” where McKay writes the poem itself in a supernatural way, similar to how the poem is written in “Poetry,” where it is described in almost a religious, and thus supernatural way through “altar-stone of art.” Ironically, the poem’s sonnet lacks form, while the poet’s sticks to traditional sonnet form, telling readers that art has no bounds and is not restricted to form, while the artist (here, the poet) is confined to the bounds of normal Shakespearean sonnet form, perhaps trying to convey the suffocating nature of how restrictive art forms are, but since the poet is McKay, we can assume that it’s less so that the speaker finds the sonnet form restrictive, and more so that art does not have bounds. The two sonnets both have different speakers and variation in form, but otherwise, the sonnets have similar themes, where both speakers admire the opposite; both sonnets associate the other with some sort of power– “power,” “immortal,” “vital,” “kings,” and “glory.” The sonnets both place the poem and poetry on a pedestal, praising the other. The diction of both sonnets suggest that McKay intended to empower the art and artist, perhaps even putting himself on a pedestal by glorifying the poetry and poet. In lending power to both the art and artist, both sonnets also put a lot of pride in art.

Isaak Puth

The Budding Outcasts

Adrianna Puente’s “The Rose and The Poppy” does a better job in challenging the traditional symbolism of a rose. The speaker is personified to be the poppy, expressing their individuality in contrast to the rose through apostrophe. However, the comparison between the rose and the poppy becomes an implied metaphor for individuality. The speaker makes the contrast with the rose by mentioning how “I am not a ravishing ruby red… purity white,” but an “electric orange” (Puente 2-3, 13). Color is a prominent image that is galvanized by the orange that bursts from the orange poppy. The poem’s imagery of a colorful world expresses how a flower holds its own uniqueness and is not defined by a single color. The speaker mentions its own state of being an outcast, saying, “most times I am forgotten. Rarely chosen for eager hands on Valentine’s day – but I am my own” (16-19). It is an outcast because its lack of a traditional symbolism makes it incomparable to that of rose. However, it is the poppy not conforming to a traditional symbol but through being a contextual symbolism that it is given its individuality, malleable by both the speaker and audience. Though there is a similarity that exists between the rose and the poppy.

Scent and decay also is a theme in the poem that is compared between the two flowers, “my skin’s perfume meshed… we each wilt into dried petals – scenting rooms with our fragrance. Rotting into umber” (15, 22-24). This bridges into a metaphor for how both flowers are acknowledged as flowers without its symbolisms. The decay is mimicked by how the poem itself decays into smaller stanzas. Though the tone becomes almost melancholic acknowledging that while the rose holds its uniqueness similar to the poppy, both inevitably rot making them not so different as they may appear.

“Sea Rose” by H.D. holds similar ideas by a flower being presented as an outcast. The speaker’s apostrophe to direct their feelings towards the rose reflects more so how the rose itself holds its own identity that combats against its traditional symbolism. The rose is described as being a “harsh rose… stunted… flung on the sand” but with a single leaf that drips an “acrid fragrance” (H.D. 1, 9-10, 15). This rose is in a battered condition, being careless left aside and not holding the traditional symbol of a beautiful red rose in good health. Though it is the contextual symbolism of the rose that reflects how its battered condition gives its own identity outside of tradition. The rose emitting a bitter smell that contrasts against the traditional smell of a rose, paralleling Puente, brings this rose ironically to life through the senses that H.D. uses.

I chose Puente’s “The Rose and the Poppy” over H.D.’s “Sea Rose” because of how Puente evokes emotions by being a different flower than a rose itself. Puente challenges the symbolism by making a comparison that is unlikely to be made, yet utilizes it to bring about how the rose is trapped by its traditional symbolism, whereas the poppy itself is free. Though making the clarification that both are flowers and are natural things bound to die by time holds spiritual connotations that I personally felt connected with. H.D. does a similar good job in evoking these emotions, and that’s primarily through presenting the traditional rose into a battered, destroyed rose that cannot achieve its traditional symbol through its physical appearance. Though I think the comparison Puente uses between the rose and the poppy helps challenge the rose’s traditional symbolism more evocatively.

Phillip Gallo

The art of Nature

When considering rhythms in poems and understanding the different variations, I believe that “Still of be Neat “ by Jonson, best represents the nature of art. When scanning this poem, I mainly got a dominant prosody of iambic tetrameter. Which I believe best fits this poems, meaning that appearances can be deceiving. Therefore, when reading this poem, I feel as if it is portrayed as a scene of a man talking to a woman who is dressed up neatly. Then, as I continued the poem, I also got some anapest meter inline six, which gave the poem a different feeling to the scene as if, it was a monolog, and the man was speaking in his mind. Therefore, we were all listening to how he truly felt towards the women that are neatly dressed. Line six best shows this by saying, “All is not SWEET, all is not SOUND”. This line explains how even though the woman is dressed up neatly and has a graceful face, he still sees her adultery actions. Therefore, lines eleven and twelve can capture his distaste and distrust of overly neat women. This makes me wonder if his preference for women would be for a more natural look. Therefore, that could signify that he believes that women who dress up more naturally and modestly have a more kind and true nature. Overall all these different variations in meters make a sound of patterns that create a visual for us readers to visualize in our minds.  

As for the poem “Delight in Disorder” by Herrick, I feel does represent the nature of art, yet it never created a visual in my head with the rhythm of the poem. The poem seemed so full of metaphors, that it took the visual it could’ve created. The dominant prosody was also an iambic tetrameter, therefore this visual for me was more of us readers listening to a man’s monolog. He suggested with all the metaphors that beauty and attractiveness are not perfections but rather imperfections. This statement can be seen in line twelve when he says, “I see WILD civiliTY”, therefore explaining that all sexy dressed women have the same wild informal behavior and speech. Also, like Jonson, through his use of diction, we readers get a sense that he prefers the way people look naturally when they enjoy their lives, not when they are putting up an act or façade. Through this whole poem full of metaphors, imagery, and personification, I was too caught up in trying to understand the meaning of each line that the visual was never created in my mind. This poem is more a hyperbole that only has an audiovisual of just a man talking, making no suspense to capture our attention.  

-Jeshua Rocha

Chaotic Beauty in Simple Form

Each poem makes a note of how art is not a precise and “neat” form that needs a step by step way of creating nor is it something that is always complex but can be rather simple. From Herrick’s poem I get, as in the title, a more chaotic disorder of what art is, definitely giving me the idea that beauty portrayed here is not a clean and all straightened up thing but more of as stated “Kindles in clothes a wantonness” (Herrick line 2) wantonness being a reckless and freeing act which is being corelated to beauty and art. Herricks poem gives me the sense of not only beauty and art but of love, a sort of romantic feel, something I see closely within the genre of Romanticism. There is that hint of disorder often associated with the genre that shows hints of itself within this poem. Although Herrick’s poem is lovely I dare say Jonson’s poem is seemingly more effective to portraying art. Jonson’s Still to Be Neat also has that unruly and disorderly description to it but in a way the structure and rhythm has a sweeter note. It describes the neat way of how art can be seen and viewed but then goes on to describe how the neat “lady” ,as art is being personified as, does not give the writer the same feeling or as he put, “Such sweet neglect more taketh me” (Jonson line 10) how the neglect of order and formality does not catch his attention as much as the “neglect” or unruliness that art is given form to does. His poem personifying art as a lady who does not need to be a “proper” lady with all her presumption but is better as a lady with “Robes loosely flowing”(line 9), it gives a sense of freedom and carelessness, is much more effective in representing the nature of art and all of the chaotic beauty it entails.

Rhythm and Meter Analysis – Still to be Neat

Both Jonson and Herrick talk about the natural beauty of women although they found that beauty was not something so simple, instead that it was messy. I found that the two poems did a good job of demonstrating women and their struggles although I found that Jonson’s writing was the most effective when comparing the nature of art.

I found that the poem “Still to be Neat” by Ben Jonson was the most effective in representing the nature of art because it felt like the poet was using a lot of imagery to portray women. I found the poem to be talking about the sculptures of beauty and how the women described in the poem felt the need to impress others or had the pressure of society. In line 6 Jonson says, ” All is not sweet, all is not sound.”. I felt like I heard a large emphasis on the “not” meaning that the women who feel the pressure to be a certain way are far from perfect. I also noticed how the poem had 8 syllables in a lot of lines and a couple that stood out had only 7 syllables, which I found peculiar as it might’ve been an emphasis on those lines. Also portraying women’s beauty or the societal pressure to act one way is a sensitive and hard topic for most and Jonson seemed to portray it well without offending others.

Yue Wu-Jamison

What is Art?

 In ‘Delight in Disorder’ it is the promiscuous and sexy vibe from a woman. The telling is that you can be a mess and still be beautiful in any light. Yet, in ‘Still to be Neat’ it is quite the opposite, the author Johson likes women who are neat and basic in their beauty. The nature of art in this sense is that we share different views when it comes to art. For example, The Mona Lisa is a widely renown piece of art that people see in different forms. Some depict the Mona Lisa as smiling, while others see her as frowning or not having any form of expression. This can be greatly seen in how the two poets enforce different meanings and outlooks on how a woman’s beauty is portrayed.

 I’d say, ‘Delight in Disorder’ holds a better argument than ‘Still to be Neat’, in lines 1-2 “A sweet disorder in the dress Kindles in clothes a wantonness.” We can already see that the disorder is pleasing to the writer, how the second line opens us up to the sexual tension of how the woman looks, how he sees her and already wants to be with her sexually is the strength of this poem. The fact that he wants this woman so badly, with the use of diction and imagery helps us imagine how she looks. It makes us put up an image of a sexy woman not even trying to woo us over. Just because of how imperfect and real this is to us it shows that art doesn’t need to be precise and neat. It can be messy and hot and still garner our attention to continue watching, and staring. There also are the beats of these lines that go ba-bump, ba-bump, which bring rhythm into play. These ba-bumps are almost on how the speaker feels in this moment their heart is beating and reacting to how the woman is being expressed. It conveys this throughout the rest of the poem, and I think this is such a great play on rhythm since it continues to show the sound of that heartbeat getting faster as it goes on.

 As in ‘Still to be Neat’ in lines 5-6 “Though art’s hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound” this tells us more that sometimes not everything in art needs to be conveyed, yes, we may not find the meaning in art, but we can see everything else surrounding it. The word sweet is usually associated with something delicious or pleasant here the writer uses it to show us that art doesn’t have to be vibrant or straight in your face. While this can be true, it generally depends on how you see it. With the last word rhyming to the next line, it also creates a rhythm and a setting of happiness and fun in the poem. Which doesn’t really play on that on the meaning of the poem for me, it creates almost a false illusion of playful writing. When its talking about the simple beauty of art and how it corresponds to the simpleness of a woman’s beauty when she isn’t trying to seduce.

 Art is a form of expression and how you choose to accept it, I like things more in my face and loud. While others may like the subtleties of art in its form. There are different ways to view art and judge it, a woman’s beauty can be the social standards of looking perfect all the time or being able to let loose and show her beauty without hiding anything on top. The fact of the matter is that one poem plays with our heart strings of desire and the other tells us to take things the simple way and not dig too much into it.

Kelly Flores

In search for the real beauty

Jonson and Herrick search for the natural beauty of woman. Both insist that real beauty is not found in a fine, neat dress, but in a sightly distracted dress. There is a similarity between Jonson’s poem and Herrick’s poem. Through my individual analysis, I found that their poem’s prosody is Iambic Tetrameter. They both used Iambic Tetrameter to equally describe the natural beauty of women. In my opinion, the most effective poem in representing the nature of art is Herrick’s. To compare some lines from the two poems, I am going to talk about the reasons.

Jonson’s poem, “Still to be Neat”, has an emphasized line, “Though art’s hid causes are not found.” I think ‘Though’, and ‘art’s’ are stressed syllables, combining two syllables, making it a “spondee.” Focusing on that line, Jonson highlights the idea that even though a woman continues to conceal the original looks, the essence cannot be entirely hidden. And through ‘Spondee,’ he strongly emphasizes this fact. He mentions that the neat appearance is kind of beauty, but it fails to resonate with his own heart. Overall, looking at his poetry, instead of describing the slightly disheveled appearance of a woman he likes, he depicts the perfectly neat appearance and expresses his dislike for it. However, if the disheveled appearance is genuinely the beauty that he loves, wouldn’t directly describing it make readers feel that he truly appreciates that beauty? Therefore, I felt that his appeal to the beauty that he likes lacks or credibility.

Herrick’s poem, “Delight in Disorder”, also has an emphasized line, “Do more bewitch me, than when art.” I think ‘Do’ and ‘more’ are stressed syllables, combining to form a “Spondee.”’ Focusing on that line, Herrick highlights the idea a woman who is too precisely sweet, fine, and neat cannot captivate his mind. The only thing that appeals to him is a slightly disheveled, a bit tousled beauty. Throughout the poem, Herrick vividly describes the kind of beauty he appreciates and goes into the details about why disheveled beauty resonates much more with him than perfectly neat beauty. In this meticulous detailing, readers can keenly feel how much he cherishes the slightly disheveled beauty. I think that being genuinely honest with oneself is the nature of art. Therefore, when comparing Johnson and Herrick’s poems, Herrick’s poem effectively represents the nature of art.

Jisoo Jang

The Beauty of Messy Art

I believe Herrick’s poem, “Delight in Disorder” is more effective in representing the nature of art than Jonson’s poem. (Both poems are in iambic tetrameter). Art is created for many purposes. It can be argued, there is no right purpose of art. It is created for aesthetics and for viewing pleasure. It is created to make a statement, oftentimes social or political. It is created for entertainment purposes, i.e., books and poetry. The list goes on. And no art is the same. Just like no two people are the same. But all art aims to capture their audience. To enthrall or to move them. Herrick speaks of this enthrallment in his poem. At the end of the poem, he wrote:

 “do more bewitch me than when art 

Is too precise in every part.” 

This was after Herrick had described the disorder of a dress–of a person’s getup. He described the carelessness of a shoestring. A neglectful cuff. In these things, he saw a “wild civility” (Herrick 12). And it is this ‘wild civility’ that bewitched him. Not art that is ‘too precise’. Precise as in exact or careful. It seems Herrick believes art is best when it is messy. Or, in his own words, disordered. Which means untidy or unkempt. To convey this, he described one’s disheveled attire. I thought this was brilliant. Especially if we were to look at this poem through a modern lens. Nowadays, there is a greater appreciation for clothing styles that, at one time, had been deemed strange or unusual. And people are not afraid to experiment and mix different styles. Oftentimes, it is these people who receive praise and are deemed fashionable. It is these people who inspire others to step out of their comfort zone and explore different styles. The same can be applied to art. Artists should not strive for perfection. Perfection is boring. Perfection does not move people. It is the flawed, the messy, the most unusual pieces of art that capture and enthrall people. That provokes them to look at themselves and the world around them differently. Jonson’s poem was good, but it did not conjure the same feelings as Herrick’s did. The second stanza was similar to the whole of Herrick’s poem. But because the first stanza fell flat and failed at conveying its message to me, I had to go with Herrick.

Bella Cortez

Still to Be Disorder

Ben Jonson’s “Still to Be Neat” and Robert Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder” are both primarily in iambic tetrameter. Both poems’ titles and contents indicate that Jonson’s poem praises neatness while Herrick’s values disorder. Between the two poems, “Still to Be Neat” and “Delight in Disorder”, the latter is most effective in representing the nature of art. I believe that emotional art can often be wild and messy, but I do not believe art needs to be solely neat or messy. Ultimately, the process of creating art is messy due to the medium and/or the revision process. It is highly likely that both of these poets brainstormed topics, crossed lines out, and repeatedly rewrote these poems.

Jonson begins the poem with three lines dedicated to discussing a proper, refined woman. I find these lines to be too constricting with their description of this woman. The iambic meter and repetitive use of the phrase “still to be” emphasize this person’s neatness. Iambic meter is common in poems, so the rhythm of this poem is not out of the ordinary. The next three lines indicate that perhaps not all is as it seems, and there is more hiding beneath all the tidiness. In the last four lines of his poem, Jonson appears to be saying that disorderly women are more interesting than disorderly art. I struggled with the rhythm of the 11th line, but eventually settled on anapest for “th’ adult” and iambic for the rest of the line. Adultery literally interrupts the rhythm of the poem. The word “adulteries” indicates cheating, sin, sex, and betrayal. For Jonson, cheating at art might be making messy, disorderly art and claiming that mess is intentional rather than incidental. The poem continues on, “they strike mine eyes, but not my heart”. Disorderly artworks/women attract Jonson, but do not appeal emotionally.

Herrick spends most of the poem describing someone (presumably a woman) whose clothing is disorderly. The poem includes small details that usually go unseen like a “tempestuous petticoat” and “careless shoestring”. I appreciate the praise of the imperfect. For the 10th line, I settled on iambic, trochee, iambic, and spondee for the meters. Truthfully, I am unsure of this rhythm, but I am certain “tempestuous petticoat” disrupts the rhythm in the way that a storm might disrupt a sunny day. Herrick is explicit in meaning for the last three lines of the poem. For Herrick, disorderly artworks/women are more enchanting than precise art.

Sincerely,

Miki Chroust