“But not my Heart”

Ben Johnson’s “Still to be Neat” and Robert Herrick’s “Delight in Disorder”, on the surface, are talking about two different women. One in a more eccentric outfit and the other in a more simple description, Johnson’s poem seems to take in the beauty of simplicity more than layered meaning for the nature of art. Herrick enjoys seeing the crazed chaos in art as “a sweet disorder in the dress”. These two poets offer great views as both are equally enjoyable. I must say that I agree more with Robert Herrick, not that I don’t agree with Ben Johnson, I simply see more of the truth in Herrick’s work. I find change more interesting as well as more captivating rather than simplicity. The title of this post reflects my choice, I found that to imagine Johnson’s poem was nicer but to imagine Herrick’s was a ride. I could imagine a erring lace or lot of ribbons flowing, the waves in a coat or a careless shoestring. Near the end, Herrick offers what he views,
“A wild civility”, I think this captures the nature of art as it is rather than what was offering in Johnson’s poem. I reiterate, I prefer Herrick to Johnson because the nature of art is more captivating and offers more depth than just the simplicity of itself, Johnson’s meaning is only meant for “mine eyes, but not my heart”.

Roman Arroyo

The Unaccompanied Meanings

By Alex Luna

A poem’s presentation is of the utmost importance. Often times there is a clear difference when reading a poem to oneself or when hearing the piece be performed by the poet or recited. Javier Zamora’s “To The President-Elect” is a piece that reflects how the meanings of a poem can be changed when performed orally rather than. The key difference being tone since the tone changes to a more empowering piece when performed than a somber piece when read silently to oneself. 

Upon reading Javier Zamora’s “To The President-Elect,” one can recognize the immediate tone. The poem is unconventional in the sense that it does not present the reader with conventional stanzas, rather a series of sentences broken up by the line breaks. From the first line, Zamora establishes a bleak tone. The speaker says “ There’s no fence, there’s a tunnel, there’s a hole in the wall, yes.” This imagery, establishes a sense of urgency, a sense of worry and possible panic. The decision to say “there’s no fence” is particularly interesting because it may be a reference to those “American Dream” scenarios of having a nice house and picket fence. So by having the speaker say that there is no fence creates a negative sense. By following that description with one of a tunnel and a hole in the wall, they continue this bleak tone from solely reading the poem. The fact that the sentence breaks after “wall” and continues that style of line break causes an uncomfortable sensation which helps it achieve this tone. It does an effective job of conveying that anxiety that is present in those that do cross the border. 

Upon listening to the piece, Javier definitely retains that bleak tone, yet by hearing it said the meaning changes slightly but significantly. Zamora presents this in a serious, yet stern tone. This new layer of nuance to the poem changes the meaning, because now rather than being a somber piece about the hardships of crossing borders, it becomes an almost empowering piece that calls for change. Especially when considering the audience he addresses, which seems to be geared towards those unhappy with the current political climate. This new stark contrast in tone and deliverance now seems to become a rally cry. Suddenly, the anxieties presented in the poem by just reading it to oneself disappear. Now, a piece depicting the depressing nature of border crossing has become an uplifting piece of empowerment for those that have affected. When reading it, one can now feel the energy presented by Zamora as their eyes skim the text. By creating this new meaning, it calls into question the nuance and layers that poetry can really have.

“You Cannot Erase Me, I am You.”

By Mitaya La Pierre

Walt Whitman made a statement the day he decided to write “I Sing the Body Electric”; the statement being that poetic form shouldn’t be restrictive. And by having his poem be comprised mainly of listless body parts, and nonuniform speech, he conveys the uniqueness of going against that grain. As well as show boating what it means to be American; to do things differently. This was significant because it detached itself from the former British way of writing poetry; with calculated beats, and rhythms. Now it goes without saying that Walt Whitman’s poem does have rhythm, but it’s faster and far more provocative than poems before it. This “Free Verse”, as it has been coined, inspired Luis Alberto Ambroggio to write his own version of “The Body Electric” called, “We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self”. The rhythmic enumeration of both of these poems is very similar, especially the repetitive ‘listing’ and song; but there are also some key differences.

While Whitman talks about parts of the body, Ambroggio’s ‘lists’ are that of actions rather than parts. An example of this in lines 10-14,

 “Child with the wisdom of questions,

offspring of poor and rich, of lettered and unlettered,

of rails, planting times, classes and cares,

which will sprout, embodied, with nothing forgotten,

seed in its newly bloodstained earth,-”

While here he is describing objects; ‘Child with wisdom of questions’, ‘offspring of poor and rich’, ‘lettered and unlettered’, he is also listing these things with as much fervent effort as Walt Whitman did in many of his lines, 

“Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears, 

Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eyebrows, and the waking or sleeping of the lids,” 

And stanza 9, line 7 is just one example. But this isn’t the only thing both of these poems do. In “We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self”, while he is listing these objects, he gives the exact same cadence that Whitman’s does. Lets take a look at line’s 43-47 in Ambroggio’s poem.

“This Self is Puerto Rican, Chicano,

from Cuba free dancer of merengues,

from Santo Domingo and all the Caribbean,

from El Salvador and Nicaragua.

It comes from Mexico, Central America,-”

Here he is explaining the areas of which he came from, in turn stating that these are the parts of his body; these of which being lyrics that he sings, that completes him as a human being. “-is Puerto Rican, Chicano, from Cuba free dancer of merengues, from Santo Domingo-” every pause or comma we see here is a new part of himself he lists in constant cadence, just like;

“Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition, 

Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,” (lines 9-10)

  this line in Whitman’s Poem, ‘Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition’; go up and down–much like a heart beat. ‘Of, the’, ‘and, the’ are syllables swoon down very quickly and then pick up right after the fall– ‘Nose, nostrils of the nose, partition’. Now looking at this, we can see the exact same method in previous lines of Ambroggio’s poem, “Santo Domingo and all the Caribbean, from El Salvador and Nicaragua.” Did you see that? ‘And, all’, and  ‘from, and’ are all typical falls that don’t have as much ‘oompf’ to their sound, and thus end up being picked up by very strong nouns, like ‘Santo Domingo, Caribbean, El Salvador.’ Carrying a beat much like a heart would, what with it having a constant rise and fall of cadence, just like Whitman’s poem.

And that is the true translation of Whitman in Ambroggio’s poem, is that they both have an upbeat, constant rhythm of syllables that don’t stop and in their own way move the body into ‘dance’. The most precise thing about Ambroggio’s poem though, isn’t that he lists off things as Whitman did; its the context behind it. Whitman indirectly was saying something about America, about it’s stubbornness and how we choose things our own way–but, so was Ambroggio. Allow me to transcribe a line found in the poem, 

“They will not manage to deny me or ignore me or declare me undocumented:

I am written in you, in all,-”

Here the poet is declaring he will not be undermined for his culture, for any culture as a matter of fact. Simply because his culture MAKES America; ‘I am written in you’ he states. When he is writing the descriptions of culture, the actions of people, and the culture that compiles him; he is also describing the metaphorical “body parts” that make up “America”;  much like Whitman does with his poem having body parts describe “the person”.  

“Translation Means Population”

Jackeline Salazar

When you read both “I Sing The Body Electric” by Walt Whitman and “We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self” by Luis Alberto Ambroggio they both have this same style of a free verse poem. They both seem to have the same set of rhythmic enumeration due to the amount of words and their values behind their poem. They both have so many words of value in their poem it’s insane how long both of these poems were when I first started reading them on my own. Just like how Luis Ambroggio mention in the video, that to him translation means population. Which kinda caught my attention while looking and reading the poems, that translation meant  population, especially when you are translating so many words in a line or stanza. 

For example when I read the poem “We Are All Whitman: #2: Song of/to/My/Your/Self” , there were some lines from the poem that stick out to me, “ This Self is Puerto Rican, Chicano, from Cuba free dancer of merengues, from Santo Domingo and all the Caribbean, from El Salvador and Nicaragua,” when Ambroggio talked about translating the poem he was mentioning how when we would translate it, that it will be with more value of words and meaning with population. When it comes to the rhythm of this poem it had a type where you just wanted to keep going. At some part of the poem you did wanted to just stop because there were specific commas and just periods that made you want to stop and then continue to go and keep going until you saw another comma or period. It’s like translating Walt Whitman’s “I Sing The Body Electric”, he had many commas and a few periods. So the rhythm of this poem was similar to Ambroggio’s poem too, you wanted to keep going and going until you saw a period or a comma and kind of pause for a few seconds and then keep going again.

 In that case Ambroggio’s poem also not just has a type of rhythm but also has a type of sound too just like how Whitman’s poem has some type of sound. For example, in one of Ambroggio’s lines, “It suffers now, and in the next gust of wind, the discriminating smoke of random breath, for good or bad of those who intoxicated breathe ignorance or haughtiness without clusters of stars, mountains, heavenly clouds, wellsprings of gifts and of meadows.” This line caught my attention when it came to hearing some specific sounds and it made me think of the sound just being very smooth but at the same time it had some sort of pauses of sound in this stanza due to the commas, at least when I read it aloud I heard some sort of pauses. Overall, there are many other sounds and rhythms in Ambroggio’s and Whitman’s poem. You just need to fugue out the meaning of the words or lines when it comes about the rhythmic enumeration. 

Poetry

Out of all the poems the one that stood out to me as to how to answer the question of what poetry is, is Ferlinghetti Lawrence’s “Uses of Poetry”. Why I would say this defined poetry the best is because there are different outlooks on poetry, it didn’t just talk about all the good parts of poetry, it was looking into different aspects of poetry to bring to light that poetry isn’t straightforward “for even bad poetry has relevance for what does it not say for what it leaves out”(16-18).  Lawrence’s outlook of poetry is not a straightforward definition of poetry is rather it explains how poetry is being used in different forms even if it isn’t considered to be ‘important poetry’ from institutions, professors, etc. poetry is in everything we do even if we don’t realize it. poetry is in everything around us, “the voice within the voice of the turtle the face behind the face of the race” (44-45). It’s interesting to have a definition of poetry being so vague because that’s how I interpreted from Lawrence’s understanding of how we use poetry in life. Poetry isn’t really defined because we can see poetry in anything, however the way poetry can be seen is just in daily life. Lawrence’s poem really gave an outlook of life on earth being poetry, being part of life is just poetic because we can interpret animals, nature, etc. differently. We all have different outlooks and that’s why I think the definition of poetry can be very vague and I like the outlook that I understood from Lawrence because I can see poetry in anything but still interpret it differently that the person next to me.

Maria Mendiola

poetry for the naked eye.

Jocelyn Lemus

When one thinks of poetry, they think of it as separate stanzas that rhyme. For instance, one can always begin with, “roses are red and violets are blue, etc.” However, that is not always the case because poetry comes from different forms and shapes. They can rhyme, or they cannot. They can be extremely long , but also extremely short. The amount of words never determine the amount of meaning a poem brings into life. When I think of poetry and the real definition, I find myself questioning such question that can hardly be answered.

As reading all three creative and well descriptive poems, I noticed that Marianne Moore found her way around words when trying to describe poetry. In her poem, Poetry, she implies her way of describing it with the use of figurative language. The way she uses her manipulation of words allows me to understand more the meaning of poetry because she tries to unwrap the simplicity and complexities of poetry.

It is not about the way we read the poem, but the way we choose to understand it. Moore also best defines poetry because she uses her ability to describe a poem with a genuine vocabulary. She fits the parts that seem to be questioned constantly.

Poetry Everywhere

By Alex Luna

Of the three poems, I felt Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s to be the most moving and best definition of poetry. During class, I felt that we focused heavily on the idea of poetry always surrounding us and being found in the most unexpected, yet simple places. Whether it be out on a walk gazing at the stars, or something monotonous and extremely ordinary like drinking a cold glass of water on a strangely warm day. 

In his poem, certain lines focus on those small moments. As I read, I got the notion that he was discussing how boring and tragic everyday life can be. As evident with the early lines discussing the “age of autogeddon” and “armed trains run over green protestors” or even “the lack of love in bed at midnight.” It’s lines like these that give an overall bleak and depressing view of life in general. It makes one question if beauty or anything worthwhile really exists among so much suffering and constant downward spirals. 

Yet, in the second half of the poem, it takes a different turn. The poem focuses on those small moments, that make life, and the beauty of poetry really exist. Lines like “a book of light at night” or “the face behind the face of the race.” reveal what seems to be the real definition of poetry. That being those little things in life that are truly meaningful is often the most simple. The most clear and imaginative things are the ones right in front of us that we cannot describe or define. This is why I feel this poem does the best job because while the other two are strong in their own right, it is this one that truly reminded me of that which always surrounds us that is only noticeable if you really pay attention. This beautiful, yet possibly ineffable thing called poetry.

Poetry is what speaks to you.

Jackeline Salazar

Even though all three of them are poems, the one that defines the most would just depends on what speaks to you the most. Everyone has their own definition of poetry so we can’t just say that one of these poems defines poetry the most, because they all have a meaning to what speaks most for itself. I personally believe that the poem that speaks to me the most is “USES OF POETRY” by Ferlinghetti, Lawrence. I like how he defines poetry in many ways, at least that is how I seem to read and understand it. He seems to make you think in the beginning that poetry is either used in a good way, but can also be used in some bad ways too. He uses phrases that also have a deeper meaning but usually it is easy to point it out and understand what he is talking about when he says what is the use of poetry. He also seems to be saying that poetry is define in many things and places and even in albums supposedly. He  is trying to acknowledge that poetry can interpret in many situations or in objects, even poetry can be define in our dreams. In lines 4-5, he mentions how poetry can be “paved over to make a freeway for armies of the night”. As in poetry can be covered to define many things.  He interprets poetry in many ways, it is just your way of understanding what it could mean and how you also want to define poetry as well. 

Where’s the Meaning?

I listened to Ginsberg’s reading of “A Supermarket is California” several times. I was searching for a rhyming pattern or an identifying sound for the poem. At first, I was disappointed to find one lacking. Sentences seems to be just sentences. Pauses were naturally stressed, coming at commas and periods. Even in the poets reading, it felt like there was something vital and important missing from the poem’s oral performance.

Then I had a thought, what if that’s the point? The subject of the poem has been embarked on a somewhat futile quest to follow Walt Whitman in the supermarket. He is searching for something in this mundane experience. That search is reflected in the tonal quality of the reading. There is nothing wholly unexpected or out of the ordinary, and the absence of meaning seems to create meaning.

Ginsberg takes a transcendental approach to a transcendentalist. He lives the experience of the supermarket. Most interesting, to me, is the search for understanding and meaning that takes in the verse. This is reflective of Walt Whitman and his America. Whitman’s search for meaning in the body (as displayed by “I sing the Body Electric) is just one example of the larger search for meaning he presented in his poetry. Whitman was writing in an America that had just exited civil war. Much of the experience of American men that fought in that war is one without meaning, aside from the violence. So much of out countries healing process was the new search for meaning. Whitman, and subsequently Ginsberg, shows us that in their poetry.

Must rhythm always reflect meaning?

Robert Herrick’s piece “Delight in Disorder” is written, for the most part, in iambic tetrameter. However, deliberate variations in this rhythm reinforce the poem’s playful attack on appearance. The author whimsically takes note of imperfections, drawing the reader’s eyes to the beauty of disorder. Trochees in lines 2 and 8 (“kindles” and “ribbons,” respectfully) interrupt the general prosody of the poem, allowing the reader himself to delight in brief disorder before returning to the comfortable rhythm of iambic meter.

Unlike Herrick’s piece, “Still to Be Neat” by Ben Johnson reads in consistent iambic tetrameter. I found this piece to be strikingly more serious in tone than the previous poem. The speaker expresses, in a wistful manner, his longing for natural beauty. Lines 10-11, “Such sweet neglect more taketh me/ Then all th’adulteries of art,” reveal the speaker’s distain for false representations, for which he employs the word “art.” The “neglect,” that he speaks of implies truth; if this “powdered” and “perfumed” lady were to neglect her disguise she would become truly beautiful in his eyes. In line 11, the contraction of the words “the” and “adulteries” provides an interesting contrast to the overall implication of the poem: that beauty comes breaking away from preordained expectations. Johnson literally traps the words together in order to maintain the prescribed prosody. If he were to have let the extra syllable go free, it would have completely disrupted the poem’s rhythm. Johnson’s contrasting prosody and meaning offer a challenge to their usual duality. These two poems raise the question: must rhythm always reflect meaning?