Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Your Manifesto?
As we discussed last week, "poetry" can mean a lot of things to different people. Wordsworth, Wilde, Marinetti, and MacLeish all had different views about what poetry is and what its purpose should be. Now that you have the beginnings of a manifesto from the group activity, I would like for you to create your own manifesto about how you define what poetry is. Keep in mind the three categories we used to discuss the other manifestos: author, reader, and text. Try to develop at least one idea for each of those categories. Hope you had a great weekend!
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My Manifesto
ReplyDelete- Kristen Thomas
Text: I feel that the text should evoke some sort of emotions. Even if the reader has no idea what it is about it should still bring out some kind of feeling. Regardless of what that emotion is, individuals should feel.
Reader: These emotions should bring out some kind of connection between the text and themselves. The text may not be direct or clear, however the reader should be able to make their own assumptions and conclusions about what they feel the text is saying.
Author: The author should bring out their own personal experiences in the text however not give them away. Allow the reader to make their own conclusions. However by creating the piece with personal experiences, the author will become closer to the reader.
Manifesto
ReplyDeleteAuthor: The author's job is to use words to provoke the reader to think, creating the ability to imagine the poem vividly.
Reader: The reader should read to determine the truth, and should think about the piece that they are reading.
Text: The text should be vibrant and descriptive, using strong language to provoke thought and imagination.
-Tiarra Thomas
Jocelyn Hill's Manifesto:
ReplyDeleteAuthor- Present text in any way they see fit & allow reader to draw conclusions & have emotions for what they've prepared.
Reader- It is the reader's job to interpret what the text to says & have some sort of emotion towards it, whether it be disgust, disagreement, praise, indifference, or confusion.
Text- Give the reader something to think about through the use of language, word placement, word choice, vibrant imagery & the topic of the text itself as written by the author.
My Manifesto
ReplyDeleteText: I feel that the text should stoke the senses, awaken emotions, share an experience or emblazon the author's view of the truth.
Reader: The reader should bring their perception, wisdom, experience, point-of-view and openness to the receive the message.
Author: The author should employ the tools of writing to send some enduring message. There should be no way that the writing should touch you so lightly, that you feel nothing after the experience.
Following the in-class assignment, my manifesto of poetry is as follows:
ReplyDelete1. The text should reflect the poet’s personal experiences.
2. Poetry should make ordinary things seem extraordinary.
3. Poetry should evoke intellectual thought and emotion.
4. Simplicity (whether of language or of concept) is key.
In reality, though, I hold the belief poetry requires only one thing:
Soul power.
Here's what I came up with:
ReplyDeleteThe author should attempt to create a journey of sensations for the reader. He or she should be a creator of truths, either real or designed to seem real. This should be done using words and other writing devices to make these truths able to be felt, and thus accepted and experienced, by the reader. This does not mean the author has any obligations to the reader, for essentially, a poem is what one makes of it.
The reader should simply read. A poem that is a good match for the reader will feature words or phrases that appeal to and trigger responses from them. Some prefer to simply read through the poem and take from it the instant sensory experience he or she may get. Others may choose instead to delve deeper into the many layers of the poem that are certainly there; either preference suffices.
The text should be equipped with multiple layers to be peeled back and examined, relative to how deep the reader wishes to go. The text really just exists for the purpose of giving one a chance to find meaning within its words. If the text is never read, then can it be considered a poem? The text is not poetry until it is treated and explored as such. That being said, the text must have the capabilities to affect a sudden change or intensification of emotion in the reader.