Monday 19 May 2014
WHAT WILL YOUR VERSE BE?
We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering – these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love – these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, “O me, O life of the questions of these recurring. Of the endless trains of the faithless. Of cities filled with the foolish. What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer: that you are here. That life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.”
What is the teacher's message about poetry? Do you agree?
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The teacher’s message about poetry is that, we don’t need it to survive; we need it to be human. It isn’t quite as necessary as a lawyer or medicine, but it is what we humans do anyway. To express beauty; to express compassion.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this teacher, for it is true we all have an important role in the play called 'life'. What role you try out for… that’s your decision to make, it's your verse to contribute.
The teacher’s message is that poetry is not a cute or funny thing. Well in some cases it can be funny, but that is not the point. Poetry is a way to express your feelings, to let it all out. He’s saying that poetry is necessary component of the human race, and that we can use it to our benefit. The world can be cruel at times, and people foolish. But there is plenty of good among them. You are here to make a difference, and also add you own verse. Your own sense of passion and love, poured out in something special from you. I think I agree. You have the ability to add something great.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher's message is that poetry is not about being cute, it is about showing compassion, and showing that you can feel emotions like love, anger, happiness, and envy. These feelings are what makes us human, and, as Robin Williams said: "we read and write poetry because we are members of the human race."
ReplyDeleteThe quote, "that the powerful play goes on, and that we may contribute a verse," means that we have the choice do do something with our lives. I believe the 'powerful play' is life, and that we can do what we cose with it. We can be a main character, who does something, or a side character, who does nothing at all with his life. So my question to you is: what will your verse be?
I think the teacher’s message about poetry is that we need things that make us happy, or to fill us with passion, as he said “the human race is filled with passion”. Passion is what makes us human, and poetry fills us with passion. I think the quote “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse” means that our world is like a play, and we all can make a difference or “contribute a verse”. I hope my “verse” makes a lot of people happy, or laugh, because I think a life without a smile is not a life worth living.
ReplyDeleteI think the teacher is saying that "we don't read and write poetry because it's cute", poetry isn't always about cute little bunnies hopping through candy forests. The real world can be a cruel place, and sometimes we need a way to empty our feelings into something, into a poem. Humans aren't always happy, we feel other emotions too, sadness, anger, grief, envy, etc. Not everything in the world is cute or funny, and we need a way to explain that. We need a poem to explain that.
ReplyDeleteThe quote, "And medicine, law, business, engineering – these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love – these are what we stay alive for." Really speaks to me in the way that, we need certain things to stay alive. For example, food, water, oxygen, etc. But we also need things to feed our soul, to keep us, not only alive, but happy. Love, beauty, poetry, family, these things are what we stay alive for, not what keep ourselves alive. Sure, we'd survive without family, or love, but we wouldn't live. Living and surviving are completely different, though they seems he same. Surviving is feeding your body, living is feeding your soul.
“That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Your life is a play, as said in the quote, we are all different people in that play. But you aren't assigned a role, you don't have to be kind, or rude, or intelligent, that's something you get to choose. This is your play, it's your life, it's your verse.
The point of poetry is not to be cute or funny (though some poems are cute and funny, that is not why they write it.) it’s because that is why we are here. We are part of the human race and the human race needs a way to show beauty, romance, love, how we feel. Our world is a great big poam. It keeps going on and on with the human race. “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” The powerful play is the hidden poem in the world. We can be part of the poem. We may contribute a verse. Life is not cute or funny. That hidden poem in the world is your life. And if your life is cute and funny then it’s not a poem. We can be someone in this world. But your journey to being someone is not cute and funny. I think we can be a part of the poem in our lives. Be someone that has done something great. Poetry may not be cute or funny but it can have passion. “...the human race is filled with passion.”That passion comes from our poems. The powerful plays. We may contribute a verse. I hope that all of our verses feed the human race with more passion.
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ReplyDeleteThe teacher is saying that "We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute" sometimes the world is not happy and can be sad, and we can show our feelings in poetry. Sometimes poetry is not always happy It is a way we can all express our feelings, like anger, love, happiness, sadness etc. We do it to show our passion, and love in poetry. I do agree with this teacher about poetry. You can make something great.
ReplyDeleteThe teacher is saying that we write poetry to express our emotions. It is a way to express ourselves, all humans express ourselves in many ways, we can also express ourselves in writing, such as poetry. I agree with this teacher that you can express yourselves in many great ways using poetry.
ReplyDeleteWhen he says “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” it means that the powerful play is life, and the verse is your poem. Your verse is how you express yourselves.