Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Poetry and Real Life

Hello English 10-Donahue and Welcome to our Guest Bloggers!

In 7-10 sentences, please respond to the following question. Consider your opinions, ideas, and experiences with poetry: reading, writing, studying, etc. Make your post by Friday, May 29, at 12:45 pm. If PRHS students run into difficulty, PLEASE ask for help from Mrs. Harland.

BONUS POINTS: You can earn bonus points (as part of a journal grade) when you respond to at least 1 other person's response. This is NOT instead of your own answer. It is to encourage continuous dialogue about the topic.

Question: How is reading, writing, and studying poetry going to help me in real life?

Friday, April 10, 2009

Poetry Quotations

Hi English 10-Donahue,

Read the following poetry quotations and respond to one by 5/6! Your response may be to agree or disagree, ask and attempt to answer a question that the quotation made you think of, or simply to converse with the quotation and what the "author" had to say in his/her comment. Make sure that your response is at least 5-7 sentences. Use the writer's last name when commenting.


*You can't write poetry on the computer. ~Quentin Tarantino

*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. ~Dead Poet's Society

*Poetry is a packsack of invisible keepsakes. ~Carl Sandburg

*Writing poetry is like trying to catch a black cat in a dark room. ~Unknown

*It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things. ~Stephen Mallarme

*The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ~Jean Cocteau

*Poetry is life distilled. ~Gwendolyn Brooks

*A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses. ~Jean Cocteau

*Poetry is the momentary stay against the confusion of the world. ~Robert Frost,
“The Figure a Poem Makes”

*There is the view that poetry should improve your life. I think people confuse it with the Salvation Army. ~JOHN ASHBERY, International Herald Tribune,
Oct. 2, 1989

*There has never been a great poet who wasn’t also a great reader of poetry.
~EDWARD HIRSCH, interview, 2007

*A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep. ~SALMAN RUSHDIE,
London Independent, Feb. 18, 1989

*Poetry ... wasn't written to be analyzed; it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding. ~NICHOLAS SPARKS, The Notebook