Professor Griffin
Writing 121
12 January 2014
Reading Response 1 Blah blah
Theses, compare personal experience, agree or disagree with ideas
Analyze main themes or primary ideas presented by the author. How are your ideas on the topic similar or different? Why?
What ideas do you find that intrigue or challenge you?
How does your personal experience compare to the authors?
Where/how does the authors argument fall short?
What new thoughts would you bring to the topic? Anne Dillard’s “An American Childhood,” recounts a real life experience of the author’s when she was a
Linnea Rehn
Prof. Bidlake
English 106 Poetry
28 October 2013
Topic #1
Poetry is used to illustrate the feelings that all humans experience but have trouble voicing. Poets use words to express the emotions that they and other people feel. There are different kinds of poems about all the highs and lows that humans experience, whether they are about passion, grief, heartbreak, anger, or any other emotion. Poets also write about issues that society faces as a whole whether it is religious, economic, political, historical or general human struggles.
Just as other art forms have different mediums and techniques, so does poetry. Poets have many ways to craft their work, and usually use certain writing techniques to do so. Literary devices are common in poems because they a useful way to communicate with readers by allowing them to relate to what they are reading. Similes, metaphors and analogies are all different ways to compare one subject matter or feeling to something else. A poem is sometimes more effective by bringing the reader into the work by making them think about what the poet means instead of just explicitly saying what they mean. By reaching the conclusion themselves, the reader can draw on his or her own experiences and this can give the poem a deeper meaning than it might otherwise have achieved.
All art has elements of design and poetry is no different. Instead of lines and color though poets use other underlying design features. There are specific forms of poems involving set rules and structures. Some famous kinds of poems are haikus, sestinas, and sonnets that while structured, still express their meaning just as much if not more than free verse poetry does. Some poets find the strict guidelines of certain kinds of poetry to be helpful in the creation of the poem by making them think harder and have a limited number of choices and ways to express themselves instead of just having free rein because they must be more creative when writing.
Poetry uses speakers to communicate with readers and by doing this makes the connection more personal and relatable. Some speakers are the same as the poet who wrote it, but poets also use masks and