Fluorescence

In Jennifer Dick's poems, I like her use of spacing (especially in the first half of the book). It created emphasis on her words, and in some cases may have represented a portion of her memory that she could not remember in a traumatic moment. I think it created confusion, which may have been how the author felt during her experiences.

Most of Jennifer's poems are about catastrophic happenings such as explosions and suicides. I like that she talks about bad things that happen, instead of talking mostly about love and happy things.

Jennifer uses very descriptive words to create a very vivid picture in her poems. Such as in her poem In the Garden where she writes, "Her distaste, body sweat, wants the first apple rounding smooth as a poison icicle."

Poetry Packet

Heather McHugh's "And What Do You Get," really made me think about the origin of words and their meanings. As she picked apart words and took letters out it showed a hidden connection that words have with other words; such as exercise to excise, and example to ample. I found it particularly clever and ironic that the word therapist can be changed to rapist, and mind can be converted to M.D.

In Langston Hughes' poems, I liked the use of slang words which made them very easy to read, understand, and make a connection to. Langston's poems seem to mostly be about living as a (suppressed) black in a dominantly white world. An example of this is in his poem "Children's Rhymes" where he writes:

"Lies written down 

for white folks 
ain't for us a-tall: 
Liberty And Justice-- 
Huh!--For All?"

Shakespeare's poems are mostly sonnets with fourteen lines which end in a couplet, with a large amount of them talking about love. His poems used conflicting ideas and personification of inanimate objects. In sonnet 116, Shakespeare writes, "love is not love" (conflicting idea) and "Love's not Time's fool" (personification).

About Me

I am a first year student here at EMU. I was awarded an Equal Opportunities Act scholarship because of my  grades and income, which is paying for my tuition for four years at Eastern. Aside from the awesome scholarship I received  I decided to attend Eastern because it is close to home and I am able to commute. While the idea of living in a dorm door is alluring on occasions, I am glad to stay at home- rent free- and be able to have my mom keep an eye on me. I have had juvenile diabetes since I was two years old, so it is comforting to know that someone is always in the house that can take care of me in case of an emergency.