So, at the Virginia Theater Association festival this weekend, one of the shows that we saw actually referenced "Dover Beach" (p816) several times. It was the main character's favorite poem, and she often read it to her children. Her son writes to her while he is fighting in Vietnam, and he says that he finally understands why the poem is so important: he lists in the note all that he can remember of the poem, which included the lines:
"For the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neather joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."
I liked the poem when we read it in class, but the play did more to help me feel the experience.
Since reading some of the poems for this unit, has anyone else recognized them anywhere else? Has it changed the way you thought about it?
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Great connecting, Danielle. I told you all; this stuff is out there. You just have to listen for it.
ReplyDeleteLast Sunday in church, during the Liturgy of the Word (Bible readings, Homily, etc) I noticed I was a lot more interested than usual. That sounds bad, but usually around that time all I'm thinking about is why I woke up this early. This time during that part of church the words spoke out to me in a different way. All the talk of poetry being effective because of an experience really effected me more than I thought. Bible readings isn't exactly poetic, but I connected with the teachings of the Bible on a different level because I was searching for the underlying message.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think it is a mere coincidence that stuff like that pops out. But it has always been there. Once your ear becomes used to it, you can pick it out. Poetry is in music, t-shirts, artwork, and in languages. My parents have told me that Farsi is poetic itself. We speak in poems in Farsi and poetry is the main focus of our culture. People's past time is reading the poems of our most beloved poets- Rumi. I have never been able to understand his poetry in Farsi or when it has been translated. I am determined to learn how to read Farsi so I can get the full effect of his poems.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just with poetry. Most media references things that you learn in school because once you learn something and then hear it, you get excited and are more tempted to listen to or watch something that you understand. Like the song "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay; when that first came out, I had no clue what it meant because I suck at history. After completing a certain section of history, I started understanding what the different words meant and I actually started to like the song. Referencing has become more and more popular in media, trying to relate experiences to people to draw them in. So plays including popular works is a way of you to connect to it, you know?
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