Wednesday, September 12, 2012
The Burden of a Planet-
Mother Earth weeps with sorrow
For mans burden she can't withstand
His ever growing need
His ever growing demand
Her resources he devours
The earth, the trees, the oil
He blackens sky and waters
With poison, kills her soil
He takes all he desires
With no regard for all she gave
His greed and lust consume her
Until the Earth is but a grave.
-Jessi Hughes
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Poor Mother Earth :(
ReplyDeleteI'm of the opinion that she'll strike back eventually, though. Homo sapiens beware... xD
Oh Mother Earth lol. Earth Abides... I remember on one of the covers of that novel, you could place your thumb over a part of it and it would snuff out all of the sentient life in the image, lol. Hm, foreboding. Here is a poem that has that sort of feel with a little more satire, lol.
Deletehttp://www.poemhunter.com/poem/america-a-prophecy/
It's William Blake, a Romantic poet. It's funny coming from him, being that his common themes often revolved around religious concepts or truth and beauty.
Thanks for posting this Jessi! I like your attention to line length in the stanza. Overall, this is a very empathetic poem addressing ecological themes. It's great you are writing about this because I hope to cover this topic in the second half of the workshop :D
ReplyDeleteThis appears to be a lyrical poem with details rooted in personification (roots, hah). The repetition at the beginning, “His ever growing…/ His ever growing” (3-4) really emphasizes the importance of that message. The speaker in this poem seems to be referencing Earth’s inhabitants as “He” (7), while we understand with the use of apostrophe, the female reference of “Mother Earth” (1). The speaker in the poem is very adept in responding to, and also seems to be affected by, the deterioration of the earth. I think the content appeals to one of the key themes in the workshop: sustainability or the lack thereof. I appreciate that the poem implies a need for attention elsewhere-- that sustainable actions on the part of humans are not truly in the picture. Addressing similarities in the the genre of Indie poetry, I'd also like to note that I appreciate seeing a speaker who is willing to address the more difficult topics, especially by facing negative emotions or unfortunate observations like the state of the biosphere.
The attention to detail in the poem is also a positive aspect. The diction and word choice in the poem creates a tone that seems deliberate; each word, especially those in reference to visual attributes like “He blackens sky and waters/ With poison, kills her soil” (7-8), seems to be actively chosen. I like how your writing style is deliberate in the way you choose words with strong consonant sounds and the way you choose to be visually descriptive while assessing a relevant social issue. I think that overall, this is a great poem and also a great start to the workshop process :). I will definitely discuss this more with you in class on Monday since you are able to be there, but until then I have a few questions for you:
1) I notice your use of punctuation is specific to capitalization, but not comma use. Indie poets are similar in this way; they often choose to void their poetry of punctuation as an implied “independent” effect. Did you make specific choices as to why you did not utilize commas or other aspects of punctuation, but chose to focus on capitalization? Some brave souls undo the auto-correct feature in word programs because they like to control all aspects of style and structure, but some really do find capitalizing each new line to be an aesthetic factor.
2) You created the poem in a single, stream-lined stanza. The lines appear noticeably symmetrical which gives the visual structure a good balance. Were these things intentional? Also, were you thinking actively about these aspects while writing the poem, or did you consider structure afterwards?
These are just some things you could think about before we meet this Monday. Thank you for sharing and I look forward to reading more of your poetry :)
-Tara
I have no doubt the Earth will continue to live on long after we have exterminated ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your great comments. In regard to your questions, the length of each line is mainly due to the size of my handwriting and the length of each line on the paper as I write. Also, I wanted each line to state it point without being to long. We can discuss that more in class. And the punctuation I deliberately left out until the end. Finishing with a period, that the statement is final, and that there will be no hope for us when we get to that point. Again this is open for more discussion in class. I look forward to writing and learning with everyone.