Before we begin, let’s ponder on these…

• What is poetry?• Do you like poetry?• Is poetry useful to you?

Week One (1,2012/2013)

What is poetry?What is poetry?What is poetry?What is poetry?

Poetry is important...  It reaches inside people Poetry is important...  It reaches inside people and heals their wounds like nothing else can.  It and heals their wounds like nothing else can.  It is an escape from reality and a method of is an escape from reality and a method of coping with reality.  It's a certain feeling coping with reality.  It's a certain feeling inside.                 inside.                

AnonymousAnonymous

Week One (1,2012/2013)

What poetry does to you?"Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not.  We all know what light is; but it is not easy to tell what it is."

Samuel Johnson"original combination of words, distinctive sound, and emotional impact"

Anonymous

Week One (1,2012/2013)

What poetry really is?What poetry really is?What poetry really is?What poetry really is?

According to geocities.com, poetry According to geocities.com, poetry is ..is ..

A form of expression A form of expression written seeking approval from no onewritten seeking approval from no one

but read and interpretedbut read and interpretedby anyone and everyoneby anyone and everyone

It reveals your most inner thoughtsIt reveals your most inner thoughtsthat may never be spokenthat may never be spoken

forming a deep communication to forming a deep communication to othersothers

and for you, a cherished tokenand for you, a cherished tokenthat you will always remember.that you will always remember.Week One (1,2012/2013)

What do the poets say?

• Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"

• Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry"

• Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing."

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In brief, according to Mark Flanagan in About.com…

• Poetry is the chiseled marble of language; it's a paint-spattered canvas - but the poet uses words instead of paint, and the canvas is you.

• One of the most definable characteristics of the poetic form is economy of language. Poets are miserly and unrelentingly critical in the way they dole out words to a page.

• Defining poetry is like grasping at the wind - once you catch it, it's no longer wind.

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What poetry is usually about

• Love – central experience in life• Death – taboo subject• Religion – mortal vs immortal• Nature – appreciate the beauty• People – families, friends• War, fight, feud• Domestic Matters – everyday themes

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LOVEProof – That I did always love thee by Emily

Dickinson

That I did always love,I bring thee proof:That till I lovedI did not love enough.

That I shall love alway,I offer theeThat love is life,And life hath immortality.

This, dost thou doubt, sweet?Then have INothing to showBut Calvary.

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DEATHWake by Langston Hughes

Tell all my mournersTo mourn in red --Cause there ain't no senseIn my bein' dead.

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RELIGIONA Child’s Thought of God by Elizabeth Barrett BrowningThey say that God lives very high;  But if you look above the pinesYou cannot see our God; and why?

And if you dig down in the mines,  You never see Him in the gold,Though from Him all that’s glory shines.

God is so good, He wears a fold  Of heaven and earth across His face,Like secrets kept, for love, untold.

But still I feel that His embrace  Slides down by thrills, through all things made,Through sight and sound of every place;

As if my tender mother laid  On my shut lids her kisses’ pressure,Half waking me at night, and said,  “Who kissed you through the dark, dear guesser?”

Week One (1,2012/2013)

How to Eat a PoemDon’t be polite.Bite in.Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice thatmay run down your chin.It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are

You do not need a knife or fork or spoonor plate or napkin or tablecloth

For there is no coreor stem or rindor pitor seedor skin To throw away.

Eve Merriam

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A Good PoemI like a good poemone with lots of fightingin it. Blood, and theclanging of armour. Poems

against Scotland are good,and poems that defeatthe French with crossbows.I don’t like that

aren’t about anything.Sonnets are wet and a waste of time,Also poems that don’t

know how to rhyme.If I was a poemI’d play football andget picked for England.

Roger McGough

Week One (1,2012/2013)

What's the Use of Poetry?           by Henry Arthur Jones (circa 1900)

What's the use of poetry?  Why, to live upon, when one can't get bread and cheese; to clothe and warm oneself with, when one is ragged and cold!

What's the use of poetry?  To keep faith and hope and worship alive in the heart of man, to reconcile him to life, to make him at home in his world.

What's the use of poetry?  To pour vitriol on deceit and vice, to seam and scar the detested face of hypocrisy and lies.  To add hate to all things hateful and shame to all things shameful!

What's the use of poetry?  To give beauty to beauty, more grace to grace, more truth to truth, to deck the flowers of the field, to rain perfume on the rose and music on the nightingale.

What's the use of poetry?  To be a stumbling block to the worldly wise and the proud, and a camp and pillar of fire to children and the childlike.

Week One (1,2012/2013)

What's the Use of Poetry?           by Henry Arthur Jones (circa 1900)

• What's the use of poetry?  To embalm the immortal dead, to interpret this aimless Universe, to snatch the secrets of the stars, to unleash the seas and the winds, to fling a double rainbow of hope and glory across the heavens, till all the Universe shouts with one voice, and beats with one heart, and pants with one breath!

What's the use of poetry?  To make this wide world drunk with its' loveliness,  to make this garrett a palace and me the King of Death and Fate!

Poetry not real!  not useful!  It is you who are not real, you practical people--you herd of money grubbers, you bats, you owls, you moles, you human vegetables, who root yourselves and fatten up your dull, petty, miserable lives, and eat and drink and sleep, and buy and sell and toil in one long round of humdrum death-in-life!

It is you who are not real.  You were dead and huddled into oblivion before you were born; you do not live at all; you are smoke from the nostrils of death.

Poetry not real! not useful!  There is nothing useful but poetry, and nothing real but the poet!

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So, what do you think of poetry now?

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Let’s hear what you think of the following…

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Would you say this is poetry?

Roses are redViolets are blueI have a friend

And my friend is you

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Is this poetry?Getaran jiwaMelanda hatikuTersusun nadaIrama dan lagu

Walau hanya sederhanaTetapi tak mengapa

Moga dapat membangkitkanSedarlah kamu wahai insan

Tak mungkin hilangIrama dan lagu

Bagaikan kembangSentiasa bermadu

Andai dipisahLagu dan irama

Lemah tiada berjiwaHampa

P.Ramlee

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And this…Clever vs Stupid

Please don't make me soundClever

I prefer to beStupid

Rather than be knownClever

I learnt best if I amStupid

AAT, July 2012

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Now, is this poetry?

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And this?

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What about this?

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