Poem Response

            I found the poems very interesting and somewhat of a struggle to comprehend what the purpose of the poems was. I attempted reading them with an open mind, so that way I could better understand what was occurring. I then established that most of the poems are similar to short stories that have a lot of meaning behind an incident(s) that occurred. Several of them where extremely graphic in their writing, while others used potent wording to give a better sense of the situation. Out of all the poems read, the two that grabbed my attention the most were Charlie Howard’s Descent by Mark Doty, and The Woman Hanging from The Thirteenth Floor Window by Joy Harjo. I chose these poems for several reasons, some of them being, the incredible word choices, the hidden meaning, and my curiosity of why the authors would go and write about such impacting stories.

            The poem Charlie Howard’s Descent is one with a lot of meaning behind it. At first I was confused on what the author was trying to portray with the child standing on top of a bridge. Then I continued reading and found that the child was committing suicide due to a harsh lifestyle of many insults and feeling of unwanted. The dead child could obviously not be the author, otherwise he would not have written the poem, but my guess is that the author is most likely writing about an experience he might have had in where a close friend of his committed suicide because of bullying. The reason he would write such an emotional poem could be to teach readers a lesson about life and respecting others because one does not know bad he/she can be hurting the other person, until something adverse actually happens.

            The other poem I chose was The Women Hanging from The Thirteenth Floor Window, this was a bit tricky, I could not figure out whether or not the lady was trying to kill herself or if she was already dead. From this poem, I enjoyed the ending better than the rest of the poem because I realized that she wasn’t trying to kill herself, but rather keep her beauty forever since she felt she was aging and her outer beauty was fading away as well. Joy Harjo states this in her last stanza, “The woman hangs from the 13th floor window crying for the lost beauty of her own life” (Harjo). The speaker of the poem can be a tough one to identify, but I would suggest that the speaker be a close relative or friend that has noticed all the changes and actions that have been taking place. The reason why I suggest that is because the author continues to repeat “The women of the thirteenth floor window,” so in consequence it led me to assume that it must have been somebody close enough to watch her every action. The purpose of writing such a poem could be for several reasons, but the reason that appealed to me the most was that it was written to inform people that when one ages, a lot of things become difficult, and therefor one should take it easy on older folks.

Works Cited

Harjo, Joy. “The Woman Hanging From the Thirteenth Floor Window.” She Had Some Horses (1951): n.p. Poetry Foundation. Web. 21 Jun 2011.

Link For Picture

Here is a link to a website of many famous poems.

Summary Vs Analysis

When it comes to describing summary and analysis, there are many reasons that make them very distinct from each other; for example, the format, the elements that make it up, and what it presents.

To start off, a summary is a shortened statement of a story, movie, or event that highlights the main points.  A summary can be very useful when trying to get a quick overview of what the entire event or anything to that extent might consist of. A summary can be found on the back of books, movies, and any thing else that can be shortened to illustrate the main goals. There are also several elements included in a summary, for instance the author, title, who, what, where, when, why, and the main idea of the text. The elements involved allow for a smooth and quick presentation of the entire project that is being summarized.

An analysis on the other hand is a detailed examination of the elements by which the movie, story, event or something is made of. To have an analysis one first must have summarized the thing which he or she is summarizing to figure out the main points, so there after the individual can go into detail on explaining the reasoning behind why it is the way that it is. An analysis goes into much more detail of explaining the elements to what is happening and why it is happening, the causes and effects of an event, the meaning behind an object and or the trends that followed throughout. An analysis brings out a better presentation because it is usually longer in length due to the depth in which one goes into to give a better understanding of the entire plot.

Here is an example summary of my favorite book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. 

Here is an example analysis of Green Eggs and Ham.

Welcome :D

Hello fellow classmates, my name is Jaime Martinez and I am a 19 year old kid who goes to college and lives life one day at a time. If you want to know more or have any questions, just let me know.

Goog Readers and Good Writers

Vladimir Nabokov. In the short story Good Readers and Good Writers, Nabokov states that a good reader should posses many different characteristics.  Some examples that Nabokov gives are a good imagination, memory, a dictionary, and artistic sense. I would definitely have to agree with him because a good imagination is an open mind that has no limits and can relate in a well manner, memory to remember everything that has/is occurring, a dictionary to have a better understanding of a word or to look up an unknown word, and an artistic sense to appreciate any piece of literature.  Before reading the story I had not thought of any of the characteristics mentioned, but now that I have read through it, I would have to concede with Nabokov in that possessing all those characteristics one can improve and enjoy reading in several different ways.

I personally think I am a poor reader because I sometimes have a really hard time grasping on to the material and or what the material means, and other times I grasp it right away. The occasions when I grasp the material right away are when I am really interested in the material or when I already am similar with material being discussed. I would say that to be a good reader one has to grasp the material whether he or she likes it or not, but that is just my opinion on what I consider a good reader. It is for those reasons that I don’t consider myself a “good reader.” Here is a link on tips to becoming a good reader.

Image Source: http://flotationdevice.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/vladimir-nabokov-–-ada-or-ardor/