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February, 2013

  1. Sara Teasdale meets Rufus Wainwright (Week 16)

    February 14, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Hello, my dears. I feel like I have to address the people that comment in each post so here goes. Porche and Riley: you guys will just have to wait because I have no recording equipment, BUT I am going home over break and, knowing Randell, I will be recording so if you have requests, I’ll consider them and then decide how soon I’ll post them. Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day, I hope you all had a lovely day. So, because Ammara requested an especially cheery post for this week since it was her birthday earlier this week (Happy Belated Birthday, dear!), and since it is currently Valentine’s Day, I decided to actually look for happy poems! …Well, you can’t say I didn’t try.

    Soooo, this week, I’ll be looking at “I Love You” by Teasdale and “Sonnet 20” by Rufus Wainwright.

    I actually could not find any publication information on this poem!

    “Sonnet 20” is sung by Rufus Wainwright, but was written by William Shakespeare.

    Here’s the song:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aEp7ErHXgE

    (Sorry about the ad in the beginning of the video, guys.)

    Oh, and here’s the poem!

     

    When April bends above me

    And finds me fast asleep,

    Dust need not keep the secret

    A live heart died to keep.

     

    When April tells the thrushes,

    The meadow-larks will know,

    And pipe the three words lightly

    To all the winds that blow.

     

    Above his roof the swallows,

    In notes like far blown rain,

    Will tell the little sparrow,

    Beside his window-pane.

     

    O sparrow, little sparrow,

    When I am fast asleep,

    Then tell my love the secret

    That I have died to keep.

     

    This poem is absolutely gorgeous. I read it at first and thought, “Oh, how cute. She loves him,” but then I slowly realized it was a secret love that she never got to tell her significant other about. That brought me down a bit, but the imagery distracted me from this because it just fits the whole “I love you,” thing that she has going on. It was hard for me to really distinguish a tone for this, but when it comes down to it, the tone of this poem is wishful and freeing. The whole last stanza did it for me with the wishful tone, but phrases such as “need not keep the secret,” “pipe the three words lightly,” notes like far blown rain,” and tell my love the secret,” established the freeing tone because she is just dying to get this off her chest. The last stanza really ties it up because it’s something she wishes to happen when she has died since she could not or did not allow herself to say the words when she could. Could I please just gush about this poem a bit more for a second? I absolutely love this. I honestly do. I say that every week, but I could see myself reading this poem over and over again. Yes, it is quite sad if you look at it as an unrequited love, but you could also look it as if she was letting her love for him be known naturally. Honestly, she talks about birds, winds, and rain. She doesn’t want to necessarily kill herself trying to get this person to notice that she loves them; rather, she’d rather let it be known naturally That seems to be a happier explanation, but for the sake of analyzing the song along with this poem, I’m going with the first explanation because the words she chose in this poem seem to fit that better.

    This song. This song. (Oh man, I do love Rufus Wainwright, but I’ll talk more about him when I finish.) It’s so simple because of the use of the piano and his vocals. I think the piano allows for the image to come alive, but his tone of voice allows for the image to come alive. When I hear the piano, I can see each picture as it correlates with the stanza: I can see the narrator lying on grass, eyes closed. I can see April (I imagined April as a person, rather than the season), bending over her, stroking her hair. When the vocals kick in, I can see her moving along and telling the thrushes, the meadow-larks, etc. As the piano goes along, I can see the breeze moving the trees and the birds flying, but again, when he’s singing, I can see the bigger picture. Trees are dancing and the little sparrow is flitting around the narrator’s love, but as the piano continues, I can see the narrator slowly, but peacefully dying. The sound of the Wainwright’s voice, though, allows for the image of this sparrow telling this mystery person how this person has felt so late, even though it is too late. Since Wainwright’s tone of voice is so melancholic-sounding, it really highlights the wishful tone of this poem, but the light piano in the background emphasizes the freeing tone of the poem, and these two together allow for the poem and the song to intertwine quite nicely with each other.

    I don’t even know where to begin. I loved both of these pieces. This song, though, makes me remember how much I really admire Rufus Wainwright, though. He took a poem and made it a song and he did it well. That doesn’t sound right. What I mean is: he took a poem that someone else (who just so happens to be William Shakespeare) and made it his own. He felt his own emotions when he sang this song, and that’s so hard to do, especially when it’s a famous piece like this. Also, he has such a beautiful voice. My goodness. I don’t even know how to describe it, but it’s just so unique and gorgeous. I love how it goes along with this poem. I was going to use Sonnet 20 for my poem as well, but I didn’t feel right since it was made for that poem. Plus it was really hard to put together for some reason. I also loved this poem. It’s still absolutely beautiful and somewhat uplifting. I thought so anyway. Well, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!


  2. Reflection on Civic Issues!

    February 14, 2013 by Francis Flores

    1. Well, I think that my writing for each blog (WIP, Civic Issues, Passion) is different. When I’m writing for my WIP blog, I have a specific topic that I need to write about, and I usually have questions that I need to answer, much like this; however, though my Civic Issues and passion blogs both pretty much give me free reign, when I write a Civic Issues blog, I look for sources that might support what I’m trying to say.
    2. I think a good CI post provokes emotion, whether it’s negative or positive (I’m just being broad), which will also spark a conversation. It has to be somewhat formal, since most of these topics are pretty controversial, but it’s always good to add a little bit of yourself in there so it actually seems like a conversation.
    3. I’ve only posted once, and the two that posted agreed with me, but Ammara did point out some technical details which made me start worrying about future posts and which details to add to make it more conversational or informative.
    4. I’m so jealous of my blogging group because they have a great way of getting out what they want to say and sounding so eloquent, but at the same time, I can imagine them saying it so it’s not exactly pretentious. I think that’s a good balance and I’ve noticed that it makes the posts easier to read.
    5. I think I’d just like to keep people updated on the news for my topic, and possibly rant about a few things pertaining to that. I don’t exactly have anecdotes, but if I have that I deem fitting, I’d like to include those too.

  3. Civic Issues: What exactly is DOMA?

    February 14, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Hello, everyone! So for this post, I’m going to explain DOMA a little bit because a section of it is going to be looked over this March. DOMA is the “Defense of Marriage Act” and it was passed in 1966 by Congress. “It has two main functions. First, it prevents the federal government from recognizing any marriages between gay or lesbian couples for the purpose of federal laws or programs, even if those couples are considered legally married by their home state. Second, it makes it so that individual states do not legally have to acknowledge the relationships of gay and lesbian couples who were married in another state. Only the section that deals with federal recognition is being currently challenged in court.”1 The particular section that has been brought up has to do with the recognition of same-sex marriage (more on that in a bit!), and it has proved fairly controversial. Along with the many others that argue against DOMA because it is discriminatory to a large community, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics and Washington argue that it allows certain loopholes for gay politicians, using, for example, anti-nepotism laws that heterosexual politicians must follow.2 Personally, I think that DOMA is discriminatory because there is no real reason that anyone is benefitting from not allowing them to be married, but I digress because I already ranted about that last time I posted.

    On a happier note, I have related news that made the headlines today in the United States (and then one from Europe that made headlines a few days ago just for fun)!

    The first one that happened today was that ILLINOIS APPROVED THE BILL TO LEGALIZE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE. Why am I so excited if it doesn’t affect me directly? Because it’s a step towards progress, acceptance, and equality. Upon discussing why the Senate chose Valentine’s Day to cast the vote, he stated that it was “scheduled on the holiday to celebrate love to disguise what is truly a devaluing of traditional marriage.”3 Another large part of this legalization was due to the fact that same-sex coalitions protested in what is called “Freedom to Marry Week,” in which they requested marriage licenses in “18 places around the country, including a number of states where same sex-marriage is not legal.”4

    In another part of the United States, Virginia to be specific, as a part of a “Witness for Marriage” protest, 3 couples applied for marriage licenses in Arlington. All three of them were denied. One pastor David Ensign remarked, “A license to marry the one you love, the one to whom you made promises of faithfulness and love. It is way past time to change the law,” and after, he thanked the couples for stepping forward and being brave for a cause that they felt so strongly for.5

    Oh man, oh man. Two good things in one day. Valentine’s Day really is a day of love for everyone. I can’t wait for the day when we can proudly say that we are equal and truly mean it.

     

     

    **Extra story: Earlier this month, the French parliament approved gay marriage, and after a couple weeks of debate, as of February 13, 2013, the entire law passed. Congrats!**


  4. Tyler Knott Gregson meets Anna Kendrick (Week 15)

    February 7, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Hey guysssss, sorry to disappoint but I won’t be posting a video with me singing for awhile (if at all) since I’ve only done covers. Maybe I’ll put one in the last post of the year just for fun, but we’ll see.

    Also! Random update to share with you guys (if you’re following the Randell Music page, you might know what I’m going to say), Randell and Valentina both read my blog and were flattered by the compliments that they received from you guys so know they’ve collaborated and did a song together! I don’t know when he’ll post it for everyone else to see, but I’ve heard it, and I must say, it’s pretty amazing. So..that’s that.

    Back on topic. I had a lot of trouble coming up with something to write about this week and I really don’t know why. I found so many poems that I might have wanted to try, and then there were the songs that I wanted to look at but nothing seemed to fit. So I kind of just did my other blog and sat around until something came up. I went to YouTube in the hopes of finding something, I just stared at my poetry wall and hoped something would pop out at me, but nothing happened. I originally wanted to use a poem that my other friend wrote, and put it with a song that was by a famous artist (switching it up, I know), but he didn’t want it published, unfortunately for me so I had to start from scratch. I don’t know why I felt the need to tell you guys that, but anyway, it doesn’t matter now, because I have found something I want to use! I was actually on Tumblr (such a bad habit), and I found a few poems that looked odd. They were typed from a typewriter but some were on receipts, some were on napkins, etc., and I loved them. They were so short but so, dare I say it, cute. So I read one of them and it clicked with the song I just so happened to be listening to and I knew I wanted it.

    This week I will be looking at an untitled poem by Tyler Knott Gregson from his “Typewriter Series” and “Cups” by Anna Kendrick, which was a song in Pitch Perfect.

    Here’s the song:

    (also, if you’re interested, here’s an interview with David Letterman and she does this live!)

    Since these poems are usually typed up on random pieces of paper with a typewriter, it felt wrong of me to type it out, so here’s the poem in picture form:

    Tyler Knott Gregson

    I know, I know. This week is a really short poem, but it’s different from anything else I’ve looked at on here. Not all poems have to be large in length to have a meaning or to portray images in your mind. The difference with this poem is that it might not have the same effect on everyone; not everyone will picture the same thing. The poem itself has such a quirky and hopeful tone. The poet portrays a quirky tone with words such as “strangest person,” “oddities,” and “spongy filter,” and portrays a hopeful tone with words such as “these fingers crossed” and “you will find them/ irresistible.” These two things also describe the personality of the speaker of the poem as well. The structure also says a lot about this person. There is no rhyme structure, actually, there’s not really a structure to it at all, which strays from the “ideal poem.” This poem makes you really think about yourself in a new light, to me anyway. The speaker addresses “you,” but I don’t think he/she is necessarily addressing the reader. They may be talking about their present love or someone they wish would notice them. Not only does this person recognize their flaws, but they accept them and just hope that someone will appreciate them as well.

    I felt that the song “Cups” related so well because the song itself was short and sweet. That’s a weird reason to think a song fits a poem, right? But I think that the length has to matter some when looking at a poem and a song together. Anna Kendrick did this song with just her hands and a cup. Hard to believe but it’s true. The rhythmic pounding combined with her voice just sounds so lovely. I know, I’m so articulate today. The fact that she’s only using a cup and clapping her hands doesn’t allow for a distraction. It’s straight to the point. In most songs, and the majority of the songs I’ve looked at, there are multiple instruments that may lend to a tone, but it may distract from the feeling of the vocalist. Anna Kendrick has a very nice voice and I think that she could even be the speaker of this poem. She moves her voice in a way that each time she sings a repeated line, it’s emphasized differently every time. The consistency of the cups in this song is actually quite a contrast to the feel of the poem, since the speaker claims to lack consistency, but the sound of her voice brings back that inconsistency and emphasizes that hopeful tone that resonates throughout both the song and the poem. The cups accent the quirkiness of the speaker since not many people can do this (I wish I could), so consider this an oddity. When I hear this song and read this poem, I see different instances in which I’m with my boyfriend laughing. I know I make mistakes, but so does everyone; what really matters is that I’ve accepted them and kind of just grow from there. I don’t see just one thing. It’s more of a montage of different things and it’s different every time. I’ll close my eyes one moment and see myself falling onstage. I’ll close my eyes again and see him falling off his chair at the movies. Everyone has their own thing, but it’s important that you accept it. What do you see when you read this and hear this song?

    So that was actually really hard to write. I haven’t actually seen the movie, but I listened to the soundtrack (I was doubtful about the movie) and I absolutely LOVED this song. I listen to it nonstop. It’s quite sad, actually. My goal is to learn this at one point. If I do, I’ll be sure to share it, but don’t expect it anytime soon. As I said, I read this poem on Tumblr and it just made me feel so many different things so I had to post it. I know that this week’s poem was a but shorter, but it was definitely a challenge and a risk I definitely needed to take. Thanks for reading, guys!


  5. Online Deliberation Reflection Essay: Criteria

    February 7, 2013 by Francis Flores

    Yay, another project! You got to love college, right?

    So anyway, I’m taking my ideas and criteria out of the first three chapters as follows:

    • For chapter one, I actually got them off of the outline that Anne provided for us (thank you, Anne) and to help with my reflection, I have to first do these things within my actual postings and conversations on my forum: Inclusion, Enlightened Understanding, and taking the different steps of Deliberation. With Inclusion, I have to actually put myself out there and then accept any others who wish to include themselves and respond to them too. With Enlightened Understanding, I have to understand what I am saying and then understand what another person may be saying to me. With the different steps of deliberation (found on pg. 9), this will help me piece together the inclusion and enlightened conversation so that I can deliberate with other people.
    • For chapter two, on page 25, I came across Diversity in Conversation, which I think moves deliberation along. Without this diversity, there isn’t a proper amount of opinions circulating and it’s not really a deliberation, it’s more of a friendly conversation where everyone agrees with one another.
    • For chapter three, on page 56, I came across Objectivity, Expertise, and Bias. I think that this is extremely important, especially with the diversity aspect of deliberation. I think that relevance is extremely important, because no one wants extraneous information, especially if it’s false. There is also a line that comes with expressing opinions, though, and that is the line between an opinion and a bias. If someone is biased, then they will voice an opinion, but they will not be swayed and they may even come off as rude or offensive in some cases, so that should definitely be avoided in this case.

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