Topic Brainstorm Week 13

Topic Brainstorm 

Week 13

Project Work 

For my first topic I could use this question: Choose a reading selection. Explore the relationship between elements of the selection. For example: how does setting influence character development?   With this question I would use the poetry from Anna Akhmatova and explain how her poetry was influenced very much by the setting she was in at the time. She was writing during the second World War and inner country many things were going wrong for her family and she points this out specifically in her poetry. Anna's husband and son were arrested and her friends were thrown into prison camps to die. Further into the poetry we understand the character is not specified but Anna is though to be the character she is focusing on central but truly the character is a grieving mother that is only separated from the other mothers because of her poetic skill. 

For my second topic I could use the question: How does the work reflect the period in which it was written?  With this question I could use the same poem and then just look at how doe Anna's poetry reflect on the time she was in. I would say it reflected pain and a sense of helplessness since her family and friends were being either killed or locked in prison and her government was the one doing it. 

For a final topic I could use the question: How are class differences presented in the work? Are characters aware or unaware of the economic and social forces that affect their lives?  In using this question I could talk about a lot especially since the economic factors of war and the social forces of her country leading the war cared nothing about their citizens and had harsh rules for them also. For example in the introduction of Anna it explains how she had to at a time suppress her books because "they didn't fit the government approval of literature" and also in1921 her ex husband was executed by the government because of his "Counterrevolutionary activities" and that clearly shows the dictatorship Anna was under and her poetry expresses this. 

Literary Analysis Blog Post Week 13 Close Reading

Literary Blog Post

Close Reading 

Week 13 

For my close reading I chose to do Anna Akhmatova "Requiem" and focus mostly on the first and second page because the imagery she uses is amazing to give insight. Through her words alone you knew the danger she was in her country and how the conflict going on during the 1930's was ripping apart the country. It is interesting reading the introduction then connecting that to the reading and seeing how Anna had to overcome her husband and son being arrested and also friends dying in prison camps. Anna delivers imagery that just helps readers see the oppression that her poems conveyed by saying "Mountains bow down to this grief, Mighty rivers ceded to flow, But the prison gates hold firm, And behind them are the "prisoners burrows" And mortal woe"(pg.598). Right away the main topic is given to readers the feeling of grief so much that "mountains bow down" a metaphor that helps readers understand the superfluous amount of stress. Also referring to both her son and husband being behind bars that Anna describes as "firm" which shows the hope she had for them getting out soon. It is also hard to ignore all of the times Anna compared her situation to those in other parts of the world who are living it up. Anna explains "For someone the sunset luxuriate, We wouldn't know, we are those who everywhere, Hear only the rasp of the hateful key"(pg.568). The author is in a country in shambles and it is hard to be in such distress when you know there are people living in peace. In the text I also sense a feeling of tiredness of all of the violence and the mistreatment of the citizens over the country's chaos was wrong and her family and friends suffering in result. 

Reading Notes Part A&B Week 13

Reading Notes 

Part A&B

Week 13

• Modern poetry era was one where modern poets believed that all poetry was good poetry and the embrace of your feelings for the overflow of power. Although modernist weren't too solid with that mindset instead they swayed more towards the facts things more clearly answered. Modern Poetry introduction gives the feeling of when poetry began to be more free and writers wrote true feelings in word form and even though there were those who didn't believe or agree the movement of this type of literature grew. 
• William Butler Yeats is know for his outstanding imagery and for me as a reader this is always great to know about writers because I love imagery and seeing the picture the author is trying to paint. Yeats went through a lot of personal problems since he was in Europe around the chaos of World War One and to cope with of the pain he created a "private mythology". 
• Thomas Stearns Elliot or aka T.S. Elliot was a factor in the impact on modern poetry in the world. And was know mostly for his memorable poems linked with "spiritual and intellectual conflict" and Elliot also was in Europe during the First World War and this inspired his poetry as well as Yeats. 
• Anna Akhmatova is one of the greatest Russian poets in the twentieth century and her poems were personal and told in a poetic voice to enhance the voice of a "lover, mother, and wife". 
• One thing I can say about all of the authors poetry is that it had emence imagery to give feeling to the poem and to help readers understand their grief in this moment in time of war. 
• My favorite section of text from one of the authors has to be from Anna Akhmatova  when she says "For someone a fresh breeze blows, For someone the sunset luxuriates. We wouldn't know, we are those who everywhere, Hear only the rasp of the hateful key, And soldiers tread."
• It is profound how Anna compares the settings of people around the world and how there are people living good right now while she was in a place of hate and the only sound was of soldiers boots gives superfluous imagery to me as a reader.