A Date With Literary Scholar

Today, for our class of BBL3406 Analysing Prose and Poetry, our lecturer invited a poet who by chance was in Malaysia recently to give a talk to all of us. When I first heard about the talk I was a bit confuse about how the poet will give his talk. One of my friends told me it will be through skype. However, when I arrived at the class at 12.05, I was shocked to see a foreigner was giving a talk. Apparently the talk, I believe started on time which was at 12, while I and my friends arrived a bit later because we got out late from our previous class. Thankfully he just started the talk, so I hope that I won’t be missing a thing from his talk.

About Our Poet

Name: Refaat Alareer

Birthplace: Gaza, Palestine

Occupation: Lecturer of English Literature and Creative Writing at Islamic University Gaza

Education Level: Master in Comparative Literature from University of London

The Talk

Our poet, Mr Refaat firstly shows 4 maps of Palestine. The 4 maps show the progress of how Israel occupied Palestine land from time to time. He told about the hard life in Palestine. How the people there cannot travel freely from one place to another. If they need to go to another place, they have to go pass many checkpoints in order to arrive there.

Then, he started to show few names of Palestinian poets that is famous in their writing. For the famous Palestinian poets writing in Arabic are Mahmoud Darwish and Tamim Bargouti. For the famous Palestinian poets writing in English are Rafeef Ziadah (We Teach Life, Sir), Susan Abulhawa (Wala!), and Remi Kanozi.

The Palestinian-Israeli War in 2008/2009 was called the cast lead. Tamim Bargouti was the one who they called the revolutionist to other poets to start writing poem in blog. Tamim Bargouti is very good in using metaphor, imagery in his poems.

Ater the war in 2008/2009, Mr Refaat started his blog and write his poems in the blog to relate it to other people. He wanted to relate the condition of what happen in Palestine and his birthplace, Gaza to the people outside from Palestine.

Mr Refaat, shared how he started to be involve with poetry.

Poetry. How It All Started.

1. Read a lot of good and high quality poetry.

2. Believe that you can write good stuff.

3. Have the will to do so.

4. Scribble your thoughts. Always.

5. Imitate.

6. Be yourself.

Mr Refaat started to write poetry after he learned from his students. The students wrote poems and show it to him. From there he decided to write poem since he believes that if his students can write it, why can’t he. His students learnt things from him and he learnt how to write poetry from his students. His students also gave ratings to his poems which helped him to improve on it more. The most important thing is to like poetry. He also said that we must have a goal to write. When we already have a goal, we will start to notice everything that happens around us. We also will be able to observe people, their reaction and other things which will be the material that we can use to write. Mr Refaat also mention what J.K Rowling said one time about not to be afraid of failure. Imitate is also acceptable in the first stage in starting to write poem. By imitating, we try to be there in what we write in our poem. But we still need to relate it to ourselves in the poem. His poetry mostly will include dialogue, performance or drama, and Palestine. In his blog, he has a collection of pictures about olive and he also wrote a poem about olive. He said that Palestine’s olive is the best among all. Olive also is said to be the best medicine if they are not feeling well or hurt.

Q & A Session

Q: Who is your favourite poet and why?

A: My favourite would be John Donne. I like his poems’ layer style. I also like some other Romantic poets. They used simple language which makes their poems became easier to understand.

Q: What was the style of poetry before the war and how does it changes during the war?

A: They still use the old themes until now. But the war causes the poet to write about what happen in Palestine and about the occupation of Israel to show resistance. It is their way of resisting the occupation.

Q: What is the level of education in Palestine? Did the women or children receive equal rights in education?

A: The level of education is the same as other country. However for Master’s program, the university only offered selected courses such as engineering, education, syariah and few others. There is no women bias in education in Palestine. In fact, the number of female students exceeded the male students.

Q: What is it like in Palestine, especially in Gaza before the war?

A: We led a simple life before the occupation. We depend on agriculture to support our life. The Israeli state that there is no Palestinian even though Israel was established about 50 years ago. Basically before the occupation, we had no university before, maybe a small a college. If we want to continue studies in university, we had to go overseas for it. Basically the life at that time was simple.

Q: How do you relate to other people’s experience which you are able to show the emotions in your writing?

A: We don’t have to be the person who is suffering in order to write about suffering. We have to be creative and create it on our own. If I want to write about “Mom”, do I have to be a mom? You don’t, since you see your own mom, other’s mom, so you can write according to yourself.

-          Before Mr Refaat end his session with us, he read his poems which he had finished while he was in Malaysia which he hasn’t published yet. It is quite an honour to listen to the poem recited by the poet himself.

Comments/Remarks About the Session

Listening to Mr Refaat stories made me realize how lucky I am to be living in a peaceful country. Even though there is dispute in the country here and now, but the environment in Malaysia is still peaceful. We do not suffer from being held to travel to another place. The Palestinian had to suffer a lot in their country. Some of them do not feel anything even though they had lost their home for the second time. They are so strong to survive in this world. They made me want to follow their strong will to live in this world.

Reading the poem and listening to how Mr Refaat tell us how to write poem made me realize that anyone can do it, as long as they have passion in it. In order for us to find our style of writing, we can imitate other poets’ style of writing, but we still need to be ourselves. This made me realize that I should jot down what comes to my mind in order for me to be able to write poems.

Before Action by William Noel Hodgson - War Poem

By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening's benison
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills when day was done,
By beauty lavishly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a soldier, Lord.

By all of all man's hopes and fears
And all the wonders poets sing,
The laughter of unclouded years,
And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
With high endeavour that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
Make me a man, O Lord.

I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say good-bye to all of this; -
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.

View towards the village of Mametz (far left of the photo on the skyline) from the British Front Line position. Lieutenant Noel Hodgson and the men of 9th Devons were to attack the German Front Line at Mametz from here on 1st July 1916.

This poem was written by William Noel Hodgson. He was born on January 3rd 1893. He was an English poet during the First World War. He was born to Henry Bernard Hodgson. His father was the Bishop of Saint Edmundsbury and Ipswich. He was the youngest children out of four siblings. He entered into The School House of Durham School in September 1905. In 1911, he left Durham. Afterwards he continued his studies at Oxford University. He obtained a degree in Classical Moderations in 1913. On the outbreak of First World War in 1914, he volunteered himself to the British Army.He served with the 9th Battalion the Devonshire Regiment. After a year of training in England, he was sent to Le Havre. He was awarded Military Cross for holding a captured trench for 36 hours without supplies and reinforcements during the Battle of Loos. Because of this also, he was promoted to lieutenant. After the battle, he returned to England and was positioned with his battalion in the front line trenches at Friscourt in February 1916. He then moved to trenches opposite the town of Mametz in April. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, July 1st 1916, when attacking the German trenches near Mametz. This poem ‘Before Action’ was published two days before his death. It was commonly belief that he composed the poem knowingly that he will die soon according to the last line of the poem which is “Help me to die, O’Lord”. This poem talks about the nature that the poet saw when he arrived at a place where he will be involved in war. The feeling of fears and hopes in the war by the man/soldier gives away the poet and his comrades’ feeling about the battle that they will encounter later. The poet also mention sunset which can be a symbol of his life was about to end since sunset means that night will come which we can interpret night as death. So sunset was used by the poet to tell us that he will die soon. And also the last line also is like a premonition told by the poet that he will die. All the nature that he saw before will be the last one.

What is poetry?

What is poetry?

Poetry is a word came from ancient Greek word which means I create.  According to free online dictionary, it is a verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions in a vivid and imaginative way, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme.

People can use poetry to convey emotion or ideas to reader. Poems frequently rely for their effect on imagery, word association and the musical qualities of the language used. Poetry is difficult to be translated to another language since the language used is emphasized on linguistic form rather than its content. The shades and nuances of poetry can cause different reader to interpret a particular piece of poetry differently. There will be no definitive interpretation, only reasonable interpretations.

Nature of poetry

Most of the times, poetry can be differentiated from prose. Poetry is often crated to escape from logical. Poetry is also used to expressed feelings and other emotions in a tight and condensed manner.

Genres in poetry

Some of the genres in poetry.

Narrative: to tell story

Epic: long poems which tell about a heroic or important nature of a culture at that time

Dramatic: written in verse to be spoken or sung

Elegy: melancholy, mournful poetry, especially a lament for the dead or funeral song.

Sound in poetry

Rhythm is the most vital element of sound in poetry. The rhythm of each line is often arranged in a particular meter. Different types of meter play an important part in poetry in different eras.

Form in poetry

Specific type of form was created in different culture. For each forms, the rhyming scheme, meter and many other elements are different according to its form.

Sonnet: 14 lines poetry.

Shi: main type of Classical Chinese poetry

Villanelle: 19 line poem with five triplets and a closing quatrain.

Tanka: unrhymed Japanese poetry.

Haiku: popular form of Japanese poetry

Ode: first developed by poets in writing in ancient Greek.

Ghazal: form of poetry common in Arabic, Urdu, Bengali, Turkish, Persian and Azerbaijani

References

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/poem

http://www.poetry.org/whatis.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry

Marilyn Chin’s Turtle Soup – questions in Portable Legacies

Explorations of the Text

1. Notice the author’s choice of the word “cauldron” in line 4. What images or connections does this word evoke? Why might the author have chosen “cauldron” rather than “pot”?

When talking about cauldron, the images that first come to mind will be witches. Usually the word “witches” are associated to the word “cauldron”.  In the line 4 “(who knows what else is in that cauldron)” shows how the speaker being sarcastic. The author uses the word “cauldron” since she wanted to relay how the speaker didn’t like what the mother does.

2. Chin refers to “the Wei”, “the Yellow” and “the Yangtze”. Why does she reference these rivers in China? Why not include the Nile, the Amazon, or the Mississippi?

Chin used the rivers in China since she wanted to show the relation of the speaker and the mother’s argument about maintaining their identity and culture as Chinese people. If other river were use as reference, the message will not be able to be relay to the readers about the argument.

3. What is the tone of this poem?

The tones of this poem are sarcasm and mocking. And from the way the poem starts, it was like storytelling, of how the author tried to voice out the poem’s feeling by casually telling the reader about what happened in the poem. In second stanza line 10, we can see how the author being sarcastic about the mother’s action. Turtle is the symbol of ancient wisdom and it was mentioned in the poem that the turtle four thousand years and the mother’s action of boiling the turtle was ridiculous.

Ideas for Writing

1. “‘Sometimes you’re the life, sometimes the sacrifice.’” Write about this quote within the context of an immigrant family. What might a family gain or lose by moving to a new land?

                 Usually when a family moves to a new land, they were always said the moves were in order to be able to gain riches. People usually wouldn't think so much about what they will lose when they move to a new land. However, they will lose something in order to gain something. Thus the phrase “Sometimes you’re the life, sometimes the sacrifice” really matches with the situation with immigrant.

                 When an immigrant family moves to a new land, they will gain and lose something. Usually they will be able to gain a comfortable life where they did not have to suffer in order to live. However, it has been mentioned that when you gain something, you will lose something too. Usually the immigrant family will have to drop the practice of their culture and sometimes identity. The older generation may be able to still practice and retain their culture; however the younger generation is easily influenced with the new place’s culture which maybe didn't have a complicated culture like the ones that they have will neglect practicing their own culture.

                   When they started to neglect practicing their own culture, they will slowly drifted apart from it and it will come the point where they will even lost their identities. Physically they will still look like the people in their homeland, however, there will be nothing same between them and people from their homeland since they didn't practice the same culture. Not only culture and identity, they also might not be able to speak their mother tongue or not able to read their mother tongue’s language.

                    The younger might be able to learn a little bit about their culture if their parents still remind them. Although they will not be too familiar with it, but the constant reminder by their parents will be able to make them remember a bit. However, the problem comes with the parents who even forgot and abandon their own culture in order to fit in with the new society.

                     For the parents who abandon their own culture, this will affect their children. Their children will lose their identity and there will be nothing left but the shell. They also will become the third culture people. These children will have a hard time to fit in with people who came from their homeland since the way they act will be different. They will also become the talk of other people when they came back to their homeland for a visit.

Leader: Annur Azze Ezzati

Amiri Baraka's 'Preface to a Twenty Volume Sucide' - explorations of text

1. What is the mood of the speaker in the opening lines? What images suggest his feeling?
Depression. the speaker doesn't feel anything towards the thing that happens in his life. In line 2 'The grounds opens up and envelops me', it gives the image where his surrounding is being blinded and he may felt suffocated with surrounding which doesn't have lights.

2. What is the significance of the daughter's gesture of peeking into "her own clasped hands"?
The daughter's gesture may suggest that she was praying to god. It may shows that the daughter still believes in god and have hope in god while the speaker who had lost hope and forgotten about god.

3. What does the title mean? How does it explain the closing line?
The title may suggest that the speaker had the intention of ending his own life. Since the title is only a preface, the closing line may suggest that the act of his daughter changed his intention. the act of his daughter may had made him realize that there is still god.

4. Why does Baraka have 3 short lines, separated as stanzas? How do they convey the message of the poem?
The first 2 short lines may suggest how the speaker felt about losing hope. The speaker felt that he had came to a dead end where there is nothing and there is no hope. however the last line shows how hopes have come back through the prays to god.

5. Why does Baraka begin stanzas with "Lately", "And now" and "And then"? What do these transition words accomplish?
The first 2 words shows how the speaker felt recently and what he does in the period of time where he had lost hope. the last word shows shows a different feeling where the speaker just did something which eventually changed his feeling of losing hope to having hope again.

6. How does the speaker feel about his daughter? What does she represents to him?
The speaker might love his daughter so much where the action of him going to his daughter's room maybe because he wanted to check his daughter well being. his daughter may represent of new hope that comes to life.

is this the life they always wanted - poem in respond to 'All Things Not Considered' by Naomi Shihab Nye

peace is lost,
smells of death is everywhere,
bodies lie everywhere,
is this the life they always wanted.

kids crying for help,
parents sheltering their kids,
people running in the midst of chaos,
is this the life they always wanted.

smoke, explosion, shooting is everywhere,
people - lose one's love
people - lose one's self
is this the life they always wanted.

death roams everywhere,
blood is shed everywhere,
hands are being sullied,
is this the life they always wanted.

a poem with real events,
anger, pain were felt.

a poem which was inspired by real events, the feeling were conveyed naturally. images of the events came vividly in minds when reading the poem.

Incident by Countee Cullen

Poem

Once riding in old Baltimore,
        Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
        Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
        And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
       His tongue and called me, "Nigger".

I saw the whole of Baltimore
       From May until December:
Of all the things that happened there
       That's all that I remember

Exploration of the text:

1) What is the nature of the interaction between the two boys?
    - Prejudice and stereotyping because of the difference between skin colour in America which are between the white and black people of America.

2) Why does the speaker remember nothing more than the incident, even though he stayed in Baltimore from "May until December"?
    - Racism cam cause pain and hurt in people's heart. Especially for a little child who have been insulted in his face about his skin colour, nothing can make him remember more than the insult that he received.

The reading/writing connection:

1) In a paragraph, compare your experience of prejudice with the persona in the poem.
    - This incident happened when I was about 6 or 7 years old. My family and I went to my father's cousin's house to deliver something to them. When we were eating, another cousin of my father also came to that house. The owner of the house invited the guests and said something like "Come inside. There's only Amin the butcher with his family". We felt insulted since they look down on my father because of his job.

Ideas for writing:

1) What do its form and rhyme add to this poem?
    - This poem is a 3 stanzas poem with each stanzas have 4 lines. The rhyme is abcb.

2) What is the power of language? What are the effects of the use of the term 'nigger'?
    - The power of language is how we used our language. The tone that we used at certain times will determine the power of the words. The tone that we used will make the listener understand in what way we want to relay a message. The usage of nigger gave so much effect as the Baltimorean poked out his tongue before saying the term nigger which made the poet understand that he was insulting the poet at that time.