檢視較大的地圖

Poetry Appreciation

I felt that the lessons in term 3 were very useful. It helps me to appreciate the art of poetry and help me understand what was the poet thinking when he wrote the poem. Before term 3, I never thought of analysing a poem as it was quite boring and does no good to people who are not interested and I felt it was not a must to know how to analyse a poem. However, after Mr Lundberg have explained how it was to analyse a poem, I began to find it very interesting and fun. The reason is that some of the poems are very interesting in content and the poet's language is very good, enabling me to get higher marks in summary writing and literature test, thus increasing my overall english marks. It is very fascinating to see how the poet managed to squeeze a whole scene into just a few stanzas. If it was me, I would have taken 2 whole pages talking about a certain scene with bad language. I also learnt that there is quite a few different type of poems and analysing a poem can be extremely complicated. There is a total of 10 steps to analyse a poem that is maybe not even more than 100 words. This shows that the poets are extremely skilled at describing things using as little words as possible.

Haikus by Basho

Ancient pond
Frog leaps
Splash!

Waterjar cracks -
I lie awake
This icy night.

Lightening -
Heron's cry
Stabs the darkness

Sick on a journey -
Over parched fields
Dreams wander on.


Analysis of Basho's Haikus:

I think that unlike other haikus, the haikus written by Basho actually made sense. His haikus describe the nature and he did it with a lot of descriptive phrases like "Stabs the darkness". However, some of Basho's works are not following the 5-7-5 format of haikus. I might want to think that this is because Basho wants to make his haikus more unique than others. Also, in Basho's haikus, the second line of each haiku usually describes a living thing and the last line of each haiku describes the actions of the living things. I think that this format of writing allow the readers to understand the haiku better. Even though I think that haiku can be written well by everybody, I think that the quality between professionals like Basho and amateurs like us is still very different. Professionals can think of better descriptive phrases while most amateurs like us are limited to the few words we usually use. This will make our haikus much worse. So I think that if you want to improve on Haiku skills, we can read the haikus from professionals.

Poem: Sounds

I heard the sheep bleating beyond the hill.
I heard the sparrow chirping on the trees.
I heard the dogs barking at a stranger.
I heard the horses neighing on the field.
I heard the bulls mooing behind the fence.
I heard the bees buzzing in front of the flowers.
I heard the frogs croaking on a lotus.
I heard the mice squeaking in its hole.
I heard the roosters crowing in the morning.
I heard the turkeys booming to each other.
I heard the pigeons singing gracefully.
I heard the ducks quacking in the pond.
I heard the pigs grunting in the mud.
I heard the cats meowing in its warm basket.
I heard the sound of animals, in a farm.

Learning reflections

I think that Mr Lundberg is a very effective teacher compared to other inexperienced teachers who doesn't know what they are teaching at all. Mr Lundberg's teaching style might not work with others, but I felt that my english have improved drastically since coming to Secondary One. I think that Mr Lundberg knows what he is teaching, especially with summary writing. For summary writing, I clearly understood what he wanted to say and the format of the summary writing in a very short period of time. Even though I am still weak at finding out the points needed, I felt that my language have improved. His talk on literature was also very effective. He gave us many examples of how we should write and let us try on our own. I feel that my english literature test marks are much higher than my expectations, and much of the credit goes to Mr Lundberg. Another effective way of teaching is actually the "Pass the Ball" method which allows everyone to have a chance to participate in class discussions and answer questions. I was not able to speak confidently in term 1 and 2 because I felt that if I spoke, the answer might be incorrect. This method help me to gain the confidence to speak up and allow me to understand that answering wrong is okay. In conclusion, I think that Mr Lundberg have been a very good LA teacher and I have learnt a lot from him.

e learning term 3 week 5

Poem: Walking Away by Cecil Day Lewis

Answers:
(a) The poet is speaking.
(b) He is referring to a particular person.
(c) He is trying to unleash his sadness
(d) He is also trying to unleash his sadness.
(e) The poet wants the audience to read this poem more clearly and to show that he is sad and is serious.
(f) This help me to find the answers to the questions.

Analysis:
The poet wanted the audience to not to follow his path. He also wants his friends to know how sad he was. He wanted the readers to treasure the relationship between friends, not like himself. The poet also wants to inform the audience that he suffered many setbacks. The poet, who was once a communist, thought setbacks are encouraging. Lastly, he is trying to tell his friend how sad he was by losing him as a friend. He treasured the relationship with his friend, and is sad at losing such a wonderful friend.

My favourite Poem( e learning)

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

1) Figurative language is not used in this poem. The poet did not describe the the things, but rather illustrate it from what he saw.
2) I like this poem as the poet writes very well about his walk on a street. He illustrated the whole event extremely well and elaborated well enough to let everyone get the idea of what he saw and what he did. I like illustrating more than figurative language as I like to imagine what things like from writings and something like that. I feel that the poet was being extremely careful as he writes about such a small thing that no one will take notice of. That is very unique. Shel Silverstein have always been one of my favourite poets because of his strong description about things. I hope that my poems can be at least half as good as Shel's.