Prose Poetry and Sonnets

Above is a 2008 portrait of prose poet Naomi Shihab Nye by micahd.  Here is some information about this portrait:  T"his photograph is of International Poet Naomi Shihab Nye at a book signing. Naomi Shihab Nye and Suzanne Crowley authors of Honeybee and The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Marvelous respectively gave a short meet and greet signing at The Twig Book Shop located at 5005 Broadway, San Antonio, TX 78209 on June 12, 2008. Naomi Nye's Honeybee is a book of poetry for young readers, and Suzanne Crowley's Very Ordered Existence is a novel featuring Merilee Monroe. Naomi Nye is holding a sampling of her gift of fresh picked tomatoes from a personal friend."

In class today, we went over four prose poems, Ms. Shihab Nye's "Hammer and Nail," Russell Edson's "The Canoeing," Harryette Mullen's [of a girl, in white] and "Dim Lady."  Since "Dim Lady is a reworking of Shakespeare's sonnet "My mistress' eyes..," we also looked at Shakespeare's sonnet.  Here is a link to "Dim Lady" juxtaposed with the sonnet: http://mail.horacemann.org/~adam_casdin/Poems/dimlady.html  We listened to Ms. Mullen read her prose poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPunxHlPSXU  and to actor Alan Rickman read Shakespeare's poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP06F0yynic

For Wednesday, we'll continue with the sonnet, starting with "My mistress' eyes..." (actually Sonnet #130), Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and 29, Sir Thomas Wyatt's "Whoso List to Hunt" (which predates Shakespeare and may be about Anne Boleyn, John Donne's Holy Sonnet 14, and two modern sonnets.  One is Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for cousin vit": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51983/the-rites-for-cousin-vit.  The other is A.M. Juster's "Moscow Zoo": http://web.archive.org/web/20120419102406/http://theformalist.evansville.edu/NemerovWinners/1995.htm  This is one of his translations of Petrarch: https://web.archive.org/web/20170815005437/http://www.amjuster.net:80/blog/2015/9/18/312

All but Brooks and Juster's sonnets are in our book.

Here are a few questions about our prose poems.

-- Consider each of the prose poems we looked at on Monday.  What do they have in common? How are they different?

-- Choose one of the prose poems.  Unpack the emotions in it.  Which emotions are easiest to discover?  Which are hardest?  How do the emotions that are harder to discover add to your understanding of the poem?

-- Discuss Russell Edson's prose poems or Harryette Mullen's "Dim Lady" in terms of this quote from editor Peter Johnson: “Just as black humor straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, so the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry, both heels resting precariously on banana peels.”

-- Does this quote apply to the other prose poems we looked at?  Why?  Why not?  Consider that black humor is considered "a form of humor that regards human suffering as absurd rather than pitiable, or that considers human existence as ironic and pointless but somehow comic," if we use dictionary.com's definition.

-- Compare Naomi Shihab Nye's "Hammer and Nail" to Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants."  Yes, yes, both take place in Spanish-speaking countries, and babies are involved.  Look further at language, imagery, and concision.  What do these pieces have in common?

-- What role does gender play in the prose poems we've read?

-- How does "Dim Lady" rework "Sonnet #130"?

-- Does "Dim Lady" stand on its own?  Why?  Why not?

-- Is "Dim Lady" a standalone poem?  Or a classroom exercise?  Why?  Why not?

-- What role does race play in Harryette Mullen's "Dim Lady" ?  Consider that she is a contemporary African-American poet.  How does race play a role in her other prose poem that we read?

Let's move on to the sonnets.

Here is an extended definition of the sonnet from Poets.org: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/sonnet-poetic-form

For a more concise definition, see this definition from Merriam-Webster's Learners' Dictionary: http://www.learnersdictionary.com/definition/sonnet

-- What do Wednesday's sonnets have in common?  How do they differ?

-- How are the newer sonnets (Brooks, Juster) different from the older ones?  How are they similar?

-- Shakespeare wrote sonnets both to men and women.  Sonnets 18, 20, and 29 are among his sonnets written to a young man.  How do they differ from his Sonnet 130 written to the "Dark Lady"?  What do these sonnets have in common?

-- John Donne's sonnet is about love for God.  How does he make this love come alive on the page?  If you are religious (whether Christian or another religion), how does that help you to understand his poem?  If you are not religious, how does that affect your reading of his sonnet?

-- How does the form of the sonnet affect the poet's ability to convey his/her message?

-- What is it like for you to return to rhyme after reading prose poems?

-- Compare one sonnet to one prose poem.  What is poetic about each?  What is not poetic about each?

I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to say!